Situation Analysis for Ecostore

Internal Environment

Format: Report (refer to the assessment preparation guidelines section) Task: In this assessment you will conduct a condensed analysis to gain an overview of the market situation of case company ‘ecostore’ (www.ecostore.com). In marketing, this overview is referred to as a Situation Analysis, which means you are analysing the firm’s current external opportunities/threats and the internal strengths/weaknesses. Marketers need to analyse the firm’s environment to make informed strategy decisions and to be prepared for unexpected situations that may arise and impact their business. For example, the current global situation relating to Covid-19 illustrates how something outside the firm’s control can have sudden and dramatic impact on the business operations. The broad aim of a situation analysis is to evaluate the internal environment (the controllable factors), and the external environment (the uncontrollable factors). The external environment is often divided into the macro-environment (commonly referred to as a PESTLE analysis) and the micro-environment (representing external factors more closely related to the firm such as customers and competitors). Your report will be divided into five sections and several sub-sections. Below I have given you an estimated word count. 1. Introduction (200 words): This section should provide a broad outline of the purpose of this report and briefly introduce the case company and their product offering 2. Internal Environment (400 words): In this section you need to demonstrate your ability to identify key issues/factors relating to the case company and to provide evidence supporting your analysis by citing appropriate sources. Please refrain from purely descriptive statements and strive to demonstrate your ability to critically analyse your findings. This section will discuss the Operations and Management from the internal environment factors (i.e, Operations, Management and Human Resources, R&D and IP, and Financial). You will identify if these factors represent a potential strength or a weakness for the firm. 3. Micro-External Environment (400 words): In this section you need to demonstrate your ability to identify key issues/factors relating to the micro-environment in which the case company operates and to provide evidence supporting your analysis by citing appropriate sources. Please refrain from purely descriptive statements and strive to demonstrate your ability to critically analyse your 2 findings. This section will discuss Customers and Competitors from the micro-environmental factors (ie, Customers, Competitors, Suppliers, Distributors, and Stakeholders). You will identify if these factors represent a potential opportunity or threat to the firm. 4. Macro-External Environment (600 words): In this section you need to demonstrate your ability to identify key issues/factors relating to the macro-environment in which the case company operates and to provide evidence supporting your analysis by citing appropriate sources. Please refrain from purely descriptive statements and strive to demonstrate your ability to critically analyse your findings. This section will discuss the Sociocultural, Economic and Environmental from the macroenvironmental factors (ie, Political, Legal, Economic, Sociocultural, Technilogical and Environmental). You will identify if these factors represent a potential opportunity or threat to the firm. 5. Conclusion (400 words) In your conclusion you should summarise the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats identified in your discussion. To support your conclusion, you should create a SWOT matrix figure. The items listed within the SWOT matrix figure should be short phrases in bullet point format (not full sentences) and should be presented in order of priority. As with all figures or tables, you should discuss the contents of the figure prior to presenting it and should provide a figure number and title. Note: the detail presented within the SWOT Matrix itself will not contribute to the overall word count. Other summary detail provided in the Conclusion section will contribute towards the overall word count. 6. References Introductory information relating to the case company is provided on Stream. However, you are expected to conduct additional research on this company. You will use information that is publicly available such as the company’s website, competitors’ websites, industry reports, government reports, news articles, etc. Do not contact the company directly. As this is an applied report, you are NOT expected to cite a large number of academic journal articles. Academic references are best used to explain or support general marketing concepts and theories. All sources need to be cited correctly using APA 7th formatting for references and in-text citations. Refer to the Assessment Preparation Guidelines for further guidance. 3 Assessment Preparation Guidelines Word Length: The word length is inclusive of all the report sections except references (and appendices if used). You will not be penalised for exceeding the word length plus/minus 10%. Given the tight word limit imposed, you will not be able to include every discussion point that you consider relevant to the topic. Instead, you need to think carefully about what you consider to be the key issues to address, structure your work accordingly, and be succinct. The key to a good mark is to think about how a senior manager would regard your work – such a person would be unimpressed by waffle, unclear argument, mistakes, and poor presentation. Be concise, insightful, and logical. If your work is well under the word limit, it is unlikely that you have fully addressed the key points of discussion. Note: some use of bullet points is acceptable if used sparingly. Over-use of bullet points generally presents as lacking the necessary explanation to be meaningful and is discouraged. Presentation of work: Professionalism is expected in all material submitted. Amongst other things, this means neat formatting and presentation, competent use of the English language including sentence structure and paragraphing, and accurate spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If your work does not meet these criteria, then your overall grade will be reduced (refer to the course marking guide). Please note that third person is the preferred writing style - see http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/1st-vs-3rd-person.php The following detail is provided to assist with drafting your assessments using a ‘basic report’ structure. Note that the principles for researching, drafting, editing, and rewriting your basic report are the same as those for essay writing. The only difference is the overall structure. 4 Title page ? Title of report (that clearly reflects the report’s content) ? Date of submission ? Name of person submitting the report ? Name of person to whom the report is being submitted (for this course, submit assignments to the course coordinator) ? Course title and number. Introduction ? 2 - 3 paragraphs or approximately 10% of the report word length ? Briefly details the purpose of the report ? Outlines the scope of the topic examined in the discussion section Discussion ? Presents the evidence for your conclusions ? Is divided into sections with headings (and sub-headings if helpful to structure your ideas) ? Cites any theoretical arguments which support your discussion ? Provides a detailed analysis of the arguments and key ideas as specified in the assessment task. Conclusion ? Summarises the key findings ? Relates to the report objectives (purpose) detailed in the Introduction section ? Follows logically from information in the Discussion section ? Is short but identifies major issues (2 - 3 paragraphs) ? Does not introduce new information 5 Referencing: Where appropriate, your report should be supported by reference to relevant citations. General discussion relating to aspects of your report does not require referencing. Ideas that are clearly your own do not require referencing. So, when should you use references? For any discussion point where the reader would reasonably ask ‘How do you know this/ where did you obtain this information?’ (E.g. facts, figures, statements) you should provide the source of your information. You should also acknowledge the source of information that is used to add support to your ideas, thinking or rationale. That is, any aspect of your discussion that is drawn from any source (e.g. textbook, journal article, industry publication, government website, etc.) should be acknowledged. Please do not include any references from Wikipedia or web-learning sites. You will not be graded according to the quantity of citations used per se. That is, you do not have to include a comprehensive references list just for the sake of it. In particular, avoid referring to material that you have not read. Also, do not attribute citations to authors who were not the source of the ideas (i.e. who said nothing of the sort!). Your grade will align with the quality and relevance of citations used to support your discussion, and on your ability to correctly reference using APA 7th format both in-text and in the references. For guidance with evaluating the quality of citations and applying referencing technique, refer to Massey’s Online Writing and Learning Link (OWLL)