Yorkshire Radio Station - Case Study Example

Case Study - Yorkshire Radio Station Market research and survey Executive Summary (This Report is an analysis of Yorkshire Radio Station, its present SWOT analysis and recommendation to the managers the strategies to be adopted to increase its business. We have analyzed the theoretical aspects of the strategies to be adopted by managers for business development) Introduction Yorkshire Radio Station is a target radio station broadcasting popular music, phone in sports show and live football commentary of Leeds United AFC games. It is owned by Leeds United AFC. It supports Yorkshire as a region but focuses on Leeds. For carrying out the marketing analysis to prepare a marketing strategy for Yorkshire Radio Station, we have to decide on the Main Aim of the exercise, to formulate the objectives, to make an assessment of the current position of the organization, make quantitative and qualitative market research, analyze the data, and finally make our suggestions. Main aims of this case study: Find a way to compete with BBC or some other big radio media company in UK and to get more market shares. Objectives Conclude current situation of radio station. Analysis the strengths and weakness of Yorkshire radio station accord with the research data collected by quantitative research and qualitative research. Provide marketing strategies and recommendations for the manger for improvement. Strategy: 'A strategy can be defined as a set of decisions taken by management on how the business will allocate its resources and achieve sustainable competitive advantage in its chosen markets.'1 Strategy has two key dimensions - the resource allocation decision and the development of sustainable competitive advantage. We will confine our dissertation on development of sustainable competitive advantage leaving the resource allocation decisions. The growth direction of an organization shall consist four strategies: Market penetration strategies - where the business sticks to its existing product and markets, aims at growth through increasing market share, maintaining customer loyalty or expanding the market. Product development strategies - where the company introduces new product to the existing market. Market development strategies - where the emphasis is on new geographical markets or new segment of markets. Diversification strategies - Diversification are of four types 1) Forward integration, Backward Integration, concentric diversification and conglometric diversification. Criteria for Strategic success: The following five factors determine the success of a strategy: 1. Fit to market environment - the primary requirement is the perceived notion of customer for the need of the product or services. The customer looks for competitive advantage, superior value from a product. 2. Timing: nothing fails like success - A product or service, which is in vogue today, becomes obsolete tomorrow, hence timing is very important for success of a strategy. 3. Efficiency versus effectiveness: Efficiency is internal to the organization whereas effectiveness identifies opportunities to create market. As Peter Drucker says 'Efficiency is doing things right, Effectiveness is doing right things'. Primary focus of the organization should be on effectiveness rather efficiency. 4. Speed versus decisiveness: Speed is important, companies that are fast to innovate, manufacture and distribute and quick to respond to customer requirements are more successful. But with speed the decisive commitment of resources also is very important. 5. Organizational effectiveness: The organizational effectiveness in its manpower, their commitment to deploy their skills effectively contributes to the organizational effectiveness. Let us analyze the Current situation: Presently Yorkshire Radios station's activities are as follows: 1. Broadcasting Yorkshire sports like Football Rugby, Racing, Cricket 2. Broadcasting music. 3. Main focus is on coverage of Leeds United with exclusive access to the manager, Players and chairman plus full match commentary on every game and away on DAB Digital Radio access Yorkshire with expert analysis from Leeds 4. Online at Yorkshireradio.net latest Yorkshire sports news, community for subscribers to LUTV via Leedsunited.com 5. Broadcasting access to UK on Sky. Now on the basis of current status if we conduct a SWOT analysis we find that: Strength: The Strength of the broadcasting station lies with its association with Leeds United AFC, which gives it access to the manager, Players and Chairman of the team, which is a unique ISP. It's product mix - popular music, sports targeting a target audience of youth is another positive strength. Their association with Sky for broadcasting all over UK is strength. Their association with IRN, which is a major news and content provider to commercial radio in the UK, is another asset. They have broadened their outlook with 'Yorkshire Pride' where they feature smaller clubs and other Yorkshire clubs. In entertainment segment they have 'Yorkshire Live'. To meet new challenges they have 'Yorkshire Jobs' Weakness: The specific geographical tag associated with the radio station will cause a mental barrier for the customers to associate it with a national broadcasting station. They cater to only a specific segment of audience like young and sports lovers, which is a great hindrance for becoming a national player Opportunities: They have the opportunity of becoming the major player in Yorkshire area as they can focus on the local requirements more prominently. Being a comparatively new company the organization is lean and fit. Threat: BBC has local presence with 'BBC radio York' dishing out not only music but also news, entertainment, sports and travel information. They also have a special product of live racing broadcasting during Royal Ascot racing. Marketing Strategies and Recommendations for the managers: The organization should contemplate all the strategies of business growth. They should cater to the diversified needs of the existing customers by introducing new services. New media strategies need to be adopted for keeping the customer loyalty intact. In the ever-changing media field innovation is the key word. The speed also plays a very important role in this competitive world. One can have excellent ideas, but it needs to be put into action with speed. The mixture of new products aiming at different segment of customers to be adopted. Presently the service mix of the station is tilted towards youth. As already done with IRN, similar strategic alliances should be looked out for providing other services. The company is in right track and already started providing value added services like Job, entertainment etc. The company also has to nurture its niche market. To increase the geographical presence, the company needs to commit on further resources. In the competitive market it will be more effective to increase geographical presence as the expenses for content gets distributed making it more cost effective. The organization can enter into viable strategic alliances in other geographical areas. References BBC York Radio http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/search/daylist.cgiservice_id=52276&DAY=Today Douale Peter, Marketing Management and Strategy, thrid edition, Finacial Times - Prentice Hall Yorkshire Radio Station http://www.yorkshireradio.net/page/Home/0,,11371,00.html Read More