Assignment Briefs and FAQ
Assignments
Many popular brands are owned by larger brands. Sometimes these brands are managed under one corporate umbrella, but the brands are distinct and operate independently. In other cases, all brands owned by the company are managed under the primary brand.
In the first assignment your task is to review the brand portfolio of a brand of your choice and identify any critical issues. In the second assignment, you will discuss how can the issue identified (in assignment 1) in more detail and make recommendation as to how the issue can be addressed to develop or strengthen the brand portfolio.
Assignment 1: Brand Portfolio Analysis and Issue Identification Report
- 1000 words (+/- 10%)
The goal of this assignment is to analyze the brand portfolio of one of the parent companies provided in the list.
Parent company options
| Category | Companies |
| Auto | Volkswagen https://www.volkswagenag.com/ |
| Consumer Beauty | Coty Inc https://www.coty.com/
Unilever (Men’s personal care division) https://www.unilever.co.uk |
| Fashion | Gap https://www.gapinc.com/
Arcadia https://www.arcadiagroup.co.uk/ |
| Food & Drink | Fullers https://www.fullers.co.uk/
Walls Ice cream https://www.wallsicecream.com/uk Hain Celestial Group https://www.haindaniels.com/ |
| Publishing | National Media Group (Meredith) https://www.meredith.com/ |
| Technology | Hewlett-Packard (HP) https://www8.hp.com/uk/en/home.html |
| Transport | Uber https://www.uber.com/gb/en/ |
Brand portfolio strategy aims to maximize market coverage and minimize brand overlap through the effective creation, deployment, and management of multiple brands within a company.
To analyze the brand portfolio, you must first identify the brand’s architecture, specifying whether a “branded house”, “house of brands” or a hybrid portfolio architecture is used.
Then, you need to map each of the sub-brands (for single brand companies) or brands (for multi-brand companies) across the market segments to which they are targeted. You are permitted to conduct an analysis at the architectural level, or at the level of a single brand within the portfolio.
To conduct a thorough analysis of the brand portfolio and identify issues, it is likely that you will examine:
- The brand, including brand equity
- Developments, trends and challenges in the external environment
- Competitor brands and the effectiveness of the portfolio relative to competition in the market
- Segmentation and the target market (i.e. consumers)
- Positioning of the brands within the portfolio
Your analysis will allow you to identify any issues (concerns/considerations) in the brand portfolio. Some indicative issues are listed below to get you thinking – but there may be others that you could identify that are more relevant to your selected brand.
For example:
- Are the brands in the portfolio sufficiently strong and in sufficiently attractive markets to justify their place in the portfolio?
- Are the brands in the portfolio appropriate for their respective target markets?
- Are the brands appropriately positioned (i.e. with regards to the wants and needs of customers and the brand USPs, or with to the price/value relationships)?
- Are there untapped market opportunities (i.e. indicating the need for brand extensions or acquisitions)?
- Is there excessive or increasing competition in the market which renders any of the brands unviable?
You should aim to discuss one issue in substantial depth. If others are relevant or interlinked and you feel they are worthy of discussion, you could examine them more briefly.
Due to your limited word count you should discuss your main points, finding and conclusions in the main body of the report. However, you may include very detailed analyses in an appendix which will be considered briefly and is not included in the word count.
