The requirements for assessment 002

Title:

‘What do consumer behaviour theories teach us about business practice?’
Selecting a brand of your choice, demonstrate how a consumer behaviour theory has been used to market it*. Identify areas in which the brand appears strong or weak based on insights from this theory and provide business recommendations (300 – 500 words) based on your analysis.

* consider different aspects of its 4Ps – or 7Ps in case of services: Indicative areas for analysis might include the shop design, employees demeanour, packaging, advertising and communication activities and the brand itself including the name, logo etc.

Guidelines:

• This assignment gives you the opportunity to apply theories of customer behaviour to business practice. You will need to research both of your chosen brand and theory in depth. You are thus encouraged to start planning your assignment early. Note that you will be working towards this end during the weekly group tasks.
• Ensure that you choose a theory or wider theoretical area that is indeed relevant to your chosen brand. Do not try to impose a theory to a mismatched brand – aim for a good fit.
• Avoid providing general information on the brand. Rather, aim to be selective in picking aspects that can be evaluated within the context of the theory that you are reviewing. In other words, synthesise between business practice and academic theory.
• Your recommendations should be as specific as possible. You may use appendixes to outline your ideas in more detail. Ensure that your recommendations are clearly based on your critique – always provide a rationale behind your arguments.

Assessment criteria
Your work will be assessed on the following criteria:
• Knowledge of chosen brand and theory (based on a wide reading and sources)
• Relevance of the theory to the brand.
• Level of application of the theory to the chosen brand.
• Critical evaluation of the brand’s activities in relation to these theories, leading to a clear identification of areas of good/weak brand practice.
• Well grounded, relevant and innovative recommendations.
• Standard of presentation.
• Solid structure with clear links throughout.
• Correctly referenced.

Endnote:
Careful referencing of sources is vital when making use of the work of others. You are expected to employ the referencing conventions recommended in the Course. These conventions apply to information taken from internet sources, as well as books, journals and lectures. If you are unsure of the way to reference properly, seek advice from a member of staff before you submit the assessment. These are some of the points you should check before submitting your work:

• are all direct quotations, from both primary and secondary sources, suitably acknowledged (placed in quotation marks or indented)?
• have you provided full details of the source of the quotation, according to the referencing convention used in the Course?
• have you acknowledged the source of ideas not your own, even if you are not quoting directly from the source?
• have you avoided close paraphrase from sources? (Check that you are not presenting other people’s words or phrasing as if they are your own.)
• if you have worked closely with others in preparing for this assessment, is the material you are presenting sufficiently your own?