Brand Building in a Digital Age, Summative Assessment Brief Coursework 2 - BPP university

Assessment Brief

THE SCENARIO

Blackfruit Limited, a Canadian company founded in 1984, led the mobile phone and pager industry in the 1980’s and 1990’s, particularly in the United States initially then globally. They are credited by some as having created the first smartphone and at their peak they had gained eighty-five million (85 million) subscribers worldwide.

However, the launch of of the touchscreen iPhone in 2007 revolutionised the mobile phone industry and this triggered a dramatic shift away from Blackfruit handheld devices, even though the company still maintained the largest market share in this industry. Because of that, they initially ignored the new competitor, iPhone, perceiving it to be an enhanced mobile phone with playful features targeted at younger consumers. 

However, Blackfruit got it wrong as the new iPhone was a huge hit and business leaders began to adopt it, thereby the new competitor was now
entering into the core of Blackfruit’s market. Blackfruit Limited eventually produced a phone in 2008, which they called the Wind, to counter the iPhone but this did not work well as it received bad reviews. When Blackfruit realised, in 2014, that they had suffered a loss of USD$84 million, they made an announcement that they would transform from mobile devices to become a mobile solutions company. Their CEO eventually resigned in 2023.

However, after appointing a new CEO in December 2023, Blackfruit Limited now want to reestablish and launch an entirely new mobile phone brand, aimed at business leaders and professionals, as part of their diversification and growth strategy.

They have approached you, as an experienced independent digital branding consultant, to pitch a proposal for the mobile phone brand and highlight launch plan.

ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS

For this assessment you have to develop and record a video presentation aimed at pitching your proposal to the Blackfruit Limited board of directors as well as provide slides aimed at pitching your proposal. These slides should be built in Power Point (and then copy and pasted into Microsoft word) and each slide must be supported by speaker notes prepared in Microsoft word.

Your video presentation of not more than 20 minutes, should use slides built in Power Point (and then copied to Microsoft word) and this presentation must be recorded on Microsoft Teams. You must also include speaker notes for each slide you produce and these must be in word.
By doing this assignment you are going to meet the following learning outcomes (LOs):

LO1: Demonstrate a critical understanding of the key issues and theories in digital branding.

LO2: Critically assess and appraise digital brand management strategies to meet marketing objectives.

LO3: Critically evaluate branding strategies and identify key concepts whichcould include brand identity, brand visual identity, and brand reputation.

LO4: Devise, and deliver, a presentation demonstrating a critical understanding of a range of various digital branding areas (e.g., key issues; concepts; theories; branding and brand management strategies).