As a Digital Marketing Manager, you have been asked by the Senior Management Team (SMT) to consider the digital customer experience that will help the organisation meet its objectives for growth or sustain its current market position

The Digital Customer Experience (2215)

July 2021

Assignment

The assignment comprises THREE compulsory tasks

Task 1 is worth 30 marks

Task 2 is worth 30 marks

Task 3 is worth 40 marks

Total marks available – 100 marks

Before you begin your assignment

How to choose your organisation

Your chosen organisation could be the one you work for, one for which you are acting as a consultant, or another organisation of your choice.

You need to apply your learning to all of the tasks in this assignment. It is important, therefore, to choose an organisation that you are familiar with, and where there is sufficient scope for exploring one of the themes in the detail required.

How to choose an appropriate theme

The themes relate to marketing approaches which any organisation may face. You should select a theme which fits with activities/plans that your chosen organisation has adopted, or could adopt. You need to select the theme you are most comfortable with and where you will be able to access relevant information to address the tasks.

You will be required to justify why you have selected your theme in the organisation summary.

Before settling on a final choice of theme, please go through all of the tasks and sub-tasks to make sure that you will be able to apply them to your chosen organisation, in terms of the information you have available to you. Time spent at this selection stage will be well invested.

You will need to select ONE theme to base all tasks within the assignment.

Finally, discuss your choice of theme and its suitability to your chosen organisation with your tutor, and maybe some of your study partners. It may also be advantageous to select a theme which helps to develop your personal skills and enhance your career development, where possible.

Please ensure that you clearly identify your chosen theme on the front cover of your assignment and in your organisation summary.

How to approach each sub-task

It would be helpful to have access to the module specification, when reading this section, which can be found on the MyCIM student portal: https://my.cim.co.uk/

This assignment is assessed against the learning outcomes for the module, which are found in the module specification and at beginning of each task. Assessment criteria (AC) are listed under each sub-task; these represent the syllabus areas that are the focus of that sub-task.

The last column of the syllabus in module specification shows the indicative content, which is designed to demonstrate the scope of those assessment criteria, and therefore the areas of theory, knowledge and application that you may consider building into your assignment.

It is acknowledged that variations in chosen organisations/themes could result in differences in the scope of indicative content being covered by your assignment. Therefore, you do not have to address all of the indicative content. You should select the content that is appropriate to your chosen organisation, theme and data.

Note also that the indicative content is not an exhaustive or definitive list and can just as easily cover other aspects of both practice and theory, including those processes and procedures used by your chosen organisation.

Good practice guidelines for assignment production

The maximum word count is intended to assist candidates in producing a professional business document of an appropriate length that can be used in the workplace. The assignment should be written in a professional tone and should only contain relevant material that directly contributes towards answering the task.

The tasks will indicate any specific format requirements, and it is expected that assignments will be presented accordingly.

Further information on format style, fonts requirements and guidance on word count can be found in the Student Assignment Submission Guidelines located on the MyCIM student portal: https://my.cim.co.uk/

This assignment has been developed so that it can be applied to organisations of all sizes and sectors. Where candidates feel that applying the assignment to their organisation requires taking a creative approach to the concept and theoretical principles explored, this is acceptable following discussion with their tutor. Where this occurs, the approach taken and the reasons for that should be outlined within the organisation summary.

It is good practice to acknowledge all sources/methodologies/applications using the Harvard referencing system. Details of how to reference can be found in the Harvard System of Referencing guide on located on the MyCIM student portal: https://my.cim.co.uk/

Themes

As a Digital Marketing Manager, you have been asked by the Senior Management Team (SMT) to consider the digital customer experience that will help the organisation meet its objectives for growth or sustain its current market position.

Theme 1: Market Penetration

The SMT has asked you to take responsibility for delivering a plan for the digital customer experience, with the objective of creating growth or sustaining existing revenue through more effective market penetration.

You are required to recommend appropriate channels to support the customer journey, with the aim of achieving the objective for your chosen organisation. You are also required to develop a digital customer experience plan in the context of your organisation’s goals, its market sector and current situation, and relevant theoretical frameworks and concepts.

Theme 2: Market Development

The SMT has asked you to take responsibility for delivering a plan for the digital customer experience, with the objective of creating growth or sustaining existing revenue through market development.

You are required to recommend appropriate channels to support the customer journey, with the aim of achieving the objective for your chosen organisation. You are also required to develop a digital customer experience plan in the context of your organisation’s goals, its market sector and current situation, and relevant theoretical frameworks and concepts.

Theme 3: Product/Service Development

The SMT has asked you to take responsibility for delivering a plan for the digital customer experience, with the objective of creating growth or sustaining existing revenue through product/service development.

You are required to recommend appropriate channels to support the customer journey, with the aim of achieving the objective for your chosen organisation. You are also required to develop a digital customer experience plan in the context of your organisation’s goals, its market sector and current situation, and relevant theoretical frameworks and concepts.

Theme 4: Diversification

The SMT has asked you to take responsibility for delivering a plan for the digital customer experience, with the objective of creating growth or sustaining existing revenue through diversification.

You are required to recommend appropriate channels to support the customer journey, with the aim of achieving the objective for your chosen organisation. You are also required to develop a digital customer experience plan in the context of your organisation’s goals, its market sector and current situation, and relevant theoretical frameworks and concepts.

Key things to remember once you have made your choice of organisation and theme

• Although this is a practitioner-based assignment, the use of key concepts and theories to support your response is a key part of building your argument. Relevant theory should be used, but where there are no ‘preferred theories’ given within the indicative content, all are acceptable if they are relevant.

• Once you have chosen your theme, all tasks and sub-tasks must be applied to that theme.

• All sub-tasks should be applied to your chosen organisation, unless otherwise stated.

• Please ensure that you are familiar with the grade descriptors, contained within this assignment, as they provide details of what the examiner is expecting for each task.

• Please note assignments can only be accepted for marking with a valid assessment booking.

Learning Outcomes covered in Task 1:

LO1, LO2

Please refer to the module specification for Learning Outcome details.

Channel Selection and Customer Insights

In line with the theme you have selected for this assignment, you are required to carry out the following.

(a)

Provide a background to your chosen organisation, including:

• organisation name
• organisation information – to include type of organisation, size of organisation, range of products and services, customer base and main competitors
• stakeholders – summary of the organisation’s key internal and external stakeholders

• key customer segment – an overview of the selected key customer segment
• theme chosen and rationale for choice.

(5 marks)

(b)

Identify your channel goals and recommend the key channel selection criteria to ensure your chosen organisation’s objective is met.

AC1.1, AC1.2

(15 marks)

(c)

Create a customer persona through the application of internal and external customer data. The persona should consider current and changing customer behaviour.

AC2.1, AC2.2

(10 marks)

(Total – 30 marks)

(Organisation summary maximum page count – two sides of A4 paper) (Tasks 1 (b) to 1 (c) maximum word count – 1,250 words)

Learning Outcomes covered in Task 2:

LO3, LO4

Please refer to the module specification for Learning Outcome details.

Managing Channels

In line with the theme you have selected for this assignment, you are required to carry out the following.

(a)

Assess and select which paid, owned and/or earned media channels would communicate most effectively with existing and potential customers in Task 1 (c), to both raise their awareness and engage them. Consider the risks and resources associated with the use of these channels.

AC3.1, AC3.2

(10 marks)

(b)

Recommend appropriate tools to analyse the effectiveness of the digital channels selected in Task 2 (a).

AC3.3

(10 marks)

(c)

Explain best practice for digital compliance for the channels you have selected in Task 2 (a), considering ethical and legal implications.

AC4.1, AC4.2

(10 marks)

(Total – 30 marks)

(Tasks 2 (a) to 2 (c) maximum word count – 1,500 words)