ERF Enterprises provides comprehensive AV services to institutions in the State of Colorado. Their customers fall into 3 categories - Hospitals, Schools and Hotels

ERF's Executive Vice President of Operations, Jennifer Murray, has noted that the Hotel business, while profitable, seems to take a lot of ERF's support resources

Ms. Murray has asked for your support in getting a better picture of the profitability of each of the 3 lines of business

She provides the following data on the support activities of ERF for a 12-month period

The average support-resource consumption by category is provided below:

Excluding the cost of support, the average profitability of each category is given below:

Q1. Provide Ms. Murray with a an activity-based analysis of the profitability of each category of customer

Q2. After reviewing the data and analyses, what advice may be given to service personnel to improve profitability of the category with the lowest profit (after support cost)?

Is there some unusual explanation for high activity levels which could be further investigated? What creative questions could be asked?          

5.Contrast the level of security in a hotel that uses a hard-key system with that in a hotel that uses an electronic key or smart card system.

Exercise 1-4. Information Age [LO 4]

The Wellington Hotel is a posh hotel in Manhattan that uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system to track customer preferences and purchases.

Provide two examples of specific information the CRM system might capture and how the hotel could use the information to enhance revenue and/or the customer experience.

A survey of 1935 people who took trips revealed that 181 of them included a visit to a theme park. Based on those survey results, a management consultant claims that less than 10 % of trips include a theme park visit. Test this claim using the ?=0.01 significance level.

(a) The test statistic is

(b) The P-value is

(c) The conclusion is  

A. There is not sufficient evidence to support the claim that less than 10 % of trips include a theme park visit.
B. There is sufficient evidence to support the claim that less than 10 % of trips include a theme park visit.

Problem 2

The Manager at Brackley Fun Park advertises that the typical family visiting the park spends at least one hour in the park during weekends. A sample of 35 visitors during the weekends in the month of July revealed that the mean time spent in the Park was 62 minutes with a standard deviation of 8 minutes.

1. Using the 0.01 significance level and a one-tailed test, is it reasonable to conclude that the mean time in the Park is greater than 60 minutes? Show all steps in your test of hypothesis.
2. Repeat the analysis at the 0.05 significance level. (You may show only the calculations that change).
3. Repeat with a survey mean of 65 minutes at the .01 significance level. (You may show only the calculations that change).
4. What do you conclude from your analysis?

Use SPSS to get the appropriate output, and please explain the process. Along with providing the SPSS output, use the 5 steps of hypothesis testing to analyze the results by using the p-value approach. 6. Create an SPSS file with the variable names Hotel and Inspection. In the Hotel column, enter the value 1 in the first 25 cases and the value 2 in the next 30 cases. Then, in the Inspection column, enter the value 1 for any four cases of Hotel 1 and 0 for the rest of the Hotel 1 cases. And, enter the value 1 for any 10 cases of Hotel 2 and 0 for the rest of the Hotel 2 cases. For the inspection variable, 1 = a room failed inspection & 0 = a room passed inspection. a) Run a binomial test on for H0: π≤ 0.1 versus H1: π > 0.1 Test at 0.05 level of significance. b) Run a chi‐square test on H0: π1 – π2 = 0 versus H1: π1 – π2 ≠ 0 Test at 0.05 level of significance.

Assuming you will speak to 30 people attending a conference, if there is a 28% chance they are staying in the hotel hosting the conference. Find the following binomial probabilities.

• First is to increasing the market:

The marketing is the building block of any company. this to let people know about your company its mean that the customer wants to know about the company history and try to understand about the company. however, they want to know what were company focus on. to create them familiar with the poster , social media marketing or advertising so that the customer will know about the company poster that has compliment and company expectation in the reality so that the customer what they do believe and also the customer can see trough online the company poster and to gain more follower .

• Second is make USP:

In every company hospitality service were only use USP to become successful and to gain more profit. However that USP can make more easier to the hotel so that they can research the target of audience and to offer some product of the benefit that customer needs then USP also can the highlight of uniqueness and strong brand image of hotel so that the customer can enjoy the unique of the hotel and by following the trend but it also protect the good brand image of hotel that has good service and quality . but this can be help marketing strategy of hotel that has lack of vision can be defining into single point and to branches out the hotel market.

Then to set up some goal for employee so that the employee can provide with good service to their customer and to gain trust from the customer. so that they must responsible to hold their role and to guide the promise of USP. But USP also can give a premium rate so that the hotel will charge the price the customer so that they will pay great deal for to get memorable and experience in the hotel. However, to build a loyal customer so that the hotel will offer with fulfil service to their customer and to differentiate the loyal customer from other competitor that didn’t have to maximum the revenue and delivering unique of selling proportion to their customer.

• The last is the : to introducing the effective schemes for the customer

To implement with different scheme that can make to attract to the customer that were giving promotion, packet, coupon, discount, and etc. that too people who were often visit to the hotel this reward system were doing in every hotel that those were often to visit to the hotel and to build loyal to the customer . but the hotel will give good offer the customer so that they will have good deal what they pay offer and also that the hotel will give them a hotel facility for free to access that they were pay for. Even though some visitor will get some experience to check in the hotel by using online booking and asking some question for during stay, are you having a comfortable to stay? do you require any assistance? well this question to establish to gain trust for their guest and to show care about their guest. to use advance technology so that the customer will more easier to check in by them sleeve and to see what is the hotel offering to their guest . try to understand the different level of customer expectation and satisfaction. to quick resolve problem with their facilities and to get feed back by guest this feed back is important to company image and to service their customer service performance with excellent so that the company can get a positive feed back from their guest and to gain more follower . then to keep in touch with customer that who barely visit by thought email .

a. Refer to Dave McClure’s pirate metrics, explain each and every point of the metrics of your innovation.

Watta Corporation is a debt-free company with a company beta of 1.30 at a time when the risk free rate is 2 percent and the market risk premium is 5 percent. Although the company has two divisions with different risk levels, the CFO is currently using the company’s overall WACC as the hurdle rate for all projects. Watta’s home furnishings division has a divisional beta of 0.75 and its ammunition division has a divisional beta of 1.5. The home furnishings division has identified two projects with expected returns of 5.50 percent and 8.4 percent. The ammunitions division has identified two projects with expected returns of 8.6 percent and 9.2 percent. Draw a graph of the security market line. On the same graph, include a line for the company’s WACC and place an “x” in the appropriate position on the same graph for each of the four projects. Using the CFO’s criteria, which of the projects will be accepted? Which of the projects should NOT be accepted if analyzed properly?

INTODUCTION TO MARKETING

Based on the information provided in the case study, create an integrated marketing communication (IMC) for NOBU Hotels. Please include at least 4 promotional mix tools and describe the promotion/activity with sufficient details for each.

Traveling in Nobu Style: Converting Restaurant Patrons to Hotel Guests

The name “Nobu” is synonymous with an exceptional Japanese dining experience, perfected by chef Nobu Matsuhisa over a more than 30-year career. Matsuhisa, together with actor Robert De Niro and restaurateur Drew Nieporent, opened the first Nobu restaurant in 1994 and to date, there are now 38 Nobu restaurants worldwide.

But if you talk to Trevor Horwell, the CEO of Nobu Hospitality, Nobu represents much more than just a restaurant experience. It’s a true lifestyle brand that also encompasses a relatively small, but growing portfolio of luxury hotels, too — eight of which are open now, and eight more are in the pipeline.

Horwell’s primary focus as CEO is to continue to grow the Nobu Hotels brand and as he opens up diners’ eyes to the fact that cannot only eat at a Nobu but stay at one, too, he hasn’t forgotten the brand’s origins in the process.

“We don’t normally do a hotel unless we think that a Nobu Restaurant can do well in that location,” said Horwell. “That’s very important because what we want to do first and foremost is to make sure there is a draw for locals, and that really comes down to the Nobu Restaurant.” Horwell said the majority of his Nobu hotel restaurant diners — 80 percent on average — are local residents, not hotel guests. “It’s not like a tourist restaurant. We like to attract the locals. We want that built-in customer.”

“We are defined by the restaurant, in a way,” he said. “We play to our strengths. If you look at the hotel business today, the majority of hotels are suffering because they don’t lead with food and beverage. don’t have strong food-and-beverage concepts, and a lot of hotels are losing money. Today, we play to our strengths because that is one area that we do very, very well, and we bring in locals.”

The idea to launch Nobu Hotels, he said, came from the fact that when Nobu Restaurants were located inside of a hotel, they “were the draw for the hotel and we were bringing in customers.”

“If I only convert 5 percent of my customers in Nobu Restaurant to stay in our hotels, then at the end of the day, we’re filling out hotels. It’s not a tall order to do that, and you can do that very well and very quickly if you offer the right product.”

Nobu Hotels has the advantage of having built its brand over a 24-year period with its restaurants first, followed by the first Nobu hotel that opened within Caesars Palace Las Vegas in 2013.

“The first focus for us, really, is to expose the brand to our restaurant customers,” Horwell said. “We touch all types of Nobu customers. And we also provide instant identity. If you put ‘Nobu Hotel’ on a hotel, the word ‘Nobu’ says something and it attracts a certain type of customer.” Horwell said that, for example, when the first Nobu opened, the hotel had “more than one billion media impressions.”

So, what’s next for the brand, and how does Horwell plan to grow Nobu Hotels? He explained, “We’re not driven by reservations systems because we’re small. It isn’t as if we need a huge reservations system to fill a 400-room hotel. That’s why a lot of these corporations do well, because they have the reservations platform to fill the big hotels.” Nobu Hotels, by comparison, average anywhere from 100 to 150 rooms generally.

“The reason why those young lifestyle brands have emerged is because they’re like us. They are entrepreneurial, they’re unique because it’s a concept that’s come from the heart, from whoever is the original founder. But when it’s absorbed by a corporation, the whole thing changes. At the end of the day, the specialness is lost because then the corporation’s running it, and then, I think you lose what your original concept was all about. I think that’s the biggest issue.”

Horwell also doesn’t necessarily think of Nobu Hotels as occupying a place in luxury hospitality, instead referring to the brand as “special.”

“I look at our hotels not as luxury,” he said. “I look at them as special. I like us to be special, in each location we’re in. ‘Luxury’ is a word that’s used too much in terms of ‘everything is luxury today.’ For us, we’re ‘special.'”

“That’s why I’m saying, from a company perspective, we’re very entrepreneurial.

Today’s evolving luxury traveler is seeking “youthfulness” no matter what age they are, and they are “very curious and very adventurous. Because of that, it’s important for hospitality brands, Nobu included, to not just say they’re unique but to really offer unique experiences. He pointed to Nobu Ryokan Malibu in California as an example. The 16-room retreat overlooks the beach and is right by the ocean, and right next door to the Nobu Restaurant in Malibu. It becomes a destination, and that’s something Nobu wants to offer.

It’s also a different concept from what the other Nobu Hotels have. While Nobu Hotels are places where there’s an emphasis on bringing in the locals, the Ryokans are meant to be more private.

“The Ryokan is actually a place where people don’t want to necessarily be seen,” Horwell explained. “It’s a hideaway, a retreat. You can only book through a general manager and it’s a special place.” He added, “We will do more Ryokans, definitely, in locations that we think is right.”

A major focus for Nobu Hotels is to grow the company and the brand with the right talent and partners, as well as make sure that the Nobu Hotels brand is reaching the right consumers.

“The most important thing, from our perspective, is to build a relationship with our existing customers,” he said. “It’s about, first and foremost, on digital, working our databases. We like to do that through email, through a lot of channels. We just brought on a new head of digital. Capturing data is very, very important now, and that’s something that is a main focus and her team.”

“I think the main thing for us is the customer relationship management (CRM) because you can do so much with it,” he said. “You can know your customer. It’s one part of the business that we are heavily focused in in and we can extract a lot of information from that.”

In addition to beefing up its customer relationship management system, Nobu is also testing out a loyalty partnership, of sorts. The Nobu London Shoreditch joined Design Hotels last year, giving the property access to distribution on Design Hotels’ site, as well as a connection to the Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program. Three Nobu hotels are also members of Leading Hotels of the World. “A lot of our customers aren’t driven by points,” he said. “When I travel, I don’t go for points. I want to stay in a hotel where I enjoy the staff, the food and beverage, the products — all of that — and I will pay a premium for it.”

Appendix A
Additional Information about NOBU

Nobu Hotels

"A Place to go and be seen"

By “wrapping” the concept of a luxurious boutique hotel around energized public spaces, Nobu Hotels creates powerful stages for shared experiences of excitement and escapism. Featuring the best of everything with imaginative new restaurants, high- energy bars, relaxing rejuvenation, distinctive service, remarkable retail and an air of celebrity, Nobu Hotels will afford guests and privileged owners the most exclusive entry into unparalleled experiences that lay at the crossroads of innovation and imagination.

Source:

Excerpted from ‘Nobu Hotels CEO on a Restaurant-First Approach to Hospitality’ by D. Ting. Skift – March 22, 2018. +Experts and image from Nobu restaurant and hotel website