Assess the atmospherics of Broad Street.

• Written consulting report due 26 NOV (75 points)
• Presentation dress rehearsal 26 NOV
• Formal presentation with hard copy hand-out, on 3 DEC (75 points)

General Issue:

This project is a duplicate of an assessment of Broad Street that students in this class have done a few times across the past decade.  Some of the recommendations that students have made have coincidentally happened.  It turns out that there were some serendipitous forces that were beginning to line up right about the time of these analyses.  I'll tell you what some of them were when you have completed the project -- I don't want to influence your analysis.  Broad Street has seen some important changes across this time period, so I want to see what issues a new analysis will reveal. 

Texarkana is designated as a Main Street City in both Texas and Arkansas.  Affiliated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Main Street Program helps cities to revitalize their historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.  The targeted area of Main Street Texarkana is Broad Street between Oak St. (Texas) and Hickory St. (Arkansas).  Although the appearance of buildings and the Main Street physical environment is only one aspect of revitalization, it is nonetheless an important component in an area in which retail business is to be a primary function.  One of the issues that must be considered is what projects should be a priority and what projects can be delayed.

Most any prospective retail business that would consider locating in downtown Texarkana would like consumer revenues to be as high as possible.  In considering the "look and feel" of Broad Street, our objective is to create an atmosphere that:

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

Your report MUST be structured as follows:

1. Introduction and Problem Statement / Objective

2. Situation Analysis
   • Consumer Segments (who goes?)
     • task definition (why are they there?)
     • antecedent states (why, when are they there?)
     • time (when, how long are they there?)
     • social surroundings (who with, who is around?)

   • Physical Surroundings (organized by spatial and non-spatial elements)
     • perception: exposure
     • perception: attention
       • voluntary attention
       • selective attention
       • involuntary attention
     • perception: comprehension

3. Conclusions (what is)

4. Recommendations (what should be)

If you are present in class when this assignment is distributed and discussed, you may work in teams of two (or one).  The team is of your own choosing.  Note, however, that both 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.