The Legal Age for Purchasing Alcoholic Drinks in the UK - Essay Example

1. Background and Objective 1 Background The legal age for purchasing alcoholic drinks in the UK is 18 years old, but Britain’s leading itiesare advising the government to raise the legal drinking age to 21 years old (BBC 2004). The reason for the age increase is due to the habit of binge drinking in the UK. Although the alcohol consumption in the UK has ranked below an EU average, young Britons tend to consume more alcoholic drinks per occasion (Datamonitor, 2005). Larghall Leisure Ltd. has 10 successful theme pubs throughout Hertfordshire. The company currently focuses on 18-24 year olds as the main target market. Unfortunately there have been social issues such as the rise of underage and binge drinking that might affect their business. These social issues can affect the pubs’ licenses. One such issue is the growing number of underage and binge drinking can be connected to the growing number of violent crime. An analyst of home office crime has revealed the number of violent crimes in Hertfordshire has risen by 95% since the year 1991 (Oliver Heald MP, 2005). Another issue is the rising consumption of alcoholic drinks amongst 16-24 by 10% from 1997 to 2004 (Mintel report 2004). Cheaper alcohol sold in supermarkets raise suspicions that many young adults consume take-home alcohol before heading to the pub, particularly on weekends. This increases the likelihood of young adults consuming more than they are suppose to in a day. A need has arisen to adapt Larghall pubs to prevent the increase of underage and binge drinking in their pub. 1.2 Objectives Larghall Leisure Ltd. needs to conduct market research determining the likelihood of the market behaviour towards the company’s adaptation due to the social issues within Hertfordshire that could threaten the company’s late night pub license. The aim of this research should present a conclusion on whether the company should adapt their business to suit sophisticated adults as their new target market, or should persist with the present target customers with the introduction of more stringent measures to exclude underage and binge drinking. Either decision must be in conjunction with the decision of all the Larghall Leisure Ltd. landlords throughout Hertfordshire. The research will be conducted as an ad-hoc descriptive research. This method of research best suits Larghall’s problem, seeing that “descriptive research aims to build a picture of a market or a social phenomenon” (McGivern 2003). The research will involve the use of secondary data such as Datamonitor to gain some overview on the current market for late night pubs. As a qualitative source, a focus group interview will be conducted to gather information from Larghall’s current customers, since they have driven the success of the company to date. In order to increase the research reliability, the survey will be done when the Pub opens as people are still sober enough to participate in the interview accurately and deliberately. A compliment of a glass of beer will be offered to motivate customers participating with the interview. Word Count: 499 2. The Brief 2.1 Business issues Underage and Binge drinking is one of the new diseases that has been sweeping Britain. This has been particularly during late night weekends when most drunken people go out to the street at the same time. The rise in violence and vandalism on streets late at night has been considerable. Ironically the UK government has just made a new law in 2003 that allows more flexible opening hours for pubs (Datamonitor, 2005). The new law was created to curb the violent effects of binge drinking, by having people leave the pubs at different times. This regulation does not seem to have had an effect on underage and binge drinking. It remains to seen if this law will cub violence and vandalism on the streets late at night. If Larghall does not use measures to stop underage drinking in their pubs, the pubs could lose licensing to serve alcoholic drinks. This would mean financial disaster for the Larghall pubs in Hertfordshire. Larghall pubs rely on local licensing to operate their 10 pubs. Without local licensing cooperation, Larghall could not operate their pubs in Hertfordshire. To appease local licensing authorities, Larghall must change their policy toward underage drinkers. This can be accomplished with more rigorous measures for detecting underage drinkers. There have been many initiatives to reduce underage and binge drinking in pubs. One such initiative local licensing authorities have explored was establishing a minimum pricing scheme to prevent people from drinking excessively. This measure has been deemed illegal because it would create a cartel (Datamonitor, 2005). This initiative would also not help Larghall as a company, whether the target market is younger or older. Larghall should oppose any law on a minimum pricing scheme. 2.2 Research objectives Larghall Leisure Ltd. needs to address binge and underage drinking. This can be handled by introducing stringent measures at their pubs to exclude underage drinkers. Another option would be to change the nature of their business by focusing on older target market, in this case 25-40 years old drinkers. If Larghall focuses on an older market, a conversion of their pubs into wine bars which offer fine dining and wine at higher prices would be in order. To decide the right strategy for Larghall, a few research objectives have to be carried out. The first objective can be achieved by determining the alcoholic behaviour of young people in Hertfordshire by access through the use of an omnibus survey and secondary data such as Datamonitor and Mintel report. The next objective can be accomplished by targeting current customers using the services provided by Larghall and having them interviewed by conducting various consumer group discussions. The third objective can be attained with an evaluation about the attitudes of different Larghall outlets will be carried out by a discussion group. The last objective can be reached by understanding the attitudes of the future target population (24-40 year old) with face to face interviews. Word Count: 492 3 Data collection To provide solutions for Larghall’s prospects, the research will be carried out by both qualitative and quantitative data collection as the primary methods. The adoption of both methods will aggregate a more extensive data and information for analysing. Qualitative methods are a more suitable alternative for researching patterns and attitudes in customer behaviour (http://marketing.mcdar.net/22829.php), whereas the Quantitative data will provide description on characteristics of a population (McGivern, 2003). One of the most commonly used tools of collecting qualitative research is by conducting group discussions and individual interviews (Bradley 1987). This method is response oriented rather than question oriented, it will provide more efficient results in less time since it only involves a small portion of a larger population. These responses will be from a carefully selected group, like customers at Larghall’s pub on a Friday night to represent the whole population. Focus groups are generally consists of 8 to 10 people. Sometimes the group, in some circumstances can be smaller depending on the topic and the aim of the research. The benefit of group discussion allows the moderator, in this case the interviewer, to get a profound response from the participants. The group discussion will last for an hour or two depending on the depth of the research. There are some drawbacks on conducting interview in a pub since there will be many disturbances such as the high level of music volume in a pub. However the interview can be arranged at an alternative location such as in an organised meeting room outside the pub, although this will not motivate the participant. The initiative of giving free drink coupons to participants will persuade and motivate them to partake in the interview. The second method will involve Quantitative research. There are several ways of collecting Quantitative data such as the use of an Omnibus Survey, Panels, telephone or interview. Since an interview has been selected as the source of qualitative data, it would be helpful to conduct a self-completion survey as the quantitative source of data. This survey is the simplest to administer. Self administered surveys are also reliable and cost saving ways to collect data. Survey techniques can be applied by structured questionnaires given to a sample of a population; these may be in a form of writing, verbally or by computer. The most suitable techniques for Larghall may be conducted by distributing self-completion surveys in a form of writing so a participant could carry out the task at their own desired spot. This form of survey might also allow a patron to sober up a bit before filling the form out. Another benefit of the survey technique is the analysis and the interpretation of data are relatively simple (Malhotra N & Birks D, 2003). See appendix A for a sample questionnaire. Despite all the benefits of survey technique, there are also disadvantages. For example many participants are unable or unwilling to provide the desired information. Therefore some result can be inaccurate. The loss of validity for certain types of question that involves belief and feelings can also be imprecise. Lastly, the questions on the survey are not easy to compose. The questions are subjective to the writer’s logic which might be different in the participant’s presumptions (Malhotra N & Birks D, 2003). Word Count: 539 Appendix A: 1) What age range are you? A. 18-24 B. 25-40 C. 40+ 2) How often do you drink alcoholic beverages? A. Every weekend B. 2 weekends a month C. 1 weekend a month D. Occasionally 3) Have you ever entered a pub and drank when underage? A. Yes B. No 4) How much alcohol do you consume at one time? A. 1-2 B. 3-5 C. 6-10 D. 10+ 5) Have you ever been arrested while intoxicated? A. 0 B. 1-2 C. 3+ 6) Have you ever committed a crime while intoxicate? A. Yes B. No 7) How would you rate Larghall pubs? A. Very well B. Well C. Fair D. Poor 8) Would you prefer wine bars or pubs? A. Wine bars B. Pub 9) Do you feel there is a problem with binge or underage drinking? A. Yes B. No 10) If Larghall pubs change their policies, would you still frequent the pub? A. Yes B. No. Bibliography: BBC. (2004) Police want an under-21 drink ban. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/3872691.stm [Accessed 8 March 2006]. Bradley, U. (1987) Applied Marketing & Social Research. Chichester: Wiley. Datamonitor. (2005) Alcoholic Drinks in the United Kingdom. Heald, O. (2005) MP Calls in House for Government U-Turn on 24 Hour Drinking. Available from: http://www.oliverhealdmp.com/pr140105.htm [Accessed 6 March 2006]. Malhottra, N. & Birks, D. (2003) Marketing Research An applied approach, FT. Essex: Prentice Hall Pearson Education. McGivern, Y. (2003) The Practice of Market and Social, FT. Essex: Prentice Hall Pearson Education. Mintel Report 2004, Read More