The concept of an event planning business has been in existence for some time.  The owner of A Fabulous Affair decided to take that concept and enhance it with his and his partner’s combined expertise and specialized competencies to create a service that is unique, reasonable in price, and service oriented.

In order for them to achieve their objective, they needed to identify their customers' needs.  To do that, they conducted market research by attending numerous conventions and meetings that targeted corporate meeting planners, convention planners, and event planners for city and state tourism programs.  They decided to conduct an informal oral survey at these meetings to determine what their customers look for when hiring an outside event planning company.  The results of this survey showed that professionalism, efficiency and event uniqueness were the key elements that customers desired. 

Next Jack Banquet wanted to see if he could find a niche in the industry that had not been saturated, so that A Fabulous Affair could position itself in that area.  After several brainstorming sessions Jack Banquet and the other executives realized that they all had one resource in common - their contacts in the entertainment industry.  They decided to target this industry, in addition to business functions and weddings, for their market entry and growth plans.

Outside research has shown that the most frequent high budget events are held in the entertainment industry.  An article in the March 19xx issue of Special Events Today stated that the entertainment industry spends more on events annually than any other segment of the market.  

It is projected that in 19xx, the entertainment industry will account for over 40% of the money spent on special events (see table Market Research).

Therefore, based on the research conducted, the owners of A Fabulous Affair found that an event planning business servicing not only the traditional business and wedding markets, but also the entertainment industry niche, would be a potentially lucrative business venture and one that would take advantage of existing competencies of Jack Banquet and his key associates.