LIVING CASE:

WISE GUYS EVENTS

Sam Curtin
Sky Gillespie
Trey Hernandez
Charlie Wolfenden
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
 Key Issue: Marketing!
 Lack of focus
 Lack of customer insight
 Poor marketing content and distribution

 Recommendations:
 Focus resources on large corporate clients
 Conduct market research
 Audit marketing content
MCKINSEY MODEL

 Start with the facts

 Aid to the hypothesis
 Major “issues” list
 Problems faced by business fall under the three issues
 Initial hypothesis
 Hypothesis Tree Framework (McKinsey Model)

Wise Guys Events want to expand their business and achieve a higher market share.

SITUATION COMPLICATION
• Wise guys is a team building service located • The company’s has been unable to grow at
in Los Angeles the desired rate
• Currently organize public and private • They have also been unable to attract a
events for all paying customers significant number of repeat customers
• Differentiate themselves from competitors
by giving a personal touch to their games
through excellent customer service
• Hired to build team chemistry and promote
synergy between employee’s and improve
company culture

KEY QUESTIONS

www.ruf.rice.edu/~jgsmcc/Rice_Case_Workshop.ppt
 Hypothesis Tree Framework (McKinsey Model)
Inability to attract and retain lucrative corporate and institutional clients.
Lack of customer insight
• Do market reseach including
what is working for competitors
and what are the budgets of
targeted organizations
• Give post game surveys
specifically who played and
what was their experience
• Follow up surveys to assess
long term value of their Wise
Guys experience
• As data is accumulated, draw
conclusions about benefits of
their service to audit internal
and external effectivness
Lack of focus on a specific
audience or target market
•Focus on larger companies
with many departments
•Focus on the younger
employees of these
companies that are still new
to the professional working
environment
www.ruf.rice.edu/~jgsmcc/Rice_Case_Workshop.ppt
Poor marketing content and
distribution
•Do a social media audit
•Adjust marketing content
based on audit
•Tailor content so that it
appeals to their target
audience
•Tailor marketing so that it
reflects the strengths of the
management team
LACK OF CUSTOMER INSIGHT
 There is a low level of
customer retention
 Feedback from customers
is not properly executed
 Unaware of the customers
needs
 No target market
CUSTOMER INSIGHT
 Always Seek Feedback from Game Players
 Consistency is everything
 Conduct a end-of-game survey to all players
 Provide incentives to encourage each gamer to fill survey out.

 Survey Every Client Representative Who is Willing

 Conduct a 2-3 question exit survey using a third party within 1-4
days post-game
 Follow up 2-3 weeks after exit survey
 See if client has seen a benefit/no change since receiving your
services
 Interpreting the Feedback Data
 Apply relevant results internally
 Apply relevant results externally
LACK OF UNDERSTANDING FOR AN AUDIENCE
WITHIN A TARGET MARKET

 Paradox of appeal
 Competition within
industry
LACK OF FOCUS ON A SPECIFIC AUDIENCE OR
TARGET MARKET

 Trying to appeal and  Corporate clients are the

market to everyone, but target market
in effect it reaches no one
 Website is very broad,
with little indication of
who target market is
 Wasting time doing small
events such as birthday
parties

Market to them ONLY!

 UNDERUTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
 Twitter and Facebook
 Can be used to generate business from former and potential
clients who have joined the Wise Guys Events pages.
 Content posted is self-promoting and distant.
 Most posts describe the experiences of Myles and Greg, not the
experiences of customers
 Because post are often self-promoting, it makes the company seem

casual and therefore unprofessional

 YouTube
 Myles and Greg are very personable and therefore excellent
for YouTube, but they do not use this platform to its full
potential
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

 Show the benefit wise guys can bring to organizations

 Have quotes from satisfied customers that show
people are truly benefiting from your services
 Result of taking out “We, me, and I” quotes will be a
more professional appearance that will appeal more to
potential corporate clients
 Create more videos on YouTube that appeal to your
audience
POOR MARKETING CONTENT AND
DISTRIBUTION – WISE GUYS “MENU”
POOR MARKETING CONTENT AND
DISTRIBUTION – GO GAME’S “MENU”
 POOR MARKETING CONTENT AND
DISTRIBUTION - PUBLIC EVENTS
 Public events are not entirely profitable but
are an easy way to publicize the Wise Guys
Events name
 Two of our team members participated in
Booze Clues pub-crawl event in March
 Observed Myles and Greg in real-world
event
 During the event, Myles and Greg never mentioned the
Wise Guys Events name or anything about the purpose of
the company, team-building
 At the end of the game we asked 15-20 participants if they
had heard of Wise Guys Events…none had
POOR MARKETING CONTENT AND
DISTRIBUTION - PUBLIC EVENTS

 Myles is interested in continuing public events if there

are enough run to make it worthwhile and profitable
 Event we attended was slightly profitable
 There is more to the event than profit
 Little to no people are aware of the Wise Guys Events name
and few show up when Myles and Greg host a public event
themselves
 Myles and Greg must utilize the opportunity for what it
is, a publicity event to get the name out there!
USE OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES
 Projected to use only about $500 on marketing in 2011

 Must invest in website in order to make it appear more

professional

 Must spend more money traveling to HR seminars and

conferences when business might be drummed up

 If goal is to attract corporate clients, must put in the

money to make yourself appeal to those clients
Questions ?