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COMM521: Branding Strategy and Communication

Module Handbook 2025

Module Description

Branding is pervasive in society as everything has become brandable through the deployment of Public Relations (PR), Advertising and Marketing. Branding practises originated in the business and political worlds, but in more recent years gained prominence within other spheres of society, colonising seemingly every aspect of our socio-cultural lives. Communicating a positive image and building a good reputation have become key objectives not only for global private corporations selling products, but also for countries, cities, regions and even neighbourhoods (place branding); public, cultural and religious institutions (corporate branding); and individual micro-celebrities (self-branding).

The module examines the complex process of brand management from the definition of a brand and branding strategy to the elaboration of a brand narrative, taking into account the increasingly digitised media landscape and the participatory, two-way communication context where organisations operate.

In the course, we seek to better understand how identity, public opinion, reputation, status and branding are negotiated at the intersection between top-down corporate communication and more grassroots or networked forms of expression. What does it mean to conceive of brand messages not as a monologue where brands speak to their audiences, but rather a dialogue where consumers often speak back to brands? Our goal is to consider a growing body of literature that looks at the nature of consumption and storytelling within a networked culture in order to identify various roles of brands in consumer society.

We will consider how academics and professionals have analysed the ways in which brand messages are appropriated, reshaped, re-contextualised and re-directed by a range of different groups for their own purposes. The module combines insights from business studies, social psychology, anthropology and cultural studies, introducing students to branding from a critical strategic communication perspective, focusing on power struggles and dialogic relations.

The module considers how important it is to understand the politics and cultures of PR, Advertising and Marketing that underpin some of the branding efforts, but also the cultures of fandom and audiences. Furthermore, the module draws on a range of case studies to address the rich and diverse set of branding practises across, corporate, public, political, civil society and charitable sectors in a globalised world. It aims to help students further both their analytical and empirical skills to be able to assess critically promotional texts and images, as well as to be able to produce them. However, emphasis is placed on strategic critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The first part of the module is dedicated to the history of branding and introduces key academic theories/concepts on branding and promotional cultures, which help understand the key issues underlying branding strategy and communication.

This is followed by a range of case studies to discuss the ways in which brands are co-produced. The case studies include nation branding, city branding, branding activism, amongst others. Besides offering students key concepts, theories and perspectives to think about branding communication in analytical and practical terms, through the course you will critically reflect on key issues of environmental and social justice, considering the ethical implication of branding practises.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students will typically be able to demonstrate:

·         An advanced understanding of the main theories underlying branding management and communication.

·         An advanced critical knowledge of key issues and debates relating to the societal and ethical implications of branding practises.

·         An awareness of the branding landscape (the nature of branding and its practises), including, the differences and similarities between PR, marketing and advertising.

·         Familiarity with a wide range of contexts and applications of branding communication (e.g. place branding).

·         Ability to advise on how an organisation can develop a branding communication strategy and produce brand analysis.

Learning Objectives

The aims of the lecturer throughout this module are to:

·         Provide students with fundamental knowledge of theories and concepts in strategic communication underlying branding strategy formulation and implementation.

·         Introduce students to the different contexts and areas of applications of branding, (e.g. place branding and cultural event promotion).

·         Teach students how to analyse a brand strategy and translate it into a communication strategy.

·         Offer students the opportunity to develop a project of branding strategy design.

General Skills

Students will develop these general skills:

·         Commercial and customer awareness.

·         Communication skills: listening and questioning whilst respecting others, contributing to discussions, communicating in specialist language, influencing others through presentations.

·         Problem solving, critical thinking and creativity to analyse facts and situations, considering these to develop appropriate solutions.

Workshop Timetable

Teaching is in the format of a 2.5 hour workshop (an interactive class developed through discussion between the teacher and students) each week.

As the point of workshops is to discuss more freely with students, workshops won’t be recorded, so you are expected to attend class and take notes.

Sessions are not always in the same room, so please regularly check your timetable online to access the relevant information: https://timetables.liverpool.ac.uk/

Your lecturer suggests you read the key readings and watch the key documentaries first, before attending the workshops.

Completing the key readings/viewings first will help you to understand the content of the workshops more easily and get the most out of the sessions. The workshops are not substitutes for the required readings and viewings, but complementary to them.

As you read/watch, please consider the questions outlined for each seminar (see below – starting on page 13). You must come prepared to participate in class during workshops and each of you should talk for at least 2 minutes in class. You should be able to answer the session questions, but also say something insightful relating the readings/documentaries to a brand of your choice (particularly the one you have registered for your final assignment).

As you read/watch the key sources, try to think, why are the key materials useful to understand brands and branding? How can I apply this knowledge?

Workshop 1 - Introduction

Introduction to the course and the roles of PR, Marketing and Advertising cultures in the process of branding

Workshop 2 - History

A brief history of branding from pre-modern to postmodern concerns

Workshop 3 - Theory

Consumption, identity, distinction, status, taste, authenticity, reputation, trust, brand communities or tribes, fandom and sub-culture studies

Workshop 4 - Industry

Brand valuation, brand equity, brand identity prism, brand experience, brand biographies, brand strategy, brand narrative and the virtual consumer.

Workshop 5 - Transmedia

New technologies, global flows, virality, re-branding, retro-branding and methods for designing spreadable media campaigns to engage in participatory culture

Workshop 6 - Ethics

Against logos, condemning advertising, promoting social change, de-branding, rumours, culture jamming, clash and critical perspectives.

Workshop 7 - Celebrity

Branding and Celebrity influencers: promoting the self, self-branding and the selfie culture

Workshop 8 - Stereotyping

Branding, representation and stereotyping: promoting ageism, sexism and ethnocentrism?

Workshop 9 - Politics

Branding nations and politics: from the American Dream to China’s Dream as soft-power

Workshop 10 - TBC

TBC

Workshop 11 - TBC

TBC

Assessment

The module is evaluated through a 3,000-word essay (excluding bibliography), which constitutes 100% of your final mark. You should submit your Essay via Canvas under the tab "Assignments", the deadline for it is the 4th of April 2025 at 2pm.

The essay should be 3,000 words. This excludes the bibliography, and a 10% leeway is allowed. You should answer the following question to develop your essay:

Why is a brand successful? Conduct a critical brand analysis for a brand of your choosing.

You will choose your own brand to analyse at the beginning of the module (during the first and second workshop sessions) and cannot change your brand without previous authorisation of the module convenors.

Your essay should include a brand identity prism, an examination of the communication brand positioning against direct competitors, a reflection on brand narratives, tone of voice, as well as the use of archetypes and stereotypes in adverts, considering relevant branding techniques used by the brand in its communication. Utilise at least one specific advertising brand positioning campaign to illustrate and develop your points. In addition, consider weaknesses of the brand's communication strategy (note that this is different from its business strategy or its product shortcomings). Apply the key concepts and the academic required readings of at least two lectures, in order to substantiate your analysis. Overall, discuss your brand in relation to both the academic references from this module and your own independent academic research (not just industry literature or website research).

If you choose an overseas brand (e.g. from China or India), make sure you translate to English all relevant information for the analysis, for instance titles of the campaigns, copy of the advertisements and slogans. Make sure you choose a specific country to anchor your brand analysis and research the brand within a specific geographical context, state this explicitly in your essay.

In this assignment, you cannot use the P's model or SWOT analysis to discuss your brand, instead should focus on the key concepts of this module and analyse the brand communication. Please note that failure to incorporate academic required readings from this module to the essay will result in automatic failure of the assignment, you need to demonstrate engagement with both the required and suggested readings from the module.

In addition, any of the following poor academic practices will also lead to an automatic fail in the assignment:

1) Using copy-pasted materials from past submitted assignments of your own (as this constitutes self-plagiarism)

2) Using other student essays available to you online as resources

3) using ChatGPT or an AI tool to generate any aspect of the assignment

Do consider you can also fail due to poor citation practices and you will incur in a penalty to your final mark if you cite poorly according to the Academic integrity Policy.

Please include a cover sheet where you anonymise your essay submission by only using your student ID number, the course code and course name, the academic year of enrollment, the final word count of your text and include as a title the brand you will analyse. Name your submission file after the brand you will analyse only.

You should submit your Essay via Canvas under the tab "Assignments", the deadline is 4th April 2025 at 2pm. You will choose your own brand to analyse at the beginning of the module (during the first lectures) and cannot change your brand without previous authorisation of the module convenor.

Marking Rubric

Essays will be marked using the following marking criteria: