{"id":6208,"date":"2015-12-09T21:01:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T02:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/methuen-festival-of-trees-creates-value-through-two-sided-marketplace\/"},"modified":"2015-12-09T21:01:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T02:01:18","slug":"methuen-festival-of-trees-creates-value-through-two-sided-marketplace","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/methuen-festival-of-trees-creates-value-through-two-sided-marketplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Methuen Festival of Trees Creates Value through Two-Sided Marketplace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Great operating models sometimes come giftwrapped in small packages.\u00a0 Such is the case with the Methuen Festival of Trees, the largest holiday event in the Merrimack Valley.\u00a0 Now in its twenty-second year, the Festival raises money to preserve and restore local historical sites.\u00a0 This year\u2019s Festival featured over 240 Christmas trees, and welcomed over 27,000 visitors.\u00a0 In just two weeks, the event likely raised between $200,000 and $300,000 in gross revenue, with very limited overhead.<\/p>\n<p>Fundamentally, the Festival of Trees is a Christmas fundraiser; however, it is also a two-sided marketplace, as it brings together both (A) local businesses, as well as (B) individual members of the community.\u00a0 The Festival creates value for both groups.\u00a0 Local businesses volunteer to decorate and donate individual Christmas trees.\u00a0 The trees are thematically decorated to reflect the business activities of the donor (e.g. a dentist office submitted a tree decorated with supersized teeth, toothbrushes, and \u2013 at the top of the tree \u2013 a Tooth Fairy).\u00a0 The Festival gives businesses the opportunity to advertise to thousands of local patrons, as well as generate goodwill within the local community. \u00a0The Festival also creates value for visitors by providing them with a friendly and affordable venue in which to socialize and celebrate the holiday season.\u00a0 For many families, attending the Methuen Festival of Trees is a longstanding tradition offering religious, communitarian, and nostalgic significance.\u00a0 The venue also provides patrons the pleasant experience of get lost in a forest of spectacularly-decorated trees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6100\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6100\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Festival-of-Trees-Showroom.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6100\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Festival-of-Trees-Showroom-300x224.png\" alt=\"Showroom at the Festival of Trees\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Festival-of-Trees-Showroom-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Festival-of-Trees-Showroom-600x448.png 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Festival-of-Trees-Showroom.png 711w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6100\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Showroom at the Festival of Trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Festival generates revenue by charging patrons an admission fee.\u00a0 Patrons may also purchase holiday treats, photos with Santa, and raffle tickets.\u00a0 The business model hinges on building both sides of the two-sided market, all while minimizing operating costs.\u00a0 The Festival\u2019s operating model (i.e. the way it translates its assets into business activity) is very well-aligned with these goals.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers first must entice local businesses to participate \u2013 which requires a combination of appealing to business owners\u2019 altruism, as well as convincing the business owners that attendance will be strong (even before any tickets have been sold).\u00a0 Organizers have several assets at their disposal to do this.\u00a0 They have an outstanding reputation and history in the community, impressive historical attendance figures (\u201cIt gets bigger and better every year\u201d), and information on the historical projects they have funded (over 140 projects to-date).\u00a0 They promote these assets to businesses via advertising designed to create buzz (Facebook page, articles in local periodicals, signage), as well as an e-commerce website on which businesses can sign-up to donate trees.\u00a0 Organizers use lists of local businesses and relationships within the community (including prior years\u2019 participants) to identify potential Christmas tree donors.\u00a0 The Festival primarily uses volunteer labor to manage its advertising and participant outreach.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6101\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6101\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Volunteers.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6101\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Volunteers-300x251.jpg\" alt=\"Volunteers at the Festival of Trees\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Volunteers-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/Volunteers.jpg 554w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6101\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers at the Festival of Trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Next, the organizers must deliver the promised patrons to the event.\u00a0 In addition to the advertising resources mentioned above, the Festival uses its other assets creatively to deliver value to patrons.\u00a0 First, they use the Christmas trees themselves to drive a level of engagement above-and-beyond merely \u201ctree-gazing\u201d.\u00a0 Young participants are given a \u201cscavenger hunt\u201d list when they first enter the showroom; the list includes several unique items that are scattered throughout the tree decorations (e.g. \u201cThe Tooth Fairy\u201d).\u00a0 Any child who completes the scavenger hunt is presented with a free toy.\u00a0 They also give patrons the opportunity to take home a Christmas tree through a raffling system; patrons purchase 25 raffle tickets for $5, and then place their raffle tickets in canisters that sit in front of each Christmas tree.\u00a0 The organizers also deploy several volunteers to be part of the show (showroom emcee, Santa Clause and his elves, etc.).\u00a0 While the Festival\u2019s physical infrastructure is quite simple, it is elegantly arranged to provide a straightforward experience for visitors, while also moving them through the exhibits reasonably quickly.\u00a0 For example, when patrons enter the building, they are greeted by volunteers with iPads and credit card readers (see Exhibit 1).\u00a0 The volunteer first asks the patron\u2019s e-mail address; if the patron is already \u201cin the system\u201d (from prior years), the volunteer can charge the credit card without the patron needing to dig through his or her wallet (especially difficult to do when one is managing small children).\u00a0 The system is well-aligned to serve the Festival\u2019s core demographic: families with children who come year after year.\u00a0 This year\u2019s Festival of Trees ended December 5<sup>th<\/sup>, and was an enormous success.\u00a0 Strong alignment between the Festival\u2019s business and operating model suggests that the tradition is poised to carry on for many Christmases to come.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/151209-TOM-Challenge-Exhibit-1.pdf\">151209 &#8211; TOM Challenge Exhibit 1<\/a>\u00a0(link to PDF)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/EXHIBIT-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-6167\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/EXHIBIT-1-300x169.png\" alt=\"EXHIBIT 1\" width=\"490\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/EXHIBIT-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/EXHIBIT-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/EXHIBIT-1-600x338.png 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/EXHIBIT-1.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Methuen Festival of Trees brings local businesses together with members of the community every Christmas to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for historical restoration projections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1114,"featured_media":6209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[422],"class_list":["post-6208","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundraising"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/the-tom-challenge-tom-winners-and-losers-assignment\/","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Methuen Festival of Trees Creates 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