assignment

For this written assignment you will complete a critical analysis of a company case that you choose and research.

You may write this essay in first person (from your personal experience). Be sure to include the reasons why you are so loyal to the brand.

Choose a company that you think represents best practice in building customer value and relations. My suggestion is that you choose a brand that, one way or another, drives you to continuously spend money on their product or service. The company should be one that you have personally interacted with and feel endeared to. The company can provide a product or a service. It can be a national brand or just a local neighborhood brand. Basically you are selecting a company (Zappos is off limits!) that you have a strong connection with and that provides an exemplary experience to consumers. For me, it’s Starbucks or Zappos. For you, it could be a specific type of car, clothing, jewelry, spa, automotive service…

Part 1

1. Conduct a review of recent published work about the company. Hint: check the Harvard Business Review, trade magazines, or Allbusiness.com. Don’t forget to check the company’s website and look for press releases and articles published there. I expect that you choose and provide full citations for 3–5 sources related to your selected company.
2. Conduct a review of the conversation on the social web about this company. Hint: try to find conversations on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yelp! or other social sites about the company. What are people saying? How does this reflect on answers to the questions below? (Note—If the company has no social presence on the web, how might this also be an important indicator related to the questions below?)

Answer the following questions

1. From your personal experience engaging with the brand, what value do they provide to its customers?
2. What does the company do particularly well to keep you loyal to their brand?  
3. Do you believe the company’s value proposition is sustainable for the long term? Why or why not?

Part 2

1. Describe the company’s typical customer – to whom do they deliver value? You will soon learn this is considered a company’s target audience.
2. What do you consider to be the company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?  
3. How effective is the company’s social media presence? What do they do particularly well and where could they improve?