The Role and Impact of Brands in Modern Society

The Significance of Brands for Managers and Consumers

1,500 word essay, 30% of module mark

Brands have become a ubiquitous and omnipresent phenomenon in our contemporary world. They are indispensable for companies and consumers alike. Critically discuss this contention.

HOW TO APPROACH THE ESSAY: In order to answer the question you should explain why (you believe/think) brands have become an important issue for managers and consumers and such widespread phenomenon within society in general.

You should develop a coherent and balanced argument why you believe/think this is the case (i.e. do not settle for the first possible reason/explanation you come across but the most convincing ones to you and seek to include more than only one reason/explanation with evidence in support of your essay).

This also means that based on your explanation and line of reasoning you should come up with possible positive and negative implications of this development for companies, consumers and society at large.

GENERAL GUIDANCE: In this assignment you need to draw on the key issues, perspectives and concepts introduced during the first part of the term. You need to support your answers with appropriate academic sources (i.e., academic articles presenting concepts/theories and articles reporting empirical research studies) and may provide examples (from business practice/daily life/news and media sources) in order to show your understanding and in support of your line of reasoning advanced in the essay.

Read the coursework question carefully and make sure you address all parts of the question in your essay! There is no one right or definitive answer to this essay but you need to show that you can develop a reasonable and well-balanced argument supported by evidence.

Your assignment must include a title page (with the title of the question, the module name, and your registration number, but not your name!) and a list of references, which includes all articles, books and other sources you have used and cited in the body of the text. You must follow the Harvard style of referencing. You must check your essay for errors in spelling and grammar using Standard English (which is British English and not American English or other derivatives; e.g. colour not color, organisation not organization and so on). The coursework needs to be written in an academic style following general guidelines on essay writing and the guidelines included in the module (study) guide.

Please note that the 1,500 word limit includes in-text citations and direct quotations (the latter should be kept to a minimum in any essay), but excludes the list of references.

The deadline for submission to FASer is Tuesday, 19th November 2019 by 10.00 am.

In submitting coursework online, it is assumed that you have read and understood the University’s academic offences guidelines and procedures. Please note that all coursework is being monitored by plagiarism detection software. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the reference database of the respective software solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.

The university regulations state amongst other things that

The University, the Students’ Union and the University’s Partner Institutions expect all students:

1. to behave with honesty and integrity in relation to coursework, examinations and other assessed work;

2. to be familiar and act in accordance with the conventions of academic writing including appropriate referencing of sources and acknowledgement of assistance;

3. to show understanding of ethical considerations and be compliant with the relevant UniversityProcedures.

A student who does not comply with any of these requirements (either intentionally or by negligence) may be charged with having committed an academic offence.” (Academic Offences Procedures 2019-20, A1.1, p. 4) “…a student may be found guilty of an academic offence whether or not there has been any intention to deceive; that is, a judgement that negligence has occurred is sufficient to determine guilt.” (Academic Offences Procedures 2019-20, 4.2, p. 11)