Developing a Brand Extension for an Existing Brand

Working in small teams to develop a 10 minute group presentation for a brand extension, you will then need to submit a group co-authored 1000 word report explaining the new brand extension

This assignment has been designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your achievement of the following module learning outcomes:

LO 2	Demonstrate knowledge of STP  marketing planning process
LO 3	Identify the key components of the marketing environment.
LO 4	Identify research requirements to begin to solve a business/marketing problem in a company

You now need to select an existing brand (you may choose one of the brands from the CWK1 assignment or a brand of your own preference) and develop an idea for a new brand extension e.g. Dove toothpaste. This is partly a creative exercise, but it must be based on thorough research into:

1. The current values of the brand being extended

2. The potential target market for the brand extension.

This will involve academic research, secondary research and competitor research in store. It may also involve small scale primary research to establish whether your new brand extension finds acceptance with your chosen target market. However, for this assignment, marks will be awarded for the results of the primary research, not a full description of the process of carrying it out.

Conducting the Research

1. Academic Reading

You need to ensure that you have read, at the very least, chapters 6, 9 and 10 in Brassington and Pettitt’s “Essentials of Marketing” and the BB source materials available on Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism.

Also use WARC to find articles on (or related to) the topic of brand extensions – for example

WARC June 2016 :How to extend a brand

WARC News 23 January 2013 “Brand extensions favoured by shoppers”

WARC Case Study :John Lewis Insurance: The power of true brand extension marketing, IPA Effectiveness Awards, 2016

Aaker (1990) Brand Extensions: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 

You will need to make reference to appropriate Mintel reports as well as the company’s website and press articles about the existing brands. You should also try to find information about the brand’s values and existing target market. Additionally you will need to research current issues in the marketing environment (PESTEL analysis) that potentially could impact on your new product introduction.  

You will need to look at the existing products in the new suggested market to ensure that your new brand could compete effectively (e.g. with Dove toothpaste you will need to consider Colgate and Aqua fresh)

A 10-minute PowerPoint presentation with an additional 5 minute Q &A session.

Conducting the Research

The presentation needs to cover the following points

Background on the chosen brand include useful data such as market share, market size and trends in sales.

Coverage of the existing brand values supported with use of visual examples.eg advertising campaigns, company’s web site, sponsorship activities etc.

A brief explanation of the new product with reference to what growth strategy the brand is adopting. (Ansoff).

Clear identification of the proposed target market for the new brand extension ( include any primary data results if undertaken)

Any key trends and PESTEL issues that have influenced your choice of brand extension idea.

A comparative analysis of your suggested brand extension with any key competition identified in the newmarket sector.

A Visual Image of the Brand Extension showing brand name, packaging design and logo.  You also need to consider how your brand extension will be distinct from competing products.

Writing the Report

The report is a supporting document to the materials presented above and you need to include a sound academic framework to the discussion.

We suggest that you adhere to the following headings for your reports:

THIS IS WRITTEN LAST (because it is a summary of your research) BUT IT APPEARS FIRST (even before the contents page), in order to catch the attention of the reader and encourage them to read further. It should cover in one page or less:

The aims of the report,

The methods of research,

The results (top-line summary only)

Conclusions

Contents Page (Use the feature in Word to do this automatically)

This should be quite brief. It should include the aims of the report and some background on the chosen brand. Include useful data such as market share, market size and trends in sales, which you can find from the most recent Mintel reports and in the trade press

A simple statement of how the research was carried out. This is particularly important in terms of competitor research, observational research, or primary research if you included it. Ideally you should critique whether your data is sufficient to justify your conclusions.

It is suggested that you use sub-headings to make your report easier to follow. You could adopt the following headings:

1. Existing brand and Brand Values-coverage to include key academic definitions explaining what is a brand, the concept of a brand extension and a detailed examination of one academic model on branding. (i.e. Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism).

2. Description of the Target Market– a detailed description of the TA for the new brand extension supported by reference to secondary sources e.g. Mintel and TGI supported by academic coverage of STP marketing planning process.

3. Analysis of the New Market, Including Trends – PESTLE analysis and Ansoff’s Grid

4. An Explanation of the New Product(Tauber’s Brand Extension Options, product packaging, the choice of a brand name and brand positioning)

5. Competition– a comparative analysis of your suggested brand extension with any competition identified in the new market sector (this should be tabulated)

You should try to put relevant raw data in the appendices and just include a summary in the body of the report. Every time you state a fact e.g. market size, price data, sales etc. you must provide a referenced source for that fact (both in the text and in the reference list). All tables and graphs should have the source written directly underneath.

Conclusions

This is where you provide some element of evaluation of your research findings. Do you think your brand extension will be successful? Why/Why not?

Reference List

This should be listed alphabetically by Surname and should follow the rules of Harvard Referencing perfectly

Use the appendices to display any raw research data, such as pricing data.

A group log of individual contribution to the task must also be included.

You may notwrite in first person – using I, me or my.

Your report should be written in a formal business-like manner.

You may include tables and photographs in the body of the report, but they must all include the source (below and to the right) and title (to the left and above).

Please reference your work according to the Harvard style as defined in Cite Them Right Online (http://www.citethemrightonline.com). This information is also available in book form: Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2016) Cite them right: the essential reference guide. 10^th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Copies are available via the university library.

Your work will be assessed on the extent to which it demonstrates your achievement of the stated learning outcomes for this assignment (see above) and against other key criteria, as defined in the University’s institutional grading descriptors. If it is appropriate to the format of your assignment and your subject area, a proportion of your marks will also depend upon your use of academic referencing conventions.

This assignment will be marked according to the grading descriptors for Level 4 with specific guidance on mark allocation below

Writing the Report

Background on the chosen brand including coverage of existing brand values.20%

Coverage of market trends including key PESTEL issues 20%

Explanation of the new product, proposed target market and key competition. 20%

A Visual Image of the Brand Extension 10%

Presentation Skills (Creativity of images used, fluency with the material presented and timing) 30%

Research Skills   20%                                                                                                                                     

You need to demonstrate that you have spent at least a month working on this report. To do this, you need to provide evidence in the written text and in your reference list that you have engaged in research in the form of academic texts and secondary sources, such as Mintel, Trade and National Press and articles on WARC.  We will be looking for more than 10 references from a variety of sources in your reference list. If all that is mentioned in the reference list is website links and company websites, you will lose marks.

You will need to demonstrate full knowledge of a range of marketing concepts including: STP marketing, profiling target audiences, branding, and brand extension strategies. This knowledge needs to be supported via academic references and applied in full. You also need an explanation, with reference to academic text, of key models covered on the module including Kapferer’s Brand Identity Prism (in discussing the existing brand being extended from) and Ansoff’s Grid and Tauber’s Brand Extension Options (in discussing the new brand being extended to). Additionally a visual showing the application of Kapferer’s model to the brand to demonstrate your understanding is also required.

Analysis 20%                                                                                                                                                   

You need to be able to demonstrate that this brand extension will be successful. Marks for analysis will be given for your:

New Market trends/PESTLE Analysis 10%

Competitor Analysis (include in a tabulated format) 10%

Please remember the LDU’s advice regarding academic writing i.e. it must be objective, impersonal, concise, accurate and evidence-based.

Referencing   10%  

We expect you to apply the rules of Harvard Referencing in full both in the text and in the Reference List at the end of the report.

As this is a group assignment you need to submit a group log showing in detail who did what for both the presentation and report writing stages.

We will use the group log to identify inequalities in contribution and allocate individual grades if required.

This assignment should be submitted electronically. Please use the relevant Turnitin submission point in the Submit your work area in your Blackboard module shell.

Please ensure that your work has been saved in an appropriate file format. Turnitin will only accept the following file types: Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, OpenOffice (ODT), Hangul (HWP), Google Docs, or plain text. Your file must also contain at least 20 words of text, consist of fewer than 400 pages and be less than 40MB in size.

You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you do submit your work more than once, your earlier submission will be replaced by the most recent version.

Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your forwarded e-mail address (provided you have set this up). Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment.

You are reminded of the University’s regulations on academic misconduct, which can be viewed on the University website: https://bucks.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/9546/Academic-Misconduct-Policy.pdf. In submitting your assignment, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood these regulations.