ASSESSMENT TASK 1: DESCRIPTION Information: Your lecturer will provide an academic article for you to review based on the role of brands and brand communities in marketing. Select one particular topic from within the article and write a short literature review on that topic. Once this is complete select a company or product/service of your choice and undertake a short case study analysis from the perspective of the topic chosen in the literature review. Analysing case studies provides you with insights into real-world companies’ and the problems and challenges they face with marketing and general management decisions. These challenges provide you with an
opportunity to diagnose problems, analyse and evaluate the situation and develop strategic decision choices based on the conceptual frameworks learned in this subject. It allows you to connect your academic theoretical skills with your practical business skills, this is a very important attribute for developing your professional career. Subject concepts should form the basis of analysing case information, developing alternative solutions and making recommendations. You should read the paper a number of times before attempting to write anything. This will highlight areas that you need further information on and you can then conduct the necessary secondary research, including academic papers, reports and media coverage. You should then apply marketing concepts, theories and empirics covered in the subject to the problem. You may find sometimes that cases have incomplete information from which to make decisions, or that managers have made decisions based on incomplete information. In this instance, you may need to (a) make some assumptions about why they made these decisions and describe these, or (b) research the company, industry or issue and determine the appropriateness of your assumptions or you may wish to conduct some additional research into the industry or similar type of companies or issues for ideas and trends. Some cases do not focus on one firm or decision maker but may take an industry perspective. In this specific case, take the view of a consultant analysing the issue and consider what organisations may be involved and how you would analyse the situation from their perspectives. From past experience, the most difficult aspect of case analysis for students is the idea of “analysis”. Most students simply repeat what’s in the case in their own words or simply re-arrange the same information. While the latter is definitely desirable and helps students to break up the case into smaller components that can be analysed, analysis takes one further step and that is to explain, using the language of marketing, the implications of this information for the firm and the key decision makers. For many students, case analysis may be new at this stage of the subject. In this assessment academic writing skills are being practised. If you are unsure there are some additional resources on writing styles LearnJCU, there is also assistance available through the libguides. CBLG: Brisbane | Cairns | External | Singapore | Townsville Page 9 of 18 Structure:
Following are some general guidelines on presentation and essay writing. Respond to the topic in essay format with a short introduction, literature review, case study analysis and conclusion. This assessment piece requires you to work individually to research and then present your findings in a formal written document that is well structured and appropriately referenced. Ensure that observations are adequately justified where required and that APA 6 referencing method is used. Do:o: • Present in essay format. This requires well-structured paragraphs. • The word limit of 1,500 words is a maximum for ALL essays in total. • Use tables, diagrams and further analysis of data to
clarify, illustrate and supplement analysis and support your recommendations. • Use page numbers, double spacing for ease of reading and feedback. • Use citations from original sources when they are used, using APA 6 style referencing. • [Proof read your essays thoroughly, for grammatical and spelling errors. Do not:o • Use bullet points unless you are simply presenting a list that is self-explanatory. Bullet points do not lend themselves to discussion and • Copy material from other sources without acknowledging the source. Failure to acknowledge the source will be interpreted as plagiarism which is a serious offence.
