MKTG320 - Creative Branding Strategies

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

MKTG207 Marketing Toolkit or MKTG100 Marketing: Creating and Capturing Customer Value

Teaching organisation

150 hours over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit introduces the conceptual and practical issues in formulating creative branding strategies to achieve marketing performance outcomes. With necessary knowledge about branding models, frameworks and theories, students will be able to assess the comparative analysis of competing brands, contemporary branding trends and apply their knowledge of branding to improve the performance of an organisation. Students will also translate the branding models into ethical and socially responsible competitive strategies for businesses by considering a wide range of contemporary branding problems and using advanced creative branding techniques.

Creative branding strategies help students understand how well an organisation’s brand performs in its investment portfolio and may contribute to achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) of a strategic business unit or an independent organisation. Accordingly, an organisation can audit, adjust or create a new strategy for its positioning in the marketplace. Further, the organisation can allocate marketing investments and budgets to each of its brands in routine and crises such as COVID-19.  

This unit aims to prepare students for brand manager roles and assist them in developing skills and knowledge in managing an organisation’s marketing function through creative branding strategies and tactics to make marketing decisions conforming to high ethical standards.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Explain creative branding models and theories (GA5, GA7).

LO2 - Identify and communicate feasible and contemporary branding strategies to relevant stakeholders (GA5, GA10).

LO3 - Apply the branding techniques to create an innovative and sustainable brand (GA5, GA6).

LO4 - Develop a strategic branding plan to reposition an underperforming brand while recognising a firm's responsibility to the common good, environment and society (GA2, GA5).

LO5 - Critically analyse industry trends related to branding and reflect on how this analysis would improve brand performance outcomes (GA4, GA5).

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA10 - utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively.

Content

Topics will include:

• Branding story: Need and historical development
• The concept of branding space, brand image, brand attributes, brand identity, brand profiling, brand personality, brand equity and brand community
• Brand management structures for sales, marketing, advertising, and promotional purposes
• Brand development and brand research
• Branding challenges in diverse cultures and economies
• Branding in digital space and brand research

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The learning and teaching strategy is based on student engagement in the learning process by participation in workshops or equivalent and practical activities designed to reinforce learning. Workshops and equivalent support students to actively participate in the construction and synthesis of knowledge both individually and in small groups. By taking part in activities, students will systematically develop their understanding of the key aspects of branding and in particular, build skills in the repositioning of existing and formulating new brands. Students will be involved in practical branding projects to experience the real-world issues in managing and studying industrial branding trends to determine the ROI of an individual brand, strategic business units or the mother organisation (conglomerate). The experiential approach underpinning the learning and teaching strategy for this unit extends to practical analytical approaches used in branding based on 'real-world' examples.

Mode of delivery: This unit is offered in different modes. These are: "Attendance" mode and "Online" mode. This unit is offered in different modes to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups.

Attendance Mode

In an attendance mode, students will require face-to-face attendance in specific physical location/s. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for you to prepare and revise.

Online Mode

In an online mode, students engage in asynchronous learning and participate in the construction and synthesis of knowledge, while developing their knowledge. Students are required to participate in a series of online interactive activities to enhance their learning including knowledge checks, discussion boards and self-paced exercises. This approach allows flexibility for students and facilitates learning and participation for students with a preference for virtual learning.

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to pass this unit, students are required to demonstrate mastery of all learning outcomes and achieve an aggregate mark of at least 50%. Marking of each assessment task will be in accordance with rubrics specifically developed to measure student level of achievement of the learning outcomes for each assessment item.

Students will be awarded a final grade which signifies their overall achievement in the unit. The assessment strategy for this unit allows participants to sequentially develop their knowledge and skills in branding to the point where they can understand, examine and apply branding models and concepts to formulate branding strategies for real-world organisations. At the same time, students will also need to demonstrate ability to identify, describe, analyse and evaluate the use of key branding metrics in an existing organisation.

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome as indicated in the following Assessment Table.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Lalaounis, S.T., 2020. Strategic Brand Management and Development: Creating and Marketing Successful Brands. Routledge.

Keller, K.L. and Swaminathan, V., 2020. Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Harlow: Pearson.

Sudhagani, A.R., 2021. CONSUMER EVALUATION OF PRIVATE LABEL BRANDING STRATEGIES. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 25(2), pp.1-11.

Skinner, H., 2021. Place Branding—The Challenges of Getting It Right: Coping with Success and Rebuilding from Crises. Tourism and Hospitality, 2(1), pp.173-189.

Pasquinelli, C., Trunfio, M., Bellini, N. and Rossi, S., 2021. Sustainability in overtouristified cities? A social media insight into Italian branding responses to Covid-19 crisis. Sustainability, 13(4), p.1848.

Han, M., Newman, G.E., Smith, R.K. and Dhar, R., 2021. The Curse of the Original: How and When Heritage Branding Reduces Consumer Evaluations of Enhanced Products. Journal of Consumer Research.

Borges-Tiago, M.T., Arruda, C., Tiago, F. and Rita, P., 2021. Differences between TripAdvisor and Booking. com in branding co-creation. Journal of Business Research, 123, pp.380-388.

Ngoc, N.M. and Tien, N.H., 2021. Branding Strategy for Gamuda Land Real Estate Developer in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. Celadon City Project.“. Psychology and education, 58(5), pp.3308-3316.