The situation analysis explores the industry specific issues and identifies the major competitors (online and off -line), the characteristics of the target markets and their online engagement, regulatory issues and global factors and a discussion of the business model that has been used. You will be judged on the quality of your research, using a variety of sources (journals, magazines, reports and databases and websites).
The opportunity exists to show the draft of your situation analysis to your tutor during the tutorial. By this time it should also become apparent if there are any team problems emerging.
Website Audit:
Based on your situation analysis each team member will now compare 1 company to the ‘reference company'.
See guideline appendix 1, the situation analysis forms part of the report. One of the companies should be constant. You are to compare these sites (and other online activities) with those of their closest competitors. You need to document your findings with screenshots (you will practice this in the tutorials).
Assignment may be undertaken in groups (maximum 3-people) or individually. On Moodle there will be a peer review sheet that needs to be filled out and attached to the report. Each member needs to clearly indicate their contribution. I will explain the process more in the first two lectures.