Situation Analysis

The first step in putting together a campaign is to complete a situation analysis, which is essentially an analysis of the background of the brand or organization. This where you demonstrate your understanding of

• the brand itself,
• the brand’s current status,
• its sales figures,
• its competitors, and
• its consumers.

Without a good understanding of all these things, it will be difficult to run a campaign or to recommend any marketing communications strategies for the client.

As discussed in Lesson 1, the situation analysis contains three parts:

• the company background,
• a category and competitive analysis, and
• a consumer analysis.

In order to find relevant information for each of these parts, you will need to conduct both primary and secondary research, analyzing the information and data you gather.

When you start writing the situation analysis, please keep in mind that this course requires a business writing style that emphasizes clarity and conciseness. To achieve that, you can use short sentences and short paragraphs, with headings and subheadings organizing your information. The selective use of tables and graphics is appropriate when they serve a purpose. For example, when you are comparing numbers across different brands and competitors, it is often very effective to use graphics to display such information.

APA Style Documentation of Sources

You are required to cite and reference the sources you used as part of your research. This class will use citation and reference styles from the American Psychological Association, hereafter referred to as APA Style. For a review of APA Style, please visit the APA Quick Citation Guide from the Penn State University Libraries.

As you start writing the situation analysis, please keep in mind that you are supposed to cite and reference all the sources you have used. You cannot copy other people’s words or ideas and claim them as your own. Crediting other people’s work is the right thing to do. By providing citations and references, you recognize other people’s work or ideas.

To avoid plagiarizing others’ work, you will need to do three things:

• keep track of the resources you have used, attributing information to these original sources;
• summarize or paraphrase what you have learned using your own words, attributing the ideas to the sources you have used; and
• enclose quotations from the original sources in quotation marks, identifying the page number(s) they came from (see the subsequent example).

However, if you are summarizing others’ ideas, rephrasing them using your own words, you can cite the information without the quotation marks. When you paraphrase an author, you are restating and building on their ideas in your own words.

There are two kinds of research that you are required to do: primary research and secondary research. Primary research refers to the research that you will do on your own to collect data. For example, if you conduct a survey or focus group, you will be conducting primary research.  Secondary research refers to the gathering of information from data and resources that other people have put together. We will discuss primary research methods starting in Lesson 4. In this lesson, we will focus on conducting secondary research.