1. Individual Assessment - Building a Brand
To demonstrate your understanding of the concepts discussed within the first 4 weeks, you are required to conduct a brand audit and put together recommendations for marketing a new brand of xx product (to be advised in class).
To assist you, the assignment is divided into three parts.
The objective of the first part of this assignment is to become familiar with the consumer and the competitive dynamics between brands or products in the category, and define your business opportunity:
1. Opportunity assessment:
Conduct an assessment and summarise your learning and the opportunity you are taking advantage of:
A review and description of the brand's market environment and the competitive dynamics within the category. Provide an overview of the context in which the brand operates (competitive, industry, legislative, consumer or environmental impacts). Define the opportunities you find, and which opportunity you will use to develop your new wine brand.
The objective of the second part of this assignment is to establish a positioning for your new brand.
2. Brand positioning
Arrive at an optimal competitive brand positioning by defining the competitive frame of reference and your unique proposition with any associated messaging.
Articulate your new brand's positioning. Who is your target and why? What category do you operate in and why? What is your product’s benefit? What is unique about your brand, how will you deliver this, and why is it important to your customer? What are your brand’s attributes and benefits? How does your brand make your customer feel?
The final part of the assignment builds on your learning about marketing brands or integrated brand management:
3. Recommendations for Identity and Implementation
Make recommendations for the development of the identity. Consider what elements you’d need to establish and how you would develop these.
Make recommendations to be considered for implementation across marketing communications. Put yourself in the shoes of the brand manager and put together a 12 month plan for how you will manage the brand's performance. Elaborate on the key issues for your chosen brand with a recommended plan of action. What activities would you recommend?
Tips: Evaluate and synthesise information from a variety of sources. This is also an opportunity to conduct further research discussed in this class or learnt through other courses. Conduct desk research, or primary research through friends and family. Consider that there may be multiple ways to solve the problem, and focus on one approach. Focus on launching the brand in one country (e.g. Australia) for ease of application. Evaluating a brand across multiple countries is too big a job for one assignment. Supplement your assignment with academic research.
Assignment Format
• The assignments should be no more than 3000 words and a max of 10 pages (excluding executive summary, images, table of contents, reference list and appendices). You may use PPT if you prefer, PPT should be limited to 20 slides (excluding executive summary, images, table of contents, reference list and appendices).
• Ensure your name, the date, the course name and the assignment topic are clearly identified on the front cover using the University’s Assignment Cover Sheet.
• 1.5cm line spacing in an easy-to-read font such as 11pt Arial or 12 pt Times New Roman with appropriate headings throughout.
2. Group Assignment - Case Study - Students to Present during Class in Week 11
Students will be placed in one of 3 groups and informed of these groups no later than week 5. Students will be given a topic from the second half of the semester (one of weeks 5-9) and asked to identify a brand/case on which to lead discussion in class. The group will be asked to identify and apply key points from the week's topics to the case. They will then be asked to present this back to the group in a 50 minute case leadership presentation during class in week 11. Each group must run the presentation interactively, engaging other students in the class. Each student is required to present using visual aids such as PPT (other creative forms of presentation are also encouraged), and will be marked individually for their presentation. Marks will also be given for teamwork and group cohesion.
Students who do not attend their group case study in Week 11 will receive a zero score for the assessment.
3. Class Participation
Brand Managers never work alone, and are constantly engaging with and influencing a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside the workplace. This means that they require high level skills in articulating and expressing their ideas and challenges, as well as in listening to and understanding other business needs. The ability to discuss, debate and brainstorm is critical to their success.
Students are expected to contribute actively to class discussions and express opinions and different perspectives. Participation marks will be given for active participation, not merely attendance. The mark for participation will be based on the following factors:
1. Questions, ideas and discussion during class presentations.
2. Attendance.
4. Final Exam
The final exam is 2 hour (+10 minutes reading time) closed book examination that is conducted during the official exam period and will emphasise concepts from the readings, guest lectures and issues raised in class discussions. Short and long answer essay questions can be expected.