We Do Feet Essay Example

We Do Feet Essay We Do Feet is a specialist foot massage boutique aimed at offering its customers a chance to put their feet up, relax and be pampered, all at affordable prices. The warm, relaxing ambience of the boutiques is created through a combination of soothing music, calming aromas and serene natural surroundings. The company name and logo has been carefully considered, as this will become a major element for the branding of the boutiques and supplementary products. We will write a custom essay sample on We Do Feet specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on We Do Feet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on We Do Feet specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer (This introduction will be on the leaflet.) Idea During the summer holidays I spent four weeks travelling Thailand with my family. There I noticed hundreds of foot reflexology shops full of European, American and Australian tourists. I had many foot massages myself when I was there and thoroughly enjoyed them. I thought to myself, what a great idea and opportunity it could be for me to open a chain of these in the UK, as I have never seen these before. But I knew I would have to act quickly to establish my business and brand first. Naturally the concept would have to be adapted to suit the UK lifestyle but the basic principle would be the same. Market research There are two main methods of market research: * Desk research/secondary research (uses data, or information, which already exists in printed form or computer files) * Primary research/field research (obtains original data or information, which did not exist before, from customers and other people) The primary data gained by field research is significant, because it is not available to any other businesses, unless they do their own research. Though, it is much more expensive than desk research and much more time consuming. When the information has been gathered, it has to be collated, and then analysed before any trends or information become evident. Secondary research is much easier and cheaper than primary research, because the data is already available and does not have to be gathered or analysed. But it is less valuable because it is often out of date and does not always cover the specific theme of study. This is mainly obtained using the Internet. For my coursework I believe it would be best to use a collaboration of the two types of market research available to me. With both types of market research I would almost definitely get the best indications to whether setting up a reflexology boutique would be successful. For my secondary research I used the Internet to find out where my competition was located, to do this I used the Yellow Pages web site (yell.com) to find out the name and addresses of the various treatment spas in postcode W1, as this is where I plan to open my first We Do Feet branch on Oxford Street. I used this information so I could visit my competitors and gather individual information about them. However I did not use secondary research to find out population counts as such, because Oxford Street, in Central London is swarmed with people throughout the year. This fact gives me no doubt that the business will be successful in this area. Competition There are many spa treatments that involve foot massage and reflexology. Even though there are already many, there is huge difference between these and mine. This means they are not direct competition as such but still include similar treatments. Because there is no walk in, float out concepts already, the spas are my closest competitors. My first chosen location of Oxford Street, is surrounded by many fitness and Spa treatment centres. I have done thorough research into the spas and have found many in this area. These include: Hypno 1st 305, Great Portland St Tel: 020 7255 1567 Champneys Piccadilly 21a, Piccadilly Tel: 020 7255 8000 Fitness First 15, Great Marlborough St Tel: 020 7287 8911 The Pilates Studio Ltd 116, Great Portland St Tel: 020 7636 2636 Alan Herdman Studios 17, Homer Row Tel: 020 7723 9953 Relax 65-67, Brewer St Tel: 020 7494 3333 Spa 2 88 ,Holles St Tel: 0207 409 0423 Location is very important for my business because if I was in an area, which already has many treatment centres there will be greater competition. I am going to geographically map these so you can see where your competitors are. I have done this in the appendix. When I visited my competitors I found you had to make an appointment sometimes days in advance. Then pay a high price of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½45-à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½60, which is the average for a similar treatment. This is a waste of time and money. The idea of We Do Feet is the opposite. Most people would love the idea of a relaxing foot massage and we are offering exactly that. But instead of booking you just show up on impulse, you dont have to spend an hour or two it only takes 20 minutes and then you (float out) and pay a à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10.50 treatment charge and any other purchases to the receptionist. Whilst not having the same concept as my competitors I will still use many of their better ideas. Whilst visiting them I noticed that many of them had aromatherapy burners to give off scents like lavender and lemon grass. This is an idea, which I am using also. They also had very serene surroundings using soothing music; I thought this was also appropriate. Selfridges Location Location of my competitors These are whom I consider as my competitors around Oxford Street. All of these competitors are in their own ways different, with varying prices, treatments and ambiences. I have rated these by using the process of brand mapping. This process can help describe a segment of the market, identify the product strengths and weaknesses, evaluate new concepts and identify your competition. I have prepared one to show this and rate where I will be on the map. Expensive Plain Environment Good Atmosphere Less Expensive KEY TO MAP Hypno 1st Yellow Champneys Piccadilly Orange Fitness First White The Pilates Studio Ltd Violet Alan Herdman Studios Green Relax Black Spa 2 Blue We Do Feet is the pink circle, which is the only company in the Southwest of the graph. This shows that we are different than the competitors. Hopefully the potential customers will recognise this and then take the quick, inexpensive, and most convenient experience, which is us. In order to understand how my foot massage concept could be best adapted for the UK I prepared a questionnaire, which would be primary research. From this I can rephrase and change certain questions to make my questionnaire work usefully and efficiently. My questionnaire will include Qualitative research. Qualitative research involves interviewing people to find out their views and opinions. Quantitative research involves carrying out numerical information. Qualitative research tends to be more time consuming and the answers are usually very individualistic. This is good to find out exactly what the demand could be but it is also bad in the sense it is far too time consuming and time is money. I wrote a questionnaire, which looked like this 1. Which Gender Are You? m f 2. What Is Your Age? 3. What Is Your Occupation? 4. What is your current income bracket per annum? 5. Do You Know What Reflexology Is? y n 6. Have You Ever Experienced A Foot Massage? y n 7. If Available Would You Like One? y n 8. Would You Be Prepared To Pay à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 for 20 mins? y n 9. Who Would You Prefer To Massage Your Feet? m f 10. If Drinks Were Offered During Your Massage Would You Like One? y n 11. Would You Be Interested In purchasing Some Foot Care Products? y n 12. Do You Live In London y n 13. What Magazines Do You Read Market Segment I went to the chosen location of Oxford Street and approached people who were in the market segment in which I am targeting. This is the part of the market in which groups of people with similar characteristics are linked and in this case the busy shoppers and businessmen and women in London. Most of these people in the market segment are of either social grade A, B or C1 that are the grades in which the socio-economic groupings are divided. By looking at the socio-economic groups you can see that most of the customers will be well off and would most likely be prepared to pay the price of ten pounds. Results / Analysis After two long days and 65 sets of results I headed home to analyse my results. I have found that the people that were shopping and walking through Oxford Street were mostly between the ages of 19 and 45. This gave me a very good indication of the particular market segment I am targeting. I already had a good idea of this however this was broader than I expected. I also calculated that 67% of these people were female. Looking at Question 3 I found that nearly more than half of these women were not working but were shopping. However most of the men I interviewed were working in London. Question 4 gave me an idea of the socio-economic group which I was targeting , they were of class A, B and C1. Surprisingly all of them had a good idea of what reflexology was, but sadly 54 percent of them had never experienced it. Question 7 was the most important, it indicated if the concept was to be successful or not. Not to my surprise they all loved the idea and would love to put their feet up for a relaxing break. 92 % of the people I approached were interested in having a foot massage and 8% hated the idea of their feet being touched. Question 8 was also very important because I was going to find out if they would be willing to pay my price, 82% of the people said that they would pay the ten pounds. Question 9 would be crucial for the employment of staff. Everyone bar six people wanted a female masseuse and the other six ticked both because they did not mind. Question 10 was answered by everyone as a yes, because they thought it would be nice to have a hot drink whilst having their treatment. The results of Question 11 showed that very few people were interested in supplementary products, however with more information and good marketing stragergys I believe that these products would sell. Question 12 asked whether the interviewed people were resident in London. I found that this was the case for 60% of the people. This tells me that there are a fair amount of tourists and they would most likely enjoy the luxury. Question 13 was important for the promotion of the company because I need to know which magazines to advertise in if I decide to advertise my service above the line of promotion. The results showed that 32% were the fashion magazines like FHM and GQ. 55% were the celebrity gossip magazines like Hello, OK and Heat. Other magazines mentioned were specilised such as sport, home ; garden and electronic magazines. Graphs To Show The Results In The Questionnaire Question 1: Gender Question 2: Age Because there were a wide variety of ages I can not plot them on the pie chart. Question 3: Occupation Question 4: Income per Annum Question 5: Reflexology (know what it is) Question 6: Ever experienced it? Question 7: Would they like it? Question 8: Price? Question 9: Male workers of female? Question 10: 100% of the people thought it would be nice to have a drink during the massage. Question 11: Supplementary products Question 12: Living in London Question 13: Magazines Marketing Mix The Marketing Mix is the combination of factors, which help the business sell a product Usually summarized as the 4Ps, which are Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Promotion Promotion is the communication between businesses and customers, making the customers aware that the product is for sale, telling or explaining to them what the product is and how the product will service their needs and persuading the customer to buy the product for the first time. I am considering this because if I want to sell my product, the public has to know about it. I am going to promote my business by advertising below the line of promotion. I will begin this by passing out leaflets to my potential customers on Oxford Street to tell them the details of the company and the services we provide. This is a coloured A4 leaflet. It may be found in my appendix. I am also launching a website on the worldwide web. This will be supplied by Millsites. I will be buying a basic website package consisting of homepage with two hyperlinks. I will also arrange a special promotion with Selfridges whereby a spend of over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500 in the shop will be rewarded with a complimentary We Do Feet treatment. Another promotion that I am planning is a benefit to regular customers. A loyalty card will be given after the first treatment and then stamped after each additional treatment. After five treatments the customer will be entitled to a free treatment. This promotional stragegy is also used by Cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Nero see appendix.I will not use media advertising as they are much more costly and as I am a business just starting up, it would be hard to budget this. My promotion strategies are simple, effective and do not exceed my budget. Premises and Location As a new business I felt it would be best to start with one small unit in a department store in London. This would enable me to fine tune my concept at a low start up cost. I chose Selfridges as my ideal location for a lease of space and approached them.with my cancept. I estimate that I will need enough space for 14 lazy-boy chairs, a water feature, a drinks area, a reception area, storage cupboards and 3 waiting room chairs. I have drawn a plan of how much space will be needed with my idea of the shops layout. Future expansion into more department stores would be ideal for further growth. Here there would be a constant stream of tired shoppers happy for an opportunity to re-energize themselves. For my shop design, I am going to use a natural modern look, with different woods and bamboo straws. This will enhance relaxation. The soothing background music will add to the tranquil atmosphere as will the sound of a water feature. The lights will be subtle and scented candles will be lit to encourage a relaxing atmosphere. Price Pricing is one of the 4Ps of the marketing mix. Businesses have to decide what price they will charge for their products, the higher the price is, the lower the demand for the product will be. I have decided to use penetration pricing because if I set an initial low price it will appeal to more customers. In the future I may decide to raise the prices depending on the demand. I have chosen this pricing strategy over all of the others because I want to make my product and price appealing to the customers whilst maintaining the luxurious image of the service when I launch my business. I have decided to charge each customer à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10.50, I have chosen this price because I do not want my customers just giving the reception a à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 note or à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½20 note because they may not have change, and if they have access to it, they may give the masseuse a tip of some sort. If my concept were similar to others. I would have used the technique of Competition based pricing which is when I would charge a price based on my competitors. My hot and cold beverages will be available to you while you are having your massage, in your chair. The menu will consist of the following drinks and prices. Tea à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.20 Coffee à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2.00 Cappuchino à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3.00 Mint Herbal Tea à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2.20 Hot Chocolate à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3.00 Evian Water à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.50 Volvic Water à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.50 Perrier Water à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.60 Soft Drinks à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1.50 (Coke, Diet Coke, Lemonade, Tango) I have chosen these prices because I want the drinks on the menu to be more expensive because my set price for the foot massage is fairly cheap. This will be to increase the overall amount spent by the customer. Product My product is a service; the key to success in a service is to have good, well-trained staff. We do feet will have fourteen massage chairs in each location and so we will need at least sixteen masseurs. This accounts for any absence of staff . The staff will o do a basic reflexology course, which should last for roughly three weeks. This course takes place in a massage school in Central London. The company will pay for the course and during this three-week period they will not be getting paid. The trainees have to accept that if they do not pass the course they will not have the opportunity to work for We Do Feet. But the trainees can re-take the course again but not at the cost of the company. Other staff needed will include a receptionist. The receptionist will have to have had experience in customer relations and be very friendly and warm. They will also be responsible for serving refreshments. There will be a We Do Feet uniform that all of the workers will have to wear. This consists of white linen trousers and a white linen shirt with the company emblem on the left breas t pocket. Depending on how good the business is, in the future we will introduce a range of supplementary foot products, including creams, lotions, balms, aromatherapy oils, relaxation baths, anti-fungal solutions, exfoliation kits, pain relief gel, night renewal cream and athletes foot remedies etc. These products will all have the company name and logo. Marketing Mix Conclusion All of the four Ps included in the Marketing Mix contribute together to allow me to target my market. Some parts of the Marketing Mix are more important than others, I think that the most important factor is the Unique Selling Point, which is my concept. I also think the promotion is the next important because if no one knows about it, there will never be any customers. The position is extremely important because if the shop is in a bad location, or in a particularly rough area, most people wouldnt go out of their way to get a twenty minute massage. My business especially will need to be on a busy street because most of my customers will be coming from the street on impulse. Price is also something I need to consider because there are many strategies that I can use, I chose penetrating pricing. This is perfect for my service. Conclusions and Evaluation My secondary research showed me that there was no other specialist foot massage boutiques in England. This is good because I will be the only one at the start until people may see my idea and copy my concept. For my primary research I have done questionnaires and have approached my location and asked as many random people as I could, who were willing to give up some time to fill them in. 92% of the people I asked liked the idea and 82% of people were willing to pay the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10.50 for a treatment. I have designed my marketing mix well to suit my business idea, my service is very professional and relaxed and that is what people want. I am promoting the idea using the cheapest methods available, and the just stop site is ideal because it is the busiest shop in England and on the busiest street in London. I think that my business will be successful because looking at the questionnaire people loved the idea. If I was to start this coursework again I would like more time because I would like to do more primary research, and question people throughout the year to see when business would be most busy. This is one thing I regret the most, I did not do as much research as I could have and this was very important to finding out what will bring success into the business. I went to Oxford Street on a Wednesday and a Saturday so that got a weekly variation and to no surprise it was busier on the weekend. I would have liked to do a seasonal variation because it would give a better idea of when business is best, without doing this I can assume that in the summer and for Christmas shopping it would be very busy. I think that the most important thing about success is the USP of the product and the low price of my product. I think that this business idea is going to be easier than others because if I was to open up a new supermarket, I would be immediately be pushed out by the bigger ones already in the market with all of the customers, like Marks and Spencers and Tesco. If I could in the future I would like to open up a chain of these throughout London, Manchester, Bath and all of the other big cities. Naturally this will take years of hard work and effort.