Southeast Consultants

Needs Analysis

Describe the need that was addressed by your project.
With regards to the coffee project, according to the National Coffee Association, 54% of Americans drink coffee on a daily basis. Considering a population of roughly 300 million, that is 150 million people in the United States who consume coffee on a regular basis. Specifically with Pie in the Sky, the business the UAS SIFE team worked with, the vast majority of Juneau citizens did not even know this coffee shop existed. The consulting project working with environmental shops found a need as pressure increases for businesses to be socially responsible. This project worked with the Change a Light Campaign.

Describe who your target audience was.
The target audience for all consulting projects is local Alaskan businesses, with each project focusing on business in the sector that the project focuses on.

Describe why you chose to focus on this need.
Many businesses in Alaska lack the specialized knowledge to effectively operate at their maximum capability and understand the market economic system in which they are operating. This project allows UAS SIFE to give back to the businesses in neighboring communities through the area that UAS SIFE members have knowledge in. We know that our businesses are capable of increased profits and overall economic awareness which is why we developed this Alaskan consulting project.

Project Analysis

Describe the project your team created and implemented to address the above need.
Alaskan Consultants Helping Alaskans. This project consists of a variety of smaller projects involving UAS SIFE students consulting with local Alaskan businesses. Businesses being impacted include coffee shops (working to improve their marketing campaigns to their target market based on a survey performed of Southeast Alaska coffee drinkers), hardware stores (working with them to improve their marketing for environmentally-friendly products and focusing on this relationship with Alaska's environment), as well as other smaller consulting projects. Each of these projects works with one main business but included survey and research data that was made available to numerous businesses throughout the state of Alaska. Specifically, the coffee shop project (titled the "Brew Crew") worked with Pie in the Sky, a small coffee shop in Juneau, Alaska. This project included an initial survey about coffee customer behaviors and results were made available to all coffee shop owners at www.alaskasife.org/coffee. These results were used to consult with Pie in the Sky on how to more effectively market and operate their business. A promotion including radio ads and in-person marketing took place to make changes to her current marketing efforts on the largest shopping night in Juneau. The hardware store project works with Don Able, also in Juneau, Alaska, and conducted research that will be made available on the UAS SIFE website. This project assisted Don Able in better focusing their end-aisle displays to encourage environmentally-friendly actions.

Describe why this project best fit the needs of the target audience.
A consulting project is most beneficial for businesses in Alaska because it adapts the needs of the businesses, allowing them to receive specialized assistance in areas that either they or we determine are necessary. In the end, the consulting project will assist these businesses by increasing their profits, which is always in the best interest of the business.

Success Analysis

Describe the way in which your team measured the success of the project.
For our consulting projects we used sales dollars for our coffee company, Pie in the Sky, and bulb sales for our environmentally-focused company, Don Ables. For the coffee company, the rate of sales dollars increase from previous weeks was used. For the environmentally-focused company, the increase in various types of CFL bulb sales were measured and documented from previous months as well as previous years.

Describe why your team chose the measurement tool(s) used for the project.
Our team chose sales dollars for the coffee company because this provided the greatest measurement of our success in our marketing and operations changes to Pie in the Sky. Bulb sales were used for the consulting project with Don Ables because there was data readily available from previous months and years as to the sales of CFL bulbs.

Outline the results of the project based on the measurement tool(s) used.
coffee shop consulting project had an initial 45% gain in revenues for Pie in the Sky after an initial advertising campaign. More results are to come after more time passes for this advertising to affect Juneau residents. The hardware shop consulting project had an initial 3000% gain in compact fluorescent bulb sales over each month in the previous year and up to a 50% gain in sales over the previous month in the same year.