MSc Digital Marketing

MKTG45603:
Digital Management Operations

Assessment Brief

Individual Report

January 2024

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Summative Assessment - Individual report

Course: MSc Digital Marketing

Module Name: Digital Management Operations

Module code: MKTG45603

Assessment type: Summative Assessment:

Individual Report 4,000 words
Weighting: 100% of module mark

Submission deadline: 18/02/2024 before 23:00

Module Learning Outcomes covered:

Knowledge and understanding.

a) Demonstrate a critical application of the theories and processes used to explain and
understand the impact of digital marketing strategies in organisations within different
contexts
b) Critically discuss how digital marketing managers could use a wide range of digital
marketing data and information in order to aid effective decision making in digital
organisations
c) Develop a critical understanding of how the digital marketing manager shapes the
customer experience in both real and virtual worlds
d) Demonstrate a critical understanding of the contemporary issues, theories and
conceptual frameworks to select and justify an appropriate approach to digital
marketing for an organisation

Skills, qualities and attributes.

a) Demonstrate the ability in both the application and synthesis of knowledge and problem
solving in order to make analytical and judgmental recommendations based on an
understanding of different contexts and the key theoretical approaches
b) Demonstrate confidence in developing and proposing effective and engaging web page
material
c) Demonstrate and exhibit the ability to communicate key issues and arguments through
the use of digital technologies and the written word to a professional standard.

Assessment context

You have been commissioned to create a digital marketing audit and strategic plan.
The board of company directors has decided that the company needs to redevelop
their digital strategies to improve business performance.

This represents a major shift in the strategy of the business and the digital presence
of the company will need to be changed accordingly. Your digital marketing plan
should therefore focus on the broader digital marketing external challenges related
to selling online and the fundamental design principles that can inform strategy
formulation.

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Requirements

You will need to select ONE organisation from the list below as the background for
your assessment. The organisations are,

Wickes – The Missions Motivation Engine – Changing perception and behaviours through
transformative segmentation (did well in Digital Segmentation)
(https://www.marketingweek.com/wickes-machine-learning-targeting/)

Boots – Christmas campaign helps drive ‘strong’ festive period (did well in Digital Content
Marketing)
(https://www.marketingweek.com/boots-strong-festive-period/)

Aldi UK – Aldi Mania (did well in Social Media

Marketing) (https://www.marketingweek.com/aldi-fashion-social-
media/)

Currys – Revolutionising in-store ticketing through creative automation (did well in

Digital Transformation)
(https://teamitg.com/why-creative-automation-is-now-a-marketing-must-have/)

Hilton – Tackling travel clichés with TikTok (did well in Social Media Marketing)
(https://www.merkle.com/emea/thought-leadership/case-studies/tackling-travel-cliches- tiktok-0)

In your work, your chosen organisation is focusing on the UK market.

This assignment comprises a 4,000 word individual report and represents 100% of
the module grade. The marketing plan must demonstrate evidence of secondary
market research, explicit reference to web/usability design, and reference to peer-
reviewed journal articles.

Please note: this assignment is based on available secondary data. Direct

and personal contact with your chosen organisation is strictly forbidden.

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Recommended Report Structure:

NBS - Course Work - Front Cover (NOT included in the word count)
Title page (NOT included in the word count)
Table of Contents (NOT included in the word count)
Executive Summary (NOT included in the word count)

1) Introduction (Approx. 200 words)

 Reason for, and purpose of the report

 Brief background of the organisation you chose for this assignment.

2) Critical Digital External Analysis (Approx. 600 words)

 An external macro-environmental analysis, including uncontrollable factors that can

be organised into a PESTEL or PEST analysis for the next 12 months. Identify
1-3 important disruptive technologies, as macro-environmental factor(s).
 Present a competitor analysis that identifies two key competitors in the same
industry as your chosen company. You need to discuss why they are considered
your key competitors, e.g., targeting similar segments in the market, and/or
having similar online presence, etc.
 Note that these two competitors will be used to evaluate your company’s digital
capabilities in the following section.

3) Critical Digital Internal Analysis (Approx. 1000 words)

 An overview of your chosen company’s digital content. Compare and contrast
your company’s content with your key competitors. Some key areas you must
critically evaluate include:
a) Assess the design of the organisation and their key competitors’ official
websites.
b) Critically evaluate the use of social media of your organisation and competitors.
c) Evaluate any key content(s) that are particularly effective for the industry.
 Present an analysis for the chosen organisation focusing on internal
factors/requirements. Critically evaluate the organisation’s current digital
capabilities (the 7S model, digital marketing maturity models).

4) Digital SWOT Analysis (Approx. 600 words)

 Drawing on the external and internal analysis you conducted, you need to further
organise these points into a meaningful discussion, which is a digital SWOT analysis.
 You should link some of the external and internal factors together to discuss
implications of adopting digital technologies. For example, once your organisation
adopted a disruptive technology, they can generate competitive advantages when
facing opportunities or threats mentioned in the SWOT analysis.

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5) Digital Objectives (Approx. 600 words)
 This section should include a detailed discussion on three SMART digital objectives
that your organisation should adopt for the next 12 months. 2 KPIs for each
objective need to be identified and justified to monitor and evaluate the
performance. You need to provide links between these objectives and findings from
Section 2 -4.

6) Digital Strategy Development (Approx. 800 words)

 Use one DIGITAL Customer Persona and one OMNI-channel customer
journey map to demonstrate your in-depth understanding of the consumers that
are influenced the most by the identified disruptive technologies. Identify any vital
touch points during their decision-making journey with justifications from their
persona. Use this section to present a high-quality STP strategy for your chosen
organisation.
 Discuss and develop one digital marketing strategy related to the three
digital objectives and your targeting segment(s).

7) Conclusion (Approx. 200 words)

 A summary of all the major findings from your secondary research, highlighting
the importance of digital marketing to your organisation

References (not included in word count)

You are expected to demonstrate that you have utilised a range of academic and
practitioner sources, all of which must be appropriately referenced using Harvard
style.

Appendix (not included in word count)

You should have some screenshots for evaluating your organisation and its
competitors’ websites, and other online content as well as results from using online
analytical tools in the main body of your report. Extra information can go into this
section.

References (NOT included in the word count but being graded)

You are expected to demonstrate that you have utilised a range of academic
and practitioner sources, all of which must be appropriately referenced
using the NTU Harvard style.

Appendix (NOT included in the word count)

You should have some screenshots for evaluating your organisation and its
competitors’ websites, and other online content as well as results from using online
analytical tools in the main body of your report. Extra information can go into this
section.

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Word Count Policy

The report is not to exceed 4,000 words. State the word count clearly on the title
page of the report (do not include the Title/Contents pages, References, and any
Appendices within the word count). Submissions over 4,000 words will have a negative
impact on your final grade (see NBS word count in coursework policy below). Please
note: appendices are not marked, therefore do not include work in the appendix to try
to avoid exceeding the word count.

NBS Word Count in Coursework Policy

The purpose of the word count is to: support your writing development by encouraging a
focus on clarity and conciseness; provide experience of writing to a specified word limit
and which is common practice in professional and research environments; support equity
in grading work from different individuals.

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You are required to include the word count as an accurate statement of the words used
on the NBS Coursework Front Cover for all your coursework. If you are found to have
exceeded the word count in order to gain an unfair advantage, then your tutor
can adjust your grade downwards depending on the amount of additional work
submitted.

• If the additional work is up to 500 words, the overall grade for the piece of
work will be reduced by 1 grade point (e.g. 2.1-Mid to 2.1-Low);

• If the additional work exceeds 500 words, the overall grade for the piece of
work will be reduced by 3 grade points (e.g. 2.1-Mid to 2.2-Mid).

• These penalties will be applied even if the reduced grade is below a pass grade.

You are advised to submit work that is as close to the maximum word count as is
practical to enable you to demonstrate that you have met all the learning outcomes.

Style and Presentation

1. Front cover: Include your module title, assignment title, date, word count, student
number. Do not put your name on the assignment anywhere.
2. Line spacing: 1.5 space for the body of the report; Reference List is single-spaced
(1.0). Left aligned text is also easier to read.
3. Fonts: use a legible font like Arial, Verdana or Tahoma, between 10 and 12 point.
4. Number your pages, and include your student number on each page
5. Try to write in the 3rd person passive voice (e.g. “it was found that…”; “this report
will include…”), and demonstrate good use of English language - your report must be
easy to follow and should not contain grammatical errors.
6. If English is not your first language, we strongly recommend that you give yourself
time to proofread your work; you could also ask for support from your English
Language tutors – we don’t want you to lose marks through unclear or poorly
expressed language, and good grammar will give your work a more polished,
professional look.

Referencing Do’s & Don’ts

1. Do use Harvard style referencing throughout. This style does not use footnotes. A
Harvard-style reference list is also required as the final page of your report. See the
LLR guide for further details:
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/library/developing_skills/index.html
2. Do not cite websites (like QuickMBA.com or Wikipedia) for academic
theories or concepts! They are not approved academic sources and will negatively
affect your mark. It is acceptable to use these websites only to copy well-known
diagrams with the source shown underneath.
3. Do not cite lecture notes! You must seek out the original texts or articles. We
are looking for evidence of a range of reading around the subject, not just the
module text, but other books and academic journal articles - which should be the
predominant source of your references.
4. Do not copy text from a book, article or website without full references and
speech marks (“---”) when a direct quotation is used. Failure to observe these

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 rules will result in action being taken under the University’s rules on academic
misconduct (plagiarism) with potentially serious consequences.
5. When citing a website or other electronic source, do put name and year in the
report, e.g. Mintel (2018) and not the URL! Instead, full details including the URL
and access date go in the References List.

Submitting Coursework to the Dropbox

Assignments are submitted on or before the due date indicated.

All coursework will be submitted electronically in NOW using the Dropbox facility within
each of your module learning rooms. You are required to submit your written work in
PDF Format.

For each assignment you will be provided

with a separate folder in the learning room
Dropbox which will be open for submission
of your coursework until the stated
submission date. After you make a
submission to a Dropbox folder you receive
a notification in NOW, and also an email.

Please ensure you keep this email.

Technical problems are rare but should you
miss the deadline because you can’t open the Dropbox, then upload your coursework as
soon as you can, then email a description of the problem to your Subject Administrator
(if possible include a screenshot of the issue).

To help you manage your submissions within NOW you can enable a Dropbox instant
notification to alert you to when the Dropbox folder end date is 48 hours away (in NOW
select Preferences and tick the relevant check box).

Academic Writing - Use of Turnitin

An important element of your academic writing development is the citing, referencing
and paraphrasing of other people’s work for inclusion in your own documents. To support
you in this, NTU’s Library and Learning Resources maintain up-to-date self-development
materials for Writing, Referencing, and Copyright and Plagiarism (you can access
these from your home page in NOW by clicking on Help and opening the Student
Learning Room).

If you are unsure about how to cite, reference and paraphrase appropriately, you are
advised to review the materials provided in the Student Learning Room, and in particular
the following:

 Referencing: Citing References: a guide to NTU Library Harvard style

 Copyright and Plagiarism: Original thinking allowed: avoiding plagiarism tutorial
 Writing: How to effectively integrate sources into your writing

Within the Copyright and Plagiarism section of the Student Learning Room you will
also find information about Turnitin. Turnitin UK is an online service hosted at
http://www.turnitinuk.com/ that when enabled for a learning room Dropbox, compares

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the work you submit to electronic sources including work submitted by students at NTU
and other Universities and materials uploaded on the internet. One of the aims of
Turnitin is to help staff identify plagiarism and also help deter students from committing
plagiarism. For this reason, all your summative coursework will normally be submitted to
Turnitin and an Originality Report generated for review by your tutor.

Access to Turnitin is also provided to support you in developing your academic writing.
Your Module Learning Room will have a folder available in the Dropbox to allow you one
submission of a draft of your coursework, for which you will be provided with access to
the Originality Report. By reviewing the report, you will be able to assess the quality of
your citing, referencing and paraphrasing and be able to complete this in advance of
submitting your first coursework assignment.

To ensure you are familiar with Turnitin please review the following materials (click on
Help from your NOW homepage):

 Copyright and Plagiarism

o Turnitin: a guide for students
o Oxford Brookes University video – How to interpret ‘Turnitin’ reports

How you will receive feedback

Feedback on your coursework will be returned to you electronically to the same Dropbox
folder as for the submission and using the NBS Student Feedback Form. This will include
the feedback from your tutor on your assignment. Your tutor will NOT return an
annotated copy of your coursework. A major benefit of submission and return of
feedback through the Dropbox is that you will be able to access ALL your feedback in
your Student Dashboard (by navigating to the Assessments Tab from your profile page)
without having to navigate to separate Learning Room Dropboxes.

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 NBS Feedback Form for Postgraduate Coursework
Module Digital Management Operations Student Number and Name
MKTG45603
Assessment Element (as stated Individual Report Tutor name (s)
in the assessment brief)
Assessment submission date 18th Feb 2024 Date Feedback Uploaded Please refer to the Dropbox folder for the
date on which your feedback was
uploaded.
MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES ASSESSED

a) Demonstrate a critical application of the theories and processes used to explain and understand the impact of digital marketing strategies in
organisations within different contexts
b) Critically discuss how digital marketing managers could use a wide range of digital marketing data and information in order to aid effective decision
making in digital organisations
c) Develop a critical understanding of how the digital marketing manager shapes the customer experience in both real and virtual worlds
d) Demonstrate a critical understanding of the contemporary issues, theories and conceptual frameworks to select and justify an appropriate approach to
digital marketing for an organisation
e) Demonstrate the ability in both the application and synthesis of knowledge and problem solving in order to make analytical and judgmental
recommendations based on an understanding of different contexts and the key theoretical approaches
f) Demonstrate confidence in developing and proposing effective and engaging web page material
g) Demonstrate and exhibit the ability to communicate key issues and arguments through the use of digital technologies and the written word to a
professional standard.

Element Grade
The overall grade for the work is based on a holistic assessment and is determined by how well the criteria have been met overall and not the sum of the
individual aspects of the work.
In the matrix below, grades awarded against each criterion indicate that the relevant aspect of the work can be more readily associated with that category
than any other. Allocation of a grade does not indicate that work exactly matches the associated description.

Exceptional Distinction

High Pass High Commendation High Distinction

Mid Fail Mid Pass Mid Commendation Mid Distinction

Low Fail Marginal Fail Pass Commendation Distinction

If a zero grade, select the appropriate comment below:

NS - No work submitted or submitted > 5 working days after deadline NK - Work submitted and is in moderation
NE - Work is not yet submitted, and student has an Extension NN – Student did not attend for an exam

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Component, Fail Marginal Fail Pass Commendation Distinction
learning outcomes
and weighting

Theories and Concepts No significant evidence of Shows limited awareness of Shows a barely sufficient Shows very good Shows excellent
(20%) awareness of relevant a few models and theories, awareness and awareness and awareness and
Identification and models and theories but understanding is patchy, understanding of the understanding of a very understanding of a
understanding of relevant and relevance not properly major models and broad range of models and substantial range of
models and theories explained theories. theories with a very clear models and theories,
demonstration of their offering an excellent
Equally, the demonstration relevance in a wide variety demonstration of their
of their relevance in of contexts. relevance in a wide
particular contexts is variety of contexts.
barely sufficient Suggests ways in which
the major models and Insights are developed
theories can be further that question the way in
developed which the major models
and theories can be
further developed.

Application and Analysis Limited choice and use of Some evidence of the use of Appropriate choice and Comprehensive Extensive choice and
(40%) relevant models and major theories and concepts understanding of a range understanding and choice understanding of a broad
Establishes context, theories. with an attempt to of theories and concepts, of a broad range of range of theories and
expresses ideas, applies demonstrate an and their relevance to the theories and concepts and concepts and their
key academic concepts Limited identification of understanding of their task. their relevance to the task. relevance to the task.
and analyses decisions context and insufficient or relevance.
taken on the selection of inappropriate use of Appropriate Effective contextualisation Thorough
marketing tools and terminology. Few or no Some evidence of context contextualisation, relevant and ideas expressed contextualisation, ideas
techniques links made between and ideas expressed, but information and ideas clearly. Convincing expressed clearly and
theories and analysis. with limited application of expressed; key marketing application of theory and confidently; excellent
theory. Links between concepts have been concepts. Thorough application and critical
concepts and analysis may applied; analysis evident analysis of decisions. analysis demonstrated
be unclear or but descriptive rather than throughout
underdeveloped; some analytical.
sections may be incomplete.

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Argument (30%) Limited evidence of a Some evidence of a Evidence of a good Evidence of a very good Excellent evidence of a
Development of a sound convincing argument. convincing argument, argument. argument. convincing argument.
and convincing argument. although the overall effect is
Clear conclusions based on Some conclusions are barely sufficient. A broad range of A very broad range of An excellent range of
a critical analysis of the drawn but lack clarity and conclusions are drawn and conclusions, some conclusions, some
business context and are only loosely based on Some conclusions are broadly based on a critical demonstrating original demonstrating clearly
possible alternative a critical analysis of the drawn, and some analysis of analysis of the business insights and firmly based original insights and firmly
strategies business context and the business context and context and possible on a full critical analysis of based on a full critical
possible alternative possible alternative alternative strategies. the business context and analysis of the business
strategies. strategies is evident, possible alternative context and possible
although these are barely strategies. alternative strategies.
sufficient.
Arguments are rigorously
organised and expressed
with conviction.

Communication and Poorly presented. Frequent Barely sufficient Good standard of Very good presentation. Excellent presentation.
Presentation (10%) examples of poor grammar presentation. presentation. No significant spelling and
Presentation, grammar and spelling. Structure at grammar errors. No spelling or grammar
and spelling, structure, times unclear. Some grammar and spelling Minor spelling and errors. Extremely clear
reading and referencing errors. Mainly logical grammar errors. Clear and Very clear and logical and logical structure.
(range / breadth and Little evidence of reading structure. Some evidence of logical structure. structure.
accuracy) around the subject, some reading at least some core Excellent range of reading
basic references but texts. Clear evidence of reading Very broad range of is evident, and references
significant inaccuracies. around the subject. reading is evident. are fully accurate.
References are generally References are accurate References are fully
accurate but some errors. with a few minor errors. accurate.

What you did well in this coursework.



What you can do to improve your future coursework.



Below, if applicable, are highlighted some additional online resources that are maintained by the NTU Library, and that you can access via
your NOW Student Help Learning Room. Engaging with these resources and the feedback provided above can also support you to enhance
specific aspects of your work.
Writing Managing your time
Referencing Presentation skills

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