Images of Organizations at Four Seasons Hotels Assignment

Images of Organizations at Four Seasons Hotels - Assignment Example This section describes how the Four Seasons Hotel can be viewed from the perspective of the eight metaphors developed by Morgan (1989). These include organizations as instruments of domination, flux, organisms, brains, machines, cultures, psychic prisons and political systems and transformation.The machine metaphor can be seen at work in the Four Seasons Hotel. The machine metaphor implies concepts such as efficiency of the operations and reduction of waste. Taylor’s principles of scientific management reflect the metaphor of organizations as machines. At the Four Seasons Hotel, the scheduling of various activities such as housekeeping and maintenance of inventory levels can be interpreted through the image of machines. Schedules of housekeeping, preparation of different meals throughout the day and maintenance of standardized service are all examples of the machine metaphor at work. The Four Seasons Hotel can also be viewed as an organism. This image is based on the perceptio n of the hotel as undergoing a process of evolution to ensure its survival. The responses of the management to the environmental changes can be interpreted as the response of a living organism to its natural environment. An example of the metaphor at work would be the changes in room rates throughout the year depending on the busy or slow season. Karmin (2013) explains that high earnings by competitors may motivate the owners of the Four Seasons Hotel to become a public limited company by issuing shares.  

Essay (Visual Text of the girl) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

(Visual Text of the girl) - Essay Example The image of her on a greenish background draped in a tattered red scarf or burqa with her iconic green eyes directly starring at the camera became the symbol of the Afghan conflict and sufferings of the refugees. So, a visual analysis of the photograph will done focusing on how the colors and framing was effectively composed, and how it reflects her tough life but at the same time her strong resolve. It seems that McCurry has set up the shot of the girl with apt coloring and framing, starting with a green building in the background. This green building coincidently yet perfectly matches the green eyes of the girl. The tattered and soiled red scarf contrasts with that background thereby not only complimenting the girl’s green eyes but also making those eyes stand out, which entices viewers to the girl’s striking and piercing stare. In addition, McCurry uses the girl’s own torn out red scarf to frame her face, which provides more focus to her face and eyes. As McCurry has chosen to shoot the photograph in a low light area with soft overtones, it makes the girl’s eyes even more vibrant and brighter. At the same time, the burned and ragged scarf and importantly her dirty and slightly wrinkled face reflect her difficult life. Although, some form of pre-print photo retouching was done, extensive work was not possible because of the lack of advanced technolo gies at that time. So, it is obvious that photo was effectively composed, both in terms of color and framing, through natural means and mainly because of the skills of the photographer. Although the contrasting colors and framing has created a sort of illusion, when viewed deeply it provides disturbing but at the same time stunning perspectives about her emotional side. That is, when her dilapidated clothes and her haunting eyes are deeply focused, it seems her emotion at that time was a mixture of sullenness and courage. Although, the

Happiness Is Being Content Philosophy Essay

Happiness Is Being Content Philosophy Essay Happiness is being content with what you have in your life. It comes down to two different types of contentment. The first type is a material happiness that comes from material things including food, shelter, clothing, cars, technological devices and anything else that that physically exists and is an object of desire. The second type of happiness is much more abstract; it is a kind of spiritual or natural happiness. It comes from being at peace or from achieving a state of inner contentment. As the saying goes, the truth lies somewhere in the middle and it is my belief that only through a perfect balance of these two sources of happiness can one be truly happy, which is, in a way, to be content. The fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso speaks of happiness in much the same way. When asked by Howard Cutler to speak about desire, the Dalai Lama replies, I think there are two kinds of desire (Cutler 1000). The Dalai Lama says of the material desire I previously identified: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I think that this kind of excessive desire leads to greed-an exaggerated form of desire, based on over expectation. He goes on to say, When it comes to dealing with greed, one thing that is quite characteristic is that although it arrives by the desire to obtain something, it is not satisfied by obtaining (Cutler 1001). I completely agree with him on this point, that material desire can become excessive and lead to insatiable greed. However, it is my belief that happiness comes from fulfilling desire, which is, in part, fulfilling superficial material desire. But that is not all that constitutes happiness. As the Dalai Lama says, The true antidote of greed is contentment. If you have a strong sen se of contentment, it doesnt matter whether you obtain the object or not; either way, you are still content (Cutler 1002). This kind of inner contentment comes about through the second type of happiness I spoke of, the spiritual or natural happiness. Natural happiness or inner contentment is a rather difficult thing to explain, as it is a very abstract idea. Inner contentment cannot be found through material things. It comes from oneself, from one making peace with what they have and understanding that they cannot have everything. Howard Cutler, the Dalai Lamas companion, asks à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦How can we achieve inner contentment? There are two methods. One method is to obtain everything we want and desireà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The second, and more reliable, method is not to have what we want but rather to want and appreciate what we have (Cutler 1002). It would seem that Cutler, the Dalai Lama, and I share many of the same views. Inner contentment itself comes from making peace with what we already have, moving past the desire of wanting material things. However, it should be made clear that we are discussing happiness, not contentment. Contentment, inner contentment, certainly comes from achieving a peace with what one has and accepting that one cant have everything. But that is only contentment. True happiness comes from a balance of both contentment and desire. It comes from striking a balance between the two methods of achieving inner contentment. But this is only one persons happiness. Philosophers such as Epictetus would argue that happiness does not come about through these methods. Epictetus taught that: The goal of life is happiness or flourishing life. The way to achieve this condition is to understand the nature of the good (Barnet and Bedau 995). He argued that The only true good is virtue. Yes, wealth can be useful, but it is not good or badà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Povertyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is not bad but is morally indifferent (just as wealth is morally indifferent)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The life that is happy or fruitful is the virtuous life (Barnet and Bedau 995). Epictetus was likely speaking about happiness as a whole or happiness for the greater good. One persons happiness may not be the same as anothers, but I agree with Epictetus that happiness comes about through living a virtuous life. I would call this version of happiness a worldly contentment. This is, of course, different from the inner contentment previously discussed. Daniel Gilbert adds onto this idea of contentment. In his essay Does Fatherhood Make You Happy? he explains that having children generally makes a parent happy. Psychologists have measured how people feel as they go about their daily activities, and have found that people are less happy when they are interacting with their children than when they are eating, exercising, shopping or watching television (Gilbert 985). He starts off by stating how studies have shown that parents become less happy when they have children around them and how they would rather be spending time doing other things to make them happy, but later counters this idea with his reasons from personal experience. First, when something makes us happy we are willing to pay a lot for it, which is why the worst Belgian chocolate is more expensive than the best Belgian tofu. But that process can work in reverse: when we pay a lot for something, we assume it makes us happy, which is why we swear to the wonders of bottled water and Armani socks (Gilbert 985). Gilbert brings toward a materialistic view very similar to the Dalai Lamas. We are willing to sacrifice for material wants and desires but only true happiness lies in contentment. Gilbert compares children to heroin, while it may seem irrational his points are made clear. Children give parents a feeling of pleasure that makes them forget everything else around them. The analogy to children is all too clear. Even if their company were an unremitting pleasure, the fact that they require so much company means that other sources of pleasure will all but disappear (Gilbert 986). I interpret this as another form of contentment. Because of how satisfying it is to have children, it makes a parent content that they dont need anything else. Lewis proposes a countercultural idea, that we actually have no right to happiness. Some people believe that happiness is a right and is supposed to be given out, or is required to be provided by the government, like a right. In all reality that is true, but to an extent, we do have a right to happiness; we also have a right to earn happiness. We are all provided with the resources to do so. As in all rights we are provided with there still is some kind of boundary. If we establish a right to (sexual) happiness which supersedes all the ordinary rules of behavior, we do so not because of what out passion shows itself to be in experience but because of what it professes to be while we are in the grip of it (Lewis 1006). Lewis would say that pursuing happiness is alright as long as you are within legal and moral laws. In other words, living a good life is a means to pursue happiness. Thus the question of what is happiness can be defined in multiple ways. For one person, it is through achieving a state of inner contentment through finding a balance between material desire of what one does not have and a desire of what one already has. In the context of worldly or societal happiness, happiness is found through living a life of virtue and thus being fulfilled, or finding contentment, in that manner. Happiness is all of these things. Happiness, however, isnt a destination to reach. Its a perception, a mindset. There are those that believe that people are born with this mindset. There are others who believe that each of us can achieve this perception merely by redirecting our thoughts. Both are true. Sometimes it takes a really stressful event to make us realize how grateful we are for what we have rather than desiring what we dont have. The secret to happiness is contentment; a still point of realization that happiness is found within, not through external measures and possessions. Contentment is more than being grateful for the small things in life, it is being grateful for simply being. Contentment is a song the heart sings in the quiet moments of the day. Can you hear it?

The Misadventures of a Few :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I remember this account of my life, because I was an especially terrible child during this time. It was a brisk, paltry fall in 1988. I was nine years old. A couple of friends, my two brothers, my sister and I were all heading north along a river in Chicago. We weren’t in a boat or anything; we were walking right along the banks. The banks were filled with trees, shrubs and tall grass, and on top of that, the bank was on a slope. It was a bit difficult to navigate ourselves, but we just had to do it. What were we up to? Well we had heard stories that in this particular area of the river, there were Satanic worshippers who sacrificed women to Lucifer, the Devil. As we go north, on this bank along this river, I will be anxious to reveal our exploits along this path, the â€Å"devil’s rock†, and our, almost, disastrous escape.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The morning started just as any other. I would wake to a bowl of cereal and then make a dashing escape out of the house to meet a friend. My friend’s and I all lived on the same block. Anything we had going on involved one of us. We were a very tight pack and never let anyone get in with the group without some sort of initiation. On this particular day, in the late September month, we had decided today that we were going to finally find out whether the stories were really true. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in sight. When all of us finally got together, we began our trip to the river.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Getting to the river was not a very long or hard task. We lived relatively close, to say the least; it was about five blocks from our houses. It was a little strange while we were traveling to the river, because as time went by, the clouds started coming in. By the time we made it to the river, it was no longer a beautiful, bright sunny day, it was now a cool, colorless day. How could the weather change in such a short amount of time? Good question! When you are young and walking with a bunch of friend’s, you tend to talk fast and walk very, very slow. I believe it must have taken us anywhere between twenty minutes to an hour to get to our destination.

Customer Value and Superior Performance Essay

Market Orientation, Customer Value, and Superior Performance Stanley F. Slater and John C Narver Thinking in terms of the market (not marketing) is essential in the highiy competitive arenas of today, o achieve superior performance, a business must develop and sustain competitive advantage. But where competitive advantage was once based on structural characteristics such as market power, economies of scale, or a broad product line, the emphasis today has shifted to capabilities that enable a business to consistently deliver superior value to its customers. This, after all, is the meaning of competitive advantage. Our recent research shows that a market-oriented culture provides a solid foundation for these value-creating capabilities. A business is market-oriented when its culture is systematically and entirely committed to the continuous creation of superior customer value. Specifically, this entails collecting and coordinating information on customers, competitors, and other significant market influencers (such as regulators and suppliers) to use in building that value (see Figure 1). The three major components of market orientation+ustomer orientation, competitor focus, and cross-functional coordination-are long-term in vision and profit-driven. Based on extensive interviews with managers and executives, Kohli and Jaworski (1990) conclude that market orientation provides â€Å"a unifying focus for the efforts and projects of individuals, thereby leading to superior performance. † A developing stream of empirical research has found a strong relation- T ship between market orientation and several measures of business performance, including profitability. customer retention, sales growth, and new product success. Customer Orientation The heart of a market orientation is its customer focus. To create superior value for buyers continuously requires that a seller understand a buyer’s entire value chain, not only as it is today but also as it evolves over time. Buyer value can be created at any point in the chain by making the buyer either more effective in its markets or more efficient in its operations. A market-oriented business understands the cost and revenue dynamics not only of its immediate target buyers but also of all markets beyond, for demand in the immediate and â€Å"upstream† markets is derived from the demand in the original â€Å"downstream† markets. Therefore, a market-driven business develops a comprehensive understanding of its customers’ business and how customers in the immediate and downstream markets perceive value. Employees of market-oriented businesses spend considerable time with their customers. Managers and employees throughout the business call on their customers or bring them into their own facilities in a constant search for new ways to satisfy their needs. For example, Ih Pont has developed a program called â€Å"Adopt a Customer† that encourages a blue-collar worker to visit a customer once a month, learn the customer’s needs, and be the customer representative on the factory floor. Market-driven businesses continuously monitor their customer commitment by making im- proved customer satisfaction an ongoing objective. To maintain the relationships that are critical to delivering superior customer value, they pay close attention to service, both before and after sales. Because of the importance of employees in this effort, these businesses take great care to recruit and retain the best people available and provide them with regular training. Some businesses even involve their customers in hiring, training, and developing contact people as well as in making motivation and reward system decisions. Involving customers in these key areas forges strong customer loyalty. ogy development. Top managers frequently discuss competitors’ strategies to develop a shared perspective on probable sources of competitive threats. A reason for the success of many Japanese companies is that they train managers to understand that competitive intelligence is part of everyone’s job. Using this information, marketdriven businesses often target opportunities for competitive advantage based on competitors’ weaknesses. In any case, they keep competitors from developing an advantage by responding rapidly or anticipating their actions. Interfunctionai Coordination Competitor Focus The third of the three core components of a marCreating superior customer value requires more ket orientation is the coordination of personnel than just focusing on customers. The key quesand other resources from throughout the comtions are which competitors, and what technolopany to create value for buyers. Any point in the gies, and whether target customers perceive them buyer’s value chain is an opportunity for a seller as alternate satisfiers. Superior value requires that to create value for the buyer firm. This means the seller identify and understand the principal that any individual in any function in a seller firm competitors’ short-term strengths and weaknesses can potentially contribute to value creation. As and long-term capabilities and strategies. For Michael Porter (1985) explains: example, a team of Marriott employees traveled the country for six months, staying in economy Every department, facility, branch office, hotels and collecting information about their and other organizational unit has a role facilities and services. Armed with this informathat must be defined and understood. All tion about potential competitors’ strengths and employees, regardless of their distance weaknesses, Marriott invested $500 million in a from the strategy formulation process, new hotel chain. Fairfield Inn, its budget market must recognize their role in helping a entry, achieved an occupancy rate 10 points firm achieve and sustain competitive higher than the industry average in one year. advantage. A seller should adopt a chess-game perspective of its current and principal potential competiTo accomplish this, effective companies have tors. Moreover, it should continuously examine developed horizontal structures that focus on the competitive threats they pose, inferring these building value, such as time-to-market for new threats from intent and value-creation capabilities. This is crucial information to a seller in developFigure 1 ing its contingency competitive Market Orientation strategies. In one case, HewlettPackard decided to accelerate the Interfunctional announcement of a new computer Information Assessment Acquisition peripheral after discovering through its travel agency that a rival had booked conference rooms around the country for a specific date. Knowing that this rival had a similar product in development, H-I-’ rushed its announcement and beat the competition to the market. In market-driven businesses, employees from all functions share information concerning competitors. For example, it is crucial for R&D to receive information acquired by the sales group about the pace of a competitor’s technol- Customer InformationCompetitor Information d Coordinated Superior Customer Value Other Market Information Market Orientation. Customer Value, and Superior Performance 23 products. They manage projects through small multifunctional teams that can move more quickly and easily than businesses that use the tradtional function-by-function, sequential approach. For example, cross-functional teams call on customers to identify additional opportunities for value creation. Engineering becomes involved during preliminary market research to help marketers understand what is feasible. Production is involved during product design to ensure that the product can be manufactured at a reasonable cost. Engineers and production people constantly discuss their capabilities and limitations with sales and marketing so capabilities can be leveraged and limitations avoided when promoting products or sewices. When all functions contribute to creating buyer value this way, more creativity is brought to bear on increasing effectiveness and efficiency for customers. Does This Mean the Marketing Department Is in Charge? Shapiro (1988) tells the anecdote of a company CEO explaining to top managers that because of increasing competition, the business needed to become more market-oriented. With that encouragement the marketing vice president jumped in, â€Å"I’ve been saying all along we need to be more marketing-oriented. Marketing has to be more involved in everything Ixcause we represent the customer and we have an integrated view of the company. † At that point the CEO snarled. â€Å"I said more ma&et-oriented. not 177arketin~-oriented. † That story is very epresentative of our experience with marketing orientation as well. A marketing orientation implies an emphasis on the marketing function that may not be appropriate. Customer value is created by core capabilities throughout the entire organization. Whereas Procter and Gamble’s competitive advantage may be based on :I core marketing capability, 3M’s advantag e is innovation: Canon’s is technology. This does not make 3M or Canon any less market-oriented than Procter and Gaml~le. Because market-driven behavior permeates multiple functions at 3M and Canon, they may be more market-oriented and less marketing-oriented. In our view, lvhen a business achieves the objective of developing a pervasive market orientation, the marketing function may become lessnot more-important, because all functions are dedicated to creating and delivering customer value. This is consistent with Regis McKenna’s (1991) notion that â€Å"Marketing is everything and everything is marketing. † Webster (1992) foresees a time when marketing specialists will become increasingly rare while marketing as a general management function becomes more important. This is the result of a general focus on cross- unctional cooperation, which causes internal functional boundaries to lose meaning. GE’s 1990 Annual Report puts it this way: In a boundary-less company, internal functions begin to blur. Engineering doesn’t design a product, then â€Å"hand it off† to manufacturing. They form a team, along with marketing and sales, finance, and the rest. Customer service? It’s not somebody’s job. It’s everybody’s job. However, for businesses that currently have an internal orientation on production or research and development, the marketing department may have to take the lead role in encouraging marketoriented thinking throughout the firm. As the primary boundary between the business and its markets, marketing is â€Å"management’s window on the world† (Holver and Garda 1985). Because it is dependent on other functional areas for the timely and efficient development, production, and delivery of the product, marketing is likely to be the first function that fully appreciates the benefits of market orientation. To maximize its effectiveness. marketing must demonstrate the benefits of market-driven behavior to top management and to other functions. Marketing may have a key role in the development and maintenance of a culture that is truly arket-oriented The crux is that the responsibility for superior buyer value is beyond that of any one function. Creating value for buyers is analogous to a symphony orchestra in which all members contribute according to a general plan and in which the contribution of each subgroup is tailored and integrated by a conductor-with a synergistic effect. A seller must draw upon a nd integrate effectively all of its human and other resources in an ongoing effort to create superior ,alue for buyers at a profit. This coordinated integration of company resources builds directly on both customer and competitor analysis.

Official Document

Corporate clients across The Greater Toronto area are about to earn how to truly, â€Å"Impress with Empress. † The Empress Of Canada is a chartered vessel located in the Toronto Warburton, ideally suited to host up to 489 guests. The boat caters to its clients in hosting a variety of cruises that include: lunch/ dinner cruises, booze cruises, corporate gatherings, weddings, or special event cruises.However, The Empress of Canada has particularly run into difficulties at attracting the corporate clients into their business. Therefore, the current predicament is that The Empress of Canada is inefficiently able to target new and existing corporate clients into their business. Reaching and educating the corporate client on why they should choose The Empress of Canada over its competitors is essential to increasing the overall demand for their lunch/ dinner corporate cruises. Our solution is simple and effective.We will focus on Empress of Canada's bra ending position, in that it offers corporate clients a premium, formal luxury through a superior customer service experience, which serves as a key differentiator from the competing boats in the marketplace. We will then use this positioning to provide Empress with better communication strategies that will focus on boisterousness's selling n The Greater Toronto Area, and ultimately gain the attention Of corporate clients that Empress Was previously unable to capture.The main goal for our campaign is to raise awareness among the target market of the possible uses of The Empress of Canada services, and will be done through three mediums that include: print advertisements in the February and March 2015 issues of The Toronto Life magazine, direct emailing to existing customers using personalized messages to express gratitude and offer them alternative suggestions to meet their business entertaining needs, and lastly, social media improvement, particularly through Faceable, which will reinforce the large number of options corporate clients have when choosing The Empress of Canada.We anticipate that this campaign will yield a considerable expected increase in revenue, seeing upwards of a million dollars in revenue, when executed over a tenement period, given our campaign strategy. The short and longer benefits that The Empress of Canada will ex prince are substantial and will ultimately propel the business into attaining a more desirable corporate client database with significantly increased revenues. PART 1: Situational Analysis PEST Politically The Empress operates on the Toronto harbor therefore they must follow the rules and regulations of the Toronto port authority.Other outside factors that affect The Empress would be fuel costs as this is the result of political actions. These fuel costs affect the price o f operating the Empress and in other provinces the price of fuel has resulted in the hiking of fares to cover fuels costs. (BC Ferries hiking fares, 2014) Environmental Weather affect s the empress because they have seasons where they operate and ones where they have maintenance. The season for which they operate is from April to October, peak times being June to August.They still operate during September but many people don't realize this and miss out on one of the most beautiful times to be on the lake. Coloratura Social factors greatly impact Empress, as it's essentially a banquet hall and seen as a destination for social events, it has to Stay relevant for event seekers and planners. Corporate culture is becoming more important, and employee morale is becoming a significant focus to many industries. Companies are now recognizing â€Å"Departing from the customary routine of meetings and cubicle life can go a long way toward building morale. (ERP, 2014) Companies see value in investing in a company party as it is a chance for them to socialize with their peers and re cognizance personal and company wide achievements. Corporate Cruises provide a clientele with a larger budget, potential repeat customers and possibly a professional referral. They have to communicate that Empress is the destination for corporate events because Of the care and effort they put into their work, and the professional manner in which they will be ha ended. Technological The expanding digital landscape is changing how companies approach their business.More companies are looking to social media and the internet for ways to market their business. â€Å"Whether it is creating a winning online experience or enabling mobile commerce, digital marketing is a hot topic, with most companies either revamping or implementing new strategies. † (Osaka, 2014) Many consumer look to the internet to find out about companies and compare and contrast them, and this technical change should be prioritize in most business today. Competition Direct Competitor 1: Marinara Cruises Marinara has numerous fleets for different occasions and times of year.They run through the winter, m aking it possible to host holiday parties on the boat with heating. Marinara also has different menus for different times of day and events, and is also flexible for food accommodation needs. In addition, Marinara offers demodulating packages and team building picnics excursion outlines with an itinerary; the willingness, customer friendly brochure is available in PDF online. Furthermore, the company is the largest hospitality cruise operation in Canada, and also has received numerous awards and has professional associations (Torn to. Mom, 2014). These factors make Marinara a strong leader of the cruise operation sector in Toronto. However, Marinara's soft spot is its ling point Of catering to various audiences. This could work against attracting corporate customers. In particular, offering children friendly option s such as children's menu and optional goodies, as well as student discounts, may push away some clients who are looking for formal luxury and wish to avoid any risks of being associated with a younger, less mature and sophisticated company.Direct Competitor 2: Yankee Lady Yankee Lady's largest thriving point is being a warm, familiarized local company. Their two yachts are designed and constructed in Toronto by the owners, and the larger one has capacity of 300 people; it s smaller than Marinara or Empress, but large enough for corporate social events. Yankee Lady's website has a very customariness, informative â€Å"Team Building' page, which discusses values about social aspects of workplace and corporate culture. However, there are strong signs that Yankee Lady has branding issues and a lack of effective communication skills.For example, on the official website, Yankee Lady cites positive feedback from past corporate clients: BMW, Mini, Nikkei and Dolce & Cabana. This suggests Yankee dad is seeking to associate itself with premium and luxury brands, as sees website, which stresses luxuriousness of the brand as well. However, this positioning is inconsistent with some aspects of the brand. The name â€Å"Yankee Lady† itself is very casual and fails to make consumers associate the brand with weighed, premium values.Moreover, the first section shown under the â€Å"menu† tab on the website is â€Å"on a budget†, and one of the dishes is named â€Å"cheap and cheerful†; corporate would not want their employees and clients to see that and perceive the company as being cheap for choosing Yankee Lady. Unprofessional is also seen in word choices on their Faceable postings. Secondary & Indirect Competitors The secondary competition consists of other cruises operating businesses in Torso's waterfront.Any competitor in this category either: has distinct branding from Empress of Canada, Yankee Lady and Marinara, operates in a smaller scale than the three companies, or both. In addition, we have identified indirect competitors of the Empress of Canada; this category includes a variety of businesses in Toron to that offer/can be used for corporate social events (please refer to exhibit? ). With increased awareness for the importance and benefits of social aspects at workplace, many local businesses remote the use of their venues for corporate social events.The top three results of Google's search performance with the key. ;odor â€Å"corporate social events in Toronto† are of articles making â€Å"top 10† and â€Å"top 6† recommendations for organizations offering team building activities: 1) 1 0 great ideas for corporate events & afterward socials in Toronto (Ratchets d, 2014) 2) 1 0 Toronto Team Building Activities for corporate Groups (warrior, 201 1) 3) 6 Local & Affordable Team Building Activities in Toronto (Etcetera, 201 3) Recommendations vary in the level of physical activity, luxuriousness and affordability.Empress is not mentioned in either one of the three, while on the other hand, Spin, a pooping social club located in downtown Toronto, is named in each of them. The indirect competition of Empress is as significant as the secondary competition, if not more. This is because corporations' root purpose of holding such events lies within motivating/showing appreciation to their employees or clients; their choice of venue or activity is a medium that helps them achieve it most effectively, and it does not have to be a cruise boat.Comparing Key Findings on Competitors to Empress of Canada In inclusion, no competitor truly offers the bundle of luxury, the edge of the city getaway and the location convenience, tailored specifically to Corporate Canada. Empress of Canada has the strongest brand consistency, representing luxury, class and style, and its premium values are supported by the red carpet service and superior customer service experience they provide. However, Empress of Canada also has significant soft spots in terms of its online presence, which may result in losing customers to competitors.First, it is not featured on the Warbu rton official website, whereas boats of Yankee Lady and Marinara, amongst secondary competitors, are listed with pictures and website links. The Harbor-front project is funded by the municipal government, thus it is a credible information source that consumers can use for research. Secondly, Empress does not show up on the first page, when Google search is performed with the keyword â€Å"Toronto cruises†; the search results are occupied by Marinara and secondary competitors. Last and most importantly, social media activities and customer engagement is inadequate, especially compared to Marinara.Empress needs to seek or more effective communication strategies, in order to defend itself from the competition (please refer to exhibit? ). PART 2: Marketing plan Target Market The Empress of Canada will use a small segment strategy that focuses on boisterousness's selling. The target market will be businesses with over 100 employees located within the Greater Toronto Area. These co mpanies may be looking to run staff parties or staff appreciation events, or use the boat as an opportunity to meet with their clients.The focus will be on older and more refined companies which are looking for quality experiences and are more likely to act as return linens, while likely providing referrals to other organizational departments an d companies. Branding At the core of the Empress of Canada is a focus on quality of service. Both owners play a prominent role on the cruise and make it a priority to always offer superior customer service; from the booking to the boarding the experience at Empress of Canada is always top notch. This quality of experience will be the focus of the companies branding.The customer experience serves to differentiate the Empress of Canada from other competing boat cruises, especially in regards to their positioning towards corporate clients. Businesses shouldn't have to worry about their companies experience when booking with Empress of Canada, t hey need to know that they are in good hands, and that they will get the best possible experience. Our Marketing efforts will aim to position Empress of Canada as a premium, formal luxury through a superior customer service experience.All media and advertising should be focused on this new branding strategy including this new identity in any outgoing promotions. The current tagging of, â€Å"Long Live the Fun† (found via Twitter cover photo) is not reflective of this business and our desired positioning of being â€Å"the loyalty' of the harbor cruises. In order to better meet the brands positioning, while keeping the quality top of mind for prospective and current customers, the tagging that should be implemented is, â€Å"Impress with E empress†.This helps to show what the Empress does for the customer, as corporate clients will want to show off their status and make sure their own clients remain with them, they will want to impress them, standing out from their own competition. Communication Strategy The main goal for this campaign is to raise awareness among the target market about the variety cruise options available when using the Empress Canada services, which will encourage both new clients to take their first cruise as well to retain current clients.The target market for this particular campaign is corporations within the Greater Toronto Area, who will be reached through a variety of communication channels and mediums. This strategy will be supported by the use of print advertisements, direct emails, and a variety of Faceable posts print The first tactic that will be utilized in this campaign is print advertising. The goal of these print advertisements is to gain new customers that ay not have heard of Empress before or have not yet considered it for a corporate gathering.Toronto Life Magazine was chosen as the publication in which to run the advertisements, as it reaches an audience of 795,000 people within the GTAG, with an average ci rculation of 90,563 per issue. Its primary readership average age is between 2554, with an average household income Of over $100,000 (Toronto Life, 2013). The magazine is released monthly, so it has a longer shelf life than weekly magazines or dally newspapers. This is a strong benefit for Empress, as the life of the ad will remain for the duration of at least a month. Toronto Life's purpose as stated on their website is as follows: † Toronto Life and tortellini. Mom are the print and online destinations for people who want to get the most out of Toronto. Our goal is to add to their knowledge of the city, helping them enjoy its pleasures and cope with its complexity. † (Toronto Life, n. D. ). The readers of this magazine look to it as a so urge to find ideas and suggestions for quality dining, entertainment, and events, which are all well in line with the services that Empress can offer. Empress will place its ad in the â€Å"features† section with premium ligamen t in order to better reach corporate groups and to associate with other businesslike offerings.If not directly reaching corporations, the rationale behind this placement is to reach a young professional demographic that may see the ad and then suggest Empress to their manager or boss for a corporate gathering. The cost of running a 1/3 page square print advertisement in Toronto Life magazine is $6,885, with an extra cost of $690 for premium placement (please refer to exhibit 3) (Toronto Life, 2013 The intent with this campaign is to run the advertisement twice: once in February 2015 and once in March 2015.The reasoning behind this timing is because corporations usually have their budgeting for the year finalized in February, so they are then able to start allocating their resources to specific costs, events, etc. February to May is usually the time in which most boat cruises are booked for the summer months, so it is important that Empress can advertise within this time frame to enc ourage more corporations to fill the available cruise time slots. An average advertisement consultation cost is $4000 for the creation of the ad.Included in Appendix is a mockup of a potential advertising concept (Exhibit 4). This mockup was created with the branding and positioning of the campaign in mind; it emits the idea of an upscale, luxurious boat cruise that would appeal to larger corporate audiences interested in a classy and elegant experience. The ad itself includes a description of possible ways in which corporations can use the services that Empress has to offer, including themed events, staff meetings, staff parties, retirement parties, and customer appreciation parties.As stated previously, the main goal of this campaign is to create awareness and inform our target market of differentiate in which report clients can use Empress, which is what this ad is achieving. There are minor potential risks involved with this aspect of the campaign. The first is that the reach of the magazine is far broader than Empress's target market, which means that cost s would be less directly targeted towards actual potential clients. With print advertising, it is also difficult to measure actual return on investment.It is important that the ad catches the eye of the reader and does not get lost in the clutter. Lastly, with a breakable response rate of just 13 bookings, there is a very limited risk of a negative return on marketing investment. Email The second part of our communication strategy is to focus on retaining past clients and encouraging repeat purchases (please refer to exhibit 5). This will be executed through the use of an email platform, with a similar design aesthetic to the print ad campaign. The general purpose is to use a personalized message to ensure all past clients feel valued and appreciated.The email will initially act as a follow to the client's past purchase, thanking them for their business and asking to hear feedback on their experience wi th Empress. The second part of the email will stimulate future sales by suggesting new ways to SE Empress for their business entertainment needs. For example, an email to a client that once used the cruise for a company holiday party may include suggestions to host client parties on board as well. A final element oft he emails will include a link to a brief survey asking the client to provide feedback on their experience with Empress.These survey responses will create an internal data source from which Empress can draw information to better their services in the future. This tactic will use the customer's familiarity and positive association with the brand to grow sales. Rather than blindly emailing thousands of encounters off of an email list, it will prove much more efficient and profitable to focus efforts on happy past consumers. The openhanded rate will be much higher for those familiar with Empress, compared to a unconsumed who would very likely delete an email from an unfamil iar company without reading it.Targeting the email strategy to encounters and resulting in a high malediction rate could tarnish the Empress brand, as the emails could be seen as spam by potential clients. A m ajar advantage to an emailing strategy is that statistics regarding the penetrate of these emails is fully available to Empress. Conveniently displayed will be figures describing exactly how many customer s opened the email, how many deleted it without opening, and how many replied or clicked through to the company website via the email.Furthermore, targeting past clients means that the contact information to send the emails is already available. Empress will not have to purchase a costly database from a third party source. Overall, this strategy is extremely inexpensive as the majority of spending will be going toward designing the email. Furthermore, it is nearly less costly to focus on retaining past customers rather than gain new ones. This tactic is efficient, costiveness , and will have a high return rate. There are minor risks to this strategy.The first is that there is still a possibility of the emails being ignored and deleted, especially if the mail unintentionally ends up in a client's spam inbox. The possibility of this is extremely low as it is expected that all past clients would have Empress in their email address book. If this does happen, it will also be easy to track through the email metrics regarding deletion rate. Secondly, it may be seen as risk to invest in a marketing tactic that is not actually expanding the client base.This is easily justified as targeting past, satisfied clients will likely generate more future sales with lower costs than targeting n ewe customers. Social Media Our final communication strategy focuses on improving The Empress of Canada's social media presence. In this we will be specifically focusing on a Faceable platform, as this is the largest and most important social media platform and will have the largest impact. Growing a large following on such a medium can allow Empress of Canada to circulate managing and promotional material in the longhorn, at virtually no cost.