Western Governors University
E-Business
QRT2
December 31, 2013
QRT2 Task 1
A1. Viability of Product or Service: Earlier this summer, one of my good friends and colleague partnered up with a couple of enterprising individuals and started a U-Swirl and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory franchise. This fast food restaurant, located in Issaquah, WA, being a franchise, has the backing and support of the parent entities of “U-Swirl Frozen Yogurt” and the gourmet chocolatier “Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory”. In keeping with the U-Swirl Frozen Yogurt Issaquah (2013) marketing tagline: “Worth the Weight” this fast food restaurant offer it’s guests up to 12 flavors of low fat and non-fat frozen yogurt at any time …show more content…
Current Online Competitor Assessment: If one looked for “frozen yogurt” in Issaquah, WA, you would find as the top choice “Yum-e Yogurt”. This local family owned and operated establishment can be considered a direct competitor and is geographically less than a mile away. Yum-e Yogurt is both a coffee house and frozen yogurt restaurant all in one, founded in 2012 when the first store opened in Maple Valley, WA. The Yum-e Yogurt location in Issaquah that is barely two months old is just the second Yum-e Yogurt store of this entrepreneurial frozen yogurt restaurant chain. Their website is simple and easy to navigate. They emphasize in a big way their core family beliefs in their mission statement as well as pride in the quality of the coffee, frozen yogurt and smoothies that they offer in their store (Yum-e Yogurt, n.d.). They have links directly from their webpage to their social media content on Facebook and Twitter where they have a comparatively larger following than our U-Swirl store. They have 4.5 stars out of 5 stars rating from an average of 16 customer reviews on Yelp (http://www.yelp.com/biz/yum-e-yogurt-issaquah). They however do not have a setup for a loyalty program to serve as an incentive for repeat customers and do not have the option to purchase anything from their website. They also do not appear to have any kind of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) component online that could further enhance their business relationship with their loyal …show more content…
There are many possible options to consider when planning the creation of a new message that would be informative, interesting, unusual, funny, and something that viewers might want to copy and pass on. One potential option would be to create a mash-up of a video of the nutritional benefits of frozen yogurt and put it to music of a popular hit song. This video could be uploaded to the popular video hosting website: YouTube. The video link can also be made easily accessible in the store through a QR (Quick Response) code, which customers can scan with their camera and web enabled smartphones and be taken directly to the hosted video whose link can then be forwarded to friends and family and which can also be embedded on the customers’ respective social media websites. Often in today’s online world where scams are plentiful, there is nothing more effective than messages that get passed on by friends and