Assignment Brief

You will be requested to form. into groups of approximately five to work as a team. All students must be in the same timetabled seminar group. This will enable regular group contact.  Your group must respond to the marketing communications brief with creative ideas. You will produce a group presentation which you will deliver in person, during a timetabled presentation session. You will need to upload your presentation slides to Canvas. You will contribute to an integrated outcome and present your response to the brief and your justifications as a group.

Each person should contribute to the oral presentation, and everyone should talk for around 3 minutes. The group should decide how to divide work and organise the presentation. The presentation should be carefully timed to last no longer than 15 minutes. All group members are expected to participate in presentations and individuals should expect to lose marks if they fail to attend.

Group Formation:

In the first seminar students will be responsible for dividing themselves into groups within their seminar group. Anyone not in a group will be allocated a group. You need to set up ways of contacting each other and how you will meet (e.g., face-to-face, via WhatsApp, Zoom, Teams).

The group should decide how work will be divided among individual members of the group, and how the presentation is structured. The group should try to meet at least once a week to discuss their progress and to co-ordinate the process. It is the responsibility of the group to ensure that all members contribute as effectively as possible.

The group should keep a record sheet of attendance at meetings, and a note of all correspondence with members of the group. Contribution to group work should be monitored by everyone. It is your responsibility to keep a record of your contribution and that of your colleagues. Evidence of this may be requested by the module leader should group issues arise.

PRESENTATION BRIEF:

Imagine you are working for a marketing communications agency, that has been asked to develop an IMC campaign to help reposition a beauty brand as being ‘green’.

In groups of approximately 5 members, you should select a real beauty brand (that is not already positioned as being ‘green’) to act as your client.

You need to develop and deliver a 15-minute presentation, pitching your ideas to the senior management team of your chosen client. You should indicate how you will use integrated marketing communications to reposition the brand as being more environmentally friendly and engaged than the competition.

You should address the following topics:

• Target Market (who is your target market, what are their likely media habits?)

• Product/ Brand Positioning (including positioning strategy, perceptual map showing both current and projected new position in relation to competition, positioning statement)

• Communications Objectives (include 2-3 SMART objectives)

• IMC Components – including:

• What is the overall message for the campaign?

• A plan of which IMC tools and media you will use and why.

• A hand-drawn storyboard for an advert (e.g. a TV ad, social media ad).

• An AI generated image (using Microsoft Designer, or similar) of an element of the campaign (e.g. a billboard, a mockup of an event or a print ad).

• How will you schedule the campaign (e.g., create a Gannt chart for the campaign) and why?

• How will the different communication tools work together in an integrated manner?

• Evaluation – how will you evaluate your campaign? What will you need to measure, to evaluate whether you have met your SMART communications objectives?

• Recommendations for Launching the Campaign in an International Market – select one international market and discuss how the campaign would be standardized or adapted to suit this market, and why.

Tips:

You should demonstrate awareness of key competitors and their respective positioning on your perceptual map. You should indicate how you plan to communicate your repositioning convincingly to your target consumer base, conveying a clear justification for increased prices where necessary.

Presenters should assume that their audience understands the basic principles of segmentation, and should devote the limited time available to highlight strategies to reposition their chosen brand in the minds of their targeted segment/s.

Practical application of theory should demonstrate your current and projected positioning in relation to key competitors. The group should consider the target audience and appropriate communications tools. Your ‘client’ has also asked you to provide recommendations for launching the campaign in an international market.

The concept will be ‘pitched’ to the organisation’s senior management team as part of the overall repositioning campaign. You should present using PowerPoint or discuss your preferred alternative with the module leader. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourselves in advance with the technology to ensure you can effectively use it.

Your presentation should evidence extensive academic research from relevant textbooks and journal articles.

You should rehearse your presentations in advance to enhance communicative effectiveness (e.g., through getting audience eye contact and using the optimum amount of text on your slides).

The output of this assignment will be a presentation which will account for 40% of your mark for this module.

Group Issues:

You will need to consult the module leader if your group is not working effectively. You are advised to do this as soon as possible, and, of course, to keep records of all communications between members of the group.

If a student fails to contribute to a group, then the module leader will ‘dismiss’ the student from the group, after an appropriate warning. The dismissed student will then have to work alone for a mark that is reduced by 10%. Please do not leave it too late to inform. your module leader about any issues as there needs to be sufficient time to issue a warning and to give time for behaviour to improve.

Students asking to work alone:

As the use of group work is intended to develop and test a number of skills that solo assignments do not involve, students will not be permitted to work alone unless there are exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances might include childcare or family commitments that make meeting with fellow students to develop group work difficult. You should see your module leader at the start of the module if you are likely to fall into this category.

Other Information:

· Reassessment Opportunity: Yes

· Penalty for Late Submission: Standard Penalty

· Resit is via individual assessment

Submission deadlines

You must submit your slides for the group presentation electronically on Canvas by 12pm on Wednesday 17^th November 2025.

How to submit your work:

Only one member of the group should submit the group presentation slides via Canvas. Please be aware that large files can take longer to upload. Therefore, please submit in advance of the deadline. Anything submitted after the deadline will be subject to a late penalty, in line with university regulations.

Will feedback on draft coursework be given?

There will be opportunity for verbal feedback on a draft presentation during the week 8 seminar. Module leader office hours also provide the opportunity to receive formative feedback.