1. Tell us about Harlem Hip Hop Tours and how you came up with the idea?
Harlem Hip-Hop Tours is an entertainment company that specializes in tours, field trips, and events relating to Harlem and New York City’s hip-hop industry. We focus on providing our services to large groups, ranging in size from 40 to 300 people at a time. The majority of our customers are school groups coming from states on the East Coast, as well as international youth groups from Canada and Europe. I came up with the idea for Harlem Hip-Hop Tours with fellow Columbia Business School graduate, Ms. Shannon White ‘01, while on vacation in the Caribbean. We were on the beach talking about how much fun we had on an ATV tour that we had taken earlier in the day, and how it would be great to have similar jobs where we could have fun all day showing people around. As we began discussing the idea more, I realized that during my two years working in Japan I had provided similar services by planning trips for Japanese groups to visit Canada and the United States, as well as creating itineraries for American groups that I hosted in Japan. Shannon and I tinkered with the idea more and realized that New York City was a mecca for tourism and that Harlem was a unique neighborhood in which we could specialize. Additionally, I knew how much the Japanese loved hip-hop culture and I initially thought the company could focus on providing tourism services solely to Japanese customers. We then came up with the super descriptive name of Harlem Hip-Hop Tours and I designed the logo for the company right there on the beach! From then on our customers helped shape Harlem Hip-Hop Tours into what the company is today. Despite my initial thoughts of having a Japanese focused tour company my entire customer base shifted when I received a call out of the blue from Harlem Park Middle School in Maryland. An administrator for the school asked if we could provide a field trip for their students to New York City. Without hesitation I replied, “Yes!” and then worked creatively to put an itinerary together for a group of 50 junior high school students. I had no idea at the time that school field trips would become the bread and butter of my company.
2. What makes you most proud about what you offer to your consumers?
I am most proud that Harlem Hip-Hop Tours is a pioneer in edutainment (i.e. educating through entertainment). All of our tours, events, and activities focus on educating our customers about Harlem and hip-hop culture while entertaining them at the same time. We have numerous letters and emails from parents, teachers, and principals who say that their child/student now has a greater interest in history, entrepreneurship, or the arts after having participated in one of our trips. Additionally, we often get feedback that students want to attend Columbia University after taking the campus tours we provide. I know Harlem Hip-Hop Tours is making a positive difference in the lives of young people from around the world and this is a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
3. What impact has your Columbia MBA education had in the way you approach your business?
My Columbia MBA has been invaluable to the success of my company. The education I received placed me in prime position to simultaneously see the “forest” and the “trees” when developing my company. I learned a tremendous amount about the entertainment business through my participation in the Media Management Association and Motion Picture Financing Club. Professor Gita Johar’s marketing class really came in handy when I needed to devise a strategy for targeting elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the East Coast. While I was taking her class I remember thinking, “What is this woman talking about?” but later when my company’s very survival depended on the success of my marketing strategies I was very thankful for the rigor with which she taught the subject. Additionally, Professor Bruce Greenwald’s ‘Economics of Strategic Behavior’ is a lynchpin to my success. His class opened a whole new world of thinking for me and gave me an almost overwhelming insight into the world of business and how money moves.
4. How have the media classes you took at Columbia Business School affected how you promote your business?
The most important thing I learned from the media classes I took at the Columbia was determining how people consume media. There are a myriad of ways in which people prefer to consume content. My media classes helped me realize this fact, and more importantly, discover methodologies for identifying which forms of media were used by specific demographics. I have used this knowledge to get a better handle on how I promote Harlem Hip-Hop Tours to customers. We deal with different sets of decision makers. Sometimes the people deciding whether a trip will take place are teachers and principals, who generally skew older and are more likely to respond to traditional media such as ads in industry trade magazines and educational email campaigns. Whereas other times, our decision makers are children or teenagers who are more likely to tune into Twitter, Facebook, or radio promotions. Knowing which forms of media are most likely to reach the decision makers that drive my business has been a huge key to successfully promoting Harlem Hip-Hop Tours.
5. How did being a member of the Media Management Association (MMA) complement your MBA education?
Being an MMA member was extremely critical for me. Before entering business school I worked as a translator in Japan and also served as a television host for a local cable TV show whose programming promoted Japan-U.S. cultural relations. My work in Japan prompted me to explore a career in media, but with no formal education in the industry, I was really depending on my two years at Columbia to help me transition into a media-based career. Joining the MMA was integral to my strategy. As a member of the club, I was able to network with like-minded individuals who often had more experience and could help me determine which career paths and companies I should pursue given my interests and skills sets. Over the years these friendships continued to grow and became more and more valuable as I entered the workforce, and especially now that I have my own company. Additionally, the trip that we took to LA over winter break was phenomenal. Nothing substitutes for first-hand experience and during the trip I was able to meet and talk with representatives from many influential media companies. This trip was instrumental in my securing a summer internship with David Foster Productions, a motion picture production company responsible for such films as The Mask of Zorro, Collateral Damage, and Hart's War. I learned so much about the film industry and was able to apply that knowledge later in my career at Cablevision, and also with some of the upcoming ventures that I am developing for Harlem Hip-Hop Tours.
6. How do you use the internet/social networks to promote your business?
Every month we send an eblast to our proprietary database of schools updating them on new tour offerings or other information pertinent to children’s education. We also use Twitter to update followers on what activities our tour guests may be participating in at any given time, and Facebook is always a good method of updating the public about the company. In addition, we have invested a significant amount of effort into creating a website that serves as an interactive sales tool. Customers can go to www.h3tours.com and see video footage of our signature tour, the Hip-Hop On. Hip-Hop Off. Tour, as well as segments from shows in which Harlem Hip-Hop Tours was featured on Black Entertainment Television (BET). The website also provides free price quotes for field trips and allows customers to make reservation requests online, which vastly shortens the sales cycle. We also have an exclusive partnership with HOT 97 radio station to provide behind-the-scenes tours of their facilities and studios to school groups. HOT 97 has a dedicated page on their website that promotes our company and the HOT 97 Experience Tour.
7. What advice would you give to a graduating Columbia student with entrepreneurial aspirations in media?
Clearly, clearly, CLEARLY define who your customers are and determine MULTIPLE methods for reaching them. In today’s economic climate businesses are scrambling to reach consumers and their ever-shrinking dollar. A successful entrepreneur must know their customers inside and out, and must have a truckload of ways to contact those customers and keep their attention.
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