E-Portfolio

April 15, 2013

MRKT 4330 – Marketing Practicum – S50

Team #1:

Alan Liu 100196797

Hardeep Gill 100198545

Talwinder Grewal 100191244

Kenneth Wan 100197500

Sumeet Rattan 100184355

Academic Honesty Verification:

The authors verify this document was prepared in accordance with our signed Academic

Honesty Statement. This document was prepared by our group specifically for this

course. We verify that the content or the company (client) have not been used in any

previous course at Kwantlen. The thoughts, ideas, and writing in this report reflect our

work only, unless we have properly attributed credit to other sources.

Table of Contents

Online Business ........................................................................................................................1

Pricing Strategy ........................................................................................................................1

Sales Forecasting ......................................................................................................................1

Business Launch .......................................................................................................................3

Website Strategy .......................................................................................................................4

Sales Strategies .........................................................................................................................5

Missed Sales Strategies ............................................................................................................7

Audience ...............................................................................................................................8

Visitors Overview ............................................................................................................8

Annotation ........................................................................................................................9

Demographics ...................................................................................................................9

Behaviour........................................................................................................................10

Social...............................................................................................................................10

Advertising..........................................................................................................................13

Google Adwords ............................................................................................................13

Traffic Sources ...................................................................................................................13

Overview.........................................................................................................................13

Sources ............................................................................................................................14

Content ................................................................................................................................15

Conversions ........................................................................................................................15

Challenges ...............................................................................................................................15

Learning Experience ..............................................................................................................16

List of Links ........................................................................................................................18

Consulting Report ...................................................................................................................18

Overview of Challenges .....................................................................................................18

Overall Recommendations & Implications ......................................................................20

Recommended Next Steps .................................................................................................20

Appendices ..............................................................................................................................21

Appendix A – Spoon Full Website ...................................................................................21

Appendix B – Visitor Overview ........................................................................................38

Appendix C – Annotations ................................................................................................39

Appendix D – Languages ..................................................................................................39

Appendix E – Location, Cities ..........................................................................................40

Appendix F – New Vs. Returning .....................................................................................41

Appendix G – Engagement ................................................................................................41

Appendix H – Key Facebook Post ....................................................................................42

Appendix I – Facebook Likes ............................................................................................42

Appendix J – Facebook User .............................................................................................42

Appendix K – Traffic Source ............................................................................................43

Appendix L – Page View Overview .................................................................................43

Appendix M – Gantt Chart ................................................................................................44

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Online Business

Pricing Strategy

SpoonFull had direct competition from many competitors within the lower mainland and online.

Kitchenware and glassware are offered within any large department stores; in setting our prices

for cutlery this factor was crucial in determining our price points. Doing an analysis on IKEA,

this department store was offering a similar cutlery set a $49.99. We determined that offering

cutlery sets at 50% off would be an attractive price point to ensure we sold all 35 sets in the first

week.

Pricing was important to SpoonFull’s success; we tested the market at $25.00 per set and

successfully sold all 35 sets in the first week, therefore we continued to sell at $25.00.

Shot glass and pilsner glass combination were originally planned to be priced at $20.00, but after

speaking to students at Kwantlen we realized that the price was too high. Taking into

consideration their suggestion we set a final price of $10.00, and it was deemed a success as we

sold our entire inventory.

The remaining 72 shot glasses were to be sold individually for $4.00 per shot glass, but our

pilsner glasses were damaged during delivery, forcing us to revamp our strategy. Therefore, we

packaged three shot glasses at $10.00 because we felt that we would be able to move more

inventory at a price student would be willing to pay.

Sales Forecasting

Before launching SpoonFull, we had created sales objectives and sales forecast for the business,

as well as an inventory replenishment schedule. The plans were as follow:

Projected Sales Forecast:

Projected Unit per Week

Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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Cutlery 0 35 35 18 0 0 0 0

Utensil

Combo 0 0 0 4 3 3 3 0

Shot Glass&

Pilsner

Combo

0 0 0 0 36 36 36 36

Inventory Replenishment Schedule:

Inventory Order per Week

Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Cutlery 35 35 18 0 0 0 0 0

Utensils 0 0 39 0 0 0 0 0

Shot Glass &

Pilsner

Combo

0 144 0 0 0 0 0 0

We believed this projected sales forecast was critical to the success of SpoonFull as it gave the

group a weekly target of how many units needed to be sold in order to compete throughout the

competition.

The group projected to sell 35 sets of cutlery in the second week because the first week only

consisted of one day (Sunday). It was critical to sell all 35 sets of cutlery because we needed the

$875.00 in revenue to purchase shot glasses, pilsner glasses, and cutlery. We ordered a 144 shot

glasses and 72 pilsner glasses because we would only be able to receive one order within the

eight-week time frame. Also a large quantity order provided us with a larger discount as well:

71% for 72 pilsner glasses

78% for 144 shot glasses

Furthermore, the inventory replenishment schedule ensured SpoonFull had enough inventory

throughout the eight-week operation period. The inventory method was based upon a just-in-time

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method as SpoonFull wanted to minimize inventory control since the operation only lasted two

months. This allowed SpoonFull to have sufficient cash reserve for a contingency plan. Lead

time and safety stock were put into consideration when the replenishment schedule was

developed.

Business Launch

With the $1.00 investment from the investor, Paul Leigh, each member of the team invested

$100.00 for a total of $500.00 as a SpoonFull start-up fund.

During the first week of operations (Feb 3, 2013), the primary focus of SpoonFull was to obtain

all of the required licenses, develop the website, and promote Spoon Full on Facebook and

Twitter.

The initial start-up cost break down was as followed:

Initial Start-Up Expenses

Business registration $ 40.00

Business Name $ 31.68

E-commerce web development $ 7.18

Total Operation & Admin Expenses $ 78.86

SpoonFull purchased $332.50 in inventory for 35 cutlery sets for the second week of operations.

In total SpoonFull spent $411.36 in the first week of operation.

SpoonFull created its own website to avoid paying for a template that would have cost $40.00.

With the assistance of Small Business B.C, SpoonFull was able to save $50.00 on the Business

Name Request and $59.00 on the business registration because we did it online instead of at their

office. Spoon Full was able to save $149.00 in start-up costs.

SpoonFull also learned through Small Business B.C we did not have to register to a GST/HST

Number and pay taxes because our business was projected to earn less than $30,000 in revenue

per year.

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Website Strategy

As part of the requirement, we created a website for SpoonFull. The domain of the website is:

www.spoonfull.ca. Upon research, the team had decided to utilize the online store platform,

OpenCart, due to the following reasons:

Free to use

Easy to use

Provides features which similar to other online store platforms

Due to the competitive nature of the online business competition, we realized that being able to

minimize costs could be a competitive advantage; therefore, the team opted to use the open

source platform, OpenCart. Once the platform had been decided, we chose to use Arvixe

webhosting, as recommended by OpenCart.

Arvixe is a full service webhosting company which provides a competitive service similar to Go

Daddy.

Before the launch of the website, SpoonFull decided to purchase a pre-designed template.

However, upon further review of different templates, SpoonFull found that the cost of these

templates was too high ($40.00) to stay competitive amongst the other teams. Therefore, we

decided to do the coding ourselves. In addition, Photoshop had also been used to create the

images, front page banners, logos, and product images.

After the completion of the coding and adding products to the website, SpoonFull officially

launched its website on Feb 11, 2013. On the first day of the business launch, SpoonFull

achieved 41 visits to the website.

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Sales Strategies

Network Sales

During the first few weeks of operations, SpoonFull utilized a blitz cycle to reach out to our

immediate networks, maximize revenues and absorb start-up costs. It was critical for SpoonFull

reach $875.00 in revenues to order additional inventory.

To capitalize on our networks, each member of the team wrote down as many people as they

knew that would be interested in purchasing cutlery. We then began to call our personal

networks and sell all 35 cutlery sets.

Valentine’s Day

In week three, SpoonFull decided to promote red cutlery sets over Facebook and Twitter because

of Valentine’s Day. Team one was able to sell 35 sets that week, although Valentine’s Day had

minimal effect on our sales. We learned that, although our cutlery may have been red and have

everyday use; consumers would rather purchase more intimate and romantic gifts such as

chocolate and/or jewellery.

Gift Card Giveaways

In week three SpoonFull had a contest for a $5.00 Tim Horton’s gift card awarded to the first

person to purchase a cutlery set fromwww.spoonfull.ca. We announced the competition on

Facebook and Twitter on February 11th

, 2013, it took five days for our winner Antony Le to

purchase a set and win the gift card.

The first giveaway was a failure because it only generated five likes on Facebook, 0 Retweets on

Twitter and it took five days to award a winner.

In week five, on February 28th, 2013 SpoonFull launched another $5.00 gift card give away to

the first person to purchase a shot glass set from www.spoonfull.ca. The competition was

announced on Facebook and Twitter and the next day Alex Wong purchased a set.

The second giveaway was a success because we had someone purchase our product within 24

hours. Also we were able to generate five likes and one comment on our Facebook post.

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In week seven, on March 15th

, 2013 when SpoonFull set up a booth at Kwantlen we announced

another $5.00 gift card giveaway for the first person to purchase at our booth.

The third giveaway was a failure because no one was motivated by the gift card as no one bought

anything from our table. The Facebook post that announced the competition only had two likes

and no comments. From the 11 people that visited our booth, only one person inquired about the

giveaway and then opted not to purchase because they had lack of funds.

The gift cards were free as they were provided for free to one of the members in our group by the

company he works for.

If we were to continue the giveaways in the future, we believe that it’s important to announce the

contest a week before it takes place. This way it allows time for more people to find out about

the contest and talk about it.

Selling At Kwanten University

In week eight, SpoonFull decided to sell pilsner and shot glasses at Kwantlen Surrey Campus in

the main building on Friday March 22, 2013 from 12:00 to 2:00pm. We had obtained permission

from Kwantlen, before setting up our table.

The reason we chose March 15, 2013 was because it was the week of St. Patrick’s Day, and it

was a Friday, which meant students were getting ready for the weekend and potentially going out

for some drinks. We felt that because our products were meant for drinking alcohol, students

might excited for the weekend and purchase them. It was also the week students were lining up

to pay their tuition for next semester; we knew that would result in major foot traffic in the main

building.

We saw 279 students walk by our booth, we were able to engage in conversation with 11 people

and close 0 sales.

We saw major foot traffic but we were not able to engage enough students to come visit our

table. We felt that if we had better prepared and had an engaging exhibit where students had the

chance to play a game and/or receive a possible discount and/or win a prize we could have

closed more sales. For example when Coast Capital comes to Kwantlen they set up a booth

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where students can go in and collect as much paper money as possible which then results in them

receiving cash.

One of the added benefits was a surge of visitors to our website; we had 28% of our total visits

occur that week. This meant that although people did not approach us they took note of the

posters which we had displayed and decided to visit the website. (See Appendix C)

Toastmasters

On the week of March 7, 2013, SpoonFull visited the local chapter of Toastmasters at Kwantlen.

This club is organized for the purpose of public speaking; this gave SpoonFull an audience of 30

active listeners during the club’s meeting.

SpoonFull gave a five minute speech regarding what SpoonFull was about and the types of

projects which were done in the Marketing practicum. This was an excellent chance to talk to

students who hadn’t interacted with SpoonFull already.

This activity was largely seen as a failure because it resulted in 0 sales. Overall, many students

were engaged and interested about the class and the online business component but many didn’t

have cash on hand to purchase the product.

Team one believes that if we had the electronic credit card swipe, such as the Buzz Chocolates

had synced to their I phone we would have been able to make sales at the event. Reason being,

Toastmasters members told us they would go home and purchase the product but they didn’t

follow through. If we had a POS set up at the club we would have been able to overcome this

objection.

Missed Sales Strategies

What’s New in Vancouver?

SpoonFull had spoken to Amarvir Sohal, the host of “What’s New in Vancouver” a television

show on Shaw about featuring SpoonFull on their program. We had originally reached an

agreement with Amarvir prior to the launch of our business about airing a segment in week five

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of the sales competition. In week two of operations, Amarvir informed us that we had been

replaced by a “highlights of spring fashion” segment.

The initial strategy for the television segment would have been to leverage the Marketing

Practicum and what the course entails. We wanted to showcase our pilsner and shot glasses and

let the viewer know that each sale would help with our graduation. Similar to how a charity

leverages on emotional appeal we wanted to do the same but we knew our cause wouldn’t have

as strong as of an affect.

In the future we would contact more media companies, because if we got replaced from one slot

we would have another media slot that would be airing.

Audience

Visitors Overview

As of March 24th, 2013, Spoon Full Cutlery1 (SF) (www.spoonfull.ca) was able to accumulate a

total number of 737 visits. Out of the total number of visits, 574 (77.88%) of the visits were

unique (new) visitors. Additionally, 163 (22.12%) visits were returning visitors. (See Appendix

B – Visitor Overview) On average, a user spent approximately 1 minute and 21 seconds on

Spoon Full’s company website, while visiting 2.33 pages on every visit to the site. Although the

company was able to generate a certain number of visits from both new and returning visitors, it

is important to note that SF’s webpage had a high bounce rate at 67.30%, indicating that 67.30%

of the visitors leave the page without interacting with other landing pages within the site.

Due to budget constraint, SF has allocated $250 marketing budget (Google credits) towards

Google Adwords in generating web page traffic. To be able to effectively utilize the allocated

budget, SF has specifically targeted certain geographic locations, typically cities within the

Lower Mainland such as Burnaby, Richmond, Vancouver, Surrey, etc. Particularly, 93.49% (689

visits) of the visits were within Canada. As mentioned, online marketing efforts were

geographically focused, in which, site visits from local cities across the Lower Mainland

consisted of 82.50% (608 visits) of total visits.

1 See Appendix A – Spoon Full Website for full site screen shots

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Annotation

Throughout the online business launch, Spoon Full had continually promoted its business

through various online platforms. In order to keep tracks of the changes of results which brought

by these campaigns, annotations were recorded on Google Analytics. (See Appendix C –

Annotations)

Demographics

Languages

Out of the 737 visits, over 94% (698 visits) of the visits were coming from visitors with English

as their default language for their operating system. (See Appendix D – Languages) This

concluded that the majority of SF’s visitors were English speaking. This result was expected as

most of the online marketing effects were geo-targeting cities within the Lower Mainland.

However, after breaking down the language data from Google Analytics thoroughly,

surprisingly, SF found that the second most default language for SF visitors were Czech, with all

of these visits were coming from Prague, Czech Republic. This was a stunning result for SF

because SF didn’t any marketing budget to cities outside of Lower Mainland.

In addition to English and Czech, SF also acquired visits from visitors that with default language

of Chinese, Korean, French, and German. However, these visits combined with a total of less

than 4%.

Location

As mentioned, online marketing efforts (Google Adwords) were geographically targeted within

the Lower Mainland; therefore, the majority of web page visits came from cities on the West

Coast such as Vancouver (137 visits), Richmond (110), Delta (100), Surrey (91), Langley (31),

New Westminster (31), Burnaby (30), North Vancouver (29), and Coquitlam (23). (See

Appendix E – Location, Cities) Together, cities from the Lower Mainland has generated 582

visits, representing 77.50% of total visits; 82.91% of visits from Canada. Overall, the majority of

the visits came within Canada, representing 93.47% of total at 702 visits. The remaining portion

of the total visits, 6.53% (49 visits) was scattered across countries and regions such as Czech

Republic, Hong Kong, United States, Germany, etc. Such visits were devoted to searches on

search engines as well as our personal networks such as Facebook and Twitter that helped

generate interests among friends across regions.

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Behaviour

New Versus returning visitors

As of March 24th, 2013, SF has generated 737 page visits to its web page. 574 visits came from

new visitors, representing 77.88% of total visits. Returning customers had visited the web page

163 times. (See Appendix F – New Vs. Returning) It is evidence that returning customers tend to

spend a relatively longer time duration on the web page compared to new visitors (2:02 vs. 1:09)

In addition to visit duration, bounce rate for returning visitors was also lower than those who

were new visitors to the site.

This is because returning customers were interested in the product, that’s why they came back to

website to view products and purchase. As opposed to new clients who had never seen the

website, therefore for if the site didn’t meet their needs they were quick to exit.

Frequency

In terms of frequency, the majority of the visitors had visited the site at least once at 574 visits,

representing 1,294 page views. 55 visits were returning visitors who have visited the site twice.

In summary, it is obvious that SF’s visitors primarily visit the website once, indicating that most

visits were generated via first time visits. This signified that SF’s website wasn’t able to

encourage repeat visits.

The reason SF wasn’t able to encourage repeat visits was because the product mix was very

limited, and the products were non- consumable goods, meaning they would last the client at

least two years. This resulted in clients coming to the website once, purchasing and not coming

back.

Social

Engagement

Based on the Google Analytic results, visitors at SF had a lower degree of site engagement as

70.01% (516 visits) of the visitors have left the site in less than 10 seconds indicating the fact

that visitors did not find what they were looking for or the site was not visually attractive enough

to lead on to a longer visit duration. (See Appendix G – Engagement)

There were only 70 people that spent more than three minutes on the website; the process of

browsing and purchasing a product from SF website would take at least three minutes as tested

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by SF through a mock purchase. 44 out of the 70 people went ahead purchased from the website

which means that 36 people had an objection from purchasing.

In the future SF would capture client email as soon as they entered the website, therefore SF

would then be able to contact those 36 people to offer a special discount to get them to come

back to website and purchase. SF would also ask for feedback to make proper adjustments.

Social Media strategies

During the duration of our online business, we have utilized two key social media platforms to

increase SF’s online customer engagement and awareness. We utilized Facebook and Twitter to

communicate with our followers regarding the latest products, special contests and consistently

posted engaging messages.

HootSuite Analytics

Although HootSuite enabled team one to manage our social media channels and to integrate the

information posted/shared together. This allowed us to ensure that online contents being

delivered across channels are consistent and results are measurable. Furthermore, HootSuite also

organized our tweets and allowed us to further address certain hash tags to view conversations as

they occurred around the subject matter. Although HootSuite Analytics provide a comprehensive

and detailed reports regarding our social media campaign, team one has decided not to subscribe

to a pro version of HootSuite that requires monthly subscription fee of $10. The initial goal was

to maintain and manage cost at a minimum level. Therefore, HootSuite was primarily used for

delivering messages and that the results of social media marketing efforts were being measured

on Facebook Insights due to the fact that SF’s Facebook page was a lot more active in terms of

viewer engagement and so forth.

After experiencing different platforms of analytics, we believe that HootSuite would have been

much more effective with a pro version, as it provides a more detailed and comprehensive report

that integrates Facebook Insights alongside HootSuite analytics to further determine which posts

are popular and effective in engaging users.

Facebook Insights

Facebook was utilized by Spoon Full as it provides a wider reach of audience via our personal

network. Web contents such as pictures, business updates, and contest information were updated

to inform and engage with our followers. During our business launch it was important to utilize

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our personal Facebook networks to encourage likes and page visits. We wanted to gain

immediate support via likes and sharing of networks, ensuring the messages are delivered at its

maximum reach and awareness possible. Although both Facebook and Twitter was utilized, it is

obvious that SF was able to gain a greater reach and interest on its Facebook presence as

opposed to Twitter.

SF’s first official post had reached 106 people and engaged 18 users in terms of views and

engagements such as comments and likes. Additionally, the first SF post has also help establish

12 unique page likes that further expand the network within our page. (See Appendix H – Key

Facebook Post) As mentioned, social media activities on Facebook were a lot more proactive and

engaging on SF’s Facebook page as opposed to Twitter. Therefore, team one has taken

advantage of such social trend by highlighting product lines and monitoring conversations with

our followers. Although it was important for us to post information at least twice daily during

our initial product launch, a very limited product line and selection has resulted in stagnant

responses in terms of likes and comments. However, SF was able to gain an additional 17 likes

after announcing our new product line – Glass Combos (Pilsner & Shot glasses). (See Appendix

I – Facebook Likes) The introduction of a new product line has also led us to announcing

product related contents that further establish viewer engagement and increased our page likes.

(See Appendix J – Facebook User) Specifically, certain messages, such as “Back to the weekly

grind, @Spoonfull.ca” and “We like to end the busy week with some gin. What's your favourite

stress-reliever? TGIF!!” have combined 644 engaged users checking out the postings.

Additionally, marketing strategies such as online contests have also played a key role in

generating immediate interests that later converted to online sales. For example, “We are

officially live at SpoonFull.ca be sure to visit our fully interactive website, and the first person to

make a purchase online will receive a Tim Horton’s gift card.”, this was shared on Sumeet’s

personal Facebook page which has generated 11 likes and 6 comments. Throughout the

campaign, it is evidence that the amount of engaged users has increased as specific call outs were

published on SF’s page.

Overall, Facebook was very effective in generating awareness and gave us the ability to engage

our followers. Strategies such as online contests and sharing of product related contents have led

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to additional website visits. During the duration of the 8 weeks, SF has successfully established

115 likes, representing a reach diameter of 1,510 people at its peak viral effect.

Advertising

Google Adwords

Campaigns

Spoon Full took advantage of the 2013 Online Marketing Challenge and was given $250 credit

towards Google Adwords. Of the total $250 Spoon Full was able to spend $249.77. This resulted

in generating 360 clicks and 376,724 impressions for Spoon Full. For the first week, a daily

budget of $10 was set. Due to the lack of daily conversions, Spoon Full decided to the tactic to

$20 per day for the Cutlery and $17 per day for the glasses.

Although no sales were generated from the Google Adwords, Spoon Full was able to generate

360 clicks over the course of six weeks. The high bid rate was able to give the keywords a very

high average positioning of 2.3 which suggested that the ads were usually displayed second.

The “Shot Glass” campaign had 10 Adwords which brought multiple visitors. It generated 310

clicks, 241,568 impressions and utilized $215.78 of the campaign. This campaign was used to

target the audience who were looking for shot glasses and pilsner glasses.

The “Cutlery” campaigns were able to attract 50 visitors to the website and had 35,000

impressions that cost an average of $.72 cents per click. This campaign were created to target

audience who were looking for cutlery sets

In conclusion, the Adwords campaign was ineffective as it did not lead to any sales. In order to

make the campaign more effective, Spoon Full would have a greater product mix and edit the

negative Adwords list for future purposes.

Traffic Sources

Overview

As mentioned earlier, throughout the online operating period, SF had achieved 737 visits. As

shown in Appendix K – Traffic Source, referral traffic generated the most traffic for Spoon Full.

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Out of the 737 visits during the operating period, 52.37% were generated from referral traffic,

39.98% from direct traffic, and 7.73% from search traffic.

Sources

Direct Traffic

As mentioned above, 39.98% (294 visits) of the SF’s visits were direct traffic. The primary

landing page for these traffics was SF’s main homepage. This was probably due to the fact that

SF had used word of mouth marketing to target immediate network, especially during first few

weeks of the campaign. Family and friends were told to visit spoonfull.ca during the first few

weeks of the campaign. It was interesting to note that direct traffic generated the more pages /

visit (3.10), longer average visit duration (2 mins: 10 sec), and lower bounce rate (53.74%) than

the site average.

The reason that direct traffic had higher visit duration was because these were users that were

told to come to SF website and support the company; therefore they knew what the website was

about and spent time browsing and purchasing.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic had brought in the most traffic to SF’s website. This was expected since most of

SF’s marketing efforts, such as social media and Google Adwords, were linked towards the main

homepage. With further observation, Google Adwords generated the most referral traffic to SF

with 138 visits, second was Facebook with 128 visits and third with Wiki Answer with 64 visits.

However, traffic from these referral traffics were not as high quality as direct traffic. Google

Adwords and Wiki Answer achieved 4 seconds and 6 seconds in average visit duration, and

93.48% and 30.62% bounce rate respectively. This signified that Google Adwords did not

provide high quality results for SF, and SF would need to make further enhancement on Google

Adwords campaigns if the online business were to continue.

Referral traffic had a higher bounce rate and a lower visit duration time because users were being

directed to the website through ads. This meant they didn’t have a real understanding of what the

website was about till they visited the SF homepage, and almost immediately they were able to

decide if the website provided the content they were looking for.

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Search Traffic

SF was not too pleased with the result of search traffic. Although SEO had been implemented

into SF’s website, overall, only 7.73% of the traffic was generated by search traffic. This

represented only 57 visits during an eight week period. In addition, the results from search traffic

were worse than the site average. Search traffic achieved only 1.39 pages / visit, 11 seconds

average visit duration, and 82.46% bounce rate. This signaled that SF needed to revamp it SEO

as SF was not people were searching for organic searches.

Content

In sum, Spoon Full generated 1,714 page views. Out of these page views, 1,363 were unique

page views. (See Appendix L – Page View Overview) The average time spent on page was 1

min: 1 sec with a bounce rate of 67.3 %. This showed that visitors were actually spending time

reviewing the information on the page.

Conversions

Conversions were not set up throughout the duration of the operating period.

Challenges

No customizability for pilsner & shot glasses

We were not able to order different designs for our alcohol glasses because the price was too

high. We would have been charged a printing set up fee for each design we used. Also because

we had one larger order in week 3 we didn’t have the capital to be able to order different designs.

Talking to our customers they would have preferred different design options, and if were to

continue to operate the business we would definitely change up the design because we now have

the cash and time to do so.

To choose the new design we would host a competition on Facebook which would allow

consumers to post their own design and then get others to vote on the best design.

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Inventory Delay

Fed Ex broke out pilsner glasses; therefore there was a delay in our shipment. We then contacted

Fed Ex and they explained that the glasses’ would be returned to Discount Mugs so they could

make a replacement order.

We called Discount Mugs and expressed the importance of time and they were able to send us

new shipment with free rush delivery and we were able to start selling the pilsner glasses in week

six.

Google Ad’s

Team one had trouble utilizing Google Ad’s; though the use of thee $250 credit provided we

were able to generate $0.00 in sales.

Google Ad’s generated 135 visits but the average bounce rate was 93.3% and the duration of the

visit was 0:04 seconds. This meant that clients viewed our website with a quick glance and then

proceeded to exit. We believe that people left because our site had our entire inventory displayed

on the home page, and we had very limited selection.

Time Management

Our team has five members, one of them worked full time, two worked part time, and one is

taking another class alongside practicum. To coordinates everyone schedule was difficult, when

we did have time to meet we had to effectively manage our time between the online business and

consulting project.

It was crucial for us to have efficient meetings and delegate work that needed to be done by

certain due dates so that we could collaborate all our ideas effectively.

Learning Experience

The online business started in the fourth week of the semester, although that felt like a long time

there was a lot do get done before we could start operating our business. In the first week, as a

team, we thought we had a good idea of what had to be done before we could operate, but as we

progressed through the tasks, many small tasks started to appear.

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For example we had to register the business name, and then there is a time delay before we got

approved. Once approved, than we were able to register our business, so these are things we had

to do in sequence and plan out.

Preparation and planning are really important because if you do plan out what needs to be done

too many little things will come up and will delay the launch of your business or slow down

sales. For example the bank account needs to be set up before you can register your pay pal

account so you can begin online sales; if you don’t plan out to do those tasks in sequence and set

deadline you will lose out online sales.

Sales Forecasting is extremely important because teams only get one initial investment for their

company; therefore they need to forecast sales accurately so they are able to sell their entire

inventory. Otherwise all the teams’ money will get tied up with inventory and it becomes harder

to compete with other teams.

Contingency plan is extremely important, this semester two teams had problems with their

suppliers. Fed Ex had damaged our pilsner glasses, luckily our shot glasses had arrived days

earlier and we were able to create a new product mix of three shot glasses and sell them. Always

have at least two backup suppliers who would be able to supply you inventory within a couple

business days at most if need be.

Have good product mix; our product selection was very narrow and it needed to be wider in

order to bring in customers from Google AdWords. The spoonful website had a very high

bounce rate because customers would visit the website, view the limited selected of products and

leave. Although there would have been a higher cost to carrying additional products the potential

benefits would have been greater.

Website needs to have theme; one of the big lessons learned from operating an online business

was the need to have a consistent theme. SpoonFull started off selling colourful cutlery and

decided to make the website match the products. However, the products the glasses which were

sold after weeks four were very different because they were elegant and simple. This caused a

differentiation in the theme of the website. This was a common comment from customers after

week five.

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Business is dynamic, it’s always changing and if you don’t stay on top of your business on a day

to day business you will fall behind. As team and/or company there are always going to be

challenges so be aware and be ready so that one is able to overcome the challenge as effectively

and efficiently as possible.

List of Links

Spoon Full Cutlery: www.spoonfull.ca

Spoon Full Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spoon-Full/424146017664257?fref=ts

Spoon Full Twitter: https://twitter.com/full_spoon

Consulting Report

As part of the practicum requirement, Team one was fortunate to work alongside a local banquet

and catering business due to the confidentiality of the partnership, the company will be referred

to as client X. This comprehensive business consulting report covered the following business

aspects, finance, marketing, operations and human resource. The purpose of the report involved

conducting both primary and secondary research that investigated and analyzed different

challenges, and provided recommendations that addressed the critical issues facing the company.

Due to confidentiality concerns, client name and financial figures are held strictly anonymous

and cannot be disclosed to any third party.

Overview of Challenges

Based on various analyses conducted, it is evident that client X is facing the following critical

threats in business aspects identified below:

Financial Challenges:

● Unable to establish positive cash flow to meet loan obligations

● Inability to collect outstanding A/R accounts to ensure positive cash inflow

● Unable to generate sufficient net operating income to finance its operation

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● Failure to control and maintain costs (Fixed & Variable Costs) that led to a lower than

avg. profit margin

Marketing Challenges:

● Unable to establish relationships within industry network and to stay current with

industry trends

● Unappealing website leading to minimal marketing return in generating sales leads

● Unable to organize and make good use of client information for maintaining client

relationships

● Unable to measure ROI on advertising and marketing strategies

Operation & Human Resource Challenges:

● Excess hall capacity

● Undesired location leading to a competitive disadvantage

● Overlaps in operational duties resulting in inefficient management of the company

To rectify the current situation, our consulting team has identified specific, measurable,

attainable, and relevant goals that can be measured within specific time periods (1, 3, & 5 years)

for client X. The following goals are desirable as they provide significant improvements that

enable the firm to overcome challenges stated above.

Desired Goals

● Retain at least 7% of customers for the X1 and X2 banquet room starting from 2014.

● To reduce fixed cost by at least 15% ($xxx,xxx) by fiscal year-end Dec 31st 2014.

● To establish cash balance of at least 3.6% (industry benchmark) of total assets by 2015

fiscal year end; $xx,xxx (2015 Total Asset Figure).

● Client X’'s goal is to improve current (x.xx) and quick ratios (x.xx) in order to meet and

exceed industry benchmark at 1.06 and 0.63 by 2014.

● To maintain at least 25% (xx bookings from xxx) of bookings from x3 and x4 banquet

rooms in 2015 and to shift these bookings to the remaining rooms.

● To eliminate deficit balance of $xxx,xxx by 2016.

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The biggest challenges facing client X are the ability to maintaining positive cash flows,

eliminating debt, stopping financial losses, generating positive ROMIs, and enhancing customer

experience.

Overall Recommendations & Implications

Based on the issues and the desired goals, Team 1 provided the following suggestions in terms of

Financial, Marketing, and Operation & HR of the company:

Financial Recommendations:

A. Financial Recommendation 1 – Offering Discount Incentives to Encourage Early

Payments

1. Provide Flexible Payment Terms and Schedules

B. Financial Recommendation 2 – Downsize the Company

1. Sell off Building 1.

2. Reduce Investment Activities

3. Outsource Laundry Department

Marketing Recommendations:

C. Marketing Recommendation 1 – Attend Industry Events

1. Participate Bridal Shows in Spring and Fall

D. Marketing Recommendation 2 – Introduce CRM System

1. Implement Sales Force System

E. Marketing Recommendation 3 – Target Corporate Clients

1. Indentify and Contact Prospect Corporate Clients

F. Marketing Recommendation 4 – Revamp Online Presence

1. Redesign Website

2. Streamline Sales Funnel

3. Capture Client Information

4. Track Leads

Marketing & HR Recommendations:

G. Operation & HR Recommendation 1 – Create Formal Training Guide

H. Operation & HR Recommendation 2 – Alter Current Organizational Structure

1. Re-define Management Job Description

Recommended Next Steps

After proposing these options to client X, Team 1 has also provided a Gantt Chart to the client

which outlines the implementation schedule of the options. (See Appendix M – Gantt Chart)

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Appendices

Appendix A – Spoon Full Website

Home Page

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About Spoon Full Page

Information Page Not Found

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Search Page

Shopping Cart

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Special Offers Page

Login Page

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Account Logout

Forgot Your Password Page

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Register Account

Your Account Has Been Created

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Contact Us

Product Returns

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Site Map

Delivery Information

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Privacy Policy

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Terms and Conditions

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Cutlery Sets

Kitchenware

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Maribelle – Aqua

Maribelle – Black

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Maribelle – Green

Maribelle – Red

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Maribelle – White

Maribelle – Yellow

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Glass Combo

Glassware

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Pilsner Glass

3 Piece Shot Glass Combo

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2 Pc Combo & 3 Pc Combo

Category Not Found

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Appendix B – Visitor Overview

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Appendix C – Annotations

Appendix D – Languages

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Appendix E – Location, Cities

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Appendix F – New Vs. Returning

Appendix G – Engagement

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Appendix H – Key Facebook Post

Appendix I – Facebook Likes

Appendix J – Facebook User

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Appendix K – Traffic Source

Appendix L – Page View Overview

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Appendix M – Gantt Chart