Hospitality, Tourism & Services (MKT 486)

For this assignment, you will need to pick a STALE Hospitality, Tourism and or Services product/brand to examine. Like old bread that has been left on the counter, stale refers to a product that has been around a while and may not be as strong in the market as it once was. I strongly encourage you to pick something that is of interest to you and something that you might wish to learn more about. While there are no hard and fast rules for how to do this, some reasonable justification for your choice is necessary.

At points in the process, you may need to consider the entire firm/brand. That is, if you were to choose Disney cruise lines there will obviously some mention of the larger parent corporation. As a hospitality, tourism and/or services product it will also be a firm that serves consumers; that is, it should probably not be an organization that is primarily B to B in nature.

I would strongly advise you to stay away from the easiest choices; so, pick something fun and interesting to you. Rule number 1 in marketing is not to get into a competition unless you believe that you will win. If you have any questions, ask. Also, the TA, Kelly Huston is more than happy to help you choose a brand and or guide you through the process. Another good resource to use in the research process is the Business Librarian

The nature of this task involves a thorough business type analysis of the brand or firm that you choose. Since the product/service has likely been around for a while, your analysis will likely uncover a series of reasons and or circumstances that led to its current state. Go to your firm's website and/or any necessary library resources and answer the following questions.

1. Using the library data bases, find and read at least one "substantive" article concerning your firm/brand (Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, etc.); in other words your paper should be thoroughly researched and you should be taking a deeper dive into the firm, brand, or product. In short, I would expect you to be the expert at the end of this assignment.

2. What business is your firm in? Who are its' primary customers? What targeting and segmentation approaches are they taking; how? Please evaluate their approach.

3. How would you characterize your firm's strategy? Explain your choice. Visit your firm's website. If it has a mission or vision statement, include that with your answer/explanation. (Include the URL).

4. Do you see evidence of growth strategies, new products? Evaluate and Explain.

5. Describe the external environment variables (e.g., economic, technological, sociocultural etc) would affect your firm and its strategy? How?

Be specific and be sure to include all components of the external environment. Knowing that the hospitality, tourism and service industries are the first to be affected in an economic downturn, how will the economy impact your firm? What does your firm do to handle, respond and or anticipate these potential threats?

6. Please comment on how diversity (at either the intra-corporate level or between the firm and its customer base) affects your firm. For example do they do anything to attract customers besides the stereotypical "white male"? Are they appealing to women as much as men? Etc.

You could also talk about the employees--are they offering jobs to the locals? Look at the diversity of both the clientele and the employees. Are there any demographics that are being missed? Relatedly, address the global- international aspects of your chosen firm. Do they outsource? Do they do business outside of the US? Etc.

7. Describe your firm/brands pricing strategy? How would you characterize the price sensitivity of its customers? Are customers segmented on the basis of their price sensitivity? If so, describe how?

8. In terms of the environment:

a. Who are your firm's major competitors?

b. What are your firm's strengths and weaknesses versus its biggest competitors (e.g., SWOT)?

9. Finally, provide some concluding comments on where the future of this product lies. If it is in a declining market, what if anything can or should be done to reinvigorate it. Note also, that it is entirely possible, depending on the product chosen that a full burial is the only logical option. Either way - defend your decision.

• It is expected that this assignment will be properly prepared. That is, make it look nice and be clean of typos and pagination errors. It may seem odd to note this but, you would be surprised. Ideally, this would be a paper that you might show to a recruiter with reference to a job or internship. While not hard and fast, the estimated length would be around 25 pages, including figures and or references.

• Most of all, although this is an assignment, it should actually be an enjoyable project and one that you learn from. Feel free to come by my office (202 Eppley Center) to see how the assignment is graded and to view prior examples. I will also gave examples in the classroom for you.

9. Generic Table of Contents

- Title page

- Executive Summary

- Table of Contents

- Business- field overview: Firm Vision/Mission

o i.e., what business are you in?

o estimate the maturity level

o density of competition

o Firm- analysis (current marketing goals and objectives)

- Customers- who are they, demographics?

o What needs do they have?

o How segmented?

o Trends?

o Potential changes over time?

- Marketing Mix-

o Product

o Price

o Promotion

o Distribution

- Marketing Environment

o Competition

o Technology

o Culture

o Political

o Legal

o Economic

10. SWOT ANALYSIS

a. Assess and evaluate (this is important)

11. Strategic Goals

a. Assess and offer guidelines for growth over the next 3-5 years

b. Long term - exit strategy? Re-launch? Marketing mix modifications?

c. Forecasting

12. Conclusions: Here is where you do another deep dive and offer a series of recommendations to the firm as if you are talking to the C-suite.

Caesars Palace

5 pages

mixmarketing mix,

1.what the main product and how its conception is

2.what is the price change and its analysis

3.how is the product's evolution from before till now.

4. distribution---how the product spreaded out to differnt locations and how the targeted market is.

5. SWOT ANALYSIS (2 pages-important)(assess and evaluate)(chart can be used)