Unit 3 

Within the Discussion Board area, write 400-600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

This morning, walking into the office, you greet Michelle who says, “I’d like to meet with you tomorrow to develop the branding strategy for the new product. Let’s meet for a working lunch and brainstorming session.” “That sounds great,” you reply. “I’ll schedule the meeting and order in lunch.”
Entering your office, you begin to think about the items that you will be discussing during tomorrow’s meeting with Michelle.
We haven’t even come up with a product name yet, you think. We also need to work on an advertising slogan or tag line. You know that Michelle has an extensive background in marketing, but you really want to make a good impression and bring a sound branding strategy to the meeting. How are we going to distinguish our product from our competitors? What are the benefits that we are going to highlight in our brand that will meet the needs or wants of our target customers?
You create the following list of items that you need to address:
Identify in one sentence your overall branding strategy or brand image you want to achieve in the mind of your target segment.
Product name
Advertising slogan or tag line
Product attributes
Product benefits

 Unit 3 IP

The board has called a meeting to see how the new product for MM is coming along. Michelle calls you about the meeting.

“I like your ideas for branding the product,” she says. “I think the board wants an overview now of the whole process we are using for developing the new product. Can you do that?”
“Thanks for the comments about the branding strategy,” you say. “I tried to be creative with my approach. I’d be glad to show the board the process we are using to develop the new product.”
“Great,” she says. “Why don’t you do what you did last time? The 10–15 slides that you presented worked well in the 30-minute time slot.”
“In the past I’ve done similar presentations and have a format that really works. The board has been very receptive to the flow of the information and I think it will work for us for this presentation too,” she adds. “I’ll instant message the information to you after our meeting. The flow might work for you also.”
“Great,” you respond. “I’ll get started on this first thing in the morning.”

When you get back to your office, the instant message from Michelle is on your screen. It reads:

These are the areas we need to cover in the presentation. 

Idea generation
Idea screening
Concept development and testing
Marketing strategy development
Business analysis
Product development
Test marketing
CommercializationBe sure to include the information from our discussions on branding as part of the marketing strategy development phase of the process.

The materials found in the M.U.S.E. may help you with this assignment. Additional information is also provided in the Lessons From Experience found at the following link:  (10–15 slide PowerPoint with 200–250 words speaker notes per slide)