Master in International Marketing, Communication & Brand Strategy

Program objective

This course welcomes students from various backgrounds and is intended as comprehensive training in marketing. However, strong market segmentation and fierce competition has led to more and more stringent selection criteria.

The course covers 4 specialties that enable students, depending on their skills and professionalism, to acquire true added value in a market where it is essential to make your mark. The range of career opportunities is thus very wide, aimed at both general and more niche posts such as product manager, account manager in an advertizing agency, market research executive, semiotician, consultant, brand manager.



The Master in International Marketing, Communication & Brand Strategy gives a global overview of marketing today in France and internationally. The program is improved each year, teaching the latest marketing techniques, at the same time following trends and meeting expectations from the profession.

Supervision by researcher-teachers and industry professionals show synergies and the need to master the basics to then apply them to concrete situations. Above and beyond knowledge and expertise, students’ curiosity and diverse profiles make the course as rich for them as it is for us.

Core courses and Specializations

Fundamentals of financial and managerial accounting

This course will provide students with an overview of the field of financial and managerial accounting by stressing on the fact that business leaders, investors, creditors and other informed parties rely on accounting information as "a means to an end." Students will learn the concepts and jargon that constitutes in fact a "new language;" particular emphasis will be put on how accounting information can effectively be utilized in day-to-day business activities.
The focus of this course is on the support that financial and managerial accounting provides to business leaders in the day-to-day management and long-term decision-making.

International Marketing for profit and non-profit organizations

This course provides an overview of the main international marketing management contemporary concepts and practices. Students will learn how to scan the environment, perform market studies, evaluate buyer and consumer behavior, launch new products, and choose a coherent marketing mix strategy in a very diverse environment.
A special focus will be made on international marketing issues linked to the nonprofit sector management. Particular emphasis will be made on the following issues: Business models, strategies for low-income countries vs high-income ones, marketing at the bottom of the pyramid, international branding, low-cost, servicization, sustainability and marketing integrity.

Human factors in organizations

This course focuses on organizational behavior and cross-cultural management in the workplace. This course addresses some questions regarding occupational health and safety. It concentrates on the variables that affect individual and collective behavior. This course will also talk about more traditional organizational behavior subjects such as stress at work, job satisfaction, motivation, performance appraisal, etc. Students will learn how work-related variables can affect human behavior and their implications for performance and satisfaction. They will also develop the ability to recognize the influence of these factors on organizational system-level variables and their impact on the critical determinants of organization human resource effectiveness: productivity, absenteeism, turnover, satisfaction, and citizenship.

Industry competitive analysis

This course provides students with the opportunity to critically review microeconomics and macroeconomics theories, conceptual frameworks and other models in order to understand the dynamics of a given industry and assess the firms’ competitiveness. The course culminates with an in-depth analysis of a specific sector.

Cross Cultural Consumer Behavior

This course investigates the dynamics of human behavior and how it relates to decision making for the consumer, in an international and thus highly cross cultural environment. It concentrates on the most important factors that influence the consumer’s decision making process: motivations, personality traits and the self-concept, values and lifestyles, psychological processes as well as group membership, social classes and subcultures.

Management & Leadership

Management and Leadership course provides students with methods and tools of traditional management practice, as well as with management skills necessary in new economic conditions. This course helps students understand their own management capabilities, and learn how to manage an organization today.

Communication & Media planning

This course introduces students to the ways in which marketing communications are used within the global brand marketing strategy. It examines ways in which communication strategies establish a dialogue between providers of a product and their respective publics or markets. Students will learn how to create an efficient, economic media plan through detailed knowledge of various different media.

Corporate Social Responsibility

This course is designed to provide students with a thorough grounding in how cultural factors affect global business, and the critical ways in which values and ethics are embedded in this process.
The course provides a sustained immersion in the complex intertwining of business, international commerce, the 21st century global enterprise, human differences, and ethics. The seminar also provides valuable insights into the cycle of organizational change in this context, and develops both intellectual and behavioral skills to facilitate a more nuanced understanding – and successful management of – change in such a setting. Students are encouraged to progress from seekers of to catalysts for positive change against a multicultural backdrop. Students will hone their ability to apply the knowledge they have learned in class to define and identify problems in the wider business setting – immediately and in the global context. Students and faculty will channel information from their own experiences and backgrounds into an analysis of different situations that will help them better understand the nuances of communicating, collaborating, and negotiating in an increasing global, multicultural society.

Green Marketing

This course introduces students to the ‘green wave’ which has created the need for green marketing. In particular this course enables students to become familiar with consumers’ expectations about environmental and social impacts, environmentally-friendly product strategies, green branding, social marketing, the role of marketing in social innovation and entrepreneurship, eco-labeling, fair trade, organic, and environmental certifications.

Brand management strategy

Students will examine strategy from a branding perspective, and will address the most important issues involved in maximizing the value of existing brands and in building new brands. The course provides an overview of the ways in which brands are conceived, developed, launched, nurtured, and protected. It focuses on imparting techniques and strategies for developing a specific brand.

CRM & Data base management

This course provides a theoretical framework for the understanding of relationship marketing, customer relationship management, and customer experience concepts, and an appreciation of the opportunities and challenges posed by a value-driven, customer-oriented approach to multi-channel business strategy. Topics covered will include: relationship marketing theory, consumer behavior in the multichannel environment, customer service concepts, customer satisfaction models, customer relationship management project implementation issues and loyalty schemes. Topics will be illustrated by significant case histories from a variety of industry sectors.

e-commerce

This course will cover the technological, strategic and marketing aspects of e-commerce. Topics to be covered include the evolution of the Web, from 1.0 to 4.0; web-marketing tools and techniques; achieving visibility on the Internet; strategic use of Google (analystic, adwords, adSense); brand management through the Web; Marketing online Strategy, key success factors in web design and applications; different uses of the web in a B2C and B2B environment; sources of value in ecommerce.

Strategy and Techniques of international trade

The course is designed to provide students with a solid understanding of the process of internalization of a firm. Issues are tackled like globalization, risks and opportunities for a firm to go abroad, the export strategy of a company, the entry modes, etc.
Students become familiar with the techniques of international trade, in particular with international sale contracts and with incoterms (terms of delivery), aspects that are essential for any manager in a firm searching for international markets.

Project management

This course exposes the basic concepts of Project Management. The course defines the subject and explains why Project Management is an essential condition for the successful achievement of a project. The triple constraint (scope, time, budget) is outlined as well as the management of this triple constraint through the three tools: PERT diagram, Gantt diagram and budget reporting will be exposed.

International Negotiations

This course addresses the international aspect of selling and negotiating as well as the cultural component of the communication process. This course also stresses that negotiation skills are necessary for all business functions to effectively convey your ideas and win approval for them.
Some of the key messages will be related to:
- Identify the principal forms of marketing channels or distribution.
- Examine the skills and characteristics that contribute to increased effectiveness in relationship selling.
- Identify and apply prospecting techniques and sale closure techniques.
- How to get to “yes” in the negotiation game.
- Demonstrate the ability to make effective presentations.
- Practice negotiation techniques and role play.

Research methods in international context

Students will learn how to successfully design and administer a questionnaire, collect primary research data through surveys, and create novel written solutions to expression problems. They will become familiar with different kinds of studies: opinion polls, qualitative research, explanatory studies, predictive and causal studies, descriptive research, and panels.

Mature markets: North America and Europe (15h) + Emerging countries in Africa, Latin-America (15h)

The aim of these different courses is to introduce students to different markets corresponding to different geographical areas. Some of these markets represent a high potential in terms of export opportunities, and students must grasp the specificities of each of them, in terms of characteristics, culture, consumer behavior, regulations, strategic entry approach, etc. These courses are essential for a future international trade manager, marketing director and more generally for business development abroad.

Doing business in Asia

This course is designed for students who intend to operate in the new global environment in which China and India, but also other emerging economies such as Thailand, Malaysia, will be major economic players.
After describing the history, geography and culture of this entity representing more than one third of the world population and most of its economic growth potential, the business opportunities and negotiation styles will be covered through cases and discussions.

Public relations

The course will introduce students to the fundamental elements and principles of public relations. The students will be able to develop a basic public relations plan, implement parts of that plan and appraise the results. A variety of aspects will be examined including ethical and legal considerations, measurement and assessment methods. The course introduces strategic issues and effective practices of communication and includes the design of public opinion research, media relations, and public communication campaigns.