During my time in my Undergraduate and Graduate degrees at UNT, I found myself researching more and more about different brands, how they operate, and different strategies on how to uplift a company’s brand. From SWOT analyses, to using primal branding by Patrick Hanlon, there were many strategies incorporated in keeping their brands fresh, looking at what may be competition, and finding those niche target markets to fill.
The Dive Bar & Restaurant
This research project done in late 2022, my group and I chose a local business establishment to dive into their mission statement, reference market, intra-organizational environment, and task environment while using the Boston Consulting Group matrix (BCG).
This reference market piece shows the three most important things; What, who, and how this company’s reference market is satisfied.
Living in the era of post COVID had a great grip on the SWOT analyses I did in my undergraduate. This is a summary example of the SWOT analysis for the Dive Bar Restaurant
Smith & Wesson
in April of 2023, my classmates and I completed our business capstone for our undergraduate degree, where we created a strategy formulation and forecasting template for Smith & Wesson. Our group was comprised of a variety of business backgrounds, from HR to Finance, with myself being the only Marketer in the group. We conducted an in depth SWOT analysis and a 5 year forecast.
Above is our simplified Smith & Wesson Income Statement
Macy’s
in my graduate degree, my group and I looked into Macy’s and their decline after COVID hit, with a firm overview, financial overview with returns and standard deviations as well as a look into their general governance.
This information is public domain, as that is how we collected it for our research.
Winslow’s Wine Cafe
This branding project was during my undergraduate degree in my marketing capstone class, presented in April of 2023. This class primarily used Patrick Hanlon’s methodology of primal branding, focusing on the Icon, the Creed, the Rituals, the Communities, and the Pagans of the company to find their best branding strategy.
An example of what one of the primal branding strategy slides looked like in the presentation, where we were to create rituals to market to the target audience of wine enjoyers.
Final thoughts
Many of the companies we researched were under duress from COVID, and companies will continue to be recovering and navigating through this moment in history.