Subject description

In today’s economy, brands and other intangible assets have become some of the most powerful drivers of business value. Estimates suggest that more than 70% of corporate value in the United States now resides in intangible assets such as brand equity, customer relationships, and intellectual property. As the rise of the sharing economy and digital-first business models continues to shift value creation away from physical assets, the strategic management of brands has never been more critical. This course will equip students with a sound understanding of how brands create value for firms, customers, and broader markets. It blends theoretical foundations with practical frameworks to help future managers build, nurture, measure, and monetize strong brands in competitive and rapidly evolving environments. Students will explore the psychological, strategic, and financial dimensions of branding, examining how

brands are built, how they influence consumer behavior, and how they contribute to long-term competitive advantage. Through a combination of lectures, case studies, hands-on exercises, and analytical tools, the course introduces key models and methodologies used in contemporary brand management. Topics include brand identity and positioning, brand purpose, portfolio and architecture strategies, customer-based brand equity models, brand performance, and the challenges brought by digital platforms and intangible-asset- intensive business models. This course prepares MBA students to become strategic leaders capable of leveraging brands not only as communication tools but also as core intangible assets that shape organizational value and drive sustainable competitive advantage. They will understand the critical role of branding in business growth by connecting vision, mission, and purpose to create magic.

Learning objectives

At the end of the course, the student should be able to understand, execute, and evaluate effective brand strategies that drive sustainable growth in competitive markets. More specifically:

• Understand what strategic brand management is in Marketing and its impact on the creation of shareholder value
• Define "brand" from different perspectives (marketing, legal, and economic). In particular, to understand the concept of brand as an intangible asset and to differentiate it from other terms often used as synonyms.
• Be familiar with and appropriately apply strategic brand management tools, frameworks, and systems.
• Be familiar with the main variables involved in the evaluation and valuation of brands and other marketing-related intangible assets.
• Understand the main applications for brand valuation as well as the key brand valuation methodologies and their advantages and disadvantages.
• Identify situations that require a brand valuation and distinguish them from those that only require a brand evaluation.
• Understand the impact that consumer and social trends, particularly sustainability, have on brand building. Understand the Power of Social in branding.
• The importance of branding in business growth.
• Vision, Mission, and Purpose: What they are and how to connect them to create magic.

Understand How Brand Building and Performance Marketing Can Work Together.

Subject description

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around.” — Steve Jobs The primary objective of this course is to furnish participants with an extensive grasp of the fundamental concepts and applications of customer experience. A key aspect of the course is the emphasis on human-centered design within the broader context, integrating methodologies like design thinking. Participants will engage in exploring various methodologies, tools, mindsets, and outputs tailored to designing a compelling customer experience that aligns seamlessly with business objectives.

In this course, participants learn how to give another angle to looking at complex business challenges by putting the importance of placing people (customers, users, stakeholders) at the center of these challenges. This emphasis is on imparting the skills and insights necessary to bring a unique angle to problem-solving, emphasizing the significance of understanding and addressing the needs, expectations, and perspectives of individuals involved in or affected by the challenges.

Learning objectives

1. Problem Definition and Reframing: Learn to identify and define problems effectively, refining them through research for precise problem-solving. 2. Understanding Human Needs through Research: Master in-depth ethnographic research to uncover profound human needs, informing empathetic solutions. 3. Insight Generation for Creativity: Develop skills to extract meaningful insights, laying the foundation for creative ideas to enhance user experience. 4. Tangible Service Concept Creation and Validation: Acquire skills to create and validate tangible service concepts through user feedback, ensuring alignment with user needs. 5. End-to-End Customer Experience Design: Explore the process of designing a seamless end-to-end customer experience, integrating touchpoints for a cohesive

journey. 6. Backstage Construction and Success Measurement: Gain insights into constructing the backstage for optimal service delivery and measuring success through key metrics.

Subject description

Digital Marketing is a very broad subject linked to topics such as strategy, customer behavior, techniques, resources, and people and tools. The purpose of this course is to grasp the overall understanding of Digital Marketing techniques, through the Customer Journey and implement an efficient Content Strategy so as to provoke brand-positive interactions and engagement. This is not a "tools course" but rather a marketing techniques course where you will learn in 15 sessions how to lay out the strategy and implement the different techniques in online advertising, viral marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing, email/ notification marketing, conversion, retention, and advocacy techniques

Learning objectives

Understand the new trends in customer behaviour and how to measure them. Master the main digital marketing channels including search, display, viral and social media marketing. Audit a company's digital assets based on performance and strategy, metrics and KPIs

Learn how to assess a comprehensive digital marketing plan for a company.

Subject description

This course explores the intersection of neuroscience and marketing, focusing on how our brains respond to marketing stimuli. Students will learn about the principles and techniques of neuromarketing, how to analyze consumer behavior using neuromarketing data, and how to develop effective marketing strategies based on insights from neuroscience. • Understand what Neuromarketing is and its applications. • Analyze neuromarketing data to derive insights about consumer behavior. • Gather an overview on the different tools available and the cognitive process • Assess the strength and limitations of Neuromarketing tools, and how they complement other research techniques

Learning objectives

In the 15 sessions of this elective we will cover some of the basics of Neuromarketing;

from the diversity of tools on how to apply the learnings. Specific learning objectives would be:

• This course explores the intersection of neuroscience and marketing, focusing on how our brains respond to marketing stimuli. Students will learn about the principles and techniques of neuromarketing, how to analyze consumer behavior using neuromarketing data, and how to develop effective marketing strategies based on insights from neuroscience.
• Understand what Neuromarketing is and its applications.
• Analyze neuromarketing data to derive insights about consumer behavior.
• Gather an overview on the different tools available and the cognitive process related to them
• Assess the strength and limitations of Neuromarketing tools, and how they complement other research techniques / behavioral sciences.
• Practice the selection of tools, and the steps of the process; as well as the existing knowledge already available. Apply existing learnings to real life cases.

Subject description

Why do we need this course now?

In March of 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) compiled by the worlds top climate scientists issued a final warning for humanity. Act now before it is too late and the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres announced "Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.” 2023 was the planet ́s hottest year on record - what we do in the next 2-3 years will determine the future for many generations to come.

Being sustainable is no longer an option for business, their future viability and license to operate is at risk. We are past the point of "business as usual" and incremental changes such as developing more "sustainable" products and services. We need to truly change our mindsets and take transformative action.

What does it have to do with marketing and advertising?

Brands are both part of the problem and the solution. Having created a culture of overconsumption, but also having the influence to nudge consumers towards more sustainable lifestyles. The holy grail of sustainability right now is mainstreaming sustainability from a consumer perspective because we have the technologies, we know what we need to do, but we need to fundamentally change the way we live our lives. Marketing helps business to deliver value through sustainability yet many brands are communicating before they are ready, resulting in Greenwashing. New legislation will put a stop to misleading "eco-friendly" claims so it ́s important for brands to get their sustainability communications right.

How does the course address these issues?

The Climate Crisis requires marketers to understand the wider impacts of their products on society and the environment now and in the future. It requires a different mindset and an understanding of broader issues beyond consumer needs. In Sustainability Marketing we start with the problem to solve, not the consumer need and this is the first mindset shift we look to address.

We analyse what the implications for brands are and how they can be part of the solution, while giving students knowledge around impact areas and solutions. The course structure follows an international reference framework (Sustainable Brands), used by the professor in her day to day sustainable marketing work.

The simplest way to view it is the Brand Sustainability Strategy is an evolution of the company ́s Sustainability Strategy, making sustainability relevant to the consumer, communicating out that strategy. So even when we analyse broad sustainability topics or draw on the science, it is always from a consumer and communications perspective.

There is no silver bullet to solving Sustainability issues, but it requires radical and disruptive thinking which should make for some great class discussions and idea generation around the greatest challenge and business opportunity of our generation.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

- Define key concepts and frameworks in sustainable marketing strategy and the relationship between marketing strategy and the (SDGs).

- Understand consumers from a sustainability perspective and the various influences on consumer behavior.

- Analyze sustainability challenges and opportunities in marketing contexts and apply strategic frameworks to develop sustainable marketing initiatives.

- Design comprehensive sustainable marketing strategies and develop marketing mix strategies that integrate sustainability principles

- Examine greenwashing and other sustainability communication challenges.

- Motivate themselves and others to become sustainability leaders within their own companies.

- Envision the future evolution of "Sustainable Marketing"