Take Your Brand Management To The Next Level
The term brand management can mean different things to different people. This lack of clarity in the industry leads to brands often being created without a clear strategy, leadership and communication breakdowns, and confusion among agency partners.
This small-group, online training will teach you exactly what brand management is and how the best brand managers think about their businesses, prioritize projects and grow their careers. You’ll learn core frameworks and project prioritization methods, how to best collaborate with cross-functional partners, key areas to develop a career in brand management, and how brands analyze and judge the financial performance/ROI of key initiatives.
6 Weeks | September 18 – October 30
Want to join as a group? Get 10% off pricing by purchasing 3 or more tickets!
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What to Expect
This cohort-style Bootcamp is the perfect mix of live instruction and self-paced learning. The six-week program lets you focus on bite-sized chunks of programming so you can refine your skills, meet new people and watch your career gain momentum. Best yet, you’ll have equally motivated peers alongside the whole way to help share new ideas and push through challenges.
Weekly Assignments
Each Wednesday, you’ll be given online assignments to complete and discuss with fellow learners. These assignments will prepare you for the live sessions so you can make the most of your time with the instructor and peer collaboration.
4 Live Classes
Your instructor leads the live sessions where you will discuss the online assignments, ask questions and learn about trending topics. The live sessions will occur on September 18, October 2, October 16, and October 30.
Prove your new skills! When you finish this program, you’ll get a certificate of completion to show your current boss and future employers your commitment to keeping your knowledge up-to-date.
Who Will Benefit?
This intermediate-level training is designed for:
- Brand and marketing managers tasked with creating and executing brand strategies and projects (“client-side”)
- Agencies, consultants and freelancers who work for/collaborate with brand management clients and want to become better strategic partners
- Small business owners who want insight into how brand leaders manage larger brands
Key Takeaways
- Understand the strategic planning process most brands follow
- Learn the four primary ways that brands can grow
- Discover insight into the brand manager role and key responsibilities
- Learn major focus areas for career development in brand management
- Identify key cross-functional partnerships that brand managers must create
- Learn the positioning concept and framework that big brand managers use
- Understand key criteria for positioning success (evaluation and improvement)
- Discover brand manager financial responsibilities
- Review profit and loss (P&L) breakdown—what it is and how brands make money
- Learn pricing strategy considerations and implications
- Receive product cost model examples
- Learn how brand managers judge and measure advertising value
AMA Members Get the Best Pricing
Not only do members get discounts on training like this, but they also receive exclusive content, downloadable tools, unlimited access to AMA Journals, membership in networking communities and more.
Are you an AMA Professional Certified Marketer®️? This training is worth 12 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to maintain your PCM®️ certification.
Pre-Work
Review the Platform & Introduce Yourself
Before the course begins, spend some time reviewing the course platform. You should know: where to access the weekly lessons, activities, and complete the pre-work discussion prompt.
Get to know your peers by sharing where you’re based, what industry you work in, and what your most common challenges are with brand management. What are you most looking forward to in the course?
September 18, 2025 - Live Session & First Assignment
Introduction & Setting the Stage
During this live session, join your instructor and peers to discuss how the course will run and set expectations.
- Instructor Intro/Welcome & Meet Your Peers
- Cvent Walkthrough (AMA moderator)
- What are you looking to get out of the course? What expectations can we set for each other and the live sessions?
Please note that all Live Session classes are listed in Central Time Zone.
Brand Management 101
You will learn tips to handle the basic blocking and tackling of running a brand. We will start with an overview of the brand planning process, and then discuss the various responsibilities that fall under brand management.
If you’ve ever wondered if you are properly covering all the right areas in your role and practicing complete brand management, then these lessons are for you.
Lessons covered:
- Strategic Brand Planning
- Brand Manager Responsibilities
- Brand Management Expectations
September 25, 2025
Cross-Functional Partnership
One key challenge of brand management is that you have to direct a wide array of cross-functional peers, but none of them actually report to you. So, how do you get anything done? In week 2 we will cover each key organizational function and learn how to work best with each key stakeholder. You’ll also get tips and a framework to help you reach out and work better with your peers.
Lessons covered:
- Organizational Roles and Tensions
- Cross-Collaboration Tips
October 2, 2025 - LIVE SESSION #2 & Assignment
During this live session, join your instructor and peers to discuss the content and activities covered in the first two weeks. Come prepared with questions and to discuss your progress on the first two assignments.
- Open Q&A regarding the first two lessons: what questions do you still have?
- Brand Management 101
- Cross Functional Partnership
- Ask for volunteers to share any progress or challenges they have from the recommended activities. How can the group provide support?
- What are your indicated actions regarding priorities and collaboration?
Please note that all Live Session classes are listed in Central Time Zone.
Brand Positioning
You will learn the skills needed to write a clear and effective brand positioning statement – an essential tool that enables breakthrough communications and sets up innovation for success. You’ll leave with a clear framework you can implement right away, or use it to improve your current toolset.
Lessons covered:
- Elements of Brand Positioning
- Positioning Statements
- Brand Positioning Template
October 9, 2025
Evaluation Criteria
Because positioning is such an essential element of a successful strategy, we will spend some additional time in week 4 diving deeper into success criteria for positioning. You’ll learn how to tell if your positioning is ready for implementation and, if not, how to improve it to make it even stronger.
Lessons covered:
- Criteria for successful positioning
- Positioning audit
October 16, 2025 - LIVE SESSION #3 & Assignment
During this live session, join your instructor and peers to discuss the content and activities covered in the last two weeks. Come prepared with questions and to discuss your progress on the first two assignments.
- Open Q&A regarding the first two lessons: what questions do you still have?
- Brand Positioning
- Evaluation Criteria
- Ask for volunteers to share any progress or challenges they have from the recommended activities. How can the group provide support?
- Live positioning statement review and instructor feedback
Please note that all Live Session classes are listed in Central Time Zone.
Brand Finance
Brand managers are often accountable for the financial health of the business. But what does that actually mean? In week 5 you will learn how to read and create P&L statements, how to calculate key brand financial metrics, and learn the levers you can pull to unlock financial growth.
Lessons covered:
- Profit & Loss
- Revenue Growth
- Financial Challenges
October 23, 2025
Advertising Value & Measurement
In our final week, you will learn how brands determine the effectiveness of advertising, how to calculate ROI and ROAS, and apply your new financial skills using a fun case study example.
Lessons covered:
- Advertising Value
- ROI vs. ROAS
- Advertising Metrics
October 30, 2025 - FINAL LIVE SESSION
Wrap Up & Final Review
During this live session, join your instructor and peers to discuss the content and activities covered in the final two weeks and bring closure to the course. Come prepared with questions and to discuss your biggest takeaways from the course.
- Recap the recent lessons: what questions do you still have?
- Brand Finance
- Advertising Value & Measurement
- Ask for volunteers to share any progress or challenges they have from the recommended activities. How can the group provide support?
- Live finance activity answer review & feedback
- Wrap Up –
- What are your biggest takeaways from the course?
- What can you do next to continue practicing and learning about brand management?
Please note that all Live Session classes are listed in Central Time Zone.
Kevin Namaky
CEO, Gurulocity Brand Management InstituteDuring his 20 years as a Brand & Innovation Director and as SVP Head of Strategy at a global brand strategy and innovation consulting firm, Kevin has created billions in new value for companies through winning strategic plans, new product innovation, and compelling marketing campaigns.
A trained educator, he’s taught in classrooms, workshops, conferences and boardrooms, and has trained over 1,000 brand managers. Kevin’s training, coaching and consulting clients include companies such as Scotts Miracle-Gro, Capital One, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Ubisoft, Formica, Bolthouse Farms, Gorilla Brands, Rare Beauty, Dole Foods, Sephora and Ancestry.com.
Kevin also lectures at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and has been featured in Ad Age, Forbes, Fast Company and the CMO Council.
Who should attend?
This intermediate-level training is designed for:
- Brand and marketing managers tasked with creating and executing brand strategies and projects (“client-side”)
- Agencies, consultants and freelancers who work for/collaborate with brand management clients and want to become better strategic partners
- Small business owners who want insight into how brand leaders manage larger brands
Will the live sessions be recorded?
Yes, the live sessions will be recorded and available for six months. However, we strongly encourage you to attend live to maximize your opportunity for peer collaboration.