For this paper I just need Category Overview and Competitive Review section to be written (don’t need introduction). Brand information attached in the additional files folder.

Overview
For this project, you will work in a group environment in order to present a brand strategy and recommendation based on the parameters outlined below. Each member of the group must contribute to the final brief in some way.

Assignment Directives
During this semester, you will learn all of the key areas needed to develop a brand strategy. You will now be working on a hypothetical situation that will help you implement these skills in order to develop a brand strategy and subsequent advertising strategy and execution for a local business.

In this scenario, you and your team have been invited to pitch a brand and advertising strategy to a local restaurateur and her investors (subsequently referred to as your “clients”) who are opening a new concept restaurant in downtown Champaign. Specifically, your clients have purchased a vacant restaurant space at 6 E Columbia Ave. (formerly Escobar’s). The clients have experience running a wide variety of restaurants in other towns across the Midwest, but are seeking insight into the local Champaign market and are open to your recommendation for a unique new brand of restaurant – in any service style (e.g., fast food, casual dining, fine dining, etc.) and any food type (e.g., American, BBQ, Mexican, Chinese, etc.). Your clients would like to attract a young, affluent professional crowd to the new restaurant and are planning to open in the Fall of 2018.

For this first part of your group project, you will focus on developing a sound brand strategy. Directives for Part II, Advertising Strategy, will be released in the coming weeks. Your job now is to develop a written brief and short oral presentation about the new restaurant brand you develop.

Below are specific directives for the written brief:
C. Category Overview (Organic food)
• Describe the category itself:
o Is it growing?
o Provide sales figures for the category (last full yearly amount available)
o Who is the market leader nationally?
o Identify 5 direct competitors in this category and 3 indirect competitors (this should include both larger brands that operate in the area, as well as smaller regional or local brands(Champaign, Illinois)

D. Competitive Review
• Select 3 of the direct competitors outlined above (in section C) and provide the following for each:
o 3 features and the benefits directly related to those features
o 2 brand values
o What is the brand’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
• Based on your analysis of the competitors, identify three concrete ways in which the new restaurant brand can stand out amongst the competition?