I am going to count the number of tills and number of tills in operation inside each supermarket. I can also estimate the number of car parking spaces and the number of available car parking spaces at each supermarket on my visit. The number of tills in operation and the number of car parking spaces available will help me to learn how convenient each supermarket is to its customers, as convenience will be used to attract them.
Golf Equipment
Again I will be looking at both price and non-price competition between the four different firms. They are American Golf Discount in Preston, Nevada Bob’s in St. Anne’s, J.J.B. in Blackpool and Golf Discount in Blackpool. To compare price competition between the firms I will be taking down the prices of a few popular golf clubs amongst keen golfers from each shop. Each golf club I research will have to be exactly the same within each shop so I can make a fair comparison with the prices. Having taken down the prices of the clubs I will be able to determine which firm offers the lowest prices to its customers.
As selling golf equipment is a specialist field, I am going to mark the knowledge of the staff and the service at each firm on my visit, as this will help a firm, with staff that have good knowledge of the equipment on offer and offer a good service, to ensure that customers come back to them and not to other rival firms.
As with supermarkets I will be looking at the range of products on offer, location and special offers. I will be again giving a mark out of five on my visits to each shop. I will also be looking at the number of car parking spaces and the number of car parking spaces available as I did in supermarkets accept this time I can obtain an accurate result instead of an estimate because the car parks are a lot smaller than they are at supermarkets.
Kebab Shops
I will be looking at four kebab shops in my local area. They are Cyprus, The Nile, Doodles and Popeye’s. To find out which kebab shop offers cheapest prices to consumers I will be researching the price of a large doner kebab, a small portion of chips and a small margherita pizza in each shop. These are all very popular products to consumers.
To look at the non-price competition used I will again be giving each shop a mark out of five for the location of the shop, how fast and friendly the service is and the range of products on offer. As the majority of kebabs are bought by people after or during a night out I will be performing a pub and club count within a 100-metre vacinity. This will be a key factor for a kebab shop because it will be more convenient for people on a night out as they won’t need to go far out f the way to obtain a kebab or another form of fast food offered by the shop.
Electronic Retailers
To find out which electronics retailer offer the cheapest prices in my local area, I will need to take down the prices of a few pre-determined goods and compare the price each firm is selling these items for. The items I will be researching are a Sony Play station 2, a Philips D.V.D. Recorder and a Sharp wide screen T.V. The television and the D.V.D. recorder both have a several figure code after them and I must ensure that it is the same one I take the price of in each shop otherwise I will not be making a fair comparison between the four firms.
I will also need to compare the non-price competition used in the market so I will be awarding a mark out of five to each firm for the service they offer, the range of goods on offer, the location of each shop and the number of special offers on offer. These are all key factors in attracting customers and are probably the main forms of non-price competition used by firms in an oligopoly.
Mobile Phone Tariffs
The mobile phone market is probably the best example of an oligopoly you will come across. It has four companies within it: O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone all of which I will be studying. To find out which companies offer the cheapest tariffs I will be looking at the original pay as you go tariffs offered by each company. Pay and go tariffs are probably the most popular amongst teenagers and this is why I will be studying these.
To look at the non-price competition between the firms I will again marked each company out of five on these key areas of non-price competition: Range of products (tariffs and phones) and the amount of advertising offered by each firm. As well as marking each company on how much it advertises, I will look at the forms of advertising used by each firm. This will let me analyse how effectively each firm spends their advertising budget later on in the project. As I will be taking the prices of the tariffs off the Internet I will mark each firm’s Internet site on how easy it is to use.
Have a look Oli and don’t hesitate to give me a call to ask what stuff means. If you could I would appreciate it if you could send me your analysis via email. CHEERS!