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You have been employed as a Marketing Consultant for a relatively new health and fitness company based in Huddersfield (‘Zone Fitness’). The company was formed in response to the continued growth of the ‘health and fitness’ market in the UK. Zone fitness offers a range of health and fitness facilities on a membership only basis. The company operates out of what was previously a furniture warehouse approximately 1 mile from the town centre. The company offers the ‘normal’ range of fitness facilities; rowing machines; exercise bikes, weights etc. hich are all state of the art. It also offers a range of group fitness activities such as aerobics and yoga. There are no swimming facilities but there is a steam room and sauna, tanning rooms, massage services, and Jacuzzis. An important part of the service offered to members is the provision of personalized health and fitness programmes. These programmes are designed around the needs of individual members and include not only carefully designed individual fitness and exercise regimes but also dietary and ‘life-style’ advice.
Personal service and individualized programmes and advice are seen as being a key part of competitive success. Users must be members and there is an initial joining fee and a range of charges according to for example: how long the membership is taken out for; age – with reduced fees for the under 18’s and over 55’s; discounts for family memberships etc. An average new member aged say 25 wanting a yearly membership would pay an initial joining fee of ? 100 and a yearly membership fee of ? 500.
This would give unlimited access to club facilities between 7. 00 am and 9. 00 pm seven days a week and every day other than Christmas day. The company was established by three friends with no previous managerial or marketing experience or knowledge but with a keen interest in health and fitness and all the necessary health and fitness training and qualifications. The company, now three years old, has been very successful and now employs a total of 15 staff, again, none of who have any marketing training or experience.
The success of the business has to date, been due to the enthusiasm and hard work of the three co-founders who are very knowledgeable about health and fitness and offer a very personalised service, often spending considerable time with individual members to discuss their individual health and fitness regimes. The company is looking to grow further both in terms of number of members and also facilities and activities offered but feels it now needs to become more effective at marketing in order to do this. Competition has increased lately with both national and local competitors.
To date, the sales and marketing has been managed by one of the founding partners and has mainly comprised of local advertising, some useful publicity in the local press and, more recently visits to local schools to talk about the importance of health and fitness to younger people. As a first step to increasing and improving its marketing activities it has employed you in the capacity as a marketing consultant to produce a report covering the following areas: Industry Analysis Market Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning Strategy
Pricing Strategy Competitive Advantage Strategy IMC Strategy Marking Guideline As you would expect, this assessment is looking for evidence of an understanding of the core principles of the areas of marketing encompassed by the assignment as well as application of the principles to the hypothetical company / situation in the assignment. Students who simply repeat chunks of the textbook and students who simply ‘theory dump’ without evidence of real understanding and application will not pass. Top mark students will show e. g. ritical awareness, compare and contrast and otherwise show insights into the concepts and ideas and their application. As a guide marks will be awarded as follows: Understanding of basic concepts 40 Application to situation / market40 Critical awareness10 Referencing 10 Notes on Assignment 1. Length: 3000 words Maximum (not including appendices or bibliography / references). 2. Under no circumstances should you exceed the word limit. Only work up to the word limit will be marked. 3. Report format required: Justified alignment, Ariel 11 font minimum. . The work should be an individual piece of work and should be fully referenced where appropriate. 5. The work should be submitted according to the Business Schools procedures for completing and handing in assignment work. Please check with the School Office if you are unsure as to these. 6. Please follow University procedures / regulations if requesting extensions. 7. Submission of work: The assignment must be submitted electronically through Turnitin on Blackboard and one hard copy (spiral bound) submitted to the School Office. 8.
Submission date: Tuesday, December 14th on or before 3. 00pm. Please note you will normally be penalised for late submission after this time) 9. Work submitted up to 5 working days after the deadline without an extension will be marked up to a maximum of 40%. 10. Tutor reassessment applies to this assignment. This means that if you score less than 40% you will be offered an opportunity to improve your mark within a specified time limit as directed by the module tutor. 11. Work will normally be returned within 3 weeks of submission.