Date: August 10, 2015
To: Professor Kopka
From: David Romero
Re: The Wallingford Bowling Center
Case: The Wallingford Bowling Center
I. Executive Summary
The bowling center located in Wallingford was opened by 12 close friends which
invested $2 million. The small business consists of 48-lane bowling alley, a bar, a small
restaurant, a game room (pool, video games, pinball) and two locker rooms. The place
has facilities such as a lot of parking lots and space and accessible 24 hours the 7 days
of the week. Also, the small business is operated by 27 employees plus Ned Flanders
as the general manager and James Ahmad as controller. The bowling center counts
with the necessary key resources but partners are frustrated because even after 4 years
of operations there is a low profit performance.
The bowling center is full on Sunday through Thursday nights from 6:00 P.M.
until midnight, because men´s league always go for a relaxing time. However, the
bowling center is half full on Friday and Saturdays nights and on Saturday mornings. In
this time, young couples and teenagers comes to practice in small groups. There are
four group of women leagues that go on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. In
mapping the slow business hours, we have Monday through Friday and Sunday
mornings, and on the afternoons of Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
We hope to implement a good marketing plan to boost the productivity of the business.
II. Objectives
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The business try to increase their profit by cutting costs but most of the costs
were fixed and could be cut. The best way to increase profit is by increasing sales.
There are times in which the business is slow and we can use some marketing strategy
to increase sales. I will include different modes of promotion such as advertising, sales
promotion, public relations and social media. Through this marketing plan, we will try to
increase capacity to as close to 100 percent as possible. One of the major goals is to
increase sales of at least 5 million dollars by implementing promotion modes. The
promotion strategy that we chose should give us in return more than 25 percent
increase in sales to earn more profit. I will include a list of the best market segments
and the distinct features of the ´´4Ps´´ for each of the groups.
III.Market Segmentation
According to the pattern and analysis of current customers, I derive the market
segments to be the following:
a. Men´s segment
Men tend to enjoy more time among friends in a bar or restaurant. Men are our biggest
market segment that we should try our best to keep them coming and attract more of
them. They want to have a relaxing time to get out the stressed and hardworking day.
The best way to relax from a stressful day is with a very cold beer or an alcoholic
beverage. Probably by only drink a little of alcoholic drinks, men will feel closer to their
friends, men improve their mood and maybe then can put their worries in place to make
them feel more carefree. They are able to pay high prices in exchange of good quality
and service and to have fun. We can offer happy hour on Monday through Friday and
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Sunday mornings, and on the afternoons of Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday.
b.Young couples segment
Young couples would like to socialize with new people. They will be more interested in
the game rooms and will go to have alcoholic beverages on the bar. They go to relax
and go in couples. We can make events such as couples night competition on Fridays
and Saturdays afternoons. The young couples can be attracted with special dinner
because they are in the stage to produce the most house income and do not have time
to cook. Since they will be saving money, we can offer them discounts and advertise on
local newspaper and social networks.
c.Seniors segment
Seniors have more free time and can reach us at anytime. The bowling center is at low
use in Tuesday to Sunday afternoons and on Monday to Friday, Sundays mornings. We
can try to bring activities for them not to get bored alone at home. We can add
dominoes tournaments and bingo games for seniors. They can buy things to eat on the
restaurant or even ask for a lot of alcoholic drinks in the bar. We can make public
relations as bringing seniors from the nursing homes to make press conferences and
tell people that we have social responsibility. We can built very good legitimacy
throughout this event.
IV. Current Situation Analysis
Company Analysis
Strengths
● Good location with 200,00 people living within 15 miles.
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● Opens the 24 hours for 7 days of the week.
● High quality services offered.
● Very big space with many bowling lanes, spacious lot and a lot of parkings
Weaknesses
● High operating costs, which gives low net income.
● Not full all the time of the day.
● Too many partners can make it very complex to satisfy.
Opportunities
● Middle income families are increasing.
● Happy hour is more common.
● GDP per capita is increasing, which means that people can spend more.
Threats
● Competition is emerging.
● Taxes and rent is always increasing.
V.Selected Marketing Strategy
A. Product
The bowling center consists of 48-lane bowling alley, a bar, a small restaurant, a
game room (pool, video games, pinball) and two locker rooms in which is very secure to
leave their personal things. The place has facilities such as a lot of parking lots and
space. We will offer good quality service in order for everyone to have a pleasurable
time and come back next time and have good legitimacy. I see a lot of potential to
increase the alcoholic beverages business to attract more people and have the place
full all the times.
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Pricing
We use the target pricing approach and bundle pricing. We should figure how
much the customer is willing to pay. We can charge around $2.00 each beer and can
launch the promotion of pay 2 get 1 free. We receive payments by cash, credit and debit
cards, and checks for the customer preference.
Place
We are located in the small blue-collar town of Wallingford near Norfolk, Virginia.
There are around 200,000 people living within 15 miles of Wallingford. We are already
stable in location and we do not need to move since it is very centric and there is
enough space. The business is at our firm´s location. Since we are offering a service,
we do not need so much distribution or inventory just for the restaurant. We will buy the
food from local farmers.
Promotion
-advertising: we will make television advertising for 20 seconds informing about events
and activities we have. Also, radio and newspaper ads to bring working population to
have fun in group. We will send print flyers and brochure by mail since it is the less
expensive way to do it.
-Website: the majority of the teenagers use social media such as Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram.