5X7V0038 Department of Marketing, International Business and Tourism Assessment Brief, Manchester Metropolitan University

Assignment Brief

Module Learning Outcomes:

• Create a digital communications strategy for a client.
• Critically appraise the process of increasing effectiveness of digital communications.
• Evaluate new and/or additional digital communications approaches within an organisation.

This assessment will contribute to the achievement of the following Programme Learning Outcomes:

PLO 2: Our graduates will be effective communicators in a range of media

• Organise work in a logical structure in order to draw conclusions that follow from a line of argument
• Apply consistent and appropriate referencing in text and citations
• Demonstrate digital skills appropriate to level and to discipline

PLO 4: Our graduates will demonstrate professional and commercial/corporate awareness

• Identify and explain professional and commercial/corporate issues
• Critically evaluate professional and commercial/corporate issues

Assignment Details and Instructions

Your group plan will be presented in a report format. A breakdown of individual tasks (and their related page count) that comprise the strategy is provided below:

Task 1 – Background

Provide a brief overview of your chosen brand, its history and mission. Please specify the overall goal of your digital strategy.

Task 2 – Situational Analysis

• Market Trends - Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the sector most relevant to your chosen brand. Identify and critically evaluate possible global and/or local trends to be leveraged as part of your digital strategy. This should be derived from extensive up to date research i.e. industry reports. 
• Competitor Audit - Audit the current state of your chosen brands digital marketing efforts, in relation to a key competitor, using the recommended audit template. This should be derived from extensive up to date research. Please also include evidence of primary insights tools usage through links to labelled screenshots in your appendices.   
• Target Audience - Develop a detailed overview of your audience’s demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics, using the recommended template. This should be derived from extensive up to date research. Please also include evidence of primary insights tools usage through links to labelled screenshots in your appendices.   
• Digital SWOT Analysis - Bring together key priorities from your market, audience and competitor research (your situational analysis). You should justify/evaluate why they are key priorities to be addressed as part of your forthcoming Campaign Tactics (next Task 3). 

Task 3 – Tactics and Objectives

• Using insights from Task 2, please outline and evaluate two distinct campaign concepts (one acquisition campaign and one retention campaign). Each campaign concept should be innovative so that they leverage current trends (Task 2), stand apart from competitors (Task 2), resonate with the target audience (Task 2), and align with the brand's ethos and overall goal (Task 1). Please discuss potential risks or challenges associated with each concept and how you plan to mitigate them.
• For each campaign concept, outline an integrated channel and content strategy that ensures the seamless distribution of your campaigns. Justify and critically evaluate your choices.
• For each of your chosen channels, define clear and measurable digital marketing objectives and possible supporting KPI’s. These objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Draw upon performance metrics identified in your audit from Task 2 and ensure they link to your overall strategy goal/purpose (Task 1). Suggest tools and methods for tracking and analysing data as well as a plan for continuous improvement and performance monitoring. Justify and critically evaluate your choices. 

Task 4 – Formatting and Style 

• Ensure that your work is professionally presented and client-ready. This means paying additional attention to avoiding spelling and grammatical errors, presentation errors and staying within the page count. 
• Visuals, screenshots (i.e. of primary insights tools) etc. should be included in your appendices. 
• Please follow the recommended supporting assignment template. You may adapt this to suit the branding of your client but please be reminded this is carefully mapped to the tasks (1-3) within this assignment brief.