College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Lorena Nava
Janice Weir
Jennifer Slifka

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our group decided to become involved with the R.E.A.D. Books project. As part of our project, we built a contact list of neighboring schools, including primary, secondary and atypical schools. We also organized the store’s financial data and created a year-long marketing plan of in-store specials.

In meeting with the R.E.A.D. Books manager, Charles Korkegian, our group was overwhelmed with all of the help he needed to get the store “up to par.” There were many areas that he needed help in and our first task was to figure out which tasks we could realistically accomplish over the course of the fall semester. The most important task we felt we could help Mr. Korkegian in was building a contact list for the area’s schools. We decided to select schools from local zip codes, including 92105 and 92115. We collected information from elementary, middle/junior high, senior high, and atypical/private schools. We researched such information as address, telephone number, principal, vice principals and librarians. We also researched ethnic makeup of the student population at each school. Each group member did a portion of the research, allowing us to complete our research quickly. If Mr. Korkegian had tried to complete this task, it most likely would not have been done or would have taken considerable time from his other managerial duties.

We observed over the course of the project that by taking certain tasks and having Mr. Korkegian deal with technical issues involving the store’s reserves, we were able to efficiently complete tasks for him and benefit the store.

Following the gathering of the contact list, another task came up involving the Halloween holiday. One of the store’s volunteers created a promotional flyer that contained information about the store and their promotion. The promotion stated that for every book a customer bought, a dollar would be donated to their school of choice. Our involvement included distributing the flyers to teachers at area schools. One setback occurred when we were informed that the school district needed to approve the flyers for mailbox placement. However, after explaining the nature of the bookstore and its affiliation with the San Diego State University Foundation and Aztec Shops Ltd., we were allowed to leave the flyers for teachers. Our group was excited to see the fruits of our labor. Unfortunately, that next week was when the devastating San Diego wildfires occurred. Not only did the store close for a few days, but we also lost contact with Mr. Korkegian during that time. After regrouping, we found that our flyers were not as effective as hoped. The contact list, nonetheless, definitely helped the bookstore and Mr. Korkegian by providing an avenue to bring in more business.

When we first met with Mr. Korkegian he knew most of his finances off the top of his head, including profit, revenue, break-even point, etc. He did not have any organized method of recording such information, though. Our group took daily sales printouts since the store opened in June and created an Excel spreadsheet, including charts, graphs and data analysis that could be easily understood by both him and SDSU Foundation, the group that handles all the financial aspects of the store. The spreadsheet also had the ability to incorporate new data and update itself, making the spreadsheet very easy for Mr. Korkegian to use. The spreadsheet also allows Mr. Korkegian to organize, evaluate sales and create future financial goals for the bookstore.

After creating a record keeping program for Mr. Korkegian, we found we had little time left in the semester to do much research into neighborhood not-for-profits as Mr. Korkegian had hoped. However, one task that we decided to take on before the end of our group intervention was creating a yearlong marketing plan for in-store specials and displays.

In order to create a yearlong marketing plan, we had to do research on international holidays and the demographics in the surrounding neighborhoods. After conducting demographic research, we found that the area was predominated by immigrants from such areas as Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. We then researched holidays. In our plan, we incorporate Muslim holidays, Latino holidays and Tet, Vietnamese New Year. The plan will be used to create in-store displays, as well as how to include holidays into promotions on certain books. Promotions could include everything to extra discounts on purchases to the school donation program mentioned earlier in this summary.

In evaluating our intervention, it is important to note that actual growth will not be realized until next year. However, providing Mr. Korkegian with contact information, financial data organization and a marketing plan, he will be better able to realize goals for the bookstore.

One success already accomplished included a special order from a charter school in the College area. The school first received contact from the bookstore during the distribution of the Halloween flyer mentioned above. Since initial contact, the school, which specializes in the German language, has already placed an extensive special order with the bookstore for books in German, Spanish and English.

In completing this project, our group feels that it has helped the bookstore to be able to grow exponentially in the future, as opposed to only helping it increase sales for one semester. We were also able to alleviate the stress and anxiety Mr. Korkegian experienced by providing him with information and skills to increase his managerial capabilities and, thus, store revenues and profits.