Marketing case study 9518

1. EVALUATE THE PRESENT MARKETING STRATEGIES:

Currently, O’Keefes owner Manuel Gray has successfully established a market segment with the ice hockey players. However, he wishes to diversify his operation with the introduction of public skating, much like the format of rollerskating rinks. He has tried to implement these skating sessions with little success. He has the most success with Saturday and Sunday sessions. Attendance drops during warmer months however. The 200 he gets in the winter turns into about half that in the summer. The Friday and Saturday sessions turn into a “ kid-sitting” session whereas many of the patrons are 8-12 year olds that are dropped off by their parents. Manuel wishes to increase the number of patrons and target couples for the weekend night sessions. He can do so through modification of the four P’s. Manuel’s current mix is this:

Price: $4 plus $1 skate rental

Place: His rink located in a city of 450, 000

Promotion: Radio Disc Jockey appearances, Advertise via radio, lighting changes similar to roller-rinks, free-on air offer for skating (no results)

Product: Ice skating for the general public

2. WHAT SHOULD THE COMPANY DO NOW?

Manuel needs to determine what is most profitable. I believe he needs to limit his public skating sessions to the weekends. He needs to limit the 8-10 Friday and Saturday night sessions to ages 13 and above. He may want to have a “ kids” session from 5-7 on those same nights. He needs to maintain the sessions on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and target families for those sessions. He also needs to advertise more. Maybe discounted rates for students could help (especially if it is a college town). Manuel needs to expand his mind and create an economic need for people to want his product.

3. WHY?

Manuel needs to keep the weekend night sessions because that is when people go on dates. That is his target market; young couples. By limiting the younger patrons to an earlier session, it allows him to capitalize on his target market and still allow the younger kids a time to play tag and goof around without bothering other patrons. Keeping the weekend afternoon sessions is a moot point because they have been profitable.

Manuel needs to forget about adding more sessions during the week. This will likely not be profitable. Renting out to hockey teams during the week should be his focus. He may also want to diversify more and create a broomball league during the week. This would allow another income source and perhaps, more importantly, gain more exposure for the public skating market. Manuel needs to advertise more (not on the radio necessarily); newspapers and flyers are a cheap alternative. He must also develop some promotions like student discounts, buy one get one free deals, etc. Manuel merely needs to expand his marketing creativity. On a final note, he should do some research to find his competition (roller-rinks, other ice-skating rinks, etc.) in order to undercut their deals and win customers.

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