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A. Selection of Headquarter Location
It should first be kept in mind that as a result of geographical constraints the circus operating area is constrained one way or another, since the the continent is split into two separate parts, namely west and east regions. Therefore the headquarter that is to be located should be based in either of these regions which also brings the problem of where to serve the business. Thus business returns in terms of ways to generate future demand and the proximity to strategic business points (high population cities) should clearly be assesed in order to decide on where to locate the headquarter. Considering all these it is decided that the circus headquarter is located on the eastern region which also brings an access to the northeastern and southeastern markets. Summarizing the achievements up to this point major markets to be served with the choice of eastern region are New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Ottawa, Quebec and Montreal. These cities are laid around all of the eastern region including rather southern parts of the United States as well as major cities of Canada.
According to the analysis made regarding the factors such as geographical constraints, state divisions, proximity to progressive markets and population demographics, the company headquarters is located in Harrisburg, Pennysylvania, which is a small city in the neighbourhood of New York, New Jersey, Washington and also in the proximity of the Canadian markets as well as the Chicago and southern markets.
It is general practice not to start the business in more than a few number of major markets in order to assess the demand structure more precisely, and construct a well customer base. Keeping this in mind it is proposed that for a three months initiation period only the neighbourhood cities are to be visited, including New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington. Each of these cities are thought to be visited for equal periods of time, while two different shows are displayed daily. During this initiation phase a strong marketing effort should be presented especially aiming those markets that are projected to be visited in the upcoming periods. After this assessment phase the tournee schedules should be based on three different cycles each beginning and ending at the headquarter.
First of these cycles ‘The Northeastern Cycle’ is represented with the red lines in figure 1, this cycle mainly consists of the previously entered markets with a built-in customer base as well as eastern Canadian cities. Each city that is pointed with dots in this map means that the shows will be displayed in that specific city. For this red cycle eight displays per city (on the average) is decided to be a good estimate when the population demography and the touristic characterisic of this region is considered. This means a total of 112 shows (14 cities*8 shows) are to be displayed year round, where one show per day is a reasonable assumption as long as the importance and the precision of the of the preparations is considered. It is also a common practice among the other circuses.
The second cycle which is represented by the yellow lines is called ‘The Northern-Central Cycle’ and includes 10 cities most of which are dispersed around the Lake Michigan including Toronto, Canada and the rest around the northern Mississipi River. Five shows in each of these cities is estimated to be a good guess as far as the population demography and the market structure is devised. The market is less competitive than the red region described in the previous section as this region is less developed and compared to the former one. However, these numbers are just estimates and they are subject to change as the demand is realized. This yellow cycle owns 50 shows (10 cities*5 shows) per year.
The final cycle, represented by the blue lines is called ‘The Southeastern Cycle’ and expected to generate business especially in the summer seasons where Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta and Arkansas are the major cities. An initial assumption of five shows per city is to be dispalyed in those cities on the average where an overall 105 shows (21 cities*5 shows) is to be displayed yearly. One major difference of this blue region from the other ones is the distance among the cities which pretends to be a challenging trade-off at the very beginning, but it is a future business opportunity to be eligible to obtain these markets as the number of cities large compared with the other regions. The existence of summer resorts in this region constrain the circus in the sense that the tournee should be in the summer months, otherwise expected demand would not be generated.
In addition to these if we assume an average of three displays in Harrisburg (headquarter), the total number of shows turns out to be 270 per year.
