Brand Management

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/E_MKT_BMAN

Course Objective

Upon completion of this course, students:Demonstrate a critical understanding of the concepts and theories used, as well as key topics covered, in the top academic journals on the role of brands for marketing and the value of brands for consumer decisions. Effectively apply branding theories both to understand real-life marketing problems and to design solutions to those problems. Communicate and collaborate effectively with an international cohort of classmates to design and produce case solutions or other presentations, provided in English, to both academic and professional audiences.

Course Content

Branding is an important instrument in marketing. In this course we study and discuss brand management and branding strategies. We will discuss literature related to brand strategy and brand management, brand communication, and brand-related consumer behavior, and will focus on topics like brand positioning (and repositioning), brand equity, brand design, brand engagement, purpose branding and CSR, employees & branding, and brand extensions. Academic literature on each of these topics will be presented and discussed. the literature will be related to practical cases, by the lecturer, by guest lecturers, and by students themselves in their cases assignments.

Teaching Methods

FORMAT AND TEACHING METHODS Each week will have a different theme, and will consist of a format that starts off with lectures: in which relevant literature will be discussed. Academic literature will be presented, and put into its context, but also
- and most importantly
- related to practical examples. The classes not only present the material, but also provide background knowledge. Towards the end of the week, students will participate in a weekly tutorial, where the literature is applied real-life cases, in which challenges and opportunities in different areas will be analyzed with different brands. To this extent, the lecturer will collaborate with practitioners to provide linkages to field. The set-up of these tutorials is interactive, and student presentations take a central place.

Method of Assessment

Case presentation (group) (30%): Final exam (individual) (70%): Individual, written exam, which will assess your understanding of the concepts and insights learned during the course To pass the course you need to obtain a grade higher than (or equal to) 5.5. For each of the individual items, the minimum grade is 5.0.