Leisure and Bereavement Services - Assignment Example

Task Objective of market research. Kotler, Armstrong, and Cunningham (1999) define market research as “the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization. The objectives of market research, according to Kotler, Armstrong, and Cunningham (1999), are: Explanatory research, which is to gather preliminary information that will help the researcher to define the problem and suggest hypotheses Descriptive research, which is to describe market potential for a product or service or the demographics and attitudes of consumers who buy the product or service Causal research, which test the cause-and effect relationship of the hypotheses Market Research Plan. Developing market research plan requires several steps: 1) Determining specific information needs. This includes information about demographic, economic, and lifestyle characteristics of the users of the Sport Centre; consumer-usage patterns for the Centre; the number of providers; consumers attitudes toward the services and facilities; and any forecast available that indicate future concern of the Centre 2) Gathering Secondary Information, which is collecting data that already exists and have been collected for another purpose. This may include internal sources, government publication, periodical and books, commercial data sources, international data, and internet data sources as well as online databases. Reasons for a market research method. The research conducted using secondary data offers several benefits. They can “usually be obtained more quickly and at a lower cost than primary data … provide data that an individual company cannot collect on its own – information that either is not directly available or would be too expensive to collect” (Ibid, 127). Besides using secondary data, internet marketing research can speed the process and is cost effective. Results. Our research finding indicates that the Hyndburn Sport Centre is one of the largest three leisure centres run by Leisure, a charitable trust organization, in Hyndburn. Hyndburn Sports Centre provides several sport facilities for the public, among other: Swimming Pool - a U-shaped pool which facilitate area lane for the beginner or learner, a diving pool, and a 25m x 11.1m swimming pool. In the poolroom, there is a gallery with seats available for spectators to watch or wait for the swimmers or to watch swimming competition or simply just sitting for leisure. Outdoor Artificial Turf Pitch - one of the popular arena whose surface is excellent for field hockey, football, netball, cricket, and tennis. Projectile Hall is a versatile area, which is suitable for cricket net practice, gymnastics, badminton, golf-swing, indoor bowling and archery. Sports Hall is a large hall. It accommodates eight badminton courts or other sports such as hockey, football, volleyball, basketball, cricket, tennis, trampoline, and childrens games. This hall also facilitate a viewing gallery all across the hall with tiered seating for the viewers. Practice Hall. This is a multi-purpose hall which is designed to accommodate different sports that aren’t accommodated by other facilities such as roller skating, aerobics, martial arts, including judo. Kiddies Corner and Creche. Kiddies Corner is decorated with cushioned floor and intended as playground for children aged 6 years and under. The activities provided in this playground includes play sessions, birthday parties, and a base for our crèche. Busybodies Fitness Gym. This room is specially built and fully equipped with the most sophisticated weight training equipment including power cams, unigyms and computerized machines. Professionally trained staffs are present on duty during the evenings and some weekend hours to give advice to people who are taking fitness program for weight control, give fitness training, and guide the people how to use the equipment properly. People can have access to an introductory course every week according to schedule. Hairdressing & Beauty Therapy Salon. This facility offers beauty therapy includes facials, manicure, pedicure, waxing, massage, and electrolysis treatment. Sauna/sun bed Suite, which offers sauna, toning table and fast tanning sun beds (high pressure sun bed). Cafe/bar Lounge – a catering facility which offers a high quality service for special events including daily meal to the users for the facilities. Clubs & Courses. For various sports and activities, clubs and courses are offered under the supervision of qualified and competent coaches and they are divided under two categories: dry Facilities and swimming pool according to different schedule except holidays. This makes “Hyndburn Sport Centre as one of the largest sport centres in the North West” which offers a wide variety of facilities and activities. Hyndburn Sport Centre can be located at the following map or can be accessed from Henry St. B6231 Dill Hall Lane of Acrington A679, which is at Henry Street, Church, Accrington BB5 4EP or as seen on the following map. Other centres can be accessed at Mercer Hall, Queen Street, Great Harwood BB6 7AL or Rishton Primetime, Stourton Street, Rishton BB1 4ED. In order to use the facility, on must obtain Passport which can be purchased according to: Concessionary Rates for casual activities and fitness suite, which is subject to a fitness instruction course and a valid user card A 20% discount on all instructional courses including Pay and Play activities, sauna & Steam Room located at New Era Complex, Paradise Street, Accrington BB5 1PB A 20% discount on all Pay As You Go activities including the use of the Sound Studio, Sport Activities and Cyber Café Analysis. Our findings indicate that as a Leisure and Recreation Centre, Hyndburn Sport Centre represent a community venue for all residents and non-residents of Hyndburn for sports, arts, meeting, counseling, education, young people’s service and training, health and fitness. The facility is set to serve individuals ages 16 and over. People who are eligible to use the Centre include unemployed, those who are receiving Council Tax or Housing Benefit and income support of job seekers allowance, students ages 16 plus and are studying full time, student ages 16 – 19 who are attending Training Provider Schemes, Registered Disabled with their care givers, and people ages 60+. The centre represents a venue for members of sport clubs, receiving coaching, tuition, taking part on competition and participating in recreational walking and cycling for at least once a week while the facilities opens seven day a week for the eligible audience to use except for public holidays. The percentage of customer satisfaction indicates that overall, the users’ satisfaction rate is 54% with the following breakdown: Customer classification Percentage (%) Ethnic minorities 42 Non-ethnic minority 55 Men 54 Women 54 Residents wise, the overall customer satisfaction rate is 62% with the breakdown as follows: Customer classification Percentage (%) Sport Centre Resident Users 70 Resident Non-users 45 Museums and Gallery Resident Users 75 Resident Non-users 32 According to the Borough Council, Leisure and Culture, which includes Sport Centre, represents six key priorities themes for leisure and activities. They present opportunities and require greater access for variety of audience, need quality and experience staff, and reach out to people. The customer satisfaction survey or The Active Survey conducted by Ipsos Mori indicates that the data collected is based on local authority areas, age group, sex, and ethnicity. The participant in the survey includes 354 local authority areas in the country and 364,000 customers who are ages 16 and over. Based upon classification, 19.1% indicated that they participate moderately in intensity sport and active recreation in at least 30 minutes for three or more than three days a week in each location. Performance indicator shows that 36% of children under the age of 12 use other facilities (playground), 8,599 people participate in swimming or visit sport and leisure (25% higher than in the previous year), and 135 people visit museum and gallery (25% increase from previous year). Survey among current and potential users among grade 9 students indicates: 54.2% participate in extra curricular sport 62.4% participate in extra curricular arts 41.6% would like to participate in new art activities 76.4% would like to participate in new sport activities Evaluation of the process/marketing techniques. So far, marketing is done through local station. In some instances, it is effective but it does not reach market potential when the target market is large. Marketing feature is weak and it indicates poor planning and poor quality because it misses several significant requirements that can attract the customers and expand the market. Conclusion and Recommendations. Hyndburn Sport Centre represent community center and therefore, it should be accessible to every resident without age, sex, and ethnic barriers. Since the service is weak and that some minority groups do not have access to the facilities, it may be important that marketing to be targeted to minority groups, more segmented to the market which has not been covered by the eligibility. Task 2: Marketing activity Marketing activity would likely be achieved if there is a relationship between the four marketing functions, which are analysis, planning, implementation, and control. The following diagram indicates the relationship between the four marketing management functions. Through the above analysis, the strategic plan can be develop. This includes current market situation, SWOT Analysis, objectives and issues, marketing strategy, action programs, budgets, and controls. The following table indicates the purpose of each marketing section. Factors that may influence the organization marketing strategy diagram Marketing Mix: Product: the main product is to provide sport facilities to the residents and non-residents of Hyndburn Price: our price is competitive and may be considered lower than those of the competitors’ may charge. Promotion: so far, the organization promotion channel is through the radio. This can be expanded through the use of other media such as brochure, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. Place: the facility is indeed located at a strategic location in Accrington, Great Harwood, and Rishton. This marketing mix can be explained in the following diagram: Contents of a Marketing Plan Section Purpose Current marketing situation Describes our target market, how the company position itself in the market, performance, competition, and includes market description, product review, review SWOT analysis Assesses the strengths of our company against major threats and opportunities that our service might have and to anticipate important positive or negative development or strategies The company information, its mission, vision, and goals States the mission, vision and goals of our company Marketing strategy Outlines the broad marketing logic by which we hope to achieve and the specific of target markets, positioning, and marketing expenditure levels. It outlines specific strategies for each marketing mix elements and how we could responds to the threats, opportunities and critical issues Action programs Spells out how we turn our marketing strategy into action Budgets Details financial information how we incorporate budget or specify budget for our marketing effort, it shows our expected revenues and costs and future profit Controls Outlines the controls that we will use to monitor company’s progress and allows us to review issues that cause us not meeting our goals. Marketing implementation requires that marketing strategies and plans to be carried on by the marketing department. However, in order to have the marketing implementation successful, the strategies should be blended with the trust or Centre’s culture, “the system of values and believes shared by people in the organization” (Kotler, Armstrong & Cunningham, 1999, 59) and should represent the organization’s identity and meaning to the residents. Having good marketing strategies also requires good control in its implementation. It represents a tool for trouble shooting a failure in marketing activity. The following diagram indicates the control process. As common, surprises occur when you are expanding and in implementing marketing strategies, the control process includes: In this control stage, it is necessary to evaluate the goals we want to achieve, we measure what is happening to performance or marketing effort, why is it successful or it is not successful and a corrective action should be taken if it is not successful. For marketing implementation or the process to turn our marketing plan and strategy into action is by designing organization structure, human resources and their skills, decision and reward systems, culture, and values into the organization. As part of marketing control, we measure and evaluate the results of the marketing strategies and plans, and taking corrective action to ensure that our marketing objectives are achieved. This process includes operating control and strategic control. For operating control, the performance indicator may represent the annual plan and it can be used as a corrective measure when necessary. Similarly, the strategic control is to measure whether the organization’s basic strategies are well matched to its opportunities (Kotler, Armestrong, & Cunningham, 1999). The tool to be used is marketing audit - “a comprehensive, systematic, independent, and periodic examination” (Ibid) of our “company’s environment, objectives, strategies, and activities to determine problem areas and opportunities” (Ibid, 63). It would help the organization to design a plan of action to improve its marketing performance in the future. The marketing environment audit includes the factors that may influence our marketing strategies, which has been explained in a previous diagram. And in summary, it is divided into several sections: 1. Marketing Environmental Audit. This includes Macroenvironment, such as Demographic, Economic, Natural, Technology, Political, Cultural ; and the task environment which includes markets, customers, competitors, channels, suppliers, and publics 2. Marketing Strategy Audit such as mission, goals, strategy, and budgets 3. Marketing Organization Audit such as formal structure, functional efficiency, and interface efficiency 4. Marketing Systems Audit includes marketing information system, marketing planning system, and marketing control system 5. Marketing Productivity Audit includes profitability analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis 6. Marketing Function Audit include product or service that we provide, the price or the fee we charge to the client, distribution ie how our service is delivered through intermediaries, advertising, sales promotion, and publicity, and do we really need a sales force or not. The following table indicates our SWOT analysis, which describes the Hyndburn Sport Centre’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Similarly, it describes factors that affect our company’s ability to serve the citizens of Manatee and Sarasota, Florida and their surroundings. SWOT Analysis for Hyndburn sports centre Strengths Large range of activities available to market. Recently refurbished Gym and Dance Studio with popular Body training systems aerobic program. Leisure in Hyndburn has to other leisure centres and also runs Accrington Town hall and Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre. So they can advertise the sports centres in other public areas other than leisure centres. Local Radio station ‘The Bee’ is being used for advertising. Has multiple sport facilities Family friendly Serves a variety of sports Has art centre Has a range of concession Weaknesses Most advertising is done only within the centre therefore only advertising to existing customers. ‘The Bee’ radio station doesn’t have a lot of listeners Marketing staff do not have formal qualifications or training. Certain parts of the centre are in desperate need of refurbishment or repair. Many complaints about the condition of changing rooms and damage to squash court walls, essential work not carried out or carried out after long periods of time. Presenting a poor customers’ image. Small marketing budget Leaflets and posters often photocopied and do not look as good as glossy professionally produced ones. Service is weak Opportunities As a charitable trust there are opportunities to receive funding to improve facilities. Managers now on ISRM recreational management course can get more involved with marketing. Opportunity for Marketing manager/staff to do the same or similar course. Increase access to specific target groups such as girls football and Kabaddi tournament Increase ethnic diversity Active sport programme Community groups usage of facilities Primary and secondary usage of facilities Summer access and extracurricular program activities Volunteering programme Club development Youth games Sport engagements Threats Private sector such as JJB have a new centre and are nationally recognised and have much more money available for marketing. Rossendale Leisure appear to have more available money to spend also and are in the process of extending and refurbishing their gym. A recent change to our Evolution Membership scheme in which sauna use has been removed for the monthly membership scheme has met with huge customer resistance and many members have cancelled Their memberships and feel they have been badly treated by the organisation and have gone to our competitors Competitors. The Hyndburn Sport Centre’s competitors are JJB Centre in Blackburn which has been built quite recently and is one of a national chain of private leisure centres, and Haslingden Sports Centre, which is a part of Rossendale Leisure and as a charitable trust. Improve service and quality would lead Hyndburn to gain competitive advantage. References Hyndburn Residents Guide 2003 – 2004: Making Hyndburn a better place to live, work, and visit. Retrieved April 16, 2007 from http://ww2.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/Community/Residents_Guide.pdf Kotler, Philip; Armstrong, Gary & Cunningham, Peggy H. (1999). Principles of Marketin. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall Canada Inc. Tanti, Steve, Deputy Managing Director (2007, March 6). Councilor Peter Britcliffe, Leader Of The Council. Retrieved April 16, 2007 from http://ww2.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/Your_Council/Corporate_Services/Member_Services/docs/doc1761_20070306_cab060307_report.pdf. Hyndburn Borough Council (2003, January). Leisure and Bereavement Services. Retrieved April 16, 2007 from http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/Products/BVIR/19029B90-2CA0-11d7-B251-0060085F8572/Hyndburn_Leisure_Bereave_21Jan03.pdf. Read More