Background
Fresh Fries Hotel is a locally owned food and beverage company that is positioning itself as a major provider of food and beverage outlets in local and international festivals and events. The competition that has existed in today’s food and beverage industry has demanded us to practice aggressive marketing campaigns in order to continue enjoying the competitive advantage that we have previously had.
As part of our sponsorship deal of the Venice biennial festival, we shall run an outlet at the Venice Biennial festival venue during the duration of the event, providing food and beverages to the visitors.
The Venice Biennial festival is a contemporary exhibition that takes place every two years in Venice, Italy and during the festival, awards are given to outstanding persons in different categories (la Biennale di Venezia, 2010, para. 1). Our focus is to be a central attraction during the festival, offering three course meals to the participants and thereby attracting media attention and reinforcing our marketing position (Bplans, para. 1).
The outlet will ‘emerge’ at the touch of a button from a standard shipping container that has been artistically designed with the help of professional architects. This container is a three-room structure consisting of a kitchen, dining room and a living room and transforms at the touch of a switch. It will be used throughout the event and the intention is to use such a structure in future events that are staged locally and internationally.
During the first day of the event, the outlet will serve as a media event and as a centerpiece for a couple’s party later on and into the night, it will then operate as a food and beverage outlet for the remaining days and will be packed back into the shipping container once the festival comes to an end. The party will be open to all couple’s participating in the Venice Biennial festival upon registration. The designed container will be:
Star-house.com. 2010. Product Center. Web.
Couple’s Themed Party
This event has been slated for the first day and will be a conclusion of the day’s events, beginning from around 6 pm until late in the night. Couples will be registered during the day and this is expected to be complete by 4 pm in order to have ample time for addressing the various logistical issues associated with the party.
These include arrangement of the seats and tables in the outlet for the registered couples, placing orders for food and drinks and preparing the dancing arena. Couples will be expected to be in black and white and be seated by half past six, this will be communicated during the registration process.
Each table shall be occupied by three couples with each table consisting of three candles and elegant floral arrangements. The tables will be arranged such that they form a circular shape, the centre of which will be occupied by a dance floor. Wine will be served early in the evening and followed by dinner after which couples will be free to dance away to their favorite tunes, leaving later in the night at their pleasure.
It has been observed that most attendants of film’s festivals are normally accompanied by their spouses and this makes the themed evening party a very special function for the couples. This is in line with our marketing objective of being a major provider of food and beverage outlets in such events.
The themed party will function as an advertisement tool for the brand and image of our hotels located around the world as well as in other related events and festivals, especially the Cannes and Carthage biennial festivals which we plan to attend later in the year. Besides, the attending couples will know more about our company including the branches that are located around the world and they may choose to visit them after the festival.
Positioning from the event
This is how the customers view the company after the festival and is one of the core pillars of modern creative communications; the mode by which a business organization positions its brands, products and services might be the best advertising strategy. Positioning can be enhanced through various ways, from the use of slogans to an entire advertisement campaign (McNamara, 2010, para. 1).
The Venice Biennial festival will help us understand the competencies that lead to success in the hotel industry. Since it is known that customers use different methods to gauge a company’s competency, we shall at most times strive to obtain the customers’ comments regarding our products services. We shall therefore have knowledge of the areas that require improvement, whether in the area of innovation, pricing or customer care services (Tamminga, 2010, para. 6).
Since we have a target of capturing the market, we shall focus on a single competency on each day of the festival and use it to our advantage, thus helping to bring out the difference between our company and other food and beverage companies. The festival will help position our company as a favorite outlet during such related shows and festivals.
This will depend on the quality of our services and therefore calls on our staff to make an effort in provision of quality goods and services during the festival. We shall also collect feedback and opinions from the visitors in order to have more success in future outlets, this will also create a feeling of appreciation among these visitors and could visit the hotel or other outlets in the future (Wood and Brothertoon, 2008, pg. 421-430).
Media Plan
This is the procedure of choosing the type of advertising to use in an advertisement campaign. Before deciding on the media plan, it is important to identify the goals of the marketing campaign and the ability to meet these goals, the audience, in this case the visitors at the Venice biennial festival, the strategy to be used and the budgetary allocations.
Due to the size of the festival, we shall use international magazines and the internet to notify the visitors of our presence in the market and the goods and services that we shall be offering. Since we shall have the busiest schedule on the first day, the message on the media used will mostly give information pertaining to this day.
Magazines are a relatively expensive advertisement form and will only be used prior to the festival. Once the festival begins, we shall resort to the use of radio, television and the daily newspapers since these have a wider coverage and are cost-effective (BusinessTown, 2003, para. 3).
Efforts will be made to inform the visitors of our outlet a few days before the beginning of the festival, this might be expensive since the visitors will be coming from all around the world. This therefore calls for a careful selection of the marketing media.
Before deciding on the media to be used, we shall go through a number of advertisement tools in order to determine the best option based on cost and coverage. Apart from using the mass media, we shall also place adverts around the venue of the festival to direct the visitors to our stands (Li, 2007, para. 4).
Conclusion
Despite all the processes that one may undergo in preparing the event concept plan, certain problems are bound to arise, these include:
- Insufficient food and beverages;
- Lack of clear directional signs;
- Lack of emergency plans for bad weather;
- Insufficient planning time; and
- Lack of enough funds for running the event.
Whenever such shortcomings occur, adjustments must be done to the original plan as to accommodate the unforeseen situations since the event is a major stepping-stone for the firm’s future growth (Meskauskas, n.d., para. 6).
Reference List
Bplans. 2010. Fast Food Restaurant Business Plan. Web.
Business Town. (2003). Media Plans. Web.
Community Connect. (2009). Developing the Event Concept. Web.
La Biennale di Venezia. (2010). La Biennale. Web.
Li, H. (2007). Advertising Media Planner. Web.
McNamara, S. L. (2010). How to Position: brand, company, product or service. Web.
Meskauskas, D. Planning Social Events: Blueprint for Success. Web.
Superstar Couples. (2010). Biennale Opening Night Party. Web.
Tamminga,B. (2010). How to Position a Company in the Minds of Consumers. Web.
Wood, R. C. and Brotherton, B. (2008). The SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management. Sage Publications Ltd. 2008.