This document provides guidance for students completing case study assignments as part of an IDM Certificate in Digital Marketing. It outlines the purpose of case assignments, which is to apply marketing theory to practical scenarios and demonstrate skills like formulating solutions, justifying investments, and applying concepts. Students are assessed on their understanding, problem-solving abilities, and persuasive arguments. The document advises students to conduct a situation analysis including a SWOT analysis, consider key areas like the marketing mix and measurement, and provide concise reports within word limits that prioritize key points. It emphasizes applying learning to real-world client briefs and management perspectives.
2. Purpose of case assignments
• “Learning through doing”
• Your opportunity to apply theory into practice
• To assess whether you can demonstrate best
practice and the ability to deliver commercial valuepractice and the ability to deliver commercial value
• To show you can build a budget
• Cases are about formulating realistic solutions to a
client brief
3. Assessing your skills in
• Explaining concepts and theory we have covered
– To test your understanding and ability to persuade
– Do need to reference sources (unlike the real world)
• Applying theory and concepts
– Selecting relevant models and frameworks to help solve
a real business problem
• Justifying investment
– Effectively a sales proposal or pitch or internal
justification
4. A case study
• describes a situation, but does not analyse or
evaluate
• So, you need to do a SWOT analysis• So, you need to do a SWOT analysis
• Identify the key issues
5. It’s a Real-Life Situation
• Prepare a report for a management team
• We restrict your word count – managers don’t
read much!
• Helps you to prioritise your thoughts• Helps you to prioritise your thoughts
• No fixed template – use your own creativity
6. How do we know you’ve passed?
Would the Management Team think their
money is safe in your hands?money is safe in your hands?
7. Assumptions...
• Tell the examiner what they are – they don’t
mind reading!
• They will take these into account when
assessing your answer
8. Do not
• Use humour – your examiner (me!) may not
understand!
9. Measurement
Site centric
Log-file analysis
(server-based)
Page-tagging
(browser-based)
Audience
based
Panel-based
e.g. Netratings
Comscore
Alexa.com
ISP Aggregators
(Hitwise)
E-communications
centric
E-mail
Search
Affiliates
PR
+ Offline
campaign
tracking
Attitudinal
Surveys
Focus groups
Mystery Shoppers
Online ads
Auditing
ABCe
Digital marketing
measurement
(browser based)
Technical
Performance
Page download
Process
responsiveness
Availability
Outcome-
based
Registrations
Leads
Sales
Mystery Shoppers
User
profiling
Form data capture
Click response
Purchase response
Inbound
enquiries
On site search
Inbound e-mails
+ Offline
outcomes
10. Key Areas to Consider
They are also critical for your day job!
11. The BIG Picture
• What do all the terms mean?
• How do they all fit together?
13. Situation Analysis
• Where are we now?
• What are our strengths and weaknesses?
• How about the marketplace and competitors?
14. Situation Analysis
• SWOT, DEEPLIST analysis
• Main competitors
• Positioning and challenges• Positioning and challenges
• Customer characteristics and buyer behaviour
15. The
Organisation
Strengths – S
1. Existing brand
2. Existing customer base
3. Existing distribution
Weaknesses – W
1. Brand perception
2. Intermediary use
3. Technology/skills
4. X-channel support
Opportunities – 0
1. Cross-selling
2. New markets
3. New services
4. Alliances/
SO Strategies
Leverage strengths to
maximise opportunities
= Attacking strategy
WO Strategies
Counter weaknesses
through exploiting
opportunities
= Build strengths for
4. Alliances/
Co-branding
= Attacking strategy = Build strengths for
attacking strategy
Threats – T
1. Customer choice
2. New entrants
3. New competitive
products
4. Channel conflicts
ST Strategies
Leverage strengths to
minimise threats
= Defensive strategy
WT Strategies
Counter weaknesses and
threats:
= Build strengths for
Defensive strategy
16. DEEPLIST for macro-environment
• Demographic: percentage of each population online can be analysed
in terms of age, household size and type, income, gender, ethnicity,
employment status, work patterns mobility etc.
• Economics: taxation controls, monetary and competition policies,
fiscal policies.
• Environment: country specific attitudes towards physical
environmental issues, for example energy consumption, spatial
distribution of populations.
• Political: power and influence of Government agencies and regulatory• Political: power and influence of Government agencies and regulatory
bodies, public opinion, pressure groups, Internet governance.
• Legal: trading laws and restrictions, advertising standards and
controls, taxation laws.
• Information: Availability of consumer / company data and information,
access to this type of data and how it is used, information control.
• Social: needs and wants of target communities, extent of social
exclusion, individual levels of trust and perceptions of security, social
discrimination.
• Technology: Access to technology, innovation, adoption rates,
applications of technology.
17. Primary Research Secondary Research
Usability lab
Benchmarking
analysis
Split testing
Eyeball tracking
Online panels
Data capture
Jupiter
Forrester
ComScore
Alexa/Compete
MORI
Hitwise
Nielsen IAB
Acxiom
Google Trends
BlogPulse
Tracking Data
WebTrends
Atlas
Google
Omniture
Campaign results
INSIGHT!
Google Trends
Email Clickstream
18.
19.
20.
21. Customer Insight: How do people
search on-line?
‘Tracker’
Completing
“I want one”
‘Hunter’
Researching
“That’s Interesting”
‘Explorer’
Browsing
“Surprise Me” “I want one”“That’s Interesting”“Surprise Me”
Directed goal-orientedUndirected, exploratory
22. You are what you search
• Digital camera
• Digital SLR Canon Nikon
• Canon 400D• Canon 400D
• Canon 400D cheap price same day delivery
23. Digital acquisition plan
• What tools will you be using
• How much will you spend
• What are the key metrics
• Present as a timeline
• Ensure mix is balanced to reduce risk
• Create a detailed budget...
24. Acquisition
Natural Search
Paid search
Affiliate Marketing
Display Advertising
Viral Marketing
On-line PRSelect your On-line PR
RSS
Corporate Blogging
Social Media
Podcasting
Wiki’s
Select your
weapon...
25. Acquisition – driving traffic
• Search – google, yahoo and MSN pages
• Affiliate – http://www.abestweb.com/
• Display – DoubleClick, Atlas IAB sites
• What are the big issues here?
26. Start with one channel – search?
• How much can I pay per click?
• What is that spend per day?
• How many people will start a process?
• How many will finish?• How many will finish?
• What is the conversion rate?
• How much does it cost per outcome?
• Can I afford it?
27. Here is the summary
Google
Cost per Click
Daily
Budget for
Search
Total
Clicks per
Day
Total
Visitors
Add
Product to
basket
Purchase
Product
Cost per
Sale
£ 0.20 £ 50.00 20% 50%
£ 0.20 £ 50.00 250 250 50 25 £ 2.00
29. Tuning the programme
• What will you work on to improve plan:
– Improving landing page/ web template effectiveness
– Follow-up e-mail contact strategies
– Integration with offline media (direct mail)
• What will you test
– Acquisition tools
– Search terms, lists
– Landing pages
– Email messaging
– Offers
30. Acquisition – driving traffic
• Search
– Paid versus natural?
– Conversion efficiency?
• Affiliate
– Attribution– Attribution
– Integration
– Brand bidding
– Cost of set-up and service levels
• Display
– Pricing models
– Targeting models
31. Tracking and Measurement
• Attribution
• Weaknesses of web analytics
• Possible solutions
• Omniture, Web Trends, Analytics blogs
• Watch a few videos...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMwQN43fwoQ