The SWOT in conjunction with the other tools allowed me to make some decisions that I found difficult earlier such as whether it was feasible to locate my leisure centre within a certain area.
I learnt that SWOT works best when I had a good knowledge of the link between individuals and the interests that they follow. As a result of carrying out the SWOT analysis I will have the ability to develop policies and practices that will help me build to my strengths and opportunities.
Both these analytical models were very useful as they were effective in allowing me to deliver a useful plan. I was able to recognise the market that I am working in and consider all the points that I would need to take into account when developing my leisure centre in this type of market.
As well as analysing the market I also had to look into strategic models and concepts, these included Ansoff matrix and the Boston matrix.
The ansoff matrix is a useful tool which allowed me to understand and assess the marketing and or business development strategy. The ansoff matrix is split up into five segments: Consolidation, Market penetration, product development, market development and diversification. The ansoff matrix gave me useful insights such as which type of strategy to use when entering the market with my leisure centre. Using the ansoff matrix I also had the ability to look within my leisure centre and determine how I would present each product, for example I would need to use ‘product development’ for my yoga and meditation classes as this is a new product and will be placed within my leisure centre which is an existing market. The ansoff matrix really allowed me to carefully consider the type of market I am working in and establish the best type of product strategy. It made me aware of key features that I may have previously missed out on such as ‘market penetration’ was the best possible marketing strategy for me as it allowed me to increase the share of my product in an existing market. However I realised that other products and services that I provide may be more mature, with little or no competitive advantage, in which case they will produce lower margins. This is where I can use another tool in conjunction with the ansoff matrix and this is the Boston matrix.
The Boston Matrix is a useful way to understand and assess your different existing product and service opportunities. The Boston matrix gave me useful insights such as which products were likely to succeed, which products had already reached their peak output, which products were seen as at the end of their life cycle and wouldn’t generate a large market share. I began to realise that not all of my products will be doing as well as each other and that some products would have to be dropped out of the range if they were not generating the sufficient market share using the Boston matrix I began to split up my products into four divisions based on whether they matched the criteria of either: cash cow, dogs, star or problem child.
After considering my business in terms of the Ansoff matrix and Boston matrix, and for many businesses just as significant as the Ansoff-type-options I began to ask my self some questions about the business, do I have a high quality, specialised offering that delivers better business benefit on a large scale as opposed to small scale? Are my selling costs and investment similar for large and small contracts? If so would I be doing better concentrating on developing large major accounts business, rather than taking a sophisticated product or service solution to small market sectors which do not appreciate or require it, and this will in turn will cost me just as much if not more then to sell as a large organisation.
Lastly I will need to look at the tactical models such as the four p’s and AIDA.
AIDA is the process of achieving promotional objectives. Any organisation has to set its promotional objectives in order to have a target in which they gain a certain amount of customers using their best possible techniques. The mnemonic is used to describe a promotional strategy, each letter stands for:
A-A customer’s attention is captured and he or she is made aware of the product.
I-The impact of the promotion stimulates the customers interest.
D- The customer is persuaded he or she is deprived by not having the product, and this helps to stimulate a desire for it.
A- Action involves the purchase of the product.
AIDA gave me many useful insights because it gave me the best way to start a promotional strategy in order to start rolling in the customers. I looked at each letter individually and decided what to do in order to meet the point. The AIDA process brought many factors to my attention that I may have missed out on before such as which is the best way to stimulate desire for a product or how to capture a potential customer’s attention.
I used AIDA in conjunction with the four p’s in order to create the best possible advertising strategy. The four p’s otherwise known as the marketing mix. The marketing mix comprises of, price, place, promotion and product. I can look at each ‘p’ and think how I can link it to the AIDA.I learnt a lot of useful things from the four p’s such as where to position my leisure centre the best way to promote it, which was used mainly in conjunction with the AIDA process, what sort of products to make available in my leisure centre thanks to this aspect of the marketing mix I realised that not all of my products will be essential in the leisure centre as some products will not generate as much revenue as others. I began to consider which sort of pricing strategy to use, this was really useful me to as before I didn’t take much notice in all the different type of pricing strategies that there were and I was just assuming that I will set my price in comparison to how much the product cost and how much profit I wanted to generate. Therefore it was really effective in delivering a useful plan as it allowed analysing a wide range of factors of all aspects of my business.
My plan is to put together the best elements of the marketing models and tools in order to create the best overall marketing strategy. Throughout this assignment I have looked at all the different ways to build my leisure centre and carefully assessed and analysed each method. I think that my plan will succeed because I have looked into each model and tool really carefully and thoroughly understood what I am required to do in order to make it a success. Using the research I gathered from task 1 I was able to get a better understanding of the requirements of potential customers and what sort of market type I would be working in. I carried out surveys so that I could generate my own statistics as well as gaining information from official government websites, all these statistics contributed to understanding my customer environment. Once I collected this initial data I then had to look into the following factors:
- Is my plan realistic and feasible, do all the elements of the plan fit together – are they complimentary?
- Will my marketing campaign achieve its desired goals and results / outcomes?
I needed to make sure that my plan was realistic and feasible in the aid that I was not setting goals that were too high for me to achieve as well as setting realistic goals I needed to make sure that the goals of each model would compliment each other for example I could not have a high pricing strategy which would conflict with the fact that many of the local residents did not have much excess money to spend. Therefore all the plans had to fit together.
Once I had carried out my market research I began the second stage of my marketing plan which was the ‘marketing mix.’ Initially I looked at the four p’s in terms of another leisure centre this was in order to gain a good knowledge of how the marketing mix works and to be able to decipher how the four p’s can affect a leisure centre. Once I had done this I needed to look at my marketing strategy in terms of the ansoff matrix and a thorough analysis of the research I done in task 1. Using the ansoff matrix I concluded that the best possible pricing strategy for me would be the penetration pricing, I chose this marketing scheme because I felt that my products were products that already existed in the market and were going to be sold to existing groups of users. Now that I had identified the type of pricing strategy that I would be using it was a matter of looking at the external factors that would be affecting my leisure centre. After looking into the external factors I need to measure which factors will affect my pricing strategy this will mainly come from the PEST analysis. When I was looking into the, Political and economical factors I realised that there are many factors that could affect my pricing strategy for example changes in tax structure, privatisation, inflation, unemployment, energy prices and price volatility. After looking at these factors of the PEST analysis I had to go through my pricing strategy again and decide on whether it was still feasible. After going over my pricing strategy again I deduced that it was still the best possible pricing strategy to use considering the circumstances. I then had to do a SWOT analysis of the leisure centre in order to check through the strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats in and around the leisure centre. The main weaknesses I found out were that the building lies outside a government funded area so therefore I would have to go back into my marketing mix and look at the ‘position’ of my leisure centre. My research then showed me that if I was to move the building further down into the city I would be able to get good government funding after this I decided to position my leisure centre near East avenue. The threats the my leisure centre is exposed to was the growing competition from rivals but thankfully I have positioned my leisure centre in such an area that it should not be affected by any local competition because there is not much other land for construction.
The final step in order to make sure that my leisure centres marketing strategy was devised to the best possible standard was to combine the last two tools these were the : Boston matrix and the product life cycle. Using the Boston matrix and the product life cycle I measured the likely success of each product and service that I was offering and eliminated the products that were likely to provide negative cash flow. Once I had determined which sector of the Boston matrix the product would fit on I plotted each product onto the product life cycle. Using the product life cycle I got an indication of which stage the product was in and where it was likely to end up next. Using this I could forecast the future of my leisure centre and get a head start on eliminating some of the products.
I believe my marketing campaign will achieve its goals and results that I am expecting as I have looked into each marketing model and tool really carefully in order to measure the impact they will have on my business. I believe that all the models have been set up in such a way that they flow coherently with each other which stops complications from arising such as the prices that I am charging do not satisfy the economical level of the residents or the fact that I have located the leisure centre in such an area that is too far from residential access. Thanks to the product life cycle I have been able to measure the position of each and every one of my products so that I know where they stand in the market so that I will not be shocked when I see a product has reached the end of its shelf life. This means that I will be prepared to keep a good financial back up so that when certain products do reach the end of the shelf life or are highly saturated I can afford to spend money on new products that will attract customers.
