BRAND MANAGEMENT

"Brand" is one of the most thrown-around words in business. This class lays out what a "brand" and "branding" really is, considering both mainstream and emerging brands as case studies to flesh out the concept of brand.

• What defines a brand?
• The story of branding
• Types of brands: Corporate, personal, product, and service
• How does a strong brand help your business win?
• Case studies: Coke, Nike, Glossier, and Oatly

Assignment #01: Choose a brand or company that you will focus on throughout the course. (It can be your own brand or any established company). How would you describe this brand? Write a short description of how you understand the brand, using the concepts covered in class.

In this class, you will learn how to build a brand’s identity from the ground up. Gerry will walk through the ingredients that go into a brand and how to bring business and creative considerations together to form one identity.

• Mission and vision
• Brand architecture and portfolio
• Core identity vs. extended identity
• Housing USP and products under one brand identity
• How you see your brand and how your audience sees you
• What to pay attention to in your competition

Assignment #02: Describe the essence of your chosen company’s brand. What does the brand stand for?

Many business roles will be speaking for your brand via content, advertising, and customer touchpoints. Gerry will show you how to ensure your audience has a consistent experience of the brand by correctly presenting a unified brand vision within your company.

• Getting your audience right
• Positioning, cultural references, and brand personification
• How to make a mood board
• Making your brand human
• Tone of voice and messaging guidelines
• Translating brand personality for different touchpoints

Assignment #03: Define your chosen brand’s target audience, positioning, and tone of voice. How would you personify the brand?

Today's class is devoted to that all-important calling card of every successful brand: the logo. You will dissect the logos of 5 well-known brands and workshop how to shape brand perception using color, font, and naming.

• 5 basic types of logos: Wordmark, lettermark, brandmark, combination, and emblem
• How to choose font, colors, and name
• Case study: Uber's brand book

Assignment #04: Build your brand’s moodboard for an upcoming photoshoot. Find at least 3 key images to serve as inspiration for the shoot. How does your moodboard effectively capture your brand?

Every brand faces challenges as it grows. In this class, you will look at several real-world brands to learn about the potential roadblocks that can stunt a brand’s growth (and how to avoid them).

• Positioning
• Competition
• Location and targeting
• Timing
• Brand investment

Assignment #05: Identify 2-3 barriers that may impede your brand’s success. Explain why these barriers may come up and how you will prepare to overcome them.

Building trust with your customer is crucial for the longevity of your brand. Today, you will explore how brands can build trust with their customers across three key moments: pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase.

• The importance of a good first impression
• 3 cornerstones of pre-purchase brand engagement
• Purchase and competition
• Post-purchase engagement and customer care

Assignment #06: Think about the 3 moments of engagement with your customer. How will your brand engage your consumer in each of these moments? What is going to be crucial for you to build trust?

There are 3 main communicating channels brands use to reach their intended audiences. Gerry will walk you through the opportunities of each of these and how to incorporate them into your brand strategy.

• Digital advertising: native, programmatic, editorial
• Traditional media: TV, out-of-home, in-store purchase
• Social media: organic, paid, influencer marketing

Assignment #07: Think about your brand’s communications plan and, specifically, it’s social media channels. What channels would you leverage and why? Next, identify 2-3 influencers that you would contact to work for your brand.

This class digs into the differences between brand marketing and performance marketing. You will look at how your brand's objectives, strategies, and tactics can change depending on the channels.

• Brand marketing
• Performance marketing
• Messaging and visual guidelines in brand vs. performance
• Choosing the right channels
• Aligning objectives, strategies, and actions
• Adapting storytelling across channels
• Getting the most out of the Halo effect

Assignment #08: In thinking about your marketing budget, what percentage of your marketing budget would go to brand marketing and what percentage would go to performance marketing? Why?

In this class, you'll get up close and personal with the business metrics used to measure brand success. You'll learn how marketing campaigns are evaluated, how to set your brand objectives and KPIs, and why these will differ across channels.

• Setting KPIs at the start of campaigns
• Awareness, consideration, and engagement
• How do these differ from channel metrics?
• What do campaign results look like?
• Case study: ASOS brand dashboard

Assignment #09: In thinking about your brand, what would you do to raise awareness, drive consideration, and increase engagement?

This class takes you into a real Spotify campaign to understand the roles and responsibilities of the marketing team when launching a message or product.

• Workshop: Spotify Duo Valentine’s Day campaign
• What goes in your campaign brief?
• Roles and responsibilities: Product, creative, PR, media, and social

Assignment #10: Pick one of our common objectives (awareness, consideration, engagement), and write a brief to the rest of the marketing team.

In this class, you will look at how you can use the principles learned in this course to build your own personal brand as you move out and up in your career.

• What it takes to be a marketing all-star
• How to stand out in your company, team, and role
Get out, be famous

Assignment #11: Put together your own personal brand identity. What is your brand essence and core identity?

Branding and marketing is a constantly evolving game. After a wrap-up of what you've learned so far, Gerry will point to some of the latest trends that are affecting brands and marketers.

• 3 trends that are here to stay
• Wrap-up: Putting everything together

Assignment #12: Drawing on the assignments you've done throughout the course, build a brand presentation you might present to a client or decision-maker in your company. Be sure to include both the creative and business aspects of your brand and to prepare a self-introduction, based on your personal brand.