The campaign to establish Canada's first University Chair and Bachelor of Business Administration in Brand Communication.
NEWS RELEASE
TORONTO, March 4, 2013 - Today the Marketing Communications Education Trust (MCET) proudly celebrated a milestone by handing over the final installment of a $2 million pledge from 45 leading Canadian marketing and media industry donors to professor Brad Davis, the first chair in brand communication at a Canadian university, school of business & economics, Wilfrid Laurier University.
The cheque handover coincides with a restructuring of the BBA curriculum at Laurier that is underway where significant changes will occur to the brand communication option. The development of exciting new education initiatives includes new courses such as 'social networks and marketing' and the development of a new approach to integrating knowledge and experience by coordinating multiple courses to be taken concurrently. The goal is to help eliminate content overlaps and siloed course design, offering more meaningful assignments that span multiple courses and have more flexibility for experiential exercises. This innovation is a testimony to the industry's effort to establish Canada's first university chair in brand communication and specialization in brand communication for Bachelor of Business Administration students, to drive greater focus on brand communication and raise the level of program innovation for brand communication at the university level in Canada.
"Some faculty members go through an entire academic career without developing and launching a new course. More than a few business school marketing departments have added only one or two new courses in the past decade," said Davis. "Laurier's marketing area is about to launch its fifth new course in five years, with plans for a sixth already underway - all contributing to the brand communication and management curriculum. The courses are a direct response to feedback received from our MCET partners and other practitioners on key issues and skill sets required of today's graduates. For example, they intend to elevate student exposure to skills in creative thinking, social media, selling, database management and brand analytics; and develop a deeper understanding of corporate sustainability - as well the essentials of branding and brand communications."
Thanks to the MCET initiative, Laurier's brand communication program was established in 2006 at both the undergraduate and MBA levels in Laurier's School of Business & Economics and has become the fourth most popular undergraduate concentration. Collaborations with MCET have helped to ensure the program addresses real-time issues facing industry.
"A key goal of the MCET initiative was to establish a centre at the university level that would promote a greater focus on brand communications at the university level, and it was Laurier that was most enthusiastic in working with the industry in that regard," said Mike Welling, MCET trustee and campaign co-chair and president of doug & serge inc. "This was born out of a need to ensure there were better quality graduates entering the industry, whether on the client, agency or media side. What is very gratifying to see is not only the innovation in programming at Laurier, but the fact that this is leading to building bridges to other post-secondary institutions."
Since its inception, fifty business courses have incorporated brand communication content; 450 current students have completed a concentration in brand communication; 200 undergraduates have graduated with this concentration since 2006; 30 MBA graduates fulfill brand communication requirements each year; and five new, unique courses have been created in brand communication.
"I was contacted by instructors from Schulich and the University of Winnipeg who were teaching courses in brand and/or marketing communications seeking advice on course structure and content. They indicated they would definitely adopt several aspects of our courses," said Davis.
The goal of establishing a centre of excellence for brand communication is further being met through the addition of accomplished faculty. "The marketing faculty has also grown remarkably over the past five years. Seven new full-time faculty have joined from a wide variety of schools including world class schools such as Queen's, Schulich, Rotman, Michigan and Cornell," said Davis. The new arrivals bring a range of experience and exposure to brand and advertising related areas. "All of the new faculty have exceptional research potential. Publications related to branding and advertising are already appearing in leading academic journals and will help establish Laurier as center of brand knowledge creation."
The MCET effort has the Laurier program innovating in the development of entirely new areas of study. "Our latest faculty hire specializes in database marketing and data analytics. This is an area that is a cornerstone of MCET partners like Cara International, Loyalty Management Group and Carlson Marketing - and, an area sadly lacking in Canadian business schools. We have already begun discussion about a creating a specialized program - likely the first in Canada - to train experts in data and brand analytics," reports Davis.
Ironically, the program's success is creating a challenge: finding ways to engage all of the practitioners who have expressed an interest and desire to contribute to the program. Even though courses such as marketing and social networks and strategic brand management use 10-12 live case exercises each term we are still looking for ways to engage all of the practitioners who have contacted us.
"The credibility to the field of brand communication initially came largely from the prestige of the MCET partners supporting the program's creation," said Davis. "With more exposure, practitioners and academic colleagues now see the merits of the curriculum, the quality of the program and the tremendous potential of the students. The growth of the brand communication program has been dramatic, but clearly the best is yet to come."
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About MCET: www.mcet.ca
About Wilfrid Laurier University: www.wlu.ca
For further information contact:
Rupert Brendon, chairman & trustee, MCET, at (416) 568-5964 or rbrendon@mcet.ca
Mike Welling, trustee & campaign co-chair, MCET at (416) 203-2470, ext. 111 or mike@dougserge.com
Brad Davis, Laurier chair in brand communication, associate professor (marketing), Wilfrid Laurier University, at (519) 884-0710, ext. 2539 or bdavis@wlu.ca
NEWS RELEASE
TORONTO, August 24 2012 - “Everyone has a brand - you don’t have a choice. Your choice is, are you going to manage it or not?”
So says Dr. Brad Davis, the newly minted chair of brand communication at Wilfrid Laurier University. His position, announced last week, is the first of its kind in Canada.
“Having a chair in brand communication brings a certain amount of credibility. It says, this is an academically credible field with important industry implications,” he said.
Dr. Davis, a long time marketing professor, said Laurier’s brand communication program started after a “fateful” meeting with marketing expert Rupert Brendon in 2003. The men realized there wasn’t enough focus on brand communication in Canadian universities, given the size of the industry, he said.
“The country needed a program that looked much more seriously at marketing communications,” Dr. Davis said. “Also, the industry really needed it - they needed people with a different skill set to deal with the demands that were being placed on them.”
The solution was a program at Laurier, funded by a marketing education foundation that Mr. Brendon leads. Forty-five Canadian businesses have donated $1.9-million to the program since 2003. Among them are branding heavy hitters Unilever, Pepsi, and Tim Horton’s. The program launched in 2006 and has quickly become a popular specialty in Laurier’s undergraduate program.
Following is an interview with Dr. Davis on the importance of brand communication, preparing students for the workplace, and why BlackBerry shouldn’t be the only brand representing Canada.
Why do we need a special program in brand communications?
To a very large extent because Canada has not done a great job of building strong brands.
Only two Canadian companies made the Interbrand best global brand’s list. One was Thomson Reuters, which not everybody knows, and the other is BlackBerry. Now we have cover stories asking if RIM is going to survive.
We’ve been a resource-based economy. We need to build strong Canadian brands to be able to compete internationally. In universities, we should be the ones training people to build those Canadian brands.
Why now?
The recession reinforced how important it is to build Canadian brands that can weather recessions.
What’s the difference between brand communication and marketing?
That’s a common question. I talk about marketing as this whomping, big thing. Brand communication is a subset of marketing. It focuses in on the communication side.
It started out as integrated marketing communications, a movement that was founded by the Medill School of Marketing in the States. The problem was that integrated marketing communication was really seen to be more tactical, calling for consistency across media, when it was supposed to be about strategy. There was lot of discussion on whether to change the name to brand communication, because brand is strategic.
I brought back brand communication to capture the idea of the brand as the driver behind everything you have to do in communications. It’s understanding what you have to say and being able to articulate it effectively.
How does the program benefit the industry?
The first thing is the cost of hiring and the cost of hiring the wrong people. To get graduates who come out and hit the ground running, who can step in and start to contribute immediately, is a tremendous cost saving feature for businesses.
The second part is with social network stuff. Grads coming out now are part of the generation that lives on the social net. They understand that world, they understand that culture, and they’re in demand because of that. If we can combine that with specialized branding training and academic rigour, the grads will become very important to companies who need to navigate the new landscape.
How does it benefit the students?
We’re really trying to better prepare students for what they’re going to encounter, so that they’re going to be able to step into an organization and contribute right away, or work for themselves and do it.
Our old models are just old models. That world doesn’t exist any more. Suggesting to students that it’s a nice, organized, four-P [product, price, place, promotion] mass-media world is doing them a disservice. We have to prepare them for what they’re going to encounter, which is a lot different than what’s in the textbooks.
You already have backing from 45 major companies. Why is it important to have academe communicate with business?
It’s about practicality. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing, training people for their futures. As a professor, I want to know what’s going on in industry. What are the pressing issues, the pressing questions? It keeps me going as a teacher to know that I can teach my students what matters in industry, that my stuff is contemporary. That feedback is important.
From a practical perspective, industry has so much data, and it is underused dramatically. If we can take a database, it doesn’t even have to be current, it becomes a tremendous learning opportunity for students.
There are some sectors I’d like to get much more involved with. Financial services and high-tech firms are under-represented on the list [of donors to the program].
What’s unique about this program?
We already have a brand communication course and a creative thinking for marketing managers course - for both BBA and MBA students. I’m also working on a course in social media and digital marketing.
We’re also working on new formats for courses. The world just doesn’t live in three-hour time slots. We’re looking at doing much more integrated courses. We want it to be highly experiential and have a lot of individual involvement.
We tried to get away from the mindset of ‘Let’s just offer new courses.’ How are we teaching this stuff? Does that make sense any more? Maybe we should blow up that old model and teach in a fashion that’s more consistent with how people are forced to think when they get out there.
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- Emily Jackson, The Globe and Mail.
For further information contact:
Rupert Brendon, chairman & trustee, MCET, at (416) 568-5964 or rbrendon@mcet.ca
Mike Welling, trustee & campaign co-chair, MCET at (416) 203-2470, ext. 111 or mike@dougserge.com
Brad Davis, Laurier chair in brand communication, associate professor (marketing), Wilfrid Laurier University, at (519) 884-0710, ext. 2539 or bdavis@wlu.ca
NEWS RELEASE
TORONTO, June 15 2011 - Today Wilfrid Laurier University announced the creation of Canada's first Chair in Brand Communication with an investment of $2 million by 45 leading Canadian brands and brand marketing professionals to establish Laurier as a national centre for brand education.
National branding, advertising, marketing communications and marketing research expert Dr. Brad Davis has been appointed as the inaugural chair.
"This generous investment will help ensure that Laurier graduates become the next generation of business leaders who are equipped with the brand communication skills and knowledge to keep Canada competitive in today's global marketplace," said Max Blouw, president and vice-chancellor of Laurier. "Professor Brad Davis is a national leader in his field and I am confident in his ability to take Laurier's School of Business & Economics to a national leadership position in brand communication education".
As part of the role of chair, Davis will continue to build upon the university's relationships with the brand communication industry and other leading academic partners in an effort to raise the quality and profile of brand communication education across Canada. He will establish Laurier as a national centre of education delivery and excellence on issues in the field of brand communication.
"In the era of social networking, it is more important than ever that organizations have a deep rooted and organic understanding of their brand to be able to sustain genuine and authentic conversations with consumers," said Davis. "Our goal is to produce graduates who can articulate that understanding of the brand and know what is needed to engage consumers in brand-directed interaction."
The chair was established through a major gift from the Marketing Communications Education Trust (MCET), a not-for-profit public foundation created by industry leaders from the Canadian agency and marketing worlds. This group of 45 donors includes brand giants, such as charter member Unilever and many of the leading members of the Institute of Communication Agencies and leading media companies. MCET is led by chairman and trustee Rupert Brendon, past president and CEO of the Institute of Communications and Advertising and member of Canada's Marketing Hall of Legends.
"Effective and engaging communication plays a critical role in the development of a brand," said Brendon. "The industry realized several years ago that Canada was one of the few markets in the developed world that didn't have a university level degree in Brand Communication. Since many clients and industry brand champions come out of the university environment, not having this type of training puts Canada and the Canadian industry at a disadvantage. We met with many leading Canadian universities and Laurier was the one that demonstrated the greatest willingness to work hand-in-hand with the industry to create a best-in-class Brand Communication program. We are delighted that our efforts have resulted in the establishment of this chair."
Laurier's brand communication program was established in 2006 at both the undergraduate and MBA levels in Laurier's School of Business & Economics and has become the fourth most popular undergraduate concentration. Collaborations with MCET have helped to ensure the program addresses real-time issues facing industry, since its inception. Fifty business courses have incorporated brand communication content; 450 current students have completed a concentration in brand communication; 150 undergraduates have graduated with this concentration since 2006; 30 MBA graduates fulfill brand communication requirements each year; and five new, unique courses have been created in brand communication.
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For more information, please see www.mcet.ca, or contact:
Rupert Brendon 416.568.5969
Mike Welling 416.203.3470
Dr. Brad Davis 519.884.0710, ext 2539
Cathy Whelan Molloy 905.845.6511
David Sculthorpe 416.590.5000
Matthew Garrow, CTVglobemedia, 416.332-5258
NEWS RELEASE
(TORONTO: March 27, 2007) - Cadbury Adams, Tim Hortons, and CTVglobemedia are the most recent of Canada's prominent marketers and media to donate funds to support MCET, the Marketing Communication Education Trust (www.mcet.ca), the initiative to raise $2.0 million to create Canada's first University Chair and BBA degree in Brand Communication at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) in Waterloo, Ontario. They join other leading brand-building marketers like Dare Foods, Molson, Pepsi- QGT, Rogers, and Unilever and many of the country's leading agency and media organizations.
"Two things are vital to the success of Tim Hortons: our brand and finding the right people to enhance its value to the consumer and so earn their loyalty," said Cathy Whelan Molloy, VP Brand Marketing and Merchandising. "The understanding of what a brand is and how to effectively connect with our consumers is critical to our business success. Training in this area at the university level has been lacking in Canada. We anticipate the Laurier program will send a wake-up call to business schools across Canada to update their curriculum and make Brand Communication a central focus."
"If Canada is to compete in North America and indeed globally, we must develop the best talent and arm them with strong fundamentals so they can hit the ground running with up to the minute training," said David Sculthorpe, President of Cadbury Adams Canada. "A solid foundation and understanding in strategic Brand Communication is essential in continually evolving consumer goods categories like confectionery. We are pleased to support this initiative and would hope that other leading marketers would do the same," he added.
"There is a great need to develop future business leaders who understand strategic brand communication," said Rita Fabian, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, CTVglobemedia. "The creation of a formalized education and training program through the Marketing Communication Education Trust is an important step towards ensuring our country remains competitive in today's global marketplace. We believe this is an objective all Canadian businesses should embrace."
"We now have ongoing commitments from nearly three dozen donors who understand the significance of this initiative, and we are now only $650,000 short of our $2.0 million campaign goal," said MCET Chair and Trustee, Rupert Brendon.
"We are very pleased in the way that companies who truly recognize the importance of brand to their long term business success are beginning to respond in the same way to our fundraising efforts as the Agency sector has," said Mike Welling, Campaign Co-Chair and Trustee of MCET and President, doug agency and former VP Brand Communication at lead donor Unilever Canada. "We will continue to encourage more industry leaders from across the brand-building world to support MCET and establish the benchmark for brand communication training in Canada."
"It is very encouraging to see so many of Canada's top marketing firms supporting Laurier's Brand Communication program, "said Dr. Brad Davis. "Their support and participation is critical to our goal of creating a Centre of Excellence that produces graduates and trains educators who appreciate the importance of this field to the future of Canadian business."
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For more information, please see www.mcet.ca, or contact:
Rupert Brendon 416.568.5969
Mike Welling 416.203.3470
Dr. Brad Davis 519.884.0710, ext 2539
Cathy Whelan Molloy 905.845.6511
David Sculthorpe 416.590.5000
Matthew Garrow, CTVglobemedia, 416.332-5258
NEWS RELEASE
(TORONTO: December 12, 2006) - Dare Foods Ltd and Molson Canada are just two of the most recent of Canada's prominent brand-building companies to donate funds to support MCET (Marketing Communication Education Trust - www.mcet.ca), the initiative to raise $2.0 million to create Canada's first University Chair and BBA/MBA degrees in Brand Communication at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) in Waterloo, Ontario.
"It's important to all of us that we upgrade the level of focus on educating students about the concept of brand and brand communication at the university level to ensure the talent coming into the marketplace is better trained to contribute to our industry. In turn, this will help ensure Canada's role as a leader in marketing and marketing communication, "said Brett Marchand, Treasurer and Trustee of MCET, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Cossette Communication Group, and Chair of the ICA.
Rupert Brendon, Chairman and Trustee of MCET, and President & CEO of the Institute of Communications and Advertising (ICA), presented a cheque for $185,000 to Ginny Dybenko, Dean of School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) and Dr. Brad Davis, Associate Professor of Marketing, WLU, which includes the donations from Dare and Molson.
"This cheque brings a total of $385,000 donated by MCET to Laurier this year to establish Canada's first University degree in Brand Communication," said Rupert Brendon. "This has been made possible by recent generous new donations by several companies as the fundraising efforts with the Marketer/Advertiser sector takes off. We now have ongoing commitments from nearly three dozen donors for a total of $1.75 million."
"It is very encouraging to see so many of Canada's top marketing firms supporting Laurier's Brand Communication program, "said Dr. Brad Davis. "Not only will this help us realize our vision but I'm sure business schools across Canada will take notice of the degree of industry participation and reflect on how they are addressing the critical issue of branding in their curriculum."
"We are very pleased and really appreciate the way that companies who truly recognize the importance of brand to their business success are beginning to respond in the same way to our fundraising efforts as the Agency sector has," said Mike Welling, Campaign Co-Chair and Trustee of MCET and President, doug agency. "Dare Foods and Molson have just joined to support MCET with the likes of Unilever, Pepsi QTG, and Rogers. We will continue to encourage more industry leaders from across the brand-building world to support MCET, and we expect to name several more donors, with whom we are currently speaking, in the New Year."
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For more information, please see www.mcet.ca, or contact:
Rupert Brendon 416.568.5969
Mike Welling 416.203.3470
Dr. Brad Davis 519.884.0710, ext 2539
NEWS RELEASE
(TORONTO, September 19, 2006): Today, Rupert Brendon, President of the Institute of Communications Agencies, & Chairman and Trustee of MCET (Marketing Communications Education Trust - www.mcet.ca), the initiative to raise $2.0 million to create Canada's first University Chair and BBA/MBA degrees in Brand Communication, announced that the fundraising campaign is over half way to reaching its goal. Further, Mike Welling will join Tony Miller, Chairman Emeritus, MacLaren McCann and Campaign Co-Chair, as the second Campaign Co-Chair, replacing Peter Elwood (former President of Lever Brothers and then Lipton within Unilever Canada).
Dr. Brad Davis of Wilfrid Laurier's School of Business, the school that is offering these unique programs, expressed his gratitude for the efforts of Peter Elwood in building Canada's first program in Brand Communication and was enthusiastic about the arrival of Mike Welling.
"We were very fortunate to have had Peter's involvement in this initiative, along with Rupert Brendon and Tony Miller who will be continuing in their roles to further promote this important initiative. This past spring, the first graduates in Marketing with a concentration in Brand Communication passed through Convocation and another group will graduate this Fall. These graduates owe a debt of gratitude to people like Peter Elwood for their vision and hard work in making the concept a reality. At the same time, we still have some distance to go to finish building this ambitious and ground-breaking program. It's very exciting and comforting to see someone like Mike Welling who was also a strong, early supporter of MCET picking up the torch."
Mike Welling is a veteran of 22 years in the world of consumer packaged goods, principally with Unilever. Welling said: "Unilever was the initial supporter of this initiative because we saw a void in Canadian marketing education. The understanding of branding and the whole area of integrated brand communication is critical to the success of the Unilever business in Canada and to the success of Canadian business and the Canadian marketing community in general. It is why Unilever stepped up and committed to fund $250,000 over five years to kick start the program."
"It is wonderful to see that many others that understand the power and importance of effective brand communications, such leading companies like Pepsi-QTG, Rogers and many of the major brand communication agencies in Canada have already stepped up to raise the professionalism of Canadian marketing. And we're excited that the campaign is over half way to reaching its goal," said Welling. "This is an important initiative for Canada's long term business success This type of program is available in markets like the US and the UK but not here and we look to this intiative to be a catalyst in changing the business education landscape in this country. I will do my best to engage other organizations and leaders within the community to support this initiative."
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For more information, please see www.mcet.ca, or contact:
Rupert Brendon 416-568-5969
Mike Welling 416-931-3454
Tony Miller 416-594-6221
Mike Welling - Bio
Currently President of Brand Strategist at Toronto agency Doug & Serge Inc., Mike is a veteran of 22 years in the world of consumer packaged goods, principally with Unilever. During that time Mike established a reputation as an effective business-builder, leader, celebrated marketer and change-agent. He is also a passionate believer in the power of effective branding and brand communication.
During his 18 year career with Unilever working in Canada, Europe and as a member of several global, North American and European regional teams, Mike assumed senior corporate leadership roles within marketing and the supply chain inside Unilever plus on several industry boards & committees. His leadership on such venerable brands such as Becel, Dove, Sunlight, Knorr, Vim and Lipton not only delivered strong profitable growth but also numerous awards for creative brand communication and effectiveness and a reputation as an outstanding client.
While at Unilever in his role as the Vice-President responsible for leading the retail foods business in Canada, Mike was an active advocate and supporter of the MCET initiative. He has witnessed first hand, from both a corporate and a consultant's perspective, the need for better training and development in Canada in the areas of understanding the concept of brands and branding and in integrated brand communication in order to drive business success.
Mike Welling is also a former Vice Chair of the ACA and a member of the ASC Board of Directors.
NEWS RELEASE
(TORONTO, October 4, 2006): The Marketing Hall of Legends (MHOL) proudly reveals the names of its six inductees who have made exceptional contributions within the Canadian marketing industry. The inductees were nominated by peers and selected by a panel of judges for their outstanding work in brand building.
MHOL recognizes its six inductees in the categories of Visionaries, Builders, Enablers and Mentors. Each inductee will be celebrated during the annual MHOL gala on Thursday February 1, 2007 at the Granite Club in Toronto.
Visionaries - Great entrepreneurs who created enduring, valuable and iconic Canadian brands.
| President and CEO, Rogers Communications Inc. |
Builders - Charismatic leaders who built and enhanced existing brands, and in doing so, increased the competitive nature of their organizations.
| Founder, McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd. | |
| Founder, McDonald's Russia |
| Former Chair and CEO, LCBO |
Enablers - Marketing communications professionals with a proven history of providing excellent brand building expertise.
| Former President and Creative Director, Vicker & Benson |
| Founder, Publicité BCP |
Mentors - Individuals who, through philanthropy or academic position, gave others the opportunity, inspiration or ability to pursue excellence in the Canadian marketing environment.
| President and CEO, Institute of Communications Agencies |
For more information on the MHOL visit www.marketinghalloflegends.ca.
NEWS RELEASE
(TORONTO: June 7, 2006): The first fruitful signs are blossoming from the new programming in Brand Communication at Laurier Business & Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, funded by donors from the advertising and marketing community through the Marketing Communications Education Trust (MCET - www.mcet.ca).
The first graduates of the Bachelor of Business Administration program with a concentration in Brand Communication will receive their degrees at the School of Business' graduation ceremony on June 8, 2006 with another group of graduates expected in the Fall Convocation in October. One of the first graduates has already found a position as program manager for a software company and said in a letter to one of his professors, "I have already put the concepts you have taught me to good use here. There is little branding experience in this company (and it seems to extend to the industry in general). For this reason, my specialization in brand communication has become an invaluable resource."
Fundraising in the advertising and marketing community has now raised $1.65 million of the $2.0 million budget to fund Canada's first university chair in Brand Communication. The list of donors has grown from an initial 20 to 33 (see mcet.ca for full list). But there is still much more to do to further develop the program.
"Although we have come along way in the past two years in constructing the Brand Communication program, a number of tasks remain and we still need lots of support," says Rupert Brendon, chairman and trustee of MCET, and president and CEO of the Institute of Communications & Advertising.
The graduations represent the culmination of Phase I of the construction of North America's first Brand Communication program, funded by MCET. The broad goals of Phase I were to establish the curriculum framework, build awareness of the program, develop a teaching team and continue to develop industry contacts and participation. Through a variety of steps these goals have been achieved. (See attached report for full details).
The framework of the program has been constructed and next steps include filling in the curriculum structure, as well as well as creating the Centre of Excellence in Brand Communication. The Centre will consist of advisory groups and a research centre networked to feed into the curriculum of the Brand Communication program. The objective is to bring a more formal structure to the program and create channels to allow for the flow of information from our industry partners into the program. The Centre will consist primarily of 4 bodies:
"Over the next few months, we will be contacting our industry partners to assist in identifying the appropriate individuals to join the Advisory Groups and Executive Committee," says Brendon. "This will also provide an opportunity to clarify our industry partners' expectations and identify key timing issues, for example when co-op placements would be desired."
Other opportunities will also be examined to advance the development and profile of the Brand Communication program, including:
"Overall, Phase II will seek to build on the framework put in place over the past year," said Dr. Brad Davis, associate professor, marketing communications and research with Laurier's School of Business & Economics. "The goal will be to formalize relationships with participating organizations and ensure a continuous flow of information into the curriculum. By creating an organizational structure that facilitates interactions between our industry partners and the university, we hope to be able to bring topical issues into the classroom experience as well as coordinate activities over a longer time frame."
"We now have graduates emerging from the Brand Communication program. As we move into Phase II, we hope to be able to see the fruits of labour continue to appear in the form of an enthusiastic working relationship with our industry partners and a continuous stream of the country's most coveted Marketing graduates," said Davis.
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For more information, please contact:
Rupert Brendon at (416) 568 5969
Dr. J. Brad Davis at (519) 884-0710, ext. 2539 or bdavis@wlu.ca