This is a first-year gateway course and is not available for second-year bidding.  Second-years must wait until the add/drop process begins in January to add this class.

COURSE NUMBER: MBA 262.1

COURSE TITLE: Brand Management & Strategy

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 units

INSTRUCTOR: Lynn Upshaw

EMAIL: upshaw@haas.berkeley.edu

MEETINGS DAY(S)/TIME: Monday and Wednesday 4:30 – 6:00 PM

PREREQUISITE(S): 206

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:

As noted below: 1) two team exercises, 2) team brand audit, 3) individual marketing plan, and 4) individual class participation.

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND FORMAT:

This highly interactive course is a hands-on, practical exploration of product, service, and enterprise-wide brand building and management. The course is structured along the daily responsibilities and challenges faced by working brand/marketing managers. As such, the course will provide experience with proven strategies for building successful brands in the competitive marketplace, the decisions and options faced by brand managers, and the tools to effectively manage brands.

The course will cover such topics as: strategic targeting, constructing compelling brand platforms, brand portfolio management, brand equity building, online branding, global brand building, brand equity metrics and measurements, and integrated marketing communications. Selected brand modeling will be presented and discussed, but the course will emphasize 1) contemporary case analyses; 2) the daily duties of brand and marketing managers; 3) discussions of topical marketing issues, 4) contemporary brand building best practices, 5) exercises co-designed by senior brand executives in major corporations, and 6) guest speakers representing major consumer and business brands.

Class Policies and Requirements:

Course components will include class participation in case analysis, team exercises, a team brand audit paper, and an individual brand marketing plan, which will serve as a hand-in final.

The course components carry the following weight in determining your final grade:

Team Work: 50%

Team Exercises: 25%

Team Brand Audit: 25%

Individual Work: 50%

Class Preparation and Participation: 20%

Brand Marketing Plan: 30%

Please note: There are no exams in this course. It will be up to students to learn the brand strategy concepts and terminology explained in lectures and reading (including the Keller text), and to use them persuasively in their exercises, and Brand Audit and Brand Marketing Plan documents.

INSTRUCTOR:

Lynn Upshaw is an internationally known brand and marketing consultant and has been principal of Upshaw Consulting for the past ten years. During that time he also served as a senior consultant to Interbrand Corp. and Bridge Strategy management consultants. He is also a partner in the brand and product strategy firm, Strategic Harmony™ Partners. Prior to that he was the Executive Vice-President for Client Brand Marketing at Ketchum Advertising Worldwide, as well as Chief Operating Officer of Ketchum Advertising/San Francisco.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Upshaw has counseled management, as well as business and consumer marketing teams, in such organizations as (partial list): Visa International, SBC Communications, 3Com Corp., Wind River Systems, Blue Cross of California and WellPoint Health Networks, R.H. Donnelley, Bayer Corporation, ConAgra Foods, McKesson Corp., esurance.com, Lucas Learning, LG&E Energy, Pacific Telesis, Bank of America, Lee Enterprises, and McClatchy Newspapers, as well as a number of professional services firms and associations.

Mr. Upshaw provides clients with a full range of brand and marketing consulting services, including: targeting strategy, brand audit design and analysis, new brand development, internal brand marketing, brand building training and workshops, brand architecture evaluation and restructuring, brand positioning and persona creation, online and e-commerce brand development, marketing plan development, global branding, and equity research management.

Mr. Upshaw also teaches strategic brand management in the Berkeley MBA and Executive Education programs at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. He was the recipient of the 2005 Earl F. Cheit Award for Teaching Excellence.

Mr. Upshaw has written two well-regarded books on marketing strategy: Building Brand Identity: A Strategy for Success in a Hostile Marketplace and The Masterbrand Mandate: The Management Strategy That Unifies Companies and Multiplies Value (co-authored with Earl Taylor), both published by John Wiley & Sons/New York. He is currently writing his third marketing book, to be published in 2007 by AMACOM/New York. He has also authored articles for numerous leading publications including Brandweek, Advertising Age, The Journal of Brand Management (UK), Advertising Express (India), and The Design Management Journal.

Mr. Upshaw 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 subjects, including general brand building, global branding, company-wide brand training, marketing planning, corporate identity, strategic marketing, professional services branding, and integrated marketing communications.

Mr. Upshaw also provides pro bono and traditional consulting to a number of nonprofit organizations, including United Way of the Bay Area, The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the Glide Foundation, and the San Francisco Theological Seminary. He is also a member of the advisory boards of BrandChannel.com, The Thunder Factory marketing firm, and the Presidio School of Management.

He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s in advertising from Northwestern University.

For more information regarding Lynn Upshaw and Upshaw Consulting, see www.brandbuilding.com