LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on branding are to:

• discuss the concept of branding and its aspects;
• watch an excerpt of a conversation with a professional and make notes.

In this lesson, students talk about famous brands, define the word ‘branding’, make assumptions about what a brand is not and check their ideas with the video. Students also express their perspectives on issues related to branding using useful phrases (e.g. convey a message, stand out from, go hand in hand with, etc.).

WARM-UP & VIDEO

This ESL lesson on branding starts with a warm-up activity. Students look at pairs of famous brands (e.g. Pepsi or Coca-Cola, Netflix or Disney+, Apple or Samsung, etc.) and choose one in each pair. They also have to explain their choice. Then, they complete the quotes about branding and say which brands from the warm-up the quotes are true for. After that, students move on to video activities. First, they look at the words (logo, product, promise, impression) and discuss if they agree that a brand is not these things. Then, students watch the video and check their ideas. After that, they watch the second part of the video and complete the notes about different perspectives of branding. 

VOCABULARY & DISCUSSION

In this part of the ESL lesson on branding, students discuss the concept more as well as explore different types of branding and talk about their aspects. First, students express their perspectives by reading the statements about branding. The statements contain bolded phrases (e.g. stand for, appeal to, be consistent with, etc.) that students can use in the discussion. After that, they talk about different types of branding: personal branding, employer branding, and co-branding.They start from defining each type of branding and then move on to discussing the questions about them using key vocabulary. At the end of this ESL lesson on branding, students talk about some famous examples of co-branding.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This ESL lesson on branding also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students complete the text about another type of branding to revise useful phrases from the lesson. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.