Masters BD&S

Developing Strategic Models and Concepts for a Global Brand. Weaving the process of brand and design strategy to gain mastery of design proposals articulating the vision through applying a strategic brand and design framework with concrete examples demonstrating the understanding of branding and innovation strategy principles through the execution of the vision. Brand Building - Analyze internal and external audits, competition, features and benefits analysis. Analyze and synthesize research materials. Brand Strategy - Review business objectives of brand plan determine strategic options. Brand Development - Design the identity and application to the 360 brand touchpoint. Execute brand and marketing integration.

Students will participate in shared graduate seminars, guest speaker series, workshops, and professional mentorship.

The Power of Brand Leadership. Learning through the eyes of Chief Creative Officers and the lessons they learned through hard fought business and design strategies that worked and or failed. Manage brands with internal and external partners and stakeholders at a global level. Innovate design led organizations. Process methodologies & research. Practice gut/intuitive methodology. Encourage fearless leadership. Analyze case studies (CCO led).

Articulating the Brand Message through Words & Visual. Writing and visualizing effectively for your brand's audience to help clarify the positioning, the message, and personality. Tie the messaging strategy with the brand. Write content for traditional and non-traditional media for a global market. Think like a screenwriter in storytelling for internal and external audience. Name methodologies, naming systems, products, and services to communicate the brand promise and message. Understand different components of an effective visual and verbal communications strategy.

Learning from the pioneers of communication design: Past, Present and Future. Understand the history of branding by learning from the pioneers of communication design. Learn of the origin of branding: Ancient Greece to 18th century porcelain. Understand the rise of identity and brand communication in the first and second industrial revolutions. Understand European modernism and branding. Understand American corporate identity 1940-1980. Learn of the rise of the "personal" brand with social media.

Understanding the use of Observations, Insights, and Opportunities. Exploring various models of research into human behaviors, trends, and societal shifts in defining viable strategies. Measure and evaluate information. Conduct primary and secondary research. Analyze and synthesize the findings of the brand. Measure effectiveness and insights. Evaluate consumer and audience insights. Observe consumer journeys. Articulate your research through design. Create persuasive and compelling presentations in multiple formats.

The Business of Branding. Why one cannot exist without the other and how to reinforce the financial implications of executing on plan. Examine key business drivers, consumer desire, rational vs. emotional benefits and the bottom line. Evaluate the importance of HR, IT, Marketing, Sales, Operations and R&D. Leverage internal business teams to effectively work with key stakeholders. Influence and persuade. Sell an idea effectively to key stakeholders that affects change and shows a financial impact. Track design business implications to build credibility as a design leader. Evaluate a business problem and identify appropriate analytic techniques to apply. Demonstrate use of tools for visualizing data from the analysis techniques learned in the course.

Global Branding Strategies. Understanding cultural context in local, regional, and global markets. Understand the cultural landscape. Explore local and regional community influences. Understand cultural meaning of brands. Manage strategies for social, political, environmental issues. Design and execute on findings.

Students will participate in shared graduate seminars, guest speaker series, workshops, and professional mentorship.

Brand Leadership. Analyzing internal and external brand alignment for global business initiatives of products and services along with identifying common leadership and managerial challenges throughout organizational life cycle (pre-launch to maturity). Align internal and external integration strategies. Understand global brand portfolio. Analyze global brand. Manage not invented here strategies. Explore corporate and Startup thinking. Explore team formation, development and growth.

Influence and Create the Culture for Brand, Purpose, and Meaning within the Organization. Developing brand rollout systems and the onboarding of individuals, teams, and external partners. Create simple systems through use of technologies that non creatives can follow and implement the brand culture. Fixed, Flexible and Free - Work with and inspire creative innovations within the organization and its partners. Explore types of systems that can be utilized for effective use. Brand Governance - Build and leverage brand ambassadors/team for guidance. Explore AI brand systems.

Consumer Insights, Society and Tribes. Planning research projects, data collection, and analysis of individuals, groups, and mass behaviors. Leverage consumer psychology and messaging. Analyze strategic insights of consumers and their behaviors. Evaluate consumer understanding and insights about individual user journeys & societal shifts. Create insight documents to build personas and customer briefs. Understand local, regional and global consumer behavior.

How will brands live in future landscapes and how might we communicate in this space? Creating transmedia brand tactics and strategies for new platforms, societal, and technological shifts. Understand brand communications and consumer touchpoints platforms in a transmedia world. Explore digital landscape and its impact on brands. Analyze big data, algorithms, and machine learning. Understand social media content and brand influencers. Analyze augmented and virtual reality experience. Design with and for AI systems - how might this change the industry and how to leverage. Discuss - could we, should we and why implications for good or evil.

Students will participate in shared graduate seminars, guest speaker series, workshops and professional mentorship.

Execute a Global Brand Initiative. Creating a high level presentation of deliverables articulating the vision through the application of a strategic brand and design framework with concrete examples demonstrating the understanding of branding and innovation strategy principles through execution of vision. This project may be self-initiated or paired with an external project or organization. Virtual presentation space. Presentation deck. Research models. Insights and opportunities. Brand strategy. Design strategy. Strategic roadmap. Leadership plan. Management and roll out plan. Design solutions.