Reference no: EM132290726

Overview of the Scenario:

Hairesy is a hair care company launched in the late 1990s during the height of the dot- com, online business craze. When the company first launched, it sought to provide the internet’s widest array of hair-care and beauty products becoming, in effect, the Amazon for follicles. Although the brand never achieved anything near market domination, it settled into a niche offering sustainable profits: animal-specific hair care. These days, Hairesy sells Shampoodle for dogs, Shamcockatoo for birds, even conditioners for chinchillas, leave-in products for ferrets, and grooming devices for (hairless) sphynx cats—all with pun-laded names too terrible to mention.

However, after surviving the bankruptcy of its initial competitors and countless other e- tailers during the early 2000s, Hairecy stopped innovating. Fearing that loyal customers might be turned-off by design changes, founder Kayvon Trussdale vowed to keep the website looking more or less as it did on its day of launch. In recent months, Mr. Trussdale retired to the Malibu coast and appointed a new company President, Alina Gomez, as his replacement. Mrs. Gomez has decided to make considerable changes to the company, forming a series of committees to research the brand’s reputation within its target markets, to re-evaluate the appearance of the website, and to “streamline operations” (which may be code-word for firing people). Employees at every level of the organization, which includes 300 employees, are nervous.

Specific Messages:

1. You are part of the newly formed Committee on Web Site Redesign. Its function is to compare the Hairesy company website to those of other niche hair-care websites like HairFlair (which caters to rhythmic gymnasts) and Electric Lettuce (which caters to “bros” and wannabe-bros, aka “brosers”). Its other task is to consider the possible redesign of the website, from “the ground up,” if necessary. Some managers complain that the site looks like it was made in the 1990s—which, to be fair, it was. They think that it should have fewer Flash animations, fewer clip-art images, and a simpler, more minimalist aesthetic. The committee delegates you to ask Peter Cubital, the company’s Web Master and manager of its online presence, some questions. The committee wonders whether he has done any usability tests on the current site. They want to know if he or the members of his team have the skills to match the style of the Electric Lettuce website. The committee also wants to know how much a total Web redesign might cost.

In addition, the committee would also like to know about the cost of a partial redesign. Someone wants to know whether animation, sound, or video could be added and wondered if Peter would recommend doing so. Someone else thought that the timing of the redesign might be important. The committee asks you to add some additional, relevant questions to your memo. Invite Peter to a meeting March 9. You can assume that he knows about the existence of the committee, although he is probably not happy that it exists.

-Your task: Write an interoffice memo to Peter Cubital requesting answers to several questions and inviting him to a meeting.