• Managers who are responsible for brands and want to refine their skills
• Marketers looking to develop their capabilities in brand building
• Leaders who want to elevate the role of branding in their organization

• Understand how brands create value and how to use them to create a competitive advantage
• Develop a systematic approach to brand management and a sound framework for building strong brands
• Learn how to craft distinctive brand positioning and how to communicate the brand story online
• Understand the brand dynamics and the key principles of building brand portfolios
• Identify methods for evaluating your brand and measuring brand performance

Pre-Program Modules

Building Strong Brands
Learn the unique role of brands as a marketing tool. It delineates the differences between product and brand management, examines the ways in which brands create market value, and presents the concepts of brand equity and brand power.

Designing the Brand
Understand key brand attributes and core principles in designing the brand, including: defining the brand name, designing the brand logo and soundmark, creating the brand motto and character, and crafting the product design and packaging.

Communicating the Brand
Explore key principles in developing a successful brand communication campaign, including: brand-building focus, visionary approach, authentic message, impactful design, and ethical implementation.

Crafting the Brand Architecture
Unpack the concept of brand architecture and addressed the issues involved in designing and managing brand portfolios and cobranding. Specific topics include: managing brand and product portfolios, defining the brand hierarchy, cobranding as a tool for creating market value, developing a viable cobranding strategy, and managing private label brand architecture.

Managing Brand Dynamics
Discover how to best manage brands over time, including: the essence of brand extensions, vertical and horizontal brand extensions, brand repositioning, brand realignment, and brand licensing.

In-Person Program Modules

Strategic Brand Management 
The brand is a marketing tool that managers use to create a meaningful image of the company and its offerings in people’s minds. By doing so, brands create value for customers and influence their market behavior, which in turn creates value for the company. In this session, we will provide an overview of brand management as a core business function and will outline the key principles for building strong brands.

Building Lifestyle Brands
Brands are means of self-expression. We will discuss the reasons for the proliferation of lifestyle brands and why many companies are considering repositioning their offerings from focusing on functional benefits to emphasizing self-expressive, identity-relevant positioning. We will also address the key drawbacks of lifestyle branding and discuss scenarios in which lifestyle branding can be beneficial to companies.

Growing the Brand
The challenge for brand leaders is finding ways to grow. This involves thinking broadly about potential growth avenues – from new product ideas to brand building initiatives. This session will use a case study about Pedigree dog food to explore the challenge and consider strategic options and trade-offs.

Building Brands in Business Markets
Through an interactive case study, discover how the Miele brand successfully tackles challenges in building and managing a global luxury brand in a B2B context.

Defending Your Brand 
Any strong brand will face competitive threats, and the better your brand the more likely you will have to deal with new entrants. In these sessions, we will review why defense is so important, how to evaluate competitive threats and ways brands can respond. Defensive strategy is a somewhat hidden side of branding; this module will bring it to life.

Strategic Brand Targeting and Positioning 
As customer needs and behaviors change through their involvement with our brand, the most relevant messaging/experience and channel will change. If we map out a strategic approach that considers their goals, our goals and their evolving needs and behaviors then we can make informed choices in our multi-channel approach.

Evaluating the Brand 
In this session, we will look at some of the ways you might look at the health of your brand, from traditional approaches, like measuring brand awareness, to new, more innovative methods. We will also look at a framework for creating a strategy to leverage a brand — when to build awareness, when to reposition, how to extend a brand, and when to consider rebranding.

Building Luxury Brands
The focus of this module is to understand how to manage luxury brands. Luxury is about creating a meaningful brand image in people’s minds that will result in, among other things, greater willingness to allocate part of their discretionary income to acquire these brands.

Branding Experiential Products
In this session, we will discuss how to design products and services that delight customers and how brands can facilitate this process. We will address the role of anticipation and consistency in creating customer value and the importance of peak and end moments in making an experience memorable.

Rejuvenating the Brand
Once a brand reaches maturity it often faces an existential challenge: how to continue to grow. In this module, we will discuss alternative strategies for rejuvenating mature brands. The discussion is centered on the Harley-Davidson case and the challenges the CMO faces in attracting younger riders to reverse the decline in its market share.

Branding at the Bottom of the Pyramid
In this module, we will discuss the challenges facing companies targeting low-income consumers and will outline strategies for growth in this segment. The discussion is centered on the Beleza Natural case, which highlights the importance of understanding customer needs and role of brands as a means of creating market value while fulfilling the company’s social mission.

Timothy Calkins - Academic Director; Clinical Professor of Marketing; Associate Chair of the Marketing Department

Alexander Chernev - Academic Director; Professor of Marketing

Aparna Labroo - Professor of Marketing

“The Kellogg Branding class was just what I needed to rejuvenate our brand. Each class was organized, practical and interactive, allowing me to go back and apply the principles and take our brand to the next level.”

Marketing Director, Bridge Business Solutions

“The program offers an overview of branding fundamentals, but is so much more than what I've experienced in other programs, because of the number of instructors who've actually managed brands and led marketing organizations.”

Director, Brand Strategy, CEB

“Kellogg on Branding enabled me to sharpen my MBA skills thanks to the focus of the program and the top-notch faculty. [I] feel re-energized in my efforts to drive branding activities in my company.”

Brand Manager, Red Hat