Brand Marketing Team Brand Audit Projec

Brand Marketing Team Brand Audit Project

John Krupa Jr. MRKT6035
Graduate Studies – College of Management

Students will form brand management teams in groups of 3 or 4 to work on this project. Your assignment will be to take a brand of your teams choosing and conduct a brand audit.

Anatomy of a Brand Audit
A brand audit provides an analysis of an organizations brand and its brand management and marketing effectiveness. It assesses a brands strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It identifies brand growth opportunities including those achieved by brand repositioning and brand extension. The audit should result in recommendations to improve brand equity, brand positioning, and brand management and marketing effectiveness.
General Guidelines
o Every team must study a different brand from among the worlds leading 100 brands published by Interbrand each year – http://interbrand.com/best-brands/best-global-brands/2016/ranking/ Brands are assigned on a “first come, first served” basis. Each team will submit one formal final written document.

will be a summary of the teams research and present your teams ideas & recommended strategy from your analysis that will reinforce or revitalize the brand into the future. A complete final detailed written report combining all sections will be due week 10 at the time of your final presentation.

 

 

 

 

The following pages contain the project outline and some additional resource tools that should be utilized in the course of the project.

Brand Audit Project Outline

Section I: BRAND OVERVIEW (10%)
o Background & history of brand to be studied
o Background about the industries
o Consumer analysis: trends, motivation, perceptions, needs, segmentation, behavior
o Current situation analysis overall company & industry performance

Section II – BRAND EXPLORATORY (15%): Uncovers brand knowledge structures for the core brand as well as its competitors. Provide detailed information as to how consumers perceive the brand; awareness, favorability & uniqueness of associations. Uncover the knowledge structures for the core brand as well as its competitors
o Brand Associations: what consumers think of the brand and its corresponding product category; create a Mental Map for your brand (example p. 151 of text; handout example)
o Brand positioning analysis: create positioning statement & positioning map relative to competition (see pages 6 & 7 of this guide).
o What are the overall consumer perceptions vs. competition?
o Brand mantra does one exist? If not able to be found (usually the case) what would you recommend (see text & week 3 class handout). Typically, a mantra is not a company slogan.

Section III – BRAND INVENTORY (15%):Suggests the basis for the brands positioning; offers insights to how the brands equity may be better managed by assessing the consistency in message among many of the brands marketing activities.
o Assess the brands elements for your brand what are they? Do a complete inventory using the 6 criteria / guidelines discussed in class.
How does the brand build/defend them?
How do the various brand elements help achieve brand objectives (how do their usage relate to the) what are the affects/effects?
o Current marketing programs; give examples:
How well are they designed?
Do they support the brands equity?
(POPs) and points-of-difference (PODs)

Section IV – BRANDING STRATEGIES (15%):How does the company approach its market(s) – extensions, sub-brands, secondary brand associations, etc. Create and discuss a brand portfolio / hierarchy analysis – a graphical/visual representation of all products sold by the brand
Illustrate the relationships among the firms products / brands
Are there commonalities or distinctions between the various brand elements?
o Competitors brand inventory; compare your inventory to competition; discuss similarities and differences.

Section V – SWOT ANALYSIS (15%)
o Conduct / research SWOTs analysis for your brand (library databases; see section in handout for guidelines)

Section VI – STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS (20%)
o Discuss your teams ideas & recommended strategy to reinforce or revitalize the brand into the future; what is your rationale; why will your idea(s) enhance the future equity of the brand
o What possible relationships may be formed among the firms products to create or capture opportunities realized in the SWOT analysis?
o Will you need to make any adjustments to the brands portfolio?
o How will your recommendations enhance consumer awareness and image associations of the brand?
o Are your recommendations consistent with your brands mantra?

FINAL TEAM PAPER & PRESENTATION
Your teams challenge is to present your findings, conclusions, and creative ideas outlined in your project paper in a 15-20 minute presentation given to the class (week 10).
Paper Organization: Use of Heading and Sub-headings for each subject area; in-paper citations (APA 6th edition); see note about research references below
Creativity /Style / Professionalism
Use of Visuals
Grammar/Spelling/Format/Citation of sources APA Format

Presentation Guidelines:
Your group presentation should be a top-line summary of the key points.
Presentations should be limited to approximately 10 minutes in duration allowing for some brief class discussion (practice makes perfect).
Use of visuals (i.e. PowerPoint) is required. Printouts of presentation slides should be included as an appendix to your final paper.
It is expected that each group member will present.
Professional dress is not a requirement; professional etiquette is be ready, on-time, and consider your audience.

Note: Final paper should also incorporate final versions of your previous mental map and brand hierarchy exercises.

Note: a minimum of 5 outside references NOT including the company website must be included in your overall research and must be cited in the document using the citation format above.

Final Team Presentation Evaluation Rubric

Team Presentation Evaluation Rubric Excellent Good Fair Poor
Introduction to Class 4 3 2 1
Organization of Presentation 4 3 2 1
Quality of Visual Aids 4 3 2 1
Major Points Outlined 4 3 2 1
Evidence of Industry Knowledge 4 3 2 1
Strong Conclusion 4 3 2 1
Completed in Allotted Time 4 3 2 1
Style 4 3 2 1
Creativity 4 3 2 1
Evidence of Teamwork 4 3 2 1

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: Following page materials provide guides to accomplishing various steps of the Brand Audit Project

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Strengths are those aspects of the internal environment that can help the firm address a present problem, issue, or opportunity: includes organizational capabilities, processes excelled at, protected intellectual properties (patents, brand strength, etc.), customer relationships, experienced management team, etc.,

Weaknesses are also internal to the company and are negative factors or deficiencies that do not allow the firm to reach its full potential. Usually concern missing capabilities, inefficient processes, poor customer experiences or relationships, gaps in management skill sets, etc.

Opportunities / Threats: Exist outside (external to) the boundaries of the firm. All opportunities and threats will exist at their present levels even if the organization in question does not exist.
Opportunities come about because of changes in the marketplace, improved cost structures, government regulation favoring companys products, etc.
Threats arise usually due to new or stronger competition, increased costs, problematic regulations, etc.

All issues that affect the success of an organization’s strategies, but the organization has only limited influence on them.

Generally, the SWOT analysis is portrayed as a matrix containing brief bullet pointed summary text with strengths listed over weakness and opportunities over threats.

 

Example SWOT Analysis

Resource Guide on How to Create a Positioning (Perceptual) Map

Positioning refers to the perception of a product in the minds of consumer in relation to its competing product. A positioning map is a graphical device that helps you visualize your brand and its products in the market place, relative to competitive brands and their products. You can use positioning maps to define an overall product strategy before creating a product, or to craft the unique value proposition and messaging for the brand overall.
It is a basically a graph that represents the strength or extent of the two product characteristics on x and y-axis. For example, to find relative position of different brands of coffee shops in respect of customer perception of comfort of their environment and food and beverage choices. the graph may represent choice along x-axis and comfortable environment along y-axis. Then each of the stores are plotted on the graph according to the assessment of customer perception in respect of these two characteristics.

This link may provide some assistance others sites may be available on the Internet as well. http://www.perceptualmaps.com/make-a-perceptual-map/free-download/

Guide for Creating a Positioning Statement for Your Brand
Here is a relatively simple process for creating a positioning statement. Start by writing the following down on a piece of paper:
[Brand Name] provides ___(1)___ with ___(2)___better than any other [Your Industry]. We do this by ___(3a)___, ___(3b)___, and ___(3c)___.
Next, ask yourself the following three questions.
1. Who is Your Target Market?
This should be a . Who are the types of businesses or consumers you want your brand to reach? What are their interests? How do they make decisions? Who or what influences them and why? The more specific you can be, the better. Think about all of this, then write down your target market in slot 1.
Examples: Men ages 24 -35; Park Rangers; Upper-Middle Class Expectant Mothers
2. What Unique Value Do You Provide Them? What is you value proposition?
What do you think youre the best in the world at? What value do you provide your customers that no one else can provide? What service offering are you most confident in?
Examples: The lowest prices on sporting goods, The highest quality hats, More peace of mind
3. Why Should They Believe You?
How can you back this up? This could mean anything from showing your process to sharing data statements to prove that youre for real. Make a list of three reasons to believe.
Example:
a. We eliminate overhead by selling online.
b. We form partnerships with major brands to sell their overstock content.
c. We can match any other price you find online.
Example: The ABC store brand provides Men ages 24 -35 with lower prices on sporting goods than any other sporting goods store. We do this by eliminating overhead, forming strategic partnerships with major brands, and matching any other price on the web.
If done right, your brand positioning statement is internal-facing only. This shouldnt be viewed as an elevator pitch or a tagline, but rather as an opinion on who you are and who you want to be. Here are a few questions you should ask as you proofread your Brand Positioning Statement:
Can we really stake claim to this position? Does someone else provide this value to this market better than we do? How can we adjust our target market or offerings to better position ourselves?
Does this leave room for future growth? Can we change one element to attack new verticals or would we need to rewrite the entire positioning statement?
How comfortable is the rest of the company with this position? Are we comfortable being the low cost provider, or would we rather be a luxury good? Does this positioning statement match your brands essence?
Keller C.B.B.E. Brand Building Pyramid Ch. 3 p. 80

 

 

See list of questions on pages 95-96 to help in your analysis.

Brand Value Chain Concept p. 100

 

Constructing a Mental Map
A person’s perception of the world is known as a mental map. With respect to branding mental maps are a useful tool in attempting to understand the core values and consumer associations with respect to a brand.
Core brand values are those set of attributes that characterize the five to ten most important aspects of a brand. Core brand values can serve as the basis of brand positioning in terms of how they relate to points of parity and points of difference. Core brand values can be identified through structured process. The first step is to create a detailed mental map of the brand. A mental map accurately portrays in detail all salient brand associations and responses for a particular target market. Mental maps must reflect the reality of how the brand is actually perceived by consumers in terms of their beliefs, attitudes, opinions, feelings, images and experiences.
An example of a mental map for the Nike brand is illustrated below.

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