Experience
A lack of experience can influence the marketing decisions that A’s CD Store make because if the shop and its employees do not have enough experience the shop may not be very successful because if the employees are inexperienced they may not know what to do, they may take a very long time to do their job, they may not know the products very well because they have not been working at the shop long enough and they haven’t spent time learning about the products in the shop. Also if the employees are inexperienced they may do their jobs very badly and can let the shop have a very bad reputation for having bad service and badly handled products.
Market knowledge
A lack of market knowledge can change the decisions made by A’s CD Store because if the shop doesn’t know enough about the market they may not be as successful as they can be because if they don’t know about the market they will not know what is going on with their competition and the economy, this can cause the shop to do badly because if the competition is doing better than them they will not know what they are doing to be so successful. Also if they do not know the economy well enough they will not know when the economy drops and when the economy drops people may not be able to afford products that are too expensive so you will have to lower the prices of your products as the economy drops.
How can A’s CD Store make use of the marketing mix?
Price
It is important for A’s CD Store to sell their products at a reasonable price because if they do not sell their products at a reasonable price people may not buy the product. This is because they may think that the price for that product is too high and they are paying too much for a product that they can get for a lower price. Also if the price of a product is too low, the shop may not make a profit or not a big enough profit.
Product
It is important for A’s CD Store to keep stocking the newest and popular CD’s and to keep their products clean because if the products are not the newest and popular CD’s people may not want to buy the CD because most people will only go into a CD shop to buy the latest CD of their favourite bands. Also if the CD’s in the shop are not clean people may not want to buy it because people may also be looking for the quality of the CD when they buy it and if the CD isn’t clean they may think that if the CD is dirty, the quality must not be good.
Place
The place where A’s CD Store is located is very important because if the shop is located in a very bad location where not many people go to the shop may not do very well because if there are not many people around where the shop is not many people will know where the shop is and no one will be able to buy their product. Also if A’s CD Store is located in a place where not many people will notice or see the shop no one will go to the shop because no one will know where it is.
Promotion
Promotion is very important for A’s CD Store because if the promotion for the shop is not good people will not know where the shop is, what the shop sells or where the shop is. Promotions are also important to attract customers because most people will buy more products from a shop if there are promotions because when the shop has a promotion the prices of the products will go down and that is what attracts customers because most customers do not want to pay a lot for a product.
What types of media are most suitable?
Why is market research important for A’s CD Store?
Market research is the collection of information about existing and potential markets for a product. The purpose of market research is to understand the market more so you know what the latest products are and the suitable prices to price them.
What secondary data will I use and why?
There are many secondary data I can use; these include annual reports, statistics from the local government and interviews with the managers or owners of the competition. This information is useful because these statistics is updated yearly and by interviewing the manager or owner of the competition I can get a good understanding of how they work. The disadvantage of this data is that all the information from the statistics may not be useful to me and my firm. Also it may be hard to get an interview with the manager or owner of the competition.
I can also use the internet as a secondary data source. The internet is a good source of secondary data because it is updated daily and yearly. The internet also has a big disadvantage because not all the information on the internet is true. This is because many people change what they put onto websites. This means that when I get information off the internet, I have to be very careful and I have to know which information is reliable and which isn’t.
What methods of field research will I use and why?
There are many ways of field research I will use; some of these methods are surveys and observation. Surveys are a form of sampling where the public is questioned directly, through methods such as interviews or questionnaires. This can help me understand what the public likes and dislikes. Having that information it can help me decide on what products I should stock in my shop.
Observation is where I will keep an eye on customers while they are looking around my shop and looks at the products. By monitoring customers while they are at my shop it can help me decide on how to layout my shop and how I can put my products.
Analysis of data – tally chart
Questionnaire
Please take a few minutes to fill out this questionnaire☺.
What age group do you fall under?
12-13 [ ] 14-15 [ 8 ] 16-17 [ 2 ] 18-19 [ ]
20 or above [ ]
What is your gender?
Male [ 9 ] Female [ 1 ]
What type of music do you like?
Hardcore [ 4 ] Screamo [ 5 ] Metal [ ] Emo [ 1 ]
Other (Please Specify)
___________________________________________________________________
Where did you hear about our company?
Posters [ 4 ] T.V. [ ] Friends [ 4] Newspaper [ ]
E-marketing [ 2 ] E-mails [ ]
How do you feel about our staff?
Very Poor [ ] Poor [ ] Good [2] Great [ 2 ] Excellent [ 6 ]
How much money would you spend on CD’s?
50-100 [ 4 ] 100 – 150 [ 6 ] 150-200 [ ] 200 and above [ ]
Do you think our shop is in a good location?
yes=[8] no=[2]__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who is your favourite band?
Underoath [ 4 ] Bring me the Horizon [ ] I Killed the Prom Queen [ 2 ] Atreyu [ 2 ] Scary Kids Scaring Kids [ ]
[ 2] Others (please specify) _________________________________________________
Why would you go to other CD shops?
Faster [ ] Cheaper [ 2 ] Friendly [ 4 ] Better Products[ 4 ]
How can the company improve for the future?
Please write down your ideas.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your time ☺
Analysis of Data
I have handed out 10 questionnaires to people that I think are interested in the products that my shop is selling. 80% of these people were aged between 14 and 15 and 20% of them were aged between 16 and 17. 90% of them were male and 10% of them were female.
The graph above shows that most people that I interviewed would pay 100 – 150 Hong Kong Dollars for a CD on average. Some people would pay less and only pay 50 – 100 Hong Kong Dollars for a CD. No one that filled out my questionnaire is willing to pay more than 150 Hong Kong dollars for a CD, a reason for this is that many people think that a CD is not worth more than 150 Hong Kong dollars.
This graph shows that many of potential customers will go to other CD shops because they are friendlier and they have better products. Some of my potential customers will go to other CD shops because their prices are cheaper. In order to attract customers and make more people come to my shop I will have to hire staff that is more friendly. Also I will have to stock better products and take good care of the products. I may have to decrease the prices of my products at times but the prices cannot be too low otherwise it will be hard to make a profit.
Where did you hear about our company?
The graph above shows that most of my potential customers have heard from my shop through friends and from posters. Some potential customers have also heard of my shop through E-marketing. This is helpful to me because this can tell me what I can concentrate on in the promotion of my shop. According to the results from my survey I should concentrate my promotion on posters and get people to tell their friends about my shop. When my shop grows larger I may have to consider advertising on T.V. or in newspapers.
This graph shows that most people that took part in my survey like hardcore music. Some people like screamo too but no one or not many people like the genres emo or metal. Some people did not like any of the genres that I gave them and chose the option ‘others’, this can help me with my CD shop because I know that people want to buy CD’s of other genres and tells me that I should stock CD’s of other genre so that I will not lose business because I have not stocked the CD’s of other genres.
How do you feel about our staff?
The 5th question that the customers had to answer was about how they felt about our staff. 60% of the customers said that the staff was excellent, 20% of the customers said that the staff were great and the last 20% of customers cais that the staff was good. This information shows A’s CD Store if they have to improve on their quality of staff and how the staff have been treating customers.
Who is your favourite band?
The 8th question that the customers had to answer was about their favourite band. 40% chose the band Underoath, 20% chose the band I Killed The Prom Queen, 20% chose the band Atreyu and the other 20% chose the option others. This shows that I may want to stock the products of the popular bands and perhaps consider stocking products from the other bands that the customers said they liked.
What other data would have been useful?
The costs of rent, heating and cooling would be useful because that would influence the amount of money I will be spending on marketing.
The frequency of people going shopping in the area that my shop is in would be useful because if not many people go shopping in the area that my shop is then not many people will go to my shop. To avoid this problem, I will have to put my shop in a location that is quite popular.
Finding information on the competition and knowing how the work would be useful to me because that way I can get an idea of how to run my shop and how to price my products. By finding information on the competition can tell me about which location I should put my shop because most of the competitions are big companies which have a lot of branches. By studying where these branches are located I can have an idea of where to put my shop.
Improving my questionnaire would be useful. I can do this by putting more questions that are more useful to my shop would have been useful because I would have asked more about other genres and more about price, product, promotion and place. I could have been more specific with the questions. I could have also given the potential customers more answers to choose from when they are answering the questions on my questionnaire.
I could have found out the exact prices of things such as promotional costs. This would be useful to me because then I would know how much money I would be spending on promotional items and other items that require extra costs. Also I will be able to know how much money I can spend on only marketing.
My sample size could have been bigger. This means that I could have handed out my questionnaires to more people. This can help me make my decisions because I can get a wider range of responses and more opinions from different types people. This can help me decide what products to stock in my shop and it also helps me decide how to price the products.
It could have been useful if I can choose more then 2 types of media to promote my shop. This is because if I choose to use one thing, for example posters, people will not always read the posters or it is very hard to put a poster up in a busy place because most busy areas in Hong Kong are filled with shops and restaurants.
It would be useful if I had more money and time because then I can spend more time planning my promotional methods and maybe I could have improved my questionnaire and give it to the public again and see what the responses are. Also if I had more money I can use more money on promotion. This can get my shop more popular because with the extra money I can use a different form of promotion and not only posters.
What other issues need to be considered before identifying possible options?
There are many issues that A’s CD Shop has to consider before opening the shop. This is because if they do not think about these issues their employees may not be safe working in the shop because they are not covered by insurance or the shop may have some trouble because they do not have a licence to sell products.
Some of the issues that A’s CD Shop has to think about are the health and safety of employees because if the employees are not guaranteed a workplace that is safe the employees may not choose to work at the shop. Also if the employees are not covered by insurance and they hurt themselves the shop would have to do a lot of work to cover that problem. The shop must be clear of hazardous things. Legislation laws because if A’s CD Shop does not have the right to sell other people’s products and they do sell their products then it will be against the law and the government may require them to close down. Also the law is there to make sure that the shop pays the employees equal amounts of money and not different race or sex. Weights and measures because this is making sure the products do what it says it will do and it will last as long as it says on the package.
Competitive Analysis
The possible options
Conclusion
In conclusion this project was to collect information and come up with a marketing strategy for A’s CD Shop. I think I have achieved this objective and have done a pretty good job because I have collected useful information that can help me put my shop together. The information that helped was things such as responses from the questionnaire that was handed out, after collecting the questionnaires I looked over the responses on how to make my shop better than other shops that already exist. The other information that I used to help me make my shop better than others is the internet, my business studies teacher and my business studies text book. From using all these sources I came up with a marketing strategy that suites A’s CD Store the most. As I was making my marketing strategy I related to the 4 P’s a lot. This is because the 4 P’s can help me cover very basic things such as not over pricing my products, knowing which promotion strategy is the best for my shop and where to locate my shop etc. By doing this project I found out that market research is very important to keep a shop running, because without market research I would not know what products to stock, what price to price them at etc. Also market research can help me keep up with the latest trends and music so when people visit my shop they can have access to the newest and most popular music there is. Market research has helped me a lot during this project. Another thing that I had to consider was the legislation laws. I need to make sure that the legislation laws we right and that I cannot get sued by anyone because if the shop gets sued it may lead to a great loss of money. Also it can cause the reputation of the shop go down drastically.
Overall I think I have put together a good marketing strategy for A’s CD Store.
Recommendations
Product
A’s CD Store is going to be mainly selling CD’s of the genres Screamo, Emo and Hardcore. I will stock these CD’s because many teenagers and young adults are starting to listen to these genres of music and by stocking these products these teenagers and young adults can buy the CD’s of their favourite bands. Another reason I am planning to stock the CD’s of these genres is because not many or almost none of the CD shops in Hong Kong stock the CD’s of these genres, so the people that are into that kind of music have no where to buy the CD’s of their favourite bands. My products will stay the same during the different seasons because the season does not effect how many CD’s I sell.
Price
The price of my products will be slightly cheaper than other CD shops because this can attract new customers. Also some teenagers may not be able to afford to buy a CD that costs too much money so when they price is lower then teenagers can afford and buy the CD’s. The prices will stay low at the beginning when the shop first starts off just to attract customers, once my shop is popular I will raise the price by a little to make more profit, I will still try to make the prices lower than other CD shops to keep attracting new customers.
Place
The location that A’s CD Store is going to open in is going to be Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. I chose this location because it is a very popular place for people to shop in and also it is very easily accessible for everyone. I will find a place where it is very easy for customers to locate and access. The rent of the space must be fairly cheap. When my shop gets more popular and gets a steady amount of profit I will move it into a location like a shopping mall.
Promotion
A’s CD Store will be doing a lot of promotion when the shop first starts off. This is to attract customers and to let them know we are there and open. I will use posters to promote my shop when it first starts off, I chose this method of promotion because it is cheap and it is also very easily accessible. Posters will be up at local band shows and concerts. They will also be up along the street. Later when the shop gets more popular I may think about promoting on television or on radio stations.
Evaluation
To make the marketing strategy for A’s CD Store successful I will have to do a several things to make that happen. I will have to make the price of my products cheaper than my competitions. I will do this to attract customers when my shop first opens. Another thing I have to do to make my marketing strategy successful is that I will have to stock the newest CD’s. If the customer is looking for a CD I don’t have I will try to order it for them. I will do that to improve the reputation of my shop and to satisfy the customer. This way hopefully the customer will come back and buy more products from my shop. All, old and new, CD’s will be stocked in my shop. I will do this because some customers may be looking for an old CD of an artist and if I don’t have these CD’s then I will be losing profit and customers. By doing this the customers will hopefully return to my shop in the future and tell their friends about my shop which will help promote my shop. Also hopefully those customers will visit again with their friends to buy more products from my shop.
References
People:
Mr. McLeod – Business studies teacher.
Ms. Koshy – Business studies teacher.
Text
Title: GCSE Business Studies A
Authors: Arthur Jenkins, David Hamman, Barry Heywood & Martin Fletcher
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
Copyright date: 2001
Business Textbook
Electronic:
Organisation:
HMV
Hong Kong Records
Appendix
Sample Questionnaire
Questionnaire
Please take a few minutes to fill out this questionnaire☺.
What age group do you fall under?
12-13 [ ] 14-15 [ ] 16-17 [ ] 18-19 [ ]
20 or above [ ]
What is your gender?
Male [ ] Female []
What type of music do you like?
Hardcore [ ] Screamo [ ] Metal [ ] Emo [ ]
Other (Please Specify)
___________________________________________________________________
Where did you hear about our company?
Posters [ ] T.V. [ ] Friends [ ] Newspaper [ ]
E-marketing [ ] E-mails [ ]
How do you feel about our staff?
Very Poor [ ] Poor [ ] Good [] Great [ ] Excellent [ ]
How much money would you spend on CD’s?
50-100 [ ] 100 – 150 [ ] 150-200 [ ] 200 and above [ ]
Do you think our shop is in a good location?
yes=[] no=[]__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Who is your favourite band?
Underoath [ ] Bring me the Horizon [ ] I Killed the Prom Queen [ ] Atreyu [ ] Scary Kids Scaring Kids [ ]
[ ] Others (please specify) _________________________________________________
Why would you go to other CD shops?
Faster [ ] Cheaper [ ] Friendly [ ] Better Products[ ]
How can the company improve for the future?
Please write down your ideas.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for your time ☺
South China Morning Post
TVB