Executive Summary
Karl Henning was a Briton who migrated to the United States in 2000 after being awarded a scholarship. He had a passion for playing soccer and this made him participate in various competitive teams in England during his high school life. Apart from playing, he was talented in teaching kids how to play football. Kids liked his coaching because he was a good football player.
This made him to open his own academy in 2006 called Rocky Soccer Academy for kids aged from 7-14. He coached them in various groups according to their age, skills and gender.
Training was done in a nearby local park while in groups. His marketing strategy at that time was by word of mouth. The kids that he couched then spread news that there was a great coach from Britain who knew how to teach football with fun (Robins, 2000). Karl students grew to 50 kids and more.
His fame grew and he organized 10 various camps. His other marketing strategy was to use the 11Rocky 3v3 teams to market his name of Rocky. This he achieved by training them well where they won various tournaments and this promoted his school.
Henning later increased people to help with training. Some coaches were hired in the United States and a few local players were added to help develop his academy. His academy had an advantage in that soccer is loved by kids. Kids like to play and watch soccer across the United States.
Henning is currently coaching 600 kids in every year. This means that his business has grown tremendously although there are few problems. He is supposed to come up with a marketing strategy so that his business can grow. This will help in building a new training facility. The academy has no training facility of its own. There is only a rented space which is not good enough.
Henning’s other challenge is increasing awareness of his program to kids aged 6 to 10 who have a low level of awareness. He has to market his business to adjacent cities like Loveland, Greely and Longmont. All this cities have big populations.
Problem Statement
Henning major goal is coming up with the best marketing strategy to grow his business so that he can build a huge training facility (Lehman, 2005). His marketing strategy will also help him increase his customers of the age of 6 to 10 who have a low level of awareness.
His business will grow also if his school will be marketed to other close cities. These will be new markets for his academy which is why his business is bound to grow. Another goal for Henning is retaining his customers by developing other activities that will attract kids of age 14 and 15 who are engaged to other activities.
Analysis and Evaluation
It is better for Henning to do some research in other neighboring cities before doing any marketing to determine his customers. This will enable him to gather information concerning the age of the children that live there and their population. He needs to focus on the children aged from 6 to 10 the majority of whom do not know programs that he offers.
His research methodology could be through observation, using questionnaires or interviews. He would later know how much his potential customers are willing to pay for his services. Other information like place of choice for the services offered will be gathered (Lehman, 2005).
In order to come up with the best marketing strategies, it is important for Henning to have a marketing plan. His marketing plan should be based on facts and valid assumptions. It should be simple and short. It should also specify performance criteria that will be monitored and controlled. A good marketing plan provides for continuity so that each annual marketing plan can build on it, successfully meeting longer-term goals and objectives (Nour, 2000).
It is crucial for Henning to consider the strength and weakness of the target markets. Strengths could be that the neighboring towns having big populations of kids aged from 6 to 10. Some weaknesses could relate to the venture’s inability to gain complete credibility in the town.
Once the marketing goals and objectives have been established, Henning will have to consider some factors like pricing of his services, competition and the quality of his services (Nour, 2000). It is usually necessary for a business person to inform potential consumers about the available services or to educate the consumer using advertising media such as print, radio, or television. Henning can use direct mail, trade magazines or newspapers since his business is large.
Recommendations
Henning should careful evaluate each alternative medium considering not just costs but the effectiveness of the medium in spreading awareness of his programs to kids. This will increase revenue earned from promotion and it will lead to the growth of the business. This will help him achieve one of his major goals of building a training facility. It is recommended for any business person to be creative with the existing budget and costs of buying major media space or time.
References
Lehman, D. (2005). Analysis for Marketing Planning. Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill.
Nour, M. (2000). A Framework for Web Marketing Strategies. Information Systems Management, 5(2), 41-50.
Robins,F. (2000). The Marketing E-Mix. The Marketing Review, 2(1), 249-27