Hurricane Island

Hurricane Island Outward Bound School Case

The paper starts with a consideration of the current position of Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (Hurricane) - Maine location of an international organization with 30 schools around the world - and their marketing activities vs. organizational culture, the threats and opportunities they face, the impact of political and regulatory controls, economic influences social influences, competitive forces and technological factors. The paper then looks at how marketing should take place to maintain the schools values, use the core competences, maximize the use of resources and keep stakeholders happy.

Outward Bound is a program that challenges people of all ages, skill level and backgrounds to move beyond their traditional ÐŽ§comfort zones,ЎЁ to challenge themselves physically and emotionally to discover positive qualities about themselves of which they previously were unaware. There appear to be many more people who could benefit from Outward Bound USAÐŽ¦s programs than will be able to join any course based on personally prohibitive cost. The paper recommends that the School stress the availability of scholarship money more strongly that it currently does.

Hurricane Island is the leader of the Outward Bound system, has 3,700 students (70,000 SPD) and sells a variety of courses (over 50 at any of 13 sites in Maine, Florida, New York, New Hampshire and Maryland), being specialized in sea area, for two main segments:

- specific groups (Vietnam veterans, handicapped youth, juvenile delinquents, substance abusers) often through government agencies (special programs);

- public courses ÐŽV targeting all other students except specific groups, divided into four segments by location and activity ÐŽV Maine Sea, Florida Sea, Winter Land, Summer Land.

Customers, as defined by 1986 marketing plan, are:

- high school and college students;

- juniors (age 14 and 15);

- municipal and agency contacts (for special programs);

- unprivileged and minority groups;

- young professionals;

- corporations;

- PDP ÐŽV groups of managers.

Target groups are:

- demographically ÐŽV 14 to 19 year olds as primary and 20 to 35 year olds as secondary targets;

- geographically ÐŽV northeastern US (six New England states and New York) and, as second priority ÐŽV mid-Atlantic states plus Florida.

Hurricane competition in the US is defined by:

- other Outward Bound schools in the US, especially Colorado (which enrolled the most students);

- summer camps for juniors;

- vacation, summer job, and other wilderness experience organizations beckoned college students;

- other ÐŽ§classicЎЁ and ÐŽ§wildЎЁ corporate trainings for corporations, including in-house ones;

- other sailing companies, US Coast Guard;

- other companies providing services to managers;

- other companies providing similar services for specific groups, having good connections at governmental agencies level;

- holidays for managers in summer.

Hurricane Island Outward Bound goals for 1987 were: continued growth and financial stability. To realize this, Mr. Chin is determined to deliver three marketing objectives:

„« 2,700 students;

„« 47, 800 Student Program Days (SPD);

„« $3.4 million in revenues.

Mr. Chin has developed four marketing proposals for 1987. The purpose of this analysis is to:

„« Evaluate the strength and weaknesses of each proposal;

„« Recommend what plan should be adopted, rejected, or modified and adopted;

„« Determine the best marketing mix with respect to the marketing budget.

First solution (expand ÐŽ§Alumni in MarketingЎЁ network) implies hiring of a manager dedicated to the network ($15,000 starting spring 1987). The benefits generated through AIM would mostly be intangible. There are risks for too few or too many volunteers (alumni), resulting in wasted effort to reach them or complex network administration. Strengths are: easy access to potential clients via 25,000 alumni network and PR, help for logistics and testimonials during presentations. Weaknesses include volunteer over-utilization ending in donation reduction or under-utilization ending in losing

enthusiasm for network and school. It is a risky solution as long as donations could disappear and no tangible benefits are forecasted. I would not recommend this solution.

Proposal 3 (expand direct sales recruitment) envisages additional ÐŽ§sub-recruitersЎЁ working under short-term contracts (additional cost of $9,000 for sub-recruiters=weakness). Full-time recruiters Reade and Miller were already in sales force starting 1986, more presentations were requested (50 for the first three months in 1987). It could be effective if right staff will work (positive). However, there were controversial results because sub-recruiters would work under the supervision of recruiters who were unaccustomed with ÐŽ§asking for the orderЎЁ concept (minus). I would not recommend this solution.

Proposed solution 4 is only under tests. Once full-time telemarketers are not available due to lack of sufficient program knowledge and good selling skills, Chin thought to an extended test (500-1000 prospective students who had applied but not yet enrolled). They donÐŽ¦t have a careful response-tracking system, donÐŽ¦t even know how much this would cost (big minuses). Costs for payroll and phone would escalate rapidly (again big minus). Having high costs and no monitoring system to assess performance, this solution is economically uncertain.

The best solution Mr. Chin should advise is to increase marketing efforts for the professional development programs (PDP) because:

Major problem with this marketing plan is the idea that chasing corporate America is a violation