Course choices
Brands are assets and managing them requires a diverse set of skills and an understanding of how brand strategy most effectively drives revenue growth. Many organizational elements beyond marketing impact how your stakeholders view your brand. Key elements to build a strong brand include:
- Understanding the dynamics and motivations of all stakeholders, both internal and external, and knowing how to influence them.
- Analyzing the marketplace and differentiating your brand from its competitors.
- Communicating a clear brand promise and delivering on it.
- Creating consistent communications across all customer touchpoints that demonstrate both the functional and emotional benefits of your brand.
- Developing innovative products, services, and communications that drive brand strength.
- Using data and analytics to determine marketing and communications return on investment.
- Managing all the experiences consumers have with your brand -- advertising, consideration, purchase, use -- and how your supply chain, operations, and ESG structures impact those experiences.
We believe that courses from a range of departments (Marketing, Management, Operations, and more) will provide you knowledge and experience in these areas and help you build the necessary skills to achieve success in the field of brand, marketing and communications.
Please visit the Course Catalog to explore the full range of available courses.
Courses directly supported by the Brand Center
- Marketing Aesthetics (MBA) - Prof. Bernd Schmitt and Pauline Brown
- Branding in the Arts (MBA) - Prof. Bernd Schmitt
- Managing Brands, Identities, and Experiences (EMBA) - Prof. Bernd Schmitt
Marketing Association of Columbia
The Center collaborates on events and content with the MBA student Marketing Association of Columbia (MAC) club. MAC is dedicated to providing the recruiting, networking and educational resources necessary for students to successfully pursue careers in marketing. With over 200 members whose interests include brand management, healthcare, consulting and everything in between, the Marketing Association of Columbia exposes our members to all areas of marketing through speaker events, panels, alumni networking and our annual conference. In addition to being located in New York City — the marketing capital of the world — Marketing Association of Columbia members have unique access to leading practitioners from all facets of the field.
Marketing Innovation Case Competition
The Marketing Innovation Case Competition is an annual event produced each spring by Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership, in collaboration with the Marketing Association of Columbia (MAC).
Dozens of MBA students from Columbia Business School participate in the task to develop an innovative business and brand strategy by combining the seemingly incompatible. This technique, devised by Prof. Bernd Schmitt, stimulates creative thinking by requiring participants to “combine one concept with another seemingly incompatible concept—for example, a well-known brand with a seemingly incompatible social phenomenon or lifestyle trend.”
Student Projects
The Center is pleased to connect to, and work with, current MBA and EMBA students at the school.
Students can get directly involved with the Center in a range of ways, from assisting in our conferences and events, to participating in our Marketing Innovation Case Competition, to developing a brand-focused research paper.