Essay: Sugar Bowl Case Study

Issues Faced by Sugar Bowl

Question:

Discuss about the Strategic and Entrepreneurial Marketing for Sugar Bowl Case.

After completion of graduation from business school, Ms. Shelby Givens had taken over her family business, which was operated by her grandfather, who died in the year 2008. The name of her business was Westlake Lanes that offered the ailing bowling business. With the help of her applications studies in graduation and her entrepreneurial skills, Ms. Givens was successful to take this business from losses to gains again. She had taken a big risk of transforming this business of bowling games to urban lounge, where the public can sit and have food and drinks. The business was named as “Sugar Bowl”. The major profit generation activities were offering food and beverages, which produced a significant cash flow. The business in the case was successful at small scale level, now it is planning to expand the business operations.

The business may face various issues related to environment and its old style bowling technique. The given case includes various phases, on which the management needs to make focus. These phases are like; preparation of the transformation, renovation and grand opening of Sugar Bowl. The business is facing various issues in its entire life span. This essay includes the issues statement from the given case study of sugar bowl and then it includes its SWOT analysis for evaluating the internal and external environment of Sugar Bowl. Furthermore, it includes the major market segments for the case study and research conducted for developing its marketing strategy. At the end, it describes SMART objectives for Sugar Bowl with its marketing mix strategies.

The case of Sugar Bowl demonstrates that business is facing various key issues in different phases. There are several issues, which are influencing the business and its profitability in competitive business environment. Westlake Lanes is the business that is started by Mr. Dane Sugar, but its old style technique of bowling was leading the business to losses for year. Ms. Givens, the granddaughter of Mr. Dane Sugar took over their family business after his death and transformed the losses in profits by using her abilities and skills.

Though, because of strong uncertainty for the future of business, Ms. Givens proposed Sugar Bowl, so she needed some additional amount to earn the enough revenues on the completion of project. One of the major issues in case study is the repayment of debt in the time period of five years. Other issues in the given case study are described in the three phases of transformation of Westlake Lanes to Sugar Bowl, which are resolved by qualitative and quantitative analysis (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker and Brennan, 2015). The issues in three different phases are stated below;

1. Transformation phase: In this phase, the main issue for the organization were the procurement of employees for Sugar Bowl, food cost and research and development cost.
2. Renovation and grand opening phase: The major issues in this phase include the lack of time period. The contractors were not following the schedule and they were missing the deadline that is led to a decrease in the revenues of $30000.
3. Operations phase: This phase at Sugar Bowl consists of all the business operations for addressing the issues related to unpredictability and emotive rollercoaster of changing situations with the customers and also the changing trend in profit generation for the firm and its internal and external stakeholders (Babin and Zikmund, 2015).

SWOT Analysis of Sugar Bowl

Apart from these issues in different phases, the last issue is the marketing and advertisement of the organization by adopting different techniques of promotion for showing them to its competitors in the industry. The target segment for this business is the young people and graduate students, so that the organization had also confronted the threats of deciding on the suitable target market. It is one of the biggest components for management team to consider (Bull, et al, 2016).

Environmental analysis is the analysis, which is conducted to evaluate the external and internal factors, which impact the growth and success of an organization in competitive business environment. To study the internal and external factors of the company, the strengths and weaknesses are analyzed for internal analysis and its threats and opportunities are analyzed for external analysis of the organization. Sugar Bowl is successful

The SWOT analysis of Sugar Bowl is stated below;

One of the major strengths of Sugar Bowl is its strong and effective management that has not only assisted the organization in achieving its objectives and profitable status, but also in cutting the costs and generating more and significant revenues. Second Strength of Sugar Bowl is the size of its business that offers various benefits of reducing the risks and challenges of the organization in respective industry. With its grown business size, the organization is able to use maximum resources, which they have for operating new markets and protect their business against, which assist them in differentiating the competitors (Fleisher & Bensoussan, 2015). In addition, the organization can increase the prices due to its monopoly in the business. In his latter phase of life, Mr. Dane Sugar fortified the business with advanced technology, which could considerably assist this business in gaining competitive edge in the bowing sector. The business operations of the firm are streamlined and it demonstrates an effective cost management. It had grown its business according to the advanced and modern trends in the business environment and respective industry. Thus, the strengths of the Sugar Bowl show that in the time of Mr. Dane Sugar, the business was going very well (Grönroos, 2007).

Apart from these strengths, there are some weaknesses of the business, which influence its growth in this industry. From the given case study, it can be analyzed that one of the major weaknesses of Sugar Bowl is the inefficiencies in the work and processes. This is one of the major issues at Sugar Bowl. The organization is fluctuating on its business activities and operations. Furthermore, other weaknesses of this firm are like; high staff turnover and high debt burden. The experienced staff at Sugar Bowl is quitting the job due to different issues, like; two waiters had left the job because they were earning lower than forecasted. The job that is offered to people at Sugar Bowl is very much tiring and stressful. It was facing the issues related to the high debt. The company had taken the loan of higher amount and it was unable to repay the loan under the given deadlines (Granot, Alejandro and Russell, 2014). Neighborhood revitalization is another weakness of Sugar Bowl that is influencing its growth.

Major Market Segments

Opportunities are the key elements in the external environment of business, which a business can exploit to its benefits. In its organizational life, it needs to analyze that what better opportunities it can spot in its external environment and it needs to become aware about the new and interesting trends in the market. As per the given case study, there are so many opportunities, which Sugar Bowl had in the US bowling industry. Sugar Bowl may have the opportunities, like; business expansion in new and emerging markets. It should use new and innovative technologies in its services (Hamermesh & Zalosh, 2013). Innovation can enhance the operations of company and attract more and more customers towards Sugar Bowl. It should introduce new and unique products and services in the bowling industry. Thus, it can go for product and market differentiation. By increasing the salaries and incentives of employees and waiters, it can attain employee retention, as it is confronting the issue of employee turnover. Furthermore, it may have the opportunities to develop partnership through different options, like; franchise, joint venture etc. These opportunities may grow and enhance the business operations of this firm.        

Threats are the challenges in the business environment, which can trouble the business and impact the growth and success of business. As mentioned above, Sugar Bowl is confronting various issues in the bowling industry in United States. Change in the taste and preferences are major threats for this organization (Hallbäck and Gabrielsson, 2013). As the taste and preferences are changing with the passage of time, so the organization needs to update its products and business processes accordingly. In its past years, Sugar Bowl was taking advantage of its monopoly in bowling industry, but now the industry has grown and there are so many competitors in the US bowling industry. Furthermore, volatile costs and volatile revenues are also posing threats to the business operations of Sugar Bowl. These threats are resisting the Sugar Bowl in enhancing the business in competitive environment and gaining competitive advantage against its competitors (Helm and Gritsch, 2014).

Identification of market segment is an important process in advertising and promotional process. Market segment is a group of people, who are with the similar characteristics and considered together for the purpose of marketing. When a company chooses a market segment, it considers various characteristics, like; psychographic, behavioral, demographic and geographic characteristics. Each and every segment is unique and exclusive and uses different criteria to develop segment for its products and services. An organization may select their market segment form different groups, like; families, businesses, organizations, individuals and other groups. As per the given case, it can be analyzed Sugar Bowl is targeting different segments, like; older graduate students and young professionals (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2014). It is selecting the market segments in the basis of demographic characteristics, like; age and income level. The company is selecting these segments, as they are actively and frequently engaged in using online tools and services. The management team at Sugar Bowl believed that direct mails, online advertisements and social media can provide better value and capabilities in comparison to traditional media.

Marketing Mix Strategies

There may be two types of marketing research, which can be conducted for these segments to develop a successful marketing strategy for the organization. It can conduct primary and secondary marketing research, which will assist the organization in gather the related information about its customers. Under primary research, it will collect the data by conducting direct observations in the market, surveys and interviews. By these techniques, Sugar Bowl will be able to know about the market trends and changed needs and preferences of potential customers (Hollensen, 2015). The results of this research will be very much valuable as they answer the desired questions and collect original information. Moreover, secondary research can be conducted by Sugar Bowl. Under this marketing research, it can gather the information from internet sources and results from previous marketing research. In this process, Sugar Bowl can look at its existing customer data base and types of customers. It will make easier to choose appropriate market segment for Sugar Bowl’s products and services. By conducting this marketing research, Sugar Bowl will be able to develop its marketing strategy in the future (Hunger & Wheelen, 2011).

SMART objective is the tool that is adopted by an organization to achieve its overall objective. The goals of an organization should be SMART, i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time related. The SMART objectives for Sugar Bowl are created below;

This dimension of SMART objectives states that the objectives should be specific. Under this, an organization should target a specific area, which can be improved by the organization. By making decision on this, the company can state what actually the organization desires to attain. In this case, the objectives of Sugar Bowl are specific as the company is making efforts to resolve the issues in different phases, i.e. transformation, renovation and operations. For this, the organization will make focus on the product diversification and marketing and advertising process of the company. Thus, the major objective of the company is to emphasize on the areas, which are creating issues for Sugar Bowl (McDonald and Wilson, 2016). Firm would like to enhance its operations and increase its market share in US bowling industry.

This is the second dimension of SMART objective, which quantify and recommend an indicator of progress. In this, the organization will set a standard to measure the growth of objective attainment. The company will be able to track the progress and growth and measure the results. The objectives of Sugar Bowl specifically state that organization would like to enhance its customer base and market share (Huang and Sarigöllü, 2014). This percentage will provide, which can be measured to indicate whether the goals are attained or not. It will target a specific market segment for its products and services.

SMART Objectives

Under this dimension, an organization will ensure that its objectives are achievable. It means the objectives should be realistic in the given conditions, in which it is established. The management should ensure that required resources are available to attain the objectives. From the given case study, it can be stated that the objectives of Sugar Bowl are achievable and it has all the required resources. The objectives are realistic, which can be attained by implementing different strategies and making efforts (Lodish, Morgan, Archambeau and Babin, 2015).

It indicates that objectives should be relevant to the resources and people of organization, which are accountable for attaining these objectives. In the given case, the objectives of Sugar Bowl are relevant to the people, who are responsible for achieving the goals, like; marketing team is working for resolving the issues related to marketing and advertising. Human resource department will be responsible for managing the issues related to staff turnover. All the tasks and responsibilities will be assigned accordingly, so that objectives can be attained successfully (Miles, et al, 2015).

The objectives of an organization should have a time limit, in which they should be attained. A good objective statement should include the time limit for the organization. Sugar Bowl will determine a specific time period for attaining its objectives. It will make efforts to attain its short term objectives in 6 months. The management team will set a time frame in mind and deadlines will be determined, which will be realistic (Nijssen, 2017).

Marketing mix is the tool that can be used for adopting effective strategies for promoting its new products and services. Marketing mix of an organization includes four strategies, i.e. product, price, place and promotion. These strategies will assist the organization in enhancing its promotional processes. From the given case, the following section includes the proposed marketing mix for Sugar Bowl;

In the given case, the products of Sugar Bowl are diversified, like; it is offering nightclub and bowling lounge to develop plush and lively. With this, it will offer old juke box and a food menu, which will include hot dogs, pizza, beer on tap etc. At Sugar Bowl, the customers will be able to full bar and table services. It should include music and special events for its target market. In future, it will include different types of food in the menu. It will enhance its products and services in different divisions (Pike and Page, 2014).

The pricing strategy of Sugar Bowl will be very competitive as it is offering its products and services at affordable prices. The prices of Sugar Bowl are the major factors, which will assist the organization in retaining its existing customers and creating new customers.

Under marketing mix, place strategy will include different distribution channels and network, which can be used by an organization to deliver the products to customers. Sugar Bowl will use effective place and distribution strategy, so that people can use its products and services. It will offer the services online on its website, so customers can order the products (Lodish, Morgan, Archambeau and Babin, 2015).

Under its promotional strategy, the company will offer discount on specified nights focused to corporate clients and college students. These strategies will assist the organization in increasing awareness with its target market segment. In addition, the business will offer promotional items, like; discount, coupons and giveaways.  

The above given strategies will be effective for Sugar Bowl for resolving the issues, stated in answer 1. Marketing mix strategy considers all the issues and problems, so that they can be resolved. By implementing product strategy, the organization will be able to increase its customer base and create new customers. The marketing mix strategies will assist the company in organizing all the aspects of marketing around the desires and psychology of its target market segments (Wolf and Akkaraju, 2014). This theory considers all the behaviors of customers, which are considered by them, when they go to purchase or use any product. Promotional strategy will engage the customers to use the bowling services of Sugar Bowl business. By these strategies, the company will be able to advertise and promote the products and services. Pricing strategy will make it able in repayment of debts. Thus, by implementing this effective marketing mix, Sugar Bowl will be able to overcome the issues.

Implementation of this effective marketing mix will be beneficial for Sugar Bowl in today’s competitive business environment. This proposed marketing strategy will assist the organization to overcome all the above-mentioned issues. By adopting these strategies, the company will be successful in increasing its customer by diversifying its product categories. It will use different types of media to engage the customers to use the services of this firm. Strategic partnership with other local organizations will enhance the predictability and increase the repeat intention of customers. Thus, it can be stated that implication of proposed strategies is positive for Sugar Bowl.

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the business operations of Sugar Bowl were great in the duration of Mr. Sugar. Further, Givens had tried her best to increase its profitability. The business had faced so many issues and made efforts to resolve those issues. Company is implementing various strategies to deal with these issues. The proposed marketing mix will assist the company to overcome these issues.

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