BE554-7-SP-CO:
Marketing Strategy
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Essex Business School
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
11 July 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BE564
This module addresses key concepts within contemporary branding theory with a focus on a marketing communication perspective. Strategic brand communication considers all the means by which brand meaning is created and circulated – not only through channels such as promotion and distribution, but also, for example, through the ways in which employees are utilised for the purpose of communicating a consistent brand message. We will critically analyse the underlying ideas that inform how brand messages are constructed, and how for example stereotypes or normative ideas of gender are reproduced in those messages.
The module is designed to:
• To introduce students to key theories of branding and brand communication
• To provide critical approaches to understanding brands and branding practices
• To demonstrate how concepts of branding translate into contemporary business practices, and wider cultural practices
• To address the role of global brands, and the challenges of managing them
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of key perspectives, theories and concepts that inform the contemporary understanding of branding.
- Identify and analyze key brand communication strategies and approaches such as emotional, functional and cultural branding.
- Critically evaluate the role of brands and branding in contemporary society.
Skills for Your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)
This module adopts a philosophy of experiential learning and aims to develop and further improve your employability skills:
- Teamwork and leadership skills as you will be working with your team for the whole term and you will be expected to lead on certain aspects of the project.
- Excellent communication skills (oral and written) required for the presentation as well as your written coursework.
- Excellent organisational skills manifested in the management of your own project meeting various deadlines and prioritising tasks.
- Employability, this module will give you the chance to work closely with local businesses and local employers and so you are expected to act professionally throughout.
- The opportunty to receive constructive feedback from leading industrial parties on the work you present.
'If every asset we own, every building, and every piece of equipment were destroyed in a terrible natural disaster, we would be able to borrow all the money to replace it very quickly because of our brand value … The brand is more valuable than the totality of all these assets.' (The CEO of McDonald's, cited in Armstrong & Kotler, 1999, p. 242).
Achieving brand equity, or a strong brand, is the fundamental aim of all brand communication activity. Brands are built with a strategic purpose to create meaningful distinctions between products and services of different kinds, and to establish a relation between producers and consumers. However, brands do more than indicate ownership; they make promises, they strive to create trust, they enable the organisation to charge a premium price, and they can be seen to govern behaviour in many aspects of everyday life. The notion of brandscapes has come to signify how brands shape the contemporary consumer society locally and globally. It is therefore important to view brands both as a market-based device within the economic sphere, and as sets of practices which are situated in a wider socio-cultural context.
This module will be delivered via:
- One 2-hour lecture per week.
- One 1-hour seminar per week.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Muhammad Akram, email: m.akram@essex.ac.uk.
Shakaib Akram & Prithwiraj Nath
ebspgtad@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
No
Dr Stephanie Anderson
Available via Moodle
Of 36 hours, 36 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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