Scenario
You are the regional marketing director of a theme park in the southeastern United States that is part of a global brand. The chief marketing officer (CMO) of global operations has called upon you to help coordinate the marketing tasks related to rolling out an emergency response due to a recent safety and injury incident at one of the parks resulting in serious injuries to employees and customers. The parks were closed immediately following the incident to ensure safety measures for customers and employees and to deploy the needed safety measures.
Now, as the theme park is all set to reopen, the CMO has called you to take a lead in planning the marketing strategy for the same. Your responsibility is to design a phased strategy for marketing the reopening of all parks. Your strategy should address the critical objectives such as maximum safety, crisis communication, customer satisfaction, and profit potential. You must coordinate marketing strategy with corporate strategy, as failure or success of the marketing strategy can have a direct impact on the brand.
As a first step, you will perform an analysis to understand the implications of reopening on brand equity. In this analysis you will identify the groups of stakeholders that are affected by the reopening and also plan the communication strategy for before and after the parks’ reopening. Also, you will identify the roles and responsibilities of key functional departments that are going to play an important role in the reopening process. This analysis will help you develop a strategic marketing plan to address the reopening of the park and also to develop an effective crisis communication plan.
In this milestone, you will create a PowerPoint presentation that will include brand analysis and the implications of reopening on the brand equity and functional departments, including their roles and responsibilities in the reopening process.
Prompt
Brand Analysis and Implications—In this part of the project, you will present the brand implications of reopening the park in the course scenario. Your presentation should include the following critical factors:
- Determine the essential factors that can impact the brand equity when reopening the park. (slides 1–3)
- Describe the importance of brand equity to the organization. (slide 1)
- Provide positive implications (slide 2):
- Safety concerns addressed and communicated
- Community and local government support for reopening
- Employee support for reopening
- Provide negative implications (slide 3):
- Social media negative reactions
- Employee negative concerns
- Operational concerns for safety
- Describe the strategic communication plan that should occur before and after the park reopens. Your responses should address the following (slides 4–8):
- Identify three key stakeholder groups from this list:
- Employees
- Customers
- Government agencies
- Communities
- Vendors
- Describe each stakeholder’s interests in the organization.
- Describe their communication needs.
- Identify the best mode for communicating with them based on their needs.
- Describe what impact reopening the park could have on each identified stakeholder (low, medium, or high). Why?
- Identify three key stakeholder groups from this list:
Functional Departmental Roles and Responsibilities—In this part of the project, you will identify three functional departments and describe their roles and responsibilities in making the reopening of the park a success. Your presentation should include the following critical factors (slides 9–12):
- Identify three functional departments, including marketing, that play a significant role in the reopening process. Consider which departments will be most engaged in the reopening process. (slide 9)
- Describe the roles and responsibilities of these functional departments in the safe and successful process of reopening the park. (slide 10)
- Develop an internal communication plan that addresses the following (slides 11–12):
- How will you take feedback from the stakeholders?
- What could be the legal and ethical issues in reopening of the park? To understand the specific guidelines, refer to the Memo From Legal Team.
- What will be the frequency of meetings with stakeholders to share relevant information?
Guidelines for Submission
Submit a recorded PowerPoint presentation with 12–13 slides. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information.
Video: Record a Presentation
Use this resource to learn how to record your PowerPoint presentation with narration and video.
| Criteria | Exemplary (100%) | Proficient (85%) | Needs Improvement (55%) | Not Evident (0%) | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Brand Equity | Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Describes the importance of brand equity and provides positive and negative implications to the organization's brand when the park reopens | Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include the description of brand equity or the positive and negative implications to the organization’s brand when the park reopens | Does not attempt criterion | 20 |
Strategic Communication Plan | Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Identifies three key stakeholder groups; describes their interests in the organization and the impact reopening might have on them; and identifies the best mode of communicating with them based on their needs | Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include sufficient details concerning description of stakeholder interests in the organization or the impact reopening might have on them or identification of the best mode of communicating with them based off their needs | Does not attempt criterion | 20 |
Functional Departments | Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Identifies the three functional departments, including marketing, that play a significant role in the reopening of the park | Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include identifying the functional departments that have a significant role in reopening the park | Does not attempt criterion | 20 |
Roles and Responsibilities | Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Describes the roles and responsibilities of the functional departments in the safe and successful process of reopening the park | Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include describing the roles or responsibilities of each of the functional departments in the safe and successful reopening of the park | Does not attempt criterion | 20 |
Internal Communication Plan | Exceeds proficiency in an exceptionally clear, insightful, sophisticated, or creative manner | Develops an internal communication plan in alignment with the brand support which includes stakeholders’ feedback, legal and ethical issues, and daily information sharing | Shows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include identifying the internal organizational communications needed, considering stakeholder feedback, legal and ethical issues, and information-sharing frequency | Does not attempt criterion | 20 |
| Total: | 100% |