| Course | MRKT 670 Brand Management (MRKT670) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 2 |
| Assignment | Brand Audit: Proposal |
| Paper type | Brand audit proposal in APA style |
| Length | about 553 words, 2 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: per the course guide, a proposal of at least 500 words on the student's chosen brand, in current APA format, with a reference list of at least 5 scholarly references in addition to the course textbook |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| Points | 50 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | MS in Marketing |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 2 in Liberty's published MRKT 670 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MRKT 670 Week 2
Brand Audit Proposal: Blue Ridge Creamery, a Regional Ice Cream Brand Facing Store Brands and a Planned Extension
[Student Name]
School of Business, Liberty University
MRKT 670: Brand Management
Brand Audit: Proposal
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Blue Ridge Creamery is a composite regional brand standing in for the brand a student would choose, and its figures are illustrative; every scholarly source and the textbook are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for MRKT 670.
Brand Audit Proposal: Blue Ridge Creamery, a Regional Ice Cream Brand Facing Store Brands and a Planned Extension
The Brand
Blue Ridge Creamery is a family-owned ice cream maker in western Virginia, founded in 1948, whose pints are sold in about 340 grocery stores across Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee and in two scoop shops near its plant. The brand is known for a short ingredient list, milk from nearby dairies and seasonal flavors such as peach and black walnut. For the past three years its unit sales have fallen slightly while the two largest grocery chains in its region have introduced premium store-brand ice creams priced about a dollar below it. Next year it intends to add frozen novelties, sandwiches and bars, carrying the Blue Ridge name.
Why This Brand
The brand is a strong subject for an audit because its problem is common and its decision is imminent. Regional brands everywhere face store brands that have improved in quality, and research across 23 countries shows that consumers' willingness to pay more for a national brand than a private label depends on how much better they believe it is, and that it tends to fall as store brands mature (Steenkamp et al., 2010). Blue Ridge needs to know whether its customers still perceive a quality gap. The planned extension raises a second question, since the success of an extension depends heavily on how well it fits the parent brand (Völckner & Sattler, 2006).
Audit Questions
- 1. How strong and how distinctive are Blue Ridge's brand associations compared with the premium store brands?
- 2. Is the brand earning a price premium that reflects its equity, and is that premium shrinking?
- 3. Do consumers see frozen novelties as a good fit with the brand?
Planned Method
The audit will have the two parts Keller (2013) describes. The brand inventory will profile how Blue Ridge is marketed today: its products, packaging, prices, distribution, advertising and social media, compared with the two store brands and one national competitor. The brand exploratory will ask what consumers think and feel. In Keller (1993), a brand's equity with customers lies in how its name changes their reactions to its marketing, so the exploratory will measure that knowledge through a short online survey of about 150 regional ice cream buyers, using the consumer-based brand equity scale of Yoo and Donthu (2001) and items from the brand personality dimensions of Aaker (1997), and through interviews with five store managers. To estimate the price premium, the audit will apply the logic of the revenue premium measure proposed by Ailawadi et al. (2003), comparing Blue Ridge's revenue with that of the store brands in the same stores, using scanner summaries the company can provide.
Sources and Timeline
Information for the inventory will come from the company's website, packaging, social media accounts and press coverage, store visits in six grocery stores in two states, and the marketing director, who has agreed to a one-hour interview. The survey will run in Module/Week 4 and the store manager interviews in Module/Week 5, leaving Module/Week 6 for analysis and the first week of Module/Week 7 for writing.
Expected Use of the Findings
The audit's purpose is a decision, not a description: whether to defend the core pint with a sharper quality story, and whether the novelty line should carry the Blue Ridge name or a sub-brand. The Course Project in Module/Week 7 will report the findings in the provided template and close with recommendations for positioning, the extension and the brand's communications.
References
Aaker, J. L. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(3), 347-356. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379703400304
Ailawadi, K. L., Lehmann, D. R., & Neslin, S. A. (2003). Revenue premium as an outcome measure of brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 67(4), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.67.4.1.18688
Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299305700101
Keller, K. L. (2013). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity (4th ed.). Pearson.
Steenkamp, J.-B. E. M., Van Heerde, H. J., & Geyskens, I. (2010). What makes consumers willing to pay a price premium for national brands over private labels? Journal of Marketing Research, 47(6), 1011-1024. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.47.6.1011
Völckner, F., & Sattler, H. (2006). Drivers of brand extension success. Journal of Marketing, 70(2), 18-34. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.70.2.018
Yoo, B., & Donthu, N. (2001). Developing and validating a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale. Journal of Business Research, 52(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(99)00098-3
What the MRKT 670 Week 2 instructions ask
The Brand Audit: Proposal is due in Module/Week 2 of MRKT 670, worth 50 points, alongside the 50-point Integration of Faith and Learning Paper, while the class reads chapters 2 and 3 of Keller and views a presentation. The student writes a proposal of at least 500 words on the brand he or she has chosen to audit. Formatting follows current APA, and the reference list needs five or more scholarly works beyond the course text. It is the first step toward the 200-point Brand Audit: Course Project due in Module/Week 7, a paper of at least 2,500 words that follows a provided template and requires ten scholarly references, five of them from marketing journals.
How this MRKT 670 Week 2 example is built
The proposal opens by naming the brand and describing its market position in a few sentences, then explains why it was chosen: the brand faces a common, consequential problem, stronger store brands, and an upcoming decision, a line extension. Three audit questions follow. A methods section describes the brand inventory, a profile of how the brand is currently marketed, and the brand exploratory, research into what consumers think and feel about it, naming the measures the audit will use. A short section explains how the findings will feed recommendations, and the reference list gives six scholarly sources and the textbook in APA format.
MRKT 670 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
The proposal is graded on how clearly it identifies the brand and the purpose of the audit, how well it plans the audit using course concepts, and whether it meets the length and source requirements. Graders look for a brand with enough available information to support a 2,500-word audit, specific audit questions, a method that follows the brand audit structure taught in the course, and at least five scholarly references besides the textbook, chosen because they will be used. Clean APA formatting from first page to last, and concise, professional prose that a brand manager could read quickly complete the evaluation.
MRKT 670 Week 2 help: mistakes that cost points
The most important decision in this proposal is the brand. Choose one with a real problem or decision ahead of it and enough public information, such as annual reports, news coverage, reviews and the brand's own channels, to support a full audit. A brand you can observe in stores or online is easier to audit than one known only from headlines. Frame two or three audit questions that the Course Project will answer. Use Keller's structure, the brand inventory and the brand exploratory, so that the proposal maps onto the final template. Choose references that give you measures, such as brand equity scales or revenue premium, and plan where each will be used, since the Course Project will need them again.
Related MRKT 670 sample papers
Other MRKT 670 weeks
- MRKT 670 Week 1: Forum 1: Why Brands Matter
- MRKT 670 Week 3: Forum 2: Names and Logos
- MRKT 670 Week 5: Forum 3: Measuring Brand Equity
- MRKT 670 Week 7: Brand Audit Course Project
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MRKT 670 Week 2 questions, answered
What is the MRKT 670 Brand Audit Proposal?
A 50-point Module/Week 2 proposal of at least 500 words on the brand the student will audit, in APA format with five or more scholarly references besides the textbook.
Where can I find a free MRKT 670 Week 2 sample paper?
A complete MRKT 670 Week 2 proposal for auditing a regional ice cream brand facing stronger store brands and a planned extension is shown on this page.
What is a brand audit?
In Keller's framework, a comprehensive examination of a brand's health in two parts: a brand inventory of how it is marketed and a brand exploratory of what consumers think and feel about it.
What else is due in MRKT 670 Module/Week 2?
The 50-point Integration of Faith and Learning Paper, a 500-word-plus essay on brand management that brings in Scripture and cites two scholarly works, one of them possibly the textbook.
How many references does the MRKT 670 Brand Audit need?
The proposal needs at least five scholarly references besides the textbook; the Course Project needs at least ten, including the textbook, with five from marketing journals.
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