1.0 Background
Incorporated in 1987 as Leadwise Leisure, Luminar PLC is the United Kingdom’s leading nightclub owner, developer and operator with more than 250 nightclubs, bars and restaurants throughout England and Scotland. Luminar envisions itself as an emblem of high standard customer service and entertainment in the leisure industry by means of offering value for money within their venues and supporting employees while also developing their potentials as well as achieving and exceeding income targets and maximising shareholder value.
The company has long been backed by key clubbing concepts as multi-roomed, dance club and pub-style concepts which were designed for smaller markets. For instance, there is the Chicago Rock Café, a restaurant-nightclub chain. Luminar has also been rolling out themed club including the Latin-inspired Rhythm Room, the live-entertainment club known as the Jumpin’ Jaks, the family-restaurant chain, Tucker’s Smokehouse and the minimalist Liquid nightclub. Liquid nightclub is a chain of discos known for their stimulating visual effects.
The hodgepodge of these nightspots operation is for the purpose of expanding Luminar’s offering to capture an increasingly becoming segmented nigh-going public. The categorization of age and the market itself purports understanding how each markets work as well as the preference of the people. Luminar recognizes that the existence of a clear strategy could penetrate nightclubs and bar experience and run them differently so that people won’t get confused.
The Liquid brand for example caters to younger people between 18 and 24 years of age. There is the necessity then to align the atmosphere to the market for that advanced nightclub experience through utilization of DVD, MPEG and oil-filter lighting technology that serve as dance hall decorations. Now with 36 venues, Liquid aimed at combining state-of-the-art lighting, sound and laser technology to produce 360-degree graphics and visuals that otherwise could enhance the brand experience of these nightclub goers.
Since public dancing is at the heart of the business and Liquid has the unrivalled ability to provide such, it is plausible to invest in cyber-driven interaction aside from investing in physical, flexible spaces especially now that Liquid is continuously launching new products and services such as UKClubCulture under 18-events and Red Carpet Moments as well as hosting stints that ranges from fashions shows, gala dinners, award ceremonies to conferences. The purpose of setting up the ‘Liquid virtual community’ is the convenience delivered by the 24/7/365 concept whereby a website could provide all the necessary informations the clients are looking for.
Nonetheless, through a virtual discourse community the deliberation between clients and Luminar or Liquid could be supported resulting to an access to first hand market researching. An interactive multimedia campaign website could draw a wider crowd and thus boost profitability. This campaign site could not only expand the market, diversify revenue streams, offer convenience and add value and satisfaction but also standardize the performance, promote the ‘brick n mortar’ presence and promote the two-way communicative marketing.
2.0 Project Objectives
Primarily targeted at the 18-24 age bracket, the campaign site could enable a market expansion since websites transcend beyond geographical boundaries and has an easy accession to. Provided that the contemporary young club culture is more particular with escapism and good vibes apart from socializing with friends and meeting new people. Though this group is neither considered clubber nor raver, there are three factors that characterize its members such as sense of community, identification and friendship which could be garnered into club havens like Liquid.
The objective of the project is to tap this market at a continuum and to provide them with the necessities that could contribute for the ultimate clubbing experience. In addition, having a campaign website means to provide an instant visual presentation of the business. Though Luminar is financially capable to penetrate any medium for advertising, campaign website can provide visualization and informational elements combined. As a cost-effective advertising tool, interactive websites could also mean to make the people aware of the Luminar brands.
Though campaign sites could present electronic brochures, the real potential is to realize that website visitors would have the ability to control and interact such as a virtual tour with 360-spin to see all sides of the facilities, events organizing, ticket selling, seasonal disco presentations, online clubbing polls and etc. Another objective for setting-up a website is to determine how each visitor could add value to the Luminar brands most especially Liquid through interacting with what they want to, when they want to and how they want to.
Given that each visitor is targeted exclusively, a strategic planning of website developing means to customize each area and taking full advantage of it. As such, through page personalization and other tools, informations could flow from both sides while also striking to only the freshest informations for the visitors since websites could be changed on a minute-to-minute basis. Therefore, effectively eliminating costs that otherwise printed materials and television and radio commercial could not do so.
For Luminar and Liquid, having a website could also mean to improve the customer relations. By itself, websites provide customers an informed decision-making whereby they can decide between you and your rivals. Interactive sites could also provide customers to express how they feel about the services of Luminar through Liquid, whether good feedbacks or customer complaints to further strengthen the business. As well, the website could present opt-in mailing list that enables Luminar to contact customers and website visitors especially about special offers and other things that may provoke the interest of clubbers.
3.0 Recommendation
There is an existing site for Luminar (www.luminar.co.uk) and for Liquid (www.liquidclubs.com). The former provides a page for Liquid which will be then directed to the former. However, the former website is exclusively available for members only. The features of the site are Liquid locations, featured events, informations about Liquid nightclubs and a gallery of the most recent happening. There is the drive then to have a campaign website that is devoted for both members and non-members of the same interests. In meeting Luminar’s campaign site needs, there are specific steps that must be taken into consideration.
First, there should be the two-way, quality deliberation between the Project Team and the client which is Luminar with representatives from Liquid. The Project Team shall present the needs for the site (as provided in this proposal). The necessity for a campaign site shall be approved by the client and the representatives.
Second, a domain name or URL must be chosen. The name must reflect the overall appeal of Liquid and thus shall be short, memorable and include business keywords. After choosing the name, where the website will reside or will be hosted must be decided upon. This could be a company that offers web-hosting services.
Third, the Project Team will design the website for Liquid as well as loading the site to the server of the website hosting company. Next step would be to register the website to a search engine. As suggested, the website will be registered for both a major search engine (either Google or Yahoo) and industry-specific search engine (e.g. nightspots, clubbing).
Fourth, after the registration, the website must be tested and get other people to review the performance and features of the site in their own computers to ensure consistency and quality. Launching the site with the most appropriate media coverage would be the next step. Strategically, internal to external promotion of the website shall encompass printing the address to all company stationery.
Finally, Luminar or Liquid must decide upon themselves who are going to maintain the website and the periodic checking on how many visitors the website receives.
In this way, Luminar and Liquid could deliberate not just on the advantages from building own Liquid campaign website but also on the inherent risks and obligations the act presents. Such action could further enhance the Liquid brand as well.
4.0 Project Approach
The project will be divided into four distinct phases:
- Deciding on a website
In this phase, the question: Why is there a need to set up a website must be answered as well as what the expectations out of it and what will it be worth to Luminar and specifically to Liquid. The campaign website should not aim at just justifying the need for new basis of advertising to new customers. Instead, the new website must serve as an avenue to connect with them. As such, there must be a reason why people should visit the website. The core necessity of a interactive campaign website is on proving on-going informations while demonstrating the Liquid experience. Something of good value must be offered such as a detailed list of services, the functions of facilities and the prices. The campaign website for Liquid shall also improve the productivity of the people.
- Registering the domain name
Though it is possible for Liquid to have a domain name under the Luminar umbrella, it would only look commercially unethical especially that the main purpose of setting up a website is to devote commercial home page to the market unique to Liquid. Aside from this, integrating the website into the mother company’s URL is disadvantageous in the long run significantly if Luminar decided to change its ISP. There are specific steps that the Project Team, with Luminar and Liquid representatives’ approval, must take into account.
There should be a company with a registered number or a Register Trade Name with registration number that cane be quoted. The domain name must not be registered. It is the Project Team’s duty to check the domain name from the net, single word with no spaces, for acceptable domain names. One the domain name is chosen, [perhaps] through the financial assistance of Luminar, the payment for the Internet Names Worldwide Ltd worth 5 for two years could materialized.
- Finding q web hosting company
Through the assistance of the web hosting company or the Internet Service Providers, the Project team will build the Liquid website. Prior to that, The Project Team must first check the costs and services and canvass amongst them the most appropriate ISP or host. Nonetheless, Luminar has a subsidiary that offers such service. Notable is that there are fees that must be paid for depending on how large and how many ‘hits’ the website is likely to receive. Advisable is the hosting service must include a website of up to 50MB, 20 mail boxes, support for secure transactions provision of statistics, 500MB of data transfer and support for forms, access to databases and others.
- Finding a website developer
The Project Team will be the key website developers. The architectures of setting up the Liquid website are information design, creative design, usability testing and technical build. As such, the Project Team is responsible for performing extensive research and end-user interviews to gather insights from the targeted market as to what informations must be presented on the website. The creative architecture of the site could require the participation of Luminar project team in assisting the Project Team in shaping final designs for visually appealing, concise and easy to navigate site. The prototype website must be built by the Project Team which will be rigorously subjected to usability testing. The results of these testing will be then feed back to the information and creative design in order to arrive at the final architecture and design. The technical build phase shall produce standards compliant, search engine-friendly and fully accessible campaign site.
5.0 Project Team
The Project Team will be responsible for the set of actions that project requires. In order to achieve the schedule of the volume of work, work must be distributed according to individual expertise since the project may require a range of skills. The team shall embrace interactive team working that includes brainstorming and brainwriting to generate creative ideas and to solve emerging problems. Cross-fertilisation and synergy will be the team’s core strategies to facilitate innovative options and alternatives and so as to achieve the collective decision-making. There would be the evaluation of team development in phases such as forming, storming, norming, performing, maturing and declining in order to determine not just the success of the project but the success of teamworking as well.
In addition, a single member of the team must be given project management knowledge areas in order to lessen the risks. There will be the scope manager responsible for work breakdown structure (WBS) and drawing list; time manager for schedule barchart and critical path method; cost manager for budget and cash floe statement; quality manager for project quality plan and quality control plan; integration manager for planning and control; communication manager for communication plan inside and outside the team; risk manager for risk management plan; procurement manager for procurement schedule.
6.0 Timing and Budget
For the four phases of the project, the estimated project time plan is 4 months including usability testing but with emphasis on the fourth phase since it includes corrective actions. Initially, the project cost is drafted as , 000.
Costs:
New computer equipment
5 Network-ready PCs with supporting software @ , 500 each
1 server @ , 000
Cabling and Installation @ , 000
Customer Service Support Software @ , 000
Training costs:
Basic Website Troubleshooting – 3 people @ 0 each
Computer Introduction and Keyboard Skills – 3 people @ 0 each
Customer Service Support System – 5 people @ 0 each
Other costs:
Lost time: 30 man days @ 0 each
Lost profitability through disruption: estimate: , 000
Lost profitability through inefficiency during first months: estimate: , 000
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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