BRAND PLANNING SEMINAR 2008

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN:

AN OFFER OF WORK AND A REQUEST FOR SUPPORT

Fall 2008

Purpose

This document describes the joint graduate seminar project within the Center for Brand Research for the Brand Planning and Creative Programs at the University of Texas at Austin. We offer, with the support of our graduate students, to work on assigned projects from selected clients. Such clients may include companies, governmental agencies (federal and state), entrepreneurial start-ups or advertising and public relations agencies. Capacity, educational value and timing are key criteria for such selection.

The Seminar functions as a small but dedicated adjunct brand planning and creative staff to each of those entities during the course of the client assignment. In addition, the students assigned to the Seminar projects will receive direct supervision throughout the project from Professor Neal Burns who heads the Brand Planning Program at UT as well as participation and guidance from Creative Program faculty within the Advertising Department.

Two types of Assigned Projects are accepted into the Seminar. Those that replicate relatively minor decisions that an agency or business may face (e.g., developing focus groups and alternative methods of understanding attitudinal issues, interviews with a specific ethnic student segment) and a semester long effort that involves a major effort throughout the semester. Generally speaking, the selected client assignments have a branding and re-branding emphasis. The Center for Brand Research of the Department of Advertising brings corporate, social and academic thinking together on issues of branding. From business launches, services, packaged goods, and cutting edge technologies to social and environmental issues, including the local and global perception of federal and state activities, today’s brand meanings are changing rapidly. As such Seminar client assignments in this arena support the mission of The Center for Brand Research to integrate academic and practical knowledge of the branding paradigm through study of best practices and real world analysis.

The Students and Program

The group of Master’s students in the brand planning program have been trained in an intense academic regimen and generally have served one or more agency internships as part of their professional development. Several have returned to school from industry and agency employment. The students selected from the creative program for the Seminar will either be in advanced portfolio class or in the graduate creative program. Teams of brand planners and creative program students will work together on very focused and time-based assignments in the Seminar. During the past nine years the following agencies/clients are among the 30+ that have participated in the program:

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland)
GM MasterCard/Mullen Agency (Boston)
Formica Flooring/Carmichael Lynch (Minneapolis)
American Airlines/DDB Dallas
Brooks Running Shoes/Seattle
Greyhound Bus Lines/Richards Group (Dallas)
Harley-Davidson Motorcycles/Carmichael Lynch (Minneapolis)
Bank One Corporate (Chicago)
Greyhound Bus Lines/PGC Advertising (Dallas)
NASA Mars Mission/ Johnson Space Flight Center/Houston
The Big 12 Conference
The Austin Lyric Opera
The Texas Rodeo/Kolar Advertising
The University of Texas at Austin Re-branding Project
Wells Fargo (San Francisco)
Political Asylum Project of Austin (PAPA)
Texas Gas Service
Wal-Mart & Latino Marketing (Latin Works, Austin)
The Salvation Army (Austin)
Barfly Networks (Austin)

In each case it is appropriate to point out that the experience was found to be of value to the sponsoring company or organization and, certainly, to the students in the program. Principals and key players from the agencies also have, at times, graciously agreed to speak in the classroom to the Seminar students concerning a variety of topics: agency process, the planning experience, client-agency relationships and more. Often they visit the class at the beginning of the semester to present the case.

Those appearances are not required but much appreciated – having some representatives from the firm available to hear and judge the final presentations, however, is an integral part of the Seminar.

In addition, many of the students have participated in a continuing Thought Leadership Lecture Series, which has featured Debra Goldman from AdWeek, Rick Boyko (VCU), , Lee Lynch, Founder and CEO of Carmichael Lynch, Keith Reinhardt, CEO Emeritus of DDB Worldwide and Stan Richards, Founder and CEO of the Richards Group . Other graduate students have helped develop internationally recognized and well-attended conferences initiated and conducted by the Center for Brand Research. These include Chaos: New Models For Advertising, Bullock Museum, November, 2006, Niche Life Styles and Branding, National Press Club, Wash.,, D.C., February, 2004 and the first of our efforts Branding and Rebranding in the 21st Century: A Transdisciplinary Approach, LBJ Library, May, 2003.

The Brand Planning Seminar was added to the graduate studies program as part of the emphasis the UT Advertising Department has on preparing its graduates for productive entrance into agency life. The sponsoring agencies will have the opportunity to review the efforts undertaken in their behalf and discuss the strategic contribution participants make to the creative product. We invite representatives from the selected agencies and clients to the final presentations by their teams and Seminar sponsorship presumes that such attendance will take place.

All work performed for the selected agencies will be considered proprietary, belonging to the agency and/or their client and the appropriate confidentiality statements (usually a standard noon-disclosure agreement) will, if requested, be signed.

The Seminar’s participants will typically base their efforts on field studies -- in-home observations, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, mall intercepts, surveys, etc. -- but may also include secondary research and analysis as well. It is important to note that the graduate students have had training on SPSS, SAS, mapping and related statistical techniques. (Equally important to the nature of this Seminar is the fact that all the students have authored their own home pages on the Internet and are web sophisticated.) Current emphasis includes new media (e.g., blogs, pod casts and the importance of consumer generated content.

As Seminar teams functioning in a workshop setting our purpose is to help the sponsoring enterprises reach a better understanding of the target market and to contribute to the creative strategy. We also recognize the importance of this real world simulation and the energy it inspires in the student participants. A general description of the plan of proposed work, its timetable and cost follows.

Strategic Direction

Our strategy will generally focus on ways to stimulate trial and on the acquisition of a larger customer base. Each of the projects should include some consumer (or target market) interviewing either as a result of one-on-one interviews, in- store observations, focus group participation, etc. These efforts will be prioritized and reviewed during the first phase of the workshop.

Our understanding will be enhanced by the secondary research and situation analysis provided by the agency/client or which the Seminar teams assemble.

Our primary challenge is to support the sponsor’s efforts. To do this, we will work closely with the sponsoring enterprise’s representatives in both defining the approach and in setting the objectives for the Seminar project.

The candidate projects to be submitted by the sponsoring agencies may be drawn from current client issues, new business efforts, or general issues of interests to the agency (e.g. women’s studies, ethics, impact of Internet, etc.). The effectiveness of current marketing communication materials -- if they exist -- will be studied through interviews with sales staff, distributors and buyers and by an analysis of competitive strategy, tactics and literature.

Time and Budget

Time

University schedules require that the projects be completed within the semester, although at times major projects have continued into the next semester building upon the earlier class work with more sophisticated and focused research. .

Based on discussions and correspondence and, if needed agency visits, no more than two sponsors will be selected for each semester’s program. Professor Burns reserves the right to assess the capacity and interest of the student groups and based upon that judgment to restrict the selection as well as the number of projects in a given semester; i.e. we want to field our student’s best efforts. Summer sessions call for special attention regarding timing and student’s assignments; generally the activity is more intense and collapsed into a shorter calendar period.

Dates for the Fall, 2008 follow.

Key Project Dates: Semester, 2008 - 2009**

Agency Submission of project or task descriptions	22 August
UT selection takes place	9 September
Approve Project Estimate and Time Table	15 September
Interviews and Field Work	15 Sep – 18 Nov
Analysis and Report Preparation	1 Nov – 1 Dec
Presentation of Workshop Findings	TBD* (Approx 12/16)

* To be negotiated to accommodate agency and student schedules.

** Summer 2009 assignment schedules require planning and commitments prior to 10 January 2009 so that student selection and enrollment may take place.

Budget

The sponsorship donation for a workshop project is a contribution (tax deductible) ranging from twenty-five hundred dollars ($5,000) per sponsoring agency for short-term projects to as much twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for the Major Semester project. Checks for the appropriate amount for that donation, made out to the University of Texas at Austin may be sent to the Department of Advertising. The funds are in turn used for student related independent study projects or educational enhancement at the discretion of the Department’s Chairperson. The sponsor’s will -- with their permission -- be recognized for their contributions on the Department’s web site and at other suitable opportunities.

Out of pocket costs, if not covered by sponsorship funds will be billed separately to the sponsoring agencies. This would include any travel, long distance telephone; incentives paid to interviewees or focus group participants, and presentation or test materials especially purchased for the assignment. All expenditures in excess of $100.00 require prior approval from the sponsoring agency. (To date the expenses billed back to our agency-clients have not exceeded $2000.00 for any assignment.) An anticipated list of expenditures will be submitted at the start of the project.

Getting Started

The intake process starts with an informal communication – a meeting, phone call, e-mail or fax --to the Brand Planning Program at the University of Texas at Austin. We welcome inquiries from interested agencies and companies and can still schedule 2008-2009 projects. Please direct your questions and /or comments to:

Professor Neal M. Burns
The Center for Brand Research
Department of Advertising
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Place
Austin, Texas 78712
512.471.8160
512.471.8100 (FAX)
nburns@mail.utexas.edu