Location 2: - Lakeside
- There are many shops like Pizza Hut, GAME, JD, Argos, Tesco, Sainsbury and Costco.
- Trains, Buses, Car,
- East London.
- Yes, there is a big compound car park.
- They are out of town.
- The good thing is it has various shops, and even lots of facilities like Cinemas e.g. Vue.
- The bad thing is that it is far away and the best way and easy way would be to use a car to go there as using a bus would take time and train too.
Location 3 - Brent Cross
- There are lots of shops like Primark, M&S, GAME, JJB, Sports world, and John Lewis.
- Trains, Buses, Car, Walking
- It is located at Barnet, UK also as North London.
- No.
- Yes, there are two car parks which can fit over 400 cars+
- Well it is out of town.
- The good thing is that it offers quality services and good products and there are lots of things to buy there.
- The bad thing about it is that it can be overcrowded a lot of the time and sometimes it takes long if you live far away or cannot get the bus or car.
Which location and Why?
The location I have picked is Lakeside, because it has many competitors like JD, SportsDirect, ProDirect, Nike Town, JJB, and many others. The reason why is because if I have more competition then the customers will compare prices from each of all the shops and buy some from the best one with reasonably low prices.
The Competition
I have chosen a sports shop. There are many competitors in the sports market such as JD, and SportsDirect, which seems to be that these types of shops bring in the most customers in an area such as Lakeside. They will be my main competitors and also other shops and may not be direct competitors. However, I will be competing with others shops in the area to get the most customers as possible. I will be analysing the competitions below:
The two competitions I’m considering and analysing are
- JD
- SportsDirect
- JD
JD is my competition.
Their Target Market: is mostly both male and female, people who like to buy trainers, and clothes and other sports accessories and equipments.
Their main objective is to get customers to buy various products such as shoes, clothes like adidas, Nike, McKenzie and other big brands.
They are located at lakeside. They have existed for up to 28 YEARS.
They sell lots of merchandise from the likes of Nike, McKenzie, Adidas, Lacoste, Ecko untied, and many more eg hoodies, t-shirts, trainers, equipment, and hats and jogging bottoms and tops. Their prices range from up to £6 – £100+.
£14.99 £49.99 £19.99
They use vouchers and promotional codes to save money for consumers and get more people to buy their products.
JD products are well known and popular around the world such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok, as many people love to buy these certain products and there is more demand for these and people come to JD sports as it is well known and is known to have them.
Their typical customers are people who usually buy shoes, clothes and fashion clothes which are well known to people.
Most of the customers are young ranging from 12 – 25, as they like the latest things in fashion e.g they like Nike products and adidas as they seem cool and casual. But usually they don’t care about the price and just buy the items/products.
Their business is on the internet and are well known and have large amount of customers visit their site for delivery of goods which is a big thing for them as this increases their profits and customers.
2. SportsDirect
My competition is SportsDirect.
Their objectives are to sell sports products to the customers who love sports, who do sport and buy some sports equipment.
They are located at Lakeside. They have been around for 27 years.
They sell a wide range of Sporting goods and many sports clothing. Their prices range from up to £5 – £100+.
£26.00 £28.00 £27.99 £37.99
They use vouchers and promotional codes to save money for consumers and get more people to buy their products.
SportsDirect products are well known and popular around the world such as Nike, Adidas and Reebok which are sports products that most sports athletes. As many people love to buy these certain products and there is more demand for these and people come to SportsDirect as it is well known and is known to have them. Sports trainers, coaches, and athletes usually go for the good and expensive sports equipment and accessories.
Mostly its people from 13- 30 who are most likely to buy sports accessories and equipment as many athletes and sporty people participate in sports a lot, But sometimes it usually matters on the price and how good they think the product they’re looking for really is. Well SportsDirect have several competitors on the internet such as ProDirect who are well known on the internet and was said to have the biggest amount of sports products.
The aims and objective of my business are:
- Make lots of profit
- Sell our range of equipment and sports clothing
- Be the most well known sports shop in the area/town.
- Make lots of money.
- Also, maybe in future become a well-known national sports shop.
SWOT Analysis
Why should a business carry out a SWOT Analysis?
It’s important for a business to know and understand how it fits in and interacts with the surrounding environment e.g office/factory/shop. Researching your environment will benefit that business by putting them in a position to develop a strategy for both the long and short term.
Finally, what I’ve learnt from this is that I need to boost my reputation around the area that I’ll be locating too so more people will be familiar with my store and it will encourage more people to shop at my store. Furthermore, I can use my opportunities such as special occasions like sporting events e.g next World cup. I can advertise lots of England shirts, accessories, football boots and England clothes. This would put in people’s mind about buying maybe a few England shirts for the world cup.
The Market
In this section I am producing a questionnaire to find what consumers in the society like and what they dislike I’m doing this so I can get products for my business which suit the consumers needs. I will be asking a total of 25 people to answer my questionnaire
1. Do you like bright attractive colours on trainers?
a) Yes
b) No
2. Which of the following brands do you like?
a) Nike
b) Adidas
c) McKenzie
d) Fila
e) Others
3. What is your age?
a) 15-20
b) 21-25
c) 26-29
4) What is your gender?
a) Male
b) Female
5) When buying from sports shops how much do you usually spend?
a) £5-£40
b) £ 41–80
c) £81-£120
d) Other
6) What shopping centre do you usually buy from?
a) Lakeside
b) Blue Water
c) Brent Cross
d) Vicarage Fields
e) Others
7) What time of the day do you go usually go shopping?
a) Morning
b) Afternoon
c) Evenings
8) On which days do you usually go shopping?
a) Weekdays
b) Weekends
c) Holidays
d) Other
9) What transport do you usually take?
a) Bus
b) Car
c) Train
d) Bike
e) Other
10) Where do you usually purchase?
a) JD
b) FootLocker
c) SportsDirect
d) JJB
e) Others
- Yes, I would put up new luxury products and services which will attract my target market towards them.
- They’re high demands for products from brands like Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, Umbro, McKenzie and other big brands.
- I cannot really think local customers are loyal, it seems that the better the product is and cheaper it is the more the local customers will buy those luxury products and etc.
- I would roughly charge from £35 - £90 and my target market are likely to pay from £25 - £60 for products in my store.
- They will expect new up to date fashion and luxury clothes, accessories, sports equipment, sports clothing, sports accessories and cheaper and decent prices. In addition they’d expect opening hours to be from maybe the afternoon to late evenings or mornings at 10am to 6pm.
- They are most likely to come on the weekends because that’s when most people come out as schools finished for the week and work is done for the week so teenagers and adults are most likely going shopping. I can increase the demand as they’ll be lots of customers looking to buy around the weekend and people will want to buy cheap products.
- The images shows that we are shop who are going to be selling luxury clothes, sports clothing and products that teenagers wear day to day with their mates and family. It can be changed by meeting other people’s personal opinions e.g making the colours and layout of the shop appeal able to both male and female.
-
A questionnaire is type of research which involves finding information about a certain target market. It consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.
- Drawbacks are People may not be willing to answer the questions. They might not wish to reveal the information or they might think that they will not benefit from replying that they would criticized by their real opinion.
- But a Benefit is mostly it is relatively quick to collect information using a questionnaire. However in some situations they can take a long time not only to design but also to apply and analyse
Questionnaire Analysis
1. Out of the 25 people that I asked, 23 people stated that they would like bright colours on their trainers this allows me to buy in products that have bright colours on them and offer a wide range of colours so that customers have variety.
2. Out of the 25 people that I asked, 11 people stated they like the brand Nike. This allows me to bring in clothes, sportswear and trainers, which Nike produces so that I can sell them to customers who will be purchasing and allows me
to get more customers as 11 people said they liked Nike.
3. Out of the 25 people I asked, 15 people said they were aged from 15-20. This means that the target market I’ll be try to appeal to is 15 year olds to mid 20s, as they look for attractive stylish clothes wear and sportswear.
4. Out of the 25 people I asked, 13 people said they were males and 12 said they were female. This means that I’ll be selling products which appeal to both male and female so my shop will be recognised as a unisex shop not just for one gender of sex.
- Out of the 25 people I asked, 13 people said they go lakeside than any other shopping centre, this means that a lot of people will be coming to my business might be located and this could be good news for me.
6. Out of the 25 people I asked, 12 people said they spend usually spend 5 to 40 pounds. This means that I should be aiming at making some of my prices on of the products I will be thinking of bringing in my business a lot cheaper and affordable for customers to buy.
7. Out of the 25 people I asked, 18 said they go in the afternoon. This means that I should be thinking of having my opening hours from 12 to 6pm. So from 12pm to 6pm this is around the afternoon to evening time, so by the evening most people would already be going home and by 12pm they’d be out of there house shopping.
8. Out of the 25 people I asked, 10 people said they
Usually take the bar to go shopping. This means that many people will be taking buses towards wherever my business is.
9. Out of 25 people I asked, 12 people said they go shopping on a weekend. This means
That I should aim to do sales or special offers on weekends, as these are when most customers would shop.
10. Out of the 25 people I asked, 8 said they shop at JD than all of the rest. This means my main rival/ competition will be JD Sports as they are a leading company in selling sportswear and fashionable clothing. In addition, they get many customers each day buying from their shops.
What I’ve found it is that I know what days and times I should open my shop up to customers, I know what prices to charge towards customers who are willing to buy from my shop, I know what type of products to bring in so I’ll be benefiting from these brands and the products. These following things will help me get my sports shop noticed.
The Economy
Economy means the system of production and distribution and consumption.
Business cycle means economy-wide fluctuations in production or economic activity over several months or years. Economics is split into two parts. First part is micro-economics and the secondpart is macro economics. For this part of the assignment I am going to be concentrating on the macro part which concentrates on the interest rates, inflation and unemployment.
Britain is in a recession – (is a general slowdown in economic activity over a sustained period or a business cycle contraction) during a recession, unemployment increases, people save money and aggregate demand is low. Right now in the UK in the year 2009, we are in a recession, which means that unemployment is very high and people are only looking for sales in businesses/stores. This means for my business that I must try to make prices reasonable for those who are saving up their money.
Inflation is a measurement of the average rise in prices. Inflation will affect my business by making prices in my business rise to very high prices and customers will be unsure about buying any of my products, as they are worried about the cost of the product. This means I would have to sell them at a very high price in order to get profit so therefore I would lose many customers. This could affect my business also as we are in a recession and people are looking for sales instead of an increase in prices.
The target is 2% and inflation is currently 0.5%
The interest rate shows how much it costs to borrow money from the bank.
The lower the rate, the more likely people are to borrow money and aggregate demand rises.
However, if there is more aggregate demand, inflation rises, so the Bank of England changes the rate to try to keep inflation under control.
Now, the interest rate is low, at 5%. This means for my business that if I were to borrow money from a bank, and for my store. I would have to build it and decorate it. Also, the higher the interest rate, the more money that would have to added on back in order to pay back how much I borrowed from the bank. As you can see above from the chart says how much of the amount of interest rate banks offer to us. It says 0.5% as it dropped from 15% starting from 1990 to 2009.
Disposable income is the amount of money people have to spend on goods and services. Disposable income will affect my business as it shows how much people will buy my products.
The effect of unemployment on staff wages will mean I will have enough money to buy more products and items, but a drawback will be me needing more help in order to serve customers and people to look after the shop. Unemployment would have a major impact on my business. People would buy products and services from my business and if they do not have a job, they will buy less products and services from my company because they cannot afford to pay for lots of my products.
The effect of unemployment on my goods and services will mean that ill have less help in the shop and more goods to sell with the amount of people who are expected.
The Marketing Campaign
For my decision, I am going to be using radio, TV advertisements, and posters.
I am going to advertise an open day on the radio and open the shop on a Saturday, as the amounts of people who go out on Saturday is a lot, this will increase my sales, and many products will be sold.
For my marketing campaign, I will be using media such as radio, adverts on the Internet and posters and leaflets around local places near Lakeside on shops or buildings.
I have chosen Radios as nowadays lots of people listen to it in the cars or at home and listen to local radio stations and if I can get a radio station to advertise my shop lots of consumers around the UK may be attracted to my shop.
I have chosen Adverts on the Internet as many of us know that over a billion people use the internet and over a hundred thousand, a day use the internet in the UK. So if I can get ads on some popular sites well known in the UK, this may increase my chances of more customers.
I have also chosen posters and leaflets as they are a usual and easy way to get peoples attention but it would have to be eye catching and amusing to my target audience. Posters and leaflets can be very cheap to buy and make as well.
My business can make lots of cheaper prices on products as lots of people go to different shops to look for the cheaper products and this means the more products which are popular to the target market and the cheaper they are the likely more people will come buy them.
My business has made a unique selling point by giving customers Re-useable shopping bags e.g like the ones used at JD. In addition, they will be no quibble refunds and we will be offering quality customer services.
My business will do a vary of promotional offers like buy 3 for £40, which would mean shoes or anything in my business would have a sticker that would say maybe 3 shoes/clothes/other for a specific amount of money. This will make customers want to buy more and more of these products as they enjoy the more of the products for cheaper prices. Furthermore I’ll be using doing competitions like in maybe a few shoes, who ever buys this specific shoe will have a sticker which will enter them for a prize draw to win maybe up to £1000 worth products in the shop and only one winner would chosen. This would help immensely as the higher amount of people who buy those shoes, which would be expensive, would come with something inside to show they’ve been entered into like a lottery to win a prize draw. The more the people buy the more money that comes in.
Sponsoring maybe local football teams, or semi-pro teams would help as lots of teams at these teams, like Sunday league teams or teams which are going semi-pro football have sponsors and football is considered a lot in this country so many would be looking for a sponsor. E.g most local teams or others have the Nike swoosh logo on there kits, Reebok, and Adidas. Because of this they are well known as of today by most people in the UK and around the world because they sponsor teams around the world. In addition, if we sponsored events like charities, local school events, etc. This will likely make us well known to some people and people may recommend it to others.
Marketing Plan Calendar
Costs of my Marketing plan calendar
As my business is local, a local radio show advert is ideal to promote my business, therefore this worthwhile cost will support my open day. It is pointless having an open day if people do not know about it, as nobody will come. However, £3700 is a high initial cost that will increase my break-even cost, the benefit of this is that it is not a running cost so I will not have to continue paying for it as my output increases. In addition Commercial TV advertisements will help me get my business spread to lots of places and when people see shops like mine, they will be encouraged and I believe this will increase my profit sales in future.
Conclusion
If I to improve on my marketing plan, I’d put up more TV advertisements and maybe more Radio time, as Britain has lots of cars with radios and nowadays lots of people listen in to radios; in addition companies in Britain advertise a lot o n the radio to get their products heard by consumers.
If I opened when were not in a recession but a boom. I think this would increase the amount of input that would come in from Customers to my business and if I did it in the recession, I would not get as many of customers and I would be losing profits so much.
Primark are said to be the as least ethical clothes shop, because of their cheap garmets and this helped Customers even when in a recession they bought because of their low prices. Their profits soared by 30 per cent last years to £1bn, despite the retailing downturn. So I could open up the sane business but sell my products at a low price and lots of customers would possibly come and buy my products. This could increase my profits a lot if do what Primark did. I think I used my research very well as I have picked a very good location for my business to expand and grow as the location is very big and awfully well known to a lot of the locals, and from others outside that area. Lots of customers come from outside that area to come and shop and this would help as people stroll past shops entering and taking a look at what they’d be interested in buying for themselves. I also think I chose the right type of business, even if it has a wide range of competition I believe I can do well in gaining more customers than a lot of the businesses who I will be competing with. All of these would have helped my business achieve the objectives I had set out to achieve.
If I had a bigger budget I’d use it to buy maybe products that appeal to my target audience and advertise my business more so it can become widely known to the nation. My business could
I could have made more research on Advertising research, the demand of products, and Customer satisfaction research. These things would have helped how to get customers interstered in advertisements, how customers like products and what type of products they like.