The specific objective of this critical assignment is to assure that students have a sufficient level of management and leadership skills, marketing knowledge, and trend knowledge to develop a plan. This exercise will provide students with the opportunity to integrate and implement theory to practice and demonstrate that they have accomplished the learning outcomes of the majors in the College of Business and Management.

For the purpose of this exercise, students will choose a company, fashion designer, or trend concept for which they will prepare a trend report and marketing knowledge plan. The work product of the students should include the key components of a fashion and retail marketing plan, which are listed below. The plan would hopefully demonstrate that students have a depth and breadth of business concepts that would encourage a prospective employer to have confidence that students are prepared for a position in industry.

The specific components should include:

• Fashion and Retail Vision and Mission Statement, if a company is selected (if a fashion designer is selected, this would be the history of the designer. If a trend is selected this would be a history of the trend and how it has evolved).
• Fashion and Retail Industry Analysis (the current status of the company, the current status of the fashion designer, or the current status of the trend that is marketed to consumers)
• Fashion Marketing Strategy (marketing strategy of the company, of the designers current collection, or the manner in which the trend is marketed to consumers)
• Retail Trend Analysis (future of the company, designer, or direction in which the trend is headed).
• Contemporary Strategies and methods of sustaining growth in the fashion and retail industries