O\'Keefe Ice Arena the Arena

O'Keefe Ice Arena

The arena has several target markets. These include hockey groups, figure skating groups, parents who want to drop their kids off, teenagers and a miscellany of smaller groups. This accounts for the demographic diversity of the public skates. Manuel's problem is that he believes his target market to be something other than what it is. He is fixated on the teenager and young adult market, and mistakenly believes there is an upside of 700 customers per session. Yet, there is no data and no history to support this belief.

The marketing mix thus far has included a variety of promotions and specials. It has also included radio promotion. Manuel offers a wide variety of times for public skates, under the mistaken belief that number of times is as important as quality of times. In fact, offering time slots that nobody cares about is not a valuable part of the market mix. His price points are perfectly reasonable, given the wide range of competition in the market, much of it equally affordable.

Among O'Keefe's strengths are its monopolies in indoor ice skating and in public skates; the fact that the public skates are profitable, albeit barely. The weekend afternoon sessions are a strength and there appears to be some brand recognition within the community. There are several weaknesses - public skate times that nobody cares about, an everchanging promotional mix that never seems to hit the mark, and a manager who predicates his decisions on assumptions that are completely unsubstantiated, such as the potential market size and the assumed effectiveness of radio.

There are opportunities in the market. These include building the "baby-sitting" market of parents who drop their kids off for a couple of hours, selling more to hockey groups, and finding alternate uses for the arena that have not yet been tried. There are many threats, however. Because O'Keefe is essentially in the recreation business, most forms of entertainment should be considered a competitive threat, especially with respect to the teenager and young adult markets, which are actively courted by dozens of other businesses. The weather is also a threat, since attendance declines as the attractiveness of outdoor pursuits increases.

Manuel should pursue several different courses of action. He should be willing to sell ice time to hockey groups if it is more profitable, even on weekend evenings. He should focus on courting the teenage and young adult market during times when competition for their business is less intense, like weeknights. He should recognize the value of the ice arena as a babysitter and schedule skates for times when that has an appeal, such as after school. We should also focus his marketing efforts on media used by his target market. Some people still listen to radio, but if Manuel wants to reach a younger audience he needs to do it online, via text message marketing and other modes of communication that have a better reach with his target.

Manuel should be open to implementing all of these options. Given the intensity of competition faced by the arena, there is not going to be one 'magic bullet' solution that solves all of the arena's marketing woes. Manuel needs to make several changes. At the core of the implementation strategy, however, should be information. Right now Manuel is making his decisions based on incorrect assumptions, then wondering why those decisions are not working.