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Situation & Assignment:
Congrats! You’ve landed your first job as an assistant to a brand manager. Your boss assigns this project:
(1) Review all publicly available information related to your brand and the product category/sub-category as a whole,
(2) Prepare a detailed analysis of the brand (i.e., compare and contrast marketing strategies and tactics of your brand versus its competitors), and
(3) Formulate two specific marketing strategy recommendations for your brand ( e.g. actions they are not now taking or are doing poorly)
Tasks:
(1) Your first task is to prepare a business memo with an attachment. What is the purpose of this memo? Your boss has asked for a memo describing your progress on the project. In essence, she wants to know what work you’ve completed, what you plan to do, and generally, how you plan to develop your analysis. This is your “work plan”, not your final recommendation. Make sure that the memo includes a brief introduction to your brand and the relevant product sub-category. Part of the memo might also include a timeline for where you are and what will be done and when. The business memo should be formatted as such and be a maximum of two pages, single-spaced with double spaces between paragraphs, default margins, 11-point font.
The attachment to this memo should be an annotated bibliography – a listing of (at least ten) reputable reference sources to illustrate the types of sources you plan to use in your research. You should provide a complete, appropriately formatted, citation for each reference source. Your second, and main, task is to prepare a brand analysis report that should be divided into three parts:
Part 1: Review of Product Sub-Category
Provide a short review of the market situation facing the brands in your product sub-category (including your brand and its direct competitors). This may address such relevant environmental forces as:
-key consumer behaviors and trends
-trends with respect to social forces
-political issues or changes in the political environments
-changes in the regulatory environment
-changes in relevant technology
-shifts in the nature of the competitive landscape
Notes:
• You will want to refer primarily to the Consumer Behavior
• Essentially, in this section you are conducting an “environmental scan” of the product sub-category market which includes your brand and other direct competitor brands
• This section should be around 500 words
Part 2: Brand Analysis and Comparison with Competitor Brand
Review the marketing strategy of your brand. Possible topics to discuss in this part include, but are not limited to the following:
a. Targeting and Market Segmentation Strategy: For this section refer to the concepts Targeting & Segmentation. Topics to cover include:
• What is the target market (or markets) for the brand?
• What market segmentation strategies are used? What variables are used to determine the various market segments, for example, demographics, psychographics, product uses, etc.?
b. Product Positioning and Management Strategy: For this section refer to the concepts on Product Positioning, on New Product Development, and on Product Management and Branding
• What product positioning (or repositioning) strategies have been used by the brand?
• What product management strategies have been used by the brand? (e.g., PLC management, new product development, market/product modification)
• What branding strategies and brand elements are used to position the brand? (e.g., brand personality, brand equity, brand licensing, multi-branding, multiproduct branding, co-branding) Make sure to discuss competitive differences and advantages
c. Promotion: For this section refer to the concepts covered in on Integrated Marketing Communications and Promotional Tools.
• What specific promotional tools are important and used for each of the brands? How are they used? (e.g., advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing)
• If advertising is used, what media, strategies and message content are used?
d. Distribution: For this section refer to the concepts on Marketing Channels and Retailing.
• What distribution strategies are used and why?
• What types of distribution channels are used and why? Are intermediaries used?
• Are there any key partnerships for the brand?
e. Pricing: For this section refer to the concepts on Pricing.
• What types of pricing strategies are used for this brand in relation to its competitors? Discuss any relevant pricing objectives or constraints.
Notes:
• If you feel that some of these topics are more pertinent to the marketing strategy of your brand(s) compared to others, spend more time discussing these. Some topics are going to be extremely important whereas some topics may not be relevant to your brand.
• This section should be around 1000 words.
Part 3: Brand Recommendations
Based on the issues you have identified in Part 2, present two well-founded ideas for improving the competitive position of your brand in the product sub-category. This section should present the pros and cons of each idea. Justify these ideas with supporting analyses and logic.
Notes:
• This section should be around 750 words.
• This is where you can get creative; however, your ideas must also be realistic and supported by logic and reasoning.
• Be as specific as possible with your recommendations; make sure they are clear and concrete.
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Additional Instructions and Guidance:
• Use subheadings to organize your report and provide structure for the reader.
• Bold specific marketing terms that we have covered in class lectures and/or are taken from your text.
• The report must contain a minimum of four figures (charts, exhibits, graphs, tables, or other useful illustrations). These are not included in the word count. They should be embedded within your surrounding text as this will make it easier to read for your boss. Make sure that you label each figure and also refer to the figure within the text, for example (see Figure 1 below). Avoid confusing, uninformative, ill-conceived, simplistic and sloppy figures! I strongly encourage you to make some of your own figures and not simply copy and paste from your references. If you adopt or construct a figure using information from a reference you must cite the reference in the label for the figure.
Figure 1: The 4 P’s of Marketing
• The report should be single-spaced with double spaces between paragraphs/sections, default margins, 11-point font.
• Make sure your writing is concise and to-the-point and your claims are based on objective evidence.
• The tone of the report should be formal and professional, so choose your wording appropriately; points will be deducted for informal writing (e.g., avoid slang, short-hand, etc.)
• Remember that your writing style and presentation quality will be graded. Every instance of improper grammar, spelling, typos, unclear writing, sloppiness or error in formatting will result in a deduction in grade.
• Staple your report together. No plastic report covers, bindings or paper clips.
• Please make sure that you cite sources within the text using (for example) footnotes
• Your footnotes should be reduced to 9-point font to avoid taking up too much space
• Your citations should include the author(s) name(s), the title of the article, the title of the publication, the year of the publication, and a website address when appropriate. If you include a hyperlink to your articles, make sure this is able to be accessed by all readers of the document!
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