Hw due on sunday 10.13

PowerPoint presentations

Case study

Your presentation should address all of the areas identified in the instructions. You are welcome to address any additional issues you feel are relevant to your presentation. Your presentation will be judged on a number of factors including:

1. Completeness

2. Creativity

3. Alternatives

4. Plausible Recommendations

As you make your presentation, your goal is to help every audience member see your vision: what the products are; why they are important; and most importantly; the steps you propose taking that will transform your vision into a reality. It is up to you to paint a picture - one that clearly demonstrates these thoughts.

There is no minimum or maximum page count, word count, etc. Use whatever information that you think will completely and accurately convince a client to accept your proposal. You may use animation or sound narration at your own discretion. The bottom line is that your presentation should be compelling and complete regardless of the format you select.

Some Tips and Tricks for Creating Good Presentations

How you present your information will depend completely on your personal style. Take some time to organize your thoughts and materials before you begin your work. Here are some tips you should follow:

5. Tell them what you want them to know: Start with an introduction of your goals. Tell your audience what you are going to do and why you will do it. A brief summary of your agenda is a great way to let people know exactly where you are headed.

6. Get the best in first: It is a well accepted (yet anecdotal) fact that most people will only remember the first 3 to 5 points made during a presentation. With this in mind, you need to quickly establish the important points. You should end your presentation by summarizing the same points to ensure that your audience recognizes their importance.

7. Tell them what is important: If you want to ensure that people walk away with a good understanding of your proposal, you should remind them of the most important points as they are presented and clarify how they relate to the success of the effort.

8. K.I.S.S. it!: This rule is "as old as the hills," but it is still the best-kept advice in the world. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid! And as simple as that expression sounds, you would be surprised at how many people ignore this advice. These are usually the presentations that audiences walk away from saying "I didn't get it." Remember that your audience is not comprised of multimedia experts. (In fact some may feel multimedia is only a disguise for a lack of substance.) Chances are that they don't know or understand very much about the product. Your goal is to explain it to them in clear and understandable terms. You will probably have to use a variety of illustrations, examples, and approaches to cement the ideas in their heads. If you keep it simple and clear, there is less chance that the important points will go unrecognized (and ultimately unsupported).

9. It's solid business concepts - not the graphics! Certainly this can be a tough one for a creative professional to hear, but it needs to be said over and over and over again!! Don't fall into the trap of favoring beautiful graphics and fantastic animations over presenting concrete facts and documentation. When a client makes a decision, it is largely based on the facts — and the most important facts are the Five W's we spoke of earlier.

10. Ask for the sale: As silly as it sounds, the last thing that you do when finishing is ask the client or the audience what they think. Are they convinced? If not, what else can you tell them? A successful presentation ends with everyone saying, "let's start to work on the development."

Case Study: Travelers Club Inc.

A Brief History of the Company

The Traveler's Club began in 1970 as a group of enthusiastic world travelers who got together each month and discussed the places that they had visited and seen. Members would bring slides and photos and do small presentations about the locations, the customs, unique points of interest, and their personal experiences. They would then answer questions and act as resources to their fellow members who might be interested in going to these places in the future.

John and Alicia Kemper were New York City natives who met at SUNY College and married a week before graduation. Upon graduation, they joined the Peace Corps and from 1960-1968 they traveled the world extensively providing services and manpower for the Peace Corp operations. Both loved traveling the world. They found that their journeys took them to places the typical traveler would never think to go for a vacation -- the Flatbush of Africa, the Nile encampments, Middle Eastern cities, and Asian tenements. Their travels were mystical and exciting and they documented their journeys extensively with photos and diaries.

Upon returning to the States in late 1968, the Kempers returned to a life of 9 to 5 jobs — Alicia as a writer for a local newspaper and John, as city planner. Soon after, they found themselves feeling isolated. They yearned to share their stories with people who had similar experiences and similar worldviews.

In the fall of 1969 the couple placed an ad in Alicia's paper for the "Traveler's Club"-- a potluck supper group where interested members could come and meet other world travelers and share their stories and experiences. The club was a hit from the first night the Kemper's opened the doors of their home to a group of over 60 people. They soon found themselves hosting the club in various members' homes once a week and even more often at times. It was during the first few months that they also noticed an interesting phenomenon amongst their guests — the majority of the world travelers were not well traveled at all. Rather, they were people who had an interest in exploring the world and seeing exotic locations. They came to the dinners to learn more from those who had actually taken such vacations and trips. Many commented that they felt the club offered them more honest and complete information than what they received from local travel agents.

It was from these early experiences that the Kempers decided to create a business. The Traveler's Club Corporation was formed on January 1, 1970 in New York City, with John and Alicia working full time. Over the next 32 years the company grew into a world renowned specialty travel club with the majority of members coming from the United States and Canada. The company has remained relatively small, with a full-time staff of 23 employees, many who were amongst the original members of the weekly potluck supper club. The company has a very specific and focused business model that has not changed very much since its formation in 1970.

Travelers Club Inc.

The Products & Services

The club is a member's only service that by business definitions would be considered a subscription service. Members pay a yearly subscription (or membership) fee of $299 that they must renew each year. The membership provides them with the following products and services:

11. Traveler's World Magazine: A monthly publication that features a variety of articles, tips, and actual member stories about world destinations and locales. Each issue focuses exclusively on a specific destination. For example, this month's issue is dedicated to the former Soviet Union towns surrounding St. Petersburg. Over the past 32 years the magazine has covered nearly every location that is considered to be a viable travel destination. Many of the more popular destinations are revisited periodically as changing political and social norms affect the traveler's experience. The Kempers see the magazine as an ongoing source of travel inspiration. Members receive a monthly issue and can begin thinking about how visiting the destinations can satisfy their interests. Often, if a member is considering a trip, they can call members services and purchase a back issue related to their area of interest. Back issues sell for $12.50 and are very popular. Unfortunately, it is not always profitable to re-print an issue. Although requests for past issues are popular, the fulfillment is often hit or miss and the revenues from the sales do little more than defray the cost associated with the warehousing and delivering of the issues.


12. Travel Discounts: Traveler's Club is not a travel agency and does not want to become one. It has, however, developed a wide network of partners over the years comprised of an assortment of airlines, hotels, and shipping services. These partners offer Traveler's Club members discounts on their services. Traveler's Club customer service agents do not actually sell any of the partner's services, although they recommend them quite often. In the case where a member wishes to take advantage of a discount, the customer service agent will usually give them a direct telephone number that the member can call to make a purchase. All they have to do is say that they are a Traveler's Club member and the appropriate discount is given. Many of the company's partners enjoy considerable sales from the Traveler's Club members. Most agencies give the company a referral fee (anywhere from $5 to $10) for each sale that is attributed to their members. While it is estimated that the current membership of over 600,000 members takes advantage of close to $1 million in individual offers by the partners, John and Alicia have never dedicated resources to the development of a system to track these referrals. Given this, they have not pressed their partners for referral fees. Members enjoy the discounts very much — the marketing department reports that they often list the discounts as one of the biggest advantages of the membership program. This same study has also shown that members would appreciate the added convenience of being able to make a single call to take advantage of these discounts.


13. Members Line: One of the most popular features of the membership is unlimited access to the Members Line. The line is designed to offer direct access to real "world travelers" with a wealth of information for fellow traveling members. It was possible to fill these positions with people who had actually "been there" when the company was formed. Unfortunately, those who only have a "real interest" in traveling now fill these positions. To combat this problem, Traveler's Club created a comprehensive database of locations, advice, tips, and resources. Much of the information came from past magazine articles, as well as from interviews with the better-traveled staffers. Representatives are able to quickly key in topics and provide members with related information over the phone. The phone lines are available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Despite having a "large staff" (3 full-time people), it is not uncommon for a member to wait in queue 5 to15 minutes before talking to a live person. The phone lines are seldom free of a caller, and representatives often find that by the time they talk to their last caller it is already past 7:30 p.m. The marketing department has identified the problem of customers waiting in queue as a major source of customer dissatisfaction.


14. Made for U Maps: Members can call the service line and request customized location map packets. Books are put together by a service representative based on the caller's needs. The caller may request local maps, restaurant guides, attractions, and local customs information. Once the map book is compiled, (it is done weekly by an office worker who reviews checklists provided by the service reps.) it is mailed out within 10 business days. Because of the manual labor involved, Traveler's Club suggests that members call well in advance of their planned departure date. The marketing group did a study last year and found that members are willing to pay a premium of up to $25 for overnight fulfillment of the Made for U Maps product. The management team feels strongly that this would be an excellent service enhancement and would offer customers more timely information. They have not proceeded with a plan because of time and staffing constraints.


15. Travel Resources: The member representative can provide members with the names and phone numbers of just about every consulate, hotel, airline, and tourism group for any intended destination. They often joke that they sometimes feel like directory assistants because members will call and ask for a variety of names, addresses, and phone numbers. Representatives are happy to provide the information, but it can be very time consuming to do so. Although customers can access this information on-line for themselves, they seem to prefer having the information read to them. 

In addition to the member services, each year the company offers a summit that is open to the general public at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City. The three-day event is, in many ways, like the old days when members convened for dinner, drinks, and conversation. The yearly summit includes a variety of guest speakers, nightly "Member Tips" and lectures by members who discuss their recent trips or talk about their travel experiences. Special interest films and two spectacular dinner dances are also included. The event is very popular, as well as profitable. In recent years it has drawn crowds of 350 to 400 attendees at a ticket price of $900. After subtracting costs, each attendee is actually worth $400 in profits. In recent years the marketing department analyzed their guest lists and discovered that almost 40% of the attendees were not members of Traveler's Club. They were people who heard about the event from other members and advertisements and thought it would be an excellent way to get ideas for an upcoming trip. They also found that 25% of the non-members usually joined the Club after the conference. This year the marketing group conducted a test -- they direct-mailed 1000 non-member invitations. Fifty people from this targeted list accepted the offer and attended. Since the conference is easy to scale up or down, the management believes that a more diversified effort could be made to attract more non-members to the summit. Their reasoning is twofold:

1. Each attendee is worth $400 in profits.

2. They can expect 40% of those attendees to become members.

The Competition

Traveler's Club management believes that the company serves a niche market and are lucky to have few direct competitors. In addition to believing that there are few competitors, its managers also believe that there are many related businesses that compete with them for the same advertising space and that they offer similar products and services for less and/or for free. Here are some of the specific competitive forces that are impacting their membership:

16. Web-Based Travel Agents: Companies like Travelocity and Expedia offer their visitors a wealth of information about destinations. While much of the information they provide is generic in nature, they do overlap the information that is offered on the Member's Line. Most of the information is free. More importantly, it is available 24 hours a day.

17. Enthusiast Sites: Many Club members have said that they have found a lot of great information about travel destinations on travel enthusiasts' websites. The marketing department has also found that a simple Web search will reveal a great deal of useful information.

18. Travel Agents: The traditional travel agent continues to market against companies like Traveler's Club. They offer free advice and insight and state that the travel companies rather than the client pays for their services. John believes that he looses the "casual customers" to travel agents. Even the "casual customers," he believes, could benefit from the Traveler's Club services.

From the Marketing Department

Here is some additional information that the marketing group thought might be useful to you in understanding their business model and their customers:

19. Current membership: 600,000

20. Subscription history: Members can be expected to renew their membership on a fairly predictable basis.

1. Each first-year membership results in a 37% non-renewal status, which means that 37% of their customers disappear after one year.

2. If a member stays for two years, they expect that only 11% of those members will opt not to renew for a third year.

3. Three-year and longer members have a less than 2% non-renewal rate.

4. Each year, their member drive is targeted to produce at least a 4% increase in new subscriptions.

21. New subscribers: Each year new subscriber costs go up, with costs now exceeding $1 million a year. The marketing group primarily uses direct mail and target phone call drives. New membership is critical to a strong revenue stream, and the mandate has always been to exceed last year's membership by a minimum of 2%. Marketing efforts typically return between 2 and 4% increase in the member base. They believe that there are more potential members out there, but the cost to reach them using current methods is not achievable based on the present budget.

22. Total potential marketplace: It is believed to be approximately 32 million.

23. Member profile: Traveler's Club members tend to be one of the following (in this order of frequency):

1. Mid to late baby boomers (50-65) with managerial jobs and income levels above $120,000 per year.

2. Retired couples with substantial disposable income, and education levels of college and above.

3. Young professionals between 30-45 with a college degree or higher and an average household income over $170,000

24. Internet Information: A recent member poll revealed that:

1. Nearly 88% of their current members have Internet service in their home or business.

2. 68% read and send e-mail at least once a day.

3. 18% read and send e-mail at least once a week.

4. 63% use the Web to collect information about traveling destinations and services.

5. 70% surf the Web at least 3 hours per week.

6. 92% of those with Internet service make purchases for travel over the Internet.