Brand Communication

Course

The whole world of public relations is currently shot through with transformative change. The word “advertising,” still on the lips of many today, represents a misnomer and, in any event, refers to only one of many communication techniques in a much more complex and specialized milieu. Traditionally sought-after skill sets are being redesigned to meet the far-reaching changes in enterprise, in the market, and in brand-oriented consumption. To meet this demand, UNA – Aziende della Comunicazione Unite and POLI.design have launched the Brand Communication: Designing, Building, and Managing a Brand Specializing Master as a way to enhance the role of the communication consultant, thus establishing common ground between skills that belong to the field of communication and those that belong to the most innovative fields at the Politecnico di Milano. The Specializing Master aims to employ the proper tools to manage the ongoing changes and fill a need to coordinate strategic thinking for the brand, at whose heart lies brand equity.

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Training objectives

The Specializing Master intends to train professionals with coordination skills of communication projects that develop in companies, in relation to strategic areas, in the presence of new technological contexts. The training process will cover all aspects of the communication project and, in particular, will deal with providing participants with all the elements that make it possible to build and manage the brand (brand equity), the true heart of the communication process.

Participants will be placed in communication agencies and companies, in the tasks related to strategic communication processes.

Didactic Plan

The Brand Communication Specializing Master is structured as follows:

• Classroom lessons, whether prerequisite or specialist, are taught by highly qualified faculty from the Politecnico di Milano, from communication enterprises, and from the brand owners. This segment allows students to cut to the quick of communication professionalism by understanding its rationales, techniques, and dynamics. It is the start of the process of organizing and managing communication, i.e. the very subject of the Brand Communication Specializing Master.
• Seminars bring in special witnesses, insiders in the world of communication. Students come into direct contact with the leading players in enterprise communication.
• Project work turns the classroom into a series of ateliers where small groups build communication designs through metadesign analysis and by making a brief. This segment ushers students into the Master design work with actual simulations of marketing campaigns and the concomitant need to optimize the communication mix so goals will be attained. The aim of the project will be to identify the strategic concept of the brand. Groups of students, guided by experts, will compete to create the best marketing campaign.
• Internship that will run for about three months at companies affiliated with ASSOCOM and manufacturers. It enables students to transfer the skills acquired during the Master under the mentoring of experts with long experience as professionals in communication agencies.

Didactic Modules

Area 1: General training (Introduction)
The economic and cultural scenarios of contemporary society are addressed, with a particular focus on the theoretical and practical aspects of communication. The intent of this first part is to arrive at a leveling of the participants’ knowledge, from which to start to face the modules relating to specialist training.

• Forms of communication;
• Creative thinking;
• Branding, brand image, brand equity;
• The brand value;
• Brand reputation;
• New trends in the world of communication;
• From Storytelling to Storybeing: the rise of Purpose-Driven Marketing.

Area 2: Specialized training
The study of the skills necessary to deal with the different roles involved in the strategic communication project of the brand is developed, starting from Marketing, to then move on to the deepening of the advertising and creative processes at the basis of the work in the agency up to the study of the structures and roles that characterize the world of media.

Marketing, communication, society (CSR) (Marketing, Brand, Consumer):

• Communication as a strategic business factor;
• The brand value (brand identity and brand equity);
• The social value of the brand;
• Marketing fundamentals;
• The marketing strategy and plan;
• Marketing data and research: basic strategic research
• Consumer research (Eurisko). Ad hoc marketing research;
• Customer Journey;
• The customer experience as a strategic lever

Advertising and agency processes (Strategy):

• The structure of the communication agency (independent, international, network, partnership);
• The professions of communication;
• Situational analysis and consumer insight;
• The positioning;
• The copy strategy;
• Legal and juridical aspects of communication

Account and strategic planning (Strategy):

• The coordination of the strategic thinking of the brand;
• Role and functions of the account;Role and functions of the strategic planner;
• Work plan and communication strategies;
• Strategic models;
• Strategic planning.

Media:

• Stages of the media process. Investigations on the means. Audience measures and media indicators;
• Advertising investments and Competitive Analysis with Nielsen data;
• Target Analysis with Synoptic (socio-demo variables, consumption, lifestyles, sectoral styles);
• Scenario, planning and post buy of TV, web, radio, press, outdoor;
• New advertising communication vehicles: Facebook and Google;
• Negotiation techniques;
• Strategic media planning;
• Measurement of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on traditional and digital media;
• Programmatic.

Creativity:

• Hints of the history of creativity in communication and schools of creative thought all over the world;
• From the briefing to the campaign concept;
• Approaches to the creative project: deepening of the techniques and tools to accelerate the creative path;
• Creativity and means: each medium has its own language;
• Creativity beyond the means: co-creation, transmedia and new creative trends;
• What creativity looks like, what a campaign looks like.

Production:

• Production company: the figure of the producer;
• Events;
• Branded Entertainment

Empowerment:

• Hints of leadership;
• Team Building;
• Public Speaking;
• The art of the race.

Title Released

Specializing Master Diploma in “Brand Communication: Planning, Building, and Managing a Brand” from the Politecnico di Milano.
The Specializing Master grants 60 CFU, equivalent to 60 ECTS

Employment Opportunities

The exit profile is that of a communication professional, able to coordinate and supervise communication processes. Participants will acquire vision, organization and management skills of complex communication projects, transversal skills and knowledge of the economic dynamics of contemporary markets. They will also refine the ability to grasp trends, fashions, customs, individual and collective behaviors, in a continuous process of learning and transferring the skills acquired. Current market demand tends to identify a professional figure able to dialogue with other professional figures on the entire communication process and, in particular, a figure who: fully knows all the nuances of communication activities, is able to guarantee the achievement of communication objectives, is able to face a process of rationalization without renouncing the emotional aspects of communication, is able to grasp the trends and communication needs that society expresses, is aware of the ethical dimension of communication. Participants will address the different areas of the brand’s strategic construction and communication project, through the study of skills in the various functions: Account, Strategic Planner, and Media Planner.

Account

The account is the person who deals with communicating with the customer, collecting and interpreting their requests, and proposing the agency’s responses to these requests. The information that comes from the client (research, marketing and product data) and that internal to the agency (research, market studies, etc.) are used to draw up a strategic communication plan. The account is configured as the manager of the brand within the agency, and of the communication task towards the client.

Strategic Planner

The strategic planner has the main task of preparing the conceptual and strategic path of communication using the information on the market at his disposal (tastes, trends, evolution of fashions and trends, competitors and targets), summarizing them and making them useful for defining the most suitable position. correct and memorable of the brand, product or company, in the mind of those who have an interest in them. Person of great experience who has knowledge not only of the markets (marketing), but also of the ways in which consumers or people in general behave in the territory and space identified (psychology and sociology of communication).

Media Planner

The Media Planner has the task of defining the methods of distribution of the communication message on the channels. The professional activity is carried out by carrying out a series of analyzes before (definition of a media strategy and media buying), during (monitoring of activities) and after the realization of an advertising campaign (evaluation of results). The media planner will go to work in media centers or advertising dealerships.

Admission

Requirements

The Specializing Master is reserved for candidates in possession of a University Diploma or Laurea V.O., Laurea or Specialistic / Master’s Degree N.O. in Engineering, Architecture, Industrial Design, Economics, humanities or technical-scientific disciplines. Equivalent qualifications will be considered for foreign candidates in the respective academic systems.

The selections will take place in chronological order with respect to the date of receipt of the application, until all available places are exhausted. The selection will be made by the Commission.

Candidates will be able to participate in one of the online presentation / selection days scheduled during the year.

Deadlines

To take part to the selection process, the application form must be completed online within the following deadlines:

• for Italian / foreign citizens with a qualification obtained in Italy within 22 September 2022,
• for Extra U.E. citizens within 22 August 2022.

Price

The cost of the Specializing Master is 13.000 € Exempt from VAT under Article 10 of DPR 633/72. (12.500 € participation fee + 500 € registration fee at Politecnico di Milano).

Faculty

The composition of the teaching staff reflects the excellence of the Politecnico di Milano and the companies associated with UNA, in the strategic and creative areas of communication, management, and media, with nationally and internationally renowned guests and testimonials.

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