This means that I have £2,000 to spend on marketing and promoting my business.
Marketing:
Marketing is the management process that is responsible for identifying products that would be likely to make a profit when sold and then selling these products to customers.
Market research is the collection of data, from which the aim is to get a better understanding of what is happening in the market place as the marketing development of a firm needs to know about the consumer’s needs and wants.
Primary Data is data that you have collected yourself. This could be gathered face
to face, or on the phone. Questionnaires are a good example of primary data.
Secondary data is already collected, existing data. This could be things such as company reports and government statistics.
Questionnaire results:
These results show me that there are more women in the area than men.
The highest age groups in the area are ages 10-15, 16-25 and 36-45. This tells me that there are many students, children and young parents in the area, as they are all fairly young age groups.
Two thirds of the people in West Ealing surveyed say that they would like meat or fish and chips served at the internet café.
Most people in the area would like Hip Hop and R&B to be played in the internet café.
The table and graph both show me that most people would like to use the internet for emailing friends or relatives. This may be so, as it is cheaper and faster than using the royal mail service.
There are many students in the local area, as nearly half of the people questioned said that they were students.
Everyone in the area works locally, in central London or Middlesex.
Alcohol is the top drink that people would like served, however, we will need to serve soft drinks and milkshakes to young children and people without ID.
As you can see from the charts, most people would like to have a futuristic styled internet café.
The majority of the people surveyed say that they would like to see blue or Silver in the café.
The majority of the people surveyed do not have internet access at home. However, I do not think that people who have internet access will come into the store as much as people without internet access.
The marketing mix:
Promotional Plan:
The media combination which I think will be most suitable for my business is;
- The Yellow Pages,
- Local newspapers,
- Leaflets,
- Posters,
- Word of mouth.
I have chosen the yellow pages because it is cheap, benefits the local community and gets the business’s name out into the public eye. Possible problems with this are that the yellow pages publish annually, and people would not be able to read about my new business until the next year. I am going to advertise for the whole year.
I have chosen local newspapers for the same reason as the yellow pages; however, the local newspapers will allow me to print a much bigger advertisement, meaning it will catch the eyes of more people. Possible problems with this, is that the newspapers may not be able to print my adverts for a number of weeks. This could be overcome by advertising more in other areas. I am going to advertise for two weeks.
Leaflets are a good way of getting my business’s menus and details out into the public. Possible problems with these are that people may ignore them or throw them away. This may be overcome if they are catchy enough for people to read them. Leaflets will be handed out for the first three weeks of the business’s opening.
I have chosen to make 30 posters and stick them around the local area. This will attract many customers. Posters will be stuck up during the first week of opening.
I have chosen to have word of mouth as one of my promotional strategies because it is free.
Costs:
Questionnaire to find out people’s opinions on .
- What was your main use for this store today?
□ Internet □ food □ Drinks.
-
Was your visit to an overall positive experience?
□ Yes □ No
- If you tried the food, what was your overall opinion on it?
□ Very good,
□ Good,
□ Satisfactory,
□ Less than satisfactory,
□ Bad,
□ Very bad.
-
What was your favourite dish at ?
□ Fish and Chips,
□ Cakes,
□ Pork and Chips,
□ Milkshakes.
- What did you think of our shop design?
□ Very good,
□ Good,
□ Satisfactory,
□ Less than satisfactory,
□ Bad,
□ Very bad.
- Were the products good value for money?
□ Yes
□ No
Evaluation:
Generally, the opening of my business ran smoothly and as planned. However, there were a number of problems which hindered the operation of my internet café once it was full open. One of these problems was that my broadband internet connection failed a number of times in the first week of business, meaning that customers were not able to access the internet. This made them leave the store and go to a rival company on the same street, causing my business to lose £200 of the expected takings for those days.
Another problem that my business experienced was that the elderly customers did not appreciate the loud music that was playing inside the store, as not only do they have a different taste in music, their wish was to come to the store and relax. However, they were unable to do this, as the younger customers desired loud music to help them to enjoy themselves.
Also, sales for food were lower than I expected, as I hoped that at least 20% of the store’s income would be through food sales. This nevertheless was not the case, as the actual percentage of income that came from food sales was 10%. This was half of what I expected. People who did try the food however were generally quite pleased with it and called it ‘good value for money’.
Solutions that I undertook for there problems were…
- I called up the BT broadband service’s customer services and told them about the problem. One of their qualified electricians then came at the end of that week to fix the problem.
- To deal with the music crisis, I introduced a scheme where young people were able to play loud music at certain times of the day so that elderly customers could come in at times when loud music wasn’t playing to use the internet service and to sit and relax.
- Since there are many places on the Uxbridge road that sell food and drinks, many people weren’t coming in and buying my food. For example, there is a McDonalds, a Burger King and many supermarkets which sell food. My solution to this problem was to offer more low priced individual snacks, rather than whole meals to offer the public something different, rather than what the local rivals were offering.
A new menu that I came up with was…..
-
Tea ➔ £0.90
-
Coffee ➔ £0.90
-
Hot Chocolate ➔ £0.70
-
Water ➔ Free
-
Soft drinks ➔ £0.60
-
Milkshakes ➔ £1.00
-
Alcoholic drinks ➔ £1.50.
-
Pork Chop ➔ £1.00
-
Slice of fish ➔ £1.00
-
Chips ➔ 60p
-
Crisps ➔ 30p
-
Cakes ➔ 50p
-
Muffins ➔ 40p
-
Flapjacks ➔ 40p
-
Chocolate bars ➔ 30p
-
Biscuits ➔ 30p
