| Course | MKT 574 Marketing: Social, Mobile, and Analytics (MKT/574) |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Brand equity assessment and strategy |
| Length | about 1,169 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MKT 574 Week 3
From Exhibit Hall to River Brand: Assessing and Building the Brand Equity of a Louisville Aquarium
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
MKT/574: Marketing: Social, Mobile, and Analytics
Week 3 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Riverfront Aquarium, its brand research and its plans are composites written for a model paper.
The invented riverside aquarium at the center of this course has a new strategy built on return visits and a value proposition of seasonal discovery, close encounters and conservation. Week 2 chose local families, curious adults and young adults as targets. None of this will work if the aquarium's brand continues to say what it has said for 20 years: world-class aquatic exhibits. The brand has never been studied. This paper explains why branding matters to the aquarium, reports a brand audit and proposes a brand platform, architecture and touchpoint plan.
Why Branding Matters Here
For an attraction, the brand is a promise made before the visit. People decide whether to spend $32 and an afternoon based on what they believe the aquarium offers. For members, the brand also shapes whether a repeat visit seems worthwhile. A brand associated only with a fixed set of exhibits discourages return; a brand associated with discovery invites it.
Customer-Based Brand Equity
Keller (1993) proposed that brand equity lives in customers' minds as brand knowledge, made up of awareness and a set of associations, and that equity exists when this knowledge causes customers to respond more favorably to a brand's marketing. Associations matter when they are strong, favorable and unique. For the aquarium, the question is not only whether people know it but what comes to mind when they do.
Choosing a Brand Concept
Park et al. (1986) argued that brands should be built on a single concept chosen at launch and managed over time: functional, solving practical problems; symbolic, expressing identity or belonging; or experiential, providing sensory pleasure, variety or stimulation. They warned that mixing concepts confuses customers and weakens positioning, and that the concept should guide every stage of a brand's life. An aquarium is naturally experiential, but its advertising has used functional language about exhibits and facilities.
Brands as Signals
Erdem and Swait (1998) showed that brands act as signals when customers are uncertain about quality, and that a brand's credibility, built through consistent investment and clear messages over time, lowers perceived risk and information costs. Consistency matters: when a brand's messages and experiences vary, its signal weakens. For a family deciding between the aquarium and the zoo on a Saturday, a clear, consistent brand reduces the risk of a disappointing outing.
The Brand Audit
The aquarium surveyed 1,200 adults within a two-hour drive. Aided awareness was 88 percent, close to the zoo's 93 percent and above the science museum's 79 percent. Perceived quality was high, with 81 percent rating the aquarium good or excellent. Associations were weaker. Asked what words came to mind, respondents most often named sharks, expensive, one-time trip and nice building. Only 12 percent mentioned the Ohio River, and 6 percent mentioned conservation. Loyalty among local residents was low: 54 percent of locals who had visited said they had no reason to return within a year. The aquarium's evening events, branded Night Tide, had awareness of 9 percent, and most people who knew Night Tide did not know it was held at the aquarium.
People know the aquarium and think it is good, but they think of it as a place they have already been.
Touchpoint Review
A review of touchpoints found inconsistency. The website, billboards, membership mailers, social accounts and evening event posters use different colors, tones and photographs. The website leads with ticket prices, social posts are mostly animal photos without context and membership mailers stress discounts. No touchpoint mentions the river or the aquarium's field conservation work.
The Brand Platform
Concept: experiential, built on discovery. Brand promise: every visit shows you something new about the rivers and oceans that connect us. Personality: curious, warm and quietly adventurous, with the voice of a knowledgeable friend rather than an institution. Proof points: seasonal exhibits, daily keeper encounters, field projects restoring freshwater mussels in Kentucky rivers and the view of the Ohio from every gallery. Visual identity: a refreshed river-blue palette and photography that shows people discovering rather than empty exhibits.
Brand Architecture
The aquarium will move to a branded house, in which programs carry the master brand: Riverfront Aquarium After Dark replaces Night Tide, Riverfront Aquarium Members replaces the generic membership name and Riverfront River Project names the conservation work. The trade-off is less freedom for each program to develop its own personality, but the master brand gains from every program's activity, which matters for an organization with a limited marketing budget.
Lessons From Competitors
The zoo's brand offers a useful comparison. Over the past decade it has built strong associations with family tradition and with a single signature exhibit, which help explain its higher awareness and its loyal membership base. Its weakness, according to the audit, is a sense of sameness among adults without children. The science museum is associated with school trips and rainy days. Neither owns the idea of a place that changes with the seasons or the idea of the region's rivers. Those open spaces are where the aquarium's new concept can stand apart.
Internal Branding
A brand is carried by people as well as by advertising. Front-line staff, from ticket sellers to keepers, will receive a short brand guide and training on the promise, so that a family asking what is new hears a confident answer at the entrance. Keepers will be encouraged to share field stories during talks, which turns the River Project from a slogan into something visitors hear from the people doing the work. Staff who live the brand make it believable in a way no campaign can.
Brand Across Digital Touchpoints
Digital channels carry the brand most often. Social posts will show discoveries, including new arrivals, keeper stories and field work on the river, rather than isolated animal pictures. The website will lead with what is new this season rather than prices. The planned mobile features will extend the visit. Weeks 4 and 5 will develop these channels.
Cost and Timing
The board approved the direction after seeing the audit results, which made the case in visitors' own words rather than the marketing team's. The refresh will be phased over 18 months to control cost: digital touchpoints and the After Dark renaming first, at about $85,000, then signage and print materials as they are replaced, so little is thrown away.
Measuring Brand Equity Over Time
The audit will be repeated each year. Targets for two years are river and conservation associations mentioned by 30 percent of respondents, the share of locals saying they have no reason to return reduced to 35 percent and member renewal back to 72 percent.
Conclusion
Riverfront Aquarium has strong awareness and quality but weak, outdated associations and low local loyalty. Research on brand knowledge, brand concepts and brand signals explains why a clear, consistent experiential brand built on discovery and the river would support the return-visit strategy. A branded house architecture and consistent touchpoints, especially digital ones, will let every program build the same brand.
References
Erdem, T., & Swait, J. (1998). Brand equity as a signaling phenomenon. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7(2), 131-157. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327663jcp0702_02
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
Park, C. W., Jaworski, B. J., & MacInnis, D. J. (1986). Strategic brand concept-image management. Journal of Marketing, 50(4), 135-145. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224298605000401
What the MKT 574 Week 3 instructions ask
The third MKT 574 assignment often asks graduate students to assess the importance of branding and to analyze or develop a brand strategy for an organization. Typical requirements include defining brand and brand equity, auditing the current brand through awareness, associations, perceived quality and loyalty, comparing the brand with competitors and recommending a brand platform, such as mission, personality, promise and visual identity, along with brand architecture for sub-brands or programs. Some prompts ask how digital and social media affect brand building. A strong paper uses evidence from customers, applies established brand equity research, explains why branding matters for the organization's goals and recommends actions that are consistent across touchpoints. Use APA format.
How this MKT 574 Week 3 example is built
The aquarium's logo shows a stylized wave, its ads promise world-class exhibits and its evening events run under a separate name nobody connects to it, so the brand says several things at once. The paper begins with the customer-based brand equity model, then a framework for choosing and maintaining a brand concept, functional, symbolic or experiential, and research showing that consistent, clear brands lower customers' perceived risk. A composite brand audit of 1,200 regional adults measures awareness, the associations people hold, perceived quality and loyalty against the zoo and the science museum. Findings show high awareness, strong quality, vague associations and weak loyalty among locals. The paper recommends an experiential brand concept built on the river, a branded house architecture and a touchpoint plan.
MKT 574 Week 3 grading rubric: where the points go
Graders of brand strategy papers reward accurate concepts, honest measurement and consistency. They also notice whether the student treats the brand as something customers hold in their heads rather than something the organization owns. High-scoring work defines brand equity using established research, audits the brand with customer evidence on awareness, associations, quality and loyalty, and compares it with relevant competitors. It explains why branding matters to the organization's specific goals rather than in general. Recommendations should form a coherent platform, with a clear concept, promise, personality and architecture, and should be applied across touchpoints including digital channels. Peer-reviewed sources, tidy APA referencing, readable summary tables and polished, executive-level writing complete the evaluation.
MKT 574 Week 3 help: mistakes to avoid
The most frequent weakness in branding papers is treating the brand as the logo and tagline. Explain brand equity as what customers know and feel and how that changes their behavior. Another common gap is recommending a new brand without measuring the old one; an audit, even a small one, shows what to keep. Students also confuse brand architecture choices, such as whether programs should carry the master brand or their own names. Explain the trade-offs. Some papers list brand personality traits without showing how they would appear in real communication. Give examples. Finally, connect the brand plan to the course's digital topics, since social media and mobile apps are now among the most frequent brand touchpoints.
Related MKT 574 sample papers
Other MKT 574 week samples
- MKT 574 Week 1: Marketing Strategy and Customer Value
- MKT 574 Week 2: Target Markets and Positioning
- MKT 574 Week 4: Social Media Marketing Strategy
- MKT 574 Week 5: Mobile Marketing
- MKT 574 Week 6: Analytics and Evaluating Impact
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MKT 574 Week 3 questions, answered
What does MKT 574 Week 3 usually cover?
It usually covers the importance of branding, brand equity and brand strategy, including a brand audit and recommendations for brand concept, promise, personality, architecture and touchpoints.
Where can I find a free MKT 574 Week 3 sample paper?
The brand equity assessment and brand plan for a composite Louisville aquarium is shown above as a complete Week 3 sample with references.
What is customer-based brand equity?
It is the different response customers give to a brand's marketing because of what they know about the brand, built from awareness and from strong, favorable and unique associations.
What is brand architecture?
Brand architecture is how an organization names and relates its brands, products and programs, ranging from a single master brand used on everything to separate brands for each offering.
How do you audit a brand?
By measuring awareness, the associations customers hold, perceived quality and loyalty through surveys and interviews, reviewing every touchpoint for consistency and comparing results with competitors.
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