Block seminar - Building Conscientious brands: Brand purpose, Sustainability and Innovation (2235.YR.015647.1)
General information
Type: |
OPT |
Curs: |
1 |
Period: |
S semester |
ECTS Credits: |
3 ECTS |
Teaching Staff:
| Group |
Teacher |
Department |
Language |
| Year 1 |
Oriol Iglesias Bedós |
Esade |
ENG |
| Year 1 |
Nicholas Jonathan Ind |
Marketing |
ENG |
Workload distribution
Day 1
Introduction and research methods
Objective:
To understand what sustainability is (and how it differs from CSR), the connections to the UN SDGs and how organizations can use sustainability in a purposeful and way.
To understand the concept of brands with a conscience and how a conscientious approach can be applied
To learn the core theory and practice of using an integrated approach to building brands
To become familiar with the concept and scope of ethnographic and netnographic research and to learn how to conduct these methods.
Short filmed case to be presented in class: Tony's Chocolonely
Day 2
Understanding the customer journey
Objective:
To understand customer journey mapping as a process
To learn about different practices connected to sustainability: circular economy, recycling/upcycling, liquid consumption
Case study: Stella McCartney (student preparation required)
Guest lecture from sustainable brand
Day 3
Becoming a conscientious brand
Objective:
To develop insights into how a conscientious approach can be integrated into the principles and practices of the organization
To learn the role of corporate culture.
To understand how to verify and communicate a conscientious approach.
Short cases to be presented in class: Patagonia, adidas
The morning session will be a lecture. The afternoon will be for group tutorials.
Day 4
Different stakeholders
Objective:
To understand the role that different stakeholders (eg investors; politicians, journalists) play
To understand a conscientious approach works in B2B and other non-consumer contexts.
To understand how leaders can best meet the organizational and societal opportunities and challenges.
Short cases to be presented in class: Danone
Case study: Unilever and Sustainability (student preparation required)
Day 5
Presentations and discussion
Objective:
To present the findings of the group project. To learn from the group projects how to use consumer insights grounded in research to create innovations that deliver sustainable benefits.
Course Learning Objectives
The key learning objectives from the course will be:
- To understand the value of thinking and acting sustainably and meeting the needs of all of an organization's stakeholders
- To understand the way a conscientious approach can be integrated into organisational strategies as a way to build brands
- To understand the role corporate culture and leadership plays in promoting a conscientious orientation
- To learn how to conduct ethnography and netnography as a way of building insights into consumer attitudes and behaviour.
- Upon completing this course, participants will be able to analyse, plan and construct a programme to build a conscientious brand
- Within the sphere of management, students will also be able to develop skills for analysis and planning; problem definition and resolution; preparation, making and implementation of decisions; search for and interpret important data; formulate strategies and work effectively with others.
Methodology
Learning methodology
The course will create an environment based on experiential learning, which will help students to integrate the pedagogic objectives previously presented. The sessions will combine the following learning tools:
- Lectures that will provide the basic theoretical frameworks and additional readings to further develop each of these course topics.
- Case discussions to further discuss and comprehend some of the key topics.
- Guest lecture from an organization with a sustainability focus.
- Assignment: Group project where the students will need to use ethnography and netnography to innovatively reconfigure the customer journey.
- Note. If the course needs to be changed to Online due to COVID-19 restrictions, the lectures will be accompanied by podcasts, films and online workshops. The assignment will remain the same but will rely on netnographic research only (if visits to physical locations are discouraged).
Assessment criteria
- Assignment - The innovation and sustainability challenge (60%). On the last day of the course you will be required to present in groups. The group will receive a grade for the quality of insights and the logic of its recommendations.
- Individual participation in class (40%).Participation will be assessed based not only on quantity, but mostly on the quality of the contributions. In this regard, it is expected that contributions will add value to the class discussion and it will be especially rewarded that they build on the ideas previously shared by your colleagues in moving the discussion forward.
Bibliography
Cases:
Stella McCartney. (2016) Harvard Business School 515075-PDF-ENG
Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through sustainability (2016) Harvard Business School. 916414-PDF-ENG
Book
N. Ind and S. Horlings (eds). (2016) Brands with a Conscience: How to build a sustainable and responsible brand. London: Kogan Page
Academic articles:
R., Banks, and E. Hughes. (2016). The private sector and the SDGs: The need to move beyond ?business as usual'. Sustainable Development, 24(6): 371-382.
F. Bardhi and G. M. Eckhardt. (2017) Liquid Consumption. Journal of Consumer Research. 44(3): 582-597
M. Geissdoerfer, P. Savaget, N.M. Bocken and E.J. Hultink (2017). The Circular Economy-A new sustainability paradigm? Journal of cleaner production, 143: 757-768.
D. Kiron, N. Kruschwitz, M. Reeves, and E. Goh, (2013) "The Benefits of Sustainability-Driven Innovation,? MIT Sloan Management Review 54, no. 2 (winter 2013): 69-73
R. Nidumolu, C.K. Prahalad, and M.R. Rangaswami (2009) Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation. Harvard Business Review 87(9): 56-64
Ethnography
- AIGA (2013). An ethnography premier.
Timetable and sections
| Group |
Teacher |
Department |
| Year 1 |
Oriol Iglesias Bedós |
Esade |
| Year 1 |
Nicholas Jonathan Ind |
Marketing |
Timetable Year 1
From 2023/9/5 to 2023/9/9:
From Tuesday to Friday from 9:30 to 13:30.
Each Saturday from 9:30 to 14:30.
From Tuesday to Thursday from 14:30 to 17:30.
