Gb532 Market Research: Blue Mountain Resort Ltd.

CASE STUDY

BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT LTD.: THE NIGHT SKIING DECISION

Adrienne Been

GB532 Market Research

Unit 1| Assignment 2

Doctor Beatrice Bourne

Kaplan University

9/29/15

Statement of Problems

The case study presents a ski resort based on Ontario faced with the decision as to whether or not they should invest in extending operation hours to accommodate the development of a night skiing attraction. Current market research through surveys and metric performance data gathered represents information for day skiers which can somewhat differ from information that can be gathered from consumers interested in night skiing. The organization and it management needs to collect necessary data corresponding with the night skiing attraction but would also like to reduce time and cost spent on market research by utilizing data that has been collected from skiers over the life cycle of the organization. The major problem that the organization and management is faced with is whether or not the information they have is sufficient and or whether or not this information will project reliable results in order to establish the night skiing attraction at the resort. Where as there is an opportunity to grow and expand the resort and the market that the resort caters to, there are major decisions that will need to be made in order for the project to become successful. Management within the organization will need to evaluate whether or not the organization can accommodate the operation cost of establishing this new attract and or can it take the lost if this does not perform as forecasted and projected. Another decision that they are faced with is whether or not a separate market research procedure should be done to collect data and information for the night skiing attraction and or should the information gathered based on day skiers can be used, to accurately project performance and metric performance.

External and Internal Analysis

Factors outside of the organization that should be taken into consideration when making this decision would be the fact that there is a risk of insufficient snow fall therefore leading to the organization spending funds in keep abreast of technology and snowmaking systems. Blue Mountain Resorts Ltd. will find the increasing need to upgrade or maintain equipment to become expensive seeing that social and environmental changes will increase their demand for these systems. Another outside or social influence for the decision making process is whether or not the night skiing attraction will be successful due to that fact that majority of the skiers reside 85 miles away. This will be a test to the numbers of those that will actually visit the resort night skiing attraction.

Internal factors can be considered as to whether or not market research and information gathered will present accurate and reliable information to forecast performance and growth with the new addition. The resort is also faced with analyzing and determining the pricing strategy that should be used in order to introduce the night skiing attraction. Should this be combined with existing pricing strategy or should an entirely new strategy be developed and implemented? How ill consumers respond to this change? Will this competitively in crease the conversion of day skiers to become or participate in the night skiing? These are some questions that are being asked by management as the decision making process begins.

Alternatives

It can be recommendation to choose another alternative to increase overall accommodation services of the resort. This relates heavily to remaining consistent with services and products offered now and focus on the resort features. Expanding the accommodation allows the resort to increase the number of consumers dinning; skiing and making purchases at the ski resort as it pertain to skiing gear and accessories. With this expansion in accommodation services it can eventually allow the resort to roll out a night skiing attraction seeing that it will eliminate the numbers of consumers that will be faced with travelling 85 miles to enjoy the night skiing attraction. Where as the long term benefits of the alternative present a steady growth and success rate the time frame between launching projects may not cohesively tie with the overall mission of the organization seeing that we are working with a small time frame.

 Another alternative can include conducting extensive marketing research using tools used previously by the resort, however narrowing the information to be gathered only for the night ski attraction. This will require a longer time frame there holding movement on the project for a moment however reliable and accurate information will be collected in order to meet the needs and demands of the consumers before launching the night ski project.

Decisions and Implementation

It would be ideal to use information gathered from both an overall skier as well as information gathered from night skier to assist in the decision making process. It can be recommended or proposed to conduct a series of informal personal interviews with industry or marketing experts and or night and overall skiers and not rush the launch of this project seeing there is uncertainty in demand and questionable results of surveys conducted. This will lead to more information gathered, however this information obtain will be more reliable, honest and accurate seeing that information gathered from previous surveys are questionable and subjected to “inaccurate optimism”. (Burke, S., & Deutscher, T.H. p.6) The validity of the research will be unquestionable seeing that information gather will clearly outline the demand for night skiing.  According to text provided in the textbook “This method is also helpful in situations where little information is available from other sources, as in the case of radically new products” (Malhotra, Naresh 2010). It has also been proven in my personal experience the better decisions and judgment can be made in an informal setting seeing that actual and honest opinions are going to be expressed. The resort currently uses Hill Host and Hostesses to conduct surveys, however market researchers of the organization informally approaching consumers and holding personal conversations will gain the opinions of overall skiers as well as night skiers. The focus metrics pertaining to the overall profile of frequent skiers such as age, residential information and demographics can be gather as well through the informal interviews as well as the surveys on the hill.