How can we consider Jimmy Buffett fans as members of a reference group? A brand community? 2 Refer to your responses to question

1. What kind of opportunities does the existence of the Buffett community.

Incorporate at least two outside sources into your answers and properly reference them in text and in a references section at the end of your paper. Use the Case Study Guide in attahment. The paper must be written in APA format.Case Study Guidelines

Analyzing the Current Situation-The proper context must be established for the case analysis. Summarize key environmental factors such as industry trends, level of competitiveness, customer perceptions, legal considerations, and evolving technology at the outset of the analysis. Summarize the external environment in terms of opportunities and threats to the firm. There should also be some assessment of the internal environment of the firm in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Assumptions are frequently made in case analyses; identify and discuss your assumptions and how they are valid in relation to this case.

Identification of Key Problems-Sales management is not practiced in discrete sub-functions. It is easy to identify symptoms of problems while failing to identify the real problem. For example, declining sales may be identified as a problem, when the decline is only symptomatic of more complex, harder-to-observe problems.

Make a clear distinction between what is identified as a symptom of a problem and the problem(s).

Identify and Evaluate Alternatives-Develop reasonable alternatives and evaluate them in terms of feasibility, projected costs advantages, disadvantages, and potential short term and long term consequences. Do NOT propose utopian solutions that would be financially impossible to justify. On occasion, an analysis will generate a solution with only one reasonable alternative and offer several other pitifully weak alternatives in an attempt to make it appear that rational analysis has taken place. Most cases generate more than one alternative.

Select a Course of Action-A course of action should be explicitly stated, and the appropriate strategies and tactics to accomplish the chosen course should be discussed. Justify your choice in terms of your analysis. Use your analysis as support for your choice. As most practitioners know, charting a course of action can be a difficult job, but implementation is the true challenge. Produce a workable action plan that would have a reasonable probability of success in the implementation phase.

Research is expected. Use APA citation standards. Review the definition of plagiarism in the Policies tab regarding what constitutes the requirement(s) for source citing. You should anticipate a minimum of 5-7 pages of standard 10- to 12-point font, double-spaced text for this case. Cover pages are not necessary, but a bibliography is necessary. Make sure your name is on the document.

Use third-person, research-style writing. That means you should not use first-person voice: I, me, my, us, we, or our; nor should you use second-person voice: you or yours. Do not use contractions; spell words out. Do not use slang or colloquialisms. Assume that this report will be presented at a board of directors meeting and that your job depends on it!