Equity and Its Importance

Scenario

You are the regional marketing director of a theme park in the southeastern United States that is part of a global brand. The chief marketing officer (CMO) of global operations has called upon you to help coordinate the marketing tasks related to rolling out an emergency response due to a recent safety and injury incident at one of the parks resulting in serious injuries to employees and customers. The parks were closed immediately following the incident to ensure safety measures for customers and employees and to deploy the needed safety measures.

Now, as the theme park is all set to reopen, the CMO has called you to take a lead in planning the marketing strategy for the same. Your responsibility is to design a phased strategy for marketing the reopening of all parks. Your strategy should address the critical objectives such as maximum safety, crisis communication, customer satisfaction, and profit potential. You must coordinate marketing strategy with corporate strategy, as failure or success of the marketing strategy can have a direct impact on the brand.

As a first step, you will perform an analysis to understand the implications of reopening on brand equity. In this analysis you will identify the groups of stakeholders that are affected by the reopening and also plan the communication strategy for before and after the parks’ reopening. Also, you will identify the roles and responsibilities of key functional departments that are going to play an important role in the reopening process. This analysis will help you develop a strategic marketing plan to address the reopening of the park and also to develop an effective crisis communication plan.

In this milestone, you will create a PowerPoint presentation that will include brand analysis and the implications of reopening on the brand equity and functional departments, including their roles and responsibilities in the reopening process.

Prompt

Brand Analysis and Implications—In this part of the project, you will present the brand implications of reopening the park in the course scenario. Your presentation should include the following critical factors:

1. Determine the essential factors that can impact the brand equity when reopening the park. (slides 1–3)
   1. Describe the importance of brand equity to the organization. (slide 1)
   2. Provide positive implications (slide 2):
      • Safety concerns addressed and communicated
      • Community and local government support for reopening
      • Employee support for reopening
   3. Provide negative implications (slide 3):
      • Social media negative reactions
      • Employee negative concerns
      • Operational concerns for safety
2. Describe the strategic communication plan that should occur before and after the park reopens. Your responses should address the following (slides 4–8):
   1. Identify three key stakeholder groups from this list:
      • Employees
      • Customers
      • Government agencies
      • Communities
      • Vendors
   2. Describe each stakeholder’s interests in the organization.
   3. Describe their communication needs.
   4. Identify the best mode for communicating with them based on their needs.
   5. Describe what impact reopening the park could have on each identified stakeholder (low, medium, or high). Why?

Functional Departmental Roles and Responsibilities—In this part of the project, you will identify three functional departments and describe their roles and responsibilities in making the reopening of the park a success. Your presentation should include the following critical factors (slides 9–12):

1. Identify three functional departments, including marketing, that play a significant role in the reopening process. Consider which departments will be most engaged in the reopening process. (slide 9)
2. Describe the roles and responsibilities of these functional departments in the safe and successful process of reopening the park. (slide 10)
3. Develop an internal communication plan that addresses the following (slides 11–12):
   1. How will you take feedback from the stakeholders?
   2. What could be the legal and ethical issues in reopening of the park? To understand the specific guidelines, refer to the Memo From Legal Team.
   3. What will be the frequency of meetings with stakeholders to share relevant information?

Guidelines for Submission

Submit a recorded PowerPoint presentation with 12–13 slides. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information.