Project Proposal Main

INSC 20263

Information Systems in eEnterprise

Festivation Inc. Project Proposal

submitted to

Dr. Beata Jones

By Sabina Dedja Jason Coats Paul Ratliff

Cam Cunningham

INSC 20263 -- Project Proposal – Page 1

1. Industry overview, based on research (include sources):

Our research was strictly based on some of the major current musical festivals in the United States from whom we will gain our main sources of valuable information so as to successfully run our company. Our main industry research came from the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Summerfest, and the Austin City Limit Music Festival.

San Francisco Jazz Festival: Debuting in 1983, the San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual three-week celebration of today's best music, with over 30 concerts. Produced by SFJAZZ, a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education. Every fall, a phenomenal array of jazz concerts, from the classic to the avant-garde, gathering the legends of today and the rising stars of tomorrow in premier venues throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area. Originally a small-scale event known mostly in the local community, the Festival has risen to national and international prominence featuring dozens of events, including commissions of new works by some of the most creative contemporary artists, unique "Jazz on Film" presentations, family matinee concerts, dance performances, and photography exhibits.

Bonnaroo: The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual, four to five-day music festival, created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, first held in 2002. The festival is held at Great Stage Park on a 700 acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. The main attractions of the festival are the multiple stages of live music, featuring a diverse array of musical styles including indie rock, world music, hip hop, jazz, americana, bluegrass, country music, folk, gospel, reggae, electronica, and other alternative music. The festival began with a primary focus on jam bands, but has diversified greatly in recent years. The festival features craftsmen and artisans selling unique products, food and drink vendors, and many other activities including some put on by various sponsors.

Summerfest: (also known as "The Big Gig") is a yearly music festival held at the 75-acre Henry Maier Festival Park along the lakefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The festival lasts for 11 days, is made up of 11 stages with performances from over 700 bands, and since the mid-1970s has run from late June through early July, always including the 4th of July holiday. Summerfest attracts between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people each year, promoting itself as "The World's Largest Music Festival," a title certified by the Guinness World Records in 1999. Summerfest is run by the non-profit organization Milwaukee World Festival, and features both local and nationally known music talent from a variety of music genres. The event also provides the opportunity to sample a wide variety of food from many Milwaukee-area restaurants. Other Summerfest attractions include comedy acts, shopping vendors, fireworks (including "The Big Bang" on opening night), other special attractions, family activities and more. Live musical acts are offered on 11 stages throughout the grounds from noon to midnight, including the 23,000-capacity Marcus Amphitheater.

ACL: The (Austin City Limits Music Festival) is an annual three-day music festival in Austin, Texas's Zilker Park. The Festival brings together more than 130 bands on eight stages, including rock, country, folk, indie, Americana, hip-hop, reggae, and bluegrass, and attracts a crowd of about 65,000 visitors each day. Named after the legendary PBS concert series, the festival is produced by C3 Presents, who also co-produce the Lollapalooza and Big State festivals. Austin City Limits is a very popular event in Texas for rock, indie, blues, world/ethnic contemporary and traditional, reggae, eclectic, fusion, electronic, soul, folk/Americana and almost all other music fans. Major metropolitan areas Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are each within a 3 hour drive of Austin. Zilker Park also features nearby Nature City and its gardens, the botanical gardens and Barton Springs pool, beach volley ball courts and a rock formation in Zilker park. The festival is located near downtown Austin, where many artists perform after-shows after they play at the festival.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_City_Limits_Music_Festival

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_City_Limits_Music_Festival�


http://www.aclfestival.com/info/faq.html;

http://www.apassion4jazz.net/sanfrancisco.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Jazz_Festival;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerfest;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnaroo.

2. Perform a detailed Porter's Five Forces analysis for your industry. Be sure to discuss entry barriers and switching costs.

Power HIGH LOW Justify Buyer Power

X For music festivals, there is not much variation as to where a customer can purchase tickets. The venue of the festival or its top contributors will give out the limited tickets.

Supplier Power

X As the buying potential is low, supplier power is high. This is due to only a small amount of sellers of the sought after festival tickets.

Threat of Substitute Products or Services

X The only competition for music festivals would have to be concerts, and even then, the two are not fully comparable as festivals offer a larger variety of musical interests while concerts may only offer one or two bands.

Threat of New Entrants

X Although it is possible for any willing new festival to enter the realm of potential buyers, it is not considered a threat to any already existing festival. This is because once existing festivals have been established, they have gained their own customer base that will most likely continue to support their chosen festival’s cause due to consumer loyalty for that festival.

Rivalry Among Existing Competitors

X Competition is very complacent among the music festival industry. Festivals are independent of each other therefore not enticing rivalry.

http://www.aclfestival.com/info/faq.html�

http://www.apassion4jazz.net/sanfrancisco.html�

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Jazz_Festival�

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerfest�

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnaroo�


3. Description of the competitive environment that is relevant to the use of the Web by the industry.

Competitive Force … and their Web Usage within the Industry

Customers

Customers look to music festival websites for any, and all, information regarding the performances. They attempt to locate tickets, view artists, venue locations, directions, and more.

Suppliers

All of the elements necessary for the festival including bands, equipment staff, photographers, videographers and food servers can log onto the website and provide information (both to the public and to festival operators) regarding their input for the show.

New Entrants

New entrants primarily use websites to compare how effective and successful their new ideas will be alongside the existing festivals’. Based on this research, they are then able to launch their own websites.

Competitors

Competitors are able to pinpoint effective and ineffective strategies on websites of other music festivals, and can therefore improve their own for anything they see fit such pricing, graphical representation, artists and performers, and overall content.

Substitute Products

Alternative festival services, such as concerts for example, would utilize the websites of festivals to pinpoint possible imitation services/ goods they can offer, possibly at a cheaper cost to attract the maximum customers.


4. Using what you have learned about good/bad web design in class and using class notes, please identify: four web sites in your industry that you believe are ‘good’ and four that you consider ‘poorly designed.’ (Each individual researches two companies.)

Company Name

San Francisco Jazz Festival Organization

Zimbabwean Music Festival Organization

Web Site’s URL

www.sfjazz.org www.zimfest.org

Site’s

Target Audience

Jazz music lovers and music festivalgoers.

Anyone wishing to attend or be a part of Zimfest 2009.

Site’s Purpose

To educate visitors of the site about the programs implemented by the SFJazz Organization and give details about

upcoming musical venues, etc.

To reach out to the public about Zimfest and its attributes, locations, and recent

news.

Good? (Yes/No)

Yes

No

Design elements from the lecture notes/lecture

that contributed to a Positive/Negative

impression - provide at least 3 for each site & explain;

Attach website

screenshots with discussed features highlighted with

diigo.com or awesomehighlighter.com

1) Chunked information for readability and added appropriate hyperlinks so as to not bog down the page.

2) Good use of active white space.

3) Used very appropriate photography throughout the page.

SEE ATTACHMENT 1.

1) Way too much passive white space.

2) Home page longer than two screens of information with too much text (font may even be too small for some tastes); does not summarize company motives.

3) Very vague visual support such as appropriate pictures, etc.

SEE ATTACHMENT 2.

http://www.zimfest.org/�


1)

2)


Company Name

Bonnaroo Kentucky Lake Bluegrass Festival

Web Site’s URL

http://www.bonnaroo.com/Festival.aspx http://www.klbf.org/

Site’s

Target Audience

Music fans who are interested in seeing one or multiple artists or groups play

Music fans who are interested in seeing one or multiple bluegrass artists or bands perform

Site’s Purpose

Provided updated information regarding the festival. This includes- lists of who will be appearing, special offers, photos, and travel/ticket information.

Provided updated information regarding the festival. This includes- lists of who will be appearing, photos, and travel/ticket information.

Good? (Yes/No)

Yes

No



impression - provide at least 3 for

each site & explain

Attach website screenshots with

discussed features highlighted with


1. Consistent layouts- Each page follows the same format. The sites contain only information that is necessary and relevant to that particular page. 2. Gives what the users want- The homepage has important information and easy to find links to further explain each topic. 3. Color format- Only two colors are used (a light blue and a green). They go well together and with the active white space and background.

SEE ATTACHMENT 3.

1. Consistent design- Completely lacking. Each link you click on brings you to a new site with a completely different look and design. 2. Color of text- The color scheme is not picked out well. Too much black and white then all of a sudden red (warm color) and blue (cool color). 3. Title pages- Difficult to find as you need to scroll down past the advertisement.

SEE ATTACHMENT 4.


3)

4)


Company Name

Milwaukee World Festival (Summerfest) The Bamboozle

Web Site’s URL

www.summerfest.com http://thebamboozle.com/

Site’s

Target Audience

People interested in purchasing festival tickets


Site’s Purpose

To persuade the customer to purchase a ticket


Good? (Yes/No)

Yes

No



impression - provide at least 3 for

each site & explain

Attach website screenshots with

discussed features highlighted with


- Has a lot going on in the website, but not too much.

- While the task bars are on the left side (correct) and the bottom (usually on the

top) it still works.

- Even though they used a dark background, the other colors used make

bring out the fonts.

SEE ATTACHMENT 5.

- Uses black as a background and a yellow that almost hurts your eyes

- The opening page does not tell me

anything about the festival.

- Takes three clicks just to get to the bulk of the website.

SEE ATTACHMENT 6.


5)

6)


Company Name

Coachella

C3 Presents (ACL)

Web Site’s URL

http://coachella.com/

http://www.c3presents.com/

Site’s

Target Audience



Site’s Purpose



Good? (Yes/No)

Yes

No



impression - provide at least 3 for each site & explain;

Attach website

screenshots with discussed features highlighted with


- Uncluttered information for ease of use - Good amount of active/passive white

space - Contains appropriate search bars on the top and news on the bottom and the right

side of the page.

SEE ATTACHMENT 7.

- Too much passive space

- Dark colors for the background are unappealing

- It takes multiple clicks to get to the main

screen

SEE ATTACHMENT 8.


7)

8)


5. Industry ‘key competitors’

Competitor’s name and URL of the web site

How (what features?) are they using on the web?

What are their most effective or unique ways of using the web?

What are their most ineffective

ways of using the web?

San Francisco Jazz Festival

www.sfjazz.org

Good use of active and passive white space; utilized appropriate hyperlinks; contained appealing graphical content.

All parts of the webpage aid in contributing to the overall purpose of the company.

All articles to the right of the page, are very congested on the screen although they signify the company’s success.

Bonnaroo

http://www.bonnaroo.com/Festival.aspx

Banner at the top of the page, appropriate theme colors, links along the top and left side, active white space

The green, blue, and white colors go well together and with logo at the top. The site is very simple but very effective and appealing.

The website has a “More Headlines” section on the main page causing it to run well over two screens of information.

Milwaukee World Festival (Summerfest)

www.summerfest.com

Task Bars; effective color Schemes; use of appropriate search Engine; helpful FAQ section

While the task bars are on the left side (correct) and the bottom (usually on the top) it still works; utilizes great use of colors that mesh well.

Some passive space towards the bottom.

Coachella

www.coachella.com

Highly effective use of graphics and color schemes to guide a visitor’s eyes when on the webpage; hyperlinks also aid in overall appearance.

Very distinct graphical content that sets site apart from other competitors.

The video on the homepage may not work for all users.

6. Industry Key Competitors - Web Site Ratings

Company Name

Website Content

Ease of Navigation

Site Appearance

Graphical Content

Clarity of Purpose

User friendly

Overall

SFJazz 9 10 10 10 10 10 10

Bonnaroo 9 8 10 10 9 9 9

Summerfest 7 8 7 7 9 8 8

Coachella 10 9 10 8 9 10 9

Legend: 1-10 rating (1 being highly ineffective and 10 being exceptionally effective)


Company#1- San Francisco Jazz Festival

Rating Explanation of Rating

Website Content

All content clearly focuses on the main purpose of the website however, the articles also included add a bit of a visual clutter to the overall appearance.

Ease of Navigation

Very easy to navigate anything needed on the page no matter what competitive force a visitor may be.

Site Appearance

Homepage includes an exceptionally well-incorporated color scheme with high quality pictures and flash media.

Graphical Content

Excellent use of applicable pictures, media, and other graphical content which aids in developing the overall effectiveness of the company’s purpose.

Clarity Of Purpose

It is very clear at any given time that this site intends to capture the general audience’s attention with an abundance of information about the SFJazz organization and attributed.

User Friendly

It is very simple to navigate this website to get to any desired location and all aspects aid in the incorporation of the sole purpose.

Company #2- Boonaroo


Website Content

The website has everything there is to know about the Bonnaroo Music Festival. What one is looking for is easily found.

Ease of Navigation

All aspects of navigation work well on this site, it can be daunting however for a visitor because there are quite a bit of links all throughout to choose from.

Site Appearance

The website is very simple and visually appealing. The colors fit well together and everything is easy to read.

Graphical Content

The site only uses two graphics, the logo and the concert design at the top of the page, however, they are sufficient in portraying the purpose of the page.

Clarity of Purpose

It is obvious to tell that Bonnaroo is a music festival from the headlines and descriptions, so the company vividly displays its purpose.

User Friendly

The site covers everything and has trouble-free navigating along with Frequently Asked Questions to volunteer information.


Company #3- Milwaukee World Festival (Summerfest)


Website Content There is not that much on the main page of the website. There is some idle space but it is not overly daunting.

Ease of Navigation The homepage contains task bars and a search engine, which aid visitors in navigation all throughout.

Site Appearance Utilizes a good color scheme, a little dark of a background but it works because it allows the fonts to stand out.

Graphical Content The site does contain pictures from previous years however they are dimmed because of text covering them, making it difficult for visitors to distinguish what the graphics represent.

Clarity of Purpose The purpose is clear, to sell tickets and get people to come to the festival. On every page there is a section or box that will take the user to a payment page.

User Friendly All content on the website can be accessed with only one click; the user does not have to search through the whole website to find something.

Company #4- Coachella Music Festival


Website Content

Site content is highly effective for this festival, everything is nice and compact so a visitor does not have to avidly search for what they are looking for but is able to access information easily.

Ease of Navigation

The page contains great examples of hypertext links and navigational bars for easy handling of the content. It may be necessary for a visitor to search around some however, to find exactly what they need.

Site Appearance

The site design is exceptionally effective, use of fitting color scheme and graphical content enhances the visual appeal of the site.

Graphical Content

The site uses an abundance of photographs and videos to convey the festival efficiently; users are drawn to discover more about the event by clicking and accessing these graphics; however, for some users it may be too much.

Clarity of Purpose

Site is well balanced in defining exactly what the purpose of this organization is and letting visitors know how to access more information pertaining to the event.

User Friendly

There is no trouble at all attaining the correct amount of information needed by a visitor to this site therefore making it a well balanced homepage for accessing appropriate data.


7. The industry’s strengths and weaknesses in regard to the effective use of the web?(at least 3 each)

Strengths Weaknesses

1. Visually appealing

2. Simple

3. Content is exactly what you’re looking for

1. Webpage is too long

2. Too many links to choose from

3. Not enough graphical content

8. Proposed website enhancements for the industry(at least 3 each):

i. What type of information would you recommend they add to their websites?

Many have to travel long distances to make the performances offered by a festival so a website should provide information regarding the travel accommodations. This can include links giving detail of where to stay, where to park, and what to eat would be helpful. Volunteer information would also be a good feature. Not all sites have a “Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)” page, however this would be an improvement for any music festival website.

ii. What modifications would you recommend to their web design?

It would be beneficial to group the content better so as to not overwhelm the user with an abundance of choices regarding too many links. Next, the “Headlines” section should only list about four or five examples with an “Even More Headlines” link to click to view the rest so as to not unnecessarily lengthen the homepage. Finally, adding more pictures can help the overall appearance of the site and draw in more possible customers.

9. Name of the company that you propose to create and its geographic location:

Our team would like to create Festivation Inc., primarily located in Destin, Florida, which is in the music festival segment of the music industry.

10. Detailed description of the proposed new business, including mission/goals, services and products it will offer, size, etc.

Our new company’s primary goal will aim to develop and implement an elite annual festival that will compete with the best in the market. We will seek to attain a diverse group of sponsors so as to successfully satisfy our customers the best we can. Our company intends to develop a high-quality festival that will have anywhere from five to ten stages and at least 150 different artists from every popular genre. We will be holding general admission tickets with a price range of $50-75 in order to cover the different venues that will be on the festival grounds. We will utilize an available location in Destin, Florida similar in size and proportion to Zilker Park in Austin, Texas.


11. Determine which of Porter's Three Generic Strategies you will use as you build your company for the 21st century. Explain your answer.

Out of Porter’s Three Generic Strategies, Festivation Inc. will seek to successfully instigate a Focused Strategy. Music festivals are primarily in a narrow market, meaning there is not much competition between major festivals, so this aspect will develop to our advantage. In addition, a festival is typically on the high end of cost. Our cost will depend upon event sponsoring and what services/ products we provide to our customers.

12. Discuss the many eBusiness strategies that your company could use to increase revenue and decrease cost.

A. Company web site’s target audience – who will use the website (internally and externally), for what purpose and where are they located geographically?

Our company’s target audience will be young adults from anywhere in the country, or possibly even around the world. Anybody looking to attend our music festival or gather more information will visit our website. Our musical festival will have many top artists performing, so our website will reach out to people across the nation to attract them to come to our music festival. Suppliers and sponsors can also discover useful information about our company and our services so that they can appropriately contribute to our cause.

B. Company’s website purpose:

Our company’s purpose on the web is to inform people about our music festival and attract them to purchase tickets to attend the event.

C. Company’s primary usage of the web

a. Is the primary use going to be informational or transactional or both? Justify.

Our primary usage of the web will be both informational and transactional. The website will give the user information about upcoming performances and performers, location of performance, and times, among other things. The site will have useful links where users can make online transactions and purchase tickets for the festival.

b. What pages will be found on the website? Please list major sections of the site.

Home – homepage of website

Events – will allow user to see the dates and times of upcoming performances

Ticket Sales – will allow users to purchase tickets online

Background – gives the user background information about music festival

Performers – gives the user background information about artists performing


Contact Information – gives the user necessary contact information if they have any other questions or concerns about the festival

c. Is the website primarily for B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) or both? Justify. B2C – our website is primarily a business to consumer page because our company is ultimately attempting to attract and sell tickets to consumers in exchange for their attendance.

D. How can an eBusiness strategy help your company attract customers and increase sales?

The eBusiness strategy can help our company attract customers and increase sales because using the Internet will improve our company’s information content. Our website will present consumers with up to date information in real time about our musical festival. Utilizing the Internet will allow our company to reach out to more possible customers despite being limited to our geographical location. Also, using the Internet will decrease cost. The web costs less to run than other business communications, which will decrease expenses and increase revenue.

E. How could eBusiness strategy help customer service?

The eBusiness strategy can help customer service because utilizing the Internet will make our good/service more accessible to consumers. It will allow users to purchase tickets 24/7. Also using the Internet increases customer convenience. Ebusiness automates and improves many of the activities that make up the buying experience.

F. How could you use an eBusiness strategy to partner with suppliers?

For our company, we could use the eBusiness strategy to collaborate with suppliers by contacting and retrieving artists for performing. In addition, our company could use the emarketplace to find the best supplier of goods, such as drinks and food, to provide people who attend the music festival.

G. How could a portal help your employees? A portal can help our employees by allowing everyone to become part of the same email system. This will allow our company to keep in contact with all employees efficiently and effectively.

H. How could a kiosk help your business?

A kiosk could help our company by allowing us to check and compare other competitors in our market. A kiosk could allow us to see other competitor’s prices and attractions. Knowing this information, our company could change our prices or come up with new attractions to entice consumers to come to our music festival.


I. What types of metrics would you want to track on your eBusiness Web site? Be sure to justify your answers.

Clickstream Data Metrics – our company could utilize this metric by viewing what pages users are looking at the most or the least. Knowing this information will allow our company to make improvements to our website as necessary. This metric will enable us to gather valuable demographic information about our consumers. Visitor Metrics – our company can use this metric to observe what kind of users are visiting our website. The metric will ID users, tell us how long or how many times they have visited the website, and provide us with other important information. By knowing who visits our website, our company will be able to see what attracts visitors to the content and what improvements could be made accordingly.

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