Department of Economic & Marketing

MARK2313: BRAND MANAGEMENT 2019/20

Module Leader: Dr Markus Wohlfeil

Contact: Office HU 4.44 (Office Hours: Mondays 15.30 – 17.30 or by

appointment), email: [email protected]

Assignment: Individual Assessment

Contribution: 50% of Overall Module Marks

What has to be submitted: 1) A 2,000-words Written Proposal for a Brand Concept &
Brandscape (= Brand Story, Identity + Design) (counts for 40% of
total marks)
2) A Visual Storyboard of your Brand Story & Design (counts for
10% of total marks)

Key Deadlines: Project Registration: 11th October 2019, by 13:00 hrs

Project Brief & List: 11th October 2019, by 15:00 hrs
Formative Assessment: 09th December 2019, by 11:59 hrs
Submission Deadline (Semester 1 - Exchange Students Only!):
11th December 2019, by 11:59 hrs
Submission Deadline: 17th February 2019, by 11:59 hrs

INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT

The purpose of this individual assessment is to give you, within the safety of a simulation/”role-
play”, the opportunity to gain first insights and “hands-on” experiences into the creative side of
brand building and management. After selecting your specific project, which can be a product,
service, commercial or not-for-profit organisation, a venue, social cause, sports team, person or an
artwork, your task is to develop, design, build & propose a suitable brand concept (= brand
story, brand identity, brand design & storied brandscapes), which is underpinned by relevant brand
theories, by applying the storytelling approach. 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 understanding of the managerial & creative processes
involved in developing, designing, proposing, building & managing a brand and its identity,
story & brandscape.

 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 within a
realistic context.
ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES
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Although the individual assessment not only allows, but also encourages the necessary creative
freedom to develop, design & build your proposed brand concept & brandscape, which includes
the brand story, brand identity & brand design, there are a number of formal procedures and
deadlines you must comply with.
Please note: As module is split into two lecture groups, with one group (L02) taking place on
Mondays from 13:00 – 15:00 and the other group (L01) on Fridays from 09:00 to 11:00, all setup
processes are scheduled for Friday afternoons to ensure that no group is at a disadvantage and
everyone starts at the same time with the same information.

The assessment procedures are as follows:

1. In Lecture 1, the 4-6 individual projects that you can choose from are introduced. These
may include products, services, commercial or not-for-profit organisations, venues, tourist
destinations, people, arts & media entertainment, sports teams, etc. More details for each
project are provided on the module’s Blackboard site.

2. On Friday, 4th October 2019, at 13:00, the registration lists for each individual project are
posted outside Office HU 4.44. You have to sign yourself in person into the list of that
project you would like to do. BUT please note that:

a. In order to ensure topic diversity, there are only a limited number of places for each
project available. For instance, if there are 5 available projects and 200 students
enrolled on the module, then the number of available places for each project is
limited to 40. These places are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. This
means that once all the places for a project are taken, it is no longer available.

b. You must sign up to the project of your choice yourself in person. Email requests
will not be accepted (except under very exceptional circumstances, i.e. a disability
or a hospital stay makes it physically impossible to access and/or sign into a list).

c. Once you have signed up to one project, this choice is final and cannot be changed!

d. Do not delete a name already on the list irrespective of whether it is someone else’s
or your own! Such actions will lead to a capping of the marks received.

e. Any name added to a full list will be ignored and allocated to an available spot for
another project instead.

3. Any student enrolled in the module, who has not signed up to a particular project by Friday,
11th October 2019, at 10.00 will be allocated to a project, where places are still available.
Request for changes will not be entertained.

4. On Friday, 11th October 2019, the assessment brief with more details for each project is
posted on Blackboard at 15:00 together with the respective registration lists of students
signed for it. The individual assessment starts at this time.

5. The submission deadline for the formative assessment is Monday, 09th December
2019, at 11:59. A PowerPoint presentation of 5 slides (1 cover slide + 4 slides) should be
submitted via Turnitin. The formative assessment will not be marked. (See further details
below.)

6. The submission deadline for the individual assessment is Monday, 17th February
2020, at 11:59 via Turnitin on Blackboard. You need to submit both the individual written
report and the creative storyboard as one digital file (unless instructed otherwise due to
Blackboard-related issues). (See further details below.)
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Your Task as Branding Consultant:

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. Hence, you
are required to submit your written proposal for a suitable, sustainable brand identity, story, design
and brandscape, which based on and justified by a sound application of contemporary brand
theory. Your written proposal must be accompanied by a proper creative storyboard as a visual aid
to outline and explain your brand story, design and brandscape.

The proposal has to be submitted as a written individual report of 2,000 words (+/- 10%)
together with a 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 of the product, service, organisation, etc. & critical evaluation of what it
is about – its essence.

Some questions you should address here would be: What is the product, service,
organisation, etc. all about? What are its features and characteristics? What exactly, if at
all, makes it different to competing offers?

2. A critical analysis of the product, service, organisation or any other’s competitive

environment with a particular emphasis on how its competitor brands are positioned in
consumers’ minds, which is supported by evidence & informed by relevant brand theory.

Some questions you should address here would be: What is nature the competition within
its market environment (Porter’s 5 Forces may come handy)? Who are the competitors?
Who is the target audience of each competitor and how do they position themselves in
terms of brand identity and image? How is their positioning “told” through their brand
designs & storied brandscapes.

3. An outline of your proposed target audience & brand positioning, which is informed by
relevant theory brand.

Some questions you should address here would be: What specific audience(s) would you
propose to target? Why this particular one(s)? What do you know about their life-style(s)?
How and in what way would your brand fit into this life-style?

4. A detailed discussion of your proposed brand story & identity, which is visualised by your
creative storyboard & justified by relevant brand theory.

Some questions you should address here would be: 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?

5. A detailed discussion of how you propose to “tell” your brand story & identity through the
symbolism embedded in your brand design & brandscape, which is supported & visualised
by your creative storyboard.

Some questions you should address here would be: What brand elements and/or design
features (i.e. forms, colour, materials, images, etc.) do you propose to use in what specific
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 way as symbols to express your brand story and identity? How do you combine the brand
identity, design and image into a holistic storied brandscape?

The creative (audio-)visual storyboard is worth the equivalent of 500 words (20% of the marks)
in this individual assessment. Its purpose is to aid your written proposal by providing:

a) A visualisation of your proposed brand story.

b) A visualisation of how this brand story is told your proposed brand design & overall
brandscape

Traditionally, the creative storyboard is a larger (A1 or A2-sized) cardboard with individual hand-
drawn sequential images depicting the narrative plot of the brand story as well as the drawn draft
designs for the brand logo, product design, brand packaging and the storied brandscape (= usually
the utopian world that the brand seeks to stand for) within the idealised and romanticised everyday
life of the target audience’s aspirations. 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 Printhouse on the “lower end”) and then printed to be
assembled on a cardboard. 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 must draw the images in your creative storyboard yourself. As an alternative,
however, you are allowed to digitally design the images if you have the appropriate software at
hand (Apple IOS and Microsoft Windows usually come with a basic “painthouse” and photo-editing
software), or to visualise the brand story on the storyboard through a series of photographs you
have taken and staged yourself. But you must not – under any circumstances – copy, paste
and use any photographs and/or images from the Internet! Doing so will be deemed intellectual
property theft and copyright infringement – and, therefore, penalised as academic misconduct and
lead to severe mark deductions.

All the skills and subject knowledge needed, such as creative-imaginative thinking, critical thinking
and designing a creative storyboard, 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.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

The sole purpose of this formative assessment is to provide you with some valuable feedback on
your progress and, especially, your conceptual ideas for the proposed brand story, identity, design
and the overall brand concept as well as with some useful tips and suggestions for how you
could improve your prosed brand concept and storied brandscape further or how to address some
of the present flaws or shortcomings. For this formative assessment, you are asked to submit a
PowerPoint presentation of your ideas for the brand concept proposal, which means your proposed
brand story, brand identity, positioning and the first rough draft(s) of your proposed brand design
(and, perhaps, brandscape) by 09 December 2019 at 11:59. You will not be presenting your
PowerPoint presentation in person, but only prepare and submit instead:

 A PowerPoint presentation of no more than 4 slides (plus a cover slide)

Alternatively, you can also submit your PowerPoint presentation of 4 slides (plus cover slide) as a
video with a voiceover (i.e. via Panopto) that is no more than 5 minutes long. Or, if you feel
very creative and imaginative, or at least ambitious with the hunger to stand out from the crowd,
then you can submit your presentation of your ideas for the proposed brand concept and context in
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any other audio-visual way (i.e. a photo-essay, a short film, or an animation) you see fit as a video
of max. 5 minutes length.

However, whatever format the formative assessment presentation will take, you need to include
and address the following:

a) A brief introduction and critical evaluation of your product, service, organisation, etc. and its
specific branding needs.
b) A critical analysis of the competitive environment with a particular focus on how its
competitor brands are positioned in consumers’ minds.
c) A description of the brand story and, subsequently, brand identity that you propose to
position in consumers’ minds and everyday lives
d) A detailed outline and justification of your proposed brand concept and creative brand
design that you have developed for your assigned product, service, organisation, etc., how
they “tell” your proposed brand story and how (and why) consumers are expected to relate
to and embrace your proposed brandscape.

Since this is a formative assessment, there will be no marks for it – only feedback and feedforward
– and, subsequently, no penalty either for non-submission either. But be aware that, should you
decide not to submit this formative assessment, you will not be given any feedback and advice for
your proposed brand concept, design and brandscape, and, therefore, your individual assessment
either. Furthermore, please do not view this formative assessment as “just another coursework” to
get over with. Instead, you should treat it as a preliminary sales pitch of your conceptual ideas to a
potential client and, therefore, as a way to “test the waters” and, if necessary, make some
alterations and adjustments before submitting the final product – the proposal.

VISITING INTERNATIONAL SEMESTER 1-ONLY STUDENTS!

If you are a visiting international exchange student, who stays at DMU only for Semester 1, then
your individual assessment is slightly different. Instead of a written proposal and the formative
assessment, you are required to submit a full PowerPoint presentation of 12 slides (1x cover slide,
10 slides, 1 slide with references) +/- 10% (aka 1 slide) of your proposed brand concept (= brand
identity, story, image, design & brandscape) on Wednesday, 11th December 2019, at 11:59 via
Turnitin on the module’s Blackboard site. Your presentation should include:
1. A brief introduction of the product, service, organisation, etc. & critical evaluation of what it
is about – its essence.

2. A critical analysis of the product, service, organisation or any other’s competitive

environment with a particular emphasis on how its competitor brands are positioned in
consumers’ minds, which is supported by evidence & informed by relevant brand theory.

3. An outline of your proposed target audience & brand positioning, which is informed by
relevant theory brand.

4. A detailed discussion of your proposed brand story & identity, which is visualised by your
creative storyboard & justified by relevant brand theory.

5. A detailed discussion of how you propose to “tell” your brand story & identity through the
symbolism embedded in your brand design & brandscape, which is supported & visualised
by your creative storyboard.
THE BRIEF – LEICESTER MINERAL WATER:

This is a new product. While mineral water (often in a sparkling or semi-sparkling version) is very
common in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Greece and other European

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countries, it is relatively unknown in the UK, Ireland or the US among others. Thus, the aim of this
new product is to corner a (niche) market in the UK. To be called "mineral water", the water must
come from one specific spring and contain a certain amount of minerals as natural ingredients at
the source of the spring. The comparison between this mineral water, the average bottled water in
the UK and tab water is as follows:

Tab Water: Bottled Water: Leicester Mineral Water:

Calcium 12 mg/l 38 mg/l 164 mg/l

Magnesium 8 mg/l 12 mg/l 49.5 mg/l
Sulphate 8 mg/l 14 mg/l 402 mg/l
Bicarbonate 10 mg/l 80 mg/l 243 mg/l
Sodium 5 mg/l 8 mg/l 31.2 mg/l
Chloride 2 mg/l 12 mg/l 49.5 mg/l
Potassium 5 mg/l 2.5 mg/l 0.2 mg/l

What the company, therefore, is looking for is a full brand concept and storied brandscape to
be designed from scratch for its Leicester Mineral Water. Your job is to develop, design, build
and propose a suitable, sustainable brand identity, concept and storied brandscape from scratch
(including brand story, brand image and brand design) for Leicester Mineral Water. You are
thereby free to develop not just the brand story, identity and design, but also allowed to draw on all
brand elements you consider useful for creating a strong, sustainable brand, which includes brand
name, logo, packaging, signs, mascots and symbols among others. Everything is up to you.

Note: This is a fictional product and made up in its entirety. However I have drawn inspiration from
some real products. The facts about mineral content requirements are true. Further, the listed
mineral contents are true. The bottled water content is the one listed for Buxton and ALDI Aqueo,
while the mineral water content list stems from Gerolsteiner Mineral Water. But that it is as far as it
goes. The product itself is fiction... at least for the moment.

REGISTERED STUDENTS FOR THIS PROJECT:

1 Asma Tariq 26 Thomas Charlesworth

2 Dominik Wegrzyn 27 Luo Zhiqing
3 Arslan Nadeem 28 Bethany Hallam
4 Gong Weiran 29 Sainabou Bahman Hydara
5 Joseph Ta 30 Asha Patel
6 Aaron Tait 31 Joshua Neighbour
7 Willgin Manago 32 Maria Jose Sim Sim dos Santos
8 Edgar Ileto 33 Kassim Razak
9 Zarif Chowdhury 34 Angelika Gasienica-Makowska
10 Cai Wenjing 35 Liang Xiao
11 Wu Zhuomin 36 Erica Figueiredo
12 Emily Cammack 37 Liao Weixiang
13 Zachariah Edonya-Fagbohun 38 Zhao Gongbin
14 Jessica Greenaway 39 Samuel Flynn

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 15 Oliwia Szurlej 40 Georgia Haines
16 Karlie Murchison 41 Matthew Scott
17 Ammar Farook 42 Matthew De Guzman
18 Ou Chong 43 Zak Toor
19 Harsita Dave 44 Kayur Dipakkkumar
20 Zhao Yifei 45 Jamal Fabiyi
21 Jermaine Edwards 46 Tirzah Gulzar
22 Kelly St Hill-Hippolyte 47 Alexander Hartnell
23 Paul Steiner 48  
24 Muhammed Chappantakathu House 49
25 Baladetta Shelat 50  

Enjoy the practical project experience and improve your employability skills!

Best,

Markus

MARKING SCHEME/DESCRIPTOR

As with all modules, this individual assessment is marked on a range from 100% - 0%. The mark
descriptors are given in the table below. A mark below 40% indicates a Fail grade (the shadowed
boxes). But since this individual assessment only counts for 50% of the module’s total marks, a
Fail in this assessment can be compensated by a strong performance in the exam (and vice
versa).

Mark Range Criteria

Indicates that no fault can be found with the work other than
very minor errors, for example typographical, or perhaps failure
90-100%
to satisfy the most challenging and exacting demands of the
assessment.
Indicates a very high level of understanding evidenced by an
ability to engage critically and analytically with source material.
80-89%
Likely to exhibit independent lines of argument. Only minor
errors or omissions.
Judged to be very good, yet not outstanding. May contain minor
errors or omissions. A well-developed response showing clear
70-79%
knowledge and the ability to interpret and/or apply that
knowledge.
Indicates a sound understanding of basic points and principles
but with some failure to express or to apply them properly.
60-69%
Hence the answer is essentially correct, has some errors or
omissions, and is not seriously flawed.
50-59% Indicates a more limited understanding of basic points and
principles, with significant errors and omissions. These errors
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 and omissions, however, do not cast doubt on the basic level of
understanding.
Indicates questionable understanding of basic points and
40-49% principles yet sufficient to show that learning outcomes have
been achieved at a rudimentary level.
Indicates an answer that shows only weakly developed
30-39% elements of understanding. The learning outcomes have been
insufficiently realised.
Very little knowledge has been demonstrated and the
20-29%
presentation shows little coherence of material or argument.
0-19% Only isolated or no knowledge displayed.

FURTHER ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS:

Extensions: Extensions to relevant deadlines are only granted where there is a satisfactory
explanation provided in advance. Module leaders may be able at their discretion to grant a short
extension of up to 14 days or, if appropriate or practical, they can make alternative arrangements
for the assessment. Remember that it may not always be possible to make alternative
arrangements. In exceptional circumstances, extensions beyond 14 days can be granted by the
Associate Dean Academic or their nominee. You may apply for an extension by completing an
extension request form available from the Student Advice Centre.

Unauthorised late submission of assessments

If an assessment is submitted later than the deadline without an approved extension or deferral,
the mark received will be capped. If an assessment is submitted 1-14 calendar days late, the mark
for the work will be capped at the pass mark of 40% for undergraduate modules. If an assessment
is submitted beyond 14 calendar days late, the work will receive a mark of 0%.

Deferrals
If your circumstances are such that an extension of 14 days would not be sufficient, or if you feel
that, despite being granted an extension of up to 14 days, your performance in a piece of
coursework has been seriously impaired, you may apply formally to your faculty panel for a deferral
of assessment of coursework. You will have to fill in the appropriate form that is obtainable from
the Faculty Student Advice Centre and supply supporting evidence. Forms should be submitted to
the Faculty Student Advice Centre. Further information on the deferrals policy can be consulted at:
http://dmu.ac.uk/dmu-students/the-student-gateway/academic-support-office/deferral-of-
assessments.aspx

Style and Referencing: Students in the Faculty of Business and Law follow specific referencing
guides for all written work. There guidelines for students in the Leicester Castle Business School
are: https://libguides.library.dmu.ac.uk/business/referencing. Leicester Castle Business School
students must follow the Harvard referencing system: http://www. library.dmu.ac.uk/Images/
Selfstudy/Harvard.pdf.

Return of submitted work: All students will be informed via an announcement on Blackboard
when their assessment is marked. You are strongly encouraged to discuss your written (or in some
cases audio) feedback with your module leader if you have any questions or concerns. Modules

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assessed wholly or in part by examination may have generic feedback on examination
performance made available via Blackboard.

All marks on assessed work are provisional marks only and they will not be confirmed until the
Assessment Board meetings. Marks and feedback on assessed work will be available within 20
working days, which means that the turnaround time does not include weekends, bank holidays or
university closure days. The full Assessment and Feedback policy can be consulted at:
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/quality-management-and-policy/academic-quality/learning-
teaching-assessment/assessment-feedback-policy.aspx

Reassessment: Students failing to achieve an aggregate grade of 40% across the various
assessed components may be re-assessed during the summer re-assessment period. This
opportunity will only be offered if your grade profile permits re-assessment as determined by the
Assessment Board. Failure in the coursework will be re-assessed by an individually set
assignment. If the student then passes the re-assessment, the maximum mark that can be
achieved for a resubmission is 40%. Please note: Students must have attempted the assignment
in order to benefit from in-course recovery.

Good academic conduct and discipline: All students are expected to adhere to the University’s
regulations in relation to expected standards of behaviour. Information on student regulations can
be viewed at: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/dmu-students/the-student-gateway/academic-support-office/
student-regulations.aspx.

Plagiarism and Bad Academic Practice: The Assessment Board takes a very serious view of
any kind of cheating, especially plagiarism or “externally-purchased coursework”! De Montfort
University’s Academic Regulations describe plagiarism as the unacknowledged copying and
significant use of other people’s published work and ideas, and submitting in assessed coursework
(i.e. dissertations, individual or group reports, essays, experiments, storyboards, etc.) as if it were
one’s own. This includes among others:

 Copying from another student’s work

 Copying text (or text fragments) or tables, figures and images from published (and
unpublished) sources, such as books, academic journals, conference papers, working
papers, industry reports, newspaper articles, etc., without properly referenced
acknowledgements
 Downloading information, texts and/or images from the Internet and using it without
permission and properly referenced acknowledgements
 Submitting work that you claim to be your own, when it has actually been produced by a
group
 Submitting group work or co-authored work without duly acknowledging all contributors
 Submitting work that you claim to be your own, which was actually “ghost-written” by
another person

Any such temptation is simply not worth the risk, because the consequences are “unpleasant” and
serious for all concerned. Please refer to the reference guide https://libguides.library.dmu.ac.uk/
business/referencing for further detail on sourcing and referencing using the Harvard Referencing
System.

DMU describes bad academic practice as the low level duplication of text extracts and
information without citation due to errors made through carelessness or genuine misunderstanding
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as well as erroneously passing off ideas, information or secondary data as if originally discovered
or developed by the student. Information on academic offences can be found at:
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/dmu-students/the-student-gateway/academic-support-office/academic-
offences.aspx. Further advice can be obtained by emailing [email protected], while full
details can be found in the DMU regulations at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/dmu-students/the-student-
gateway/academic-support-office/student-regulations.aspx.

You are reminded that module assessment results are provisional until ratified by the Programme
Management Boards, and that results releases to students can be revised or redacted should
concerns regarding academic conduct or practices arise.

Proofreading: While it is recommended, especially for non-native English speakers, that you may
have your coursework proofread prior to submission to correct awkward sentences, grammar and
spelling errors, if you do (intend to) use a third person to proof read your work (or even employ a
professional proof reading service), you must discuss this with your module leader first and, then,
declare it in a written statement accompanying your work when you submit it for assessment.
Please note that proof reader must only correct grammatical errors in your original written text,
but not add, include or deduct any ideas, content and/or concepts to the original text. Thus,
any proofreading must be done using the “New Comment” and “Track Changes” functions on MS
Word, whereby you have keep a file of your original text with the comments review panel and track
changes on your records before approving the recommended changes and submitting the work.

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