Marketing Strategy and Branding (MKSB1-CE)

A diverse consumer base, along with ongoing fragmentation of media and consumer preferences, is creating a perfect storm for marketing professionals. It is increasingly difficult to reach audiences in an effective and efficient manner, as their attention and consumption of content are now spread across a wide array of platforms. Marketing needs to break out of the advertising sea of noise, and all marketing efforts need to align in support of the brand promise. The desire to come together around shared interests and communicate our passions and values is a profoundly human instinct. The social media channel is a unique platform that allows brands to capture actionable insights about consumers, amplify and clarify the brand’s messages, and strengthen other tactics within an integrated media strategy. This course provides an approach to incorporating social media into a broader marketing strategy. Through hands-on examples and case studies, gain insight into how the media landscape has evolved to the point at which brands need be relevant and responsive to consumers who can be targeted individually at any time and on any device. Learn how the rules of advertising are being redefined and the playing field is shifting, as the quality of the engagement and conversation between consumers and brands determine long-term success.

Explore the elements of building your own personal brand within an organization and in your professional life. Take stock of your own brand inventory—how you see yourself currently, how others see you, and then, how you want to be seen. Develop your own research plan to understand your brand and construct a personal brand plan.

Often, what first comes to mind when hearing the word “brand” is a logo, an experience, or an advertisement. An effective brand, however, is so much more—it is a promise to its consumers. But how is such a brand created? In this course, learn the brand development process step by step. The instructors, a brand strategist and a visual design strategist, uniquely cover brand strategy (identifying the core audience and competitive opportunity and developing the brand platform) through design strategy (identity exploration, documentation, and implementation). By applying this to hands-on exercises, gain insights needed to develop a brand with a strong strategic base and the visual vocabulary to bring it to life. The course is ideal for internal marketing or brand teams, creatives interested in strategy, and leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to launch or strengthen their own business’s brand.

<p>This course introduces both retailers and suppliers to best practices for building brand value and teaches them how to effectively communicate in order to out-market the competition through multiple channels. Learn how to create an immersive and superior customer experience at retail by building visually branded touch points with a connected consumer. Topics include the effective use of digital and social media in the store to drive traffic and purchase, personalized promotions through geospatial targeting, data mining, integration, and CRM. Learn from agency and retail speakers with expertise in digital, mobile, and social shopper marketing.</p>

Merge real-world experience with the latest marketing theories in this course, which considers online and offline strategies for managing and marketing consumer goods and services. Review consumer, internal, and sales force integration; retail trade dynamics; guerrilla marketing techniques; and marketing supplier relationships. Identify relevant strategies in all aspects of brand management&#8212;from product development, advertising, pricing, promotion, and distribution in the old economy to today&#8217;s hybrid online retail opportunities. Examine brand equity, competitive market review, target audience, market research, and profit-and-loss statements.

An effective marketing plan is a road map to success for businesses both large and small. Learn how to express a marketing strategy through a comprehensive and coherent plan. Examine how strategies and plans change at each stage in the life cycle of a product, service, or concept. Class instruction emphasizes effectively accumulating relevant data; analyzing the competition; naming and pricing products; and positioning, promoting, and distributing. In this highly interactive course that makes extensive use of case studies, prepare your own model marketing plans.

Winning marketing strategies are built upon creativity, planning, and effective implementation. Following an analysis of how marketing strategy evolves from a larger corporate strategic plan, this advanced course identifies factors that determine future growth and that achieve competitive advantage, including industry/competitor analysis; global and domestic marketing opportunities; and strategic product pricing, promotion, and distribution decisions. Other topics include market segmentation using demographics and psychographics, product positioning, and the marketing mix&#8217;s evolution over a product&#8217;s life cycle.

What aspects of marketing influence competitive advantage and help to increase sustainable, winning strategies? Examine strategy development and competition in depth, and learn how a company&#8217;s position exists within that framework. Consider the fact that there are three major competitors in most business categories, and discuss the competitive advantages and disadvantages that this offers. Explore the strategies employed by these major players and the specialists or niche companies that thrive in each industry. Analyze business school cases in hands-on classroom exercises, and discuss topical competitive marketing issues.

Competition drives performance at every corporate level. Whether for a small retail outlet, a service firm, or a dominant multinational corporation, strategic positioning and brand development are critical to commercial success. In this course, gain an understanding of how markets evolve and how well a product or service satisfies end-user demands. Dig deep into a brand&rsquo;s DNA to understand what its components are and what brings it to life. Develop a plan that differentiates a product from the competition and fosters brand loyalty with the consumer base. Master the skills required to devise and implement strategies that build strong brands.

Branded entertainment (BE) integrates a brand with an entertainment property, such as a television show, movie, or video game, to create a distinct and dynamic association between the brand and property. BE typically involves product placement, branded sponsorship, or branded content. Gain a comprehensive understanding of branded entertainment and its history through case studies and exploring effective methods of incorporating BE into integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategies, using social media for distribution and PR and by creating a &#8220;real-life&#8221; concept for a branded web series.

<p>As audiences increasingly control the information that they consume, the changing media landscape continues to challenge marketing communications. To stand out, brands must think and act like storytellers, which drives engagement and builds relationships. In this course, learn how stories can be used to create and to reinforce positive brand associations and gain the skills to create interesting and enduring stories. Join special guest speakers to learn more about the core principles of good storytelling, ways that leading companies move beyond branded content to tell compelling stories, the use of storytelling frameworks to improve the effectiveness of marketing communication activities, current research regarding the effects of storytelling on consumer response, and more.</p>

<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Calibri">Shopper marketing recognizes the shopper, as well as the consumer, as a new strategic target in effective marketing. The way in which the shopper's mindset must be engaged by a brand differs from the way in which the consumer mindset is engaged. The better we understand the journey a shopper takes to purchase a product or service, the better equipped we are to connect with them, to drive sales, and to build loyalty. While shopper marketing is relevant to any product or service, whether business-to-business or business-to-consumer, this course focuses on product and services sold to consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>Learn what shopper marketing is and how to strategically develop retailer-specific shopper marketing insights and an integrated marketing communications plan.</font></p>