Processes and Strategies in Event Management: Toyota Launch Event

This report analyzes the processes and strategies for the launch of the Toyota Hybrid Cruiser, a festival-themed event organized by an event management company. The event aims to promote the new product in the Australian market, attract maximum sales, and identify the target market. The report outlines the event's goals, objectives, and the use of the SMART methodology for achieving them. It emphasizes the importance of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for effective task management and discusses potential hurdles and milestone tasks. The report also explores cost-saving measures, human resource management considerations, and integrated marketing communication strategies for the event's success. The author has provided an overview of the event, focusing on its planning, execution, and promotional aspects.

Running head: PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
Processes and strategies in event management
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1PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The event that would be organised for the launch of Toyota Hybrid Cruiser is
contracted to our Event Management Company. It will be a festival themed event where
prominent musical artists shall perform. In addition to this, various food and wine stalls and
other entertaining and exciting set up will be a part of the festival. The festival will have
many VIP attendees including the senior staff members of the company, members of Japan
head office along with their families. The event will be held on the first weekend of October
2018. The three-day long event will be aimed to launch and promote the new Toyota Hybrid
Cruiser in the Australian market. The tourist party of the festival would arrive on Thursday
evening and depart on Monday morning. The event will be held on the grounds of
Melbourne's Federation Square. Melbourne’s one of the most iconic place that attracts
thousands of visitors every day (Fedsquare.com 2018).
Goals and objectives
The most significant goal for the event will be to rollout the new product of the
company that is Toyota Hybrid Cruiser among the attendees of the festival event. The event
also aims to bring in maximum sales towards the product. In addition to this, three key
objectives of the event are enumerated below. These are –
1. To promote the event to the maximum number of population in order to make the
event successful.
2. To promote the newly launched product among the attendees of the festival along
with the rest of the consumers via media coverage.
3. To identify the target market in order to increase the sales of the launched product.
Using the SMART methodology, the above-mentioned objectives are classified
systematically.

2PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
S - Specific  Promotion of event
 Promotion of Toyota Hybrid Cruiser
 Identifying the target market
M - Measurable  The greater the number of attendees of the festival
the greater would be its (promotion of event and
the product) reach among consumers.
 The consumer behavioural pattern in the event
would help identify the target market.
A - Achievable  Use of social media and other media platforms will
help promote the event among maximum number
of people in Australia. From billboards to pop up
advertisements, advertisements on newspapers to
pamphlet distribution in malls, these measures
would help to promote the event to the majority of
people.
 The sponsors of the event will help promote the
various products related to Toyota Hybrid Cruiser.
For instance, the car supported accessories and
various other attractions which would display and
promote the Toyota Hybrid Cruiser.
 Detecting the majority of consumer base during the
event will help identify the target market. This
could be achieved by placing volunteers in the
event who will take surveys and help analyse and
evaluate the purchasing pattern of the consumers.

3PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
R - Relevant  The success of the event will help enable to place
the newly launched product among the consumers
of the Australian market.
T – Time-bound  For the promotion of event a one-month strategy
will work efficiently.
 The three-day long festival will be enough to
achieve the other key objectives.
Work-breakdown structure (WBS) and its importance
In organising an event which has a festival theme to it, a lot of work goes into it. From
pre-planning the event for several months to making sure that the event runs smoothly on the
actual day, numerous numbers of work goes into it. Thus, in order to maintain clear
functioning of these works a proper structure is required. Therefore, a work-breakdown
structure comes into use for segmenting the long list of tasks that are required to be done for
organising an event (Golini, Kalchschmidt and Landoni 2015). The tasks are distributed
among distinctive teams and the team members according to their role in the project. The
work-breakdown structure is a visual representation in which the tasks are defined and
segmented to each level of the team (Zhang and Fan 2014). In planning an event the work-
breakdown structure play a significant role since it cordially organises and manages the task
division among various members of the team. It gives a clear description of the set of tasks
that needs to be performed by a specific team. For example, the decoration department will
look after the entire theme and decorations that needs to be done for the festival hence, in the
work-distribution structure their team would be segregated from other departments and their
related activities would be enumerated under it. Similar representation is done for various
other departments as well.

4PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
A software that helps in preparing the work-distribution structure is Edraw Max
Breakdown structure software. This software helps the users to easily create, modify and edit
WBS diagram distinctly. The software provides its users to include as many fields as the
users wants to include in his or her WBS diagram. Additionally, it has an alternative of mass
printout that provides its users to print as many numbers of pages from any available printer.
Key hurdle (milestone) tasks
In organising an event such as the festival, it is observable that there might occur last
minute back out from sponsors and other partners of the event (Lee and Kang 2014). This
could affect the event and can cause a loss for both the event management company and the
Toyota Company. The reason may vary independently; however, it is essential that these
unexpected hurdles must be predicted beforehand (Lin and Taylor 2017). In addition to this,
the key milestone tasks must be set beforehand for keeping a track of the list of essential
tasks that needs to be completed in the scheduled time (Azaria, Aumann and Kraus 2014).
The milestone tasks are a set of noted stages that must be completed in order to organise the
entire event. In order to keep a track of these tasks a well-maintained schedule is extremely
important. The schedule in the form of a Gantt-chart is usually prepared which will allow the
team leader along with other head authority of the management to keep a track of all the
potential hurdles, milestones and so on that the festival shall face.
Cost saving measures for The Toyota launch event
The company could efficiently decrease its expenditures in the Toyota launch event
by adopting a set of measure. These are as follows –
 Hiring volunteers to increase the work force for efficiently running a huge event as
such is the best way to reduce expenditures (Nickson 2013). A professional employee

5PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
may cost extra money whereas a trained volunteer could save a lot of expenses and
also fulfils the functions of an efficient employee.
 Sponsors play a huge role in cutting down the expenditures for organising an event as
such (Van der Wagen and White 2018). These sponsors could not just help save
money instead could even help in providing resources that are essential for setting up
the event.
 Minimising catering expenses could save a lot for the company as hiring buffet lunch
and dinner options for the VIP guests and setting up food stalls for other attendees are
a better alternative to it. A buffet spread is a better way to introduce food and drinks
to an event as such whereas, hiring caterers and a planned menu system will cost extra
money.
 Planning a budget for all the essential expenses for the event will help keep a check
and minimise costing for the company (Braglia and Frosolini 2014). The areas where
we could diminish the expenditure can be highlighted with the help of planning a
budget.
Human Resource managements consideration for staffing
The Human Resource (HR) department could take into account a number of
considerations for providing staff members for the event. Apart from hiring volunteer and
contractual based employees, a number of other options HR could consider to increase staff
(Talukder and Khan 2013). Some of them are –
 Hiring part time workers in two different shifts of the day can be an alternate option
that the HR could consider for staffing.
 Since, the company is trying to launch its new product in the Australian conditions; it
would be a great way to recruit staffs for the event who are a native of the organised

6PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
place of event. This way the HR could increase its workers along with appealing other
consumers as well.
Integrated Marketing Communication for the Toyota event
The three key messages that is essential to guide the Integrated Marketing
Communication of this particular event are –
1. The various communication tools whether it is online media, traditional media or
electronic media along with other advertising aspects such as billboards and pamphlet
distribution, all these measures should be adopted for the fulfilment of the first goal.
This measure would be apt for promoting the event on a majority basis.
2. The promotional tools such as demonstration stalls for the newly launched product,
organising exciting contests on the site of event would help strengthen the relationship
with the clients and consumers who would be attending the festival (Van Caenegem,
Cleary and Drahos 2014).
3. With the help of integration tools, such as conducting surveys on the site of event
would help analyse and evaluate the purchasing pattern of the consumers (Mulhern
2013). This would even help in identifying the exact target market for the product that
is intended to be launched in Australia.

7PROCESSES AND STRATEGIES IN EVENT MANAGEMENT
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