Developing a Brand Extension Strategy: STP Marketing Planning Process

Assignment Overview

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

Demonstrate knowledge of STP  marketing planning process

Identify the key components of the marketing environment.

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.

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
• D. 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)

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

Coverage of market trends including key PESTEL issues

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

A Visual Image of the Brand Extension

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

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 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.

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
• Competitor Analysis (include in a tabulated format)