identity.

This team project will give you the opportunity to work with other members of the class to apply some of the concepts, theoretical frameworks and tools you have learned to a real brand. Form a team of 4-6 members and identify a brand that interests you. Be sure that you will have access to a range of the brands marketing materials and to some of the brands customers for conducting your brand audit. First, as a group, agree on the brands aspirational identity: how does the brand want to be perceived by its customers? You may inform this exercise by reviewing the brands website (e.g., reading the organizations mission statement), reading articles in the popular press or the parent organizations annual report, or by talking with employees who work with this brand. Which components of customer-based brand equity do the brands stewards believe are most important for this brand? Brand wants to be perceived by customers as smart and forward thinking (logo). Online there is very little background information on the smart car brand on the website itself no mission statement, etc. The following components of customer-based brand equity are believed to be the most important: Next, assign 2-3 members of your team to conduct a brand inventory. A brand inventory measures the degree to which the brands external communications consistently portray its aspirational identity. Review as many marketing materials for the brand as you can find: e.g., website, online and print advertising, advertising on television and radio, event sponsorships, and even product packaging (where applicable). Copies of these materials should be included as appendices in your report. How consistently do these materials portray the brand? For example, are the brand name and its logo presented consistently? How do the materials communicate the brands positioning to the audience? Which components of customer-based brand equity are being most strongly reinforced by brand marketing? Concurrently, assign the other 2-3 members of your team to the brand exploratory. In a brand exploratory, managers conduct research with the brands customers to measure their perceptions of the brand on key components of customer-based brand equity. This exercise will allow you to assess the degree to which customers have internalized the brands aspirational identity. To measure customer perceptions, your team may use any of the research methods we have discussed in the course (e.g., interviews, focus groups, conjoint analysis, ZMET, brand concept maps, surveys). Please include samples or a summary of the data you collect in an appendix. Finally, gather all of your team members together and conduct an analysis of the gaps between the brands aspirational brand equity and customer perceptions of brand equity (based on the brand exploratory). To what extent are these gaps due to the manner in which the brand communicates its aspirational identity (based on the brand inventory)? What recommendations does your team have for improving the brands external

communication to decrease the gaps between their aspirational brand identity and the way customers perceive the brand? Please prepare a six to eight page paper (double-spaced, not including appendices), due in class on Thursday, December 1.