Marketing 2013-2014 Team Assignment 4: Branding & Positioning

Marketing 2013-2014
Team Assignment 4: Branding & Positioning

Introduction
In Assignment 2 you developed a new product for your company, part of the marketing strategy
(segmentation, targeting), and a product strategy. The product component of that assignment
obviously had a fairly strong “inside out” focus, emphasizing the company’s perspective.
This week, you will be taking more of an “outside in” perspective: how can we make sure our
potential consumers respond favorably to the product we developed? In that sense, you are going to
develop the branding strategy and the positioning for the product you came up with.
Please make sure that your decisions for this assignment are based on the targeting strategy you
developed for Assignment 2. After all, Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning should always be an
integrated whole.
In general, refer to your decisions from Assignment 2 whenever appropriate. However, it could be
possible that (with the branding knowledge you have now gained), you would like to tweak and twist
some of your product decisions. If you provide a proper argumentation for the changes you intend
to make, alterations are totally fine. One of the objectives for the assignment is actually to see how
product and branding strategy influence each other, build on each other, lead to potential conflict
etc.
Assignment
Your company probably has an overall brand portfolio, so your first decision would be under which
of the brands you will introduce your product. You probably (implicitly) made this decision already
for Assignment 2, in which case you will have the opportunity to argue for (or perhaps change) your
decision here. Explicitly cover the following issues:
Part 1 Branding Strategy (approximately 0,75 page).
What would be the best branding strategy to introduce your new product? Choose 1 of the following
3 options:
o Option 1A. Introduce an entirely new brand.

Pay attention to: Why do you think this is the best option? Why does your product not fit with any of
the existing brands within the company’s portfolio?
o Option 1B. Use an existing brand (pure brand extension). Pay attention to:
 Which brand from your company’s portfolio will you extend? Why did you pick that one?
 What would be the core advantages of your brand extension strategy?
o Option 1C. Use an existing brand plus a new brand (brand extension via a subbrand). If you
choose this option, pay attention to:
 Which brand from your company’s portfolio will you extend? Why did you pick that one?
 Why do you think it is necessary to combine the existing brand with a new one?
Regardless of the option you choose for point 1, please pay attention to the following issues:
Part 2 Positioning (approximately 1 page).
o How will you position this new branded product? What are the core associations, and to which
extent are those brand associations strong, favorable and/or unique?
o And related to that: what are the core Points of Difference and Points of Parity for your branded
product?
Part 3 Brand Architecture (approximately 0,5 page).
o How does this new brand fit within the current brand architecture/portfolio? Is it in any way
(visibly) related to other brands owned by the same company? Why do you link it to or keep it
separate from other brands and branded products?
Part 4 Brand Elements (approximately 1 page).
o Which brand elements will you introduce for your new subbrand? Obviously the brand name is the
first choice to make (especially if you decide to go for Options 1A or 1C for your branding strategy),
but also pay attention to other brand elements. Why do you think the ones you chose are good?
o Specifically, pick two brand elements used for your branded product, and analyze both by means
of two out of the six criteria discussed in the book and at the lecture.
o How will you implement the brand elements on this branded product? Please make some sort of
design for your product or its packaging that gives us an impression of how it would look (e.g. brand
name, logo, pictures, colour, shape etc.). Your sketch could obviously be included in an appendix.
Part 5 Secondary Brand Knowledge (approximately 0,75 page).

o How could you use secondary brand associations to strengthen your brand’s positioning? From
which entities could you borrow associations and what would those associations be?
o Specifically, pick two sources of secondary knowledge, and analyze how your branded product
could use them to leverage associations.
Remarks
An analysis of a brand’s positioning would obviously normally be based on consumer research. That
would make the assignment a bit too elaborate, so you can rely on your own (team member)
perceptions and impressions for this. Make sure to provide a proper argumentation for your choices
though.
Your designs (part 4) will not be judged on their technical level, i.e. we don’t care that much
whether they look extremely professional or whether you are a Photoshop wizard. If it clearly
conveys your ideas about the product’s look, that’s fine.
Please follow the general guidelines and requirements outlined in assignment 1!

Maximum page limit for assignment 4: 4 pages (+ appendix).
Deadline Paper 2 (= assignments 3 + 4): please hand in a hard copy at the beginning of seminar 5!
ENJOY THE ASSIGNMENT!

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Marketing 2013-2014

Team Assignment 4: Branding & Positioning

Part 1 Branding Strategy (approximately 0,75 page).

o Option 1A. Introduce an entirely new brand.

Part 2 Positioning (approximately 1 page).

Part 3 Brand Architecture (approximately 0,5 page).

Part 4 Brand Elements (approximately 1 page).

Part 5 Secondary Brand Knowledge (approximately 0,75 page).

Please follow the general guidelines and requirements outlined in assignment 1!

ENJOY THE ASSIGNMENT!

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