Dr DAVID AAKER – hailed as the “FATHER OF MODERN BRANDING”– offered a most enjoyable and resourceful webinar session for PGDM students & aspirants of Asian Business School (ABS) on Friday, 29th January 2021 at 10:00 am under its “Leadership & Entrepreneurial Aspiration Development (LEAD) Program”. As it progressed, the webinar turned out to be a great opportunity for all PGDM students and aspirants to learn their most important lessons on the all so important field of ‘Branding’ from the master himself!
Dr David Allen Aaker is an American Organizational Theorist, an active Branding Consultant, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and revered speaker and thought leader. He presently serves as Vice Chairman at Prophet, a global growth consultancy. He is a recognized authority on branding, has developed several recognizable concepts including the Aaker brand vision model, and has received numerous awards for his contributions to the science of marketing.
Dr Aaker has authored and published hundreds of articles and 16 books, including Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success, Brand Relevance, Spanning Silos, Brand Portfolio Strategy, Building Strong Brands, and From Fargo to the World of Brands. His books have been translated in 18 languages and sold over 1 million copies. His words and teaching have offered guidance and inspiration to marketing leadership at many of the world’s leading brands.
Dr Aaker received his SB in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management and then his MA in Statistics and PhD in Business Administration at Stanford University. He is the E.T. Grether Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy at the Haas School of Business and the currently the vice chairman of Prophet, a global brand and marketing consultancy firm, and an advisor to Dentsu, a Japanese advertising agency. He has been awarded three career awards for contributions to the science of marketing: The Paul D. Converse Award; The Vijay Mahajan Award; and The Buck Weaver Award. Aaker was inducted into the New York American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
Dr Aaker has won the award for “best article” in the California Management Review and in the Journal of Marketing (twice). His book Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant was named among the “Ten Marketing Books You Should Have Read” by Advertising Age in 2011 and named one of the top 3 marketing books of the year by Strategy and Business. He also has a regular column in American Marketing Association’s Marketing News called “Aaker on Branding”. He was one of the eleven people included in the 2007 book Conversations with Marketing.
A core initiative of Asian Education Group (AEG) – considered as the largest centre for professional media, IT, law, management, fashion & hospitality education in Asia with world-class facilities – this webinar was organized by Asian Business School (ABS) – which is a constituent group college of Asian Education Group and is ranked as one of the best B-schools in Delhi NCR – for all PGDM/MBA students & aspirants. Since this webinar was a closed session, students were required to register for the same. The webinar was followed by a lively Q&A Session with the illustrious guest.
This most avidly awaited webinar session started with a welcome note and a brief but highly impressive introduction of the illustrious guest by Prof. Garima Malhotra on behalf of the AEG family. Thereafter, Dr David Allen Aaker took the virtual centre stage, all the way from his residence in the USA!
Getting down immediately on to his area of expertise, Dr David Aaker began by sharing through a powerful PPT presentation, his two strategic ideas on how to grow one’s business. He said, “The first was the strategic idea on how you grow your business and the second was how you communicate about it through creating signature stories.” Expounding further, he stated, “The only way to grow (with rare exception) is to Own a Game-Changing Sub-Category instead of My Brand is Better Than Your Brand strategy, which almost never precipitates growth. Owning a Game-Changing Sub-Category involves developing (1) Must Haves for customers through defining a new or superior buying or use experience or a meaningful brand relationship and (2) the Exemplar Brand that represents the market niche and drives its visibility and positioning.” Regarding the concept of Signature Stories, Dr Aaker said, “Stories is a way to break through the clutter and they carry an authentic strategic message.” Dr Aaker ably illustrated his two propositions through numerous case studies of top brands from across industry segments.
Dr David Aaker then opened the session for questions from the ABS PGDM students & aspirants. A series of questions related to the core concept of branding was put up by the students as well as ABS faculty members to which the highly learned and distinguished speaker provided the most convincing answers.
Towards the end, in his message for the ABS students, Dr David Aaker shared some great words of advice and said, “Marketing and Branding are really the fun areas of business operations and while you are into academics, you must learn all that needs to be known about these two very important domains of knowledge.”
Once done, Dr David Aaker was presented with a glittering “Memento” on behalf of the Asian Education Group, which was profusely appreciated by the honourable guest.
With this, this most enjoyable and resourceful session with the “Father of Modern Branding” – Dr DAVID AAKER – came to a fitting end!