Marketing a Nightclub
INTRODUCTION:
The marketing mix is a method used by nearly every company, it decides whether a business thrives, or fails. The Marketing Mix has 4 elements, all equally important. They are known as the 4p's...
. PRODUCT: refers to the 'thing' that is trying to be sold, if the product is not up to standard people will not want to buy it. If the product is food, it must taste nice otherwise no one will want it.
2. PRICE: is how much the product costs. If the product is over priced people will not want it, however, if the product costs too little, the business will lose profits.
3. PROMOTION: is the advertising of the product and telling people about the product. If the advertising does not appeal to the people they are targeting, people will not be interested in their product.
4. PLACE: is where the product will be sold. The product needs to be in a good area to buy things. If it is in a shop in a back alley where no one goes, the product will not be seen, and not be bought.
I am going to use the Marketing Mix to plan to create a nightclub. I will have to consider all 4 points of the Marketing Mix to have a nightclub, which has all of the points to be successful.
Product:
The clubs owners will make decisions about their product by Market Research. This is research into the customer, and what they want. If their research shows that their ideas will not work, and the public give them better ideas, they would use these ideas instead of their initial plans. Many other companies use this method to find out what their customers want from them. This helps the business improve and 'go with the times'. An example of one of these companies is Tesco's. Tesco's may also use 'Mintel' to also get market research information. Mintel are a company that does market research for different companies, and then sell their findings to the company. They find out what the people want on their shelves, and what most people would buy. This has already been a proven way of helping your business along.
A product can also include a service, destination and/or person. A club usually includes a service, (which is the bar) a destination, (the location) and sometimes a person, (normally a DJ or band). Again, all of these points could make the club a success or a disaster.
My nightclub will be aimed at almost everyone, depending on which night. There would be two different themes to the club, Rock/punk/metal music and Dance/Trance. It would be open Saturday and Friday nights and will have a different theme. Friday nights= Rock/punk/metal etc. and Saturday nights = Dance/Trance. Two nights a month on both Fridays and Saturdays the club will be open to everyone between the ages of 11+ until midnight. The rest of the time it will be open for 18'S+. This should attract more, different, customers who would come into the club, therefore (theoretically) boost profits. ...
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My nightclub will be aimed at almost everyone, depending on which night. There would be two different themes to the club, Rock/punk/metal music and Dance/Trance. It would be open Saturday and Friday nights and will have a different theme. Friday nights= Rock/punk/metal etc. and Saturday nights = Dance/Trance. Two nights a month on both Fridays and Saturdays the club will be open to everyone between the ages of 11+ until midnight. The rest of the time it will be open for 18'S+. This should attract more, different, customers who would come into the club, therefore (theoretically) boost profits. The bar would have a selection of drinks that would appeal to everyone. It would be situated in the top of town. The dress code would be smart/casual for Saturday nights and Casual for Friday nights. Several other ploys to entice people to the club would be a happy hour when drinks cost less. This would be at a time when people could be in other clubs/pubs/bars.
It will be called DX-7, and its 'logo' would be this...
I chose this logo because I thought it stood out from the other logos for clubs. The font of the logo is important so that people, when seeing the logo, will know that it's our club. I think that, if lit up properly, it would stand out at night, attracting people into the club. It may be an idea to do a few more logos before the club would be made and do another survey for the name of the club, and which logo to use. This would mean that it is almost certain that people like the logo, which could be the advertising ploy for the club.
This sign and logo of the club is very important for the promotion of the product. If the sign is not memorable and is undesirable, people will be less interested in going to the nightclub.
The club will have a stage with a reasonably large 'dance floor' and seats/tables around the outside of it. The stage would be used for the 'DJ' or the band. The bar would be lightly lit so people can see it from all around the club.
Price:
The price of the product may also depend on whether the club is successful or not. If the price is overpriced the customers will not be interested in the club and go elsewhere. There are several methods of pricing the nightclub, which I may use. These would be: Penetration, Demand or perceived value, Cost based pricing and price discrimination.
Penetration is when a low price is used to gain market share quickly.
Demand or perceived value is when a firm tries to estimate what people are willing to pay.
Cost based pricing is when the firm adds an amount onto the costs to decide on a price.
And Price discrimination, which is when the firm raises the price of their product when their product is at highest demand. This could be used very effectively when the pubs or smaller clubs close. The price could be raised, as some people may want to enter the club, this is a higher demand and the people would be prepared to pay a higher price.
Penetration would also be a good way of getting people into the club when it first opens. On the opening weekend it may be a good idea to charge less to get people inside the club.
Looking at other clubs information there is a range of prices for the entry to the club. These are between £3 and £12-13. Most of the higher priced clubs are probably well known for being a very high standard. (E.g. DEPOT, Lawrence hill, Bristol costs £8-10 to enter) it could be also the area it is situated in that changes the price of entry.
For my club, I think that a lower price would be better than a higher one. More people would be interested in going because it doesn't cost too much to enter.
Promotion:
There are many advantages of using different marketing tools, and advertising media to promote the nightclub. Each one has different negative and positive points. The marketing tools used together could make the nightclub highly successful. However, this comes at a high price. Advertising, sales promotion and sponsorship (unless the club gets sponsored) all cost money. Advertising costs the club in the way of having to pay the people who put the advert up, on the radio, television or on a billboard. Sponsorship is when the product is associated with another product (For example a hockey team). Doing this, the club has to pay the hockey team, or who-ever they are sponsoring to get their logo on the product, in this case, a shirt. Sales promotion loses profit in another way altogether, instead of spending money, they lose out on higher profits by using a lower price on entry to the club and for drinks. This does normally attract more people to the club though. This may mean that they do not lose out on profit but gain more. Public relations may also be bad for the nightclub. The media could say anything about the club, from being very good to a disaster. The media influences many people, so if they say the club is not good, less people would go to the club.
For my club I would use advertising, on local radio, local papers, and local billboards, and handing out leaflets outside of colleges. This would mean that more people would hear about the club quicker, and if I began with the club being cheap to get in (Sales promotion), more people would 'check it out' and maybe go back again in the future.
Some people hire a celebrity for the night to go to their club. This can get more publicity from the newspapers, this gets more people from the local community, and from further away who may want to try to get into the club to see the celebrity. In the process of this the people may like the club and want to spread the word about it being good. This means that they may tell friends about it, who may go to see it for themselves. Again this may backfire on the clubs owners. People may not want to see the celebrity they hired, or the people may say the club isn't good which would turn people off from going to the club.
Place:
Although important in the marketing mix, place is not a major concern. Although, certain factors do need to be considered. The nightclub cannot be to far away from potential customers, but does need to be situated where it will not disturb nearby residents. For my club, I would have it around the top of town. This is the main area of Basingstoke where people, in my target market, go out. The area is made up of several restaurants and bars, which are full of people at night.
As well as its whereabouts, the club also need to have a frontage that will be appealing to customers. The Matrix (nightclub) in reading is built into an olden style building, but its very modern inside. This is what I would like for my nightclub.
Evaluation:
In my marketing plan, there are strong, and weak areas. I think that a couple of areas, such as the rules would have to be more carefully made clear to the public. If this was not enforced people who you didn't want into the club would get in. (Security would also be needed to help enforce this) The promotion, would need to be thought about carefully like the name and logo of the club. If the advertising does not gain the attention of the desired people, potential customers may not be interested in going to the club. Everything inside the club would have to be well thought over as well. Anything from the drinks/food being sold to the set out of the club could affect the amount of people who like the club.
Penetration, and Price discrimination could work very effectively if used correctly. This is because; Penetration could get people going to the club. The more people like it, the more people are willing to pay to get in, which is when price discrimination is used. I think Using different music on different nights (Rock/Metal/Punk and Dance/Trance) is a very effective way of getting more business because the club would then get more business from different crowds, instead of the same groups of people who like only one kind of music. The nights when younger people are allowed into the club for two nights a month are also a good idea I think as well, as on those nights a large group of younger people may go to the club for those nights, therefore appealing to more people again. However, on these two nights a week many older people would not want to go to the club as they may not want to be surrounded by younger people. This may lose some income, as alcohol sales would drop.
In the plans of the nightclub there could be new opportunities for the future of the club. If the club is successful in its first year or so, there are opportunities of expanding the club to make it larger, or open a new one in another town. Over time if there is still success it could become a franchise and be in many towns across the country. There are threats of future success though. Not meeting the demands of the government's laws could lead to closure of the club or the opening of the club to be refused. Pressure groups could force the owners to spend more money on better facilities, rules and staff to make it more pleasant for people living nearby the club. This might fail to interest people in going to the club, causing lack of cash flow, and eventually bankruptcy.
By @lex Coulcher - 11D - 15/02/02
