Assess the atmospherics of downtown Texarkana.

• Written consulting report due Monday, 6 DEC (50 points)
• Dress rehearsal on Wednesday, 8 DEC (not graded - feedback only)
• Formal presentation to B.O.N.D., with final written report, on Monday, 13 DEC (50 points)

General Issue:

Business Organization for a New Downtown (B.O.N.D.) is in the process of applying to become a Main Street City.  Affiliated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Main Street Program helps cities to revitalize their historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.  Although the appearance of buildings and sidewalks and such is only one aspect of revitalization, it is nonetheless an important component in an area in which retail business is a primary function.

The first phase of the Main Street Program will target a "T" consisting of State Line and Broad Street.  This area, and only this area, is of interest in our assessment.  Specifically, we assessing the atmospherics of State Line south of the post office and a few blocks west and east on Broad Street - nothing else. 

Prospective retail businesses would like consumer revenues to be as high as possible.  In considering the "look and feel" of downtown, our objectives are to create an atmosphere that:

• encourages people to enter downtown as they approach from State Line
• encourages people to explore and consider the features of downtown
• encourages people to stay longer
• encourages purchases while downtown (frequency and volume)
• encourages repeat business from satisfied customers
• encourages word of mouth promotion from satisfied customers

Your report should be structured roughly as follows:

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

You may work in teams of one to three.  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.