Assess the atmospherics of our client's proposed resort.

• Written consulting report due 2 DEC (100 points)
• Dress rehearsal on 9 DEC (not graded - feedback only)
• Formal presentation to Class Client, with final written report, on 16 DEC (100 points)

General Issue:

The Crooked Pines Resort is in the final phase of planning; drawings for buildings and such have been completed and much of the electrical, plumbing, and sewerage is already in place.  Once buildings and roads are constructed, some changes would be difficult and expensive to make.  This is the best time, then, to consider issues of resort atmospherics and to make small adjustments in the plans.  In considering issues of resort atmospherics, our objectives are to create an atmosphere that:

• is more "upscale" rather than "primitive"
• encourages people to enter the resort
• encourages people to explore and consider the features of the resort
• encourages people to stay longer at the resort
• encourages purchases while at the resort (frequency and volume)
• encourages repeat business from satisfied customers
• encourages word of mouth promotion from satisfied customers

Resort planners would like revenues to be as high as possible when it is first opened, and so you should be especially concerned about issues that would help to recoup the investment as quickly as possible.

Your report should be structured roughly as follows:

1. Introduction and Problem Statement / Objective
2. Situation Analysis
   • Physical Surroundings, spacial and non-spacial
     • perception: exposure
     • perception: attention
     • perception: comprehension
   • Social Surroundings
   • Task Definition
   • Time
   • Antecedent States
3. Conclusions
4. Recommendations

You will work in teams of four or five.  The team is of your own choosing.  Note, however, that all members of a team will receive the same score.

Neatness is considered a minimal requirement in your grade.  Neatness is defined here to include grammar, spelling, typos, correct use of paragraphs, and such.  Problems with these would not be acceptable in a "real world" consulting report and are therefore not acceptable in this assignment;

Please do not use any kind of report folders - they will be discarded if you do.  Just use plain white paper with a single staple in the top left corner.

You are encouraged to visit the professor outside of class to discuss your ideas.

A picture of the resort layout as originally proposed is here.  This is a photograph of a large poster with very small lettering.  Some closer shots of portions of the poster, panning from left to right, are here1, here2, here3, and here4.  Right click with your mouse cursor on an image to download to your computer.  If you want to sharpen, lighten, alter the contrast of, alter the size of, crop, or otherwise edit an image after downloading, use a graphics tool such as IrfanView (free).