Assessment Brief
Academic year and term: 2021 – Spring Semester
Module title: Branding
Module code:
Module Convener:
Learning outcomes assessed within this piece of work as agreed at the programme level meeting Knowledge:
Develop an in-depth knowledge of branding as part of marketing management and its relationship to the wider organisational objectives including corporate social responsibility.
Intellectual/transferrable:
Recognise challenges in branding and understand how to respond to them through the identification of appropriate conceptual and practical tools.
Type of assessment: Formative assessment:
Group-based report (maximum 500 words)
Summative assessment:
Individual business report (3000 words)
Assessment deadline:
Instructions for assessment
A. Formative assessment
The formative assessment for this module takes the form of a group-based report. You will be asked to conduct an analysis of the evolution of the positioning of a brand of your choice. Who is the target market of the brand? Who is the key competition? What are the points of parity and the points of difference of the brand against key competition? How have these elements changed over time?
Note that you can select any type of brand. It can be a consumer goods brand (e.g., Twinings), a service brand (Vodafone), a retailer brand (e.g., Tesco), a consumer electronics or technology brand (e.g., Apple), a luxury brand (e.g., Burberry), a fashion brand (e.g., Next), a corporate brand (e.g., Unilever), or a celebrity brand (e.g., Kim Kardashian), to give some examples.
You will need to include your analysis in a report of maximum 500 words and submit it via Turnitin.
B. Summative assessment
The summative assessment for this module consists in an individual business report on a self-selected brand. You will need to identify a brand, of any type, that is currently having some image issues (e.g., not clear what it stands for, perceived as old-fashioned and out-of-date), analyse its current positioning, develop a new positioning, and elaborate managerial recommendations to bring this new positioning to life.
The word limit for this assessment is 3,000 words including tables and figures but excluding references.
Your report should include the following sections:
1. An introduction which briefly presents the brand chosen and explains the reasons behind your choice. Why did you select this brand? What are the image issues this brand is currently going through? The choice of your brand should be supported by some type of evidence such as facts from the news or data from industry reports. (About 500 words)
2. An analysis of the current positioning of the brand. Who is the target market? Who is the key competition? What are the points of parity (POPs) and the points of difference (PODs) of the brand against key competition? (About 1000 words)
3. Develop a new brand positioning. Keeping in mind your previous analysis on target market, competition, POPS and PODs, how should the current brand positioning be different? What aspects of the current positioning should be maintained, if any? What aspects should be changed? (About 1000 words)
4. Development of managerial recommendations about how to bring the new brand positioning to life. For instance, what communication leverages should be used to implement the new brand positioning with the target market? How should these leverages be integrated with one another? (About 500 words)
5. A bibliography which includes all the references that you used to carry out your brand analysis. (Not included in the word count)
