Case Study Assignment

MGTD06  Marketing in the Information Age A 4rth year undergraduate course in the Division of Management,  University of Toronto Scarborough College, Canada

A video (made Sept 2010) explaining the MGTD06 Case Study Group Project in detail

A short video clip (500 MB) of Prof. Richardson giving a few tips about laying out your project and some of the things he looks for in marking these types of assignments

A short video clip  of Prof. Richardson giving a few tips about using "mature language" in your written reports  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7e9WSnC0Tk&feature=related

The Case Study Group Project requires a presentation of your project to the class. It is expected that the presentation will be very exciting and that the student audience will "learn something useful and interesting"  www.witiger.com/tips.htm

This Case Study (Group Project - Written Report) is worth 25% of your final mark and normally due in the last class 4th week in November - unless otherwise indicated by the Prof.
(NOTE: previously the Case Study had been worth 20% in this course but since many groups put a lot of effort into this assignment, and since the quality of assignments has steadily risen over the past 5 years, it has been proportionately accorded higher value.)

The assignment is designed in such a way that you should, as you attend the lectures, and go through the web site, collect information which you will use in this assignment. You should be working on this assignment from the first class and try to gather, as you go along, all the information you will need so that when you write the assignment in November, you will have covered all the required points.

The maximum number of persons in a group is 4. There cannot be 5 group members or more since experience shows this is too difficult for group members to set meeting times and work effectively and equally on completing the tasks. It has also been the experience that 5 people in the group often results in an unequal division of work.

It is necessary (obviously) that you include all the group members names on the cover page. You should verify that each group member contributed equally and, as far as it might be possible, identify which group member provided particular information/activity to completing the assignment.

Cases to pick from - just do one
 

A Specialty Record Shop This store is managed by the owners. It is in a moderately high rent district on Queen Street West in Toronto. The CD's, records and DVD's are themed based on the cultural interests of the store owners who come from country X. The store has many people browse in person, but don't buy. Others express interest in looking for a particular music title but cannot find it in the sprawled out mess of untidy shelves. Many of the people that shop here have bought CD's online from some of the major marketing companies like HMV.The owners of the store are 50% owners in a bar on Queen St. that specializes in house music.

A Themed bar/restaurant This place is on Yonge Street in a high pedestrian traffic area. They are not a franchise but do have a sister establishment out on the airport hotel strip. There are particular special events and activities at this bar which cause it to attract negative as well as positive attention from the public, and police. The managers of the establishment have little personal knowledge of computers and know almost nothing about the internet. Many of the people that patronize the bar work downtown but live in the suburbs. The bar has a number of themed items for sale such as T-shirts, mugs, posters of performers, etc. Sometimes very famous people come to this establishment.

Ethnic Newspaper This publication has been producing a weekly newspaper for a section of the (Asian, or Caribbean - you pick) community for more than 10 years. Many of the people who read the newspaper are recent New Canadians but there is also a large number who have lived in Canada more than 20 years. These people also have many restaurants, stores and establishments in a part of Toronto in which this newspaper prints its editions. Editions of the newspaper are presently available for free at all local convenience stores and food stores including specialty bakeries and hair salons. Sometimes the stories in the newspaper are very controversial and there are complaints that many letters to the editor go unpublished.

What you do - answer the following Questions

1. How could an e-business solution change the competitiveness of the organization?

2. What components of an e-business solution are most relevant to use to further the business and marketing objectives of this company?
(some examples listed below - you may use these examples, or other things we cover during the 3 months of lectures)

• e-commerce
• online communities
• online publishing
• supply chain management
• CRM

3. Identify, and explain some of the barriers or challenges that might exist in developing an e-business solution for this company?

Grading

You will be marked mostly on how well you follow the instructions, and answer the questions, using some modest degree of originality and some resources which demonstrate a degree of effort.

The professor will be judging this based on several criteria - the most important criteria would be
1. did the student(s) appear to have learned something useful and interesting, which could help them in marketing in the information age
2. did they organize the information in a way that made it "understandable" as to what they learned
3. in the context of this being the "Dept. of Management", did they have a management approach to solving a problem(s) for the sake of the business being more competitive in the Information Age
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