Lamb Chapter 11 Web Exercise

Services and Nonprofit Organization Marketing

Vignette: The Four Seasons Hotel, a Toronto-based company, demonstrates that service has made it one of the top luxury hotel chains in the world.

Featured URL: www.fourseasons.com

Home Away from Home
Whether it is nestled on a sandy beach overlooking the Caribbean or situated in a bustling cityscape, a hotel is a community of professionals who specialize in service. Hotels offer a wide range of amenities, from the concierge and doormen, to the bell hops and cleaning staff, to the massage therapists and shoe shines, to the kitchen and restaurant staff, to the pool and fitness centre employees.

Have A Cuppa

Coffee is a leading service industry. In the article "In the People Business Serving Coffee", Tony Mosely concludes that the secret of Starbucks' success may be the following:

• Copy ideas from around the world.
  
• Have a passion for the business.
  
• Involve staff in your mission and values.
  
• Demonstrate you care for your people.
  
• Don't drop your standards.
  
• Make certain the employees understand the business.
  
• Recruit leaders who share your values.

1. Have a look at the coffee businesses found in the Resources section. Explore the Starbucks site to find examples of each of the points listed as Starbucks' strategy for success.
   
2. Compile a similar list based on one of the other four coffee businesses.
   
3. How does the company you've chosen stand on these points as compared to Starbucks?

• Leading Hotels of the World.
  
• Four Seasons Hotel London.
  
• Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo.
  
• Starbucks.
  
• The Second Cup.
  
• Tim Hortons.
  
• CoffeeTime.
  
• Timothy's.

Services

• Hospitality Net - industry news, market reports, employment, etc.
  
• Hotel OnLine - hospitality, gaming and lodging industry news.
  
• International Hotel and Restaurant Management Association - up-to-date information on industry issues and association news.
  
• Service Industry Association - for those in the computer, medical and business products service industries
  
• FoodService.com - an e-zine for those in the food service industry.

NonProfit

• NonProfit Career Network - resource centre for employment with nonprofit organizations.
  
• Guidestar - a national database of service organizations.
  
• Non-Profit Gateway - a network of links to government information and services.
  
• The NonProfit Times - a business publication for nonprofit management.
  
• Internet Nonprofit Center - information for and about nonprofit organizations.
  
• The Idealist. Since 1996, thousands of organizations around the world have been using Idealist to post information about their events, resources, job openings, internships, and volunteer opportunities.
  

These Web Exercises provide an additional opportunity for exploration of Chapter 11.

1. Be My Guest

Go to the Resources section and open the site for Leading Hotels of the World. Using its search engine, find the two Four Seasons hotels listed, London and Tokyo. Read each hotel's description, then go to the Four Seasons' own site for each hotel.

• What is different about the information given?
  
• Do you get the same impression of the service offered at each hotel from reading either site? If not, what is missing?
  
• How could either site for each hotel give a better impression regarding services available for guests?
  
• Can you find another description of either of these hotels on another site on the Web? If so, in what ways is the description different?

2. Hospitality

In December 2001, Hospitality Net in its Marketing and Sales section featured the article "10 Tips To Make Your Web Marketing Click" (HSMAI Marketing Review). In it, Hillary Bressler wrote that according to projections by GartnerGroup, Inc., the worldwide on-line travel market is expected to increase from $5 billion in 1999 to $30 billion by the fourth quarter of 2001. It is imperative, she advised, that you continually re-evaluate your on-line marketing strategy to make sure you are using your Website to best advantage.

Also in December, Hotels Online featured the article "Florida's Tourism Industry Continues to Suffer Despite Increased Air Travel." This piece discussed the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. In the Network News section of the Service Industry Association, there is another article on the same attacks. At FoodService.com, among the listed articles for December are financial reports for companies like Heinz and MacDonald's.

Read a recent article in one of the service industry e-zines listed in the Resources section. Summarize the article. Why do you believe the Website where you found it is a valuable one to monitor if you are interested in service industry marketing?

3. Nonprofit

There are many nonprofit organizations in our society-food banks, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, arts organizations, charities such the United Way and the Terry Fox Foundation, and so on. Using the half-dozen nonprofit Websites listed in the Resources section, conduct some research.

1. Find some employment opportunities in marketing in the nonprofit sector that you might like to apply for.
   
2. Tailor your résumé so that it works with the job description given for one of the jobs that interests you.
   
3. Write a short report that includes (1) the job and job description, (2) your newly revised résumé, and (3) a brief statement telling why you want to be the successful candidate for this job.