Assessment Task - Brand Strategy Report

Select a branded product of your choice. If possible, please select a smaller goods and/or service provider. This could include B2B, B2C, not-for-profits, government bodies. It could also be a family business or a business that you are currently working with or would like to work with or start up.

Task a:

Explain your choice of company and branded product including an image of your brand and product choice (goods or service) and provide a break up of the target market, and appropriate attributes and benefits hand in to tutorial upload to Blackboard to confirm that your selection is appropriate for this task.

Part b:

Task b Description

Using relevant branding theory and concepts critically analyse and evaluate the current branding strategy and practices being used by the marketing organisation for the brand. Then creatively apply key branding theory and concepts to make recommendations for improving the branding strategy and building brand equity. The Brand Audit for Rolex on pages 315-321 can be used as a general guide ONLY - however, be sure that you address each of the points outline below.

Assessment Criteria

- Demonstration of a comprehensive knowledge and clear understanding of key branding theories and concepts
- Thorough and critical analysis and evaluation of one marketing organisation's current branding strategy and practice
- Creative application of key branding theory and salient concepts for making feasible recommendations for improving the marketing organisation's branding strategy and building brand equity
- Effective written report skills

**Marking criteria for this assessment item are provided below. Note the relative importance of each section of the report as indicated by percentage weightings.

Demonstration of a comprehensive knowledge and clear understanding of key branding theories and concepts

Both of the main sections of the report must be grounded in theory and you must blend theory with the application. Marks will be awarded for use of relevant theory and appropriate and credible sources.

Critical Analysis and Evaluation of Current Branding Strategy and Practice

Basically in this section, you are evaluating the current branding strategy and marketing programs and activities to determine how well the brand has achieved (or appeared to have achieved) customer-based brand equity. If you have an opportunity to discuss this with the producers or actual or potential customers, then you will be able to gain a richer perspective - however, this is not essential and the report can be based on your educated observations. It is very important to provide a theoretical foundation for your analysis and evaluation and to justify your arguments.

Issues to be covered in this section include:

1. Background to company, industry and product

Company (when established, scope and size of operations, product lines)

Industry (what industry and current state/nature of industry - operating environment)

Product - nature and type of product, product category, define the five levels of the product.

2. Customer-based brand equity (refer to Chapter 2)

How and to what extent has the firm achieved (or appeared to achieve) customer-based brand equity?

What are the key sources of brand equityfor the brand (brand awareness and brand image)?

How strong (relevant and consistent), favourable (desirable and deliverable) and unique are the brand associations?

How well has the organisation facilitated achieved (or appeared to have achieved) each stage of brand development(CBBE pyramid) with current and potential customers? (If a start-up, discuss how you expect your organisation to be evaluated by their target market in these areas.)

Salience - To what extent has the organisation achieved both breadth and depth of brand awareness?

Performance - How well does the brand appear to meet customers' functional needs and how do customers view the performance of the brand including service aspects?

Imagery - How well does the brand appear to meet customers' psychological and social needs and how do customers view the brand in terms of intangible aspects?

Judgements - How is the brand viewed overall in terms of quality, credibility, consideration and superiority?

Feelings - What are customers' emotional responses and reactions? What types of brand feelings are evoked by the brand?

Resonance - What is the nature of the relationship customers have with the brand? Consider loyalty, attachment, sense of community and engagement?

To what extent does the organisation have (or appear to have) a customer focus? For example, does the organisation formally manage customer relationships?

How important is customer equity to the organisation? If important, how does the organisation seek to maximise customer equity?

3. Brand Positioning (Refer to Chapter 3)

What is (or, if a start-up, will be) the apparent brand positioning? Justify your arguments.

Who is the target market?

Provide a profile of the key target market in the appendices of the report.

Who are the main competitors?

How is the brand similar to competitors (points of parity)?

How is the branddifferent from competitors (points of difference)?

What is the brand's competitive frame of reference and how is that communicated to consumers?

What are the main points of difference?

How desirable and deliverable are those points of difference appear to be from the consumers' perspective?

Draw a mental map for the brand that captures core brand associations.

What is the role of a brand mantra?

Does the brand have a mantra - if so, critique how effective the mantra is in terms of expressing the brand essence or core brand promise - if not, discuss how a brand mantra should be developed.

4. Brand Elements (Refer to Chapter 4)

What branding elements does the organisation use for the brand?

Critically evaluate each of the branding elements on the six key criteria for choosing brand elements.

How effective are the various branding elements (brand name, URL, logos/slogans, jingles, packaging design) in building brand identity and brand equity (achieving brand awareness and/or reinforcing important attribute or benefit associations)?

5. Marketing Program and Activities (Refer to Chapters 5 and 6)
Critically evaluate the current marketing program and activities in terms of its apparent effectiveness in building brand equity.

To what extent has the organisation sought to personalise the marketing program? That is, has the organisation used experiential marketing, one-to-one marketing or permission based marketing to adapt to consumers' desires for greater personalisation?

Product - Has the product been designed, manufactured, marketed, sold, delivered and services in ways that lead to customer-based brand equity? Does it offer the desired mix of tangible and intangible benefits?

Price - Has the organisation set a fair price that reflect consumers' perceptions of value? Do the organisation's pricing strategies and tactics build brand equity?

Channel - Has the organisation designed and managed its channel strategy in ways that build brand equity (brand awareness and brand image)?

Promotion - How effective is the current marketing communication strategy in establishing and building brand equity(brand awareness and brand image) (consider - coverage, contribution, commonality, complementarity, versatility, and cost)? What elements have been included in the IMC mix and how effective are they? How effective is the message strategy and creative strategy in communicating the desired positioning?

6. Leveraging Secondary Associations (Chapter 7)

What secondary associations are or could be associated with the brand?
To what extent has the organisation effectively leveraged secondary associations for building brand equity?

Recommendations for improving the branding strategy and building brand equity

In this section, you are required to use your creativity to arrive at innovative recommendations for improving the branding strategy and building brand equity (brand awareness and brand image). Your recommendations will be driven by your analysis and evaluation, and where you identified gaps of deficiencies in the current branding strategy. Don't forget to provide a theoretical foundation for your recommendations.

Issues to be covered in this section include (These may overlap and do not need to be covered more than once):

- How could the organisation better build customer-based brand equity?
- How can the brand be more effectively positioned both now and over time?
- Developing or improving a brand mantra - if appropriate
- How could branding elements be developed and/or improved to be more effective in terms or establishing brand identity and building brand equity?
- How can the organisation's marketing program and activities (May include some or all of the marketing mix (product, communication, pricing channel strategiesand the 3 service P's) if appropriate) be improved to build brand equity?
- How could the organisation more effectively leverage secondary associations?