To improve the marketing of the club, first the managers and owners of the club should understand who their competitions are and how they are doing in terms being successful in their business. Although the “member owned” ethos is in place however, in order to get more members the managers need to look into the business side of running the club.
They need to analyse how their competitions like David Lloyds Leisure and Esporta are doing in their business. This chart shows that Abbey Court charges subscription fee much more expensive and the least expensive one is Fitness First. These charts enable WRFC to understand what quality of services they are providing and what services they are providing.
The marketing of the WRFC can also be improved by using Public Relations (PR), which will help promote the club through newspaper usually hosting or sponsoring events that will mention the club’s name in the local newspapers. Other possible ways are, to advertise the classes taken in the club or give people 15-day trial for prospective members.
The performance of the members’ needs raise the capital and carry out work therefore it means that if the club is meeting the members’ needs, the capital will rise. The services affect the capital so it has to be absolutely perfect. Bad service = less members. The communication between the staff and members influence the way the club give their services. The capital is then used to improve the club in more ways.
All profit goes back to the club which can be used to buy more upgraded version of the gym equipments and also sell the old ones therefore, there is knew gym equipments every two to three years later. This will attract prospective members to join WRFC.
Survival
WRFC’s another key aim is to survive and in future expand internally. They needed to stay in business by earning more money from customers to meet all of the business’s expenses. The club needed to make enough money so they can survive the next two years. This is because the profit of the club can fall for various reasons and when it does it can give the club causes for concern, sometimes the club’s profit can fall so low or it can make a loss that the immediate aim of the club’s must be to survive.
Not all the business which opens up is going to survive for an example, if there 10 businesses that open up in 2003, 80% of the business will fail in first 2 years, this means only 20% of the business will be survive after 2 years.
During 1990, when the club was struggling to survive, the club came up was to survive. They sold houses which the club owned and received £100,000. They also employed new manager who worked in the current competitor of WRFC, David Lloyds in Raynes Park, before. As it is mentioned below, the club was old and all its staff were in their 70’s. It lacked computerized technology, which is needed in terms of security and data storage. The main thing that the club needed to realise is that they had to be more business like, in order for them to survive, bearing in mind of their “member owned” ethos.
- The club was old and run down and falling into disrepair. In order to survive, in 1990 they sold a house that they owned which was situated at the back of Salisbury gardens. They received £100,000
- The club decided to employ a full time manager. They employed Jason Beever who previously worked as a manager at David Lloyds in Raynes Park, Wimbledon. This took place in the late 90’s. The club was old. It had staff in their 70’s working. It had no computerized payment system, everything was COD (cash on demand), staff wages was paid in cash, the toilets showers etc came from the 1950’s. Modernize or fold
Maximising Profit
The aim for WRFC is to make profit. For maximising the profits, the club’s renovation and refurbishing was necessary. This will gain members. However, organisation within the official aspect of the club was also necessary. The lacks of organisation lead the club into the crisis point. To maximise the profit, the club also had to computerise the club and store all the members’ information into the database. For Database storage they can use Microsoft Data Access, which is cheap and efficient. This will help to know if they have an increase in the number of members joining the club. They need to pay off any loans they took from the bank that they used in their renovation, as soon as possible. They need to have a constant update on their account information such as the account balance. There has to be a regular communication with the bank and the banking needs to be regular.
The WRFC should target the people around the local area to be the prospective members. They should target the people who are interested in playing squash and badminton and the people who generally wants to be fit because they are also offering gym and other fitness classes. Their aim is to get the members who want the same services as other more expensive centres but in a more convenient price. They want more ‘off-peak time’ members targeting the women with children from 0 – 6yrs of age and the elderly. In order to do that, they should offer junior racquets classes in late morning and during the early afternoon, which also goes for Pre-natal and Post-natal classes. Aerobic and Racquets for the over 60 beginners classes. The list below shows the risk the WRFC has and whether they are able to make profit. It shows how they will want to take advantage of marketing opportunities. It also mentions, how they are going to trained their staff in order to meet their member’s needs.
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Risk taking. Wimbledon Racquets & Fitness Club hosted national and international tournaments. They had to sacrifice all of the clubs resources e.g. car park, courts, staff costs, sponsorship, raise prize money etc. If the tournaments failed it would have been a financial loss to the business. However the tournaments were a huge success. The company benefited from the huge publicity and now is one of the top badminton and squash clubs in the country
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Ability to identify and take advantage of marketing opportunities.
- Started palates mainly for women.
- Fitness classes (state times)
- New Gym
- Circuit training
- Beginners for squash and badminton
- Innovate bar and restaurant
- Change image from an old mans working club to a young trendy club that is family orientated in terms people know each other and socialise. Children are welcome etc. Remember if you go to the bigger clubs they may have more services but you will not get that same friendly atmosphere.
3. Ability to innovate. Build bar and catering team. First port of call once you enter the club. All staff members are trained to know the members names in order to create that friendly atmosphere. All staff members have their photos on the wall for easy recognition
Maximising Sales Revenue
Maximising sales means when the club seeks to generate as much income from its customers. The club can do this by attracting new prospective members. The customers will want high quality service from WRFC and this will depend on the club improving their quality of their service. If do not provide services according to the member’s needs than they will go to other competitors. In order to achieve this aim, WRFC must make changes, like refurbishing, offering new services etc. They also have to be able to do good marketing and come up with different marketing strategies. Through different elements of marketing, the club should let the public know of the services they are providing. This can be done through advertising in local newspapers and billboards, offering free trial membership, offering discounts etc.
Improving the Quality of the Services
WRFC has to change drastically, and they had to improve their quality of services. As I mentioned before, the staff members were all in their 70’s, this needs to change. Therefore, the new manager replaced them with new and much younger staff. They had to get high quality and trained staff. They also had to be more experienced. They had to give training to staff that are less experienced. Below shows, the job roles of the general manager, deputy manager and professional who is hired to coach members for badminton and squash. It contains all the responsibilities, purpose and duties.
Below are the criteria and the role of the Badminton professional. These are the duties of badminton professional of the club. WRFC should choose the badminton professional carefully. The club has to choose the right qualification with right age.
Above is the document that shows the job requirements for office and membership administrator. The senior staffs like the general manager or the deputy manager will need administrative staff to do all the typing, filing, faxing and other general office work. The club will need a very effective administrative department in order, for it run smoothly.
Meeting Stakeholder Needs
To meet stakeholder needs means to consider the needs of the different people involved in WRFC. They must meet the needs of stakeholder, in order to be successful and to be able to survive. The stakeholders that are related to WRFC are; private members of the business, customers, government, employees, local community and suppliers. This is thoroughly explained in the next section which External Environment Affecting WRFC.
Private members of the business will be interested in the club because they either work there or they are the senior members of the club and have been a member for a long time. The reason why they will be interested because they want the club’s best interest and keep using the club. The staff in the club will be interested in the club because if anything happens, it will affect their jobs.
Customers will be interest in the club because they might want to join the club. The customers that already joined the club will be interested in how well the club provides their services. If the club cannot meet the customers’ needs then they will lose customers.
Government will be another stakeholder. They are interested in the club charging VAT in everything they sell, e.g. food, drinks and sportswear. They need to be satisfied with regular payment of tax. The more the club pays tax, the more they will make profit. This is because the government will have a good impression about the club. This will enable for WRFC to get benefits from the government e.g. government grants.
Employees are another stakeholder that is interested in the club. This is because they need to be happy with the job security, rates of pay and the staff training. They want an increase in their wages or salaries if the club makes profit. They also expect bonuses for Christmas holidays.
Local community is interested in the club because there are people living in the same area where the club is. They might have environmental issues and some other concerns to discuss with the club. If they are not happy with WRFC then they can cause serious problems for the club.
Suppliers want the club to make profit in order for them to receive their money as soon as possible. Another reason why the suppliers want WRFC to make profit is because if they make more profit then the club will order more goods from the suppliers.
Growth
WRFC wants to increase the size of their business year by year; getting the profit and putting the profit back in the business for growth and expansion can do this. The club has had a big expansion and growth after 1990’s crisis point. The growth of the WRFC was one of aims that they had to overcome, in order to move into the same level as other competitors of the club. They needed to attract new customers for maximising sales and making profit. They use different types of marketing strategies for them to achieve this. They also need to excel above the break-even point, which are about 1400 members. They can also maximise sales by selling food and drinks. They also have a sports shop, which can be another way to maximise income and make profit. They also host events for any occasions, e.g. Christmas or birthday party. They are now offering services that more people will be interested in. The following services are:
- Fully equipped air-conditioned gym including range of CV equipment free weights and static machines
- 7 purpose built world class badminton courts
- 6 squash courts, including 2 glass backed
- Changing room areas including saunas showers and lockers available for daily use.
- Club house bar, lounge and TV area
- Pro Shop - open to both members and non-members - stocking a range of racquet specific sports equipment, latest range of racquets, shoes and clothing.
- The clubhouse bar and lounge facilities can be hired for private parties - contact the manager to discuss.
- Small studio offering a range of classes
The facilities that the club have now would attract customers such as
- Parents mothers who may go during the day for Pilates
- Young children after school etc
Identify Customer Needs
This is a very important aim because without customers there will be no WRFC. The club needs members for it to be successful. Customers are also stakeholders. They will be interested in the club for its services and how well they provide their services. Customers will be interested in the fees that are needed to use those services. They will want to find out if they will monthly of yearly for the subscription fee.
To achieve identifying customer needs, they need to first look at what the customers want and what will meet their needs. They can use focus groups to do surveys and find out how they can improve WRFC’s services. They also need to market research in order to find out why their competitor such as David Lloyd and Esporta and many other leisure centres being successful. They have to find out what services the other leisure centres are providing that are attracting customers’ attention.
By doing that the WRFC found out that, the customers are interested in fully equipped gym, new changing rooms and shower places, different types of fitness classes, a bar and a lounge area where people can eat and drink. They also found out, that customers want sauna and steam room and also properly trained staffs. On top of that, the manager of WRFC, Jason Beaver, visits the clubs’ competitors to see what new offer and services they have for their customers.
This shows that customers want good communication between the WRFC and themselves. They want well-trained staffs. They want equal opportunities for all levels and ages and work out or play badminton in a safe and secure environment.
As I mentioned before and as it says in the above diagram, another way to identify customers’ needs, are through focus groups. The club needs to seek marketing advice, in order for their target customers to know that WRFC exists and they offer a wide range if facilities. They would want to seek public relation consultants that will help them to put their name and events in the press by using local newspapers, local radios and local billboards.
External Environment Affecting Wimbledon Racquets and Fitness Club
The external factors that affect Wimbledon Racquets and Fitness Club are factors that cause some changes in the club. The club focuses on members who are on the ABC1 social status. The group of people that fit the A criterion are higher managerial, administrative or professional. The B criterion is the people who are middle management, administrative or professional and the C1 criterion includes people that are supervisory, clerical or junior management. The reason for the club focuses on these type of members because they will be able to be on going members and will not quit easily. Wimbledon where the club is based on has a lot of class ABC1 people that is one of the external factors that is affecting the club.
Local Community
Wimbledon is multicultural. There are high percentages of South African, New Zealand and Australians. The biggest population outside central London is based in Southfields. They are into badminton and squash and therefore the increase in members will affect the club in a good way. People are living longer. They want to stay active. WR&FC have an open day for over 65’s. Older people are going to join the club and use their classes. As we know that the club also promotes social atmosphere and it will be a good way to pass their time and there will be more demand for the “off -peak” times.
Government
Government is a factor that is going to affect the club. The legislation passed by the government needs to be fulfilled. For example new licensing laws, no smoking within a building 2007 and due to the fact that WRFC is a no smoking club since 2000 it will not affect them at all. Some items in the sports club are non-VAT items others pay VAT so they have cross check all the time and keep lists on the items, which have VAT in them. If they have a good record with the government than legal matters can be dealt easily and quickly.
Economic Climate
Economic climate is another factor that affects the club. Economic climate describes the level of economic activity. This can be measured in a number of ways; the level of employment depending on the percentages of people working age in paid employment, the average wages earned by workers, the number of businesses starting up compared with the number closing down. And the level of house prices and the number of new houses being built. There are four words to describe the economic climate: Boom, Bust, Recovery and Recession. Boom happens when the level of economic activity is increasing rapidly. Bust happens when the level of economic activity drops suddenly. Recovery is when the level of economic activity starts to slowly climb up and Recession is when there is a steady level of economic activity. The favourable changes in the level of activity measurements shows an increased economy. This benefits both the businesses and the workers. The expectations in the future will be high, and there are also opportunities for many businesses to expand. However, unfavourable changes lead to a declining economy. Most business might be leaving the area or simply close down and the level of unemployment could increase and consumers buying might decrease.
When the economic climate is at Boom, more people start joining the club than during Recession. However, when the economic climate goes Bust people stop joining the club though the existing members usually do not quit, this shows that it is seen as an important part of their life and they are willing to sacrifice other leisure spending activities e.g. holidays etc.
Social and Ethical Values
Through out the years, people’s attitudes towards social and ethical values have changed. Social and ethical values express people’s right, wrong and sum up their beliefs and concerns. For example; if WRFC allowed smoking inside their premises, some members would start leaving and stop coming to the club, especially members with children because smoking is harmful. People have started concerning about their bodies and how to become healthy and are trying to find ways to live longer. If people change their attitudes and then demand for particular services like gyms, sports and various exercising classes, then businesses in the Health Industries might increase. Therefore WRFC might gain more members. The social and ethical values describe the current concerns of people within a social group. The club might take advantage of changing social and ethical values by providing services that will affect the members’ concerns. For example; the percentage of people suffering from obesity is increasing in the UK. This concern affects the club because this will mean that more people who are overweight will start using the club facilities and start joining the gym. If the club is aware of the social and ethical values and concerns then they are more likely to come up with objectives that they are capable to achieve.
Legislation and Self-regulation
Legislation and self-regulation affects the club in many ways and it is related to government, which is another factor. However, legislation and self-regulation is more detailed and mostly concerns the public, businesses and individuals. Legislation comprises the laws set by government and international bodies like European Union and United Nations. It also protects dealings between the owners and its employees. In this case, as it is a “members’ owned” club, the members are the owners of the club and all the staff members are the employees. Legislation also restricts the activities of the businesses. The club needs to protect the welfare of the society. For example, there is legislation for health and safety and therefore they must put on fire exit sings indicating where they are and how to get out.
Self-regulation is the practice by which industry bodies draw up codes of the conducts to regulate the actions of businesses operating in that industry. These self-imposed restrictions are intended to protect the image of the industry, ensure fair competition and raise customer confidence in the industry. For example; office of fair-trading; customers joining up and then cancelling their membership were committed to the one-year contract. This was seen as unfair and the law was changed. All you have to give is one month’s notice. Implications for the business are staff dealing with new customers must know about this law and must point out the new member’s rights.
Another form of legislation is Consumer Credit Act. You can no longer mislead the customer by stating the monthly interest e.g. only 1.9 % per month. Businesses must state the yearly interest rate e.g. 28% per annum. This must be stated at the front of the form. Wimbledon Racquets & Fitness Club had to change all of their forms to conform to the new regulations. Failure to do so may lead to a fine or complaint from the customer. This is a cost to the club in terms of time and money.
Legislation also counts for, e.g. the club has to have health and safety liability law. Every service that the club provides has to be risk assessed e.g. from teaching squash to serving and selling food. A young kid who injured himself on a badminton court during a coaching session sued the club. He blamed the coach for not teaching him properly. Sued the club on a no win no fee basis. Kid won the case settled outside of court.
As soon as you step into the building the business is liable for anything that happens to you whilst on the premises. As long as it can be proved that the club was careless in their duty of care. By law the club is visited every 6 months by the Environmental Health Officer to check the status of the business e.g. are the fire doors free from obstruction, no loose cabling etc.
An example of how difficult it is to conform to the regulations. If the club wants to vary there licence e.g. a late licence until 2.00 in the morning. The Environmental Health Officer has to be notified and they have to come down a check the premises and bar area. The child protection officer has to visit the club and check if young children may get hold of alcohol. The firearms officer also pays a visit. There is link between alcohol and firearms. The trading standards officer also has to check out the club. Various laws are also triggered. All this has to be done to vary the alcohol licence.
Competitors
Within the Wimbledon area, there are a lot of health and fitness clubs. There are also other racquets club that people can go to. WRFC’s competition offers a range of facilities. However, the prices each of these clubs including WRFC charges are totally different.
This chart shows the price list of the clubs in the area including WRFC. I think WRFC’s main competition is David Lloyd’s Leisure; this is because they both give the same services such as the racquets and the gym. They also offer steam, sauna and Jacuzzi. However, DLL is far more expensive than WRFC. You can see that in joining fee DLL charges 175 pounds where as WRFC charges 120 pounds and it gets a lot cheaper, with only 24 pounds per month, where as DLL charges 60 to 80 per month.
