Business consultancy live brief assignment

Business Consultancy live brief assignment.

Team: Vanquish

Client:

Vanquish CW2 Part 3 – Group Report

Vanquish

Craig Bennett 21114547

Josh Oberman 21110314

Henry Wood 21132434

Ben Yerkess 21105857

Jay Varney 21112486

All group members participated in both the project and the final project report.

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Contents

Project Introduction and Client Background 3

Client Problem 4

Project Problems 5

Solutions and Progress 6

People and Finance 7

Evidence and Outcomes 8

Conclusions 9

Project Recommendations 10

Appendices

Video Content 12

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Project Introduction and Client Background

The project team is made up from five students all studying Business and Advertisement or

Business and Marketing. This set up resulted in a combination of various different skills that

formed team ‘Vanquish’. The Vanquish team is made up from five males whom are very

driven to succeed and do the best possible for any client, working hard to solve complicated

business problems and eager to gain real life experience in business consultancy and problem

solving. Participating and completing a project on behalf of an operating business requires

fundamental planning, dedication and a solid time commitment of which planning can be

seen in the detailed project brief document that was composed pre project in early January.

Gadgets 4 Everyone was established by a young entrepreneur called Sam. When Sam was

seventeen he bought a number of cheap, broken iPods from abroad, repaired them himself

and sold each for a good profit. From that day he decided this type of work could be taken

advantage of due to the rapidly growing phone, tablet and gadget market - which in turn

come with breakages and damages which can often be very difficult to repair. As soon as

Sam started up Gadgets 4 Everyone it did not take him long to start making a small profit on

buying, repairing and selling various different gadgets and now doubles his annual turnover

year on year and is currently turning over just over one million pounds a year.

The business has a standard pricing list for each individual gadget that they repair up on the

website, www.gadgets4everyone.co.uk but actual payments may vary depending on amount

and severity of damage which has been suffered to said gadget. The gadget recycling scheme

has been given big appraisals from the government due to the high percentage of recycled

goods being circulated within the sector as opposed to being scrapped.

Gadgets 4 Everyone has a very large target audience as a very high percentage of consumers

now have various different types of gadgets, added to the amount of new products being

available on a regular basis, means the amount of gadgets being recycled will always be

increasing. A more concentrated target audience for Gadgets 4 Everyone was required and it

became apparent that students aged 18-25 tend to have a high percentage of gadgets. In

addition, students tend to have a lower income than any other segment within the market and

need money from elsewhere, other than part time jobs. Therefore, the project focused on

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Gadgets 4 Everyone reaching said target audience in an attempt to raise awareness of Gadgets

4 Everyone within Universities and Colleges.

Client Problem

Gadgets 4 Everyone is based in a location close to a university that has an estimated five

thousand registered students. However, exploiting this potential market is a problem that

needs solving, as there is a vast opportunity to attract these students to the business, and turn

interest into action by persuading them to sell and recycle their gadgets through Gadgets 4

Everyone. Potentially, the student population is unaware of the brand itself and therefore does

not know it use it, or they may have tried the Gadgets 4 Everyone service before and not got

the best deal, and therefore used a competitor. Whatever the reason for not using the brand,

there needs to be a solution that will firstly further raise the profile of the brand and what it

offers its customers, and secondly persuade potential customers to actually use the service

and sell their electronic gadgets to Gadgets 4 Everyone. Reaching out to the student

demographic at the local university can be the start of a national awareness and action

campaign spreading the profile of the brand via universities across the country. Many

students experience financial trouble at some stage during their study and knowing that they

need money more so than an old gadget or two, poses as a solution to this issue. Gadgets 4

Everyone can be promoted to this student demographic and can therefore begin to utilise the

potential turnover available in customer base.

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Project Problems

- Planning- Client Communication and Participation - Content Production

The project plan became an issue later on in the time frame as the tasks that we had specified

to last a week for example actually took two weeks, maybe three. There was very little

realistic consideration in the initial planning process. Extra allowance for tasks such as

filming and editing should have been planned for as we should have considered what

potential problems that could hinder process at these stages. More in depth planning would

have overcome this particular problem.

Client communication and his all-round participation in the project was extremely minimal.

As a businessman with interests both in his customers and the market, he should have been

more willing to interact with us as consultants for a problem that he set us. A more

enthusiastic client would be needed to actually progress to the next level of project work as

there is only so far a group of consultants can go without feedback or communication of any

kind from the client, as they are the one who set the initial problem or brief. There was

initially disappointment across the team, as we felt that he should actually be involved in the

project and be interested in the project as he signed up for the programme. Interest and prior

mentioned all-round enthusiasm was just not there. Email contact was still attempted monthly

but there was never an adequate response or in most cases no response at all.

The production of the video content also threw up some problems as we thought we could

plan and produce two videos easily. Team members owned the relevant production

equipment prior to this project anyway and these were used effectively to film and edit.

However, the idea we had discussed planned and began to film for the viral video actually did

not got to plan. This wasn’t a big issue particularly as the viral idea was slightly adjusted so

that we could firstly, film it more easily, secondly, produce uniquely funny and informative

content, and thirdly produce something that served its purpose; to raise awareness of the

Gadgets 4 Everyone brand.

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Solutions and Progress

As mentioned above, the solution to this problem is to start small and grow in its own

success. The plan is to promote the Gadgets 4 Everyone business to students across a popular

platform for that age group, social media. Prior to this project, the brand was already active

on social media networks; therefore the plan was to produce new and up to date content that

is specifically applicable in the lives of this specific target audience. It was made clear

originally that the whole brand’s target audience is not just the student demographic but for

this particular project, as a team we decided that as students is would be relevant to exploit us

as consumers. In order to do this, a viral video plan was devised; the purpose of this is to

advertise the Gadgets 4 Everyone brand to the student age demographic across the most

relevant platform in their lives. Social media is a big part of these consumers’ lives and the

viral video will be launched on the YouTube platform and shared across other social media

networks.

The two videos being produced are of differing content, the first being a viral video, simply

designed to raise awareness of the brand in a humorous way. The idea is to make the viewer

laugh but at the same time encourage them to actually take in the relevant and important

information about Gadgets 4 Everyone. Graphic text is kept to a minimum to avoid too much

reading, enabling the viewers to be fully indulged in the creative content.

The second video is designed to adopt a more informative tone, more relevant for television

advertising as it will provide the viewers with financial insight into what Gadgets 4 Everyone

offers customers for specific gadgets. This video will feature numerous gadgets; all accepted

by Gadgets 4 Everyone in exchange for a financial reimbursement. Filming has finished and

editing is underway, with drafts having been produced in order to obtain valuable feedback

comments on both the content, and the relevance of the content to the Gadgets 4 Everyone

brand. After this stage, the videos will be completed and posted on the planned social media

outlets enabling them to spread through shares and likes.

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People and Finance

The Vanquish group consists of five members; Josh Oberman, who is group leader and

managing director of the project. This job role involved ensuring that all team members

worked well together and that communication with the client was maintained. Craig Bennett

and Harry Wood were research managers, this role consisted of making sure the research on

the market was reliable, but also contributed to group work on many different levels, such as

maintaining the high standards set in the brief. Ben Yerkess and Jay Varney were technical

managers. This job role consisted of editing and creating the Gadgets 4 Everyone social

media aspects and producing media content for the brand. Due to the clear understanding

between the group members and good time management, all elements of the Vanquish team

worked well together and provided a high standard of work for each other throughout the

whole project whilst maintaining email contact with the client.

The mentor for Vanquish during the period of working with Gadgets 4 Everyone was Martyn

Robertson. He provided the group with assistance, and a better understanding of what the

client would require from each aspect of the project. This continuous help was good for the

team as it provided a source of unbiased advice that would ultimately benefit what was

presented to the client come the end of the plan. This advice was given at meetings that took

place on a weekly basis, and the agenda usually consisted of current progress. This provided

an impetus to work weekly in order to provide something new for Martyn to analyse and

relay feedback on. This was a good working agreement and method for the team as it meant

we could constantly make our work a better standard in order to produce results and a

cognitive project.

Finance was not a key issue in this project as it did not cost the group to produce the work

needed for the client. However, charging the client for work would be based on the time and

effort put into the project and its results. Gaining primary and secondary research on the

target market for the project, creating new social media outlets and producing content for the

brand cost group members time, and provided the business with a better understanding of

their customers, financial imbursement would be required for further content creation and

development.

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Evidence and Outcomes

The success of our campaign will be measured by the social media feedback we gain.

Qualitative data, such as ‘comments’, will be examined to gain insight into audience opinion

on the videos. We will also look at the quantitative data provided by the amount of ‘views’,

‘shares’ and ‘likes’ our videos gain. If the viewers of the video find it informative and a

success they will be more likely to share it with their friends further increasing our reach and

in turn the amount of exposure that the client, Gadgets 4 Everyone, will gain.

The outcome of this campaign is that people will gain more information on the brand Gadgets

4 Everyone and get a better understanding about how much they can be paid for their old

gadgets. Eventually this should transform into increased trade for Gadgets 4 Everyone, as

people will remember in the future where they can recycle their gadgets. The key outcome of

this campaign will be a more informed target audience with some basic knowledge on the

amount of money they can gain from certain products, we feel by displaying this in the video

the amount of money people can from the client that they will realise the benefits of using

such a service.

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Conclusions

Team Relationship

The relationship within and amongst the team was very positive, throughout the task with

each member acting in a formal and business-like manner, with all members making most

personal meetings and group meetings, also striving to make as many as possible with our

supervisor. The performance of the team when coming together, to undertake the practical

components of the assignment was once again impressive with all members present. With all

members present throughout all stages of the project, this allowed the team to discuss each

component to the work and get complete satisfaction from all before finalising what should

happen and how it will happen.

Project Operation

Looking at the project overall it was a success, with the objectives we set out being

completed in time and to a good standard. The main objective of the project was to supply

Gadgets4Everyone with information and a form of media that allowed the company to reach

out to the desired target market of their choice 18-25yr olds. The final ideas where two

digital videos, one that will allow the person watching to gain an understanding of how much

money they are likely to receive for a certain piece of technology that they own. The second

video is a viral video, which will hopefully attract members of the designated target group to

the site, allowing them to found out what Gadgets4Everyone offers, while being entertained.

Throughout the project small modifications where made in various areas, many of these were

done to improve the media produced or to build upon an idea and develop it to meet its

maximum potential. However, some changes where made to our project through

recommendations from friends and people who saw early versions of the both videos.

Project Management and Planning

As mentioned above, our plan was continuously changed and modified to do with our

continually changing idea and plan. At the start of the project we set out a clear and specific

time schedule with the aim to stick to this as much as possible. However this didn’t always go

to plan with specific areas running over time, a significant problem that the team encountered

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was the contact with the client that prohibited us from progressing due to lack of information

and clarification in some areas.

Project Recommendations

In order for another group of consultants to continue on with this project if necessary there

are some vital recommendation points that should be considered. This project has come with

its problems, as mentioned above but it has also come with its success and the following

recommendations are structured so that future activity in this project runs more smoothly than

it did initially, and that problems that occurred here do not occur again.

Planning

Planning is vital for any type of business project, and here is no different. The original plan

put together in the brief featured a structured table highlighting the key dates and the

necessary output or tasks to be started and completed by such dates. However, sticking to this

was something that did not occur too well therefore, the first recommendation is to consider

actual reality when planning. Nothing runs 100% smoothly but planning to run as near to

perfection is vital and operating to a pre-set plan is also necessary but the original plan needs

to be realistic. Perhaps in the initial plan put together, the details were not realistic enough

and as a result there not sufficient time for some tasks to be completed. Fortunately, there was

time to extend past the planned dates as they were not official hand in dates or meeting dates

but for use in future projects where perhaps the time frame is smaller or there are more

regular featured deadlines, operators should ensure that they plan for more time than they

need. This ensures that there is room for mishaps or complications that may arise at different

times, overcoming these takes time and having room to breathe in situations that require hard

work is vital to achieving overall success and key to producing a high level of work.

Client Communication

Keeping in regular contact with the client is one of the most important aspects of a project

like this. His or her needs, thoughts or wants may change or vary, as consultants, you need to

be aware of this. Being flexible upon approach, plans and ideas is also ideal as clients don’t

necessarily consider the consultant in their decision making. For example, as students we

have other deadlines that need to be met but perhaps a client may require some project work

also in at that time. Although, this was not the case in this instance, knowing what can happen

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and being prepared for things to change (even if they don’t) is a skill that is required for this

project. However, the client in this instance kept his distance, perhaps too far and rarely

replied to group contact attempts. This meant that although the business brief didn’t change,

the interaction at each stage of product completion was pretty much non-existent. Being

prepared for this is vital as this client is not involved in the project at all, giving consultants

the freedom to produce whatever work they wish to meet the required client brief.

Content Production

Linked to planning and realistic timing, the video production actually takes longer than

expected. In both cases in this project, the videos filming generated some problems as the

original idea could not be produced to an exact replica. Therefore, it had to be changed in

order to be filmed and built into the viral video. The final recommendation here is to be a

fully prepared team of consultants, who combined, have a very wide plethora or skills,

knowledge and experience. Technological experts are vital in video filming, editing and

production as these use specialist equipment and computer software in order to build the final

component video. There cannot be enough emphasis on preparation here, especially with a

project that involves creating your own video content, as video ideas are subject to change

depending on a number of contributing factors such as time, weather, location, situation and

people, only the latter being controlled by the consultancy team.

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Appendices

Video Content

Viral Video

The situation in the viral video shows a group of friends in a park, bored and waiting for

some other friends to turn up. Kicking a football around and chatting, one is constantly

moaning about his old and out of date mobile phone that is slow and useless. Filming begins

after one friend having already offered five pounds to another if he can kick their football into

a bin that is about eighty metres away. The friends go on to offer their peer five pounds each

if he can throw is old and useless phone into the same bin, still approximately eighty metres

away. He accepts the challenge and attempts the throw, with it being so blatantly obvious that

it will never reach that far, let alone actually go in the bin. However, the filming camera angle

changes and shows the phone land straight in the bin and the group of friends laughing and

celebrating. The humour sparks at this point, as the throw was such an outrageous attempt

and it could have never been thrown that far and that accurately, with the video content then

finishing with the written quote ‘get more than a fiver for your phone with Gadgets 4

Everyone’. This immediately links to the money offering from the friends to the other friend

throwing his phone. Customers may never try to throw their phone in a bin but this viral spin

off creates a buzz around the video, raising the profile of the brand and driving customers to

the business.

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Informative Video

Different gadgets will be lined up upon a neural background and a text font will scroll across

the screen displaying the maximum prices that a customer can receive for each specific

gadget. Previous Gadgets 4 Everyone video content produced used a human hand writing in a

marker on a plain white background, being sped up and edited into the video once it was

done. This theme is a unique idea that is visually good to watch and a clever idea to utilise

but that idea selected to feature was far easier to produce and edit into the video. This

informative format offers a differed approach to the viral video, with both coming together to

form a complete package of video content that will raise awareness and persuade interest to

action amongst potential customers. To date, production progress sits at the final stage.

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Business consultancy live brief assignment

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Transcript of Business consultancy live brief assignment