Marketing Challenges Faced by Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre

You are employed by Workplace Solutions Agency. Your task (across Assessment Task 1 and 2) is to plan the draft, edit and write a report on the Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre using the materials provided and the Workplace Solutions Agency report style guide.

Moortown Sports and Leisure had a very weak and unstructured marketing strategy. The organization provided facility for spa and sports like basketball. The sports club advertised its services in local newspapers and flyers. The club occasionally advertised its services on the local radio channels. The booking system was very weak and there were many incorrect bookings which caused inconvenience to clubs which were the main clients using the premises of the sports association. The case study also mentions that a majority of community members were unaware about the programs and events at the leisure center. These facts pointed out that the leisure center required to form plan to market its services in the locality and incorporate a powerful promotional mix (Van Den Berg and Braun 2017).

One can point out after brainstorming that the marketing plan of Moortown Sports and Leisure should aim to first, increase awareness in the community about the programs in the sports complex and attract more customers to generate more revenue. The marketing plan of the sports and entertainment club would essentially revolve around its market mix (Pouder, Clark and Fenich 2018).

The product of the sports club consisted of two types of services namely, spa services and using of its premises for different types of sports. The case study mentions that present clients of the sports and refreshment center 13 sports clubs while major portion of the Moortown community remained unaware about the events and services. The sports association should introduce new facilities like facilities to hold community fair. The community sports and entertainment association should take steps to improve its services. The case study mentions that the orders and bookings were managed manually in separate record books (Patel and Trivedi 2017). The bookings were compiled into a central booking register. There were incidences of missed booking which did led to inconvenience caused to the clients. The sports association should offer technology driven booking system which would enable the receptionist to record all the bookings centrally and give accurate information to the clients when required. This reception service would seek to maximize the convenience of the clients. This would enable the club to avoid missed booking and enhance convenience of the customers. The cultural association should incorporate more diverse types of entertainment offerings like cultural events to attract more diverse types of clients (Kumar et al. 2016).

Recommendations for Improving Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre’s Marketing Strategies

Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should apply pricing to attract more clients. Firstly, the sports and cultural association should categorise its client base into in-house clients or clients which are present members like the thirteen sports clubs already mentioned. The second category of clients should comprise of community members which are not present clients. The third category of clients should consist of clients who are not members of community like people from other localities. The sports and cultural complex authorities should use these three categories to decide on appropriate pricing strategies. The association should use preferential pricing rates for existing clients like the thirteen sports clubs. The sports association should charge more from the community members which are not existing members (Negi and Anand 2015). The association for the third category clients which are not members of the community should be charged more. This pricing plan would have several outcomes. The first outcome would be that the club by charging the immediate members lower that new members would be able to gain their loyalty. Second, the members of the community would be also be loyal to the club because they would be charged less than outside clients (Stone and Stone 2017). The case study mentioned that the sports and cultural did not follow proper method of contract while accepting bookings. The management should implement proper system of bookings for the events.

Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre has strong physical presence in the community. The association should also extend its presence on the digital platform to enable present and future clients to view the facilities online. The online visitors should also be able to view the facilities which are not occupied and they can book. The online view should enable the visitors to view the rates based on their category. For example, an existing member should be able to see the low pricing while a visitor not from the community should see the original pricing, without discount. The website of the association should also have facilities for booking of venue and also verify the address of the client before showing the final price (Mogos 2015). The association should also be present on social networking websites like Facebook and Instagram which would enable it to communicate to its clients to gain more information about their expectations regarding services and facilities.

The promotion of Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should be aligned with its product, place and pricing strategies. The case study clearly mentioned that the sports and cultural association had a very weak promotional strategy. The sports association promoted its services on the local newspaper, flyers and on local radio channels. The outcomes of this weak promotional were low rate of awareness about events of the association among the community members, less than 50 percent occupancy and resultant low revenue generation. Thus, the promotional mix of the association should aim to spread awareness about its services to attract more customers and generate more revenue. The sports association should promote its products in national newspapers, magazines and radio channels. This would enable it to create awareness about its services among a large customer base. This would enable the association to arouse awareness both within and outside the community (Bowie et al. 2016). This would enable Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre attract more customers which would generate more revenue for the association.

Product: Introduce New Facilities

A brainstorming on the present weak marketing plan of Moortown Sports and Leisure would point out that the body should strengthen its promotional mix. The promotional plan of Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should consist of digital promotional mix. The sports association should promote its services on the social media websites like Facebook and Instagram. This would enable the association to attract more customers by promoting its services beyond the surrounding community. The association would also be able to attract multinational companies as its clients which would opt for its premises for their conferences (Manning et al. 2015). Thus, this would enable the association boost its revenue generation by high end clients.

The operating structure of Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should be strengthened. The case study mentioned that the association did not have a proper booking system and did not enter into contract with its clients. There were reported cases of inaccurate and cancelled bookings. This once again pointed out to the failure of the management to implement a system of handling and managing client booking. The apex management should first appoint staff members who would deal with client bookings. The members should be responsible for booking of facilities like rooms and ordering for catering services (Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin 2015). The apex management should also book staff members who would process orders of booking of facilities received online.

The communication system which Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should take should be formal. The association should maintain a data of its present and prospective clients. It should communicate with them the facilities the association can offer through official emails and letters (França et al. 2017).

One can recommend from the discussion that Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should market its services in the community. One can recommend that the association should appoint a special marketing team to meet the prospective clients like business organisations and housing associations. They can convince these firms and housing association to book the facilities for their social functions and conferences. This would enable Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre to generate more revenue.

Conclusion:

One can conclude from the discussion that Moortown Sports and Leisure Centre should market its facilities to new clients. The association should spread its advertisement activities beyond local newspapers and incorporate national level dailies as well. It should also expand its presence on the digital platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This promotional mix would ensure more booking and revenue generation. The apex management should form a contract based booking system to manage these bookings. One can also recommend that the body can use tools like mind mapping and PAMS to arrive at the improvement decisions.

References:

Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M. and Mariussen, A., 2016. Hospitality marketing. Taylor & Francis.

França, C.L., Broman, G., Robèrt, K.H., Basile, G. and Trygg, L., 2017. An approach to business model innovation and design for strategic sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.155-166.

Kumar, A., Kumar, R., Yadav, V.P.S. and Kumar, R., 2016. Impact assessment of frontline demonstrations of Bajra in Haryana state. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 10(1), pp.105-108.

Manning, W.J., Farrell, M.B., Bezold, L.I., Choi, J.Y., Cockroft, K.M., Gornik, H.L., Jerome, S.D., Katanick, S.L. and Heller, G.V., 2015. How do noninvasive imaging facilities perceive the accreditation process? Results of an intersocietal accreditation commission survey. Clinical cardiology, 38(7), pp.401-406.

Mogos, R.I., 2015. Digital Marketing for Identifying Customers’ Preferences–A Solution for SMEs in Obtaining Competitive Advantages. International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, 5(3), pp.240-247.

Negi, S. and Anand, N., 2015. Issues and challenges in the supply chain of fruits & vegetables sector in India: a review. International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains, 6(2), pp.47-62.

Parveen, F., Jaafar, N.I. and Ainin, S., 2015. Social media usage and organizational performance: Reflections of Malaysian social media managers. Telematics and Informatics, 32(1), pp.67-78.

Patel, R.C. and Trivedi, C.J., 2017. CRM Customer Preferential Study on Facilities Provided By Public And Private Sector Banks With Reference To Ahmadabad District.

Pouder, R.W., Clark, J.D. and Fenich, G.G., 2018. An exploratory study of how destination marketing organizations pursue the sports tourism market. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management.

Stone, L.S. and Stone, T.M., 2017. Domestic Tourism In Botswana: An Examination Of Nature–Based Tourism Constraints. Botswana Journal of Business, 10(1), pp.97-116.

Van Den Berg, L. and Braun, E., 2017. Sports and city marketing in European cities. Routledge