Issues In RSL Clubs In Australia - Strategies For Improvement

Challenges Faced by RSL Clubs in Australia

Question:

Discuss about the Marketing Strategy Of RSL Clubs in Australia.

The purpose of the following paper is about discussing the various issues in the RSL clubs in Australia. The RSL clubs are mainly considered to be the organizations for the men and women who have served the Australian defense forces in their best times and now they are spending the retired lives. This is a very critical time in their lives since they must be feeling monotonous in their retired lives. This Returned and Services League caters to the support that the men and women need at that time. Some of the features that are observed in these RSL clubs across Australia are like the Ode of Remembrance for the servicemen who were martyred in the wars. This ritual is observed in those clubs at 6pm.

Some recent trends have been noticed in these night clubs in the recent times (Sweaney 2014). These clubs are meant for the ex servicemen to come and spend their time and get rid of their loneliness and monotony. While these things are not being performed in these clubs and on the contrary the opposite culture is taking its place there. The number of the ex servicemen is decreasing in alarming rates and the presence of the unwanted people are increasing in that place (Denniss and Baker 2012).

This is measured by the fact that the decoration of the clubs are daggy, the meals are sold at $8 there and are subsidized, the culture of the past is removed by the bingo nights and fluorescent lighting in the clubs. The rate of alcohol intake is increasing as the the carpets can be seen as beer-soaked. The Allora RSL clubs is also facing these problems of the same context. They are facing a critical identity crisis and the number of competitors is increasing (Lovelace 2012). The members are decreasing so a marketing strategy should be prepared for reviving the lost glory of the Allora RSL club.

Political factors

Australia is a democratic and politically stable country so it is the duty of the government to provide the ex-servicemen with the best facilities (Jurevicius 2013). The Australian government and the political parties should interfere in this matter and discuss about the current scenario and consult with the ex-servicemen about what to be done.

Economic factors

The government should be looking after the major economic issues. The economic challenges are there as the clubs have to provide the food at a subsidized rate. The economy of Australia has been suffering from the inflation that has been a major issue as the clubs are not being able to provide the proper infrastructure that is needed for the maintenance of the clubs (Ferroni and Mojon 2014).

Political Factors

Social factors

The social factor that is in question of the RSL clubs is that the membership is falling and the beer bottles are being scattered here and there. The ex-servicemen are not interested to go there as the morale has fallen. This situation has to be overcome (Jurevicius 2013).

Technological factors

Allora RSL club has to apply some technological advancement into their operations since they have to be ahead of their rivals or competitors like Ashgrove RSL club in Queensland. They must attract the ex-servicemen by making proper advertisements and make them come to their club through using the social media.

Strengths

• The Allora RSL club is located at such a place where they can get more people to come into their club (Grant 2016).
• They offer very good discount rates for the food and spending quality time.
• They sell the food at an affordable rate at subsidized rates.

Weaknesses

• Allora RSL club is not being able to draw the ex-servicemen by social media.
• The club has not provided the perfect atmosphere required inside the club premises.

Opportunities

• Allora club must try to open more branches in the remote areas of the suburb.
• They must try to attract the youth cultured people so that they can be the representative faces of the club (Grant 2016).

Threats

• The rivals are increasing for Allora club and they must implement certain strategies for the betterment of the club.
• The financial crisis of the club is hampering their operations.

Allora RSL club has provided a good service to its members and they have been very consistent about it. Though, the RSL clubs have not been able to provide the proper atmosphere to its members, Allora RSL club has been doing very well in this business and been able to hold its good reputation.

If the status quo remains in the organization and no changes take place, the organization will suffer setbacks one after another as they will be lacking the proper agenda to develop the club’s infrastructure. If the infrastructure does not improve, they will not be able to communicate with the potential customers of the club (Helleiner 2014).

Some changes have to take place within the organization. This will require taking up certain strategies. They have to take the help of the technology to install some computers and monitor the performance of the employees of the club Helleiner They will also need to communicate with the potential customers to attract them towards their club.

The need for segmenting the target group is very essential for Allora RLS club (Riefler, Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, 2012). They should be looking to focus on their target groups properly so that they can identify what things to focus on to improve the services. They should be focusing on the young people who are in their twenties rather than the people in their thirties. This is because the young people in their twenties have a better access to the telecommunications and digital technology.

The notion that the RLS clubs are only for the older people to attend has to be overcome. This is because the older people are not attending this anymore to that extent. The need to revive the Allora RLS club is very much important. They have to arrange certain programs for the target people (Alberts, Nakayama and Martin, 2015). They can arrange seminars and club meetings where all the members would be present. This would be helpful for the young people to join the club along with programs to communicate with various parts of the society. The communication technology tools have to be utilized properly by the young people. Career development programs can also be arranged by the Allora RLS club actively.

Economic Factors

The decoration of the Allora RLS club must be improved in order to attract the people of the young generation. A survey can be organized on the favorite icons of the target people (Jiang, Wang and Zhao, 2012). According to that, the pictures of those icons can be held up on the walls of the club. Better lighting arrangements have to be made so that the young people can be motivated to show their creativity. They can also exchange their ideas with the older people to gather more knowledge. The perfect color combination has to be applied that will be in line with the club’s visions.

It has been observed that the young people are much obsessed with mobile phones. This can be seen as an opportunity to capitalize on their target markets (Goggin 2012). They can be communicated by their mobile numbers in quick time and important information can be sent to their mobiles by SMS. These SMSs will contain some of the major things that they should know to be a part of the Allora RLS club. The things that can be sent to them through SMS are:-

• The ethics to be maintained in the club premises
• The rules and regulations that have to be followed
• The agenda of the club and the objectives they want to attain
• The timeline of their major programs
• The prohibitions regarding the intake of alcohol

Conclusion

This paper can be concluded by saying that Allora RLS club has lost its ground partially in the recent past but they will have to gain some of that ground so that they can revive their place among the RLS clubs. There are threats from the rivals of the clubs and they must be looking to overcome those threats by bringing the young generation into play. This will be really helpful for them if they manage to do it successfully.

References

Alberts, J.K., Nakayama, T.K. and Martin, J.N., 2015. Human communication in society. Pearson.

Denniss, R. and Baker, D., 2012. Who knew Australians were so co-operative?. The Australia Institute. Canberra, Australia.

Ferroni, F. and Mojon, B., 2014. Domestic and global inflation. mimeo.

Gharakhani, D., Maghferati, P. and Jalalifar, S., Quality improvement of organization and organizational culture.

Goggin, G., 2012. Cell phone culture: Mobile technology in everyday life. Routledge.        

Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary Strategy Analysis Text Only. John Wiley & Sons.

Helleiner, E., 2014. The status quo crisis: Global financial governance after the 2008 meltdown. Oxford University Press.

Jiang, J., Wang, S. and Zhao, S., 2012. Does HRM facilitate employee creativity and organizational innovation? A study of Chinese firms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(19), pp.4025-4047.

Jurevicius, O., 2013. PEST & PESTEL Analysis. Strategic Management Insight, 13, p.2013.

Lovelace, N., 2012. History of the Queensland Country Women's Association:'More than tea and scones'. Queensland History Journal, 21(9), p.601.

Riefler, P., Diamantopoulos, A. and Siguaw, J.A., 2012. Cosmopolitan consumers as a target group for segmentation. Journal of International Business Studies, 43(3), pp.285-305.

Sweaney, K., 2014. The place to be. Australasian Leisure marketing Management, (103), p.42.