Income - My shop is going to be aimed at consumers, mainly working class. The products would be affordable by both high earners and low earners and the shop itself is more middle class orientated. This is because a lot of working class citizens play sport and are more likely to buy the products from the shop.
Interests - It is obvious that my shop is going to be aimed at consumers who have an interest in sport.
Bibliography
- GCSE Business Studies for Edexcel by Sue Alpin, Jan Cooper, Gerard O’Hara and Fiona Petrucke
- www.wikipedia.org
- www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/
- www.businessstudiesonline.co.uk
- www.maps.google.co.uk
- www.multimap.com
- www.statistics.gov.uk
Task 3- Primary Market Research
Questionnaire
- What gender are you?
4. Where do you most frequently acquire sports goods?
Sports Shop
Online
Other……………………………………………………………
5. What is the main purpose for your visit to a sports shop?
Sports Clothing
Sports leisurewear
Sports equipment
Footwear
General Browsing
Other……………………………………………………………………………..
6. Which brands do you normally buy?
Nike
Adidas
Puma
Reebok
Patrick
Umbro
Diadora
Le Coq Sportif
Other……………………………………………………………………………
- Where would you like to see the shop to be based?
Town Centre
Shopping Outlet
High Street
Other …………………………..
- How much approximately per month do you spend in a sports shop?
£0-£10
£10-£25
£25+
- Which sports shops do you visit currently?
JJB Sports
JD Sports
Sports World
Other …………………………………………………………
10. When do you usually visit a sports shop?
Mon – Fri
Weekends
11. Around what time do you visit a sports shop?
9am to 12pm
12pm to 2pm
2pm to 5pm
After 5pm
The questionnaire above is a final copy. Before this, I produced a draft copy; which I did not include in this coursework. After getting five people to fill my draft copy in, I realised that I made some errors in the way that I asked the questions. Some of the questions that I asked required long answers, which either bored the customer or were irrelevant to what I wanted to find out. I improved the questionnaire by making the questions shorter and made some of the questions more relevant to the information that I needed. The results of the final questionnaire are on the following page.
The first question enables me to find out the gender of the person. This will help me to see if the person is in my target market and how to orientate my products.
The second question also helps with my target market. It will tell me the age category in which the person falls into.
The third question will tell me on average how frequently a person visits a sports shop. This will tell me if customers will come back to the shop, and how often.
The fourth question is asking where the customer acquires their sports goods. The results of this question will help me decide whether to sell the majority of my goods in a shop or via another medium, for example the internet. This is to do with the promotion segment.
The fifth question will tell me which product the customer is most likely to buy. This will help me as I can determine how much of each category I need in my shop.
The sixth question also tells me about the product. I will tell me which brands are normally bought. This will help mw to choose the brands that my shop will be stocked with.
The seventh question will help me with the place segment. It will tell me where the customers will most like the shop to be based. This will influence my overall decision of the location.
The eighth question is to do with price. This question will tell me how much someone would spend in a sports shop per month; I can base the prices of my products on this information.
The ninth question will tell me which sports shops the customer visits currently. This will help me see who the main competition is.
The tenth question is to do with when the customer normally visits the shop. This will help me decide which days the shop will be open, or whether it should be open 7 days a week.
The final question will help me determine opening hours as I will know when the customer is most likely to visit the shop.
From the results of the questionnaires, I hope that I will find out sufficient information to base my shop upon. I hope they will help me discover the price range of my products, the products themselves, the location of the shop and how I am going to promote the shop.
There were also other methods of primary market research that I could have used. I could have used personal interviews (which would be time consuming), focus groups (which costs more than conducting questionnaires) or a consumer panel (which in only useful if you want to sample a small amount of people).
Task 4- Analysis of Primary Research
Results of Questionnaire
Summary of results
Question One
From question one; we can see that 60% of the people that I asked were male. This tells me that the majority of people that would visit a sports shop would be male.
Question Two
Question two tells me that the majority of the people that I asked were 6 and 16 years of age. I suspect most of these would be teenagers; one of the main groups that my sports shop is focused at.
Question Three
Question three shows me that customer’s visit a sports shop mostly once a week or once a month. There are hardly any people that visit it more often that that.
Question Four
For this question I did a bar chart to show where the customer normally acquires their goods. This represents the “place” of marketing.
From the graph, we can see that the majority of people questioned buy their sports goods from a shop itself. This tells me that I should sell the majority of goods in a shop as only 10 people said they bought their items online. The two people who said “other” ordered their goods through a catalogue service. This knowledge helps me to decide whether I should sell my products through other mediums as well as a shop.
Question Five
For the fifth question I wanted to find out “for what purpose do people visit a sports shop?” I constructed the bar chart below. This bar chart tells me why most people visit a sports shop. Most people visit one either for Sports clothes or footwear. Some people visited a sports shop for equipment and others for leisure. Very few people went there just to generally browse the shop or other such things. These results tell me that I should focus my shop on Sports clothing, equipment and footwear. Although people visit the shop for other reasons, the areas listed above are the main reasons why customers visit a sports shop.
Question Six
For this question, I produced a pie chart which shows me the brands of the items that people normally buy. This is part of the “product” segment. These results help me decide which brands I should include in my shop. As you can see from the pie chart, over a third of goods bought are either branded by Nike or Adidas. Puma also takes up a larger segment. The rest of the chart shows lesser brands such as Patrick and Umbro. This tells me that I should predominantly sell items in my shop that are Nike, Adidas or Puma as they are bought more frequently. I will still include the other brands but not heavily.
Question Seven
I also constructed a pie chart for question seven. This is part of the “place” segment as the results will tell me where the customers would like the shop to be located. The results show that people either want the shop to be located in the town centre or on the high street. This is because it is quite easy to get to. Only a few people said they wanted it to be located in an outlet park. This is probably because it would be quite difficult to get to.
Question Eight
Question eight looked at the amount people spend in a sports shop per month. As you can see, the data is spread quite evenly between the three categories. Most people spend between £0 and £10 while almost equal amounts of people spend either between £10 and £25 or £25+. This tells me that I need to include a wide range of items, with a wide range of prices.
Question Nine
Question nine tells me which sports shops the customer visits currently. This will show me who my main competitors are in business. From the results I can see that the spread of people is very even. All of the shops listed have a frequency of ten. This shows that existing shops have a lot of business. In the “other” section, the shop that came up was Aro Sports in Hitchin. If I decide to locate my shop there, Aro Sports will be my main competitor.
Question Ten
Question ten enables me to decide to when my shop will be open. From the results, we can see that 75% of people visit a sports shop on a weekend. That means I should open my shop until later on the weekend as I am more likely to have more customers.
Question Eleven
The final question will also help me with opening hours. The results tell me when it is most likely people will visit a sports shop. The results show that more people visit the shop around lunchtime; very few people visit it in the evening. This information will help me construct suitable opening hours.
Price – The results of this questionnaire tells me that I should include a wide range of prices; I shouldn’t just aim my shop on people who will spend a lot of money. As my target market includes teenagers, they are less likely to spend huge amounts of money meaning reasonably prices are suitable. I am going to use the competitor pricing strategy as it will provide that I get sales.
Product – The products that I should sell in my store should include many categories. As my questionnaire shows, I am going to include a lot of sports clothes, footwear and equipment. I will include of products such as leisure items, but there will be less of them.
Promotion – My results show that people mostly buy items from the store; opposed to using the internet. This tells me that creating a website and promoting it will be unnecessary at this stage. Other than that, my results tell me that I should advertise my shop through local mediums such as newspapers and radio.
Place – My questionnaire shows that most people would prefer to have a shop in the town centre or on the high street. This means I am going to discount the idea of an outlet store as it would be harder for a customer to find.
I believe that my questionnaire has been quite useful in getting me the information I needed. If I had to repeat it however, I would improve the wording of the questions and include more questions to do with the promotion “P” of marketing. This would enable me to make a better decision as I would get the general public’s view.
Task 5– Secondary Market Research
The name of the shop that I’m studying is Aro Sports in Hitchin as it is my main competitor as a sports shop. The aim of this shop is to provide a range of sporting products that can be offered to the local community of Hitchin and other surrounding areas. The shop also wants to make a profit; which will enable it to survive. The shop is located on Bancroft; which is one of the major roads that leads into Hitchin Town Centre.
The location of the shop is quite important wit regard to the shops success. Although the shop is not located in the town centre itself, it gets a lot business as it is the only existing sports shop in Hitchin. This means that the locals will have to go there to get their sporting goods as opposed to a competitor. Aro Sports’ nearest competitors are JJB Sports and Sports World in Stevenage; which would require the people of Hitchin to travel to other towns. The shop also has had good transport links and is easy to get to. The shop is a five minute walk from the Hitchin Station and there are several public car parks near which make the shop easily accessible. There is also space to park on the road outside of the shop. This shows that the shop has good access to road links along with the fact that the A1 motorway is five minutes drive away. Overall, Aro Sports has a good following as it is an easy to get to, local sports shop.
Aro Sports offers a wide range of sporting goods; as you would expect from a Sports shop. Looking at the range of products, I can see that there are a lot of products that are to do with running, camping and other extreme sports. The shop does contain a range of Astroturf trainers and sports apparel. The shop is lacking in sports equipment of the other well known sports. For example, there are relatively few items that are to do with rugby and hockey. After looking into the shops history further, and by looking at its website, I saw that the shop is primarily a running a skiing specialist sports shop. This opens up a gap in the market for a shop that contains other sporting goods.
I believe that Aro Sports has a specific target market. Unlike my shop, where I aim to appeal to people of all ages and gender, Aro Sports is primarily a running and skiing shop. This is apparent in the products that the shop sells. Most of the products in the store are aimed at adults, which mean that the target market is adults who are interested in running and skiing. Aro Sports included other products in their shop as there is a gap in the market in Hitchin for a generalized sports shop.
I think that the target market of Aro Sports affects the range of goods offered but I do not believe that it affects the location of the store. I believe that the target market affects the goods sold because most of the products are orientated towards the specific market of running and skiing. This is because the target market influences the products sold. There would be no point of a target market if the products sold didn’t appeal to that market. On the other hand, I don’t believe that the target market affects the location of the shop. I say this because Hitchin itself isn’t really renowned for running and skiing. Also, the location of the shop is away from every other major shop in the town.
Advantages of opening my business
- I will provide a new range of goods to the local community
- More money for the town of Hitchin
- Council receives money; which is then reinvested into the town
- It will provide healthy competition
- The shop will also provide jobs for the community
Disadvantages of opening my business
- A split in the market between businesses could mean that customers are lost
- Existing businesses may lose customers
- Members of the local community may have loyalty to other businesses
I then went to the government statistics website and obtained statistics that related to sports activity.
In 2002 three quarters of adults (had taken part in some sport, game or physical activity during the twelve months before interview. Fifty-nine per cent of adults had done so in the four weeks before interview. Excluding people whose only activity was walking, the corresponding overall participation rates were 66 per cent of adults in the last twelve months and 43 per cent of adults in the last four weeks.
In terms of participation in the last twelve months the five most popular sports, games or physical activities among adults were:
- walking (46 per cent);
- swimming (35 per cent);
- keep fit/yoga – including aerobics and dance exercise (22 per cent);
- cycling (19 per cent); and
- cue sports - billiards, snooker and pool (17 per cent).
As in previous years men were more likely than women to participate in sports activities (either including or excluding walking) in the four weeks before being interviewed. In 1996, 54 per cent of men and 38 per cent of women had participated in at least one activity, excluding walking, in the four weeks before interview. By 2002 participation had fallen to just over half (51 per cent) of men compared with 36 per cent of women.
The statistics above show me a lot of things. Firstly, I can see that recently, more and more adults are getting into sports and sporting activities. This tells me that there is an opening in the market for these new potential customers who want to get into sports. When I have opened my business I hope it will provide products for the community who are trying to get into sports as well as current sports players. As Hitchin is lacking a sports shop, my shop will provide a better range of goods for the locals. It might also encourage more and more people to participate in sports.
Promoting my business
There are many different ways in which I can advertise my business. Firstly, I will outline all of the main methods of advertisement, and I will eliminate the appropriate ones. Methods that are available are: national television, radio, cinema, national newspapers, local daily newspapers, magazines, posters, billboards, leaflets, directories and the internet.
After looking at the list above, I decided to immediately discount national television (as it is too expensive), nationwide radio (local fm radio could be an option), cinema (again too expensive), national newspapers (there will only be one of my sports shops, so it would be unnecessary to use national newspaper), magazines (again the same reasons as national newspaper), billboards (as they would be too expensive) and the internet (as I would have millions of other competitors there).
The methods of advertising I have now outlined are: local radio, local newspapers, posters, leaflets and using directories. I found out the prices of advertising using these methods and the prices are below:
Local radio: The price is £350 for 30 seconds of airtime, at peak times. This includes the advertisement being played 4 times a day for 4 weeks.
Local newspaper: A quarter page advert is a local newspaper will cost £260
Poster: A poster wouldn’t cost very much at all. The only money you are spending is on the paper and the ink that you are printing with.
Leaflets: For 5000 doubled sided A5 leaflets the price is £241
Directory: For an advertisement in the yellow pages (30mm x 60mm) the price is £85
Below, I have included advertisements of sports shops. I am then going to outline the advantages and disadvantages of the advert.
The advertisement on the right hand side is that of a sports shop called Nomis; which specializes in foreign sports, especially Australian Rules football. The advertisement was found in a magazine.
Advantages of advert
- Looks professional
- Includes two famous people in Australian Football
- Gives a website, where a full catalogue of items is present
Disadvantages of advert
- Doesn’t show any products that the shop sells
- Doesn’t give information about the location
- Might not appeal to many people in the UK (as it was found in an British magazine)
The advertisement on the right is for a company called Subside Sports. As with the previous advertisement, I found this advert in a magazine.
Advantages of advert
- It is colourful
- Shows some of the products on offer which are appealing
- Includes a website
- Looks professional
Disadvantages of advert
- Doesn’t tell you the location of the shop
- Also doesn’t show what other products are on offer
- Doesn’t give contact details other than the website
The final advertisement is for a sporting memorabilia shop. I found this in a directory.
Advantages
- Gives an address of where the business is located
- Contact information e.g. telephone number
- Shows some of the most famous products e.g signed Brazil Football shirt
Disadvantages
- Doesn’t look very professional
- It doesn’t give examples of other types of products
- It might not appeal to many people and might be ignored as it is quite small.
Task 6 – Marketing Plan
Product
There are a few reasons for why I have set up a sports shop. The main reason is that I can see that there is a gap in the market for a sports shop in the town of Hitchin. There is only one main competitor; Aro sports (which is a specialized running store). My store will be more of a generalized sports shop. Through secondary market research, I found out that more and more adults are now getting into sports. This shows that a sports shop will be a suitable investment. The nearest competitors are in towns such as Stevenage; which would require the local people of Hitchin to make a short journey via either train or car. My questionnaire also shows that most people visit one of the Stevenage sports shops. I feel that my shop will take away some of that business as more people in Hitchin would go to a local sports shop if they knew that the quality of products was of a good standard.
In my store I will sell a range of sporting goods to appeal to my big target market.
Price
Place
Promotion