Module Code :- MARK2313
Module Title :- Brand Management
Assignment Number :- 1
Assignment Weighting :- 50%
Assignment Title :- Individual Assignment – Philips Soundmachine AZB600
Assessment Information – What you need to do
This assignment is an individual assignment whose main purpose is for you to experience and to practice first hand the creative and managerial processes involved in designing building and proposing a suitable and sustainable storied brand scape concept to a potential client. This will be achieved in this business simulation by you taking on the role of a creative branding consultant.
MARK2313 Brand Management Assignment – UK
Applying the storied brandscape approach your task is to develop design and propose
a suitable brand story and brandscape concept for a specific assigned product service organisation arts venue artwork sports team or sport social cause or human being (i.e. artist celebrity politician etc.) that is underpinned by relevant brand theory. Your brand concept proposal needs to be visualised with a creative storyboard as support.
Therefore this group project is a practice-oriented business simulation designed:
To provide you with a deeper under standing of the managerial & creative processes involved in developing designing proposing building & managing a brand and its identity story & brand scape.
To provide you with a deeper insights & hands-on experiences of how a creative brand concept & storied brandscape is developed designed build & proposed.
To provide you with the opportunity to revive develop & practice your critical analytical thinking problem solving and creative imaginative as well as managerial skills with in a realistic context.
This individual assignment is a realistic simulation of the following scenario. The company behind your chosen project is currently shopping for a creative & imaginative branding consultancy either to build a sustainable brand from scratch to rejuvenate their present brand or to build a brand extension to their existing brand. You are a brand consultant eager to win this contract.
MARK2313 Brand Management Assignment – UK
Hence you are required to submit your written proposal for a suitable sustainable brand identity story design and brand scape which based on and justified by a sound application of contemporary brand theory.
Your written proposal must be ac companied by a proper creative story board as a visual aid to outline and explain your brand story design and brand scape.
Philips Soundmachine AZB600:
In the early-1950s the Dutch company Philips revolutionised the audio-recording industry with their inventions of the casette tape and the casette recorder which as a predecessor to the dicto phone were initually planned to be office tools for recording meetings or letters to be transcriped later. Following Sony’s development of the portable transistor radio Philips combined their cassette recorder with an FM-radiotransistor to launch in 1966 the portable Radio recorder which allowed consumers to record and play back radio broad casts with out the need for any cables as well as playing pre-recorded music cas settes.
Over the following the years the radio recorder evolved into the Boombox when several companies like Philips Sony Grundig Schneider Panasonic etc. sought to develop portable, battery-operated radiorecorders that had the same stereo sound quality as the stationary in-home HiFi-stereo systems. A boombox is a portable music-player featuring an FM/AM-radio tuner, one or two cassette tape-players and two integrated dolby-stereo speakers and often woovers. Gaining in the 1970s a special popularity in urban areas they became also known as Ghetto blasters.
Philips launched the Soundmachine AZB600 in 1988 as one of the first boomboxes with an integrated CD-player. Further the AZB-series was also designed as an stylish alternative to the larger ghettoblasters and the small private walkmen.
The popularity of boomboxes declined in the early-2000s with the arrival of MP3-players and streaming though they never really dis appeared.
But following the vinyl resurgence since 2012 and because of the return of the music cassette by 2018 Philips relaunched a renovated version of Sound machine AZB600 which has the same style and features of the original plus an added DAB radio tuner and the possibility to connect a MP3-player to play it over the boombox.
MARK2313 Brand Management Assignment – UK
What Philips are therefore looking for is an engaging brand concept brand story and storied brand scape that increases the brand equity of the renovated Philips Sound machine AZB-series in terms of brand awareness and brand image. Your job is to develop design build and propose a suitable brand identity with an exciting storied brandscape for this retro-brand. You are thereby free to develop its brand story and identity in line with the Philips Sound machine AZB600’s (factual) history and heritage, and also to draw on all the brand elements you deem to useful for creating a strong sustainable storied brand scape. BUT you cannot change or alter the brand name and the Philips brand logo! Everything else is up to you.
Note :- This is only a simulation. While the Philips Soundmachine AZB600 obviously exists the premise and setting of this project is fictional. Thus do not approach the Philips company at all! Still if you like to explore the Philips Sound machine AZB600 at retail stores get a feel for the brand and look for creative ideas, nobody can stop you. But make sure that you are not going any where alone and other people know where you are (going).
Criteria for Assessment – How you will be marked
The marking rubric with the assessment criteria for this Individual Assignment is provided as a separate PDF document. You need raise the Zoom to 400% to improve the rubric’s readability.
Further information on University mark descriptors can be found here.
This assignment is designed to assess the following learning outcomes:
3.Critically evaluate how and why a thorough under standing of the roles their brands
play in consumers every day lives and self identity projects is important for any organization in order to successfully build manage and sustain their brand.
4.Appreciate the creative processes involved in creating designing developing proposing & managing a brand and demonstrate the creative ability to put them into practice.
5. Critically appreciate and explain why conceiving designing and developing brands as engaging stories may be vital to contemporary brand success
Assessment Details :-
The proposal has to be submitted as a written individual report of 2,000 words (+/- 10%) together with two detailed creative storyboard as an important visual support. In order to allow you some room to express your creativity, there is no specific formal layout and structure that you must follow to the letter. However, your report must include and consist of the following the content:
1. A brief introduction and critical evaluation of the Philips Sound machine AZB600
its true essence its history PoPs PoDs and PoW.
2. A critical competitor analysis of how the Philips Sound machine AZB600s
competitor brands are positioned in consumers minds in terms of the brand image brand story and storied brandscape which is supported by evidence & informed by relevant brand theory. Further you could provide a brief assessment of the market’s competitive nature (i.e. Porter’s 5 Forces Model
MARK2313 Brand Management Assignment – UK
3. An outline of your proposed target audience & brand positioning which is informed by relevant theory brand. Please note that UG students are NOT the only target audience out there! Further more use behavioural targeting criteria as rather than demo graphics.
4.A detailed discussion of your proposed brand story & identity by actually telling the brand story with the visual support of the first creative storyboard.
Some points to think about: What exactly is the story consumers are supposed to relate to engage and identify with? What kind of grand narrative, myth and/or archetype do you base your brand story on? How does this fit with your target audience’s lifestyle? What kind of identity and image do you seek to establish?
MARK2313 Brand Management Assignment – UK
5. A detailed and critical discussion of how your proposed brand story for the Philips Sound machine AZB600 is told through the symbolism embedded in your design of your chosen individual brand elements with in your storied brand scape which are visualised in the second creative story board and which make up your storied brand scape.
How are consumers expected to relate to and embrace your proposed storied brandscape, and why?
The two creative audio-visual storyboards are worth the equivalent of 500 words (20% of the marks in this individual assessment. Their purpose is to aid your written proposal by providing:
a) A visualisation of your proposed brand story.
b) A visualisation of the proposed brand element designs in the overall storied brandscape
Traditionally the story board is a cardboard on which you present your brand story as a series of drawn snap shots plus a drawn draft of your branded product design logo and other brand elements.
While hand-drawn images and drafts still play a major role it is increasingly common for the individual images and drafts to be created on the computer with specific creative arts software i.e. Corel Print house on the lower end and then printed to be assembled on a card board.
Due to DMU submission requirements however you are expected to submit a digitalised version of your creative storyboard attached to your written report as an appendix.
Please note:
You have to draw the storyboard yourself. But as an alternative you are also allowed to digitally design the images with the appropriate software or to visualise the brand story on the storyboard through a series of photographs you have taken & staged yourself.
But you must not copy paste and use any photographs and/or images from the Internet under any circumstances as doing so will be penalised as academic mis conduct and lead to severe mark deductions.
All the skills and subject knowledge needed such as creative imaginative thinking critical thinking and designing a creative story board is taught in seminars and lectures during the course of the module together with common popular and on occasion kind of weird techniques in coming up with creative ideas or how to scrutinise the soundness of provided information as much as your own conceptual ideas.
MARK2313 Brand Management Assignment – UK
The word count is 2000 words plus two creative storyboard (= equivalent of 500 words).
There will be a penalty of a deduction of 10% of the mark for work exceeding the word limit by 10% or more.
The word limit includes tables figures quotations and citations but excludes the references list and appendices. Further more the story boards are visual aids drawn pictures only and not an opportunity to provide additional words outside the report.