About the program
Welcome to the Consumer Culture Lab’s first executive program on cultural branding, where we use a cultural lens to understand, define and design branding elements, with the purpose of uncovering nuances that can help build strong brands. The program is situated at the intersection between culture and branding, to effectively build marketing strategies and identify opportunities present in the nuanced yet complex cultural context of India.
Using a multidisciplinary approach, the program endeavours to equip industry practitioners with a deeper understanding of not only managing India’s multiculturalism but also developing great brands by utilising cultural undercurrents. Thus, the program would help in understanding a powerful way to build strong brands for the Indian Market. Moreover, it will also offer different approaches to conduct cultural analyses, to understand, uncover, and utilize cultural insights. The program offers a fine balance of academic rigor and business relevance, through multiple pedagogical approaches to create a space for collaborative learning and networking.
Objectives
The program emphasizes the importance of a cultural approach to branding in specific (and marketing in general), and its relevance in contemporary times, beyond the traditional and mainstream approaches to branding. The program objectives are to:
- Introduce the approach of cultural branding, and how it situates with respect to mainstream branding approaches.
- Enable participants with analyses and decision-making skills for crafting cultural brands.
- Acquaint participants with relevant research methods for generating deeper cultural insights.
- Provide a holistic understanding about the ‘cultural perspective’ of seeing the Indian market (which can be especially relevant for international stakeholders looking to explore the market).
Program duration:
This open program is designed as a 3-day residential program to be conducted on the IIM Udaipur campus. Participants are required to travel to Udaipur to attend the program in person. Since it is a residential program, participants will be accommodated in a suitable hotel on a single occupancy basis.
Program content:
The program would cover the following broad topics:
- Situating cultural branding with other mainstream branding approaches
- Understanding cultural lenses to decode the Indian Market
- What is cultural branding (and what it is not)
- Crafting cultural brands
- Tools for cultural branding
- Developing a road-map for practising cultural branding
Pedagogy:
- A blend of experiential learning, case studies and participatory exercises.
- Sessions by International faculty/practitioners to share real-time applications of course concepts in the industry.
- Individual and Group assignments for hands-on practice of course concepts.
Target audience:
Industry practitioners at a middle management or senior management level, preferably in the roles of brand and product management or market research. This program would also be useful for advertising or public relations professionals who are keen to understand the significance of a cultural perspective in the domain of marketing and branding.
Broadly, practitioners who manage and shape brands, particularly in the B2C contexts, would benefit by understanding how culture can be a powerful force towards crafting strong brands.
Application:
Interested & eligible candidates may apply online using the link in the “Apply now” column and make the payment.
Acceptance of applications:
All the applications received till the last date will be evaluated by a faculty panel and the candidates who are found eligible will be intimated via email by ExEd office.
If a candidate is not selected, the amount paid by such candidate will be refunded in due course by the Institute.
Program dates:
Start Date: Thursday, February 07, 2025
End Date: Saturday, February 08, 2025
Early Bird Discount (EBD) till:
Friday, January 17, 2025
Last date for application:
Friday, January 24, 2025
Last date for withdrawal:
Friday, January 24, 2025
Program fee:
Rs 1,06,200 (Rs 90,000 + 18% GST) to be paid along with the application form.
Early bird discount (EBD):
Applications received on or before September 26, 2024, will attract an early bird discount of 5% on the fee before tax per participant.
The amount payable with EBD will be Rs. 1,00,890 (Rs 85,500+18% GST)
Corporate/group discounts:
Any company sponsoring three or more candidates will be given a corporate discount based on the number of participants sponsored for that program.
For further details, please get in touch with the ExEd office.
PROGRAM FACULTY
Ankur Kapoor
Program Director
Ankur Kapoor is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, India (IIMU). He has completed his PhD in Marketing from IIM-Ahmedabad. He has also been a visiting doctoral fellow at Kellogg School of Management, at Northwestern University. He was awarded the “Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) Award for Best Thesis Proposal, 2016-2017” at IIM-Ahmedabad. Ankur’s research interests are at the intersection of branding and consumption with other socio-cultural domains of education, space, body, and gender. His research has been published in outlets such as Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business Research, Consumption Markets & Culture, Advances in Consumer Research, and proceedings of Consumer Culture Theory conferences.
He has taught courses in the MBA (including a course on Cultural Branding), PhD, and Executive Education programs at IIM Udaipur and IIM Ahmedabad. Before PhD, Ankur has worked for four years with Eli Lilly and Co. (India) Pvt. Ltd, in the roles of Sales, Market Research and Brand Management. He also holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Rajesh R Nanarpuzha
Program Faculty
Rajesh Nanarpuzha is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Dean (Programs) at the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur. He has completed his MBA from IIM Indore and his PhD from IIM Ahmedabad. His dissertation won the ‘Prof. Tirath Gupta Memorial award’ for the best thesis at IIM Ahmedabad. His academic research focuses on different aspects of branding and consumer behavior.
Prof. Nanarpuzha is the co-founder and current co-chair of the Consumer Culture Lab (https://cclab.iimu.ac.in) at IIM Udaipur. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Advances in Consumer Research, and as proceedings of multiple international conferences. His teaching interests at IIM Udaipur span cultural branding and analysis, marketing management and qualitative research methods in Marketing. Prior to his academic career, Prof. Nanarpuzha has more than a decade of industry experience in the sales and marketing domains. He has worked as a brand manager with Dabur India and as a business consultant in the retail and consumer goods domains at Cognizant and TATA Consultancy Services. As part of this, he has worked with global customers across India, Europe and North America. He has been chosen as the ‘Business Consultant of the Year’ at Cognizant.
Julien Cayla
Program Faculty
Julien Cayla is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Nanyang Business School (Singapore). Professor Cayla received his PhD from the University of Colorado (Boulder, United States) where he majored in marketing and minored in cultural anthropology. His work has been published in outlets such as the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing, Organization Studies and Sloan Management Review. His research on consumer experiences has been featured in a range of media outlets such The Atlantic, the BBC, the Straits Times and Channel News Asia. He is currently serving as Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research.
Simon Roberts
Program Faculty
Simon Roberts is an anthropologist and founder of Stripe Partners, a strategy and innovation consultancy based in the UK, where he works on engagements with clients including Intel, Spotify, Google, Facebook, Repsol and Verizon. Prior to Stripe Partners, Simon was at ReD Associates in Copenhagen, before which he ran a R&D team for Intel Corporation’s Digital Health group in Dublin. Earlier in his career he completed a doctorate in anthropology on the satellite TV revolution in mid 1990s India. He was also ‘ethnographer in residence’ at iSociety at The Work Foundation, where he conducted influential research on everyday life and technology. During his career in industry Simon has played a leading role in the EPIC community of anthropologists working in the tech, design and innovation industries. He currently serves as Board President. His book, The Power of Not Thinking: How Our Bodies Learn and Why We Should Trust Them was published in December 2020 by Bonnier books. In India it is published by Harper Collins.
Testimonials
“What I enjoyed most about the course was the way in which complex concepts were made incredibly accessible and relevant…The discussions around real-world examples of cultural branding not only broadened my perspective but also allowed me to see the immediate impact of these concepts in everyday life. I particularly appreciated how the course encouraged us to challenge conventional thinking and explore the deeper cultural forces that influence brand perception.”
“Overall, the entire course content was very well curated and executed. I thoroughly enjoyed each class but my favourite would be the individual assignment where I had to write an article about how brands create “myths” and play around it to have that strong bond with their consumers…I would recommend every aspiring marketer and branding enthusiast to take up the course, it will significantly help you in your career.”
“The course covers how culture shapes our thinking and, more broadly, how it influences society. Throughout the course, we explored how to leverage various cultural anxieties and gaps to create impactful marketing and branding communications…I would highly recommend this course to anyone with an open mind who is eager to be part of a collaborative learning experience.”
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