Successful companies have one thing in common: a strong brand. Steve Forbes (founder and publisher of Forbes magazine) described the brand as the most important investment a company can make. Successful business development therefore requires equally successful brand management. Brand building and management have been popular topics ever since Steve Jobs’ widely viewed interviews and Apple’s staggering brand valuation (between $503 billion and $880 billion in 2023, depending on the valuation firm). However, branding is rarely offered as a standalone master’s specialization at universities.
Until now.

With “THE BRAND LAB by Level C,” we’ve succeeded in bringing Level C–the experts in brand building and management led by Marty Neumeier–into higher education for the first time, in a program that’s unique worldwide. Marty Neumeier was Steve Jobs’ strategic brand consultant, is considered the founding father of brand thinking, and, together with Andy Starr, launched the visionary brand education program Level C in 2019. In Level C’s masterclasses, experienced brand experts from Disney, Zoom, Ferrari, Puma, and many more share their expertise at the highest level. At the same time, Level C collaborates with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Liquid Death, Dr. Oetker, MillerKnoll, and Bialetti on groundbreaking and disruptive strategies on a global scale.

The Level C program is typically aimed at experienced executives–but now, for the first time, it is being offered to college students. In the “THE BRAND LAB” specialization within the Master’s program in Business Development & Management, students gain exposure to the latest insights, disruptive techniques, and interdisciplinary, networked thinking–knowledge that is often accessible only to companies with multi-million budgets. What makes the program unique is that students also collaborate with experienced Level C experts during the courses.