Brands & Branding by Alan Bradshaw

The MA Marketing consists of four core modules which all students must take plus a series of elective modules which students can choose between. One of the core modules is on the topic Brands & Branding. In this module students are encouraged to consider the subject beyond a notionally short-term, non-intellectual managerialist perspective. The idea is not to teach how to do branding and to give a recipe guide for strategic brand management but rather seeks to develop understanding of brands in terms of what they are, how they function and generate alternative forms of value and sociality and even more broadly still, to explore what it means to live in a world so saturated by brand culture.

The module is student-centred meaning that each student is encouraged to design two separate research projects which reflect their own points of interest in the intersection between brand theory and practice. Hence this module has less specific guidance than might be found elsewhere and expects the student to the engine of their own learning outcomes. To be sure, this is not a passive educational experience but one in which students will be expected to engage constantly via participation in lecture discussions and through developing self-directed readings.

In advance of the class beginning it is important that a degree of shared knowledge will exist therefore I am setting the following preliminary readings. Prospective students should read these texts before the programme begins:

Liz Moor. 2007.  The Rise of Brands. London: Berg Publishers.

Adam Arvidsson. 2005. Brands: Meaning and Value in Media Culture. London: Routledge.

Douglas Holt. 2004. How Brands Become Icons - The Principles of Cultural Branding. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.

Daniel Miller. 209. Stuff. London: Polity.