Project 3 Scenario Transcript

MBA640

 

It is early Friday morning and you are already looking forward to a relaxing weekend when you receive a call from the CEO of MCS, Jillian Best. Good morning, can you be in my office by 9AM? she asks. There is someone I would like you to meet. Lately, Jillian has been pushing MCS consultants to develop in-house expertise in digital marketing, and you anticipate that she is in a rush to introduce you to a new client working on a project in that area.

As you walk into Jills office, you notice a young woman reviewing graphs and data on Jills computer screen. Jillian stands up as she sees you enter. Glad you made it! Meet Ying Bao, our new associate consultant. She has just graduated from UMUC with an MBA. Ying has worked in digital marketing, web development, social media, and data analytics. She was just showing me some of the capabilities of Google Analytics when you walked in.

After you and Ying shake hands, Jillian delivers more news: I am appointing Ying to be the lead consultant on our companys first ever project in the field of digital marketing. You and some of the other MCS consultants you have collaborated with previously will be staffed on this project effective immediately and will report to Ying. I am sure that you will make a powerful team and deliver outstanding results for our client.

After you process all of this information, you start to ask about the new client. Jillian clarifies that they prefer to remain anonymous. All I can divulge is that the client is an online merchandise store that sells worldwide. We will do what we can to protect the clients privacy. Hereafter, we will refer to our client as CompanyOne for the purpose of this project.

Jillian mentions that you have three weeks to complete the project and outlines her plans: Your team will begin by participating in a series of meetings, led by Ying during the first two weeks of this project, to discuss in detail the challenges in digital marketing currently experienced by CompanyOne and to produce recommendations for the client. Ying will be emailing all team members key agenda items and some background reading everyone will need to review to be prepared for a series of meetings starting on Wednesday morning.

Ying will lead the project team members through key tutorials in the use of Google Analytics (GA). As a valued member of the team, you will develop familiarity with GA and become proficient enough to use the tool independently. Dont worry if youre not well versed in Google Analytics; the tutorial will get you where you need to be. The main point is that many companies in the digital space are using GA to drive decision making, so we need you to be familiar with it as well.

Finally, in the third week, Ying will assign client-specific questions to each project team member with the objective of using GA to find the best answer for each question and develop actionable marketing insights for CompanyOne. Alright, lets get to work!

Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check to confirm you have incorporated all of them. To view the complete grading rubric, click My Tools, select Assignments from the drop-down menu, and then click the project title.

1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.

1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.

2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions, checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.

3.1: Identify numerical or mathematical information that is relevant in a problem or situation.

3.2: Employ mathematical or statistical operations and data analysis techniques to arrive at a correct or optimal solution.

3.3: Analyze mathematical or statistical information, or the results of quantitative inquiry and manipulation of data.

3.4: Employ software applications and analytic tools to analyze, visualize, and present data to inform decision-making.

6.4: Develop and recommend strategies for an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage.

12.2: Analyze marketing information.

MBA640
Digital Campaigns

Transcript

My personal experience has taught me that over the course of your career you will be asked to learn new things, you’ll be placed on teams where you may not

have the deep expertise that’s called for and you’re going to have to keep learning.

My first digital campaign is a great memory.  I had an idea of something to promote and typically what I would have done is sent out a direct mail campaign to promote that type of thing.

In this instance I decided to do an email marketing campaign and it allowed us to respond to our customer personally and very quickly. So we were offering them something of value.

The results were immediate.

We had to actually build capacity which is a great problem to have.

I decided that what we would do for the initial responses we would qualify them with telephone. That was the most immediate and personal way we would get in touch with them and that for those who met our criteria,

I would actually offer in-person meetings for those for whom it was possible. So we converted 15% of our prospects and we had our best quarter ever.

What I brought away from that experience though wasn’t  just the power of digital marketing but that you had to offer something of value you had to have a message that the customer would find, be receptive to.

You had to have a good understanding of marketing strategy along with the digital marketing. The world is a competitive place,  before you know it your competitors are all doing what you do.  Everyone catches up.

Marketing has undergone an incredible transformation last ten to fifteen years.

The terminology in marketing has changed so much that five years ago we were not even using the term digital marketing.

If we were we certainly didn’t have agreement on it, some people were calling it web marketing, some were calling it online marketing, e-marketing and you’ll still see these terms in many places.

I’m not sure in five years we’re still going to be calling this digital marketing.

From beginning to end it’s about predicting human behavior and that is something that we may never crack that kuk
entirely but that’s what keeps me coming back day after day to marketing

[Music]

 

Close

As Jillian Best had promised, Yings email lands in your inbox by midafternoon on Friday.

INBOX: 1 New Message

Subject: Digital Marketing with CompanyOne
From:    Ying Bao, Associate Consultant, MCS
To:        You and Team

Good afternoon,

Im looking forward to working with you all on this project. As you may already know, we will spend the next two weeks in working meetings with the goal of producing digital marketing recommendations for our client, CompanyOne.

First, to kick things off, lets reach a common understanding of what crafting a digital marketing strategy entails, as well as related concepts like customer relationship management (CRM), and search engine optimization (SEO).

A firm grasp of CRM is vital to understanding customers, successfully using social CRM, and implementing a CRM strategy. Reading about SEO will help this team become knowledgeable about link popularity and user insights.

To be most effective in our upcoming meetings, please supplement your knowledge of the above topics with your own research related to Google Analytics and similar analytical tools.

In addition to the readings for this project, please see the attached discussion topics below that we will cover in our meetings. You must respond to both of these discussions. Please take a look and come to the meeting ready to discuss.

We will have two senior executives from CompanyOne participating as observers and taking notes during our deliberations next week. We want to have done our homework, so that we can make a good impression. After all, MCS has a reputation to maintain.

Thanks so much, really looking forward to seeing your posts in these two areas.

Ying

Email signature with MCS corporate logo, Ying Bao, Associate Consultant, and contact info

Attachments:

Discussion Topics 1 and 2

Review the discussion topics via the link above, go to the discussion area, and begin by posting one main response to each of the two topics. Then respond to at least two postings from the class. Complete all discussion posts by the end of Week 5 at the latest.

Review the MBA Discussion Guidelines for instructions on participation in discussions.

When you have finished, proceed to the next step, where you will continue your meetings and will be trained to use Google Analytics.

PART 3

MBA640
Digital Campaigns

Transcript

My personal experience has taught me that over the course of your career you will be asked to learn new things, you’ll be placed on teams where you may not

have the deep expertise that’s called for and you’re going to have to keep learning.

My first digital campaign is a great memory.  I had an idea of something to promote and typically what I would have done is sent out a direct mail campaign to promote that type of thing.

In this instance I decided to do an email marketing campaign and it allowed us to respond to our customer personally and very quickly. So we were offering them something of value.

The results were immediate.

We had to actually build capacity which is a great problem to have.

I decided that what we would do for the initial responses we would qualify them with telephone. That was the most immediate and personal way we would get in touch with them and that for those who met our criteria,

I would actually offer in-person meetings for those for whom it was possible. So we converted 15% of our prospects and we had our best quarter ever.

What I brought away from that experience though wasn’t  just the power of digital marketing but that you had to offer something of value you had to have a message that the customer would find, be receptive to.

You had to have a good understanding of marketing strategy along with the digital marketing. The world is a competitive place,  before you know it your competitors are all doing what you do.  Everyone catches up.

Marketing has undergone an incredible transformation last ten to fifteen years.

The terminology in marketing has changed so much that five years ago we were not even using the term digital marketing.

If we were we certainly didn’t have agreement on it, some people were calling it web marketing, some were calling it online marketing, e-marketing and you’ll still see these terms in many places.

I’m not sure in five years we’re still going to be calling this digital marketing.

From beginning to end it’s about predicting human behavior and that is something that we may never crack that kuk
entirely but that’s what keeps me coming back day after day to marketing

[Music]

 

Close

Step 4:

Answer CompanyOnes Data Analysis Questions

The past few weeks have flown by. You have just completed the GA tutorial when you receive a memo from Ying marked CONFIDENTIAL. You scan the memo to find a list of client questions that have been assigned to you. You are expected to use Google Analytics to answer the 10 questions in the memo by the end of Week 7. The Google Analytics demo account will give you access to data from the Google Merchandise Store, which in this project represents CompanyOnes data.

Review these instructions for How to Activate the Google Analytics Demo Account.

Submit your answers to each of the ten questions and the accompanying screenshots in a Word document to the dropbox located in the final step of this project.

Remember to include one or more screenshots of the relevant Google Analytics page to support your answers. If you need help with creating screenshots, review these instructions on capturing screenshots for your Microsoft, Apple, or Android system.The next step provides a summary of all deliverables due during this project.

The next step provides a summary of all deliverables due during this project.

Memo from Ying

Corporate logo for Maryland Creative Solutions. A lightbulb with colors of state flag inside.

Sensitive information. Do not share.

MEMO

Subject: Confidential MemoCompanyOne
From: Ying Bao

Directions: Review and answer the following questions, which have been assigned to you in the CompanyOne case. You will need to capture screenshots to complete these questions; if necessary, review these instructions on capturing screenshots.

Question 1

Find the number of active users (1 Day, 7 Day, 14 Day, and 28 Day) during July 2020. Calculate the ratio of 1 Day Active Users to 28 Day Active Users, expressed as a percentage. Typically, this ratio is considered a measure of the stickiness or retention of users for your website. It should be 10% or higher for sites where content is refreshed daily, like news sites, or where the site derives its revenue primarily from advertising. For social sites like Facebook and WhatsApp, the ratio could be a lot higher (>50%). For Ecommerce sites like CompanyOne, where usage is less frequent but of higher monetary value, the ratio is typically lower than 10%.

Also, compare the graphs for 1 Day Active Users to 28 Day Active Users. What conclusions can you derive? Please provide a screenshot to support your analysis.

Note: Active Users refers to the number of users who visited the CompanyOne website within the last 1, 7, 14 or 28 days looking back from the last day of the period which in this case is July 31, 2020.

The metrics in the report are relative to the last day in the date range. Given that your date range is July 1 to July 31:

1 Day Active Users: the number of unique users who initiated sessions on your site or app on July 31 (the last day of your date range).

7 Day Active Users: the number of unique users who initiated sessions on your site or app from July 25 through July 31 (the last 7 days of your date range).

14 Day Active Users: the number of unique users who initiated sessions on your site or app from July 18 through July 31 (the last 14 days of your date range).

28 Day Active Users: the number of unique users who initiated sessions on your site or app from July 4 through July 31 (the entire 28 days of your date range).

Question 2

Plot graphs of 1 Day Active Users for the second quarter in 2019 and the second quarter in 2020. Compare the number of active users for both periods from the two plots. What do you conclude about the change in marketing effectiveness, if any, from 2019-Q2 to 2020-Q2? Please provide a screenshot to support your analysis.

Question 3

Compare Bounce Rate for 2020-Q2 to 2019-Q2. What do you conclude? Similarly, compare Pageviews for 2020-Q2 to 2019-Q2. Please provide screenshots to support your analysis.

Question 4

CompanyOne wants to focus on younger users (18-24 and 25-34) who shopped during the 2019 holiday shopping season. Has the share of younger users changed from the holiday shopping season in 2018? Note: November 1 and December 31 are the start and end dates for the holiday shopping season for CompanyOne. How about changes in the proportions of older users during the same period? Please provide screenshots to support your answer.

Question 5

What about gender? CompanyOnes objective was to attract a larger proportion of female visitors to their online store during the 2019 holiday shopping season as compared to the same period in 2018. Was that objective met? Please provide a screenshot to support your answer.

Question 6

CompanyOne has invested in a targeted marketing campaign to attract new users to their online store since the beginning of 2020. Did CompanyOne attract more or fewer new users from January – June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, irrespective of gender? What about new male users? What about new female users? Please provide screenshots to support your answer.

Question 7

(a)  What were the top three countries which sent users to the CompanyOne online store in 2019? In 2018?

(b)  When parsing the percentage change in the number of new users, by country of residence, which one of the three countries identified in (a), had the best percentage change in new users during 2019 as compared to 2018? Which one of the same three countries showed the least improvement? Use the whole year for your comparison. Please provide a screenshot to support your answer.

(c)  What were the top five U.S. states which sent users to the CompanyOne online store in 2019?

Question 8

CompanyOne wishes to target high-value users in future marketing campaigns. These are user groups with the highest Ecommerce Conversion Rate or Average Order Value. Which age group generated the highest revenue for CompanyOne in 2019 in dollars? How much was the revenue from this age group? Which age group generated the least revenue? Which age group had the highest average order value? Which age group had the highest Ecommerce Conversion Rate? Based on these observations, which age group or groups should be the focus of CompanyOnes marketing efforts during 2020? In other words, which age group is likely to provide the most bang for the buck?

CompanyOne desires to examine the performance across the six age groups in further detail. You will examine the Ecommerce data by selecting two dimensions: gender and age. Which gender and age group combinations had the highest and second highest revenue in 2019? Similarly, which gender and age group combinations had the highest and second highest average order value in 2019? What would be your recommendation to CompanyOne based on this analysis? Provide screenshots to support your answers.

Question 9

CompanyOne wishes to understand its site visitors better in order to fine tune its future marketing efforts. Understanding audience composition in terms of gender, age, and interests will allow CompanyOne to develop the right creative content and decide the media buys to make.

Google Analytics has over 100 affinity categories such as:

Shoppers/Value Shoppers     

Lifestyles & Hobbies/Business Professionals   

Sports & Fitness/Health and Fitness Buffs         

Technology/Technophiles     

Banking and Finance/Avid Investors           

Travel/Travel Buffs       

Travel/Business Travelers     

Media and Entertainment/Movie Lovers

Lifestyles and Hobbies/Art and Theater Aficionados     

Media & Entertainment/Music lovers

and many more …

Identify the top three affinity categories for CompanyOne by gender: male and female, for 2019 in terms of the revenue from each affinity category. Please provide screenshots to support your answer.

Question 10

The two things every online business like CompanyOne cares about: users who convert (purchase a product) and users who dont. Understanding users who convert (Converters) will help CompanyOne refine successful aspects of their marketing, and show them where they can improve their efforts to reach users who demonstrate untapped potential (Non- Converters).

Developing insights into why certain users arent converting lets them address the weak spots in how they approach them. For the purpose of this analysis, CompanyOne wishes to focus on the Back to School shopping season (July 15, 2019 to September 15, 2019).

CompanyOne wishes to obtain statistics of users, sessions, sessions per user, page views, average session duration and bounce rate for these two segments (Converters and Non-Converters). Comment on these statistics.

Finally, evaluate the differences in user conversion by gender.

Provide screenshots to support your analysis.

Creating/Accessing Google Analytics Demo Account Overview These instructions will activate the Google Analytics software in your Chrome browser via the demo account available for free from Google. It is highly recommended you use Chrome as a browser; Google Analytics may not have full functionality in other browsers. You will gain access to a demonstration account with data from the Google Merchandise Store, which in this project represents CompanyOne’s data. In this demo account, you will not be able to edit or delete data; the sole purpose is for you to learn how to analyze the data to make marketing decisions. You will only activate the Google Analytics demo account once. All future use of Google Analytics will bypass the activation process. Access the demo account 1. Click on this link Access Demo Account 2. If you already have a Google account, you are prompted to log in to that account. If you do not have a Google account, you are prompted to create an account and then log in. 3. Google will perform one of two actions related to your Google account: – If you already have a Google Analytics account, Google will add the demo account to your Analytics account. – If you do not have a Google Analytics account, Google will create one for you in association with your Google account, and then add the demo account to your new Analytics account. 4. The demo account is available from the account selector in Analytics where you select organization and account links. UMGC MBA 640 Innovation Through Marketing and Technology Ways to use the demo account Because the demo account shows actual data from an ecommerce website, it is useful for exploring Google Analytics reports and features. Here are a few things you can do using the demo account: View all standard reports populated with real data from the Google Merchandise Store View data from Google Ads and Search Console integrations Alter reports by adding filters and secondary dimensions, and by changing the report view Compare date ranges for acquisition, behavior, and conversion data Segment the data using your own custom segments Create your own dashboards, custom reports, and attribution models View predefined dashboards and segments imported from the Solutions Gallery