1. Consider you want to launch an online furniture store – spicefry.com.

What is
the ASCOR Framework? Explain any 2 phases of the ASCOR framework you would go
through to set up spicefry.com.

Ans :- For any type of company to move into digital marketing, be it a traditional firm
with more physical products and services mix or one that has transformed itself to a
large degree to tweak its products for the internet generation, there needs to be an
underlying framework which helps to map the process and its progress. where ASCOR
is an acronym standing for the five phases:

 Assessment phase
 Strategy phase
 Channel and communication plan
 Digital marketing operations
 Refinement phase

Let us understand each phase,

Phase 1: Assessment – It involves any firm’s or individual’s assessment and analysis of

their present external/internal marketplace environment to ascertain that they have
clearly assessed their current digital presence to develop high-level digital marketing
objectives and review criteria.
Phase 2: Strategy – It involves creating the digital marketing strategy road map in line
with traditional marketing strategy and objectives. Includes, customer development
strategy, defining digital marketing mix and developing digital marketing
implementation framework.
Phase 3: Communication and Channel mix – This stage involves a more in-depth
communication and channel mix plan created for each of the marketing objectives like
media planning, communication program design, channel mix development and budget
allocation for channel mix.
Phase 4: Digital Marketing Operations – The deployment stage for digital operations
and involves the actual planning, implementation, monitoring and optimization of
campaigns during the media flight dates so that marketers obtain the maximum impact
for their investments during the campaign run period.
Phase 5: Refinement – Final stage of digital marketing wherein marketers and the
campaign team analyze overall ROI for the effort and the investments, create reports
and analytics dashboards, and refine present strategies for further digital marketing
activities, based on customer response and collated data. 

For Spicefry.com we will study about these phases :-

Understanding the Assessment Phase

The assessment phase is the first of the five phases of ASCOR Digital Marketing
Framework and also the starting point for any digital marketing plan. It involves an
initial analysis of the internal and external environment to define and develop digital
marketing objectives for the firm or individual.

The assessment phase can be divided into four key elements based on the nature and
interaction of all forces impacting digital marketing objectives development:

External analysis: Includes the analysis of macro-micro environment (entities which

surround and influence the firm, its products, operations, and opportunities)
and market situation analysis (referring to market and competition analysis, specific to
the industry where the firm and its product are operating).

Internal analysis: Involves an analysis of factors which are internal to a company and

within their control to influence their goal setting and create successful and realistic
digital marketing objectives. It includes four main analysis areas—offerings mix,
marketing mix, resources mix, and competencies mix.

Digital presence analysis: It is a 2 × 2 matrix which helps firms identify their present
digital state through a combined analysis of external and internal factors.

Objectives development and review: Involves setting high-level digital marketing

objectives based upon the specific digital state in which the firm is present. The review
stage consists of activities that involve monitoring, evaluating, and controlling
marketing activities continuously.

Macro-Micro Environment Analysis

With a basic understanding of key assessment phase elements, let us understand the
first element of the external analysis which is the macro-micro environment analysis.

Understanding Macro-Micro Environments

The terms macro and microenvironments are classic marketing environment

terminologies used to bunch and analyze key factors that impact a firm’s ability to build
and maintain a profitable business and relationship with customers.

2.) Marketing strategy, by definition, has the goal of increasing sales and achieving
sustainable competitive advantage. Typically, this is differentiated from sales strategy
as marketing aims at a ‘Pull Strategy’ wherein the intention is to create a strong
positive disposition towards the brand through the use of regular marketing tactics,
while sales strategies deal more with setting up plans to sell (and even exceed) targeted
volumes of a product in a certain defined period.
Generally, marketing strategies are initiated as a part of the strategic planning for an
organization which includes setting up the vision (long-term objective) and mission
(shorter-term tactical objectives) for each of the organization’s key product/service
divisions.
 Q2.) 2. The Digital Marketing landscape is witnessing a lot of emerging trends and
technologies. Write a short note on Big Data and Internet of Things

Ans Internet of Things(IoT) and big data are closely intertwined and although they are
not the same thing, it is very hard to talk about one without the other. Before we
analyze their connection, let us take a much closer look at these two practices.
More devices and objects are now linked to the internet, transmitting the data they
gather back for the purpose of analysis. Here, the goal is to utilize this data to learn
more about trends and patterns that can be utilized to make a positive impact on our
lifestyle, energy conservation, transportation, and health. Nevertheless, the data itself
doesn’t create these objectives, but rather its solutions that emerge from examining it
and locating the answers we need.
In relation to this future, two terms that have been discussed are the Internet of
Things(IoT) and big data. These are closely intertwined and although they are not the
same thing, it is very hard to talk about one without the other. Before we analyze their
connection, let us take a much closer look at these two practices.
Big Data
The term big data existed long before IoT arrived to carry out analytics. When the
information demonstrates veracity, velocity, variety and volume, then it is interpreted
as big data. This equates to a large quantity of data that can be both unstructured and
structured, while velocity refers to data processing speed and veracity governs its
uncertainty.
Internet of Things
The notion of IoT is to take a broad range of things and convert them into smart
objects — anything from cars, watches, fridges and railway tracks. Normally, the
products that wouldn’t be linked to the internet and able to acquire and manage data,
are provided with computer chips and sensors for the purpose of gathering data.
Nevertheless, unlike the chips utilized in mobile devices, smartphones and PCs, these
chips are utilized mostly for collecting data that specifies product performance and
customer usage patterns.
Bringing IoT and Big Data together
This disruptive technology needs new infrastructures, including software and
hardware applications as well as an OS; enterprises must handle the influx of data that
begins flowing in and examine it in real-time as it evolves by the minute.

That is where big data arrives into the picture; big data analytics tools have the
capacity to handle large volumes of data generated from IoT devices that create a
continuous stream of information.
 But, in order to differentiate between them, IoT provides data from which big data
analytics can extract information to generate insights required of it.

However, IoT conducts data on a completely different scale, so the analytics solution
must accommodate its needs of processing and rapid ingestion followed by a fast and
accurate extraction.

There are many solutions available that provide near real-time analytics on large-sized
datasets, and necessarily change a full-rack database into a small server that processes
up to 100 TB, so small amount of hardware is needed. The analytics database of next-
generation leverages GPU technology, thus enabling even more downsizing of the
hardware, i.e, 5 TB on a laptop or a big database in the car. This largely helps IoT
organizations correlate the evolving number of data sets, which helps them adapt to
changing trends and acquire real-time responses, solving the challenge regarding size
and compromising on the performance.
The Internet has come a long way from a shaky dial up to the interconnected
revolutionary world we are in. This new wave of interconnectedness is called the IoT
(Internet of Things) or sometimes IoE (Internet of Everything)
What is IoT?
In its most simplistic term, IoT refers to the inter-networking of physical devices. These
devices are capable of making network connections and exchange data with a cloud
infrastructure or other similar devices in their existing network. Many of the devices in
this arena would be information generating devices like GPS, temperature sensor,
pressure sensor or information receiving devices mainly actuators like motors, relays
etc., collectively known as the edge points of the network. Other components are the
gateways that aggregate information from edge devices and the cloud that stores and
processes information received from gateways/devices.
Big Data is a versatile term universally employed for a large set of data, it contains a
massive volume of heterogeneous data in the form of structured, semi-structured and
unstructured. You are already familiar with the complete process of how data is
withdrawn from different sources and get merged for data processing discussed in our
previous blogs. In this article, we mainly focus on an introductory appearance of
the IoT(internet of things) and the multi-faced purpose of the Big data in IoT such as its
role, necessity, and challenges.

Q3. Take any e-commerce company of your choice. a. Discuss the 4Ps or the Marketing
Mix of the company. (5 Marks)
b. Discuss the 8Ps of Digital Marketing Mix of the company (5 Marks)

Ans :- Marketing mix usually refers to the set of 4Ps

viz. Product, price, Promotion, Place. But theoretically, the marketing mix is a much
broader term. Often the three additional Ps- process, people, physical evidence is also
added and called 7 Ps of Marketing. The role of the marketing mix is to synthesize the
visible and invisible qualities of a product with the aspirations of the targeted clients.
The marketing mix for a manufactured product will be different from that of a product
as a service.

Any company which intends to find the right pitch for their product needs to consider
an array of factors before setting out to do it. The marketing mix for any product will
be determined by two factors viz.

Internal Factors

It includes the factors which lie within the organization or is concerned with the inner
atmosphere of the firm. The internal factors are primarily :

 Nature of products
 Product stages in its overall life cycle
 Availability of funds
 Company objectives

External Factors

External Factors concerned with the factors outside the organization. They include the
following aspects :

 Degree of competition
 Efficiency of channel
 The buying behavior of a consumer
 Control from the government side

Now let us discuss the four fundamental elements of the marketing mix which are
the Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Place.

1. Product

A product is the heart of the marketing mix. All marketing activities begin with the
product. The product is not a physical entity alone; it captures the whole tangible and
intangible aspects like services, personality, organization, and ideas.

Here, it is essential to understand the term product mix concerning marketing. The

product mix is the whole range of products a company offers to its customers. Say, for
instance, Apple an authority in electronic brand commands loyalty as a pioneer of
mobile technology and e-devices.

The decisions regarding product mix will depend on many factors like :

 Design
 Features
 Brand name
 Product variety
 Quality
 Services
 Packaging, returns, etc.

2. Price : Price is the monetary value that has to be paid by a customer to acquire or
own the product of a company. It is the critical revenue-generating component of the
firm.

Pricing decisions should be taken with great care, as it is a double-edged sword. If your
product is priced too high, it may exude a feeling of high quality. At the same time, it
will make your product placing to limited and standard stores. So the marketer must
know the art of wielding this dangerous sword of pricing.

The pricing mix decisions need to consider the below marketing variables :

 Methods of pricing; policies; strategies

 Allowances
 Discounts, rebates

3 Promotion- It aims to serve two objectives. One, it informs the potential customers
about your product and secondly, it persuades them to buy your product. The
promotion mix will thus include the various means that you can use to communicate
with the target audience. An effective promotion mix will ensure good sales and a
marketer must strive to create a conducive environment.

The main elements of a promotion mix are:

 Advertising
 Personal selling

4. Place :- Place or physical distribution deals with the transfer of ownership of the

product from the manufacturer to the customer.

The margin of your profit depends on how quickly you can turn over the goods. The
more swiftly the products reach the point of sale, the more likely are the chances of
satisfying the customers and increase brand loyalty. Hence the Place factor is crucial in
ensuring your product’s competitiveness in the market.

The following are the elements of a distribution mix :

 Channels of distribution
 Warehousing decision
 Product handling
 Transport
b.) The 8 P’s of marketing mix are :-

Product

The first P deals with the “thing” the business is selling, the competition and
substitute products. A private college, for example, is selling higher education. Its
competitors are other private schools, and substitutes include public universities. To
market a service, consider the tangible and intangible benefits it provides and any
tangential products or services that can be co-marketed. Product considerations affect
every other marketing decision.

Price

Price not only determines the service’s profit margin, but it also has a bearing on
many other marketing decisions. Price sets a value standard for the service, one that
the company’s people, physical evidence and performance must meet to be successful.
Services are perishable. If a hotel doesn’t rent Room 546 tonight, that revenue is lost
forever. Pricing includes strategies for managing inventory and staffing.

Promotion

Promotion is how the company markets its services. Companies will strive to match
the media to the message. Law firms specializing in international acquisitions don’t
advertise on city buses, for example. Promotion strategy includes developing
branding, slogans and logos that convey the intangible benefits the service provides. A
criminal defense attorney might choose images of open handcuffs to deliver her
message.

Place

Because services generally are purchased and used at the same time, the location
where the service is delivered plays a role in the promotion, price and product. Part of
the reason plumbers and other home-repair professionals charge so much is that they
must deliver their service one customer at a time away from their office or shop. A
barber can service customers one after another, but he must consider his shop’s
appearance and location in his placement decisions.

People

Much of how customers rate the service experience hinges on the person delivering it.
Professionalism and courtesy go a long way in any service business. Other attributes
become critical depending on what services are being offered -- discretion in a
psychiatric practice or tact in funeral services, for instance.
Process

Process is the standard operating procedure in delivering the service. Depending

upon the situation and location, luxury hotels may require employees to smile, nod,
bow, shake hands or otherwise greet guests.

Positioning

Where the company wants to fit in its industry will determine its marketing
positioning strategy. This is determined in large part by which generic business
strategy the firm employs. It may determine low costs will be its path to profitability.
Or it may decide to pursue differentiation, embedding distinctive benefits into its
service. Cost leadership strategies are evident in the company’s promotional
materials, physical environment and price.

Performance

Sometimes called productivity, performance examines how well a company’s services

compete in the marketplace. This may include how consistent the service is and how
well its features translate into benefits as it is being delivered. A carpet cleaning
service may employ state-of-the-art equipment but have trouble attracting repeat
customers. Performance also considers how to measure the company’s financial goals
and whether they are being achieved.