Project 3: Market Research and Business Planning The scenario: The owners of Jake's in Chauncey Hill have decided

to close up shop and an investor named Annemarie Barber will be taking over. Ms. Barber lives in Chicago, but owns and manages a number of establishments around campuses all over the country. Rather than keeping Jake's, or simply improving it, she would like to close the bar/restaurant down and reopen something new for Fall 2013. She has hired your group to determine what the market needs and how best to proceed. She has given you no parameters, except that the new business will have a "reasonable budget" (this means anything short of, say, gold-plated taps in the bathroom is acceptable)... and you're not the only team she's hired. It's up to you and your competitors to determine what the local market needs and to create a business plan that seems most likely to succeed in Lafayette. At the end of the project, your group will present both a written plan and an oral presentation (with accompanying visual aids), but along the way you will complete a number of memos and short reports on your progress, research, and findings. You will be able to research the expectations of "Annemarie Barber" as you go by turning in research plans to me; I will then provide you answers and results. All other research (market research, creation of business plans, branding options, etc.) will be conducted in a normal fashion. If you want to send out surveys, we will discuss options to do so. The group that "wins" the commission will receive an automatic A+ for the group portion of their grade. Annemarie Barber (another instructor) will be in attendance to select the winning team. All others will receive a grade as a group. But a portion of your grade will also depend on individual performance (and I reserve the right to lower an individual's grade further for non- or low participation, even in the winning group). The entire project is worth 400 points (roughly 30% of your overall grade in the course). Deliverables:

Individual grade (50 pts): based on progress memos and contributions to group.
Each Friday (beginning on 4/5), you will upload to Dropbox an individual memo outlining your work and group role for the week. In this memo, you may keep me apprised of any issues/concerns that might arise. This is also a time for you to practice your professional writing and for me to give you individual feedback on issues like clarity, concision, professionalism, mechanics, etc. On Monday, April 29, the same day your written group plan is due, you will upload a brief memo reflecting on what you have learned in this unit, assessing your contributions to the group, and assessing the contributions of the rest of your team. On Fridays, group leaders will also send a progress report to Annemarie Barber (except on the week the preliminary report is due). While the memo will come from the group leader, I expect all group members will contribute in some way from time to time with this extra memo, be it with idea generation or editing to ensure you're producing good business copy.

*I will need an e-mail by 11:59 p.m. on 3/29 letting me know whom the leader is in each group.

Preliminary progress report (50 pts): A group progress and research report due at project midpoint.
Due April 12, via Dropbox (by 11:59 p.m.). This report should be a professional document, well-designed and informative, and should sketch out a preliminary plan and work completed thus far. I will respond to/grade this document by the following class on April 16 to allow you time to respond to my questions and suggestions.

Group presentation/visual aids (150 pts)

These will occur April 23 and April 25. Presentations will be 10 minutes long and order will be determined randomly. You must be prepared to answer questions from myself, Annemarie Barber, and your classmates. You may use any props, visual aids, and materials (within reason). Every group member does not have to speak, but I will expect a final memo from group members establishing their roles in presentation and final report.

Final recommendation report/business plan (150 pts).

Due Monday, April 29, via Dropbox (by 11:59 p.m.). There is no recommended page count for this reportit fully depends on your group's business plan. We will assemble ideas for business plans together in the coming weeks, but your final project will depend on a number of factors, and each group's plan will likely look very different. This plan is due after the presentations, so you can amend your plan based on feedback given and questions raised during your presentations.