Chuckanut Brewery Consulting Project
Description
After getting in contact with Mari at Chuckanut Brewery, I was given two different projects to choose from. One was a marketing/event planning type project and the other was a strategic market pricing research project. I selected the pricing research project as I have had some experience with collecting and analyzing pricing data, but could definitely use some more. So, my overall goal of this project was to collect pricing data on beer, wine, cider, and food prices at different restaurants and breweries in the Bellingham area. Once I had collected the data, I was to compile it into a report that would be easy to read. This was a very important project as Mari and Spencer wanted to make sure their prices were competitive with the surrounding establishments. This is going to become an annual project that they do so the pricing data will almost always be current.
Objectives
While I did not have a large number of objectives for this project, I had a few that were very important. Below I have listed the objectives that were established between Mari, Spencer, and I.
• Visit at least 8 breweries and restaurants
• Collect food prices from breweries and restaurants
• Collect alcohol prices from breweries and restaurants
• Produce a detailed final report for us to read and make adjustments to our prices if needed
Process
After our first meeting, I had to determine how I wanted to set up my spreadsheets. I went to my first two breweries listed on my project plan and collected pricing information from both. I inputted the new data into a spreadsheet and modified it in a way that was giving only the average prices for the restaurant. I sent off my first draft to Mari and received feedback the next day. Unfortunately for me, she did not like my original project and described to me how it needed to have more detail on the prices so I started over from scratch. I had spent a considerable amount of time on this first draft, but I knew that if it wasn't what my supervisor was looking for, I would have to make adjustments and create a new report.
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On this new spreadsheet, I decided to list the item, restaurant, and price with any add-ins. This would provide Mari with a more detailed report of different menu pricing in the area. I inputted a few more restaurants and breweries on this new spreadsheet and met up with both Mari and Spencer to check on the progress thus far. I was given excellent feedback on the draft of this new report and it helped me make some critical changes to it for the final. During the time before this second meeting, I was well off into the project and meeting with different individuals to gain some inside access to ingredients used on some of the meals. I was able to provide some of the important and noteworthy ingredients based on what Mari and Spencer had wanted.
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Throughout this whole process, I was keeping good communication between the three of us, because I understood how important communication is to creating an impressive final report. I took all of the new feedback I had received and started to add new pricing details to the report. It took a good amount of time to organize all of the data and place it in a way that would make sense for everyone. I realized what made sense to me, might not be the best way to explain it for other people so it had to be very easy to read, but still professional. On June 3rd, right on time, I was able to send Mari and Spencer my final report via email. I was able to meet up with them the following morning to go through my project in detail and explain anything that needed explaining. I had established a deadline that I wanted to have my project completed by, which was earlier than the actual deadline for the class just to show that I can budget my time in order to meet deadlines.
Outcome
This is what I was doing all the work for. We sat down on June 4th for about and hour and a half to go over my final report. We went through each individual item on my report and compared it to the prices of their menu. If the market average price was higher, then we would discuss raising the price a little bit to meet the market. This is what made the project more real because we were adjusting the prices of the actual menu if needed. We discussed when the best time would be to implement some of the price changes and whether or not to adjust them all at once or at different times. It was determined to begin implementing half of the changes this summer and adjust the rest of them in the fall. Overall, the menu prices were pretty consistent and did not require any changes. There were some surprises as new breweries in town were quite expensive so we had to determine if those were outliers. Expect a few items to change prices at Chuckanut Brewery in the near future!