Business Report on Positioning a Brand

Current Positioning Analysis

A.Formative assessment

The formative assessment represents a unique opportunity to test your understanding of, and ability to correctly and creatively apply, concepts that are part of your summative assessment .

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brand that is currently having some image issues (i.e., not clear what it stands for, or perceived as old-fashioned and out-of-date), analyse its current positioning, develop a new positioning and managerial recommendations to bring this new positioning to life.

Note that you can select any type of brand. It can be a consumer goods brand (e.g., Bird’s Eye), a retailer brand (e.g., WHSmith), a consumer electronics or technology brand (e.g., Apple), a luxury brand (e.g., D&G), a fashion brand (e.g., Abercrombie & Fitch), a corporate brand (e.g., Unilever), or a celebrity brand (e.g., Britney Spears), to give some examples.

1.An introduction which explains the reasons behind the choice of your brand. 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.

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?

3.Development of a new brand positioning. How should the current brand positioning be different? What elements of the current positioning should be maintained, if any? What elements should be changed

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 one another? Although you do not have a budget, you must be realistic and develop feasible managerial recommendations. This means, for example, that if you choose a small, local brand, you cannot include TV advertising in your recommendations.

5.A bibliography which includes all the references that you used to carry out your brand analysis. (Not included in the word count)

Resit assignment details

Resit submission date: TBC and as shown on Moodle

For students who are offered a resit you are required to improve and resubmit your original work as well as adding a further reflective commentary discussing what you have learned from the process.

New Brand Positioning Development

You must resubmit your work using the specific resit Turnitin link on Moodle.

You should:

1.      Review your previously submitted work and read carefully the feedback given by the marker.

2.      Use this feedback to help you revisit and rewrite your work, improving it in the areas identified as weak in the original marking process

3.      Include with your resubmission an additional reflective piece on what you understand was weak, how you set about addressing this and what you have learned from this that may help you with further assignments. You should address the following specifically:

i) Identify tutor feedback points on your original work and identify where/how the resit work has changed (give page number) in response to feedback

ii) Identify the lessons you have learnt from doing the resit

iii) Reflect on how your feedback and this process will help you improve future assignments

How will we support you with your assessment?

·Assessment briefing Week 1 (lecture).

·Dedicated seminar session on your formative assessment in Week 6.

·In Week 8, feedback session on your formative assessment and tutorial session to support the development of your summative assessment.

·Tutorial session to support the completion of your summative assessment in Week 11.

·FAQs will be posted on the module’s Moodle site.

How will your work be assessed?

Your work will be assessed by a subject expert who will use the marking grid provided in this assessment brief.  When you access your marked work it is important that you reflect on the feedback so that you can use it to improve future assignments

You MUST use the Harvard System.  The Harvard system is very easy to use once you become familiar with it.

Assignment submissions

Mitigating circumstances/what to do if you cannot submit a piece of work or attend your presentation

The University Mitigating Circumstances Policy can be found on the University website - Mitigating  Circumstances Policy.

Marking and feedback process Between you handing in your work and then receiving your feedback and marks within 20 days, there are a number of quality assurance processes that we go through to ensure that students receive marks which reflects their work. A brief summary is provided below.

·Step One – The module and marking team meet to agree standards, expectations and how feedback will be provided.

·Step Two – A subject expert will mark your work using the criteria provided in the assessment brief.

·Step Three – A moderation meeting takes place where all members of the teaching and marking team will review the marking of others to confirm whether they agree with the mark and feedback.

·Step Four – Work at Levels 5 and 6 then goes to an external examiner who will review a sample of work to confirm that the marking between different staff is consistent and fair.  

Step Five – Your mark and feedback is processed by the Office and made available to you.