Growth Strategies for John Ball Zoo Society - Assignment Example

Growth Strategies for John Ball Zoo Society Introduction Owned and Incorporated by County of Kent back in 1950, John Ball Zoo Society is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan (John Ball Zoo Society, 2009). As a non-profit corporation, John Ball Zoo Society conducts a fund-raising operation to support its daily financial needs. For this reason, the Zoo Society accepts donation, operates food services and Gift Shop that sells souvenirs aside from conducting new event, promotion, marketing, advertisements, and purchases new animals every now and then (John Ball Zoo Society, 2009; 2009c).

Today, John Ball Zoo Society has more than 1,100 animals like chimpanzees, wolves, bears, aquatic, aviary and night animals, reptiles and amphibians that represent the wilds in Africa, Asia, South America, Australia and the United States. As part of increasing the company’s profit, John Ball Zoo Society offers zipline, camel rides, swan paddle boats and sky trail ropes course for an additional fee aside from the entrance fee between $5.50 to $7.50 per person during Summer and $3.00 to $.3.50 during Winter season (John Ball Zoo Society, 2009a; 2009b).

Problem Statement As of June 2008, the financial statement of John Ball Zoo Society revealed a total net loss of $2,450,074 (JustGive.Org, 2009). To continue serving the people as a competitive educational and recreational venue, it remains a challenge for the non-profit organization to increase its fiscal revenue in order to implement future Zoo expansion and reconstruction for the benefits of the future generation. Tactics to Increase the Annual Revenue of John Ball Zoo Society Market Penetration Make use of pricing strategy to attract more people to visit the zoo.

Offer discounted prices for the use of inside services to large group of visitors. Include added attractions for kids like the selling of colourful balloons, etc. Market Development Make use of promotional activities and advertisements to attract more children and adults to celebrate their birthdays and other special events inside the zoo. Encourage travel agencies to persuade the local and foreign travellers to visit the zoo. Continuously improve and upgrade John Ball Zoo’s Website to attract people around the world to visit the place.

Encourage the Science teachers to implement educational visit to the zoo. Improve the existing facilities and quality care given to animals. Product Development Implement annual funding campaign to generate more funds to be used in purchasing new animal species that are not currently available at John Ball Zoo. Diversification Establish a new facility that offers new and more exciting services like swimming with the dolphins in a pool, etc. Develop a new project that focuses mainly on the preservation of botanical species.

Recommended Tactics Market Penetration Given the global financial crisis, reducing the entrance fee between 20 – 30% is one of the best ways to increase the number of people visiting the zoo. This type of pricing strategy will attract more people to bring their family members and friends to John Ball Zoo Society rather than to other nearby zoos. Market Development Encourage travel agencies to persuade the local and foreign travellers to visit the zoo. Basically, travellers who are seeking fun and adventure can be easily persuaded to visit the zoo facility as compared to the local residence.

Since some of the foreign travellers are out for leisure purposes, these people are more than willing to extra spend money in exchange for the new experience. Product Development The purchase and importation of new animals can be very costly. For this reason, implementing an annual funding campaign can be the best option that will enable John Ball Zoo Society to generate extra funds in purchasing new animal species that are not currently available at John Ball Zoo. Diversification Establish a new facility that offers new and more exciting services like swimming with the dolphins in a pool is a good diversification plan.

Bringing in more fun and adventure to the local people can encourage and give their target market the reason to be more willing to pay a premium price for this kind of service despite the global financial crisis. Evaluation As part of evaluating the success of the recommended business growth strategy, monitoring the organization’s annual financial statement is a good way to determine whether or not John Ball Zoo Society will increase its revenue or not. Another way to determine the success of the proposed marketing growth strategy is to monitor the number of special events or group bookings that will take place inside the zoo aside from the total number of visitors each month.

Basically, the increase in the number of visitors will enable the marketing manager know whether or not the discounting of the entrance fee or the added products and services is effective in terms of increasing the organization’s annual revenue. *** End *** References John Ball Zoo Society. (2009). Retrieved July 9, 2009, from About Us: http://www.johnballzoosociety.org/about.php John Ball Zoo Society. (2009a). Retrieved July 9, 2009, from Zoo Attractions: http://www.johnballzoosociety.

org/attractions.php John Ball Zoo Society. (2009b). Retrieved July 9, 2009, from Hours: http://www.johnballzoosociety.org/info.php John Ball Zoo Society. (2009c). Retrieved July 9, 2009, from Donations: http://www.johnballzoosociety.org/donations.php JustGive.Org. (2009). Retrieved July 9, 2009, from John Ball Zoological Society: http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=justgive&npoId=314703