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FutureLearn and The University of East Anglia team up with influential brand consultants

FutureLearn, the leading social learning platform, has announced today that its partner, the University of East Anglia, will be launching the ninth run of its exceptionally popular course, ‘The Secret Power of Brands’. Created with the brand consultancy, Wolff Olins, this was the very first course to run on the FutureLearn platform, and it has so far attracted almost 85,000 enrolments. Since its launch, the course has developed to incorporate new features, including expertise from practitioners at companies such as Virgin and Google. New for this run will be fresh ideas on brand loyalty and experience design, and a chance to learn from an exciting new book on branding, ahead of publication.
Recent incidents in the media have shown us that being a guardian of your brand and protecting its credibility is more important now than it has ever been. The University of East Anglia’s course looks at what brands are, how they work and how they’re changing.
UEA’s course targets those developing a career in branding and learners who work in a related area, such as strategy, marketing or innovation, as well as those with a general interest in the topic. The course aims to support professional development and provide a taste of what a Masters in branding or brand management would be like, for those interested in the experience.
Learners will develop an understanding of how brands work and explore their role in everyday lives. They will then look at the changing world of brand management and will have the opportunity to examine the subject from a creative angle by attempting to define the concept. This will also involve looking at the brand design itself, looking at brand-led businesses and contemplating the future direction of the industry.
By the end of the course, learners will be able to:
·       Explain what a brand is, and how it influences people’s actions
·       Start to build a brand by defining a sense of purpose
·       Assess the advantages and techniques of brand-led management
·       Describe the shape, and the changing dynamics, of the branding industry
·       Evaluate the role of design in branding, and the four dimensions on which it works
·       Imagine the future of branding, and start to build personal brand
Robert Jones, strategist at the brand consultants, Wolff Olins, and visiting professor at UEA, said: “People who’ve done this course in the past tell us it’s opened their eyes. They see much more clearly how branding operates on them – both consciously and subliminally. And they uncover the techniques companies use to build the brands that surround us. We’re hoping this time to open thousands more eyes.”
Stephen Somerville, Director of Business Development at FutureLearn, commented: “This was the very first course to run on the FutureLearn platform and we’re very proud of how UEA has developed it over time as it continues to attract large cohorts of learners. The course has incorporated additional features to enable meaningful interaction and knowledge sharing, which we’re really excited about. As the industry faces dynamic changes, it’s important for those working in the field to keep abreast of what’s going on and it’s fantastic that learners will have the opportunity to address this with guidance from key practitioners in the field.”
The University of East Anglia’s course: ‘The Secret Power of Brands’ is open now for enrolment and starts on 22nd May 2017. As with all FutureLearn courses, the course can be taken for free or there is the option to upgrade for a fee to get extra benefits.

About FutureLearn: Founded by The Open University in 2012, FutureLearn is a leading social learning platform, enabling online learning through conversation. With over 6 million people from over 231 countries across the globe – a community that is continuously growing – it offers free and paid for online courses from world-leading UK and international universities, as well as organisations such as the European Space Agency, the British Council and Cancer Research UK. FutureLearn’s course portfolio covers a wealth of areas to promote lifelong learning for a range of applications including general interest, an introduction to university studies, continuing professional development and fully online postgraduate degrees.
About UEA (University of East Anglia): The University of East Anglia is an internationally renowned university providing top quality academic, social and cultural facilities to over 15,000 students from over 100 countries around the globe. We are ranked in the top 1% of universities in the world and proudly placed in the Top 20 institutions in the UK (18th Times Good University Guide 2015-16). UEA is also one of the best universities for student experience, consistently in the Top 10 for student satisfaction (Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2015).


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