Global Consumer Behavior - Report

Introduction Sports activities in the UK among young adults (18 to 24 years of age) have been steadily increasing due to public awareness about health concerns and population increases over the past decade. However, the percentage of the young adult population that go to municipal sports centres is decreasing due to the costs attached. This segment of the population reflects a larger part of the population that pursues sports leisure activities than any other. Conditions that affect the demand for municipally owned sports facilities vary due to ethnicity, individual earning power, social demands and the actual standards of the facilities that are provided. This report aims to uncover the main concerns that young adults have when opting for physical activity in municipally owned sports facilities. Further, it will discriminate between ethnicities and gender among the segment and the preferences each have alongside the reasons thereof.

Literature Review Young adults have the need to express individuality and increase their personal image in social settings (Southern Illinois University, 2002). Although the main reason that most young adults opt for joining municipal sports centres are social in nature, these needs are complemented by desires to enjoy recreational activities where the outcome of the stress taken also leads to mental and physical well-being. Participation in sports activities in Australia, for example, among young adults has remained about constant between 1999 to 2006, where 73% of young adults participated in some form of social sports activities. In this same period, participation of females rose

from 67% to 72% while male participation decreased from 80% to 73% (ABS 2007b). This shows that male and female young adults both have a similar tendency to pursue sports activities in Australia. However, in the UK, young adult males are 20% more likely to pursue some form of sports or physical training routine (YAP 2007, p. 26). 0312-4093667

Internationally, popular sports and exercise trends are towards aerobics, fitness, walking for exercise, swimming and running, which shows that team sports are not the most popular choice in every segment. The element of recreation is of fundamental importance to young adults as more and more average working hours are added into their schedule (Participation: constraints & facilitators, 2004). Tendencies in the UK are leading young adults to work extra hours during weekdays and even putting in work hours during weekends. This leads to a very short time span where this segment can freely enjoy sports activities, therefore, creating a need to include social interactions as part of these activities (Henley Centre, 2000). The UK has the highest amount of hours worked per week in the EU (BBC, 2011). This has increased the general stress level in the population and requires that there be a release in the form of safe and healthy activities where social interactions can take place. The setting is a major concern as young adults are among the most discriminative portion of the population when it comes to quality of facilities and attaining value for money. There is a need for sports facilities to include diversity in their list of activities with activities such as martial arts, swimming, dance classes and there is always a competition between sports centres for providing the best gym facilities and equipment. Apart from that, aesthetics play a major role when it comes to motivating young adults to join these sports centres. Bright and spacious environments need to be created with modern interior architectural design that not only provides the right amount of space but also to create the proper ambiance that so many young adults eagerly demand. This is the main reason why most young adults will shift from one municipal sports centre to another. This migration often creates a multiplier leakage in

members as peer groups will flock together, leading to large demand drops in the affected municipal sports centres. Another barrier that decreases the demand for sports activities among young adults is higher education. University students are noted to have very little leisure time on their hands due to heavy study routines and lack of funds. The majority of their time is spent among peer study groups and part-time employment (Journal of Educational Psychology, 1990). Also, young adult students have little need for municipal sports centres because educational facilities usually include sports facilities inside campuses or provide memberships for students to assigned private fitness centres. They also provide extracurricular activities that usually counteract demand growth for municipal sports centres. The UK has a much lower demand for health clubs in general when compared to more evolved markets like the US (Oxford Journals, 2006). Openings of new clubs have slowed down considerably due to the world economic conditions. Overall, families and individuals alike have cut down their expenses on non-essentials and substituted expensive activities with cheaper alternatives. For example, many young adults with aerobics, swimming and cardio routines have switched from joining health clubs and gone to jogging in parks, bicycling and other activities that do not require membership fees.

Ethnic preferences and their effect on revenue Among ethnic groups, there are varied reasons for choosing certain sports centres over others. South Asian communities have religious and cultural preferences that affect demand for sports activities. Generally, among South Asian communities, women are more conservative in the sense that they may opt for ladies only health clubs and may not join swimming activities due the non-segregated gender facilities. This is a large portion of the young adult population and even though young adults tend to be less affected by cultural norms pertaining to their ethnic backgrounds, family and peer pressures do not allow them to act upon their personal points of view and join non-segregated health clubs. This also contributes to drops in revenues for sports facilities as they cannot cater for this segment of the population. Other ethnic minorities such as Africans, East Asians and South Americans have barriers to entry in this market as well. These ethnic minorities do not find the satisfaction of social interaction that sports clubs provide at the same level as locals. There are very few numbers of people from these backgrounds that participate in group activities due to lack of belonging and acceptance. In the UK, foundations such as Sporting Equals are trying to encourage members of these communities to actively participate in sports activities and reduce any immobility these communities may have to participate. The main effort of the foundation is to bring out talented individuals that can contribute to the sports professionals in the UK with obvious tendencies to promote overall demand for sports within these communities.

Awareness among consumers

Among young adults, there is a growing awareness of the necessity of proper health and fitness instructors that can make results faster and more substantial. Weight training and cardiovascular exercises are among the most popular with young adults due to the social norm of having an appealing physique. Fashion trends and social pressures create a need among young adults to not only satisfy personal health requirements by the fitness routines they follow but also to increase social acceptance by improving personal appearance. Among obese people, cardiovascular training, aerobics, swimming and even martial arts training are among the norms to improve personal appearance due to the rapid effect of these exercises on personal appearance. This creates a need for health clubs to provide properly trained nutritionists and physical trainers that will guide and motivate this segment to seek results in a standardized and methodical way. Municipal sports centres across the UK have been hiring fitness experts for many years and have been increasing their demand for these professionals steadily. There cannot be an increase in demand for municipal sports centres unless they cater for changing trends in the market. For example, gym facilities have changed their equipment with modern weight training machines which reduce the risk of injury and improve the overall targeting of workouts to individual muscle groups. A great amount of research is carried out in the design of this equipment. However, this also increases costs for sports centres as the price for this specialized equipment keeps rising.

Preferences of young adults In light of the new facilities that our particular municipal sports centre is offering, it is favorable to note that the changes that are being made to the facilities are in line with the trends that affect the overall demand for health activities. Young adults will not suffice with having a large room with gym equipment and a mediocre

swimming pool. As is needed, the new sports centre offers a stateof-the-art gymnasium that will undoubtedly include the latest machinery and free weights, a large twenty five meter swimming pool which is of international standards, a large caf which caters to up to fifty people and there is also a diversity in the services added, such as dance classes, martial arts training, among others. This change is exactly what is needed to cater for the diverse ethnical and social backgrounds that this town has to offer. International students are already motivated to participate in extracurricular activities. All that is needed are competitive prices that will not over burden students with expenses that are beyond their capacity. This multicultural influx of consumers can create a multiplier effect in the demand for the services offered by this sports centre due to the social factors attached. Multiethnic communities have a less segregated atmosphere and provide better social interactions among the individuals involved. A higher acceptability of cultural backgrounds will add demand for team and individual sports activities alike. This will lead not only to university students participating readily in the sports centres activities but it will also make local ethnic minorities feel more comfortable with joining the club as they will feel much less left out, leading to a reduction in the psychological dissonance that most ethnic minorities feel when joining such social activities. Local majorities will also feel more motivated to join due to the fact that young adults, overall, have a higher acceptance curve for sharing multifarious life experiences due to their need for being part of the globalization that is spreading throughout the world. A major improvement in the facility is the caf which will add to the social experience of this sports club. Young adults do not socialize only during sports activities but they prefer to socialize after as well. Creating a sit-down caf means that many of these people will not opt to go to external restaurants and/or bars and will instead stay at

the sports centre for further social interactions. This will develop goodwill among the members and will add to the overall social experience that they crave. More importantly, this is a very good source of revenue that can increase profits that may be used for expansion in the future. In the UK, the majority of young adults only get free time during weekends and that too during late hours. Due to this fact, it would be highly advisable that this municipal sports centre be open till late at night so that the potential consumer segment has the flexibility to maintain a schedule that allows change. Many people also like to come during later hours due to the fact that they prefer training when there is a lesser crowd. Whichever the reason, the sports centre should be open till at least 10 PM if not later, with all the staff available, including personal trainers and management. Of course, this raises costs considerably and so a thorough check has to be made over the next six months to a year about the number of members that show up during these later hours and on which days of the week. Accordingly, the management should set timings separately for weekdays and weekends and seasonal changes as well, thus making a proper schedule based on numbers rather than copying their competition.

Further expansion of sports centre As far as facilities and services are concerned, this sports centre has included the main activities that most young adults prefer. However, there are still a number of more activities that could be added so as to increase revenues substantially. Many sports centres offer large running tracks, football fields, tennis courts, professional diving boards and even recreational sports such as bowling. In the longrun, the club should focus on reinvesting its profits to expand the centre. This expansion will bring about a large increase in the

revenues as many members will start to add services to their schedule and will, consequently, spend more time and money at the centre. Alongside the caf, adding a proper bar or tavern to the facility can add great amounts of revenue as most young adults will spend most of their time at this facility during weekends and management will have an option to allow or disallow non-members inside to increase revenue further. This multi-tasking of services will increase our target segments dependency on the sports centre and add value to the overall brand image thereof. Should there be personal requests by members to add particular services, these should not be ignored. Special petition forms should be created that can be signed by a minimum number of members to add certain services. This will also add brand equity to the centre and will increase revenues once services are added.

Marketing recommendations As far as marketing is concerned, the centre has a great opportunity for increasing its consumer segment by joining with the local university. The sports centres management team should hold meetings with the university management to discuss how it could be feasible for the university to assign this sports club as their official health club. Special discounted rates for students as well as coupons for the caf should be provided so that students are compelled to visit and join the centre. Large promotional banners and flyers can be spread throughout the campus to increase general awareness among university students. This will greatly enhance the demand for participative sports services that the centre has to offer among the various ethnic groups in the university. Further, this type of marketing works very well to increase word of mouth advertising

as peer groups will undoubtedly talk about their experiences and opinions about the sports centre. To further increase marketing exposure, the management should find the top selling newspapers and magazines in the area that are preferred by young adults. This can be done by a simple costeffective survey or questionnaire. Consumer samples can be taken from the local university, at local shopping malls and even via emailing current customers in exchange for some form of discount on one months fee if they fill out the questionnaire and send it back with their membership number. Once the required information is retrieved, these periodicals should include monthly, if not weekly advertisements about the municipal sports centre with updates about new services, prices and caf promotions. Other marketing activities may include free trials of services, such as One Day Passes to gym facilities and swimming. Heightening the exposure, even if for one day, can greatly increase market awareness for the sports centre while maintaining marketing costs relatively low. The effects of these efforts should be seen in a cumulative way on a monthly basis. Overall, there will be a rise in the number of members and also the variety of the ethnic backgrounds that they pertain to. It is up to the management to increase or decrease the marketing expenditure and the choice of the marketing mix based on constantly evaluated results from the expenditure. The major change that the sports centre should consider is rebranding. Often it is seen that when consumers have opted to substitute their brand choice with another due to lack of satisfaction they will rarely go back to the same despite the many improvements that have been made. Changing the name of the sports centre as well as the brand logo and color palette can add great flair to the brand image if done correctly. It is advisable that

the management hire a reputable advertising agency to help them create an effective rebranding campaign and even to conduct indepth market research if finances permit. If the aim is to attract young adults to the re-designed sports centre, it is only logical that the brand image be re-designed as well to cater specifically for this segment.

Conclusion
The time that young adults spend on sports activities is decreasing due to the financial pressure, workloads and education. People from ethnic minorities need to feel a sense of belonging in their local sports centre to readily participate in the ongoing activities. For there to be an increase in demand in despite of the current socio-economic conditions that prevail, the sports centre has to provide an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere with state-of-the-art facilities and varied sports activities at a very competitive rate. Follow-the-leader strategies help while setting prices but they can only do so much due to the differences in the cultural mix of potential consumers in each region. Aggressive marketing tactics need to be implemented in the long run to increase market share at the required rate and to get back the members that have left this sports centre for another. Timings on weekends have to be later than on weekdays as these are the peak days that young adults have time to spend on leisurely activities. To derive the highest amount of return on investment for the marketing spend, consumer research in the form of surveys, questionnaires and professional field research through an appointed ad agency has to be performed. This will give the management an accurate estimate of the potential gains in revenue that the sports centre can generate and it will help them make wiser future decisions. A complete re-branding is required to lift the reputation of the centre to its fullest potential.

References

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Measures of Australia's Progress, 2010 Macan, Therese H.; Shahani, Comila; Dipboye, Robert L.; Phillips, Amanda P. College, (1990), . Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 82(4), Dec 1990, 760-768.

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