COURSE NUMBER:EWMBA 262-11

COURSE TITLE: Strategic Brand Management

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Lynn Upshaw

EMAIL: upshaw@haas.berkeley.edu
 
MEETINGS DAY(S)/TIME: Saturdays 1 – 4pm
 
PREREQUISITE(S): EWMBA 206

CLASS FORMAT:

REQUIRED READINGS:

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Course components will include class participation in case analysis, team exercises, a team brand audit paper, and a team brand marketing plan, which will serve as a hand-in final.   The course will include the following components:

• a 4-person team  customer experience audit
• a 4-person team exercise
• a 2-person team brand marketing plan
• Individual preparation and participation in discussions and case analyses

• Assessing Real Time Brand Challenges - A significant portion of class time during the semester will involve assessing the wisdom of actions taken by brands in real time.  For example, the class will discuss topical issues such as (examples only):  the business building prospects of the “new GM” portfolio of brands; the impact of “fast forward” fashion houses on traditional brands like The Gap, the transformation and broadening of Cisco to include more of a consumer brand, and Apple’s battle to become the preeminent electronics brand.  These discussions will include special sessions called, “If I ran the brand”, an opportunity for students to explain how they would approach the thorny issues brands are facing.
• Greater Emphasis on CEM – The brand management field is rapidly becoming an industry that focuses on customer experiences. A new addition to this course will be an assignment to complete a Customer Experience Audit of a brand of the students’ choosing. This will provide students with an opportunity to learn about the many ways that the brand’s presence is projected to customers and prospects.
• Participation via blogging: A class blog will be established for students to share their views on topical branding issues, which counts toward the student’s participation grade.
• Day in the life: We will repeatedly discuss what a brand or marketing manager does in various industries, and how to enter that field. All guest speakers (see below) will be asked to describe the “day in the life” of their company’s marketing/brand managers, and to suggest how to enter the field in the future.
• Career-focused Speakers: The course will include at least five marketing executives with experience particularly relevant to the needs of Haas students. These speakers will be drawn from the ranks of such industries as (examples only):  retail apparel, consumer packaged goods, B2B services, healthcare, technology, and other brand-sensitive industries. 
• Contemporary Cases and Topical Articles – For the first time, the Brand Management course will not require the reading of a textbook. Instead, reading assignments will only include cases, articles, and online sites that bring to bear topical issues that students are likely to encounter in the workplace. 

In summary, Strategic Brand Management is an elective that will deal with exciting business issues that continuously evolve in every way but one:  the way in which brands impact the business performance of virtually every B2C and B2B business.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Lynn Upshaw is a recognized authority on strategic brand marketing, the principal of the Upshaw Marketing consultancy, and a member of the professional marketing faculty at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.  He has served in the past as a Senior Consultant to Interbrand and to Bridge Strategy Group management consultants.  Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President for Client Brand Marketing at Ketchum Advertising Worldwide and COO of that organization’s largest office.

Consulting and Workshop Experience 
In his consulting, Lynn Upshaw helps corporate clients build marketing plans and strategic brand platforms, assesses and manages brand equity research, counsels managers and senior executives on building comprehensive marketing programs, leads marketing training, and conducts strategic planning workshops.  His corporate consulting and workshop clients have included (abridged list): BEA Systems, Coverity, Inc., Wind River Systems, TriNet HR Corp., 3Com Corp., DTS Digital Cinema, Visa International, SBC Communications (now AT&T), Intel Corp., Bio-Rad Laboratories, WellPoint Health Networks, Health Net, Inc., China Telecom, R.H. Donnelley, Bayer Corporation, NEC Corporation, and esurance.com, among many others
.
Thought Leadership
Lynn has written numerous articles for such publications as Advertising Age, Brandweek, The Peking University Business Review (PRC), brandchannel.com, The Journal of Brand Management (UK), marketingprofs.com, Advertising Express (India), and The Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications.  He has also authored or co-authored three highly regarded books on marketing strategy: 

• Building Brand Identity: A Strategy for Success in a Hostile Marketplace (John Wiley & Sons, 1995), which has been listed by Amazon.com as one of the ten most popular books on brand building;
• The Masterbrand Mandate: The Management Strategy That Unifies Companies and Multiplies Value (also from Wiley, 2000), co-authored with Earl Taylor, which was awarded the 2001 WPP Worldwide Atticus Grand Prix Award; and
• Truth: The New Rules for Marketing in a Skeptical World, (Amacom, 2007), described by marketing scholar Philip Kotler as a “blueprint for winning marketing performance in an age of transparency.

Workshops and Teaching
Lynn has been the keynote or featured speaker at industry and client conferences throughout North America, and in Europe, Asia, South America, and India.  He has created and facilitated dozens of brand building and strategic planning workshops covering a wide variety of marketing subjects.

In his teaching, Lynn has guided hundreds of MBA candidates at the Haas School of Business through the intricacies of corporate and product/service brand building, and he is a recipient of the Earl F. Cheit award for teaching excellence.  He is also the former Faculty and Program Director for the Berkeley Executive Leadership Program at the Berkeley Center for Executive Education.

Additional Credentials 
Lynn serves, or has served, on the advisory boards of brandchannel.com, The CMO Council “Brand Protection” Program, Thunder Factory Marketing, Inc., MindPath Interactive Media, Benchmark Metrics, Inc., UC-Berkeley Extension/Marketing Group, and the Presidio School of Management.

Lynn received his BSA and MSA degrees from Northwestern University.  He lives with his wife, Susan, in Kentfield, California.