- Income – The income of my target market will be generally above average as I am aiming it at aspiring and established professionals who will most likely be working in the city.
- Location – I have chosen Queens Park as the location for my business as it has close transport links and is only a short distance away from the city centre, queens park is also known to be an up and coming area in which many people are willing to invest in, it also already has a population of established mature professionals.
- Interests – the interests of my target market can differ from customer to customer but I expect them to share some common ground such as Wine, Sports, Family, and Food.
It is important for my business to know who my target market is so that I can logistically aim my products and services at that target market guaranteeing customer satisfaction and loyalty, a failure to identify my target market could result in misplaced advertising, a low customer base and generally a lack of business.
Marketing Questionnaire
For my GCSE Business Studies Coursework, I have decided to set up and run a Wine Bar which will also provide dining facilities. The Bar will be located in the Queens Park area. This questionnaire is designed to give me an insight into the need for a Wine Bar/Dining Service in the selected region; it will also help me in identifying the types of products & services I will offer at the Wine Bar. Thank you for taking the time to fill in this questionnaire!
1) What is your age?
18 - 25 26 - 40 41 – 65 65 +
2) What is your gender?
Male Female
3) What is your household income?
Under 25k 25k – 50k 50k – 80k
80k – 100k Over 100k
4) How far do you live from Queens Park?
Within… 1 mile 2 miles 3 miles
4 miles 5 miles Other ____________
5) How far do you work from Queens Park?
Within… 1 mile 2 miles 3 miles
4 miles 5 miles Other ____________
6) Do you think there is need for a Wine Bar in the Queens Park area?
Yes No
7) Do you think that a Wine Bar should also serve food?
Yes No
8) How often do you visit a Wine Bar or ‘Eat Out’?
Two times a week once a week once every Two weeks
Once a month Never
9) What is the most you would spend on a ‘Night Out’?
Under £10 £10 - £30 £30 - £50
£50 - £100 Over £100
10) What types of wine do you prefer? (Tick all that apply)
Vintage Wines New World French Wines
Red Wines White Wines Other __________
11) What types of food do you prefer? (Tick all that apply)
British Food Eastern European Burmese
Thai Chinese Other __________
12) How do you usually hear about a new Wine Bar opening?
TV advert Radio Advert Local newspaper advert
National newspaper advert Word-of-mouth Billboard
Leaflet Newspaper article Other ____________
TASK FOUR
Part A: Carrying out my Questionnaire
Now that I have drawn up my questionnaire my next aim is to get it completed. There are three ways in which I could choose the sample of people that will fill in my questionnaire, they are as follow;
- Random Sample – Choosing different people to survey
- Only a percentage of the total population in an area is interviewed.
- Each person has an equal chance of being included in the survey, for example 1% of the population an area may be surveyed; however, this 1% should be representative of the entire population of that area.
- Quota Sample – Very specific about the sample
- Tight control is exercised over number of people to be surveyed.
- The population is divided and interviewers are then given a specific number (Quota) of types of people to interview, such as 10 House owning accountants.
- The attribute essential to the typicality of the respondents is more important than the location or random selection.
- Targeted Sample – Targeting different groups of people
- This is where a group is targeted according to their occupation, geographical area, etc.
- Unlike the stratified sample, the number of people is not tightly controlled.
I need to choose a sample to question because it would not be possible to survey the entire population and any effort to do so would be time consuming and pointless. However if I can get a balanced sample of the people I am aiming my Wine Bar at, I can get a fairly accurate representation of the public’s views.
For my choice of sample I used the targeted sample method. This means that the people receiving questionnaire are those people that live or work within the region of my Wine Bar and also those that are over the age of 18. This means that I won’t have people that are unlikely to visit my Wine Bar taking the questionnaire it also means that I will not have children taking the survey; this is of paramount importance as the U.K’s legal drinking age prevents children from purchasing Wine from my Bar.
Part B: Getting my questionnaires filled in
To get my questionnaire filled out I used the direct interview method, this involved me stationing myself on, Salusbury Road, the proposed location of my Wine Bar and approaching people directly. I then worked through the questionnaire with them. I used this approach as it reduced the amount of refusals and while consuming little time provided accurate results.
Part C: Other ways of getting my questionnaire filled out
Other Ways Of Getting My Sample
There are various other methods that I could have used to acquire my sample for example instead of using target sampling I could have used a quota sample. The advantages of this would have been reduced cost and also a sample relevant to the field I am researching. Some disadvantages of quota sampling would have been that the attribute essential to the typicality of the respondents would have been more important than the location.
Another method of sampling I could have used is random sampling, advantages that I could have benefited from if I had used this method include things such as reduced time and effort but this would have been overshadowed by the fact that only a small segment of the population would be interviewed giving only a fraction of public opinion
Other Ways of Getting My Questionnaire Filled Out
When distributing the survey to the public I could have used several different methods;
Mail
This method involves sending your questionnaire to houses in hope that the home-owner will complete the survey and return it. This method is a relatively low cost way of conduction research and allows you to reach a lot more customers as you don’t physically have to be there. However, mail surveys have a low response rate as most people are not motivated to respond. In addition, you will also need to have a mailing list, which may take some time to compile.
Telephone
The telephone method requires you to call up your sample rather than speak to them directly or mail them. This allows for easier contact over vast distances. But, in most likelihood you will find that your calls are received negatively and seen as a waste of time.
Direct Interview
This method involves approaching people directly and working through the questionnaire with them. This method is very useful as there is a low refusal rate and you also have the opportunity to demonstrate your product or illustrate your ideas directly to your customer. Although this method seems favorable it can be very time consuming and as direct interviewing is a very skilled technique, it could reap incorrect, false or misleading results if not practiced correctly.
Internet
A rather modern way of getting your questionnaire filled out, involves either you emailing your questionnaires to your sample or setting up a website for your target to visit, this method is very time efficient and cheap. However you may not get a good response unless you offer an incentive for people to fill in the survey.
Part D: Different types of Market Research
To conduct market research you have a choice between both ‘Desk Research’ and ‘Field Research’.
Field Research
Field or primary research requires obtaining new data for a specific purpose; this is mainly done through surveys issued by the company or the invitation of potential customers to come and test the products, the advantage that field research brings is that the firm or company has more control over the whole process but also results in a more time consuming and expensive outcome.
Desk Research
Desk or secondary research is the discovery of available information, therefore information that can be collected whilst seated at a computer or behind a desk. There are two sources for secondary information: ‘External Sources’ and ‘Internal Sources’. An internal source refers to information about the business itself for example, the financial records of a firm or the sales records. An external source on the other hand looks at information from outside the firm such as, census information or published materials.
TASK FIVE
Part A: Analysing my research
There are a numerous number of ways in which I could represent the information that I have collated in my results, these include things such as:
- Charts
- Graphs
- Reports/Booklets
I have decided to show my results in chart form as I believe it is easier on the eye and can be understood clearly without further investigation and it also makes it easier for me to make conclusions about my work.
Part B: Analysing my graphs
This graph shows the gender of all the participants of my survey. As you can clearly see it is split right down the middle, with half the participants being male and the other half female. This was done so that the sample would be a balanced sample representing as much of the population as possible.
This graph shows the responses given by thee participants when asked what was the most amount of money they would spend on a night out. From the graph we can make out that 65% of people spend from £10 to £50, this gives me a rough idea on what the pricing on my products should be. When applied to my business this graph is hinting towards the fact that I should offer a full night’s services for under £50.
This graph shows the answers given by the public when asked what types of wine they preferred, they were given the choice of selecting more than one option. From this chart we can see that most people opted to select more than one wine as their were only twenty participants and almost triple the amount of responses, this shows that there is no favourite wine and that people have cravings for more than just one type of wine. This is also supported by the end result as the graph is evenly spread out over all bases. This would lead me to believe that I should provide a vast range of wines to accommodate everyone’s taste at my Wine Bar.
This pie chart expresses the responses given by the public when asked whether they thought that a wine bar should serve food and provide dining facilities along with its alcoholic beverages. We can clearly see that the majority of the population agreed that it would be a good idea to have dining facilities. This shows me what my target market want to see in my business and seeing as I am trying to accommodate them it would be best to listen to their requests.
This graph shows the responses given by the participants when asked what types of food they most liked to eat, they were also given the opportunity to select more than one option to which most people took advantage. From the graph we can see that most people take a liking to British food and also there is visible liking for Burmese & Indian cuisine. As a wine bar owner, seeing this I would be swayed to providing traditional British food at my restaurant while having occasional Burmese & Indian nights.
Part C: What I expected from my research
Before I conducted my survey I had some idea of what the results I would receive would suggest. When I finally received the results I was quite surprised to see that the want for dining services at the wine bar where rather subdued, I had expected that almost every participant would like to see dining services along with the alcoholic beverages. One thing that did live up to my expectation was the demand for British Food to be served at the restaurant along with foreign dishes; I had suspected this would be the case because the area in which I am situated is a fairly prosperous and people have money to spend trying out new products. Another aspect that I had predicted was the amount of money people were willing to spend on a night out; I had estimated a total of around £25 which is supported by the research. Another thing that I had counted on was the demand for a variety of wines to be sold because I believed that as with the food because of the income received by the people located in the area everyone is looking for new things to experiment along with satisfying there previous tastes.
Part D: Evaluating the effectiveness of my research
My research turned out to be very effective because along with acquiring new information it solidified what I believed to be true. I think this was mainly down to the questions asked in my survey, I believe that there were a reasonable amount of questions without making it to long and that the questions where all relevant giving me the information and answers I needed about my business.
Part E: Discussion of how the research will affect business decisions about marketing
The information I have gathered from the research will help me in making decisions about my business these decisions include things such as:
-
Product Range – My research has been a great aid in finding out what products and services the customer would like to see me put into place, for example I have found out that most people would like my to serve a British cuisine and offer an array of wines from all over the world.
-
Pricing – The pricing that I will apply to my product has a great deal to do with the market research, from the information I have gathered I now know that most people are looking to enjoy a night out for less than £50, this lets me know that I need to price my products within this range to get the most out of the customer with the guarantee of future business.
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Advertising – My research has given me an idea of where to place my advertisements as I now know where my target market hear about new wine bars, this has been a great aid as without this information I potentially could have wasted lots of time and money.
Part F: What impact will this have on my business?
There are some major impacts that will occur on my business from the findings of my market research. One of the first things that I will do is provide dining facilities alongside the alcoholic beverages and to further extend this point I will be offering British food on the menu as this was indicated as the public’s choice in the surveys along with this I will also have occasional Burmese and Indian food nights as this type of cuisine was also rated very highly. The type of wines I will now offer is also a knock on effect of the market research, as I indications show that people are open to all kinds of wine and have the financial means to support their taste, this finding means that I will now offer a bigger more diverse range of wines at my wine bar. The price I charge for my food will also be a reflection on the research.
TASK SIX
Part A: Competition in my area
There are three main competitors for my business, they are:
- The Chilled Eskimo
- Le Cochonnet
- The Arches Wine Bar
All three of these competitors are located within 2 miles of the site of my Wine Bar. To aid me in my effort to beat the competition so to speak I have collected information and advertisements on my competitors.
Part B: Main Competition
My main competition is a wine bar named ’The Chilled Eskimo’.
Name of Store: The Chilled Eskimo
Address: 48 Southern Row
Notting Hill
London
W10 5AN
Phone Number: 0208 960 1777
Opening Hours: 10 am – Midnight
Type: Sole Trader
Aims & Objectives: The Chilled Eskimo’s aims and objectives mainly consist of profit maximization as now that it has broken even and sustained a steady for some years now there is no need to worry about surviving another aim of this business is to expand into new areas of the city, opening sister restaurants.
Target Market: The target market that my competition is aiming for is almost identical to mine.
Goods & Services It Offers: The Chilled Eskimo offers a great choice of entertainment including TV, and a DJ who plays a wide choice of songs from the 70's to the 90's as well as Hip Hop, Pop and Garage music. In fine weather outdoor seating is available on the pavement area. If requested The Chilled Eskimo can cater for private parties of up to 200 people and has a private function room for such occasions. ()
Part C: Factors that influence my competition
There are many factors that influence my competitors business. These include:
-
Location – My main competition has located itself within walking distance of public transport links and in an area where it has a lot of potential customers
-
Market Trends – Market trends play a significant role in my competitors business as there will always be a demand for different types of wine and food’s, this change is something that my competitor has dealt with.
-
The State Of The Economy – My competitors business is somewhat affected by how well the economy is doing but not majorly as it is a big business and can bear losses suffered by economic changes.
Part D: Factors that influence my business
There are a myriad of factors that influence my business. As my business is similar to my competitors we will share the fundamental factors that affect our business decisions. Such As:
-
Location – My Wine Bar is located on Salusbury Road, this places it in an area which contains various other popular shops. It is located within 5 minutes walk of a high street and it also has various public transport links. This location was also chosen because it attracts and is home to the core of my target market.
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Public Transport – The strategic location of my Wine Bar has led to it being serviced by several public transport links; it is located within 30 seconds walk from, Queens Park Station (Bakerloo Line) and Brondesbury Park (National Rail). It is also situated on the 206 bus route.
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Market Trends – Market trends play a significant role in my business as there will always be a demand for different types of wine and food’s, this change is something that my Wine Bar will have to incorporate in its plans.
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The State Of The Economy – My business will be majorly affected by how well the economy is doing as my business is a small business not a large one like my competition for example if the economy is doing well I am more likely to have a higher income as people are more likely to spend money whereas if the economy is not doing so well people will be less likely to spend money and will focus on needs rather than wants.
Part E: How my competitor will influence my business
Having now identified my main competitor as ‘The Chilled Eskimo’, I will now begin to implement changes in my business based on the information I have on my competitor, these changes include things such as;
-
Pricing – Pricing is where I will mostly be influenced by my competition, as I am looking to outdo my competitor by offering cheaper services. This will result in me attracting my competitor’s clientele away from them and towards my wine bar.
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Location – location is also an aspect that is affected by my competitor as I want to make my Wine Bar more accessible so that I get a bigger yield of customers so for example if my competitor was located 10 minutes away from a train station I would try my best to get a location only 5 minutes away.
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Advertising – because my competition is a bigger, more established Wine Bar I need to place my advertising more carefully and purposefully as my competition have the ability to advertise more extensively than me.
TASK SEVEN
Part A: Types of Promotion and Advertising
There are many ways that a business can advertise its products and services, the different types of advertising include:
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Magazines – This is where a business pays for an advertisement within a magazine. The use of magazines for advertising bring about a number benefits such as Allowing for better targeting of audience, as you can choose magazine publications that cater to your specific audience or whose editorial content specializes in topics of interest to your audience. Also High reader involvement means that more attention will be paid to your advertisement. Disadvantages include things such as, long lead times meaning that you have to make plans weeks or months in advance. Also advertising in magazines is very expensive and there is limited flexibility in terms of ad placement and format.
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Yellow Pages – The yellow pages is a directory-like service which lists companies and business’ details. Advertising in the yellow pages is relatively inexpensive and allows you to reach a vast audience as almost everybody uses the yellow pages. However advertising in the yellow pages does have its downside, along with the fact that you will be listed with your competitors you are given limited creativity as you need to follow a pre-determined format.
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Radio – The modern day radio is bombarded with adverts, radio stations will now advertise anything as long as the money is right. Radio is great for advertising a new business as it is a universal medium enjoyed by people at one time or another during the day, at home, at work, and even in the car. Another advantage is that the vast array of radio program formats offer to efficiently target your advertisements to narrowly defined segments of consumers most likely to respond to your offer. Advertising through the radio also has some faults for example, radio is a background medium. Most listeners are doing something else while listening, which means that your ad has to work hard to get their attention.
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Television – The television is another way to get to your audience and allows you to reach large numbers of people on a national or regional level in a short period of time. Along with being an image-building and visual medium, it also offers the ability to convey your message with sight, sound and motion. The main disadvantage of advertising through the television is cost, as it is relatively expensive in terms of creative, production and airtime costs.
Part B: Costs of Advertising
The cost of advertising depends firstly on what medium of advertising you are using and then from this it depends on how often or how much you use the advertisement along with how many people you wish to advertise to.
Costs of different types of advertising:
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Magazines – The cost of a full page magazine ad in heat magazine is £15 000 for one weekly issue. For Sugar magazine it would be £20 000 for a monthly issue.
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Flyers – flyers are relatively cheap to purchase and can be designed to your specification the only problem being that you would have to distribute them yourself. Flyers range from £105 for 500 to 30 00 for £765.
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Television – The cost of advertising on television has to be split in to two categories; the initial cost of producing the commercial and the cost of airing the commercial. The money spent on producing the commercial is solely up to the company but well made commercials tend to cost more money. The cost for airing a 30 second commercial on ITV ranges from £3 000 to £35 000 depending on the desired time of the commercial.
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Yellow Pages – The cost for a, full process color premium double page advert in the yellow pages is approximately £15 000. Although cheaper services can be purchased starting off at around £230.
Part C: Advertising my Business
For The advertisement campaign of my Wine Bar the advertisement method I would use is flyers and posters. The reason I would chose this form of advertisements is that as I am only starting up my business and do not have a huge source of money to spend. Also as I am not aiming my Wine Bar nationally I believe that posters and flyers would be sufficient in attracting a fair amount of customers from the local area.
Laws That Affect Advertising
When approaching advertising every business must follow the laws and regulations that have been applied to advertising and promotion. These laws are worded so that they cover the way you sell products as well as the products themselves.
These Laws are:
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Trade Descriptions Act 1968 – This act states that all statements I make about my products in an advertisement must be true. For example if I advertise that all the food I serve in my Wine Bar contains less than 20% fat when it actually contains well over 50%, I am breaching the trade descriptions act. This could lead to me being fined or even put in prison.
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Food Safety Act 1990 – This act states that that the descriptions I give of food I serve in my wine bar must be accurate and not misleading, once again if I breach this law I could be faced with a hefty fine or imprisonment.
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Sale of Goods Act 1979 – this act states that all the wine and food I sell must be as described and if mislabeled or passed of as any other item I could be fined or given a term in prison.
Part D: How advertising will affect the success of my business
The aim of advertising is to make customers of your product, create demand which will hopefully turn into sales. Every business must sell their product or service to be successful.
Advertising will affect the success of the business in the following ways:
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Demand – Advertising should create more of a demand for my Wine Bar. With more demand I should get more customers and this should overall help me achieve my business objectives which I set out at the beginning.
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The Market – Advertising should alert the market to my presence as a new competitor and also inform potential customers of my arrival, this could lead to an increase in clientele and interest from breweries wishing to market their product in my Wine Bar.
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Sales – sales will undoubtedly benefit from and advertising campaign as it will invite more customers to come and spend their money in my Wine Bar.
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Revenue & Profit – although advertising costs will essentially take away from are overall profit, the amount of sales that it will bring will wipe those costs away resulting in a handsome net profit.
TASK EIGHT
Part A: Conclusions: Final decisions on marketing my business
For the advertisement campaign on my Wine Bar I have decided to use Flyers and posters as my main method of getting recognized. The reasons I have chosen this form of advertising is that I am only starting up my business and do not have a huge source of money to spend and flyers and posters are fairly inexpensive. Also as I am not aiming my Wine Bar nationally I believe that posters and flyers would be sufficient in attracting a fair amount of customers from the local area. To accompany the flyers and posters I will place a advert in the yellow pages, I believe this to be a wise decision as the yellow pages allows access to a vast number of people, as nearly everyone uses them for a reasonable price. I chose not to advertise through television, magazines or radio because although they would attract serious attention and provide credibility to my Wine Bar, a business of my size cannot afford such expenses and to do so would be a fatal mistake in terms of survival.
Part B: Constraints to my Business
My business will not be able to do all the marketing I would like mainly because of constraints on money, as I am fairly new to the business world I do not have vast amounts of money to spend on startup costs. This limits the amount of marketing I can do as it reduces my choice in almost all fields especially, advertising. Another constraint on my business is the size of the market. The extent of the market determines my ability to make sales. As I can't make sales if there are no customers out there! My competitors also add constraints on my business as the strength of the opposition is a key constraint on my business success; my Business needs to position itself in such a way as to limit the effect of the competition.
Part C: Improvements to my marketing plan
Although I have designed an adequate marketing plan I could have improved the marketing of my business by introducing more money into the fold, this would have aloud for further advertising and bigger premises to base my Wine Bar another aspect of the marketing plan that could have been approved was my approach to marketing my business. When it came to advertising I should have opted for a bigger campaign as I have now come to find that advertising plays a pivotal role in keeping the business up and running.
Part D: Improvements to my research
Looking back I could have improved the research I conducted for my business by trying more than one way of getting my questionnaire filled out. This would have allowed me to reap benefits from two different methods and resulted in more accurate results. Also I should have found some more secondary research such as sales records of my competitors and financial records of the firm, this would have given me information on the size of my competitor and also an indication of the amount of customers I should be expecting in my Wine Bar so I could Purchase a premises of adequate size.
Part E: Environmental, Financial and Social effects
My Wine bar will be affected by the environment in which it operates, and in turn my business will implement changes in the environment in which it operates.
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Environmental Effects – Although pollution will be caused by the day to day running of the Wine Bar, all the equipment we will be using will be environment friendly and up to all the required standards and as we will be serving restaurant style food we will not have a problem with litter of packaging as we will undoubtedly be using plates which can be re-used. The Wine bar is located near public transport links which encourages people to leave their cars at home so all in all adding a positive effect on the environment.
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Financial Effects – The introduction of my business will not majorly disrupt the prices in the local area but it will provide job opportunities and encourage spending in the shops in the surrounding area, increasing their overall sales.
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Social Effects – My Wine Bar will also bring about many Social benefits as it creates a meeting place in the community for people to meet and interact. It will also be designed to be pleasing to the eye so that it can also be enjoyed from the outside.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sources
During my case study I acquired various amounts of information from a number of different sources; here is a complete list of all the sources I used:
- Azeem Akthar, Entrepreneur
- Mr Hughes, Business Studies Teacher
- Huggett, R. (2001). Business Studies For GCSE Fourth Edition.
APPENDIX
- Include your completed questionnaires in here
- Include any adverts that you have created for your business
- Include any evidence from competitor research
