A Service Providing Entertainment: Skate Boarding - Essay Example

"A SERVICE PROVIDING ENTERTAINMENT: SKATE BOARDING " NUMBER OF WORDS: 2313. Contents 3 Background 3 Research Aims 7 Literature Review 7 Research Design and Methodology 8 - Data Collection Methods 9 - Analysis of Data and Interpretation of Findings 10 Conclusion 10 References 11 Title A Service providing entertainment: Skate Boarding Background To plan a business in this modern, civilized and global world is no joke, the businesses have high failure rates and very few chances of success, it has been seen that manufacturing based businesses are very difficult to operate as they contain a lot of overhead costs, the production process, a complete monitoring of each and every unit, a large amount of human resource and specially a very big amount of working capital with high number of share holders with preferred stock and also a great risk of capital sunk, relatively service based businesses are easy to start and also there is not a big risk involved, most of the entrepreneurs in today's world are emphasizing on the service based firms yet they are trying to bring greater innovation in them in order to distinguish from the other competitors in the market, an other choice for the entrepreneurs of today is to have a combination of service and product based firms such as restaurants but there are even bigger hassles in them as one never knows which disease takes place in the food items, but on contrary if one thinks that service based businesses are easy to operate and have no fuss, than one must think again, yes there are exceptions but one is likely to find almost similar fuss in the service based business as in manufacturing business. The business that has been planned to start is service based or more formally a small business, in which entrepreneurs are more encouraged, the idea is to provide the people with a skate board service in a park in any relevant area of the city, as the competition is not that much in this particular service business, so there are fair chances to survive and to grow, this is a wonderful opportunity to actually attract the youth from other entertainment activities to this one as young generation would love to learn it. The service that is being provided is a new one in terms that there is almost no one to offer this sort of entertainment to the children and the youngsters, the idea is not just limited to provide a simple park for skating but it includes providing the service for skate board, roller skating and simple skating, however it has been tried to the level best to introduce a park which provides both the services such as roller blade skating and skate board, first of all we have to conduct a research to identify whether there is a need in the target audience or not, few basic things that should be kept in mind are the target audience, their age range, their gender and the level of consumption, and also we need to keep in mind the location which is of course important as we need to facilitate the customers as much as we could without compromising on the profitability, the best location that is suitable for such service is the area which is heavily crowded and also it should have the maximum passage in comparison with other areas so that it can be easily approached by the entire city, of course we would have to hire the place in the park on rental basis so it is not quite risky, but the real result would be concluded after the research as there might be other areas where people have more willingness to use such an entertaining service, for this purpose we have to start from the first step that is the existing problem and than its solution. The problem statement is prepared by keeping in view the businesses and the success, which it can provide, the statement is, "To allocate a business which is requiring less control on management and finance while has a tendency to return greater profit in terms of break-even mark, or a business that requires a less investment and greater return" Management decision problem "Should the park service providing skate board and roller skating be introduced" Marketing Research Problem "To determine level of interest the audience has in them in using such entertaining service" The first problem is to conduct the research so that we can get as much of information as we could, we should do park intercepts and we can ask people numerous of questions regarding their outing, we can also find young boys and girls and also men aging from 10 to 35 in so many places such as markets, malls, and also the other parks in the city which are nearly ten, we can provide them with questionnaires and ask their advice on their level of liking or disliking the idea of a new park. Research Hypothesis Young people are really interested in passing their evenings while skating. People love to have such spacious parks providing all services at a single place. The research should be conducted through a proper questionnaire and the target audience or the respondents should be majority of males looking young and energetic and also people who are quite fit because the service would be used mostly by people who are fit, for the purpose of conducing research the best possible solution is to look for people in the near by parks such as parks right in the centre of the city and other areas, the other places would be malls and entertainment places such as game zones, and also the people on road skating can be questioned, the service is having few qualities and strengths that should be clearly mentioned in the questionnaire and also the questionnaire should not be prepared in a way that can give the audience a hint for the desired answer, there are also few things that should be noted without questioning them in the question paper such as the gender and area where the research is conducted or park name can also be used to identify the responses from people of that particular park, it has been said by Bassett in 1992, "Service must be found at or near the customer. Decentralization is indispensable. Corner grocery stores, once a feature of every city, are returning in the form of "convenience" stores. Personal Service from hairdressers or barbers has always been dispersed into local neighbourhoods"(p. 28). and also the ratio of research from male to female should be 70 to 30 respectively, because we have more to find out in the male users, which are far more than female in the service offered. The service is also having few issues like in order to attract people from different areas we would have to have few expertise who would help the customers learn skating and boarding as most of the people find it difficult to go through the skating thing unless there is some support available in the form of guide, also we need to gain the attention of people through a lot of advertisement as it is not so common service and is difficult to go through it, there are number of small things that we need to take good care of such as safety equipments, overall one can say that it is all about gaining the maximum trust from the customer and for that purpose knowledge of their buying pattern is quite essential. "Knowledge is power, and the more you know about your customers, product, and market, the better off you will be. According to research conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, 90% of all small business failures can be traced to poor management resulting from lack of knowledge"(Jim n.p: 2000). Research Aims The Main objective behind conducting the entire research is to get the surety on the investment, which means once the research would be conducted the problem statement would seem quite realistic and it is also likely to be solved as a consequence of which the business would be easy to initiate. The major objectives of this study are: 1. To identify the people in the market who are likely to get attracted towards this unique service. 2. To identify the level to which people can go out for using the service. 3. To identify the places in the city where people can pay the maximum returns. 4. To make sure that the minimum investment would bring maximum returns. Literature Review The Key research would be conducted through questionnaires, which can bring in the true responses of people, the research would be conducted through the personal observation and questionnaires in different areas of the city through park intercepts and mall intercepts, it would bring in the accurate information which would help the business to proceed. Research Design and Methodology Questionnaire What's your age group a. 8 - 14 b. 15 - 21 c. 22 - 28 d. 29 - 35 Would you like to spend sometime for entertainment in skating in a safe place a. Yes b. No (proceed if Yes) Where do you like to skate a. Parks b. Roads c. other Which is your current park for skating if any _____________ (leave blank if you haven't done before) Which area can you reach easily for skating ____________ Are you satisfied with the services the park or road (for skating) is providing you a. Yes b. No Which sort of skating do you like a. Roller Blade b. Skate board c. Other How many times in a week can you go out for skating a. Once a week b. Twice a week c. Thrice a week d. Daily d. other(plz mention) Would you like to use a park service providing every type of skating service a. Yes b. No What if we say to you that there is a new park in your area providing every skating facility with proper teaching a. That's Wonderful b. That's good c. That's Ok The previously-mentioned questions would easily give the entire information about the research and it would be very much easy to identify the correct decision of the park opening, our target audience are located in the entire city but in order to get the correct information we have to reach all the parks, malls and entertainment places and have to look for their views, there must be so many areas where the people are happy with the services such as people living just very near the park and also people who have made the park their permanent place to visit, such people would of course not be willing to leave the park for a new one no matter how good service would be provided in the new park, "Customers buy solutions, not products. Every firm needs to understand what it is providing the customer in terms of customer value, not by focusing on the product but by focusing on the customer. In doing so, the firm is able to assess whether it is providing superior customer value and whether it has a sustainable competitive advantage. Competitive advantage cannot be sustained unless it can be protected from competitor matching"(John, 19: 2003). We would get the questionnaires filled by people which should be nearly about 500, this would give us correct information, of course it is cost effective as we would have to visit most common areas of the entire city but yet doing this research by self would reduce the chances of errors and cheating and also the desired outcome would appear. This research would ensure us whether to go with the idea or not, it would definitely reduce 75 percent of the risk fear out of our minds. Data Collection Methods The Data Collection would be mainly done through personal observations, mall intercepts, park intercepts and also small interviewing. Personal observation As the audience would be simply people who like to enjoy such entertaining activities which can only be enjoyed by the fit people, therefore we would observe fit boys and girls and also men for some time, it is likely to happen in different place providing entertainment such as other parks, game zones etc. Mall Intercepts, Park Intercepts and Small Interviewing This is important because we have to look for the maximum potential in the market, so in shopping centers and various parks of the city wherever we would be able to find people who can use our service we would be questioning them, this means we would ask them about their interest in the services we are providing. Analysis of Data and Interpretation of Findings As we have used both quantitative and qualitative research there fore we have to analyze both the methods in order to get the right information from the research. Quantitative analysis: The quantitative analysis should be in the form of questionnaires, which are used in order to get the proper knowledge about the market in the form of a written proof that can be analyzed with out any fuss. Qualitative analysis: The Qualitative research would also be used as people would be observed in terms of their behavior and than the people who are likely to be the target audience would be questioned about the service, this would bring other relevant information about the consumer behavior. Conclusion The final report project will have the following format: Title. Research Question. Literature Review. Research Methodology. Conceptual Framework. Primary Research. Analysis. Findings. Conclusions & Recommendations. References. Appendices. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Malhotra N.K., "Marketing Research", (n.p): Pearson, 2004. Bartol, K.M., D. Martin, "Management", New York: McGraw Hill, 1998. Jim K, n.p: 2000 Basset G, "Operations Management for Service Industry", Westport, CT: Quorum, 1992. John J, "Fundamentals of Customer Focused Management", Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Read More