Topic :Car companies: Hyundai, Ford, Peugeot, BMW, Audi, Mercedes
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).

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
A

Written report: the maximum number of pages per report is 15 pages per team members– this is the upper limit (based on a team of 3)- note there will be a lot of screenshots. Each student will compare the reference company with one (1) other company. The task is then to streamline the findings into a cohesive report that is well referenced. The report will contain a statement, signed by all students about their contribution to the overall assignment. As each student will provide a comparison of the reference company to one of the competitors, the team needs to allocate time to compile these various elements into a comprehensive cohesive report – which means you should have your individual work completed by the end of week 10 to allow 2 weeks to compile the work.
Information about successful group work can be found at: http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/learning/groups

appendix 1,
Details on the Web audit

The assignment will compare the websites of your chosen company with others in their field from Australia and abroad.

Issues you should consider include:

The 13 C’s as presented in the lectures (See PPT)
A portion of each workshop is dedicated to assist you in addressing those issues, please work on your assignments during the semester so that we can discuss these issues during tutorials and lectures.
Issues to be explored in the website audit ( in yellow issues for the situation analysis)
Issue Criteria/questions
Domain
(.com, com.au, different spellings) Clearly defined and researched all options considered?
Search engine position
(first, sponsored) Clearly presented?
Condition
(situation analysis- uncontrollable environment- internet adoption by customers, suppliers, technological developments, trends, competitive situation. Info from ABS, AGIMO, Gartner, Jupiter, Forrester, Gartner, KPMG, Ernst and Young. PWC, BCG, Nielsen Netratings , Hitwise, technocrati.com etc) about how customers, suppliers are using the Internet in the industry sector).
This is an important aspect of your report! How well has secondary research of the industry sector been conducted, how extensive was the research, quality of sources?
What type of business model has been used Clear definitions of models and the application in the chosen site
Context
(site layout, design and navigation, site map, search- how executed, how good are the results) Show the relevant issues with screen shots and mark up
Content (use of text, pictures, sound, video) What has been used and how consistent is it?
Corporate ID and Design
(Does the company carry the design through the whole site? Across countries?) Is it consistent and across different media?
Conventions
(how does it comply with users expectation e.g. Menu choices, search, sitemap) Comparison with what other sites do and what research indicates is a good way of doing it.
Customer focussed – 5 IS –
(different websites for different groups e.g. current students, future students, current customers, new customers , investors, etc, media: special section for the press, press releases, archive, as reported in the press) Who are possible target markets – how are the 5 Is addressed
Community
(the way the site enables user to user communication)
How is social networking used? How well is the site represented in terms of blogging and on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Youtube, Foursquare, Instagram etc? Is there a community, how active? What type of community, you need to explore as many as possible
Customisation
(site’s ability to allow users to personalise the site or adapt itself to different users) How well does the site adapt itself to customer needs?
Communication
(how the site enables site to user , user to site and 2 way communication, newsletter, subscription, RSS feeds, Email – browser default or custom form) is social networking, Blogging Twitter used? How well are the various elements researched and presented?
Connection
(how the site links to other sites) List of links, comments on links
Commerce
(how the site enables transactions- and how the site generates income e.g. subscription, membership, sale of products either from the site or linked to intermediaries Description of activities, documentation of commercial transactions, trial
Convergence
(integration with other media e.g. Mobile, RSS feeds) Description and documentation
Cross promotion
(of products and services by associated companies)
Use of viral marketing What products, how?
Compliance
(with disability (W3) and Privacy legislation) Detailed analysis of W3, examples
Currency
(up to date information) Date stamps, other evidence of time relevance
Corporate
(history of company, mission statement organisational structure, names and details of CEO and managers, address, maps, link to suppliers, dealers, intermediaries, current and future employees) Detailed list and comparison of the various elements.
Corporate responsibility
(citizenship, membership of Global Compass, GRI, Sustainability etc., nature of reports. Where, how, to what extent, comparisons
Investor relations
(share price, annual report, links to regulators, analysts, comparisons with industry sector). How well are the elements analysed?
The marketing mix
(Products, beta, merchandising, services, downloads), Price ( clearly displayed, add-ons, delivery), distribution ( links to dealers and intermediaries, service centres, branches), promotion ( sales promotion – specials, contests, public relations, testimonials, experts, advertisements of the company and others, trade fairs, conference attendance and conventions) How well are the elements analysed and described?
Apps Are apps available? On which platforms?
Free/ paid?
Mobile Is site accessible via mobile phone and how well is it integrated
Clicks
(how long does it take to get to specific information) List of major clicks to get to sections of the site
Other – by looking through the sites you will identify new categories not listed above Have new categories been identified, what effort was made?
Q codes, etc.

Scoring scheme How well developed is the analysis tool used?
Research, referencing

Exploration of other ranking, rating, benchmarking and scoring schemes. How well is the information referenced,
How much research was done, what quality is the research ( various sources, use of reports etc.)
Presentation of report Written clarity,
Visual presentation, bound
Provided peer assessment? Need to provide peer assessment sheet
Oral presentation Clarity of slides, referencing, team work, completed on time
You may rate the performance using a simple scheme like 0= not evident 1= evident, average execution, 2= superior
You might also want to weight the various factors above and research other ranking, rating, benchmarking and scoring schemes
You will be judged on: the extent and quality of your research (40%) your analysis of the research that you have conducted (30%) and your presentation of the results, including the framework that you have developed to analyse the sites (30%).