CASE STUDY
Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park
The Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park is located in the coastal hamlet of Port Fairy, increasingly
known as the jewel in the crown of the South West. Port Fairy boasts a love of festivals such as the
winter weekend events. The Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park offers vacationers a range of
accommodation options. Powered and non-powered sites are available for campers, and newly
renovated holiday cabins for those wanting some luxury. The cabins are self-contained with each
accommodating up to 6 people and including a kitchenette, lounge, toilet and shower room. New and
returning vacationers travel from all around and outlying areas to stay at the park and rave about the
facilities and activities available.
Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park Pty Ltd is managed by director Jerry Maguire. Currently
Maguire’s e-promotion for the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park include posts on a community
website, community noticeboards, online newsletters, a mobile app (available $5 from Apple App
store), as well as advertising on popular social media sites and google with the hope of promoting and
growing the park patrons. The cost of the various online advertising streams is enormous, Maguire
wants to commission a review of the park’s e-marketing, in order to determine the most economical
and impactful approach.
You have been working for South West Advertising Inc. casually for the last three months in their emarketing department. South West Advertising has applied for a tender to undertake the review of
Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park Pty Ltd’s e-marketing strategy. Due to the importance of this
project the CEO of South West Advertising Inc, Bob Sugar and the firm’s Director e-advertising Rod
Tidwell have both made this project a priority.
The initial investment in the project is estimated to be $90,000 in year 0 of the project, $20,000 in
year 1, $20,000 in year 2, and $15,000 in year 3 a total of $145,000. South West Advertising Inc.
requires a discount rate of 9%. It is anticipated project future cash inflow as follows (Years 0 to 3):
$0, $90,000, $130,000, and $150,000, a total of $370,000. The project will be expected to make at
least a 25% ROI, to conform to the South West Advertising Inc, business model.
The goal of the project is to analyse and evaluate the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park Pty Ltd emarketing strategy. The evaluation should provide an investigation and review of all current emarketing channels including community website posts, community noticeboards, online newsletters,
a mobile app, advertising on social media sites and google. For each e-marketing channel the
evaluation should include a report detailing changes in bookings, comparison with competitors, ROI,
and a set of recommendations. The evaluation will need data to support discussion and findings, this
will be achieved through surveys of vacationers, review and evaluation of bookings and financial
records. Management believes it will take about three months (12 weeks) with a budget of $145,000
for this important project. Sugar aims for a budget contingency reserve of approximately 10%.
Bob Sugar and Rod Tidwell have formed a search committee to find the best candidate for managing
the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park e-Marketing Evaluation Project. After reviewing many
strong candidates, they decided to appoint you, to put together the business case for this critical
project. Your previous job was with a consultancy firm where you successfully handled a number of
e-marketing and development projects for medium sized enterprises, using virtual teams. Since this is
a high priority project that should be completed in three months, they felt it was appropriate to get the
best candidate to put together a quality business case and project management plan. They are offering
a base rate for your contract at $105 p/hr for 1 d/wk, but a lot is at stake, the Port Fairy Caravan and
Camping Park and similar businesses are likely to request further marketing and service evaluation
projects. Sugar and Tidwell propose to be joint project sponsors, and have handpicked Dorothy Boyd,
to be the main internal IT liaison and Avery Bishop to be the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park
liaison. They will let you as the new project manager form the rest of the project team if the tender bid
is successful.
In order to get the e-Marketing strategy evaluated in the time frame you propose to use a five-stage
approach developed by Forbes (2012), this includes a). evaluate digital marketing, b). examine
customer profiles, c). review digital presence, d). evaluate messaging strategies, and e). review
marketing ROIs. It is anticipated the evaluation of digital marketing phase will take four weeks, while
the examine customer profiles, review of digital presence, evaluation of messaging strategies and
review marking ROI phases will take 2 weeks each. Your team consists of two e-marketing/social
media specialists and a customer survey specialist. The three team members will spend the equivalent
of half a day a week on project management related activities (e.g. completing status reports and
attending meetings etc.) and the remaining 4.5 days on evaluation tasks. They will be paid at a rate of
$80 p/hr. You will also need to access to a caravan and camping specialist consultant (Frank Crush).
The consultant pay rates are negotiable (minimum rate $82 p/hr) and will only be required for a
maximum of one-week.
You anticipate several challenges if this tender bid is successful. South West Advertising Inc
originally focused on development and evaluation of e-marketing strategies for sporting organisations,
but the CEO, Bob Sugar, has emphasised the need to increase profits by tapping into other markets.
The type of people who work on sporting projects are often different from people working on the new
camping and caravanning marketing projects. They often have different educational backgrounds,
skill sets, and ideals. Most of the people hired in the past year have been hired to support these new
markets. Even though you and the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park project team tried to do a
good job managing key stakeholders, there are some difficulties with several employees who disagree
with the company’s new strategies.
The plan is to roll out review existing information, conduct research and gather new material.
Deliverables include a report evaluating existing e-marketing strategy and customer profiles (includes
survey of customer feedback). A report reviewing the digital presence and messaging approaches. A
report presenting an ROI and recommendations of new e-marketing strategy including a final
presentation to key stakeholders. The project will be considered a success, if it comes in on time, on
budget, within scope and key stakeholders have been pleased with the communication and reporting
processes.