Schreiber Center • 16 E. Pearson St.

Water Tower Campus • Chicago, IL 60611

LUC.edu/Quinlan

October 6, 2017

Dear BMO Harris Bank,

Based on our initial meeting and project briefing, we are pleased to share Team Chef’s response to your
Request for Information (RFI). This document serves to communicate Team Chef’s understanding of
how our marketing research capabilities align with BMO Harris Bank’s current opportunity. Once in
agreement about this understanding, we will demonstrate Team Chef’s capabilities by providing tools
for primary data collection.

First, Team Chef understands that BMO wants to try to infuse their tradition with new and fresh ideas at
the Lights Festival. During the interview session, BMO kept illustrating what they typically do at each
festival, but were open to trying new things. Our team hopes to discover key insights to blend these two
aspects together. We understand that brand awareness is a top priority for BMO in sponsoring this event.
We also recognize that BMO wants to engage with the community through this sponsorship. Our team
knows that this event is important in showing that BMO is more than a typical corporate bank and that
they care about engaging with the community. We hope to further that.

Therefore, the following managerial decision opportunity (MDO) is proposed to guide the scope of
forthcoming marketing research deliverables: How can BMO Harris create an impactful engagement
opportunity for people to be drawn towards the bank at the Lights Festival?

The research objectives below will guide our data collection to support the MDO above. Refer to the
Appendix on page 2 for information that verifies why we selected these objectives.

1. To investigate what attractions are most popular at the event.

2. To understand what draws people to attend.
3. To determine how attendees discovered the Lights Festival.
4. To investigate the current demographic that attends the Magnificent Mile event.
5. To investigate the level of awareness of BMO’s sponsorship.

Our deliverable timeline is as follows: (1) primary data collection tools will be emailed in late October,
(2) descriptive data collection will begin in November, and (3) data analysis and reporting will continue
through mid-December.

To us, client readiness involves knowing your client’s unique problems and providing accurate data that
is easy to understand. We will complete all our work in a timely and professional manner.
Please find Team Chef’s complete contact details below. We look forward to working with you!

Thanks,
Claire Gardone (cgardone@luc.edu), Katrina Nicdao (Knicdao@luc.edu), Natalia Gheewala
(ngheewala@luc.edu), Miles Hoehne (mhoehne@luc.edu), Katie Sailor (ksailor@luc.edu)
Appendix 1: Data from Exploratory Design that informed Development of Research Objectives

Research Objective 1: To investigate what attractions are most popular at the event.
• In our interview with BMO, representatives from Mag Mile stated that it is important to “make
sure the attractions are interesting” and that these attractions “inspire people to want to come
back year after year.”
• The 2016 survey data from a previous MARK311 class listed activities that occurred at each
sponsor’s tent and asked respondents, “which of these makes you more likely to visit a sponsor’s
tent?”
• The same 2016 survey also used an open-ended question about their favorite part of the event,
resulting in a wide variety of answers.
Research Objective 2: To understand what draws people to attend.
• The 2016 survey data from a previous MARK311 class suggested that 29.48% of respondents
had already attended the event before, while 23.89% had visited 3 or more times. This data
reflects that there is incentive for respondents to return to the Lights Festival that we can
investigate further.
• In this same survey, data indicates that BMO Harris and Walt Disney World lead in sponsorship
awareness among respondents. This allows us to investigate these sources further to determine
their link to a draw in attendance.
Research Objective 3: To determine how attendees discovered the Lights Festival.
• The 2016 survey data from a previous MARK311 class determined that 70.4% of respondents
had heard of the Lights Festival before the event took place.
• 46.63% of respondents were attending the Lights Festival for the first time, which indicates a
large amount of new attendees each year. We plan to research this demographic of new attendees
with a more specific investigation into their discovery of the Lights Festival.
Research Objective 4: To investigate the current demographic that attends the Magnificent Mile
event.
• Based on the 2016 survey data from a previous MARK311 class, we have learned that our
largest attending demographic are those ages 18-24 (26.13%), while the second largest
demographic are those ages 25-34 (25%).
• We plan to research these demographics, as well as the large demographic of women attendees
who make up 59.55% of respondents.
Research Objective 5: To investigate the level of awareness of BMO’s sponsorship.
• While BMO leads at 20.94% in the level of awareness respondents, we seek to understand how
this number can be increased.
• 57.81% of respondents declared that their knowledge of BMO Harris Bank being a prominent
sponsor for the Lights Festival did not change their feelings towards the bank, while 40.82%
declared a growing favor towards BMO Harris.