Assessment 2 – Part B Overview:

Focus of Part B

Part B focuses on the application of the information acquired in Part A to develop a digital marketing plan. This report includes analysis of the voice of the customer, quantitative social-media analytics, development of integrated marketing objectives, and development of a social-media-focused digital marketing plan.

Professional presentation of Part B report:

The group must prepare a 4,000 word (+/- 10%) digital marketing report and submit via Turnitin. Only words in the report’s body are included in the word count, and any tables and figures are excluded from the word count. The report body starts at the beginning of the Introduction section and finishes at the end of the Conclusion section. As such, the Executive Summary, Table of Contents, References and Appendices are excluded from the word count.

The report must reflect the group’s ability to work as a marketing team and maintain a professional standard in presentation. For example, this includes but is not limited to maintaining consistency between the sections in terms of writing style, using 12-point font size, 1.5 line spacing, page breaks for main headings/sections, using page numbers, proper captions for the figures/images and tables, proper use of appendices, quality of screenshots, substantiation of arguments using appropriate marketing theory, scholarly references, and APA referencing (in the report and reference list). (Note: Report formatting guidelines on pages 27-56 in this Student Manual may assist further.)

Report examples will be provided that you are encouraged to review.

The sections in the Part B group report:

Cover Page

Executive Summary

Table of Contents

Table of Tables

Table of Figures

1. Introduction
2. Customer Profile
3. Marketing Objective
4. Marketing Plan
5. Resource Estimate
6. Conclusion
7. References
8. Appendices A-Z (e.g. value proposition canvas, communication moderation flowchart, supporting screenshots)

Consistent with best-practice report writing, you should add appropriate numbered sub-headings (e.g., 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2) as required to present the report. The Table of Contents should also include the names of the appendices (e.g., Appendix 1 XYZ name). The next part of this guide covers the task description of each section. Each section has a recommended word limit; however, it is up to the group to manage the final distribution of the number of words across the report sections.

Cover Page:

Provide assignment details, course details and group details. You are not required to sign the cover page.

Executive Summary:

The Executive Summary is a brief overview of the proposed plan that notes all of the important, relevant points – e.g., timeframe covered, critical issues, objectives, key digital marketing actions, budget, key expected outcomes. It should be very specific and short, about 250 words, and is excluded from the word count.

Table of Contents:

Use the automatic multilevel Table of Contents (ToC) feature available in MS Word to generate the ToC.

Table of Figures:

Use ‘image caption’ under the ‘Reference’ tab in MS Word to generate the Table of Figures.

Table of Tables:

Use ‘table caption’ under the ‘Reference’ tab in MS Word to generate the Table of Tables.

1. Introduction

The recommended limit for this section is 300 words.

This section explains the purpose and the structure (flow and relationship between each section) of the report. It provides a summary of the retail sector and the brands observed in Part A. Use Table 1 developed in Week 3 as a template to provide a summary. You can use brand logos to make the table visually appealing.

2. Customer Profile

Recommended limit for this section is 750 words.

In this section, the group has to create a ‘Customer Profile’ of the selected retail sector by summarising the findings from the individual component in Part A. The question that the group needs to answer is – ‘What are the salient values that the customers are seeking in the selected retail category?’

To answer the question, the group has to use the Strategyzer ‘Value Proposition

Canvas’ framework discussed in Week 8, i.e., answer the ‘Customer Job’, ‘Customer Pain’ and ‘Customer Gain’ trigger questions. Justify your arguments using the data from the individual analysis in Part A. The group is expected to make the best use of the resources offered by Strategyzer. It is recommended that students provide an example of (a) target customer persona(s) to support the Customer Profile (included as appendix). Provide the Value Proposition Canvas as an appendix. (Note: it is recommended to use A3 landscape page format for that appendix to fit the canvas in the report.)

3. Marketing Objective

Recommended limit for this section is 1000 words. Higher usage of figures/images, evidence-based discussion and in-text citations (references) is expected in this section.  

In this section, the group has to set a marketing objective by conducting a SWOT analysis. The focal questions are: “Which retailer in Australia, out of the two retailers observed by the group, has the least/weakest social media marketing activities and presence? What are those weaknesses compared to the other local and international brands in the same retail sector?” To address these questions, the group should:

• Develop a SWOT analysis table and substantiate its arguments using the data collected in the individual task in Part A. In addition, the group has to use their web analytics and SEO skills (Weeks 6 and 7) to inform the SWOT analysis. (Note:

Group members may need to conduct additional analysis if the data from Part

A is insufficient.)

• Explain the reasoning behind the choice of retailer for this Digital and Social Media Marketing Plan. Be specific when identifying and discussing weaknesses in the retailer’s social media activities and presence.
• Propose one marketing objective for the specified December timeframe (see Section 4) for the selected retailer’s brand using the 5S framework for strategic digital marketing planning (Sell, Serve, Speak, Save, Sizzle). Justify the marketing objective using S.M.A.R.T. criteria. The report must provide adequate and justified discussion to explain how the proposed marketing objective addresses the weaknesses found in the SWOT analysis.

4. Marketing Plan

Recommended limit for this section is 1500 words. Any tables and figure/image captions are not included in the word count. Higher usage of figures/images is expected.  

The digital marketing plan is a combination of the strategy and tactics illustrated in the RACE framework for digital marketing. In this section, the group has to develop a digital marketing plan to achieve the objective proposed in the previous section using the RACE framework. (Note: The RACE framework will be covered in the Week 2.)

Although a complete digital marketing plan focuses on the marketing activities across all channels, e.g., website, catalogue, the focus of this assignment is on marketing activities in social media channels only.

November 24^th to December 24^th (4 weeks) is a busy Christmas trading period for most retailers in Australia. Therefore, the group must provide an innovative social media marketing plan for the four weeks leading up to Christmas to achieve the marketing objective identified in Section 3 of this report.

• The group must propose at least four (4) campaigns, one for each week. At least one of the four campaigns needs to be a paid ad campaign (PPC). The group can propose more than four campaigns; however, not all campaigns should be paid campaigns. In other words, there needs to be a mix of paid and non-paid (i.e. organic), so an organic campaign(s) also need(s) to be part of the plan.
• A campaign should cover all social media channels that the target customers are using. For example, you may need to provide variations of a post if your plan is to post it on both Facebook and Twitter. The channel-specific variations of a post are not counted as different campaigns. The ‘customer profile(s)’ presented in Section 2 of this report should guide the choice of social media for each campaign. In addition, the Sensis social media report should help you understand social media channel usage in Australia.
• All campaigns and associated activities contained within the plan must be justified. For example, why do you expect a campaign/post will Reach more people?; how it will influence someone to Act (i.e., share, comment, like)?, how it will Engage people? To illustrate, you may propose a paid Facebook ad campaign to reach new customers. In that case, you need to provide details of the post, how it will be distributed, screenshots of budget calculation, prior examples of similar campaigns, etc. The understanding generated in Part A (the individual report) should assist your group with creating suitable posts.
• Provide a schedule of campaign activities. Use the following table as a template:

Template: A simple campaign and post schedule

5. Resource Estimate

Recommended limit for this section is 300 words.

Provide a resource estimate for the marketing plan. For example, the plan may require a graphics designer or multiple social media customer service representatives. Use job portals, such as SEEK.com.au, to justify the estimated human-resource budget.

Additionally, you may need to propose paid marketing, such as a targeted campaign on Instagram to reach more customers. Use various Internet sources, such as Facebook Business Manager, to estimate costs.

Use the following example table as a template to present the total estimated budget:

Template: A simple resource estimate

6. Conclusion

Concluding remarks within 150 words.

7. References

This section is not included in the word count.

– The reference list should be done using APA style. It needs to be in alphabetic order, use consistent formatting throughout and feature full information for each reference as per the APA style.

8. Appendices A-Z

This section is not included in the word count.

Include any additional analysis or screenshots that are not critical to establish arguments made in sections 1 to 5 but are required to strengthen the arguments. You may include multiple appendices. For example, Appendix A might provide details of social media analytics and Appendix B might provide details of website analytics. Each appendix should be numbered and have a name/title, e.g. Appendix 1 Social Media Analytics for Retailer XYZ.

• Provide the value proposition canvas as an appendix; use A3 landscape page format to fit the canvas in the report.
• Each group must provide a communication-moderation flowchart in an appendix (see Week 3 activity).

MKTG3002 – Assessment 2 – Part B details

Group report on ‘Digital and Social Media Marketing Plan’

Part B Marking Rubric: