February 29, 2012

BBUS 340 D

University of Washington Bothell Educational Trips Abroad

Ann Barrick, Randy Chan, Vue Chang, Christine Maramba

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Section I: The Marketing Brief Introduction 1. Purpose and Scope of the Marketing Brief The objective of this marketing brief is to provide an analysis and capsulization of the market for University of Washington Bothell Educational Trips Abroad. The purpose of these trips will range from voluntourism to tourism. This marketing brief will recommend ideas and steps towards providing and marketing this travel service by September 2013. UWB Educational Trips Abroad is meant to provide a means for current students, alumni, and friends the chance to see the world and learn about other cultures and lifestyles. 2. Limitations to the Marketing Brief Survey: The participants in our survey did not vary in age by a large degree. Most of the people surveyed were around 21 years of age. Furthermore, there was no ability to contact alumni to survey them. Secondary Research: Some reports used for data are slightly outdated. 3. Executive Summary With the University of Washington Bothell expanding in number and in size each year, UWB has the potential to deliver a non–profit educational and voluntourism travel program for their alumni, students, and community. This travel program will develop a strong relationship between the University of Washington Bothell and its community. This marketing brief will clearly explain UWB’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with great detail. There will be many explanations of possible marketing tactics and steps to introduce and raise awareness for this program. Highlights of this plan will include objectives of raising awareness of the Educational Trips abroad program, a description of key market segments to market towards, and estimated pricing points for potential travelers.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Section II: Marketing Situation Analysis 1. Market Research Methodology and Data

Primary Research - Catalyst Survey Research Methodology: The purpose of the survey is to understand peoples’ needs, wants, and desires toward trips focused on voluntourism and education provided by a local university. Respondents: 45 respondents of ages from 18 to 31 and over Research Results: If a local university offered an educational group trip abroad, would you consider participating? Figure 1: Participation in Education Trips

Figure 1 shows that a high percentage of respondents would consider going on an educational trip. This indicates that there is a market for educational travel and that UWB should take advantage of it.

91%

9%

Yes

No

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What do you look for in education travel? Figure 2: Types of interest in Education Trips

Figure 2 asked surveyors what aspects of educational travel they would like to participate in. Surveyors were allowed to choose up to three categories in their answer. Almost half of them were interested in learning about culture and lifestyle. Would you have interest in a voluntourism/philanthropic trip abroad, such as creating water wells in developing countries?

Figure 3: Interests in Voluntourism

43%

14%

23%

20% Culture and lifestyle

History andmuseums

Helping thecommunity

Nature and theenvironment

76%

24%

Yes

No

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

There are not many universities in Washington State providing voluntourism trips for their alumni. This would be advantageous to UWB Educational Trips Abroad program to focus on voluntourism because this allows them to market to a broader audience. Figure 3 demonstrates that more than three-fourths of the respondents are interested in participating in these types of tours. Secondary Research Research Methodology: The methodology used here was to seek who the competitors are to UWB Educational trips and what are the competitive pricing points. Sources: Hands Up Holidays and Western Washington University Alumni websites were used to obtain this information. Research Results: Hands Up Holidays is a voluntourism business that emphasizes luxury tailor-made travel. Their top 5 trips are to Costa Rica, Peru, New Zealand, and Thailand (See Figure 4). At each place they have varying degrees of activity level but high levels of comfort. Depending on location of the trip and activities, prices vary from $2,000 to $7,000.

Figure 4: Hands Up Holiday’s Top 10 Trips

Image from Hands Up Holidays

Western Washington University located in Bellingham, Washington provides trip to

their alumni as well. The university provides trips based on luxury cruises, relaxing

cultural, family activities, and scenic river cruises. Prices vary from $1,500 for a nine day

trip to Beijing, China to something more luxurious such as a $6,500 Mediterranean cruise.

WWU has different travel agencies such as Oceania Cruises and AHI Travel to help accommodate trips to the alumni.

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Research Methodology: Methodology was to find out what University of Washington Seattle offers to their alumni association because UW Bothell is part of their brand. Sources: University of Washington Alumni Association website provides information on Research Results: University of Washington Alumni Association has been around since 1889 and started their travel program in 1975. They offer several trips in one year and depending luxurious the trips are prices vary from the $1,500 to $8,000. Currently, they have over 50,000 members in the Alumni Association, so they UWAA have a large market they can target. Figure 5 shows upcoming tours UWAA will provide in 2013. Figure 5: UW Seattle 2013 Trips

Winter 2013 Spring 2013 Summer 2013 Fall 2013

Classic Safari: Kenya & Tanzania

Classic China Black Sea Odysseys

Turkey

Egypt & the Nile Spain & Portugal Iceland to Greenland

Discovering Eastern Europe

Research Methodology: The methodology used here was to focus on Generation X’s attitudes towards travel. Source: Generation X in the U.S. prepared by MarketResearch.com, 2005 Results: According to Generation X in the U.S., the Gen Xers spent more money per capita in travel. For example, Generation X spends about USD $2,140 per capita on travel whether it is travel or leisure, while the Boomers spend an estimated USD $2,016. Gen Xers show more passion to travel and are more likely to book trips online, travel to places no one else has gone, and travel more frequently than the Boomers. With this information it confirms the results of the Catalyst survey. For example, due to some circumstances the respondents of the survey were mainly 18 to 24 years old. Also, the report explains the Gen Xers prefer to travel to uncommon vacation spots and want a quick booking system. Therefore, UWB should provide travel opportunities to various countries around the world and make booking for a trip simple and easy. Research Methodology: The methodology was to figure out the market size and demographics of travel. Sources: Simply Maps is a tool that allows users to find different demographics for different areas.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Market Sizing The market is sized using the following data. SimplyMap allowed us to narrow down our target audience to King and Snohomish Counties. While the Alumni Association is open to anyone who is interested in joining, we decided to further focus in on those who are undergraduates, or graduate students, currently enrolled in in a public university in these two counties. This currently puts our target market close to 140,000 people (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Simply Map Demographic

Market Trends - Five Forces Model Threat of Entry: There are not many barriers to entry in this industry. Most Universities have the connections to create such programs. However, in this geographic location, UWB has the upper hand because they are the only large University in the area. UWB can get into this industry because they can piggy back onto UW Seattle campus’ programs and establish a University of Washington Bothell brand.

Intensity of Rivalry:

There are not very many rivals in this niche market. In the overall travel industry, there are several rivals. However, on the basis of educational travel sponsored by a university, there are not many competitors.

Substitutes:

There are several substitutes travelers can use aside from UW Bothell Educational Trips Abroad.

o Tourist trips by other vendors.

109,738

28,967

# Enrolled at Public University

King County, WA Snohomish County, WA

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

o Voluntourism vendors. Substitutes as other vendors that can supply an educational trip with a sponsorship

by a University, then there would be no substitutes in the Bothell area. There is the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington State University, and Western Washington University, but all of these are within the state of Washington and not in the Bothell area.

Bargaining power of buyers:

Buyers do not have bargaining power over the set travel prices. There is bargaining power over what the buyers would like experience. For

example, UWB would want the buyers’ suggestions on travel ideas.

Bargaining power of suppliers:

The suppliers have a lot of power in this situation. They are controlling all the prices. Whatever the price they are willing to sell at, UWB must sell at a cost of around USD $500 more as profit for UWB.

Competitive Landscape

Figure 7 Market Structure: Market Share of U.S. Travel Market

Market Role Market Share % Example in Travel Market

Market Leaders 70% Tour Operators Market Challengers 20% Guided Tours Market Niche Firms 10% Universities

Market Structure. Figure 7 displays market share of the market leaders, challengers and niche firms. Due to the large percentage of market share from the leader, UWB will have a smaller market share because they are a niche market. Direct competitors. UWB Education Trips Abroad will have competitors of other University alumni travel programs and travel agencies. A list of direct competitors is Nature and Kind, Hands Up Holidays, Western Washington University, Washington State University, and University of Washington-Seattle.

Indirect competitors. Online travel agencies such as Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity could be considered as indirect competitors. These competitors focus on quick online booking and quick getaways. They do not put an emphasis on voluntourism and educational trips in their company, so they are not an immediate threat to UWB. Competitive Comparison Framework. Figure 8 displays data for primary competitors against University of Washington Bothell Educational Trips Abroad.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Figure 8: Competitive Comparison Framework Chart

Criteria UWB Travel Hands Up Holidays

UW Seattle Travel

Market Share New to travel industry In the industry since 2003

UW Alumni Tours has been around since 1975

Messaging Quality education trips that brings UWB community together

Provides luxury tailor-made voluntourism trips

Commitment to delighting and educating alumni and friends through travel opportunities

Competitive Advantage

Differentiation advantage from other University Alumni programs

Luxury travel Cheaper and hassle-free

Strengths Non-profit organization; UW Brand

Developed several trips all across the world

Long history of Alumni; Bigger school; UW Brand

Weaknesses New to market; Self-reference Criteria

Offices located in London and not local

Offer only educational trips; Fee for Alumni Association

Product Four trips per year in different countries

Multiple trips in different continents

Approximately 40 trips a year

Pricing Competitive pricing of USD $2,000 to $5,000

Varied pricing of USD $2,000 to $7,000

Varied pricing of USD $1,500 to $8,000

Distribution University of Washington Bothell

Online distribution across the world

University of Washington Seattle

Promotion Strong focus on social media, print marketing, and word of mouth

Promotion through media

Promotion through UWAA, social media, and word of mouth

Messaging: Competitor’s messaging was obtained through competitors’ websites. These competitors mentioned their how long they have existed and why travelers should choose them. Competitive advantages: The competitive advantages vary from each travel agency. Hands Up Holidays has become a leader in luxury voluntourism trips market. Product: UW Seattle trumps UW Bothell’s program by offering more trips in one year. This will be a goal UWB can aspire to in the upcoming years. Pricing: UW Bothell will offer a competitive price relative to Hands Up Holidays and University of Washington Alumni Association. However, prices will be slightly lower in the first year due to becoming a start-up company.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Distribution: Each competitor will use websites to distribute their product. However, UW Seattle and Bothell will have local offices to keep contact. Promotion: UWB Educational Trips Abroad will have emphasis on social media to raise awareness of this new program. Also, flyers and newsletters will be sent out to students and alumni and that will help start spreading news about educational and voluntourism trips.

Figure 9: Perceptual-Positioning Map of Competitors

Figure 9 is a perceptual map indicates there is an open market for educational

voluntourism. Since there is a great focus on global studies and the environment as

majors at UWB, the alumni program should focus on this potential market opportunity.

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UW Seattle

WWU

WSU

Hands Up

Nature & Kind

Educational

Non-Educational

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

3. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis

Figure 10: SWOT

Strengths: UWB Brand. No other school has the University of Washington Bothell

brand. With unique branding, we have the ability to make our product have a higher perceived value than other schools. By building our brand through having a quality program, people will want to go to UWB educational trips instead of other channels.

Resources & Connections. Since this is a UWB program, UWB’s resources and connections are available for the program to use. Influential people can be reached to help bolster the program’s credentials and different classes in the school can be used to help enrich the program. These classes could be foreign language classes that can teach about the culture of the areas to be visited or interdisciplinary and arts classes that can teach about globalization and other topics. These resources and tools are a very strong part of UWB’s educational trips program.

Weaknesses: Self-reference Criteria. This is just the beginning of the program so there is not

enough research yet about where people would want to go and whether or not they would want it to be voluntourism or tourism, or educational tourism. Currently, the places picked are chosen from a small sample from the primary data we received.

Strengths

• UWB Brand

• Resources/Connections

• Non-profit

Weaknesses

• Self-Reference Criteria

• New to market

Opportunities

• Niche Market

• Voluntourism

Threats

• Other Universities offering similar programs

• Travel Agencies

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Being New to the Market. With this program being brand new, there are many obstacles to overcome. These obstacles can range from inexperience in the market and having no market reference points to underestimating the amount of preparation and advertising needed to gain the needed amount of awareness.

Opportunities: Niche market. Currently, there are no universities offering this kind of service in

the area. By targeting UWB students, alumni, and friends, there is a largely untapped opportunity to be taken advantage of.

Voluntourism. Since UWB is an educational institution, having volunteerism within an educational trip can entice more people to join. Many people desire to make a difference and that is an opportunity that UWB educational trips can create.

Threats: Other universities offering similar programs: UWB students, alumni, and

friends are able to go to other universities and ask to join their programs. This is a main threat to UWB educational trips. UWB needs to find a way to differentiate its quality from the other schools’ trips in order to come out ahead of the pack.

Travel agencies. If UWB students, alumni, and friends are only looking for a trip to go on, travel agencies will become a large threat. Somehow UWB needs to entice people that their time should be spent on an educational trip or voluntourism trip instead of just a getaway vacation.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Section III: The Marketing Strategy 1. Mission Statement The University of Washington Bothell Educational Trips Abroad’s mission is to enrich the community’s roots by offering travel opportunities to alumni and friends. Travelers will be inspired to be passionate about experiencing the world through culture and humanitarian efforts. 2. Market Segments Figure 11: Segmentation Overview Chart

Segmentation Variable Category Segment

Demographic Age Occupation

Ages 18 and up Currently enrolled in public undergraduate or graduate Universities

Geographic Local King and Snohomish County

Psychographic Interests Activities

Interests in travel Activities in volunteer work

Figure 11 narrows down our market into five segments. Segmentation: B2C. For the consumer market, UWB proposes to focus on those who are currently enrolled in public undergraduate or graduate Universities in King and Snohomish counties. The targeting section below states the reason for this selection. Targeting:

Potential: Currently there are about 140,000 students enrolled in a public University, according to data from SimplyMap. These people are potential customers that can be targeted upon graduation from their school.

Alignment: Most alumni travel associations find their members to consist of older generations. While older members will not be excluded as potential consumers, UWB may find the opportunity to strengthen community ties and increase involvement with their alumni association by focusing on a segment that can be overlooked, soon be to graduates with an enthusiastic outlook on their Alma Mater. Marketability: Baby Boomers used to make up the majority of volunteer-vacationers; however, social consciousness is constantly increasing with Gen X.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

With majors such as Global and Environmental Studies offered at UWB, students participating in the humanities are gaining more popularity in promoting such things as voluntourism.

Positioning: What UWB Trip Abroad is offering to a consumer that is different from any other local University is voluntourism. This is a Niche positioning that has not been explored. While there are Universities that offer travel abroad, most focus on the education and culture. On the other hand there are websites that allow the consumer to find opportunities for voluntourism, but lack the intimate community of the alumni association. UWB would be able to provide both aspects, in doing so, creating their own niche. 3. Marketing Objectives Date of service launch: The program will be set to launch in June 2013. Target market awareness: Raise target market awareness by 20% by the end of 2012. Market share forecasts: Forecast of 5% increase in market share in December 2013. Unit sales and revenue: UWB needs 15 people per trip, 4 trips per year, and UWB will earn USD$500 per person which comes out to be USD$7,500 per trip and USD$30,000 per year. Other: By the third year since the inception of this program there should be two trips per quarter through different areas around the world. 4. Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix: Product

Customers to Target: UWB will target alumni, students, and their surrounding communities who enjoy education, have activities in volunteer work, and have interests in travel. Features: There are several features to this travel program.

Hassle-free booking and planning: Everything will be arranged for travelers

Learn and play at the same time: The trips will have a good balance of education while having a good time.

Meet new people: Traveling with UWB will allow people to reconnect with their University roots and make new travelling friends that have common interests.

Travel in style: UWB will put great effort making sure their travelers receive an experience of their lifetime. Travelling should not always be traditional, but extraordinary and atypical.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Quality: To provide quality trips, each trip will last about two weeks that includes sightseeing, learning, and hands-on activities to experience the culture in a different way. If travelers seek more of a voluntourism trip, then UWB will offer a community service experience travelers have never done before such as, a trip to South Africa to focus on the environment. Packaging: In the introductory years, UWB will offer four different travel experiences each year. Brand: UWB will want to position themselves as one of the best group/community travelling agencies that offer differentiated travel experiences to their customers. Value Proposition: UWB educational trips’ value proposition should attract travelers to want to participate in quality educational and voluntourism trips that make a difference in the community.

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Positioning Strategy

Figure 12: Perceptual-Positioning Map of UWB Educational Trips Abroad

Figure 12 shows where UWB will be on the on the perceptual-positioning map. The focus will be providing educational trips and voluntourism trips to the alumni and community. Marketing Mix: Pricing Pricing Objectives. The pricing objective will be service-quality leadership. UWB Educational Trips Abroad will position the trips as affordable, but still valuable. Pricing Approach. As a non-profit organization UWB’s pricing approach will be using perceived-value. The University of Washington brand is one of a kind and takes real interest in their students and alumni. This brand needs to be communicated carefully so the perceived-value is seen by the customers.

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UWB

Educational

Non-Educational

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Competitor Impact. UWB will be entering in the travel service market. The focus will be on the direct competitor. There are several competitors in this market, so UWB Educational Trips Abroad needs a distinctive value proposition that is communicated clearly to their customers. If there is not a clear value proposition, the pricing of the trips may not be justified. Costs. Costs should be relatively low even though UWB is now entering the market. This is because of UWB will not be hiring a company to plan the trips and already have resources from University of Washington, Seattle. Environment. A weak economy can affect the number of travelers wanting to go on these trips provided by UWB Education Trips Abroad. On the other hand, a strong economy can lead to a higher demand for international travel. However, because of the high quality trips and competitive prices UWB will offer, people will actually be getting more for their money.

Marketing Mix: Distribution

Distribution Channels. The UWB is providing an educational program that directly allocates information to people who want to learn abroad. It is distributed by knowledge of tour guides and leaders who have experience on educational trips. Within this group, we have people who are interested in going on the educational trips and it will be easy to manage because it is exposed to a market of a selective group who want to build a strong relationship. E-Commerce. The UWB education trips will have a website that displays the features of

voluntourism and education trips. It will show when future plans are tripped, space availability and information about the trips that will help narrow down options for interested individuals. It will be a valuable tool in drawing the interest of customers.

Marketing Mix: Promotion

Advertising. Since UWB is new to the market, the objective is to inform and raise awareness about this new upcoming program UWB has to offer. There will be detailed website to supplement information. Newsletters will be sent out to UWB students, alumni and affiliates. Social Media. As stated, a professional website will be used, as well as creating a Facebook page to help spread the word. Twitter will be beneficial because of frequent updates which can be used to inform customers about upcoming trips, promotional events, and ideas. These social media tools could range from travelers blogging about their experience with UWB and by giving live feed from the actual trip. Sales Promotions. Sales promotions will be not be used in promoting educational. Instead there will be possibility to UWB offering scholarships to those who need it.

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Events & Experiences. To put a jump start to the program there will be a launch party before the first trip of 2013. This will also help raise awareness and get people excited about the fun adventures they are about to experience. Also, UWB Educational Trips Abroad can attend college fairs and other college events to get the word out.

People and Process Tactics

The individuals who work for the UWB educational trips must have attained a Bachelor’s degree, must be knowledgeable in the field and also enjoy teaching others. A professional approach to everyday work is required, as we will be working with educated individuals who are professionals in their respective fields. The training process will take time, as we want our employees to gain an experience in trips abroad as well and be able to display their own personal experiences on trips to potential customers. 5. Financial Data: Sales Forecasts and PNL Analysis

12-month Sales Forecast

Figure 13: Financial Data: 2012-2013

Africa China France Peru

Fixed Cost $44,250.00 $73,425.00 $76,425.00 $47,250.00

Unit Cost $500.00 $500.00 $500.00 $500.00

Price $3,450.00 $5,395.00 $5,595.00 $3,650.00

Sales Forecast $51,750.00 $80,925.00 $83,925.00 $54,750.00

Figure 13 indicates the individual cost for each destination. The target is to make USD $500 over the costs in order to cover for the majority of overhead expenses. With 15 members for each trip as the minimum, revenue was forecasted at 15 units per trip.

12-month Income Statement

Figure 14: Income Statement: 2012-2013

Financial Element Year 1

Revenue $271,350.00

COGS $238,350.00

Gross Margin $ $33,000.00

Gross Margin % 12%

Total Rev. Exp. $27,040.00

Operating Income $5,960.00

These are the key figures (figure 14) taken from our forecasted income statement for 2012-2013. With one trip to four separate destinations (15 units per trip), total revenue was calculated to come to $271,350.00. Since this is a non-profit organization, the gross margin percentage is not extremely high. Profits are only pursued in order to cover overhead costs that mainly come from administrative expenses.

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BUS 320 D Marketing Brief

Marketing Communications Budget

Print Advertising. $50 will be used to advertise through posters and brochures. The timing of each campaign is to get members to become aware of the trip 3 months prior to the next trip’s date.

Promotional Events. $400 will be spent to advertise through a promotional dinner. The budget covers food, drinks, event floor, and speakers. The timing of this is to get people to know of the trip 3 months prior to the next trip’s date.

Social Media: $50 will be spent on social media resources as a way to reach potential new members and build a stronger presence online.

Website Development and Hosting: $500 will be spent on creating an interactive website to bring in new traffic and inform alumni members of upcoming trips and emerging ideas. The total of $1000 will be used to advertise for each destination during each quarter. 6. Marketing Controls Awareness: Once awareness is brought to the program, brand recognition and brand recall should be familiar to the market. For example, getting people to recognize the UW Bothell brand and remembering their travel programs provided for the alumni and friends. Customer Satisfaction: Once customers are aware of the educational trip program, they will be able to experience the UWB travel adventures and give a rating to the program. This will help monitor the satisfaction of customers and how well UWB is providing quality trips. A high customer satisfaction can be measured by how many “likes” the UWB Educational Trips Abroad gets on Facebook. 7. Conclusion The UWB educational group is very confident that offering voluntourism and educational trips abroad will succeed. It operates in a niche market that offers a hybrid of voluntourism and education, whereas other Universities in the area do not offer a program alike. To drive success as a non-profit organization, the UWB hopes to provide scholarships to interested individuals. It will also build relationships with prominent foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and nationally recognized non-profits like Premera Blue Cross. In the future, as the UWB educational group plans to expand, more trips abroad will be offered and to different corners of the world.

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Section IV: Marketing Brief Appendices

Appendix 1: Marketing Brief Sources

Alumni Travel. (2012). Western Washington University Alumni. Retrieved from http://www.wwu.edu/alumnitravel/

Educational Trips Abroad survey. (2012, January 30). Retrieved from

https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/rkchan/156038 Hill, C. (n.d.). Hands Up Holidays. Retrieved from http://www.handsupholidays.com/ Geographic Research, Inc. (2011). Census 2010 Current Estimates Data retrieved February

27th, 2012, from SimplyMap database. Marigny Research Group, Inc. (2006). Generation x in the u.s.. Retrieved from Packaged Facts

website: http://academic.marketresearch.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/product/display.asp?productid=1272015

UW Alumni Tours. (2012). W Alumni Association. Retrieved from

http://www.washington.edu/alumni/tours/index.html

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Appendix 2: Lessons Learned and Project Feedback

Four Key Lessons Learned 1. One key lesson learned here is the quality of surveys makes a great impact on our research. For example, it was unfortunate that we did not ask surveyors if they had an option to travel where would they go. This would have been vital information to our brief because we would have been able to pick travel locations based on what the consumers want.

2. The detail needed to create a fantastic market brief takes many hours to compile. When the right research is found, it can allow the user of the brief to decide whether or not the project is worth pursuing or not. Market briefs are invaluable to companies because they look at every aspect of a company before the company’s inception.

3. The marketing brief taught us that we must be very detailed. The financial data, desired locations, educational experience, target market, etc. are all very important in deciding how to approach a successful marketing scheme.

4. Marketing plans are meant to be flexible. You might originally start out with one target audience in mind, and discover another segment opportunity that could potentially change your mission and goals. Not getting upset when the plan deviates from the original strategy means you might come across an innovative idea that will help set your product or service apart from the competition. Project Feedback

1. Did you find this marketing brief project worthwhile? 2. Was it reasonable or unreasonable amount of work? 3. Did the Outline help you or would have you preferred to just be given the

case and the flexibility to develop your own approach and outline? 4. If you could change three things about this assignment, what would they

be?

Ann Barrick

1. I enjoyed becoming familiar with the necessary steps towards bringing an idea to fruition. It will be an approach used later on when I have a notion that needs to become concrete.

2. The applicable assignments given throughout the quarter were useful in giving feedback on our brief. However, some steps could not be taken until the end of the quarter, after we learned about the topic in class, which rushed some areas of the project. Overall, I think it was a realistic and reasonable amount of work for a final project.

3. The outline was helpful for some scenarios in which we did not know how to proceed. However, there are some places in the project that I would have liked to have a little more freedom with.

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4. Perhaps mention after a lecture how we can use the recent topics discussed in the project, or at what phase we should currently be at in the project. Smaller groups would mean less difficulty in coordination of schedules. Having examples online of past briefs would be convenient.

Randy Chan

1. The marketing brief was worthwhile. It allowed me to apply what I learned in class to a realistic simulation. The information I learned from this marketing brief will be invaluable for the future. This is the closest to this day that I have done real market research in such fashion.

2. The amount of work given would be more reasonable if the Professor started us on it earlier and guided us through some parts of it. I did not realize the amount of work needed to complete the brief until I started working on it. However, experience in this situation would have helped a lot to help the team determine what needed to be done when. A helpful implementation would be having checkpoints all along the quarter, to push groups further in their market briefs.

3. The outline was helpful. However, at times, it was very obscure and the team did not understand how to input the data. More explanations for the questions would be more helpful in the future.

4. I would have chosen a different topic of research. Educational travel is more of a service than a product. This class has been more about marketing products than services. If it were me, I would have chosen a product like dried fruits or energy drinks because it would be easier to compare our product with our competitors. In the case of the educational trips, it was harder to think of core competitors and other aspects of the market due to it being a service. The second thing I would change is maybe making this project part of a capstone. It was great to learn everything, but I believe if I spent another quarter learning how to develop and implement plans, I would be less in a rush to finish and more calm and ready to learn. The last thing I would change with the market brief assignment is the advertisement part. The class should have enough time to make an ad and learn about an integral part of marketing. It is a shame we did not have enough time to create one. I believe the planning and implementation would be a great learning experience. Christine Maramba 1. I found this project to be very much worthwhile because it showed me the how to produce a marketing brief step by step. Although I am not majoring in marketing, I find this information to be very useful because all aspects of a business are connected together. This process also showed me how hard and stressful it can be to make a marketing brief. This is not something that can be done in a day.

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2. The workload was a lot, but it was not unreasonable because every aspect of this project was crucial to preparing a marketing brief. This project is probably one of the biggest projects I have ever worked on, but that is not a bad thing.

3. The outline was very helpful; otherwise I think I would have been lost when preparing this marketing brief. It’s always nice when there are guidelines to follow to make sure we are doing the brief right, however I can see why not having an outline would be beneficial for students because it would make students be creative and come up with their own ideas.

4. A) I would change the due date by a few days later because it was hard to do the Marketing Controls section when we have not learned that yet and having more time to make an advertisement would have been fun. B) Use the last 20-30 minutes of class discussing the brief to make sure we understand what we learned in class and that we are able to apply to the brief. C) Last thing I would is using the Sorger textbook as a guideline for the marketing brief in chapter 13. I found that the information given in a figure was the same information when the brief explained the figure, so it seemed to be repetitive information.

Vue Chang

1. This is the first time that I have done a Marketing Brief. I learned a lot from this assignment, we did plenty of research, primary & secondary. It was hands on of what we have learned from our class and M=R-STP-O-MM-IC.

2. This was a final project, and the work load was plenty but it seemed reasonable. It is an legit marketing brief with real life examples and the work had to be tedious so that we get the most learning experience out of it.

3. The outline definitely helped us develop our marketing brief. If we did not have the outline to follow, we may have lost out on many learning opportunities, however it did restrict us to following the guidelines set and in some parts we wished we could have worked around it.

4. If I could change three things about this assignment, I would (a) not use SimplyMaps, I felt that the map did not help us very much because we could not use more than one variable. However it did help us narrow down our market segments and demographics. (b) I would have picked a different subject, maybe to a business where we sell dry fruits or sports drinks. Making a marketing brief for the UWB educational trips was more complicated then we thought. (c) Lastly I think that having briefs that have done in the past at our disposal would've been incredibly helpful. It would have given us ideas and draw us in the right directions.