Hertfordshire Leisure market for under 15's.

AS and A Level Psychology

Hertfordshire Leisure market for under 15’s

Number of words:1487

Course: Foundations of marketing

Course number: 1bus0049

Lecturer: Wen-Ling,Liu

Content

Definition of leisure market

Before defining the leisure market, it should be identified what is leisure exactly? According to NTRS (National Therapeutic Recreation Society, a branch of the National Recreation and Park Association) Standards Document evidence from first language acquisition indicates that “…leisure can be defined as available free choice time and activities that are not related to work or other obligatory forms of activity, and which are expected to promote feelings of, pleasure, affiliation, happiness “; accordingly, the leisure market for under 15’s is the set of under ages 15 consumers who undertake specific activities result in relaxation and rejuvenation of the individual and bring childlike happiness of their mind, body and soul.

Types of leisure market

The leisure market business for the children under 15 years old in Hertfordshire can be classified into several sectors---holidays, adventure, entertainment, wildlife and nature, sport and hobbies and arts. Firstly, children can participate in the camping trips organized by the local leisure centres for the holidays. Secondly, children enjoy the adventure game such as combat games (war game). Thirdly, theme parks and the children’s indoor play centres providing bouncy castle & inflatable, cinema are the places of entertainment for children. Furthermore, aquarium is the best place for the children know about the wildlife and nature. In addition, sports and hobbies provide a wide variety of activities are karting, skating, snooker, swimming, table tennis and skating. Finally, theatre provides the chances for children learn the arts as well.

Segmentation

Evidence from Principle of Marketing (Kotler,2001) indicates that there are four major variables used in segmenting consumer markets---geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural variables. In term of the features of leisure market, leisure market seems to be segmented appropriately by demographic, psychographic and behavioural.

1. Demographic segmentation:

As Kotler pointed that (Kotler, 2001), “consumer needs and wants change with age”. As children grow older, their emotion, behaviour, hobbies and interests remarkably change. Solomon, M. Bamossy, G. and Askegarrd, S(2002) found that in term of their stage of cognitive development, children aged under 15 may be divided into three groups. Below the age of 6, parents decide the products or services for them. Children between the ages of 6 and 12 are the ones who become more band aware, their minds and purchase behaviour are influenced by advertising. Children aged between 13 and 15 purchase products or services independently.

2. Psychographic segmentation:

Reference to Bill, T.(1992) reveals that the impact of family social class on children’s leisure behaviour is valuable to consider. Parents will choose the leisure activities for their children based on their income and social class. For instance, some upper class parents arrange private sports lesson or luxury club for their children.

3. Behavioural segmentation:

In terms of the different benefits in that children seek different leisure activities. The benefit they look for might as follow: keeping health, enjoying exciting, broadening knowledge and skills, relaxing and sharing time with family and friends.

Perceptual Map

This is a preview of the whole essay

3. Behavioural segmentation:

Perceptual Map

This perceptual map uses four dimensions. There are health; sharing fun with family and friends; skills learning from leisure and the price of leisure cost. However, every leisure activity has its own features, so two main dimensions considered each of them. For example, camping; snooker; skating and climbing wall are considered by skill and price. In contrast, soccer and swimming are focused on health benefit; therefore, they can be viewed by the price and health dimensions. Finally, funny activities are the more popular with children and their family. Such as combat game (war game), bouncy castles & inflatables, cinema, theme parks, zoo & aquarium, karting and film.

Macro-environmental analysis

PEST analysis includes four main factors to know uncontrollable environment categories of the organization: political/legal, social/culture, economic, and technologic, also these factors were influence on sales profits and innovations of the company. (Lynch, R., 2000, 2nd Ed.)

Political/Legal environment:

According to Philip Kotler(2001,p.137),” The political environment consists of laws, government agencies and pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals in a given society.”, consequently, the political environment strongly affects the marketing decisions. The governments legislate public policy to manage commerce and almost every marketing activity is subject to a great variety of regulations and laws including leisure market for under age 15.

Economic environment:

According to Philip Kotler(2001,p.131),” The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns.”. When consumer purchasing power is lessened, so consumers will spend more time and look for greater value in the products and services they buy. Further to leisure market, it has a slight affection for the upper economic strata of a society during the period of economic recession because of high purchasing power. On the other hand, the lower strata will stick close to the price of leisure activities.

Social/culture:

Although core beliefs and values have a high degree of persistence, secondary beliefs and values are more open to change. Much consumer behaviour is affected by families, friends, schools, religious groups and so on. In leisure market, offering variety of activities, which can participate in the groups and families, it can easy to attract the consumers.

Technological environment:

New technologies develop new markets and opportunities. Nowadays technology life cycles are getting shorter than ever before, therefore, in leisure market fashion and modern equipments and activities are introduced into some leisure certre, meanwhile, high research and development spending is also a feature of leisure market and entertainment industries.

Hatfield Swim Centre

Profile:

Swim Centre is an only public swimming facility in the District of Hatfield and is conveniently located in the heart of Hatfield. It built in 1966 and was extensively refurbished in 1991. The Centre provides a 33-metre six-lane pool with diving pit extension, learner pool and baby pool, together with ancillary facilities including a health and fitness suite, crèche, café and function rooms.

Activities:

Fun Swims: for ages 16 & under. Watery fun and games at these special sessions with inflatables and floats (Resource: Swim centre leaflet).
Crèche: for children under 5 years of age. There are lots of toys and soft play equipment for your child to enjoy (Resource: Swim centre leaflet).

Fit local marketing environment:

The Swim Centre takes advantage of superiorities to develop this local leisure market in the Hatfield. Firstly, it is located in town center, so it is very convenient to reach. Secondly, the price of ticket is not expensive; therefore, it has not serious affect during the period of economic recession. Finally, it provides a wide variety of activities and can enjoy activities with families and friends.

SWOT analysis

Analysis:

Strengths:

Swimming lessons cater for all the ages and abilities, including the children under 5 years. In addition, there is Fun Swims session which provides watery fun and games for the ages 16 and under.

Weaknesses:

In the swimming pool, there is not play facilities for child, such as sliding board. And there is not win club kickboard provided for the learner.

Opportunities:

Hatfield swimming centre is only one indoor swimming pool opened for the public in the Welwyn Hatfield area. The others belong to the primary schools or private school. Therefore, non-school user just can swim indoor in Hatfield swimming centre.

Threats:

With the development of computer and internet, a large number of children take fancy to play PC games and browse websites instead of doing some sports (George Torkildsen, 1999).

Resources:

Leaflet: Hatfield Swimming centre Information 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003
Leaflet: Hatfield swimming centre Conference Facilities

3) Welwyn Hatfield Council SWIMMING DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY Draft for Consultation September 2002

4) George Torkildsen (1999).Leisure and recreation management. E & FN SPON

5)http://www.mark.hisgrove.btinternet.co.uk/hatfieldswimcentre.htm

Hatfield Swim Cetre Development Report

According to Global Market Information Database (Euromonitor, 2000), there were over 12 million consumers aged under 16 across the UK, there were over 3.8 million children between the ages of 0 and 4, around 3.9 million consumers between the ages of 5 and 9 and 3.7 million between 10 and 14. Meanwhile, swimming is one of the major sport and recreation activities in the United Kingdom. In national surveys, it has been shown consistently to be the most popular active indoor sport - around 12 million people swim regularly. It means that there is a great potential leisure market for under 15’s.

The goal of development strategy:

The development strategy of Hatfield Swim Centre is concerned with the development of swimming as a basic life skill and a lifelong activity. According to Swimming development strategy draft for Welwyn Hatfield Council(2002), the development can makes a number of points below:

1. The positive value of leisure to personal morale and health.

2. Participation rates which are limited by cost and reduce with age.

3. A general satisfaction with the overall quantity and quality of local leisure provision.

Future Development:

1.Emphasis on Swimming lesson scheme:

Bill(1992,p.42)states that “people involved in leisure marketing should attempt to identify the needs and desires of consumers of leisure products and service.”. As it mentioned before, swimming is one of the major sport and recreation activities in the United Kingdom and for children it is a suitable period to learn swim when they are little. The centre provides a wide variety of swimming lessons for children, on the one hand, there are several different level of lessons children can select, on the other hand, it can create an opportunity to have a fun between parents and their children.

2. Take advantage of good location:

The Swim Centre is an only public swimming facility in the District of Hatfield and is conveniently located in the heart of Hatfield; meanwhile, The ASDA supermarket is around the swim centre. As a consequence, it should make good use of this advantage of location because a great number of crowd gather at this area. To Create

3.Cooperation with stakeholders:

Because Hatfield Swim Centre belongs to Welwyn Hatfield Council, as a result, the Council plays an important role in terms of sports development. Within a geographically small District, there is also significant cross-boundary movement to facilities in neighbouring towns. The provision of sport and recreation services in Welwyn Hatfield District is divided between a numbers of agencies, other stakeholders include:

a. Hertfordshire CC and LEA schools: community use of school premises;

b. University of Hertfordshire: sports facilities open to the community;

c. Hatfield Town Council: community sports centre;

d. Independent Schools: limited public use of school facilities.

Reference

AAMR Leisure and Recreation Division Newsletter. Volume V, No. 2, Leisure as an adaptive skill areas. 2-4. Washington, DC: American Association on Menial Retardation.
AAMR (1992). Mental retardation: Definition, classification, and systems of supports. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Retardation
Bill,T.(1992), Leisure Management, England:Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.
Dawson, Don. (2000). Social class and leisure provision. In Allison, Maria T. & Schneider, Ingrid E. (Ed.), Diversity and the recreation profession: organizational perspectives. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc.
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G. , Saunders, J. & Wong, V.(2001), Principles of marketing, 3rd edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Lynch, R. (2000), Corporate strategy, 2nd ed., England: Prentice Hall.
Market size and analysis in the UK. Retrieved March 20 2003, from Global Market Information Database, source: National statistic/Euromonitor
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Solomon, M. Bamossy, G. and Askegaard S. (2002). Consumer behaviour A European Perspective. USA: Prenice-Hall,Inc.