STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT IN EVENT, HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM - 2025/6

Module Overview

Hospitality, tourism and events businesses and organizations operate in a complex marketing environment. Whilst the future of brands and branding are the subject of intense debate in an age of accelerating disruption and digital revolution, the branding of hospitality, tourism and events products, places and services remains a crucial 'promise of an experience'. This module requires the student to adopt a consultant’s mind-set and develop a strategy for an event, hospitality, or tourism brand. The module aims to develop students’ abilities to critically explore and evaluate the key principles and characteristics of brand management. It aims to discuss the essential components of brand management, including market analysis, brand auditing, and brand evaluation. Students are provided with the opportunity to apply brand management theories to practice as the development of a feasible and credible brand strategy represents a key component of this module.

Module provider

Surrey Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

MORGAN Nigel (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

• Contemporary strategic brand management in the event, hospitality and tourism sector;

• Branding practice and theory: case studies of event, hospitality and tourism products;

• Understanding and researching contemporary consumer behaviour in event, hospitality and tourism;

• The planning framework for the development of an advertising campaign;

• Strategic research in the advertising planning process; • The creative process and creative development research in advertising an event, hospitality and tourism brand;

• What makes effective event, hospitality and tourism advertising/communications?;

• Media choices and targeting today’s event, hospitality and tourism consumer;

• Brand propositions and event, hospitality and tourism advertising appeals in a changing world;

• Creating an event, hospitality or tourism branding campaign;

• Monitoring and evaluating event, hospitality and tourism branding campaigns.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of strategic brand management and its application in the hospitality, tourism, and events sectors. 

The summative assessment for this module consists of:

• an individual report (addressing LO 1,2,3,4) in which students will adopt a consultant mindset to apply the theoretical knowledge they have gained to develop a brand strategy. The assignment will enable students to demonstrate their ability to conduct the necessary research (brand audit, and market and brand analyzes, etc.) and create a practical ‘pitch’ for future brand development (including communications executions and a social media strategy).

Formative assessment: students will be given tasks relevant to their assignment and will discuss branding case studies during workshops to support their overall learning and their summative assessment.

Feedback: students will receive feedback on their performance during the module in the form of written and verbal feedback in workshops to inform the summative assessments.

Module aims

• The aim of the module is to enable the student to develop a critical appreciation of the role of strategic brand management in event, hospitality and contemporary tourism marketing. The module enables students interested in developing their marketing skills to enhance their knowledge of the practical and theoretical issues in branding and strategic communications (especially advertising, PR and digital platforms).

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to: provide students with key information about the principles, evaluation, and management of brand management to encourage them to explore, debate and evaluate these in practice. The learning and teaching strategy is designed to develop students’ cultural awareness, digital literacy, confidence, and competence in leading and working with others, communication skills, employability, and professionalism.

  The learning and teaching methods will be blended learning (lectures and workshops), guided learning and independent learning. More specifically this will include,

• Lectures and guest lectures designed to provide a framework of knowledge


• Workshops (with case studies and scenarios) to provide opportunities for students to research and interpret their own material; and 


• Tasks to challenge their thinking. 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN3156

Other information

This module adopts the university curriculum framework, which aims to develop learners with strong capabilities in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module contributes to the development of all of these:

 

Employability

Students will be expected to adopt a consultant mindset and to produce a pragmatic report, which would have a high chance of real-world implementation. Whilst the assignment should demonstrate an understanding of the relevant branding concepts and theories, the suitability of the brand concept and its development/execution will be a key focus. As such, the students will acquire skills transferable to many workplace contexts. In addition, guest lecturers will present up-to-date insight from industry and provide an opportunity for students to directly learn from branding and marketing professionals.

Digital Capabilities

Digital marketing and social media are central to contemporary brand management and will be extensively discussed in the lectures and workshops. Further, the preparation of a professionally looking branding ‘pitch’ for the assignment will require students to use appropriate digital tools and methods, as well as engage with the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), SurreyLearn, and video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams to facilitate learning.

Global and Cultural Capabilities

Strategic brand management requires international and cross-cultural perspectives as hospitality, tourism and events brands exist in a multi- and cross-cultural world. Lecture content includes consumer behaviours and cross-cultural marketing, and the module workshops will provide students with the opportunity to study cross-cultural case studies and to understand diverse perspectives. In addition, the workshops will require students to work in groups with other students from diverse backgrounds. This will broaden their world view, challenge their perspectives, and enhance their understanding of the values, norms, and behaviors, which exist in other cultures.

Sustainability

Sustainability and the responsible consumption of natural resources is a central business tenet in the mid-twenty-first century and is reflected in many brands’ values. Successful brands recognize and engage with responsible and ethical consumers, and this will be the subject of lecture and workshop content in the module. Creativity, collaboration, and innovation drive many contemporary brand strategies and students will be encouraged to explore how they are key to sustainable prosperity and well-being.

 

Resourcefulness and Resilience

Successful brands are resilient and brand managers demonstrate responsibility, resourcefulness, creativity, and innovation. Resourcefulness and resilience will thus be a theme of the module and content will include leadership, creativity, and resilience in brand management. Further, the module will provide the students themselves with opportunities to further develop these skills, as they learn in and contribute to the workshops and reflect on their own experiences and problem-solving abilities.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.