I think that the target market of Thorntons is the working class (aged 18+), and is also aimed at special occasions, such as Christmas, birthdays and Easter. I think that the target market also influences the location and the products they sell because the shops in the vicinity of Thorntons are also aimed at the older market, such as Marks & Spencers and Fenwicks.
Questionnaire
How Old Are You?
10-15___ 16-25___ 26-35___ 36-45___ 46-55___ 56-65___
66-75___ 76-Older___
Gender?
Male ___ Female___
Where do you buy chocolate from the most?
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What is your favourite chocolate?
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How much do you usually spend a week on chocolate?
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How much are you willing to pay?
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If you are going to buy specialist chocolate for example for a birthday or such where would you buy it from?
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Primary Research Review
In this part of my coursework I will be reviewing my results I received from my questionnaires.
How Much People Would Be Willing To Pay For A Regular Sized Bar Of Chocolate
The Promotional Plan
There are many ways of advertising my company, but some of them will not be suitable in this piece of my report. I will look at the different ways of promotion and their advantages and disadvantages:
Direct Mail
∙ You are able to choose your audience.
∙ Effective and easy to measure.
But,
∙ People think its junk mail and throw it away.
∙ Poorly Targeted.
Television
∙ High impact.
∙ Large audience.
∙ Life like.
But,
∙ Ads can’t be kept.
∙ Expensive.
∙ Unable to target your audience.
Radio
∙ Mostly easy targeting.
∙ Low Costs.
But,
∙ Small Audience.
Internet
∙ Global coverage.
But,
∙ Often downloading delays.
Posters
∙ Big impact
∙ Seen by many people
But,
∙ Limited information
∙ Difficult targeting
Press
∙ Easy targeting of market segments
∙ Adds can be kept
∙ Colour Available
But,
∙ Not as dramatic as television
∙ Ads often unseen
Social, Economic and Environmental Effects of Opening my potential retail business
Economic Effects
In my shop I will be employing a variety of workers. My shop is going to be a small chocolate shop, which sells its own handcrafted chocolates, which are made at the back of the shop so I will need some specialist chocolate makers, there will be about four people working as this job but only two of these will be working at a time so the shifts are rotated round between them. I will then need three till workers they will also rotate their shifts around as well. Then I will take care of buying and picking up the goods needed to produce the chocolate and also I will take care of the accountant work. So in total there will be eight people working in my shop including myself.
Social and Environmental Effects
All of the packaging that the chocolate comes in from my shop will be recyclable and all the rubbish made by the shop will be disposed of so my shop will not make the amount of litter increase.
So I think that over all my shop will help the community by providing jobs for people and it does not hinder the community by litter because all of the litter produced is recyclable.
Legal Constraints and Other Constraints
I will have to think about the Legal Constraints I might come up against and how I could avoid them I would also have to think about other factors that could determine if I archived my main objectives or not such as other competitors could already have a larger market share than me also I would have to think about the fact that they benefit from economies of scale and I would definitely have to think about the location.
Conclusion
So to conclude I am going to set up a business selling specialist chocolate. It is going to be situated in Leeds city centre. It is going to be located near to the corn exchange this is because there are very popular shops located near here so there should be a lot of interest. I have decided to use posters and the Internet to advertise my business this is because most people have a computer and the Internet and use it regularly and posters are seen by many people and have a very big impact so these two combined should have the biggest impact on the community. I have also noticed that most of the money made from chocolate is made from special events such as Christmas Easter Birthdays and such so I am also going to specialise in that area of chocolate.
Bibliography
- Huggett R. Business Studies For GCSE
- Thorntons
- Teachers Notes
- Mintel/Keynote Report
