Assignment task:
Sarah is the General Manager for Comfort Inn in Huntsville, Ontario. John is Restaurant and Food Services Manager for the Inn. He reports to Sarah. A year ago, John noticed a decline in room service business. At the same time, he also noticed an increase in the pizza delivery to the Inn and an increase in the number of empty pizza boxes being left in guest rooms. His immediate response was to install a pizza oven in the kitchen and offer room service pizza to guests. The effort met with modest success, though it was well below his expectations. According to the questionnaires, guests revealed a problem of product quality. Focusing on this problem, John improved the Inn's pizza until blind taste tests judged it at least equal in quality to the products of the two major pizza delivery competitors in Huntsville. Sales did not improve. John was convinced that the problem was a perceived mismatch between the hotel's image and guests' expectations of pizza makers. Guests simply did not believe that the traditional steak and seafood restaurant at the Inn could make a high-quality, authentic pizza. Based on this conclusion, John presented the following proposal to Sarah: "Our guests perceive that our pizza is lower in quality than that of competitors. But if we disassociate our pizza from the Comfort Inn name, we can increase the sales of room service pizza. That's why we should innovate a 'Napoli Pizza' image for our guest room delivery service by: · Preparing 'Napoli Pizza' brochures for each guest room, complete with a phone number different than Comfort Inn phone number. The number will reach a special phone in room service, which will be answered, Napoli Pizza, authentic Italian pizza from old, family recipes.' · Using special 'Napoli Pizza' boxes for delivering room service pizza · Issuing 'Napoli Pizza' hats and jackets that room service waiters and waitresses will wear to deliver pizza. But they will change to their regular uniforms for other deliveries." How should Sarah respond to this proposal?