HISTORY OF BRANDING

Using historical case studies and theoretical contributions, the course aims at providing students with a basic knowledge of the origins and evolution of the concept of brand and the use that firms made of it.
The aim of the course is to offer students theoretical and practical skills allowing them to be able to use the history of the firm to:
1) understand the value of the brand and the way in which firms built their brand;
2) identify successful and unsuccessful brand strategies;
3) Being able to evaluate, build and manage brands

Students will be able to:
1) understand the origins and evolution of the main concepts connected to the history of brand
2) have a fair understanding on how the history of the firm can be used as an instrument for brand management
3) enlist and explain examples and historical case studies on strategies that different firms used to build their brand in different time periods and sectors
4) recognize different branding forms and strategies and the difference between trademark and brand
5) be able to choose the best methods and techniques to give value to different typologies of goods and services and manage brands
6) develop a critical approach to the main theories and studies related to brand management
7) have a fair knowledge of basic qualitative tools for research in history of management and marketing

Good knowledge of the English language - ability to read, understand and summarize scientific articles in English

Detailed syllabus is available on Moodle

Week 1: Brand Management and business history
Heritage marketing and its tools: corporate museums, historical archives and other corporate initiatives.
Heritage Brands and Brands with an heritage

Week 2. When and how brands became assets?
Trademark and Brand
Brands and big business: brands as intangible asset
- Cases: General Motors and Shell UK

Week 3. Global Brands: how they do survive?
Global brands and entrepreneurship

Week 4. Brand and nation branding in history
Nation branding: the case of Danish Modern
The origins of Made in Italy

Week 5. The uses of the past and story telling in brand and heritage marketing
Students' presentations
Wrapping up

Articles and additional material will be available on moodle

Scientific Literature

 Carlo Marco Belfanti, Imitare, copiare e contraffare per competere nell’Europa preindustriale, in M. Belfanti (a cura di), Contraffazione e cambiamento economico. Marche, imprese, consumatori. Egea, 2012.
 Teresa da Silva Lopes and Mark Casson (2007), Entrepreneurship and the Development of Global Brands, Business History Review, 81, 651-680.
 Pierre-Yves Donzé and Ben Wubs (2019), Storytelling and the making of a global luxury fashion brand: Christian Dior, International Journal of Fashion Studies, 6(1):83-102.
 Per H. Hansen, Cobranding Product and Denmark in the US, 1940-1970, in Teresa da Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid (eds.) Trademarks, brands and competitiveness (New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 77-101.
 Michael Heller, Corporate Brand Building. Shell-Mex Ltd in the Interwar period in Teresa da Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid (eds.) Trademarks, brands and competitiveness (New York: Routledge, 2010), 194-212.
 Roland Marchand (1991), The Corporation Nobody Knew: Bruce Barton, Alfred Sloan, and the Founding of the General Motors “Family.” The Business History Review, 65(4), 825–875.
 Valeria Pinchera & Diego Rinallo (2020), The emergence of Italy as a fashion country: Nation branding and collective meaning creation at Florence’s fashion shows (1951–1965), Business History, 62:1, 151-178.
 Matt Urde, S.A. Greyser, John T. Balmer, Corporate Brands with a Heritage, Working Paper No 07/18 July 2007
 Mira Wilkins (1992), The Neglected Intangible Asset: The Influence of the Trade Mark on the Rise of the Modern Corporation, Business History, 34:1, 66-9.
Daniela Pirani (2022): Invented market traditions: The marketing of Italian breakfast (1973–1996), Business History
Riviezzo, Garofano, Napolitano, Corporate Heritage Marketing. Using the Past as a Strategic Asset, Routledge, 2021, pp 1-28 (consigliato tutto)

Work project and presentation (50%)
Written exam (50%)- 1 question, 2 hours, handwriting
Alternatively
Written exam (100%) - 2 questions, 2 hours, handwriting

Frontal lessons - micro teaching\ case studies discusson\ students' presentations and work-groups

Italian

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development