REGULATIONS FOR MASTER OF COMMERCE DEGREE IN STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT (BS20)
| Duration of Degree | 2 years |
| Credit Load | 414 |
| Minimum credit Load | 360 |
| Maximum credit Load | 432 |
| Maximum MBKs credit Load | 288 |
| ZNQF Level: | 9 |
- PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAMME
The programme is aimed at equipping students with applied competencies in the formulation and implementation of brand management strategies. The programme enables students to develop applied knowledge and competencies in brand management, brand valuation, legal aspects of branding, corporate branding, brand storytelling, brand management analytics and services branding. The programme also promotes critical thinking in a competitive branding environment.
- ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Applicants should normally have a good honours degree (1, 2.1 or 2.2) in Marketing, Business Management, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Insurance and Risk Management, Economics and Entrepreneurship, OR and any other relevant commercial degree.
- PROGRAMME CHARACTERISTICS
Areas of Study: Integrated brand communications, Global brand strategies, digital brand management, neuro-marketing, brand architecture, brand valuation, Branding ethics and sustainability.
Specialist Focus: Strategic Brand Management
Orientation: Developing integrated brand communication plans, developing brand management plans, formulating global brand management strategies, developing competencies in brand development, innovation, industrialization and commercialization.
Distinctive Features: The programme focuses on strategic brand management with a thrust on developing brand management strategies, understanding global branding strategies, application of branding ethics and sustainability in brand strategy formulation and implementation
- CAREER OPPORTUNITIES AND FURTHER EDUCATION
Employability: Graduates for the Masters of Commerce in Strategic Brand Management can pursue careers in brand management, brand marketing communications, brand research, new brand design, business development or lecturing.
Further Studies: The qualification articulates horizontally into related qualifications at ZNQF Level 9 and vertically into a Doctoral marketing or related programmes.
- PROGRAMME DELIVERY
- Teaching and Learning Methods: Lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work, industrial visits, Work-Related learning, research project and innovation/ dissertation,and individual independent study.
- Assessment Methods:Written, practical and oral examinations, in-class tests, assignments, presentations, Work-Related learning report, final year research project report.
- LEARNING OUTCOMES
A graduate of this programme should be able to:
- Gain abroad understanding of strategic brand management in local and global markets.
- Design, implement and evaluate brand management strategies including digital, global branding, integrated brand communications and service brand management strategies.
- To enrich knowledge on brand architecture, brand valuation and legal aspects of branding.
- Appreciate brand management as a critical aspect of marketing
- Gain a broad understanding of the strategic role of brands as corporate assets.
- Undertake research in brand development, innovation and commercialisation
- GENERAL PROVISIONS
Refer to Faculty and general regulations.
- PROGRAMME ASSESSMENT
The student is expected to write formal examination at the end of each quarter.
8.1 To be admitted to the examination the candidate must have:
8.1.1 Written all assignments and tests given for the module during the semester.
- 1. 2 Attended compulsory classes.
8.1.3 Participated in prescribed seminars, tutorials and practical classes.
8.1.4 Paid the prescribed fees in accordance with the General Regulations.
8.2 Continuous assessment shall account for 40% of the overall assessment, while the formal examination will account for 60%.
8.3 The aggregate pass mark shall be 50% comprising of final examination mark and continuous assessment mark.
- PROVISION FOR PROGRESSION
A student shall progress automatically from one level to the other provided he is carrying less than 50% of the modules from the previous semester or level.
- FAILURE TO SATISFY EXAMINERS
Refer to general regulations
- GRADING AND DEGREE CLASSIFICATION
Refer to general regulations
- DEGREE WEIGHTING
Refer to faculty regulations
- AWARD OF DEGREE
Refer to general regulations
- PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
Level 1 Semester 1
| Code | Module Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MSBM731 | Integrated Brand Communications | 18 |
| MSBM732 | Corporate Brand Management | 18 |
| MSBM738 | Strategic Quality Management | 18 |
| MSBM734 | Digital Brand Management | 18 |
| MSBM735 | Legal Aspects of Branding | 18 |
Level 1 Semester 2
Quarter 1
| Code | Module Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MSBM736 | Brand Architecture | 18 |
| MSBM737 | Global Brand Management Strategies | 18 |
| MSBM733 | Business Research Methods | 18 |
| MSBM739 | Branding Ethics & Sustainability | 18 |
| MSBM740 | Neuro-Marketing Aspects of Branding | 18 |
| MSBM741 | Brand Innovation and Commercialisation | 18 |
Level 2 Semester 1
| Code | Module Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MSBM833 | Service Branding Strategies | 18 |
| MSBM834 | Nation Branding | 18 |
| MSBM835 | Brand Storytelling | 18 |
| MSBM832 | Brand Management Analytics | 18 |
| MSBM842 | Advanced Corporate Governance and Business Ethics | 18 |
Level 2 Semester 2
| Code | Module Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MSBM836 | Strategic Brand Management | 18 |
| MSBM837 | Dissertation | 90 |
Select one elective:
| Code | Module Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MSBM838 | Brand Design Strategies | 18 |
| MSBM839 | Political Branding Strategies | 18 |
| MSBM840 | Personal Branding Strategies | 18 |
| MSBM841 | Agro-branding Strategies | 18 |
- MODULESYNOPSES
MSBM731 Integrated Marketing Communications
This module introduces students to communication strategies that can be used to position a brand and sustain brand leadership. It focuses on developing integrated brand communications plans, brand communication strategies, development of effective value propositions through the use of advertising, sales promotions, direct marketing, brand packaging and personal selling. It also covers branding techniques such as perceptual mapping, brand repositioning strategies and evaluation of integrated brand communications strategies.
MSBM732 Corporate Brand Management
The module focuses on understanding product brands and corporate brands, the value of corporate brands, characteristics of corporate branding- complexity, interactions with all stakeholders and responsibility, the role of leadership in corporate brand orientation- corporate identity, positioning, corporate design, vision-culture-image alignment model, corporate brand personality, corporate image dimensions, and building a corporate brand-sustainable brand value proposition.
MSBM733 Business Research methods
Introduction to brand management research methodologies, research philosophies and research approaches, primary and secondary research, business research and marketing research, research briefs and research proposals, literature review, research design and research strategy, sampling, research methods, research ethics, qualitative data analysis, quantitative data analysis, and writing up a branding research report.
MSBM734 Digital Brand Management
This module focuses on the application of branding concepts from an online point of view and assists branding personnel to understand branding strategies, challenges and online branded experiences and how best they can be able to distinguish their offering from competition since the internet technologies tend to commoditise brands, formulating brand strategy for an organisation in simulated environments and tracing online global trends in the branding of products and services.
MSBM 735 Legal Aspects of Branding
The module is designed to give a clear understanding of the role of law and its impact on the branding. It covers the national and international legal branding framework, brand protection; intellectual property law, copy right law, trade mark, patents, brand protection strategy and protecting, legal remedies, intellectual property, and legal aspects of brand registration.
MSBM736 Brand Architecture
This module focuses on developing a brand architecture strategy, defining brand potential, identifying brand extension, branding new products and services, brand hierarchies, designing a brand hierarchy, brand architecture guidelines, brand architecture models-branded house (monolithic brand architecture), house of brands, endorsed architecture, hybrid architecture) and the benefits of a strong brands architecture.
MSBM737 Global Brand Management Strategies
This module focuses on developing effective strategies for global brands. It covers global brand development strategies, positioning global brands, global brand equity, sustaining global brand leadership, global brand market entry strategies-franchising and foreign direct investment, global brand strategies-standardisation, customisation, thinking-global-act local and global customer-based brand equity. The module also analysis the philosophies and competitive profiles of leading global brands.
MSBM738 Strategic Quality Management
The module focuses on quality management as a strategy of creating and sustaining brand leadership. The module is a blend of both the theoretical framework and the practical component. The theoretical framework covers the evolution of the total quality management (TQM), TQM Gurus and their quality philosophies, TQM best practices, quality costing, TQM as a change programme, comparison between TQM and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) as well as strategies for continuous improvement.
MSBM739 Branding Ethics & Sustainability
This module equips students with knowledge, strategies and tactical plans to implement in order to influence the perception of the brand as being good or bad, ethical or unethical. Ethical brands are conscious of the societal values, laws and all living beings. This module also covers the role of an ethical brand in creating value addition for the organisation, customers, stakeholders and ethical branding realities across different industries are also examined. The role of sustainability metrics and green marketing is also covered.
MSBM740 Neuro-Marketing Aspects of Branding
The module will help students to understand psychology and neuroscience in order to accurately predict consumer behaviour. This module equips students with knowledge of neuro-marketing tools as applied across industry sectors at all stages of the brand journey with a focus on knowledge of the application of psychological and neuroscientific techniques at all stages of the brand journey such as attention and consciousness, sensory neuro-marketing, emotions & feelings, wanting & liking, learning & memory.
MSBM741 Brand Innovation and Commercialisation
This course examines the importance of brand innovation and commercialisation to the achievement of an organization’s objectives. Areas covered include new brand development process, strategic opportunity identification, how to generate new brand concepts and ideas, mapping customer perceptions, segmentation, product positioning, forecasting market demand, brand design, market entry strategies, value creation, technology and the new brand development and commercialisation process.
MSBM842 Advanced Corporate Governance and Business Ethics
The student is prepared for a leadership role within organisations through an exploration of the importance of social and moral values in business and management. This exploration takes place at an organisational level, where the critical role of the Board of Directors in shaping and defining corporate conduct is examined. At an individual level, the module examines the dilemmas marketers face in seeking to balance and integrate the often-conflicting demands of personal and professional life.
MSBM832 Brand Management Analytics
The module provides students with comprehensive knowledge of business Intelligence techniques that can be used to leverage brand performance. It focuses on brand data analysis, brand decision support systems, competitor data analytics and intelligence, data mining, web mining, web analytics, social analytics, and social network analysis. It also covers ethical and legal issues of brand management analytics.
MSBM833 Service Branding Strategies
The module aims to provide students with a sound knowledge of service branding, characteristics of services (intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability) and how to apply them to service branding; Understanding of service brands as they differ from product brands and how to manage the difference; Critical service branding models important in building successful service brands, Service brand strategies, building Service Brand Equity and customer experience management.
MSBM834 Nation Branding
The focus of the module is to help students understand that Nations are brands and as such their unique endowments when properly packaged create differential and comparative advantages. Theories that support nation branding and strategies to achieve this will be covered. Other areas to be covered include relevance, scope and evolution of nation branding; tourism branding, nation -brand image, identity, positioning and equity; nation branding and the country of origin (COO) effect; ethical imperatives in nation branding and challenges of nation branding.
MSBM835 Brand Storytelling
This module aims to equip students with skills to position product or service brands using attitudinal and emotional states such as cognitive, affective and conative, brand anticipated feelings-utilitarian, hedonism. It also covers brand engagement, brand visibility, brand semiotics, brand culture, and digital brand storytelling and brand e-portfolios.
MSBM836 Strategic Brand Management
This module focuses on developing and managing brand strategies. It covers brand management, customer-based brand equity; brand positioning and brand values; selecting brand elements for brand equity building; designing marketing strategies to build brand equity; application of marketing communications in building brand equity; leveraging secondary brand knowledge to build brand equity; designing a brand equity measure and management framework and measuring sources of brand equity.
MSBM837 Dissertation
Dissertation clinic; students’ research topics, generation and submission of research proposal; allocation of research project supervisors, implementing the research project and interacting and role of supervisors, writing up, editing and submitting the final project report—dissertation.
MSBM838 Brand Design Strategies
This module applies the theories of strategic brand management and communication to answer real-life client briefs. The focus is on the development and crafting of an innovative brand building strategy and plan that will address complex business and societal challenges. Students will implement brand research to investigate situational, environmental and commercial scenarios.
MSBM839 Political Branding Strategies
This module focus on positioning a political organisation or individual in order to create a favourable feeling, impression, association or image. The module covers principles of political branding, political brand identity and image, segmentation and political brand development, political branding strategies, political brand equity, interactivity and branding, use of political brand satire and innuendos.
MSBM840 Personal Branding Strategies
This module equips students with skills to market themselves, their work, their skills, and their careers. The aspects covered in the module include: importance of a personal brand, developing a personal brand, maximising personal impact, opinion leadership, ethics and credibility, brand style assessment and business etiquette.
MSBM841 Agro-Branding Strategies
The objective of this module is to develop students understanding of skills required to successfully manage the marketing and branding of agricultural produce. The module equips students with the branding concepts, branding of agricultural commodities and products, structuring of brand mix elements such as brand design, brand image, brand architecture and brand evaluation.