Childrens Amusement Park

Marketing Plan for a Children’s Amusement Park
Executive Summary
The marketing objectives for this paper are to create a strategic marketing plan that considers the situational analysis, target segmentation, marketing mix, financials and controls needed to get the Park to the kids and get parents to buy an annual membership.
The vision for the Park is to be a safe place where all ethnicities and children are welcome and stimulated; where they can play games and have a snack zone with healthy but good-tasting treats. It is to be a place where parents are comfortable spending time as well while they allow their children to play on their own.
The mission is to reach this vision by adhering to the company’s main principles: 1) differentiate, 2) advocate, and 3) create. The first step is to make sure the Park is always offering something unique that sets it apart from other amusement parks for children in the area. The second step is to make sure that the Park is always advocating for families, health and education so that the foods, snacks and beverages are wholesome but consumer-friendly cost-wise and so that there is always a fun, educational experience to be had in the learning zone of the Park. The third step is to create great and long-lasting relationships with families so that they want to come back again and again to patronize the Park, buy annual passes, and get their friends to join.
The core competencies needed for this plan to succeed are excellent customer service and people skills so that customers always feel valued and that they are getting good value for their money. Marketers must also understand the target segment and be able to tailor the marketing strategy to the needs and behaviors of the target by using models like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The value chain will be used to ensure competitive advantage by keeping inventory costs down, converting basic entertainment concepts and materials into blockbuster sales, and enhancing the customer experience by incorporating feedback into the delivery plan.
The overview of this plan is as follows. First, the situation analysis will be provided with an examination of the Park’s SWOT and external environmental factors. Second is the target segmentation of the paper, which provides a breakdown of the demographic, geographic and behavioral traits of the target customer. Third is the positioning strategy that the firm will adopt based on its approach to differentiation and low-cost services and products. Fourth will be the marketing mix that the company will use to reach consumers. Fifth will be the financial and budgetary concerns. And last will be a discussion of how to improve, control and monitor progress.
Situation Analysis
SWOT
Strengths of the amusement park are that it appeals to the community in which it is situated: there is a large population of families with children, the area is growing and there is not a lot of competition in neighborhood in terms of providing this kind of entertainment for kids. The park is known for fun games, trampolines, snacks, a café for adults and one for kids, a Playstation center, and more and thus has a strong all-in-one vibe to it so that it appeals to both adults and kids, which prevents adults from being bored while kids have fun.
Weaknesses include there is no room for expansion. Growth would require tearing down and building back up. There has been demand for more games including miniature golf and a go-cart race track; however, the site is limited at the time, and the company would have to conduct a capital raise for investment. The company does not have a strong community connection at this time and should seek to engage in more promotional and sponsoring activities.
Opportunities are many: the community is growing via development for miles around. Two new schools have opened in the past year alone and there are plenty of new jobs attracting families to the area. The Houston, TX, area is near the coast and so there is an opportunity to expand the brand and develop a seaside resort stay that focuses on children’s amusement features. There is an opportunity too for the company to increase its brand image and brand loyalty by using social media marketing to increase visibility and connectedness with consumers.
Threats are that because many of the jobs in the region are oil-related, a downturn in the oil markets could lead to a serious depression in the local economy. Furthermore, competition may increase as there is no substantial barrier to entry. There is nothing preventing a rival park from opening, barring investment, and with the community growing it is possible that a new park with different features could enter the market and steal the company’s market share.
Five External Environmental Factors
Economic. Economic factors are currently supportive of the business. Houston is growing but not at a rate that would draw attention from speculators or momentum chasers (Douglas, 2019). Growth has been steady and ticking upwards for years, which indicates a strong foundation overall for a good and diversified economy.
Competition. The Houston Funplex, the Sky Sports Trampoline Park, and Boomers! can all be considered competition in the area. Boomers offers swimming pools, which is something different and the Funplex is more of an activity zone with mazes and ball pits. The trampoline park focuses on trampoline games—so each specializes in a unique take on kid fun, while our company offers a wide variety of diverse activities and a café with free wi-fi for adults.
Technology/Innovation. The amusement park has more of an old-school feel to which allows the company to keep things simple; however, parents are catered to by giving them the opportunity both for self-serve café options and full service seating. Wi-fi is available and strong, and the café has a luxurious and comfortable appeal that allows parents to also monitor their kids from above the action below. Essentially, parents have a bird’s eye view. There is also a security team employed to make sure safety is a top feature of the park. Technology improvements in gaming are unlikely to be a major impact considering the park’s appeal is low-tech and old-school.
Legal/Regulatory. Safety regulations are complied with and the Houston code of fire safety, etc., have all been utilized in the development and layout of the park, with access doors for adequate egress and ingress, sufficient sprinkler system, warning system, and security system in place. Legal issues are unlikely to be a major factor going forward as the park is properly situated in the correct zoning environment.
Social/Political. The community has a love for children’s activities and there has been an interest in more educational themed and healthy environment parks. The company may want to rework its menu for kids to include healthier fare and provide an educational zone as well.
Target Segmentation
Demographic
The demographic segment is concerned with age, gender, occupation, and ethnicity of customers (Lin, 2002). The age of the target segment is the 4 to 12-year-old age range: children from the elementary school level on up to middle school. However, the company also targets adults (i.e. Parents) who must bring the children to the park, and so the café area is designed with them in mind—so for parents in the 25-40 year age range. The segment is gender neutral, and occupation of parents is middle class. Ethnicity is neutral.
Geographic
The geographic segment tells where consumers come from (Lin, 2002). Customers will come from the Houston area. The main neighborhoods are those with families and signs of growth.
Behavioral
The behavioral segment looks at the consumer’s status as a consumer—frequent vs. random, etc (Lin, 2002). The target is families who are active in outings with their children, who go out for parties, who enjoy getting out of the house with the kids, and who tend to like to frequent new places or the same places over and over again with the family.
Positioning Strategy
As Trout and Rivkin (2006) point out, one must “differentiate or die,” and that is what this company aims to do: create a product and provide a service in an environment that is unlike anything anywhere else. The kids amusement park will cater to kids using old-school appeal rather than hi-tech offerings that only reflect the latest fads and trends in entertainment and do not have tried-and-true staying power. Thus, the classic staples of kid entertainment will be found in this park along with a few upgrades to accommodate those who seek the safety of Playstation and gaming consoles. Plus, there will be the adult’s café where they can have their own peace of mind place with food and drink to satisfy. The positioning strategy will also include adopting a low cost approach to the market along with a subscription based format to follow in the shoes of subscription models, such as museums, pools, and clubs.
Marketing Mix—4 P’s
Price
Discounts will be available for families and for annual subscribers; bundling family packages together with other options such as when the brand expands to include a seaside resort facility will also be available in the future. Competitive pricing will be the name of the game so as to give parents the benefit of considering opportunity cost—i.e., of thinking about how much they can save by coming to this park as opposed to going to another that offers less but costs more. Indeed, the argument that Frederick, Novemsky, Wang, Dhar and Nowlis (2009) make is that consumers often fail to take into consideration opportunity cost when they make a purchase. To truly consider opportunity cost, they would have to examine all the various alternatives to making the purchase before they do so. But when consumers are mainly impulse buyers—i.e., they purchase in the heat of the moment—the concept of opportunity cost does not factor into their decision making process. For that reason, part of the park’s promotion will be to identify the opportunity cost and get consumers thinking about how they can save money by coming to this park versus another: the main finding of the article by Frederick et al. (2009), for example, is that when consumers consider opportunity cost, they are more likely to be price sensitive—meaning that they will hesitate to make a purchase if they feel the price is too high or that they can get it for less under another brand name. This can be helpful to producers who manufacture low-cost goods with the intention of taking market share from more expensive brands by marketing to consumers and encouraging them to engage in opportunity cost consideration. They would suggest, for instance, that the customer consider the savings he could enjoy by buying the lower cost item vs. a higher priced premium brand item.
Product
The design of the place and the way it looks refer to packaging and design and for the park design and packaging will focus on a look that appeals to kids—clean, friendly, colorful and exciting. For the adults, the café will have calm, neutral colors and more of a sophisticated atmosphere so that they can feel that they are free from the “chaotic” nature of the kids zone. The equipment will be durable to withstand abuse from children, quality will be high in order to last and keep maintenance costs low; texture will be soft as possible so as to prevent accidents and falls from hurting or harming; corners will be rounded, and so on. The brand will be visible but not obnoxiously overwhelming at every turn.
Place
Place is important in the marketing aspect because it determines how comfortable the client will be in the environment. It refers to everything from the parking lot, the ease of access the consumer has to the products and services, the air temperature, the music, the ambiance, the lighting and so on. The place will be well-lit where the children play—so whether it is the trampoline zone, the gaming zone, or the learning zone there will plenty of light for the sake of safety. In the adult café the lighting will be a bit more subdued so as not to burn the eyes of the adults and to make them feel more comfortable and at ease.
Promotion
Promotional factors will focus on sponsoring local area events and games so that the brand becomes more visible to the community and using social media to connect with families. Social media is a great way to connect with consumers according to the research, as it allows for consumers to give feedback and for companies to promote their services, provide news to followers, and make the brand more appealing (Andzulis, Panagopoulos & Rapp, 2012; Mangold & Faulds, 2009; Tiago & Verissimo, 2014). The promotion will also be used to advertise sale periods and events where guests get to come free for a day.
Financials, Budgeting
Financially the firm will seek to obtain revenue through sale of annual memberships, which will provide families with access to the Park and all the kids zones, from the trampolines to the gaming station to the learning station. Foods and beverages will be an additional cost but the prices will be competitive and not exaggerated as is usually the case at amusement parks. Costs will be reasonable and in line with what one used to be able to find at the ballpark before prices there went through the roof pricing families out of the experience but for once in a blue moon. Parents will be able to come to the Park, hit the café and watch the game on TV will enjoying good food and drinks at an affordable price will the kids play safely in the various zones, all of which will be monitored.
Memberships will not be required to gain access, but it will be on way to control for the environment (misbehaving families will have memberships revoked), and it will be one way to project over the course of the year how much capital will be available for re-investment and updating/upgrading when needed. As Teece (2010) notes, the subscription service model is helpful in collecting a pre-set level of fees and projecting what food and beverage costs will likely be as a result. The subscription model is often seen as a last-ditch effort to bring in business (Chyi, 2005), but in the case of the amusement park it is a tried and true method of bringing back consumers and developing relationships. It also gives value to the consumer who feels that once the subscription is paid for the most should be made of the environment. Membership packages will include limitless visits, monthly visit restrictions (3 visits per month, 5, and unlimited), and one time visit pay will also be available for guests passing through. Membership fees and the sale of low cost food and beverage products will be the main revenue streams for the business and all budgeting for staff, maintenance crew, cleaning crew, and management will come from these streams.
The following will be prices for admission/membership:
Annual Family Membership: $450
Annual Single Person Membership: $95
Single Day Admission: $55 per person—all ages
The cost for raw materials will be:
Rent: $15 sq/ft
Game Zones (Trampolines, PlayStations, Learning Stations, etc.): $450,000 for the initial outlay, including installation.
The overall initial investment start-up cost will be $1.5 million and will be raised from private investors who will own shares in the company.
Promotional costs will include:
Sponsorships: Annual budget of $150,000
Social media marketing: $60,000 for salaried social media marketer employee
Improvements, Monitor, Control
Improvements will be made as needed and will be determined by implementing a strategy to obtain customer feedback through email surveys in which the customer will be incentivized to complete the survey with a free beverage or food item from the café. The surveys will be a useful way learn what customers like, what they dislike and what can stand to be changed with quantitative data being analyzed to produce statistical evidence of customer needs. As Yang (2003) notes, the best way to get a sense of customer satisfaction is to utilize the customer service satisfaction survey, and that is what the Park will do to continually reassess, reflect on and reevaluate the kinds of entertainment offerings and services it provides to kids and adults.
Monitoring improvements will consist of a quality check strategy in which management identifies and defines the goals of improvement and uses measurable outcomes to verify whether the improvement has succeeded in bettering the experience of the consumer. This will necessarily entail more surveying but it will also be demonstrable through observational analysis and interaction with consumers while there by the customer service staff. The more engaged workers are with the consumers, the more likely consumers are to have a memorable and enjoyable experience and to want to keep coming back.
Once goals have been achieved, the way to control will be to use Kotter’s 8-step change management model to cement the changes and to make them permanent (Applebaum, Habashy, Malo & Shafiq, 2012). Control is something that can allow for the culture of the place to be set so that staff know what is expected of them in order to please consumers and consumers can come and go with assurance that every visit will be met with the same environment and friendly attitudes from staff.
Conclusion
A successful marketing plan depends upon knowing the target consumer, appealing to the consumer by appealing to his needs, and developing a quality product and service at an attractive price that is not offered elsewhere. That is what this plan has aimed to do. The Park will differentiate itself, advocate for good of families, and develop positive relationships with clients.
References
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