Web 2.0

Facebook in Business Marketing:

Facebook can be a useful way for businesses to advertise and market to a rapidly expanding audience. Facebook is a social networking tool that can now be used to support an organization, service, product, place, corporation, etc. A business can use Facebook to present company goals, advertise new products, promote special deals, and spread the word about upcoming events.

These objectives can be accomplished in many ways on the website. A company can pay to advertise on Facebook, which is much more affordable than other types of advertising, such as commercials or billboards. They could even advertise their products using the Facebook Marketplace, depending on the nature of the product. Facebook also has a Groups feature, where a business might want to create a group that users can join in order to establish a network of support for the company. The Events feature is a way to invite customers or supporters to upcoming activities, and allows you to quickly provide information that can be continuously updated. Possibly the most effective way a company can now use Facebook is through the Fan Page application. A business could use this feature to create a special page that may include photos, information (such as store hours), discussions (allowing customers to provide useful feedback and suggestions), reviews, and more.

Overall, Facebook can be used in many ways to advertise or promote an organization or business. This is useful because it is difficult to start a new business, especially if you are young. Facebook can be a very helpful tool in establishing a new enterprise. Additionally, it is the quickest way to stay in touch with many customers or supporters, so it is useful for a well-established company also. Online social networking sites will continue to be a virtual hub for users to communicate and share information. If a business is going to keep up with a modern-day society, it must stay ahead of the game, and right now, being on Facebook is the way to do it.

Week 11 (period 10)

This entry is for the week of March 5th-11th. I believe this will be my last entry for Cafe Europa (please let me know if I'm wrong... maybe I've gone too far even...). It has been fun, and it seems like the cafe is pretty successful. Here is a final summary of weekly decisions:

Management Decisions

• No changes were made. I kept the same total manager wages, server wages, and employee total cost.

Marketing Decisions

• No changes were made. No old coupons were redeemed.

Operations Decisions

• I had to make an emergency purchase of 5 lbs of coffee.
• I purchased 60 lbs of coffee for next week.
• I have 6017 small, 7797 medium, and 8816 large cups in inventory.

Service Capacity

• My service capacity increased.
• M-F: 420
• Sat: 448
• Sun: 392

Checkbook

• My balance actually increased again!
• Last week at this time (Mar 5th) my balance was $10170.67
• My current balance (Mar 11th) is $11901.30

Income Statement

• No changes. Same February Income Statement is available.

Comparative Results

• These results are not based on all classmates, because not all of them have advanced through this period yet. Currently Cafe Europa is 2nd in Revenue Value, 2nd in Revenue (cumulative) Value, 2nd in Cups Sold Value, and 2nd in Customer Satisfaction.

I think Cafe Europa has done pretty well throughout the simulation. The detailed report on Moodle shows that it has been successful compared to my classmates' cafes. I believe that a profit would result if the simulation continued for several more weeks/months/years. This has been a fun, informative simulation. I think it would have been even more engaging if detailed comparative results were more readily available.

That's it!

-Madeleine

Week 10 (period 9?)

This week (Feb 26th- Mar 4th) I got some helpful feedback for Cafe Europa. Here is a summary of the decisions I made.

Management Decisions:

• No changes were made. Same total manager wages, server wages, and employee cost.

Marketing Decisions:

• No changes were made. No old coupons were redeemed.

Operations Decisions:

• Coffee purchase was just right.
• I purchased 56 lbs this week.
• I have 7058 small, 8583 medium, and 9121 large cups in inventory.

Service Capacity

• My service capacity remained the same.
• M-F: 405
• Sat: 432
• Sun: 378

Checkbook

• My balance actually increased!
• My balance this time last week (Feb 26th) was $10014.24
• My current balance (Mar 5th) is $10170.67

Income Statement

• My net income is positive for February! Yay! It is $1,125.59
• My YTD income is only $-697.78, meaning I'm not too far away from turning a profit. Woo hoo!

Comparative Results

• Cafe Europa has the 4th highest Revenue Value, 5th highest Revenue (cumulative) Value, 3rd highest Cups Sold Value, and 2nd highest Customer Satisfaction rankings.

Looks like things are moving right along.

Here's to another great week!

-Madeleine

Week 9

This week (Feb 19th- 25th) was pretty uneventful for Cafe Europa. Here are the decisions I made:

Management Decisions:

• No changes were made. Total managers wage, servers wage, and employee cost remained the same.

Marketing Decisions:

• No changes were made. I kept the same prices per cup and the same general awareness ad. Again, no coupons were redeemed.

Operations Decisions:

• Coffee purchase was just right.
• I purchased 56 lbs for next week.
• I have 8076 small, 9364 medium, and 9428 large cups in inventory.

Service Capacity:

• My service capacity increased this week!
• M-F: 405
• Sat: 432
• Sun: 378

Checkbook

• My balance decreased again this week.
• Last week at this time (Feb 18th), my balance was $10726.77
• My current balance (Feb 26th) is $10014.24

Income Statement

• No changes. Next week I will get a new Income Statement for the month of February.

Comparative Results

• The following results were recorded when all classmates had advanced through period 8: Cafe Europa is ranked 6th in Revenue Value, 5th in Revenue (cumulative) Value, 3rd in Cups Sold Value, and 2nd highest in Customer Satisfaction.

Next week I will have some useful information to include in my post.

-Madeleine

Week 8

• This week (Feb 12- 18) was pretty ordinary. Here are the decisions I made:

Management Decisions:

• 2 servers quit this week, so I hired 2 more in order to keep the same total manager wages, server wages, and employee cost

Marketing Decisions:

• No changes were made. I kept the same prices per cup and the same general awareness newspaper ad. No coupons were redeemed this week.

Operations Decisions:

• 11 lbs of coffee went to waste this past week.
• I bought 55 lbs of coffee for next week.
• I have 9071 small, 10115 medium, and 9725 large cups in inventory.
• I am keeping the same hours for the cafe.

Service Capacity:

• My service capacity remained the same this week.
• M-F: 390
• Sat: 416
• Sun: 364

Checkbook

• As of last week at this time (Feb 12th), my balance was $10958.07
• My current balance (Feb 18th) is $10726.77
• My balance decreased. :(

Income Statement

• No changes.

Comparative Results

• (These results include every cafe) Cafe Europa is ranked 7th in Revenue Value, 5th in Revenue (cumulative) Value, 4th in Cups Sold Value, and 3rd in Customer Satisfaction Value.

Hopefully Cafe Europa will continue to prosper and will show a profit by the end of the month.

-Madeleine

Recruiting and Selection

I think this entry was supposed to be made awhile back, but hey, better late than never right?

Step 1:

Cafe Name: Cafe Europa

Group Members' Names: Bo Buser, Lesley Boudreaux, and Sam Butler

Newspaper Choice: UNews

Reason for Newspaper Choice: I chose UNews because I hope to attract college students in need of a part time job to work at my cafe.

Newspaper Ad: 

"Need a part-time job close to campus?

Hoping to find a fun and friendly work atmosphere?

Cafe Europa could be the place for you!

Come check it out and see what Cafe Europa is all about!"

Step 2:

10 Interview Questions:

1) Do you have any previous work experience at a cafe or restaurant?

2) Are you familiar with working a cash register?

3) Coffee shops always have a morning rush. Are you comfortable working at a fast pace, or would you prefer working at the cafe later in the day?

4) How many hours per week are you interested in working?

5) Do you drink a lot of coffee yourself?

6) What do you think your best personal traits are?

7) What do you think your worst personal traits are?

8) Are you a morning person or a night owl?

9) Would you describe yourself as introverted or extroverted?

10) Why are you interested in working at Cafe Europa?

5 Most Important Qualities for the Position:

-Friendliness

-Reliability

-Experience (at least with a cash register)

-Trustworthiness

-Punctuality/Promptness

Week 7 Cafe Europa

This week (February 5-12), some important things happened. BizCafe added three different cup sizes to our coffee options. Also, we gained access to a more detailed analysis of our comparative rankings. For the sake of privacy, I won't disclose specific information about that new data, but I will review what it means to Cafe Europa. As for my decisions this week:

Management Decisions:

• 2 servers quit this week! This is the first time this has happened to me. I have decided to hire 2 more servers to keep 12 servers on the payroll. This makes my total manager wages, server wages, and employee cost the same as it has been for awhile now.

Marketing Decisions:

• We have 3 sizes now! Small, Medium, and Large.
• I decided to set my prices at $2.40, $3.20, and $4.00 (respectively).
• I kept the same General Awareness Advertisement, which costs me $1400 per week.

Operations Decisions:

• I needed to purchase Small and Large logo cups, so I purchased 10,000 of each. I bought the Small cups for $0.07 each and the Large cups for $0.09 each. I only bought 10,000 because I realize we are a little more than halfway through the simulation, and I have currently used almost 10,000 Medium cups (which have been the only option for customers so far...)
• My coffee purchase for last week was just right! I bought 63 lbs. of high quality last week, and I increased to 64 lbs. week just to be safe.
• I am keeping the same hours for the cafe.

Service Capacity

• My service capacity increased this week! 
• M-F: 390 (up from 375 last week)
• Sat: 416 (up from 400)
• Sun: 364 (up from 350)

Checkbook

• As of last week at this time (February 5th), my balance was $9,703.44
• On February 12th, my balance is $10,958.07. This is huge. My balance has steadily decreased for a few weeks now, but this week it actually increased. This may be due to those 2 servers quitting though....

Income Statement

• Nothing has changed here. The numbers I got last week were for the previous month. I will get another statement at the end of this month.

Comparative Results

• Not everyone in the class has completed this period, but as of right now I rank 2nd in Revenue Value, 3rd in Revenue (Cumulative) Value, 3rd in Cups Sold Value, and 2nd in Customer Satisfaction.
• According to the new data available in the spreadsheet, Cafe Europa is doing very well. Its rankings are average in some categories and well above average in some categories. I'm not sure what the Balanced Scorecard Value and Rank are, and I'm also not sure why the Customer Satisfaction level as well as the Net Income numbers are different from what I see in BizCafe. I'm sure it will all make sense to me eventually.

Thus ends another week of Cafe Europa.

Until next time,

Madeleine