Scenario:
Wheelies is a small family-owned scooter and bicycle rental business near the large tourist city of San Francisco, California. Wheelies currently has 42 employees, most of whom are San Francisco residents. Currently, Wheelies promotes itself by having their employees hand out 20% discount coupons within a one-mile radius of the store. Employees do this each morning for the first three hours that the store is open. Additionally, Wheelies has a Facebook page (last updated two months ago) that offers a two-for-one rental coupon to followers who share the post.
The biggest struggle for Wheelies is its competition with other local businesses to attract tourists. The owner of Wheelies decided to invest in modern marketing techniques. In doing this, they hope to establish a presence in the community and gain new, returning customers. This will require the owner to understand the company’s audiences and how to market to them. To begin this process, they reached out to the San Francisco Travel Association and the California Department of Finance for the most recent available numerical data on the city’s tourists. This information was gathered through city censuses and questionnaires. The compiled information is linked in the San Francisco Fact Sheet in the Supporting Materials section.
You’ve been hired by the owner as a consultant. Your job is to do the following three tasks:
1) Create a basic communication plan that provides guidance on how to appropriately collect demographic information.
2) Analyze the provided demographic data in the San Francisco Fact Sheet.
3) Identify ways to reach the target audience so that the owner can move forward with the new marketing campaign.
Directions
Using the provided scenario and customer data set in the San Francisco Fact Sheet, create a communication plan for Wheelies. Your plan must address the company’s goals to be well-known in the community and to retain new customers year after year. This plan will affect both internal staff and external customers, so it’s important to consider employees and the company’s values and goals. Be sure to provide sufficient guidance and rationales in your communication plan. This is especially important since it is currently the off-season, and you won’t be available during most of the busy season when the part-time staff returns to work.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria. Make sure to support your responses using the course resources.
1) Data and Information Collection: Review the San Francisco Fact Sheet. Then provide feedback on how the data and information were collected and suggest future improvements. Address the following:
a) Evaluate whether the data and information are accurate, credible, and valid based on how they were collected.
b) Determine whether the data and information were collected in accordance with federal laws and regulations.
c) Suggest additional research techniques that would have been beneficial in collecting information to best target an audience.
2) Analyzing Audience Data: Analyze the demographic data that Wheelies has already collected on their target audiences.
a) Address the following: Identify important target audience demographic information that has been collected.
b) Determine if the current communication strategies are appropriate for target audiences.
3) Recommending Effective Delivery Strategies: Recommend effective delivery methods and strategies to help the business reach its goals. Address the following:
a) Identify key considerations and targeted adaptations needed to craft an effective message for diverse audiences.
b) Explain how current delivery methods and strategies could be improved to better reach intended audiences.
c) Recommend new delivery methods for each intended audience. For example, decide whether to deliver the campaign messages using emails, phone calls, fliers, social media, and so on.
d) Describe the potential issues that could come up because of delivering the targeted message. For instance, consider the legal, ethical, or cultural issues.
e) Explain how the targeted messages might reach unintended audiences.
Sample Solution