The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning, a program designed for an international audience, turns you into a professional specialist in managing a brand, creating its meanings and commitments, and defining its strategy, based on a rigorous, innovative and creative approach.
The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning provides you with the methodologies and tools necessary to strategically think about the brand: define the meaning, the strategy, and the plan for the brand for each of its contact points.
Starting from concepts such as brand purpose, value proposition, brand meaning, archetypes, brand identity, strategic innovation, or social responsibility, you will learn to plan the creation and development of a brand strategically, to create a world of meaning, to take care of its reputation and to ensure its impact. Throughout the course, you will learn how to give brands a defined identity, ensure that their differential values are recognized and transmitted (Brand Meaning Creation), how to apply innovative concepts to keep it current and unique (Brand Strategy & Innovation), or how to make it live in harmony with its environment by applying principles of social responsibility.
All this under the leadership of professors and professionals in marketing, strategic planning, creativity, and brand identity and with the help of different partner companies that allow participants to work on real brand and communication problems.
Why choose this program
Unique in its speciality
First program in Spain that treats the brand from a 3.0 point of view and allows you to understand it from its tangible and intangible aspects (innovation and emotional dimension), as well as from its key construction processes (vision, personality, storytelling, analysis, and strategy).
100% professionalizing program
All the professors in the program are highly regarded professionals in the sector who work for large clients. Professionals in marketing, strategic planning, creativity, and brand identity provide both the agency's vision and that of the advertiser.
Project based on real clients
The program has the collaboration of important brands that allow participants to develop their master's project around real brand and communication problems.
In demand professional profile
There is a growing demand in companies, advertising agencies, and consultancies, for specialists in strategy and brand management. Strategic brand planning has become a necessary speciality to generate products, content, and messages that respond effectively to rapidly changing needs.
Who is it for?
The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning is aimed at graduates in business administration and management, advertising, communication, marketing, design, sociology, social psychology, and market research, as well as experienced professionals who wish to receive complete training in the creation and planning of brands.
Curriculum
The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning is structured into 4 modules and a postgraduate project that is developed throughout the course.
Brand diagnosis
Ideation and conceptualization of the brand
Brand strategy
Brand manifesto
Project
Project applied to the identity, innovation, and reputation of a brand based on a real client.
Note on the Curriculum
Complementary activities
The Postgraduate in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning also includes the possibility of participating in practical activities and activities for personal and professional growth such as:
- UPF-BSM Inside: is a group of interdisciplinary subjects (applied data, communication, creativity, innovation and project management, sustainability and leadership among others) that, if you take this program, you can access at no additional cost. They are 100% online and you can take them throughout the academic year at your own pace, as they have been designed as self-study subjects.
This module extends throughout the academic year and is made up of 3 areas of knowledge that constitute the identity traits of the UPF-BSM: Communication; Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and Planetary Well-being and Humanities.
All the subjects of the BSM Inside module are 100% online and have been designed as self-learning subjects: from the first day of the subject until the end of the term you will have all the teaching materials available on the eCampus and you can work with the material and the different activities that it contains at your own pace, according to your availability and in a self-organized way.
Qualification obtained
Once you have passed the program, you will receive the following electronic degree certification (eTítulo©): Specialization diploma in Strategic Planning and Brand Meaning, awarded by Pompeu Fabra University. The eTítulo© will be issued in Catalan, Spanish and English.
The electronic degree certification (eTítulo© ) is an authentic digital degree, issued in pdf format and electronically signed, with the same legal validity as if it were in paper format.
Faculty
The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning is a professionalizing program. For this, it counts on professors and professionals from marketing, strategic planning, creativity, and brand identity of great prestige in their various disciplines who contribute both the view of the agency and that of the advertiser.
Academic directors
Coordinator
Faculty
Collaborating faculty
- Monica Carbonell
Coordinator
Director at Sodabites (innovation agency focused on people and branding).
Bachelor in Communication Sciences from Ramon Llull University.
He has worked as a strategist at Added Value and as a copywriter at DDB. - Gem Romero
Coordinator
Head of Strategy at LOLA MullenLowe Barcelona.
He was strategic creative director of Ogilvy&Mather, general strategic director of TAPSA Madrid, associate director of Added Value PLANNERS and Strategic Planner in SCPF. He is a founding partner of APG Spain where he used to serve as President. He has sat on the jury of El Sol (Festival Iberoamericano de la Comunicación Publicitaria), the Premios Eficacia and la Lluna in València. - José Luis Arbeo
Branding and Content Director at BBVA. - Carmen Bustos
General Director at Soulsight Service Design. - Monica Carbonell
Director at Sodabites (innovation agency focused on people and branding).
Bachelor in Communication Sciences from Ramon Llull University.
He has worked as a strategist at Added Value and as a copywriter at DDB. - Oriol Costa
Freelance expert in content creation.
Bachelor in History from the University of Barcelona and Bachelor in Journalism from Pompeu Fabra University. - Mercè Elias
General Director at Collaborabrands Barcelona. - Carlos Gonzalo
SEO SEM Small Data Analyst.
PhD in Social Communication from Pompeu Fabra University. - Alfonso González Callejas
Head of Strategic Planning at Arena Media. - Guillem Graell
Marketing Director at FCBarcelona. - Glòria Muñoz
Director of e-commerce at Barça Licencing & Merchandising at FC Barcelona.
Master in Digital and Direct Marketing from UPF Barcelona School of Management. - Alex Orlowsky
Director at WOM: Water On Mars. - Alex Pallete
Chief Strategy Officer at Picnic. - Gem Romero
Head of Strategy at LOLA MullenLowe Barcelona.
He was strategic creative director of Ogilvy&Mather, general strategic director of TAPSA Madrid, associate director of Added Value PLANNERS and Strategic Planner in SCPF. He is a founding partner of APG Spain where he used to serve as President. He has sat on the jury of El Sol (Festival Iberoamericano de la Comunicación Publicitaria), the Premios Eficacia and la Lluna in València. - Agnès Rovira
Founder of DBRAND DREAMS (www.dbrandreams.com).
Master in Marketing from the University of London. - Mireia San Nicolás
Directora at GB Foods Africa. - Toni Seijo
Advertising Research Director at IPSOS. - Nuria Serrano
Head of Strategy at VCCP Spain. - Guiomar Todó
Head of Campaigns & Fundraising at Barça Foundation. - Inmaculada Urrea
Founding member and branding consultant at SOFOCO Media.
Bachelor in Contemporary History and Advanced Studies Diploma in History of Art from the University of Barcelona. PhD in Communication in branding from Pompeu Fabra University. - Pablo Vázquez Cagiao
General Director at Collaborabrands Madrid.
Methodology
The methodology of the program aims to be eminently participatory and oriented to professional practice. For each of the course modules, the following is considered:
- Presentations of key concepts and conceptual frameworks by the teacher
- Discussion about the content of readings
- Class discussion on practical cases
- Resolution of practical cases
The defined concepts will be put into practice by defining a brand and communication strategy project on a specific case that will be worked on throughout the course.
100% practical and professionalizing
Participative sessions with a teaching staff made up of professionals with wide experience in large clients and who contribute both the view of the agency and that of the advertiser.
Partner brands
The postgraduate project is developed on a real brand problem presented by the different companies that partner the program. Participants solve real brand strategies on these problems. Companies change every year and one of them is always a foundation or NGO.
Group project
The postgraduate project is developed in groups of four participants proposed by the management of the program. In this way, learning and implementation just like in the professional world is guaranteed.
Workshop classes and tutorials
Throughout each module, the participants have two workshop classes to advance their project.
In turn, the work groups will have a tutor to prepare the project. At the end of each module, the groups will have a minimum of two personalized tutorials.
Evaluation
Work for a brand is the fundamental piece of postgraduate evaluation. Each group must make a brand diagnosis, a strategic brand plan, and a Brand Manifesto.
Peer to peer evaluation, attendance of the workshops, evaluation by the tutors and evaluable exercises will increase or decrease the individual grade.
Tools
The On-Campus&Live methodology allows you to follow the program in person and also remotely.
In this modality, two stable subgroups are opened that will coexist throughout the course: one face-to-face and the other with 100% remote students. The remote students (a maximum of 15 places per course) will follow the program in a synchronous way with the face-to-face students. That is, they will share the same school calendar and schedule as the face-to-face students.
Project-oriented learning and the combination of lectures and active methodologies such as case studies, flipped learning, solving real problems, and professional simulations allow the student to connect theory and practice, acquire advanced skills, and achieve learning which is transferable to the job. The face-to-face modality is enriched with elements of online programs (virtual learning environment, multimedia resources, among others) so that the learning experience of the two subgroups is equally satisfactory.
You will have:
- Master's or postgraduate work to learn by doing
- A personal mentor to monitor your Master's Final Project (TFM) or Postgraduate Final Project (TFP)
- Digital resources to achieve transversal skills
- Interdisciplinary activities and workshops
- Digital resources and audiovisual blocks for online learning
- Active methodologies for transferable learning
Professional Future
The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning brings together participants from all over the world who want to turn their professional careers towards the world of brands and become experts in strategic planning and brand innovation. It prepares you to work on the strategic planning of a brand in a company who wants to advertise, or to help the company with its brand strategy from a brand or advertising agency.
It offers a unique training under the leadership of recognized professionals that enables you to work as Account Planner in advertising or brand agencies, or perform strategic marketing functions in any company.
Student profile
With more than 10 years of experience, the postgraduate course brings together participants from all over the world with training and experience in Business Administration, advertising, communication, marketing, or design. The program also has profiles from other backgrounds, such as sociologists and psychologists, interested in how different social and cultural movements affect brands, as well as entrepreneurial profiles.
Average age
Average professional experience
International participants
Career opportunities
The Postgraduate Course in Strategic Brand Planning and Brand Meaning provides the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to practice as an Account Planner in advertising or brand agencies, or perform strategic marketing functions in any company.
Includes the option of doing extracurricular internships.
- Brand manager
- Director of communication
- Brand director
- Director of brand and innovation projects
- Director or head of strategic marketing
Both in companies (brand development, communication, or marketing departments), and in brand consultancies and advertising agencies (strategic brand planning and communication departments).