CASE ANALYSIS AND REPORT

Data Analysis for Business Decisions

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HONEYMOON DESTINATIONS

in the spring of 1995, Honeymoon Destinations was a startup business. The founders wanted to create and sel1 videos containing resort-specific and region-specific footage of the top resorts in popular honeymoon destinations such as the Hawaiian Islands, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, and

Florida. The founders, C. Todd Bobzien and Clayton Rose, tentatively planned to sell each 45- minute video for a retail price of $14.95. The videos would be produced by Rose, who had spent

five years working as a news producer at the CBS affiliates in Sacramento, California, and Houstol, Texas. Bobzien and Rose planned to have a professional narrator guide viewers through each destination, accompanied by background music. The videos would then rate each profiled resort on

various characteristics such as cost, view, and accommodations. Bobzien and Rose believed that

these ratings and other graphical highlights, such as maps, would combine to create a visually appealing,interesting, and informative product. Video captured the true essence of an exotic island

and resort, and Honeymoon Destinations planned to create videos that captured this and showed newlyrveds exactly what to expect on their'oonce in a lifetime" excursion.

The Market

Over 2.3 million marriages occur each year. Projections in 1995 indicated an increase of 1 1 percent in total first marriages per year by 2010. Additionally, second mariages played a key role in

boosting the growth of total marriages. Of the one million people who divorced annually,T 5 percent

remarried within frve years, and many of these couples were willing to spend more for an exceptionally lavish honeymoon the second time around.

The amount that newlylveds spent on their weddings was also increasing. In 1995 the wedding market was a $32 billion-a-year industry, double the amount in 1980, with the avetage wedding costing $19,000. Of this, 15.6 percent, or $5 billion, was spent on honeymoon travel and apparel. Average honeymoon expenditures totaled $3,200.

One reason for the increase in wedding expenditures was a:r increase in the average age of first-time brides and grooms. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Seruices, in

This case was prepared by Mark Parry, Professor of Business Administration, Darden Graduate School of Business

Administration at the University of Virginia. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to iliustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright @ 1999 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesviile, VA. A11 rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail ta [email protected]. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. 0