Wednesday October 28th, 2026: College of Business invited Dr. Josiane El Khoury, a university professor specializing in media, marketing, branding, and communication, to conduct a lecture as part of College of Business Executive Lecture. In the session she explained that branding is present in our appearance, purchase and consuming choices, and experience we partake in, and that consumer perception is part of brand value, influencing our choices even when we believe they are independent.
Dr. Josiane distinguished between the functional, symbolic, and emotional value of products and introduced key concepts including brand positioning, repositioning, identity, personality, and extrinsic cues such as packaging. Examples from Apple, Samsung, and Starbucks showed how consistent brand experiences build familiarity and trust.
Several Lebanese case studies demonstrated how branding shapes perceived value. Marie France’s collaboration with a popular fashion personality illustrated brand repositioning, while Master Chips, Iceberg, and Gandour’s Pick One illustrated line extension, portfolio segmentation, and trust transfer. A story about two dairy brands from the same manufacturer highlighted how brand names shape perceived quality. Drawing on her artist management experience, she showed how a coherent branding strategy helped raise an artist’s performance fee from about $10K to $65K.
The session concluded by encouraging students to view themselves as personal brands, emphasizing that reputation is built through repeated experiences. She reminded students that an identity can be created and communicated, but an image cannot be imposed on the audience.
