2 pages 

case studyswot

Case Write-up Instructions:

1. SWOT Analysis: A SWOT is a popular way to evaluate a business or case study. A SWOT helps you organize the case details into Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Please use a table format, per example below, to write up your SWOT. The SWOT should be written up on the top ½ of your first page.

2. Issues: Identify the key issues facing the company profiled in the case and rank them. Please use a single list format to write up the issues by ranked importance (short term to long term). The issues section should be written up on the bottom ½ of your first page.

Ranking: Rank the key issues based on their short term or long term implication to the business.

· Short term – something the company must address quickly in the near future

· Long term – something the company needs to address after it first deals with the short term issues

Examples:

· Valuable marketing and sales data are being ignored when setting plans (short term)

· Product shipping delays are increasing expenses (short term)

· The company’s product return policy is confusing (short term)

· Internet marketing expenses are over budget (short term)

· Market share is decreasing (long term)

· AZ new competitive product will enter the market soon (long term)

· Consumer demand is fluctuating for the product (long term)

3. Problem Statement: Write a concise problem statement on the short term issues.

Example.

· The company must meet with staff quickly to solve inventory and retailer return issues, also to develop a plan for improving internet marketing.

4. Case Response:

a) Recommendation (for HBR cases): What actions should the organization take to address the problem statement?

1. It is expected that you will seek additional resources outside of the information provided in the case to provide a complete and current response. Your write up in this section should be limited to 2 – 3 pages.

OR (depending on the type of case)

b) Case Question Response. Answer the questions at the end of the case. Please number the questions and begin your response by stating the question you are answering (question should be stated single space, response should be double spaced).

W13401

CAN FACEBOOK SAVE OUR FURRY FRIENDS?

Kaitlyn Kenyon wrote this case under the supervision of Professors Seung Hwan (Mark) Lee and June Cotte solely to provide
material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation.
The authors have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.

This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the
permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights
organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Western
University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1; (t) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com.

Copyright © 2013, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2013-09-19

THE FORT COLLINS CAT RESCUE & SPAY/NEUTER CLINIC (FCCRSNCSNC)

As a non-profit animal shelter, the Fort Collins Cat Rescue & Spay/Neuter Clinic (FCCRSNC)
commenced its operations during the summer of 2006, serving as a local, no-kill cat shelter; a low-cost
clinic was added in 2007. With the support of the community, two veterinary technicians (Sandra Rasmus
and Julie Kay) began by saving 17 homeless cats that were scheduled for euthanasia. The FCCRSNC
gradually expanded its offering to include a wide variety of services, such as adoption, foster programs,
low-cost spay/neuter services, and low-income assistance programs for pet owners in the local area. In
addition to seeking permanent homes for their rescue cats, the two partners dedicated their efforts to
preventing overpopulation pet trends and pet abandonment in the community.

Since its inception, Rasmus and Kay’s organization had found homes for over 5,000 cats and had
performed spay and neuter surgeries for over 23,000 cats and dogs. As a no-kill animal shelter, the
FCCRSNC had only limited space available for homeless cats, and thus, the organization was fully
committed to finding a home for each cat in the shelter. The FCCRSNC’s policy was to never euthanize
cats; however, with increasing numbers of homeless cats and personnel shortages, Rasmus needed to find
ways to effectively allocate the organization’s limited resources.

FCCRSNC’S CURRENT SITUATION

The FCCRSNC operated on an annual budget of $1 million, and like most non-profit shelters, it relied
heavily on volunteers to deliver its services on a daily basis. But even with a strong volunteer base, the
FCCRSNC was limited by its scarce resources of time, money, and personnel. The core operations – the
adoption shelter, the spay/neuter clinic, and the low-income assistance programs – consumed most of the
annual budget, and, given the rising costs of these programs, it was becoming difficult for the FCCRSNC
invest in other areas of its business, such as marketing to promote community awareness. Specifically,
Rasmus envisioned implementing social media marketing campaigns (e.g., using Facebook) to generate
more exposure for the clinic’s endeavors. However, investing the organization’s already-slim resources
into marketing operations would mean that the FCCRSNC would have to divest time, money, and
personnel away from its core operations.

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With little to no marketing budget, Rasmus was forced to come up with cost-effective ways to promote the
organization to the local community. One successful approach involved participating in community
outreach events with other organizations. Additionally, to highlight its services, the FCCRSNC submitted
written press releases to local newspapers and radio stations, and it used Craigslist to find volunteers, foster
homes, and new shelter donors. The only time the organization spent money on advertising was when it
received grant money from various foundations for the specific purpose of sponsoring awareness
campaigns and promoting larger events around the community.

Although the FCCRSNC had begun to use social media sites to engage with followers and highlight
adoptable animals, the organization’s limited resources and lack of expertise with social media platforms
prevented it from generating a stronger social-media presence. The FCCRSNC could be found on
Facebook and YouTube, but these accounts were either inactive or had failed to operate at their fullest
potential.

The FCCRSNC’s primary social media engagement was through its primary and secondary Facebook
pages, the latter of which showcased “Jake the Therapy Cat.” The FCCRSNC utilized Facebook to post
information related to adoptable cats, clinic specials, upcoming events, animal-shelter news articles, and
relevant blog posts. Unfortunately, Facebook’s analytics tool (i.e., Insights) attracted very little traffic to
the site and was largely used simply to examine the organization’s reach and audience demographic
statistics.

In its latest analysis, the FCCRSNC found its audience to be comprised of females aged 18-55. Facebook
sites were updated by just three people in the organization: the executive director (Rasmus), the marketing
and public relations co-ordinator, and the fundraising and donor development co-ordinator. These
executive members were kept very busy by their roles within the organization, so it was hard for them to
spend time posting Facebook updates when the more pressing core services demanded so much of their
attention. The board had discussed hiring a social media intern but quickly deemed that this option would
put too much strain on the current budget.

IS FACEBOOK WORTH IT FOR FCCRSNC?

In today’s fast-paced digital environment, a strong Facebook presence constitutes an important tool for
increasing an organization’s customer base and growing the overall business. But when this online
presence draws funding away from core operations — as at FCCRSNC — it becomes critical to examine
the value of this social medium to an organization that has only limited resources to invest in this initiative.
Hence, Rasmus would have to determine whether the return on investment would be large enough to
justify investing in Facebook, since doing so would eat up a portion of critical funds that were previously
earmarked for core operations. Since Facebook is not necessarily a good investment for all industries (e.g,
pharmaceuticals), Rasmus should examine its effectiveness specifically for non-profit animal shelters and
clinics.

FACEBOOK’S EFFECTIVENESS FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS

Even though social media has revolutionized the way people live and interact today, it may not be
beneficial for an animal shelter to invest in this marketing tool. In order to establish a strong online
presence, users must operate more than one platform, and, due to the effort of trying to maintain these
multiple platforms on a daily basis, social media often consumes many hours of precious time. Applicable
social media sites for animal shelters include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Google+, but it is

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critical that these sites are not left stagnant, otherwise the pages will gain a poor reputation, causing the
loss of valuable followers.1

Due to the evolving nature of social media, users will find that sites are constantly being updated and new
platforms often emerge. Since computer technology is not normally a specialty found among the personnel
at animal shelters, one or more staff members will need to be trained on each platform in order to properly
maintain the social media sites. It is also important to spend time evaluating the new platforms to
determine whether they serve the goals of the shelter.

Furthermore, every company and organization that utilizes Facebook must deal with the difficulty of
determining the fine line between posting too often and posting too little. Facebook’s Help Center suggests
posting once per day to keep followers engaged, but because this best practice is based on data analysis
that encompasses all kinds of industries, Facebook also recommends studying each company’s unique
audience base to better understand any specific update preferences. 2 Animal shelters yield audience
members who are passionate about supporting their non-profit and who often prefer to see more frequent
posts.3 If the animal shelter cannot establish correct posting patterns for its specific audience, its followers
may “unfollow” due to declining interest. Hence, updating social media sites can be time-intensive and will
prove to be ineffective without the correct maintenance skills.

On the one hand, for years, animal shelters have survived without a Facebook presence. Many such
organizations have survived solely on customer word-of-mouth advertising. Since there will always be a
customer base that needs low-cost services and prefers to adopt a rescue cat over a breeder’s cat, if an
animal shelter is comfortable with its current marketing promotions and operational situation, there is no
need to divest core resources into social media campaigns.

On the other hand, Facebook may be beneficial for animal shelters that desire to grow and reach new
customers, especially the younger generation, who view social media tools as must-haves. Moreover, since
people love to share pictures of cute animals and hear inspiring stories, Facebook can be a powerful tool
for animal shelters in particular, since these organizations have an endless supply of both. Further, the
activity of posting pictures and stories on Facebook provides a positive word-of-mouth message that
people will want to share with their friends and family.4 Moreover, Facebook is a highly effective tool for
creating buzz and excitement for upcoming events, increasing participation and raising awareness for the
cause. Facebook can help reach a wide variety of people who are interested in getting a new cat or dog but
have not yet decided whether they will get their new pet from a breeder or from an adoption shelter. In
general, people are three times more likely to adopt a pet from a shelter if they know that a friend or family
member has done so. By utilizing Facebook, a shelter can encourage its followers to spread the word about
adopted pets and thus inspire friends and family to adopt. Through likes, comments, and shares, stories are
spread much further on social media than through personal interactions, thus providing a good return on
investment with higher adoption rates.

Additionally, animal shelters can use Facebook to educate the general population. Often, shelter animals
are stereotyped as “damaged goods,” but this label can be changed if animal shelters create posts that
showcase joyful pets waiting to become someone’s newest family member. Many people do not want to

1 Christie Keith, “Social Media for Pet Adoption and Adoption Events,” Maddie’s Fund, 2012,
http://www.maddiesfund.org/Maddies_Institute/Webcasts/Social_Media_for_Adoptions.html, accessed May 31, 2013.
2 “How Often Should I Post to My Page?” Facebook, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/help/308791795819166/, accessed
July 10, 2013.
3 Christie Keith, 2012.
4 Christie Keith, 2012.

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adopt shelter animals due to their potential health concerns, unknown past history.5 Facebook gives
shelters an opportunity to post stories that inspire people by showing how fun-loving these animals are,
despite their challenging pasts. By using Facebook to change society’s perception of shelter animals,
rescue organizations can increase their adoption rates and their return on investment from social media
campaigns.

FCCRSNC’S FACEBOOK DILEMMA

Rasmus pondered how best to allocate FCCRSNC’s limited resources. If she decided against investing in
social media efforts, she could allocate 100 per cent of the organization’s funding to support core
operations. That way, current resources would continue to be utilized to maintain existing programs and
services and to provide better care for the cats in the shelter. In addition, FCCRSNC could further expand
its current programs that were in high demand and low supply, such as the low-income program Kibble
Supply Pet Food Pantry, which gave struggling pet owners a small supply of supplemental food once a
month to help feed their animals. This program decreased the number of owners who were forced to
surrender their pets due to financial hardships.6 The FCCRSNC could also set aside any extra resources to
save money for a new location that would allow the organization to grow its business and house more
homeless cats.

By forgoing the opportunity to invest in social media, the FCCRSNC’s target audience would generally not
reach further than the local community. For long-term growth, however, outreach would be weakened if
the organization did not find a way to engage with customers outside of its surrounding community. The
FCCRSNC’s customer base and overall revenue would thus grow at a slower rate, and the organization’s
focus would remain strictly on maintenance rather than on expansion. As a result, the FCCRSNC would
not attain the level of growth potential that would be possible if social media were utilized to increase the
customer base.

As Rasmus went on to consider the other side of the social-media question, she acknowledged that the
FCCRSNC might benefit from having a wider presence on Facebook. A commitment to social media
would signal an investment in FCCRSNC’s long-term business growth, and, through Facebook, the
FCCRSNC could potentially recruit a larger customer base by expanding its reach well beyond the local
community. Gaining more customers would support the organization’s long-term goal of expanding its
core operations to help a larger number of homeless cats and offer more low-cost services. Further, a
strong Facebook presence would significantly increase FCCRSNC’s visibility, which would in turn
generate more online donations and raise awareness for volunteer needs. And finally, the organization
could promote events through Facebook to increase support and participation.

THE DECISION

Despite the benefits of having a Facebook presence, an investment in this technology would require
Rasmus to allocate personnel and money towards the effort – two resources that were currently used to
support core services. Also, there would be an inherent risk of dedicating money to a social media launch
that might fail to produce a good return on investment. Additionally, it would be costly to maintain an
ongoing social media presence on a daily basis. With a fast-approaching annual budget meeting, Rasmus

5 Christie Keith, 2012.
6 “Kibble Supply Pet Food Pantry,” Fort Collins Cat Rescue & Spay/Neuter Clinic,
http://www.FCCRSNC.org/FCCRSNC_kks.shtml, accessed May 31, 2013.

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faced a difficult decision. Should she propose that the FCCRSNC maintain its current funding allocation to
core operations or should she recommend that the organization should invest heavily in social media for
the next fiscal year?

As Rasmus prepared for the meeting, several questions ran through her head: Should the FCCRSNC
invest in social media campaigns (i.e., a Facebook presence)? If yes, who should develop and maintain
these campaigns? What specific metrics could — or should — Rasmus use to measure the success of these
campaigns? And how should the FCCRSNC go about implementing these campaigns? The ongoing
success of the shelter programs would rely on finding the answers to these questions.

For the exclusive use of T. Chen, 2020.
This document is authorized for use only by Tianlin Chen in Marketing 615 taught by KIMBER MADERAZZO, Pepperdine University from Jan 2020 to Apr 2020.