Hello Senay,

an 'informal' situational analysis sounds pretty dubious methodologically...so check the project docs again.

Probably the best reference for a sound situational analysis is Adele Clarke. She has a useful article (http://sts.ucdavis.edu/summer-workshop/worshop-2008-readings/Clarke%202003%20Situational%20analyses.pdf) and a book on how to do this in a defensible manner.

good luck, Lorinne

Depends on what is meant by analysis. As a practical tool, a spreadsheet with industry competitors across the top and vertical axis of each company's approach to target customers, products, pricing, distribution, and promotion would do the trick. Reference Kottler for the four p's.

For your business related question it's probably sufficient to look at key aspects of the company's external market environment that influence its business model and go to market approaches.  These general categories are Social, Technology, Economic, Environmental, Political and sometimes also Legal. You would be looking for key features of the landscape in these categories to help understand and assess why the company does what it does. Another generally useful tool is Porter's 5 Forces model.   Most general textbooks on strategy development should have further info on these tools.

Thanks Log,

I have found Poter's Five forces model as relevant; it gives an overall view on various inflencial factors without a need to exhaustively go through them.

Internet is rather vibrant and you can even narrow it down to business to business or business to consumers that the firm is planning to target. 

May be you like to check out this paper to give you an idea how the strategies are being formulated.

Article The significant of E-business and knowledge-based Customer R...

You may think of: 

• Berry, L., Conant, J. S. and Parasuraman, A. (1991) A Framework for Conducting a Services Marketing Audit, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19, 3, pp. 255-268.
• Nolop, B. (2007) Rules to Acquire By, Harvard Business Review, 85, 9, pp. 129-139.