This course presents a dynamic view of competitive brand strategy, with an emphasis on both growth and defense. The course focuses on understanding, developing and evaluating brand strategies over the life of a product market. Topics include developing a strong marketing plan, creating customer advantage, launching new products, finding profitable growth opportunities and responding to competitive moves. The course focuses on overall company strategy, with a heavy emphasis on the financial challenges and tradeoffs, and spends less time on executional, tactical details. The course includes lectures, case studies and a simulation, Markstrat. Final deliverables are an exam and often a final product.