Examples of Marketing Projects
Examples of marketing projects that our students can work on with local organisations.
Example 1: Attribution model project: Effects of different marketing channels
Business context of the project
X is a large NZ cooperative food retailing business with strong, trusted brands. At X we are on a mission to put the customer at the centre of everything we do and developing our data analytics capability is a key enabler of this objective.
The customer marketing and insights team are a critical support function to champion the customer view throughout the organisation and is currently in growth mode to support X’s customer centric mission. X has a lot of rich customer data sources available including Loyalty card data, Payment transaction data, Basket data, digital footprint information and market research via customer feedback channels and ad hoc market research, but is in the early stages of developing its Analytics capability. This work placement is an exciting opportunity to add value to X’s business and work within a high performing insights team.
Description of the business problem
X uses various marketing communication channels to enhance sales and increase consumer knowledge about their products. However, it is not clear whether these marketing communication channels are effective and it is also unclear which communication channels have more impact. It is particularly challenging to gain insight into the effects of the online channels that are used. Furthermore, it could be possible that channels strengthen or weaken each other’s effects. For example, if a large direct postal mail campaign is launched in the same week as a Facebook campaign this could possibly lead to a reduced effect of the separate channels as a result of exposure. Alternatively, multiple exposures could be required to bring a message across to the consumer, implying that both channels are needed to have an effect.
The project
The business problem defined above has not been addressed previously and probably provides an incomplete description of the effectiveness of a multi-channel marketing communications approach. A database, made available by X, will be analysed to address the business problem using state of the art statistical techniques and data mining procedures. The student provides a written report and a presentation at the end of the work placement, conveying the findings and the business implications.
Example 2: Segmentation model project: NZ consumers in the banking industry
Business context of the project
X is a large NZ bank. At X we are on a mission to put the customer at the centre of everything we do and developing our data analytics capability is a key enabler of this objective.
The customer marketing and insights team are a critical support function to champion the customer view throughout the organisation and is currently in growth mode to support X’s customer centric mission. X has rich customer data sources available including transaction data, survey data and web browsing data. This work placement is an exciting opportunity to add value to the X’s business and work within a high performing insights team.
Description of the business problem
X has a large database of customers. A mass marketing approach will not suffice, as contemporary consumers have highly specific financial needs. Some customers will be more interested in asset management, while others will for example be more inclined towards financial product services that provide them credit. Bank X has already developed a customer segmentation using the relatively traditional K-Means clustering approach. However, the bank is not sure whether K-means has resulted in the optimal segmentation and would like to compare their segmentation with results of applying other unsupervised machine learning techniques.
The project
The database, made available by X, will be analyzed to address the business problem using state of the art statistical techniques and data mining procedures. The student provides a written report and a presentation at the end of the work placement, conveying the findings and the business implications.