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Over the course of 2020, individuals and organizations were thrown various unprecedented obstacles that necessitated flexibility, empathy, and understanding. Many organizations were forced to reevaluate their financial status, their purpose, and how they could provide for their employees. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that most companies had to introduce a ‘work from home’ policy, drastically decreasing the face-to-face contact that employees had with each other and leadership. The virus, coupled with the social and political unrest in the U.S. in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 presidential election, inspired many companies to reframe their organization and redefine their goals.<br/> The B2B (business-to-business) Marketing Agency, The Mx Group, is preparing for a change in leadership, with the current Chief Executive Officer and Founder stepping down, being replaced by the President of the company. The company plans to execute the transition in the spring of 2022, allowing them the rest of 2021 to plan for the change, catering to employees’ individual and the company’s collective needs. It was also prompted by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic to reevaluate the values that it upholds as an organization, coinciding with the change in leadership. Leaders of the company are actively encouraging employees to engage with these values by recognizing when a colleague performs in alignment with a value.<br/> In reframing their organization, The Mx Group has a significant opportunity to uniquely position itself in the industry. Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal (2017) introduced four frames: human resources, symbolic, structural, and political, as a way to guide a transformative application of leadership and management in business. Analyzed from these perspectives, The Mx Group can utilize contemporary ideas to efficiently and effectively seize its opportunity of embedding new values and a change in leadership.
The purpose of this report is to analyze the current market position of Scottsdale Ranch Animal Hospital, and make appropriate marketing recommendations and strategies for implementation. Managerial goals include increasing customer retention and growing its customer base in order to generate new revenue.
The analysis conducted includes reviewing the external environment, internal environment, and market opportunities. Notable industry and environmental trends include: laws regarding bans on the sale of commercially bred pets, an overall increase in national pet spending, declining feline veterinary visits over the last few years, a cultural trend emphasizing spending on luxury pet goods and services, and a significant level of local competition that has similar service offerings.
Notable internal strengths include: the prime geographical location of SRAH in a pet-friendly and wealthy community, multiple service offerings available, the quality of veterinary staff, a loyal clientele, and a “blank slate” in terms of marketing. However, internal weaknesses include: outdated equipment and technology, a lack of marketing efforts and a weak online presence, poor management, human resource issues and little employee accountability, and poor financial conditions as a result of high levels of debt between the practice and building.
Partway through this project, SRAH decided to sell its practice to PetVet Care Centers, a company specialized in acquiring animal hospitals in order to grow a national veterinary network. PetVet took over ownership in March of 2014, and has already begun to address the critical managerial and financial problems at SRAH. Thus, the following recommendations are made to the new owners specifically regarding building an integrated marketing campaign. The limitation, however, is that PetVet’s marketing budget is unknown at the time of this report.
Based on SRAH’s precarious position in the marketplace, it is recommended that the practice focus on client retention, capturing first time visits by creating a strong online presence, and capturing first time visits by targeting new customer segments. Client retention strategies are as follows:
• Push email sign ups for online Pet Portal. Goal is to improve the percentage of clients signed up from 36% to 43% by the end of the 2014 fiscal year (approximately 450 new sign ups).
• Specifically create policies regarding behavior in employee-client interactions.
• Include a summary sheet detailing services received and veterinarian recommendations to be given with discharge paperwork.
• Implement callbacks within 24 hours of a patient surgery to be performed by vet techs
• Create specialized goodie bags for surgeries or boarding stay. Example would be a boarding goodie bag that contains treats, toys, and a personalized “thank you for staying with us” card.
• Bundling services to create preventative care packages. Canine Junior and Senior Wellness packages could result in additional $31,000+ in revenue each year.
Strategies centered on capturing first time visits through creating a strong online presence include:
• Hiring CyberMark for its regional SEO services to improve SRAH’s ranking in search engine results.
• Switching to a new website producer to allow for greater flexibility and autonomy in managing SRAH’s website. It is suggested that PetVet consider IDEXX or CyberMark for this service.
Lastly, strategies centered on capturing first time visits by targeting new customer segments are as follow:
• Purchasing a direct mail list from DirectMailTools.com, that specifies Scottsdale homeowners or renters, who own a cat or dog, and have lived in their place of residency for less than a year.
• Consider converting breed specific groups as a long-term goal, though no immediate action is suggested.
We founded an operational startup company and developed a consumable product to sell to ASU students. Our primary objective is the provision of affordable nutritious energy bars to overworked and overwhelmed college students. We aim to support hungry students in efforts to fuel their bodies efficiently and nutritiously; in order to do so, we donate 20% of our profits to charity to support students in debt. Our business won the Business Catalyst Choice Award for having "the most promising business concept" in the Founder's Lab 2022-23 Cohort.
Chutneys are a form of Indian condiment that can be made in many different flavors and paired with various foods. However, the availability of chutneys in the United States is very limited and many people have not tried them before. With this observation in mind, we founded A2Z Chutneys, which is a business that aims to distribute a variety of organic and locally produced chutneys. Through the Founders Lab program, A2Z Chutneys was created and research was conducted to justify the viability of our business. We were able to gather and interpret data from potential customers, which allowed us to identify a target market. Additionally, time was spent identifying and creating a variety of authentic and unique chutneys that have proven to be desired. This report demonstrates and outlines the feasibility of A2Z Chutneys in providing unique and desirable flavors to the population.