ndustry, Organization and Customer Discussion.

PART 1 Industry, Organization and Customer Discussion.

(1.1) Provide an overview of the organization and product/service/idea.

• Briefly discuss the core business purpose and key organizational goals. If the information available discuss the size and resources of the organization (if you cannot find this information you can just make an informed guess as to size and resources).
• Discuss the product, service, or idea that will be the focus of your marketing brief.
• Provide a concise overview of current pricing, distribution, and promotional activities for this product/service/idea.
• Explain the key point of differentiation for the organization’s product/service/idea from alternatives available to the consumer.

(1.2) Discuss key industry/market trends related to the advent of the social-collaborative web and IoT.

• Are there any emerging technologies or technological shifts we have discussed in this class that might significantly impact this business/service/idea?

(1.3) Describe the eco-system of organization.  Organize your eco-system explanation around

          the core purpose of the organization and explain key interrelationships.

• Discuss key stakeholders (e.g., supply chain, investors, employees, community groups, marketing partners, and detractors). Discuss the interrelationships between key stakeholders (e.g., does the organization work closely with any industry groups or community organizations) and indicate any complementary relationships the organization maintains (e.g. an airline site that allows you to book hotel and car rentals).
• Discuss key competition. Discuss whether the firm collaborates with any competitors.

(1.4) Select a customer segment to target. Reference content on The Customer Experience/UX to complete the following.

• Describe the customer segment you will focus on for the project.   Discuss the demographics, psychographics, and technographics (identify and profile the characteristics and behaviors of consumers relative to technology adoption and use) for this segment. What key demographics, psychographics, and technographics can you use target your audience (you can look on platforms like Google Advertising and Facebook to see what “filters” can be applied when targeting your advertisements to an audience).
• Develop relevant personas for this segment. Characterize the “context” relevant to this customer segment (who, why, when, what, how of their activities/interests). Discuss touch points, potential influencers, and motivations for the personas you discuss.
• Discuss the customer journey for these personas focusing on key points relative to awareness, exploration/use, and commitment/advocacy. How do they come to a purchase decision, what is the context in which they make that decision, how do the use the product?

PART 2 Determine the story or narrative for you product service or idea.

(2.1) Discuss the current narrative and value proposition.

• Review the current web site and any marketing materials available to determine the brand narrative that is being communicated.Describe the current narrative of the product/service/idea.
• What are the key benefits and value proposition communicated to the consumer/buyer.

(2.2) Determine the best narrative for the organization/business to pursue.

• Articulate an improved or enhanced narrative for the product, service or idea. What story should be told about this brand/product/service/idea? Does it differ in any way from the story the current digital assets are communicating? What benefits and value proposition should be highlighted in this narrative.

PART 3 Analyze the current UX and optimization of digital assets.

(3.1) Assess user-experience and optimization.

• Identify which elements of the UX need improvement? You will not have access to data or consumer research regarding reactions to current marketing activity (analytics regarding response advertisements, web site, mobile applications, social media) but you can identify which activities you believe are not consistent or supportive of the narrative you think should be communicated. Does marketing content develop a meaningful and memorable narrative?
  • Reference the UX inventory. Relative to interaction and usability does the site create flow and is it user-friendly? Do users know what the preferred action is, does it offer feedback on their actions, is it simple -consistent menus, minimizes choices and effort, does the user have control of certain interface elements? Does the color and content of the site or other digital assets (e.g., social media pages, mobile applications) immerse the consumer into the desired narrative and brand message? Do these digital assets use appropriate images, copy (are they meaningful)?

(3.2) Analyze the optimization of the client web site for discovery and search (reference SEO audit).

• Audit Accessibility and Indexibility on search engines.
• Determine Popularity, Authority and Social Currency.
• Does the site content convey a consistent message and benefits.

(3.3) Analyze the optimization of digital assets (e.g. Google+, Facebook).  Marin

• Audit Indexibility on search engines (does it show up on Google when you search).
• Determine Popularity, Authority and Social Currency (are there likes).

PART 4 Identify relevant content and contextual placement opportunities.

(4.1)  Identify a set of highly relevant keywords/keyword phrases for your target audience.

• Develop a set of criteria to assess keyword value (e.g., relevance to product/service/idea, popularity in terms of search volume or usage in consumer-generated-content, competition-are you competitors using these keywords). Come up with a list of 15-50 keywords (B2C choose 20-50 keywords, B2B choose 10-20 keywords).
• Select a set of high rated keywords from your list. You will use these keywords in the development of content for the remainder of the marketing brief.

(4.2)  Identify a set of highly relevant images for your target audience.

• What type of images might match the keywords or searches relevant for your audience.

(4.3) Identify properties, sites, blogs, portals/directories, or platforms, relevant to target segment and that relate to the narrative.

• Develop a set of criteria to assess placement value of a group of online properties (e.g., relevance/fit, traffic/popularity, submission opportunity-accepts press releases, placement options- paid placement in directory, advertising, sponsored content, pricing for placement or advertising).
• Provide a set of recommendations for placement and outline the requirements for placement on 10-20 sites (e.g., 200 hundred word article submission, title, 5 keyword tags, site URL).

PART 5 EXPLORATION: Develop an optimization plan to capture consumers’ attention and interest.

• Make a recommendation for a key improvement or set of small improvements to the user-experience. ALL
• If you organization is an outdoor recreation clothing and equipment company you might recommend that the user-generated content be video to create engagement. The recommendations: customer trips to national parks documented in 2 minute video shorts to be shared with other customers, they should be able to tag the location and key equipment they used/needed.
• If the product/service/idea’s value/benefit is difficult to understand suggest an infographic to explain the product’s value you.
• If the site lacks usability might worry less about your specific content but simply recommend a more consistent menu.

 (5.2) Develop recommendations for your client’s web content to increase site ranking and visibility in search results as well as communicate with target audience. SEO

• On-site: Develop material for your client’s web site. Recommend appropriate meta and micro-data/rich snippets. Recommend the creation of additional site content that integrates keywords/phrases. Provide an example of the content developed for one page of your client’s web site (highlight keywords in bold).
• Off-Site: Develop material for media, content or commerce platforms.
  • Recommend optimization activities for the organization’s Facebook Page to appear in the SERPs of Google and Facebook Graph Search Results.
  • Recommend optimization activities for the client Google+ (Profile, Page/Local, and Community) to appear in the SERPs of Google.
• Off-Site: Develop material for media, content or commerce platforms.
  • Select a minimum of three sites/platforms for content submissions or inclusions. Content should speak to your audience but also be optimized so that it shows up in the SERPs for Google as well as the search results for the platform on which it is placed. Examples, A) submit a company profile to Techcrunch.com or Linkedin.com, B) submit a press release to a top blog, C) create a presentation for slideshare.net, D) create a board on Pinterest, and E) make a comment on a posted article on Business.com.
• (content site) Create content to submit to site or platform that meets the following requirements. Material should include relevant information, keywords, and site links. Sitelinks refer to links relevant to the content (e.g.,  if you have an content article about the outdoors you might have a link to the national parks web site, backlinks should link to appropriate landing page on the client web site or a “new” page on your client’s site-for example if you refer to technical climbing equipment in the article there would be a backlink to your client’s climbing equipment page).

**For visual media content, create the slideshow or board.  Or describe the video.

• (platforms) Describe content inclusion for profile, group, or directory listing. For example, if you are recommending the development of Linkedin company page discuss description, image, video, showcase pages, and video.
• (comments) Provide an example of the type of post you would respond to and write out your response. For example, if you intend to submit comment to the Magazine Inc., find a recent article. Indicate the title of the article and write out the comment you will submit regarding that article.

PART 6 AWARENESS: Develop an advertising plan to capture consumers’ attention and interest through Native or Contextual Advertising. You do not need to worry about budgets for this section. If one type of advertising is not relevant for the brand service or idea you may do multiple recommendations for another option.

(6.1) Paid Search: SEM.

• Develop an initial set of ads- Version A and Version B (indicate 3-8 keywords for the advertisement to be place under). Provide examples of the advertisement copy for each ad.

(6.2) In-feed Advertising: Recommend an advertising placement in-feed units (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Forbes)

• Discuss filters and criteria for the advertisement.
• Describe or provide an example of the advertisement copy.

(6.3) Promoted Listing (e.g., Amazon, Etsy, Google).

• Discuss filters and criteria for the advertisement.
• Describe or provide an example of the advertisement copy (explain contextual relevance and “native ad” characteristics).

(6.4) Sponsored placement, Real-time or Mobile Advertisement, Influencer payment (e.g., blog article, Applications, Maps, Instant Messaging, 3D/Virtual).

• Discuss filters and criteria for the advertisement.
• Describe or provide an example of the advertisement copy (explain contextual relevance).

PART 7 Develop a performance evaluation plan to determine the effectiveness of the       

              proposed activities.

• Develop a performance analysis plan for each activity you proposed. In specific, indicate how you will evaluate whether you optimized appropriately for algorithms as well as user search/discovery, exploration/engagement and commitment/advocacy.