Vehicle of Travel Guides - Essay Example

s the assignment is due Case studies Case Lonely Planet In its efforts to diversify, Lonely Planet,the leader in Travel related books, launched its own website in 1994. Apart from providing valuable tourism related information, it offers services like package tours, hotel room booking, booking airline and train tickets etc. And, when we analyze this cross channel marketing, the issue that becomes an object of contention is the way or the speed with which, Lonely Planet’s website disseminate the tourism related information. That is, the speed of Internet technology has made Lonely Planet’s main ‘vehicle’ of travel guides suffer a cannibalization impact. That is, the gestation period of any travel guides including Lonely Planet is an extended one due the need for extensive homework. Because of which, a somewhat, same kind of information or even a better current version is provided by the website. So, this out-datedness in the travel guide will be the issue for a number of customers who use both Internet and the books. So, the solution to reduce revenue losses or operational frictions is to promote each vehicle as different entities, according to the market’s needs. That is, there are still markets where Internet technology have not improved much, in those places travel guides should be promoted. Then, people while traveling will not be able to access Internet any time, for them the travel guides of Lonely Planet will be feasible and so this segment of markets can be targeted With the advent of Internet and wireless technologies, the scope for Lonely Planet to develop has increased, a lot further. That is, like its joint venture with Nokia, in which Lonely Planet provides city guides on mobile phones, it could provide the city guides along with digitized maps to all telecom providers. That is, if it has a joint venture with telecom companies, it can reach more mobiles. As mobiles have become a lifeless extension of hand, which can be carried anywhere including during travel, Lonely Planet could expand its base. Then for the users of Internet, it can introduce features or products like seeing a virtual image of tourist spots like what Google earth is doing. Also, all the previous issues of Lonely Planet’s Travel guide that were published from 1970’s can be digitized and made available as download able files for a fee, because all the new and young readers cannot access the previous issues in book form. So, with this launch of new products the customer’s concerns about timeliness and currency of information can be looked after. That is, with the use of city guides with maps on mobile phones, which can be updated always, the outdatedness aspect could be removed. Then, the problem with currency of information can be removed by providing accurate and current virtual images of tourist places. But the problem that may besiege these new initiatives are, in the case of providing information through mobile phones, the customer have to ask for it, otherwise if he/she finds other alternatives it won’t work. Then with the case of virtual image it may fail, when the customer prefer a real image instead of watching a virtual image. With the mobile technologies improving day by day, they can be fully utilized to eliminate the inbuilt problems the Lonely Planet is facing like the extensiveness or bulkiness of the travel guides (which may put off the travelers because they may need only few pages), and the non-availability of internet every where. In these cases, the already discussed, the idea of having joint venture with the telecom companies and providing its content is a feasible one. That is, with mobile phone becoming an omnipresent thing in every one’s life and which can be carried by the traveler to any places without technical or procedural difficulties, it can surely address the customer’s concern and also yield additional revenue for Lonely Planet. Case 2: Montana Mountain Biking The customer is always the ‘king’ in a business environment and there are five (5( stages of customer loyalty with two options given under it. All the 5 stages from Dimension, Advertising, Targeting, Promotions and Distribution channels are an integral part of any organization, and will contribute in their own way for success. And, for the Montana Mountain Biking Company (MMB), among the 5 stages and the 2 options, the suitable options are selected and implemented. Of the important stage of Dimension, the option of traditional relationship with customers is followed because it paves the way for repeat customers. That is, of the total customers MMB caters, 80% of them are repeat customers and this proposition will continue in future also. Then, in the second stage of advertising, MMB is classified under the ‘Push and sell a uniform Message’ to all customers because in order to expand its customer base. This option is followed with interest by MMB by using the E-mail technology and utilizing around 60% of the advertisement allocation. ‘Identifying and responding to Specific customer behaviors and preferences’ is the classification under which, the customer loyalty stage of Targeting is practiced by MMB. That is, most of the times, around 90% of the times, MMB would avoid market segmentation because it will restrict them to a small market. And under the stage of Promotions and discounts, MMB chooses the option of ‘Individually tailoring to customer’ based on their ability to bring new customer from their circle of friends and relatives. And finally of the 2 distribution channels, the customers of MMB can be classified as direct or through intermediaries. In this Internet driven world, the role of E-mail is very important with many individuals in many countries having an E-mail ID just like a residential Address. So, this advancement can be used as an opportunity by MMB to garner more customers. That is, the existing customer at the end of their trips can be asked to just fill in a form expressing their views and feelings. In that form a column should be provided for the customer to name few of his/her friends and relatives and give their E-mail Ids using which MBB can send E-mails to them using the existing customer as the references. This will work because an existing customer will surely discuss his experience in MMB with his/her friends and relatives and if the E-mail reaches them, it will give them an exposure to know more about MMB and may push them to know and even undertake the adventures. This marketing strategy has an edge over the print mail advertising campaign because it is a focussed marketing strategy. While print mail campaign of MMB was not able to target the potential customers. It is just a common advertisement addressed to all the types of people. But this focussed E-mail marketing’s target group could respond because the existing customers’ experience could seed them with the thought of MMB and a well-crafted E-mail will surely entice them and make them follow his/her friends or relatives to MMB. This is type of E-mails could not be discarded by the enduser or the targeted customer because their Ids and reference were given by their own friends and relatives. So, they will surely trust the mail and will open it. So, this kind of permission marketing will surely work. The viral marketing will work in any business because the real words from the mouth or the personal experience of the human will be more effective than a print or TV advertising. That is, MMB as a business have already established a customer base and want to strengthen it further. For that, it has to bring in a new crop of customers, who could be from the same circle of existing or repeat customers. And the existing or repeat customers can be enticed to bring their friends and relatives, by offering them concessions in fees. That is, concessions in fee will be incentive for the existing customer to bring to his/her friend or relative during the next trip. The already discussed E-mail marketing is also a kind of viral marketing, which will surely have an impact in new arrivals. This viral marketing concept can be expanded into MMB website by asking the existing customers to write blogs about their experience. And, these blogs can be E-mailed to the target groups. This along with the already available photos of the tour in the website could work very well under the banner of viral marketing. The marketing strategy that would work productively is the Internet based marketing strategy. That is, with high profile customers coming from computer and Internet dominated society, this strategy will work successfully. For that, apart from developing and upgrading the features in its own website, MMB could use the concept of affiliation. Affiliation in the sense, placing MMB in the web sites, which could exhibit or provide same sort of related services. That is, in the ever expanding Internet world. There are websites for all the ‘topics under the sun’. And the type of website which MMB could use as affiliates can range from travel and tourism related websites, adventure sports based websites, Montana centric websites and websites that sell bikes. As MMB offers its service as a main form of holidaying, the travel and tourism websites offer better scope for it. Then in the websites, which will list all kinds of adventure sports, MMB could have prominent presence because in this motorized world, using bikes are viewed as adventure. Then, Montana being a hot tourist spot, many people will tend to visit it and will surf the Internet to get information, and if MMB is placed in these Montana websites it will add value. Likewise, biking sellers will always promote their bikes mainly as adventure vehicles and the services offered by Montana Mountain Biking will fit this bill perfectly. And the 5 websites that would be good referral sources are: 1] www.highonadventure.com/Hoa97aug/Montana/montana.htm 2] visitmt.com/virtualvisitor/biking/ 3] www.montana.com/ 4] www.rowadventures.com/index.php?page=trips&TripID=39 5] www.unitedstatesoutdoors.com/mt/mountainbiking/index.html Case 3: Harley Davidson Radio frequency identification or RFID for short is the technology that uses radio waves to automatically identify objects. Objects identification in the sense, anything solid could be fitted with the microchip and using an antenna (the chip and the antenna together are called an RFID tag) that object can be tracked from sitting in a place. Motorcycle manufacturer, Harley Davidson can tracks its bikes through the supply chain using RFID. And if they use RFID instead of barcodes and scanners, Harley Davidson could find both advantages as well as disadvantages The barcodes have an inbuilt weakness, that is, their codes are limited to a single type code for all instances of a particular product. While RFID tags have unique identity. That is, its numbering format will be unique because RFID tag data capacity is big enough and any tag will have to be a unique code. Actually, this unique identity is a mandatory requirement for RFID tags and this gives great advantage over Barcode. That is, the uniqueness of RFID tags means that a product, in this case bikes can be individually tracked in the whole jigsaw of supply chain. Also, at any part of the chain, bikes could be stolen or they could be damaged, in total there could be any form of product loss. This can be easily combated using RFID because it can easily track the bikes throughout and importantly provides opportunities for checks at various stages. And, this is also where RFID holds an advantage over Barcodes, whose use could be available only at certain points in the supply chain like in showrooms and retailers. Also, RFID tags apart from containing unique identity will also have the serial number of the object. This feature gives the option of “tracing back” of the products. That is, this tracing back using the serial numbers may help Harley Davidson to manage the quality deficiencies and the resulting recall campaigns, and also contributes to post-sale tracking and profiling of consumers. The other advantage of using RFID over barcodes is the “line of sight” concept. That is, the scanner has to ‘see’ the bar code to read it, which requires changing or orienting the bar code towards a scanner, for it to be read. While RFID on the other hand doesn’t require “line of sight” concept and can read as long as they are within range of the reader antenna. Another advantage is, the microchip of the RFID attached to bikes could not spoiled, ripped off or could even fall-off like the Bar codes. With all these advantages, RFID have some inbuilt weaknesses, which gives it, number of disadvantage when compared with bar codes. That is, when RFID is implemented at the Harley Davidson it will be a big drain to its financial resources. As the cost of RFID readers is $1,000 or more and the tags 20 cents or more, it will become a costly proposition because each of this tag need to be fixed in every bike, Harley Davidson manufactures. And also, it needs to have thousands of readers to cover all their factories, warehouses and stores. And when one compares it with Bar codes, Bar codes are very inexpensive. Then, even though RFID tags cannot be spoiled, it can be easily destroyed by using force. That is, RFID can be destroyed by giving a blow to it, using a strong object, but for bar codes it can’t be done because of its paper or sticker nature. Also, the human angle, will make RFID appear a disadvantaged one when compared with Bar codes. That is, RFID is a labor saving technology and so its likely that workers scanning bar codes will be laid off en masse, affecting their livelihood. With many companies in the world including well-known American companies like Wal-Mart, Paramount farms, Club cars etc using RFID technology, it is feasible technology for Harley Davidson also. That is, with the already discussed list of advantages as the base, RFID can streamline Harley Davidson’s supply chain management and steer it to success. And, when we formulate a timetable for the implementation of RFID technology, only the important sector of the Harley Davidson’s manufacturing unit as well as the final product should be considered. That is, RFID technology being an expensive one should be implemented, where it is needed the most. And while introducing it in a phased manner, the sector where it should be implemented first is the assembly line. That is, Harley Davidson should implement an RFID-enabled automated tracking system on the assembly line. In the assembly line, RFID tags should be tagged to each engine that is manufactured in the unit and this enables all the identification of the engines unit model and serial number. This implementation of RFID tags will cut down any errors, the errors here would led to the break down of the whole structure. Also, to produce quality engines, which are the main component of Harley Davidson bikes, the company is needed to track the location and status of the engines that is being manufactured. This tracking will collect information of the manufactured engines that could be used to trace quality issues, back to specific units and components. And when this information reaches the manufacturing unit, it will provide the best opportunities for the engineers to correct the engines in subsequent clearings. But, this is where; the time delay will be an issue because the data has to come from different locations, stretched to many areas. Harley Davidson can also put RFID tags on motorcycle frames. And this attaching can track each frame through various stages of assembly. And the stage where implementation of RFID can also be done is the service stations. That is, Stationary RFID readers can be installed at each station, and they read unit tags and ensure the appropriate instructions are displayed on the PCs matching the required operations. This implementation of RFID technology may help the company achieve many benefits, including reducing assembly errors, increasing repeatability and manufacturing efficiency, improving designs based on feedback from tracking quality issues, and refining processes based on data collected. Case 4: Old Metamora With Internet breaking all geographical boundaries and other restrictions, it brings, the people of this world, irrespective of the country they reside, under one roof. And this ‘Bringing under one roof’ concept comes with many advantages for all kinds of people. And if we concentrate on the entrepreneurs who were able to build the business on their own, it has many tools and avenues to help them and expand their business profitably. And, for Betty Shriver, the owner of Betty crystals, a small shop that sells collectable glass figurines, it opened a new vista to expand her business further. That is, she is already selling her products, through online, in the selling cum auctioning web sites like ebay, Amazon.com and Yahoo Auctions. With the good response, she got for her products through this medium, she decided to expand her business further through online, by getting subscribed to specialized online stores available through the websites of ebay and Amazon. That is, both this websites has specialized stores namely ebay stores and zShops, where seller will be given individual stores to showcase their products through photos and catalogs, and elicit buying queries from the customer. Through these options, Betty Shriver has immense opportunities because apart from the fast moving articles, she can also sell rare articles, which will have customers around the world. Between the two online stores, one, which will provide her the best avenue, is the ebay store. Firstly when we look at it from the cost factor, ebay provides the best alternative. That is, the monthly subscription for Pro Merchant seller at Amazon.com (Pro Merchant seller is the category under which one call sell items in a specialized store), is $39.99, on the other hand, the monthly subscription at ebay to use ebay stores is $15.95. So, the subscription fee at ebay is half the amount at zShops, with no difference in the services offered. So, Betty can go for ebay stores when one looks at it from the cost factor. Also, zShops doesn’t offer any other specialized versions of this selling package. That is, ebay offers the opportunity to upgrade to other tiers based on the amount of business and also scope for the visibility of the products. It starts with the “Basic Store”, the selling solution for sellers who are just starting out. Then, “Featured Store”, a more comprehensive solution for sellers, who want to aggressively grow their online business by focussing on it independently. This tier offers more Customization and Brand Control for each product. Then it provides up to 10 fully customizable pages in the Store thereby increasing the exposure. Also, this feature will provide cross promotion on ebay Stores homepage. And finally Anchor store, which offers an advanced solution for higher-volume sellers, who want maximum exposure on ebay. So, Betty has options to upgrade to another tier based on the response, she getting for her products and the volume of sales. And this option of upgradation is not available in zShops, which offers only a single package, which will surely affect the visibility factor because all the products will be featured in a single space, which affect the chose of the customers. Another big problem with zShops is the viability of the zShops on the whole. That is, according to market pundits, zShops is considered a failure on the aspect of online stores. When, Amazon launched zShops in 1999, it did not reach the intended targets both reach wise and profit wise, so Amazon steadily reduced its profile and instead promoted another online platform called Marketplace. Today zShops listings no longer appear in Amazon search results. So, with the phase out of zShops being a sure possibility, this may affect Betty Shriver as well. That is, it is not feasible for Betty Shriver to bank on zShops to expand her business. Betty Shriver needs to incorporate various elements to succeed, when she opens this store in ebay. And as a great advantage, ebay offers inclusion of various elements in its online store. One of the first elements that can be included is the store’s logo. That is, Betty’s as a shop doesn’t have any logo, but when it makes its debut in this store, they have to create a logo. Creation of a logo cannot be considered problem because it has many advantages like building a brand for Betty’s. And, the basic element that Betty should incorporate into the store is, she should showcase maximum amount of products. Actually ebay stores provide up to 300 products for display and also has inbuilt store search box. So, to fully utilize these features, Betty has to showcase maximum products with the product description. Product description is the key because with Betty Crystals specializing in glass figurines, which is not a common product one can buy over the counter, it is necessary to bring out the product’s salient features. So, describing the product should be one of the important elements, Betty needs to include in her store. With well thought out description of the product on the store, the customer can make quick choices. That is, the descriptions should entice the customers. But the problem with this extensive kind of description is that it will give a heightened image of the product to the customers. And, if the product does not fulfill the product’s description and thereby the expectation of the final buyer, it will affect the future sales of the Betty’s crystals and the image of the store in the online community on the whole. Also, another element that can be incorporated is the promotion of special glass figurines. That is, Betty may consider certain articles to be of special value and she can feature it in promotional area of her own ebay store. Another element that should be included is the different payment options. That is, customers from different countries need different payment options available, so they pay without any difficulties. And the problem will arise mainly in these quarters, because ebay stores or any other online selling websites offers only a limited payment options. And, this structure will have an effect in the functioning of Betty’s online store. And, if Betty includes all these elements in her store, it will give a clear picture for the customers and will attract maximum amount of queries, resulting in maximum amount of revenue for Betty Crystals. Case 5 – Nissan 5.1. US Courts sometimes appoint advisors (often called Special Masters) to help them decide cases that involve complex business or technical issues. Assume you are a business advisor to a court that is hearing an appeal of the Nisan Motor Co. v. Nissan Computer Corp case. In about 200 words , explain why Nissan Motors is so concerned about the use of these two domain names and how a monetary damage judgment of $ 10 million could be justified (if you do not believe that the monetary damages are justified, explain why).1 The reason why Nissan Motors is so concerned about the use of these two domain names is that the present technology has brought the marketing to be done almost predominantly through the internet. The big world has become so small because of the Internet and many good transactions could take place vie the Net. The concern of Nissan motors is not surprising as the case facts2 say that other automakers have done also to extend to suing the domain owners which first registered the same. As to how a monetary damage judgment of $10 million could be justified is difficult to accept. As found by the court, Mr. Uzi Nissan was not found in bad faith in the use of the nissan.com and nissan.net and he has a reason to use the same with Nissan being his family name. The moves of Nissan Motors before suing Mr. Nissan was not wise. Case facts3 say that after a Nissan Motor lawyer sent a letter in 1995 requesting information about how Mr. Nissan was planning to use the domain name nissan.com, Mr. Nissan did not respond to the letter. With the failure to respond, the Nissan Motor’s lawyer did not follow up with any other contract indicating failure to exhaust diplomatic and political means to get the domain bought by Nissan Motors. The lawyer just did not make a follow up for failure to respond on the part of Mr. Nissan. After about five year from sending the letter and failing to follow-up, Nissan Motors charged in court asking for a $10 million damage and demanded the exclusive right to use the names of nissan.com and nissan.net, an act that may have angered Mr. Uzi Nissan not to sell the domain at any price. The move of Nissan Motors was not proper and ethical before suing Mr. Nissan. It could have negotiated with Mr. Nissan and to sue Mr. Nissan for $10 damage is simply unfounded since Mr. Nissan was not in bad faith as found in the court. What Nissan Motors should have done should be to offer to buy the domain from Mr. Nissan. The case fact is clear about Mr. Nissan refused to sell at any amount after he was being sued. Other person with normal ego as that of Mr. Nissan might have done the same thing. 5.2. In about 200 words provide an outline of the ethics of the position taken by Uzi Nissan in this dispute4. The position taken by Mr. Uzi is ethical at the point of asserting his right to domain before Nissan Motors. It appears that Mr. Nissan’s use of surname as domain name is not without basis as Mr. Nissan did not intend that Nissan’s Motors’ business might be affected or confused with his computer business. To argue otherwise that the domain should be given to Nissan Motors simply because it is an international company against the will of Mr. Nissan , would be unfair and unjust for Mr. Nissan. The law is clear on the matter that who ever first registered will own the domain. The government agency who allowed the registration could have prevented Mr. Nissan from registering the domain if it was not lawful. It must be presumed that companies have no monopoly of terms pertaining to their names when they failed to registered. It appears that there are two agencies which regulate registration for business name and domain name. In my own opinion a person cannot be compelled to sell what he owns under the principle of private ownership and Mr. Nissan was just asserting his right when he told Nissan Motors that he was not selling the domain at any price. The only way that a private person that may be compelled his private property is to the exercise by the government or state about the power of expropriation5 or the buying the property by the government of the private property to serve public purpose after payment of just compensation. The basis for this is the overriding and inherent power of the state to do exercise the power. The said power is not available under the given facts. 5.3. In about 200 words provide an outline of the ethics of the position taken by Nissan Motors in this dispute.6 As to the ethics of the position taken by Nissan Motors, it appears that it has also all the rights in world to aspire for the exclusive use of the domain against any party had it registered the disputed domains. However as to the manner of enforcing its right is somewhat unethical. As found earlier, the company failed to make a follow-up of the letter to Mr. Nissan about the consequences of the use of the domain. With its failure it even sued Mr. Nissan for S10 million damage, which must be hurting for Mr. Nissan and which might been the psychological reason why Mr. Nissan kept his position not to sell the domain at any amount. That the Nissan lawyer did not exhaust diplomatic and political means to get the domain bought by failing to make a follow up for failure to respond on the part of Mr. Nissan is wrong. To sue Mr. Nissan after a few years, after failing to make a follow-up, and asking for a $ 10million damage added to the hurt. Again as stated this could be he reason why Mr. Nissan adamantly refused to sell the domain at any price. Yes, Nissan Motors may be known internationally but it is never a reason to trample on the rights of private persons who happened to first register the domain name7. The laws requiring first registration must be respected and if ever Nissan Motors failed to do it, is should suffer the consequence of its action. It has however the right to offer to buy in recognition of the right of Mr. Nissan but not to ask for damages. Moreover, it can use “nissanmotors.com” and Mr. Nissan would not object to that. 5.4. If you believe that court’s decision in the case are fair to the parties and the general public, explain why in 200 words. If you believe that the court’s decision are not fair, outline a decision (in about 200 words) that you believe to be fair.8 I believe that decision of the court in the case is not fair as to the part that which bars Nissan Computer to use “domain names for commercial purposes because of the potential confusion it could create in the minds of consumers9” and that the court “did not order the transfer of the two domain names to Nissan Motor.10” Before discussing what is fair in the decision, the reason for declaring some part of the decision unfair was the effect of the decision. Both of the parties lost the case since not one can use the same exclusively, hence there was no winner. The fair parts of the decision include the finding by the California Superior Court and the US Ninth Circuit District Court that “Nissan Computer had not acted in bad faith when it acquired the disputed domain names.” Having no bad faith, Mr. Nissan right to use domain must be sustained but the subsequent part of decision made it inconsistent with the finding of the right of Mr. Nissan. To prohibit him not to use is denial of what was declared in the judgment of lack of bad faith. In the first place, it was wrong to entertain the charge for $10 million damages under the US Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and for the exclusive right to use the names of nissan.com and nissan.net since Mr. Nissan first registered the domain. Works Cited: Schneider, Gary, Electronic Commerce, Seventh Edition, Boston, MA, 2007 South Midlands Internet Services, Leading UK Supplier of Cheap Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting, {www document} URL http://www.reg-domains.co.uk/, Accessed March 31, 2006 Sperduti, Frank, Balancing Rights and Interests: A Comparative Discussion of the Expropriation Acts In Ontario and Alberta, 2004{www document} URL, http://www.expropriation.com/Cases/PrecPaperBalancingRightsInterests.pdf, Accessed March 31, 2006 Read More