(Lab Task)
Lab Task 1
Write a progress report of your assignment. It must includes:
- Plan of activities to be done in order to complete your assignment.
E.g: Week 2 - Drafting questionnaire to distribute to
respondents
Week 3 - Contact personnel from the organisation..
etc.. - Scope of the assignment research.
- Current status of the progress. E.g: Almost completed, just started, etc.
12.00noon today - 9th Nov 2010 .
Lab Task 2
Please read the case study and answer all the following questions.
Answers are to be presented in the next session
( Tutorial at 4.00pm).
The Business Problem
Restaurants.com was founded in 1999 as an all-purpose dining portal with menus, online video tours, and a reservation feature. Like other dot-coms, the company was losing money. Few restaurants were willing to pay the fees in order to put their Web page on the restaurants.com site. The company was ready to pull the plug when its owner learned that CitySpree, which was selling dining certifi- cates (coupons) online, was for sale in a bankruptcy auction. Realizing that Restaurants.com might have a better model for selling dining certificates online than did CitySpree, the owner purchased CitySpree. This enabled him to change the company from “just another dining portal” to a gift-certificate seller.
The IT Solution
Here is how the new business model works: Restaurants are invited to place, for free, dining certificates at restaurants.com, together with information about the restaurant, menu, parking availability, and more. The dining certificates traditionally had been found in newspapers or newspaper inserts. Placing them online is free to the restaurants’ owners; some use the online coupons to replace the paper coupons, and others supplement the paper coupons with the online version. Restaurants.com sells these certificates online, and collects all the fees for itself. The restaurants get broad visibility, since Restaurants.com advertises on Orbitz, Yahoo, and MSN; it even auctions certificates at eBay.
The certificates offer 30–50 percent off the menu price, so they are appealing to buyers. By using a search engine, you can find a restaurant with a cuisine of your choice, and you can look for certificates when you need them. Although you pay $5–$15 to purchase a certificate, you get usually a better discount than is offered in the newspapers. You pay with your credit card, print the certificate, and are ready to dine. Customers are encouraged to register as members, free of charge. Then they can get e-mails with promotions, news, etc. In their personalized account, customers can view past purchases as well. Customers also can purchase gift certificates to be given to others. And bargains can be found: For example, a $50-off-regular-price certificate to New York City’s Manhattan Grille was auctioned for only $16.
The Results
The business model worked. By going to eBay, the world’s largest virtual mall, Restaurants.com found an audience of millions of online shoppers. By e-mailing coupons to customers, it saves the single largest cost of most conventional coupon marketers—printing and postage. Finally, the model works best in difficult economic times, when priceconscious consumers are looking for great deals.
The financial results are striking: Revenues doubled during the first five months of operation (late 2001). The company has been profitable since the third quarter of 2002. And by June 2003, the company was selling over 80,000 certificates a month, grossing over $5 million in 2002, and expecting about $10 million in 2003.
Sources: Compiled from M. Athitakis, “How to Make Money on the Net,” Business 2.0 (May 2003), and from restaurants.com (June 1, 2003).
Questions for Online Minicase 4.1**Answers to be posted on this blog by 3.00pm
Visit restaurants.com. Find an Italian restaurant in your neighborhood and examine the information provided. Assuming you like Italian food, is the gift certificate a good deal?
Review the “lessons from failures” described in Section 4.10 and relate them to this case.
Speculate on why it was necessary to purchase CitySpree.
What motivates restaurants to participate in the new business model when they refused to do so in the old one?
Given that anyone can start a competing business, how can Restaurants.com protect its position? What are some of its competitive advantages?
Here is how the new business model works: Restaurants are invited to place, for free, dining certificates at restaurants.com, together with information about the restaurant, menu, parking availability, and more. The dining certificates traditionally had been found in newspapers or newspaper inserts. Placing them online is free to the restaurants’ owners; some use the online coupons to replace the paper coupons, and others supplement the paper coupons with the online version. Restaurants.com sells these certificates online, and collects all the fees for itself. The restaurants get broad visibility, since Restaurants.com advertises on Orbitz, Yahoo, and MSN; it even auctions certificates at eBay.
The certificates offer 30–50 percent off the menu price, so they are appealing to buyers. By using a search engine, you can find a restaurant with a cuisine of your choice, and you can look for certificates when you need them. Although you pay $5–$15 to purchase a certificate, you get usually a better discount than is offered in the newspapers. You pay with your credit card, print the certificate, and are ready to dine. Customers are encouraged to register as members, free of charge. Then they can get e-mails with promotions, news, etc. In their personalized account, customers can view past purchases as well. Customers also can purchase gift certificates to be given to others. And bargains can be found: For example, a $50-off-regular-price certificate to New York City’s Manhattan Grille was auctioned for only $16.
The Results
The business model worked. By going to eBay, the world’s largest virtual mall, Restaurants.com found an audience of millions of online shoppers. By e-mailing coupons to customers, it saves the single largest cost of most conventional coupon marketers—printing and postage. Finally, the model works best in difficult economic times, when priceconscious consumers are looking for great deals.
The financial results are striking: Revenues doubled during the first five months of operation (late 2001). The company has been profitable since the third quarter of 2002. And by June 2003, the company was selling over 80,000 certificates a month, grossing over $5 million in 2002, and expecting about $10 million in 2003.
Sources: Compiled from M. Athitakis, “How to Make Money on the Net,” Business 2.0 (May 2003), and from restaurants.com (June 1, 2003).
Questions for Online Minicase 4.1**Answers to be posted on this blog by 3.00pm
Visit restaurants.com. Find an Italian restaurant in your neighborhood and examine the information provided. Assuming you like Italian food, is the gift certificate a good deal?
Review the “lessons from failures” described in Section 4.10 and relate them to this case.
Speculate on why it was necessary to purchase CitySpree.
What motivates restaurants to participate in the new business model when they refused to do so in the old one?
Given that anyone can start a competing business, how can Restaurants.com protect its position? What are some of its competitive advantages?
The Results
The business model worked. By going to eBay, the world’s largest virtual mall, Restaurants.com found an audience of millions of online shoppers. By e-mailing coupons to customers, it saves the single largest cost of most conventional coupon marketers—printing and postage. Finally, the model works best in difficult economic times, when priceconscious consumers are looking for great deals.
The financial results are striking: Revenues doubled during the first five months of operation (late 2001). The company has been profitable since the third quarter of 2002. And by June 2003, the company was selling over 80,000 certificates a month, grossing over $5 million in 2002, and expecting about $10 million in 2003.
Sources: Compiled from M. Athitakis, “How to Make Money on the Net,” Business 2.0 (May 2003), and from restaurants.com (June 1, 2003).
Questions for Online Minicase 4.1**Answers to be posted on this blog by 3.00pm
Visit restaurants.com. Find an Italian restaurant in your neighborhood and examine the information provided. Assuming you like Italian food, is the gift certificate a good deal?
Review the “lessons from failures” described in Section 4.10 and relate them to this case.
Speculate on why it was necessary to purchase CitySpree.
What motivates restaurants to participate in the new business model when they refused to do so in the old one?
Given that anyone can start a competing business, how can Restaurants.com protect its position? What are some of its competitive advantages?
The financial results are striking: Revenues doubled during the first five months of operation (late 2001). The company has been profitable since the third quarter of 2002. And by June 2003, the company was selling over 80,000 certificates a month, grossing over $5 million in 2002, and expecting about $10 million in 2003.
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