Strategy and Brand Management in the Brewing Industry

Virtual Reading Week:

The virtual reading week (the week before students arrive in Berlin) aims at focusing on the strategy and brand management issues in the contemporary brewing industry. Students will develop a basic understanding of general concepts relevant to the brewing industry. Students will study papers available via the HWR learning platform and answer associated questions (monitored self-tests). Please expect to spend a few hours each day on reading and answering the questions. You may complete the tasks at your preferred time and pace.

Week 1: Strategic Management in the Brewing Industry

Students will gain deep insights into the history and the contemporary dynamics of the global brewing industry, plus a solid understanding of the competitive strategies of global market leaders. Students will also explore the industry’s main form of growth: cross-border M&A and will take a closer look at niche market strategies in the brewing industry i.e. craft beer production.

Week 2: Branding Beer: Approaches to Brand Management in the Brewing Industry

Students will develop a detailed understanding of the basis for consumer behaviour toward beer and beer brands and will gain major insights into the various elements of brand management in the context of the brewing industry. Students will also explore innovative concepts for beer brand management and discover different methods for the research and control of beer brands.

Additional Cultural Module (mandatory): German Culture and Society: Cultural Perspectives

This module will deal with German culture and society through many different site visits, and explore topics such as the Berlin Wall and Cold War era, Nazi-Germany, Prussia and its kings, German stereotypes, German university system, German politics, contemporary art or pop culture in Germany. In reflective papers, the students will have the opportunity to contemplate and highlight the differences and similarities between the students’ home cultures and their new host culture/the cultures of their classmates. This module will help students to reflect upon and their intercultural experience.