Thesis
This paper is on successful planning of Christmas Ball. We cover aspects of marketing & promotion, staff & volunteering and health and safety evaluation to make sure this event is as successful as possible.
Marketing & Promotion of Christmas Ball
The main of marketing and promoting Christmas ball is to ensure people attend. First thing we need to take is care is we need to give people a ‘reason’ to attend Christmas Ball. This reason can vary for different target groups as some customers might be interested in freebies, product demos and entertainment while another class of customers might relate to presence of celebrity, theme based party or any other sort. So to make sure our party is attended we will make this party a costume party where all customers will come dressed in clothes or attires of their choice based on any movie, fiction or non-fiction story, popular soaps, celebrities or any other distinct attire of their choice.
Now we need to determine our target group for whom this theme will suit the most. Since our theme has mass appeal as everyone has a personal interest or hobby or celebrity they like to relate to we can easily market this Christmas Ball. We cannot depend on worth of mouth strategy anymore so we need target customers who are keen to visit a party this Christmas.
No we need to decide our media plan for Christmas Ball. We need to make sure we make a well balanced mix of strategy and tools to get most people to visit or sell our total allocation. Overtime social media has become such an important tool to get attention of your targeted audience. We will social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest among others and make a profile for Christmas Ball at the earliest, another way to promote on social media is by buying advertising. We will also use online video platform YouTube to promote video of our upcoming event and link it with previous years Balls if any available. We can create a promotional video at low cost and run it on online media, social media pages and if affordable on local cable. We can also implement some powerful tools like Guest blogging from influential bloggers with loyal and huge following. This strategy can help us leverage Non-traditional media tools.
We will also use traditional modes of promoting Christmas Ball on local partners such as newspapers, radio, flyers and direct sales to corporate offices with exciting packages of bulk buying. In addition we will also offer early bird discounts to all customers who book in advance.
Volunteering for Christmas Ball
Appropriate choice of volunteers or staff for Christmas ball is very important. We need to make sure we hire no more or no less volunteers and ensure these volunteers are given tasks which they are best suited to and they will perform their job. Clear delegation of responsibility to make sure each volunteer understand their part and volunteer should be made clear on time what is his/her responsibility pertaining to Christmas ball. Make sure you have an open communication with your volunteers and they feel they are vital cog not any other another staff member. Since Christmas ball is a Theme based party and there are many volunteers it is best suited if all volunteers dress in similar attire to have cohesive team. Volunteer attire can be similar in color, style or can have logo or design of Christmas ball volunteer on their attire.
Responsibility delegation is very important as volunteers need jobs which are essential to make them feel motivated about Christmas ball. We need to find volunteers which are experience or capable of handling important roles where their experience and knowledge will be properly implemented. Prepare a plan to honor the best salesman who sells most passes for Christmas ball and create a sense of competition which is beneficial for Christmas ball and volunteers too.
Health and Safety evaluation for Christmas Ball
Health and Safety plan is essential for Christmas Ball to over any possible emergency or incident. We need to double check all event activities and limit the danger it posses by taking measures. Emergency procedures need to be developed for guests and should be followed by volunteers or staff in case of a structural failure or fire. Contingency plan is required to handle situations and incidents like poor weather conditions, last moment cancellations or unavailability of volunteer responsible to perform a task. Health and safety evaluation needs an Emergency plan which includes:
- In case of immediate danger get people far away.
- Assist and summon emergency services.
- Handle causalities if any at Christmas ball.
- Handle non-injured/displaced.
- Protection of property where Christmas ball is held
- Alarm to make people aware of danger
- Emergency response onsite, ex: fire extinguishers
- Plan for crowd management which includes evacuation.
- Plan for incident control.
- Availability of First aid and Medicare
In addition to all this health inspection is also necessary for all food items served in Christmas ball to ensure no customer consumes any food which they sick from later on. Once all this planned and monitored we can go ahead and have a successful Christmas ball.
Conclusion
Marketing plan should include important traditional and non-traditional tools which ensure Christmas Ball get the most attention from possible customers. While hiring volunteers for Christmas ball we need to make sure right people are hired for right jobs. Proper delegation of authority will get the best results from volunteers. Measures are needed to ensure health and safety evaluation is done to protect all people attending Christmas Ball suck as emergency plan, evacuation plan, safety checks and Health inspections.
Reference List
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Warner, J. (2013). 42 Tips For Producing A Memorable Small Business Event. Smallbiz trends. Weblog. [Online] Available from: http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/06/small-business-event-planning-tips.html
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