Life Changing Sport Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Life Changing Sport - Assignment Example The more upmarket All Star Lanes opened in January, 2006 in the basement of Victoria House in Southampton Row offering bowling alongside a cocktail bar and restaurant (Sunday Times 05.03.06). The sport of bowling (also known as tenpins) is an indoor sport in which a ball between 6 and 16 lbs. in weight is rolled down a lane approximately 42 inches wide and 60 feet long in an effort to knock down 10 pins set in a triangular array at the other end of the lane. The modern version of the sport is traced to the 4th or 5th century A.D. in Germany, where the bowler rolled a ball down the aisle of a church at a club called the heathen. Hitting the heathen was a demonstration of the religious faith of the bowler. During the Middle-Ages, there were a variety of forms of bowling with the number of pins ranging from 3 to 15. Dutch settlers brought the sport to the New World in the early 17th century. The tenth pin was added to the game in 1842. With the advent of Television the popularity of bowling increased in the 1950s. The sport has lost much of its charm and with the mushrooming video-game parlours and other 'pop' activities attention of the young people has been diverted away from bowling. It is considered by many as either pass or too childish, or youth-orientated. The opening of the two new, high-end, bowling alleys is perhaps indicative of a revival of interest in the game. Marketing is the business function that identifies customer needs and wants, determines which target markets the organization can serve best, and designs appropriate products, services, and programs to serve these markets. It guides the entire organization. The goal of marketing is to create customer satisfaction by building value-based relationships with customers, in conjunction with other internal and external business units. The end-result is gaining market leadership by understanding consumer needs and finding solutions of superior value, quality, and service. This presentation looks at understanding the concept, product, positioning and marketing strategy of one of the new bowling alleys (All Star Lanes), and identifying a path for repositioning and promotion with a view to improve profitability through improved customer satisfaction. The Present Product All Star Lanes has four lanes and two upstairs and is positioned as a leisure centre with multiple activities that includes offering a good eating facility and an ambience modelled on America of the 1950s. The face it presents to its customers is 'fresh and flippant and not too straight faced' (squaremeal.co.uk).It has a capacity to seat 80 and offers a cocktail bar and a menu that is American chow wagon based. The dcor is plastic, chrome and leather and tailored to attract young people and at the same time targets to attract clientele by offering a boutique type experience for parties. On all the present identified objectives, it scores well and has attracted very good ratings from critics; some even giving it a four to five star rating on ambience, service, value for money, and food (Time Out, 2006). Repositioning The proposed repositioning requires a total change in concept from being a leisure centre targeting young