A Masters in Brands, Communication and Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London is an enriching experience. Firstly through a very rigid and intense academic focus, lecturers are always questioning, debating about topics we will be covering throughout the course. The presentations, the plethora of techniques used to teach this course, have undoubtedly instigated a determination in me to pursue this specific field as a career path.
The course has demonstrated an understanding of the rise, development and common practices of branding referencing authors like Arvidsson, Liz Moor who was our course leader, Celia Lury’s article, Prahlad and Ramasawmy, Wilmott, Lazaratto are my favourite authors. I have learnt how to evaluate a range of perspectives on how branding shapes the economy, society and culture. Also through more practical debates in relation to current topics, I was trained to assess the impact of various political, economic and social developments on the evolution of branding.
This module aims to provide an in-depth examination of key debates and topics in the study of contemporary culture relevant to brands, branding and brand development, from both critical and practical perspectives. The themes covered in this module include issues such as politics and ethics, including issues of transparency, social responsibility, and brand engagement; forms of communication including technological developments in media and mediation; collaboration, classification and brand ‘communities’.
After submitting this fictional brand strategy document, I wanted to focus on how to devise a good communication for a brand strategy; I had to come up with a presentation for a client (fictitious one) but literally understand who was the competitor, do analytical research both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand my audience and employees need for the brand to be embedded in their daily routine. It was carried forward by interviews. Also I was at an advantage since I had a full fledge knowledge of how to use social media campaigning and design methods of innovations in devising creative ethnographic research. In a way, it was a good learning curve for both me, the researcher and the interviewee to be connected rather than using surveys.
Through this report, I have covered key contemporary debates within branding and brand development, and discuss these critically using appropriate evidence and independent reasoning. I have completed all my theoretic knowledge using books, our lecture slides information and understanding to a new, practical project. The satisfaction of initiating a project and take responsibility for seeing it through to completion is an accomplishment in itself for me.
