Create the Business Description portion of the Marketing Communications Plan using the business and information presented in the
case study.
• In 400-600 words, provide a description of the business and the challenges it is facing.
• In 400-600 words, explain the areas of the Marketing Communications plan that will need to be evaluated and/or changed from the current situation of the business.
• Complete the title page and start building the reference page by including any sources used in the assignment.
• Adhere to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed., 2nd printing) when writing and submitting assignments and papers.
Case Study
The information in the Case Study is used each week when writing the individual sections of the Marketing Communications Plan.
One of your neighbors has just inherited a restaurant in a small town about 75 miles away. They've never owned or operated a business before, and know very little about marketing or the restaurant business. They now have a Marketing Plan, but need help with the Marketing Communications Plan.
General Restaurant Information Provided by Your Neighbors:
1. They want to keep the "family's" restaurant as a legacy to their family members who left it to them. However, they will need to make money immediately in order to replace the income they lost when they quit their jobs to run the restaurant.
2. The restaurant has been losing sales/profits over the past few years. Family members have had some health issues (and have since passed away) and have not had the time to manage the restaurant effectively. For the past few months, the Chef and some of the servers have been keeping the restaurant open.
3. The restaurant has a good reputation in the small community. The town has a population of 6,000 people. It is in a good location (right off an interstate) and does additional sales catering to local businesses in the area. Over-the-road semi-drivers say it is the best cup of coffee in town and town's people know that you can always find the local sheriff and highway patrol officers eating there. People are allowed to smoke at their tables and some people have stopped eating there because of the smoke in the dining room. Also, you can see serving staff smoking between orders.
4. The restaurant has a good menu. It has a lunch menu and a dinner menu. They open at 11:00 am and they close at 7:00 pm CST seven days a week except major holidays. They have daily "specials". For instance, on Monday it is meatloaf, Tuesday; roast beef, Wednesday; turkey breast, Thursday; pot pies, and Friday; fish. The restaurant is famous for its homemade pie menu. The Chef makes 15 varieties of homemade pies daily. Customers can also order pies for holidays. People have asked to order pies online and pick them up at the store...but so far no online sales exist.
5. The restaurant is in the low to mid-price range. But due to changes in the local community demographic may need to update/expand the menu. Baby boomers are leaving the area and are being replaced by Generation X individuals and their young families. When eating there, you will see a wide range of customers from older truck drivers to young families, and even teenagers on a date.
6. The chef has been with the restaurant for over 25 years and has done a good job but is thinking about retiring in the next 3 years. He believes in the local food movement and buys produce from local farmers. The serving staff is composed of women (most in their late 60s) who call each customer by the name "honey" and have been with the restaurant for years. It is a well known secret that their grandchildren come by each day for a soda pop and pie (most times they leave without paying).
The restaurant is located next to an interstate exit and is the only "family" style restaurant in a 20 mile radius. However, there are a McDonalds, Subway and Sonic Drive-in restaurants located nearby. McDonalds, Subway, and Sonic offer special deals Online Education
Abstract
Online education has made vast improvements since the Internet was created. Before the Internet, schools were using various forms of technology to teach classes from a distance. Distance learning ranged from using the United States Post Office to mail assignments to using radio, television, and telephone. In this paper I will discuss how online education is advancing and becoming more competitive with traditional "brick and mortar" schools.
Distance education has evolved tremendously over the past 100 years. Correspondence schools were developed in the late 1800s to allow students to go to school from far distances. The 1900s were full of improvements that allowed schools to offer classes through radio, television, and telephone. One of the most monumental advances in online education was the creation of the Internet. Schools started to use the Internet to their advantage in 1981 (Miller, 2014). From this time period, schools have quickly adopted this form of education to teach their students. Online education has given some students the opportunity to earn an education who may not have previously been able to do so.
There are many universities that offer full online degree programs. Students are able to continue their daily lives and still earn a degree at any age. Online classes offer flexibility which is a huge benefit to students with full-time jobs, children, or those who are in the military. Often times, online universities have more affordable tuition compared to traditional schools. In a society where education is vital and yearly tuition increases, affordability can be a deciding factor for students when choosing their educational future.
Many online programs offer "hybrid" or "blended" courses. These are courses that have a mixture of students in-class and online (Hiltz and Turoff, 2005). These blended courses allow instructors to use effective teaching methods to provide the same educational experience for both types of students. The use of technology has allowed instructors to interact with online students in very helpful ways. Many management systems, such as BlackBoard, allow instructors to post videos, announcements, discussions, and detailed feedback to educate their students. In an article by Hiltz and Turoff (2005) discussing the evolution of online learning, they state:
There is no need for the instructor or student in a blended course to be concerned with which students attend the face-to-face class and which students participate online. All learning experiences are also available in a digital form that is at least equally effective.
This quote illustrates that online courses have just as much quality as face-to-face courses offered at a traditional school.
Online education has been a growing trend which has caused an increase in the competition for higher education. In 2014, University of Florida became the first public school to offer fully online degree programs (Miller, 2014). Many schools are expected to follow. These changes may be a strategy implemented by the university to ensure their long-term survival in the changing education industry. In an article by Sara Burnett (2001) titled, "Going the Distance", Sara discusses how online education will soon expand. The generation of students coming out of high school has been raised with Internet and may expect to have the option of online classes at the university they attend. Some may even enroll in a strictly online school. It is important that schools realize online classes are becoming more popular in our society. If they do not change, they could miss out on a large population of student enrollments.
The National Center for Education Statistics released a study in 2012 that stated one in four students took an online course during the fall that year (Haynie, 2014). The total number of students in that study amounted to 5.4 million. Although this number was 1.7 million lower than they had originally predicted, it is still a large number of students attending online courses. An additional key factor that was found was graduate students were more likely to obtain their degree online rather than in-class. For only having been around since the 1980s, online education has made a tremendous impact on the way we look at education.
Online education has come a long way in our society. We are continuously improving as a society which puts more importance on obtaining a higher education. From the beginning, it has enabled more and more students to learn at the secondary level. Online education will continue to grow and expand as we become more advanced. Universities that embrace online learning and educational changes are setting themselves up for success in the future. As Charles Darwin stated, "It's not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change" (Darwin, 1859).
References
Burnett, S. (2001). GOING THE DISTANCE. Community College Week, 13(21), 6
Haynie, D. (2014, June 12). New government data sheds light on online learners. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
Hiltz, S. R., & Turoff, M. (2005). EDUCATION GOES DIGITAL: The Evolution of Online Learning and the Revolution in Higher Education. Communications Of The ACM, 48(10), 59-64.
Miller, G. (n.d.). History of Distance Learning. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
7. throughout the week...for instance, McDonalds runs Shamrock Shakes in March, Subway offers $5.00 foot long sandwiches, and Sonic has happy hour soft drinks each day. The family restaurant has relied exclusively on word of mouth advertising, but do support a local little league baseball team each summer which costs them $500.
8. The name of the restaurant is The Family Diner. While they are not open to changing the name, they are willing to review any changes to the brand and logo that might help the business. Right now, the logo is simply the name of the diner underlined in Veranda font using a light blue color.
9. The new owners are younger and while they want to maintain the legacy of the family, they are computer-savvy. There has been talk of starting a web site and using social media, but those steps have not been taken.
10. There are no loyalty programs or special promotions except for the daily specials.
11. Sales (revenue) for last year were $900,000, which is a 15% share of the market. The other eating and drinking establishments in the area spend approximately $500,000 a year (total for all) in advertising.