MSc in Strategic Brand Management

Branding has evolved from being viewed as a luxury to being mission-critical for many businesses, organizations and government departments. A successful and well-managed brand is key to standing out in a crowded marketplace, with many of the world’s most successful companies also boasting successful brands. Equally, the responsibilities of branding professionals extend far beyond traditional brand management and messaging; they are the first to respond to many questions and challenges that businesses face, especially during this time of unprecedented global change. Branding is central to the strategic management and advancement of any business or nongovernmental organization. AUP’s MSc in Strategic Brand Management is designed to prepare you for this world of branding.

Branding is critical to decision-making processes for businesses, organizations and NGOs. The MSc in Strategic Brand Management at The American University of Paris prepares you to influence your employer’s strategic direction in roles such as CMO, brand consultant, managing partner – or even founder.

You’ll learn to use branding as a core strategic tool, placing it at the center of business development processes and using it to drive growth. You’ll also learn to balance these management strategies with the evolving economic and ethical demands of consumers, while critically analyzing how brands engage with diverse issues such as global inequality, sustainability and racial justice.

Through workshops and masterclasses led by a range of branding sector professionals, you’ll gain first-hand insight in using branding as a tool for business development, data management and corporate identity. Case studies extend beyond products and services, covering the brand identities of cities or nations and branding for international development.

Topics include:

• Branding: You will receive tools and strategies for building, measuring and managing a brand, with a focus on both direct and indirect measures of brand equity.
• Management: You will be able to apply management theory to real-life contexts and develop conditions to complex management problems.
• Business Development: You will be equipped with the theory needed to use branding to advance business growth and development.
• Marketing: You will develop an understanding of the current challenges facing marketers around the globe and be able to create a global marketing strategy that addresses such issues.
• Strategy: You will examine strategy in terms of cultural, international and organizational elements given specific sustainability and mission-based frameworks.

The post-Covid era will be an unprecedented global exercise in restructuring businesses to face new challenges. Branding will play a key role in responding to changing consumer demand and meeting the needs of professionals reassessing their career plans. The MSc in Strategic Brand Management puts you at the center of a world redefining itself to appeal to the widest possible audience. It provides you with the tools you will need to identify new experiences and succeed in an international business-oriented environment where branding is at the heart of everything.

• Branding Practicum: The practicum allows you to apply strategic branding principles to the creation of an international brand in a category of your choice. You will analyze your chosen industry, create a brand proposition and identity from scratch, and develop a global marketing strategy to launch your brand on international markets.
• Place Branding: Focusing on place branding’s role in destination marketing, civil society development, public and political diplomacy and social and environmental sustainability, the place branding course includes a Cultural Program study trip to Iceland, where you will meet local brand managers and place promoters while studying their campaigns.

Four Reasons to Study Brand Management in a Liberal Arts Context

1. A differentiating skillset: A liberal arts education provides you with invaluable soft skills that differentiate you from your competitors in key areas such as collaborating across departments, communicating in a team setting, offering creative solutions, challenging conventional thinking and adapting to changes in an industry.
2. A problem-solver mindset: The liberal arts also expose you to a myriad of academic disciplines and intellectual methods – among others management, communications, branding, business, data science – which enable a critical thinking mindset leading to problem solving, personal growth and social progress.
3. Lasting connections: Your professors get to know your strengths, challenges and passions. They provide mentorship in a way faculty at larger institutions can’t always offer due to the sheer volume of students.
4. An environment conducive to learning: Class sizes of 15 students, rather than massive lecture halls of over 200 peers, mean you will benefit from an intimate, interactive teaching environment.

The program provides a core of branding, marketing, business and management courses that focus on providing you with the theoretical base and practical application needed to lead today’s global brands. With this core knowledge you will progress onto three modules and two electives that will help you apply what you’ve learned in practical contexts and further deepen your understanding of strategic brand management. Electives include subjects such as human resources, sustainability management and the business of fashion. In addition, you will complete an internship or thesis on a topic of interest that you select.

Core Courses: 

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Learning Outcomes: Brand-Oriented Solutions to Strategic Problems

The program will provide you with skills and perspectives relevant to a brand management role in a wide range of companies and organizations operating in local or global markets:

• You will demonstrate critical thinking and the application of core competencies in business decisions in a global environment.
• You will obtain a global perspective and be able to evaluate brand opportunities and challenges in the ever‐changing context of an internationally operated business.
• You will be able to work in multicultural teams and demonstrate cross‐cultural sensitivity.
• You will learn to communicate convincingly about brands based on data and conceptual frameworks, both in writing and orally.
• You will learn how to analyze organizational strategy and its implementation particularly in relation to branding.
• You will be able to evaluate major branding concepts and apply strategic analysis techniques.
• You will be able to use branding to develop solutions to complex management problems.
• You will be able to undertake a branding audit and develop rebranding plans and brand implementation.

Paris is itself a brand. The narrative surrounding the City of Light draws over 30 million tourists a year. It’s not only museums and monuments that draw the crowds – the Parisian brand is cultural and creative, with companies in fashion, gastronomy and the arts drawing on the city’s prestige. Large-scale events, from Paris Fashion Week to the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics, add to the ample opportunities to witness brand management in action.

Paris is also being rebranded as more accessible, sustainable and forward-thinking. Not only will you study strategic brand management, you’ll see its varied impacts throughout daily life – as an ever-changing city adapts its image to the wants and needs of its citizens.

Paris is also a professional center of innovation for both corporate and institutional branding – as much a hub for NGOs and international organizations as it is for innovative startups. President Macron’s commitment to French startup culture is backed by a pledge of 7 billion euros. Throughout the program, you’ll have multiple chances to build a professional network – both in Paris and internationally.

Are you eager to work in an international team, seeking out new professional experiences within your field while putting your skills and expertise to good use? AUP’s MSc in Strategic Brand Management focuses on the techniques necessary to establish yourself in an international career. You’ll learn how to translate creative thinking into concrete strategies for growing a business, organizing teams and recruiting the best employees, equipping you for roles such as:

• Chief Marketing Officer
• Brand Consultant
• Advertising Executive
• Managing Partner
• Entrepreneur
• Communications Officer

Over 15% of all AUP alumni work in fields related to the global branding industry.