ASSESSMENT 001: DIGITAL MARKETING PLAN

You are required to write a “Digital Marketing Plan”. Word Count: 2500 words main body text (+/- 10% without penalty excluding list ofreferences and appendices)Contribution: 50% of overall module markSubmission Deadline: Tuesday, 16th February 2016, 1500 hoursWritten Assignment Title: Digital Marketing Plan for a business / product / brand / organisation / enterprise / entity of your choicebased on a thorough market and consumer analysis.****** very important 1. You will need to select a business / product / brand / organisation / enterprise / entity of YOUR CHOICE. ThisCANNOT BE a well-known brand name (such as Starbucks, Apple, Nike etc.). It CANNOT BE any brand that already has a well-developeddigital marketing strategy and/or social media presence. It CANNOT BE fictitious. Your choice must be a REAL entity but less wellknown. This can be preferably a small business which is either only online (online retailer of products and services) or it can be asmall brick-and-mortar business with a small online presence. It can be a high street shop or small independent store or even a farmingbusiness (e.g. café, tea room, gift shop, beauty salon, bookshop, antiques and crafts shop, organic food shop, horse stables, etc.). Itcan be a marketing services for a public sector organisation (e.g. arts college, technical college, local council, fire department,police services, research lab etc.). It can be a charity organisation (e.g any kind of human, animal, or humanitarian charity). It canbe a self-employed entrepreneur and / or individual (e.g. fitness trainer, yoga teacher, music teacher, translator / interpreter,mobile hairdresser, cupcake maker, pet sitter, dog walker, builder, plumber etc.). It can also be based on your own business interestsif you are thinking about or are already running a business of your own.Requirements:For a business / product / brand / organisation / enterprise / entity of your choice, construct a comprehensive digital marketing plan.This plan will be based on sound market and consumer analysis which will then guide the setting of appropriate objectives which in turnwill be achieved through the development and implementation of suitable strategies and tactics. The plan will also include aspects ofimplementation, measurement, monitoring, evaluation, and control. The plan will be supported by appropriate theoretical concepts andframeworks and will draw up recommendations and suggestions for further improvement of marketing practice.Learning Outcomes Assessed:A) Subject Specific Skills:1. Explore and understand better key success factors and major trends in today’s business environment and how these elements impactfuture market planning and the execution of strategies.2. Understand the nature of digital marketing strategy, the relevant processes involved in developing it and how to design andimplement a strategic marketing plan for an organisation3. Identify, analyse and utilise knowledge of the marketing environment, both internal and external to the company and understand thenature of having competitive advantage.4. Understand the different philosophies in digital marketing strategy and their relevance for the firms’ decision making.5. Demonstrate an awareness of the extent of service marketing strategies, i.e. from consumer behaviour and the need to relate productformulation to customer needs.6. Appreciate the differences between the different levels and types of marketing principles and revisit them from the marketingenvironment to marketing channels, and from pricing decisions to market planning under both a digital and service perspective.7. Analyse competitive marketing strategies from a digital and service perspective.8. Show an overall understanding of the operational tools in digital and service marketing, and in particular a closer look at revenuemanagement theories and tactical practice market segmentation product, promotional techniques in the extended marketing mix.B) Cognitive and key skills1. Critical thinking and creativity: managing creative processes in self and others; organising thoughts, analysis, synthesis, criticalappraisal. This includes the capability to identify assumptions, evaluate statements in terms of evidence, detect false logic orreasoning, identify implicit values, define terms adequately and generalise appropriately;2. Problem solving and decision making: establishing criteria, using appropriate decision techniques including identifying, formulatingand solving business problems; the ability to create, identify and evaluate options; the ability to implement and review decisions;3. Ability to conduct research into strategic marketing issues, i.e. learning through reflection on practice and experience.4. Ability to take a market based approach to making business decisions (as ultimately the market decides if your business deserves tosucceed or not).C) Employability Skills:1. Application and Analysis: Applying theoretical concepts to a practical real life business scenario and developing a plan that can beimplemented2. Enterprise Skills: Developing business ideas for a real business using creativity and entrepreneurial skills3. IT: using and applying knowledge about a range of IT tools, using IT skills to gather information and designing business campaignsFor this assignment, you expected to demonstrate:1. For your chosen scenario, your knowledge and understanding of market analysis including business environment, industry conditions,consumer audience, competitors if applicable, opportunities and challenges2. Your knowledge and understanding of the different requirements of a planning process. You can use the SOSTAC framework or any otherplanning framework of your choice. You may also choose NOT to use a planning framework but your plan has to include some elements ofsituation analysis, objective setting, developing strategies and tactics, and a plan of action, implementation, measurement, andcontrol.3. Your knowledge and understanding of the various aspects of a digital marketing planning process. You can use the RACE framework orany other framework of your choice. Alternatively you may also choose NOT to use any framework but your plan has to demonstrateknowledge and awareness of your business model, value proposition, and understanding of your customers.4. Your plan has to demonstrate knowledge, understanding, and practical applications of suitable techniques for improving websitedesign and effectiveness including mobile optimisation.5. Your plan has to develop ideas and practical suggestions for driving traffic to your website through judicious use of search engineoptimisation techniques and other aspects of improving search marketing.6. Your plan has to develop ideas and practical suggestions for effective and creative use of social media techniques includingidentification and use of specific social media platforms.7. Your plan has to demonstrative effective, sensible, practical, and realistic methods of improving online and offline marketingcommunication methods and linking them to your digital marketing plans.8. Your plan has to demonstrate clever ideas for how you can capture data, develop CRM systems through effective use of database, anduse that for developing other marketing techniques such as email.9. Your plan will come up with appropriate recommendations and suggestions for improving current marketing practice. You can include abudget if you prefer if you have access to commercial rates information for various aspects of digital marketing.10. You will support your plan with appropriate theoretical references and the use of key theoretical concepts suitably sourced fromacademic references.How can / should you go about doing this assignment? (Dos and Don’ts)1. You will need to select a business / product / brand / organisation / enterprise / entity of YOUR CHOICE. This CANNOT BE a well-known brand name (such as Starbucks, Apple, Nike etc.). It CANNOT BE any brand that already has a well-developed digital marketingstrategy and/or social media presence. It CANNOT BE fictitious. Your choice must be a REAL entity but less well known. This can bepreferably a small business which is either only online (online retailer of products and services) or it can be a small brick-and-mortar business with a small online presence. It can be a high street shop or small independent store or even a farming business (e.g.café, tea room, gift shop, beauty salon, bookshop, antiques and crafts shop, organic food shop, horse stables, etc.). It can be amarketing services for a public sector organisation (e.g. arts college, technical college, local council, fire department, policeservices, research lab etc.). It can be a charity organisation (e.g any kind of human, animal, or humanitarian charity). It can be aself-employed entrepreneur and / or individual (e.g. fitness trainer, yoga teacher, music teacher, translator / interpreter, mobilehairdresser, cupcake maker, pet sitter, dog walker, builder, plumber etc.). It can also be based on your own business interests if youare thinking about or are already running a business of your own.2. REMEMBER: Your choice must be that of a REAL business who can be traceable in the real world, who may or may not have some sort ofonline presence already such as a website or social media presence. If the business does not as yet have an online presence then yourplan will be tailored around developing a strong online presence and digital marketing strategy for it. If the business already hassome sort of online presence then your plan will be tailored to make it more effective and will include some minimal analysis of itsexisting state.3. You MUST register your business or topic with the module tutor or digital marketing tutor. This should be done before the start ofthe reading week. If you miss this deadline then you must register your business at the start of the week after reading week.4. You MUST be able to show that you can carry out a comprehensive analysis of the business including all aspects of micro and macroenvironmental factors that will impact upon the business, some aspects of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges, someelements of current and potential customers and market segments, and some elements of competitors (if applicable).5. You MUST be able to clarify and define your business’ product offer and value proposition – who is your business, what does yourbusiness do, what products and services does it offer, what value does it offer etc.6. You MUST be able to define some business objectives (e.g. increased sales, increased revenues, increased enquiries and follow-ups,greater brand awareness and recall, social media reputation, sentiment etc.).7. You MUST be able to develop a set of strategies and tactics that are not only practical and realistic but are also closely alignedwith the objectives developed above and can be measured and monitored.8. You CAN use the framework discussed in class OR you can use any other framework of your choice or you can choose to do the planwithout any framework at all as long as you addressing all the basic elements of a plan in a logical order.9. A significant part of your plan will be the core component of a digital marketing plan which will be part of the overall businessstrategy. This digital marketing plan is broadly expected to consist of the following where relevant (not everything is compulsory):a. A well designed website which is efficient and user-friendly. (You DO NOT have to design a website. If your business already has awebsite you can suggest ways and means of improving it or alternatively you can design a dummy page using any free online softwaretools but it is not compulsory.) Pay attention to mobile optimisation.b. A set of search engine marketing strategies including search engine optimisation, third party and affiliate marketing, sponsorshipand paid advertising, and pay per click methodsc. A set of social media strategies including identification of appropriate social media platforms, creation of social objects andshareable content with some thought to how people will interact with themd. A clear plan with a set of ideas about how it can be integrated with online and offline marketing promotions10. You MUST develop a clear plan of action including the use of analytic tools to track, measure, and analyse the effectiveness of thedigital engagement, capturing data in a database and CRM systems, a set of ideas to develop marketing communications from that datacapture including email and newsletters, and a monitoring, implementation, and evaluation programme. You can include a set of keyrecommendations to the business based on your plan as suggestions.11. You are NOT expected to provide a financial estimate. However some basic online research should provide you with plenty ofinformation about commercial rates for some aspects of digital marketing such as Google rates, sponsorship rates, web hosting servicesetc. which you can include as an estimate if you wish.12. REMEMBER not all concepts you study in class will be applicable. You need to be judicious in your selection of appropriate elementsof digital marketing that is most relevant for your business. You MUST AVOID a tick box approach to developing a plan and includingeverything.13. You MUST demonstrate proficiency in both theory and application in the plan, through your understanding of fundamental theoreticalconcepts, evidence of academic reading and research, evidence of industry reading and research from relevant websites, and evidence ofonline research skills. Your work must be practical, realistic, sensible, and professional and can be used as evidence in your CV orideas for developing an original business plan.14. Your plan MUST use appropriate referencing and follow guidelines for primary and secondary research references. IF YOU HAVE NOTREAD A PIECE OF WORK IN THE ORIGINAL, DO NOT PUT IT IN THE REFERENCE. LIST OF REFERENCES ARE MEANT TO BE SOURCES THAT YOU HAVE READ INTHE ORIGINAL. Grades are NOT dependent upon the number of references. Please note that the practice of putting in citations and a longlist of references to make your work look impressive without actually having read any of the papers in the original is dishonest and iseasily detectable. It makes your work seem lacking in academic credibility, intellectual rigour, and professional ethics and is to beentirely avoided! You will be penalized for this so it is best to avoid this practice altogether15. The above criteria are broad guidelines that lay out the expectations of the contents of the essay. You MUST be able to structurethe content, style, and details of the essay as you see fit within these guidelines. THERE IS NO SET GUIDELINE OR FRAMEWORK OR TEMPLATEFOR THE PLAN. Please use your own judgement and ideas in structuring the essay as there are no rigid guidelines governing the overallstructure. Only those references should be used which you have read in the original and which are relevant. There are no rules aboutthe number of references required as it is quality more than quantity that is important. However please DO NOT use references which youhave not read in the original or which have little relevance for the main text. Follow the presentation guidelines strictly. Thestandards of marking will be rigorous so the quality of your submission needs to be very high.What are the guidelines you need to follow?:For Submission:– Coursework should be electronically uploaded unless instructed otherwise– Include the word count on the coursework coversheet– Submission is anonymous and therefore do not put your name on the coursework. Only your student number is required– Your student number can be found on your student ID card. Please double check your student ID number is written correctly beforesubmitting your work– Please ensure that you do not overload your electronic draft with images and graphics that increase its file size and cause problemsduring upload– Ensure that your work is uploaded well ahead of time to avoid peak hour demands on the electronic systems and servers. Do not use ITand infrastructure excuses for delayed submissionWord Count:– The word count for this coursework is 2500 words– You are allowed to exceed this word limit for up to a maximum of 10% WITHOUT PENALTY– If you exceed 10% or more over the max word limit you will be deducted 10 marks off the original mark– Word limit covers the main body of the text and includes footnotes and endnotes (irrespective of whether they have been used for thepurpose of referencing or not), references and citations in the main text, tables and illustrations, and if applicable the abstract,title page, and contents. Appendicised material, reference list and bibliography is not included in the word count.Capped Marks:– Marks will be capped to the pass mark if there is intentional misrepresentation of word count on the coversheet– When the original mark is within 10 marks off the pass mark, the penalty will be capped at the pass mark– Original marks below the pass mark will not be penalizedMARKING CRITERIAAssessment will be marked against assessment and marking criteria laid out as University guidelines (Please access these guidelines forreference at http://www.uea.ac.uk/learningandteaching/staff/assessment/Marking+Criteria )(the following is a general indicative spread)MARKING SPREADItems Subject Matter %1 Evidence of critical engagement with literature and scholarship covering relevant interdisciplinary theories and perspectives 202 Critical analysis and evaluation of theories in the context of practices 403 Practical analysis of marketing implications and business recommendations 204 Presentation, structure, flow, communication, evidence of meeting learning outcomes 105 Integrity of reading, research, and standards of academic referencing and scholarship 10Items Subject Matter %1 Appropriate choice of business and thoroughness of its background analysis including market conditions, customer, and value offer 202 Digital Marketing Plan – overall plan and component elements 403 Action plan including analytics, database and CRM systems, monitoring and evaluation, and business improvement recommendations 204 Standards of academic reading, industry research, and professional quality of presentation including structure and content 20RETURN OF MARKED WORKYou can expect to have marked work returned to you by 20 working days after the submission date.PLAGIARISM WARNING!Assignments should not be copied in part or in whole from any other source, except for any marked up quotations that clearlydistinguish what has been quoted from your own work. All references used must be given, and the specific page number used should alsobe given for any direct quotations, which should be in inverted commas. Secondary citations must be referenced appropriately. Studentsfound copying from the internet or other sources will be referred to plagiarism procedures.REFERENCINGPlease note that the University uses Harvard as its standard for referencing widely available in various formats throughout theUniversity.