1. First, conduct a marketing performance FACT analysis of the current situation (4 points). If the case does not provide information related to one or more performance dimensions, type in "N/A".

Financial Performance:

Customer Performance:

Activity Performance:

Talent Performance:

1. Based on your understanding of the firm's strategy and your answers to Question 1, please set a proper MPI objective for the company (3 points).

MPI Objective:

Read both Part A and Part B of the case and then answer questions 3 - 6.

1. What methods did the case use to identify "pain points"? What pain point(s) did the executives identify? (5 points)
2. What causes have been identified by the case? (5 points)
3. What solutions are Cloudcab marketing executives considering? Are there any other potential solutions you would like to recommend? (4 points).
4. How will you implement the solutions, measure their outcomes and sustain the improved performance? (4 points)

Marketing Performance Improvement Case Part A Situation Cloudcab seeks to provide solutions for the time conscious traveler using quick, luxurious jet transportation in the California/Nevada/Arizona market. As a privately owned small company just enters the market, however, the company faces challenges of low customer awareness and constrained marketing budget. To better understand customer needs, the company decides to conduct market research. They first gathered secondary data on air traffic patterns, popular destinations among private jet owners, and travel frequency for business and leisure customers. Cloudcab then collected primary data on potential customers regarding where they would like to see the Cloudcab operates and what features they would like the service to offer. The market research efforts reveal the following findings: There is a greater demand for jet taxi service from business than from leisure travelers Leisure travelers plan ahead and have less need of on-demand service Business travelers have more need of one-way flights than do leisure travelers Time is the biggest priority for business travelers, while comfort is the biggest for leisure travelers Some business people, such as consultants and sales professionals, have a greater need for on-demand travel than others Cloudcab develops a marketing plan to guide its marketing efforts. For target marketing, the company identifies business travelers on assignment for mid- to large-size consulting firms as its primary target market. It uses promotion to create awareness and build interests in the benefits of its service. In order to accomplish these objectives, the marketing department launched a comprehensive marketing promotional campaign by combining targeted advertising, direct marketing, personal selling and buzz marketing. The company positions its service as fasters and more enjoyable than traditional airline flights or ground transportation, yet costs far less than private jet ownership. The first-year marketing objectives include: 1) to sell 5,500 flight itineraries, 2) to attain a rating of "highly satisfied" customer satisfaction scored by 90% of customers, and 3) to achieve repeat purchase by 50% of customers. The marketing action plan for initial launch has been implemented. Specifically, Cloudcab will use targeted print ads and send out direct marketing (both social media messages and letters) to identified target consulting firms. In addition, Cloudcab will hire, train, and rely on salespeople to communicate important product and service messages to key clients. Further, PR and social media coverage will be used to cover the first Cloudcab flight and create Online and Offline buzz. 2 Issues After launched the jet service in May, the Cloudcab marketing department has been carefully monitoring the market responses to ensure the strategies are sound and properly implemented. After six months, however, it becomes clear that not everything was on the right track. Specifically, the Cloudcab marketing managers find the following information on their dashboard. In total, Cloudcab sold only 1856 flight itineraries in the first six months after initial launch, significantly below the YTD goal of 2500 itineraries. In total, only 67% customers reported to be "highly satisfied" with Cloudcab service, below the goal of 90% "highly satisfied" customers. In total, only 38% customers who used the service made repeat purchases or expressed that they were willing to repurchase, below the goal of 50% repeat purchase rate. These numbers disappointed almost everybody. Two salespeople who worked on key accounts in the consulting industry left the company and more employees begin to complain the lack of support, inadequate resources and fierce competition. Marketing managers used the Marketing ROI Methodology to monitor the effectiveness of their promotional efforts and the results paint a slightly rosy picture. Specifically, the results show that 90% of the target audience have heard of the Cloudcab service and most of them say the service are innovative, interesting and potentially beneficial, with an overall rating of 4.3 out of 5.0. Quarterly surveys show that 80% of target customers who received Cloudcab marketing messages understand the major benefits of Cloudcab service. Since the promotion began, phone call and email inquiries of Cloudcab service have increased by 15% on a monthly basis, and Cloudcab website traffic (including the number of visitors and number of webpages they visit) has increased by 30% on a monthly basis. The Cloudcab Marketing managers are perplexed about the situation. They simply do not understand why effective marketing campaigns fail to generate satisfactory financial results. Understandably, the Cloudcab executives are very concerned as well. They are wondering where went wrong, and more importantly, what need to do in order to improve the situation. 3 Cloudcab Small Jet Taxi Service Marketing Performance Improvement Case Part B To fully understand the situation and answer executives' questions, the marketing managers begin to conduct more analyses. First, they collect more data from sales transactions, survey results and other internal record, which show that: the primary target market, business consulting travelers, bought less than 30% of the 1856 flight itineraries, were less likely to be satisfied with the jet taxi service (only 45% of consultants who bought the services were highly satisfied), and were less likely to repurchase (only 25% repurchased or were willing to repurchase). In contrast, sales professionals in the secondary target market were far more interested in the service than business consultants were. Sales professionals not only bought more than half of the flights, they were also more likely to be highly satisfied (85%) and more willing to repurchase (65%) than their consulting counterparts. In total, there were less than 100 flight itineraries bought by leisure travelers, confirming a previous conjecture that leisure travelers may not be a good target segment of Cloudcab's jet taxi service. Surprisingly, there was a very strong demand from customer service representatives in the high-tech and engineering industries. Although there was no direct promotion towards them, the group bought nearly 25% of total flights, 90% of them were highly satisfied with the service and 88% of them were willing to repurchase. The marketing managers then conduct activity analysis and reveal the following information, Although 60% of Cloudcab's marketing efforts have been towards business consultants, only 17% of the phone and email inquiries were from this group. Approximately 52% of the phone and email inquiries were from sales professionals. Only 6% of the phone and email inquiries were from leisure travelers. Although not a target segment, customer service representatives made 25% of the phone and email inquiries of Cloudcab's services. Meanwhile, the Cloudcab marketing managers conduct additional analyses by interviewing selected customers from different segments, and sending out questionnaires. They find that: The demand from business consultants is not as strong as expected. Many consultants enjoy their frequent flyer benefits with major airlines. More importantly, the flight expenses are typically billed to the clients, not covered by the consulting firms' budget. 4 There are stronger demands from sales professionals and customer service representatives than initially estimated, especially in the technology industry. With intense competition in the tech industries, both sales and customer service representatives strive to respond to customer requests in a timely manner. The Cloudcab jet service meets their needs at a reasonable price. Based on these analyses, Cloudcab marketing executives think it may be a good idea to modify the company's marketing strategy by shifting attention from business consultants to sales professionals. Cloudcab will also explore the segment of customer service representatives in the technology industries. From the Silicon Valley of the Bay Area to the Silicon Beach in Los Angeles, California has booming technology and information sections. Recently, many tech companies are relocating to Nevada and Arizona markets for cheap labor. All of these create wonderful market opportunities for Cloudcab's small jet taxi service