Studio Celtia One of the

Studio Celtia One of the most significant marketing challenges that Tony O'Callaghan faces, with distinct reverberation at sales level, is related to a significant decrease in overall volume of sales, mainly due to reduced traffic. The closure of the local Covent Garden Market and the association naturally made between the downtown location of the store and the crime barometer in the area had an impact on the volume of customers purchasing from the store.

As we have seen from the case study, the main part of the clientele came from local residents that entered the store while coming downtown, perhaps for a movie or drink. Additionally, the location of the store also addressed tourists from around the world, visiting central locations, like the Covent Garden Market. In this sense, it seems that O'Callaghan's targeted segment of consumers is limited to a small portion of the potential segment of consumers.

His shop is only known around the city and has a distinct, but limited number of potential buyers. Expanding the spectrum of consumers he is addressing could be a solution for the main problem he is facing, the volume reduction issue. On the other hand, an additional problem is related to operating costs. Rents downtown are indeed much smaller than elsewhere in the city, but, as a result of the lease agreement, O'Callaghan had to rent the entire building.

At this point, he faces an inefficient distribution of his activities, because parts of the rented space are not used and, as such, they do not produce any revenue. Either a better distribution of the company's activities or a subsequent rental of the extra space is advisable. 2. As we have seen from the case study, despite his limited resources, Tony O'Callaghan still found the appropriate means by which his business could enjoy a profitable run.

Given the fact that the problems the business faces are more related to the present conjuncture rather than to structural problems that the business has, the solution simply need to address changes in the market conditions. First of all, the main problem, as we have previously seen, is not necessarily the closure of the Covent Garden Market, but rather the restricted category of consumers that O'Callaghan is addressing.

As such, an extensive marketing and promotional campaign is required to implicate more categories of consumers and to attract potential customers to the studio. One of the possible promotion facilities that O'Callaghan could use (at least to a more extended level) is the Internet. Online promotion is something that is simple and cheap. All that is needed is a site and some online marketing to promote the site with the search engines.

The website itself could include a tourist touch, something that would associate O'Callaghan's gallery with a place where Celtic culture is best represented in the region and where tourists can visit not only a gallery, but a museum in itself. In my opinion, this would expand the number of tourists who would be likely to visit the city in order to visit the Celtic gallery and enjoy the benefits of Celtic culture.

Of course, O'Callaghan could also expand his working hours in order to be able to address potential consumers that cannot access the gallery during the weekly program that is now practiced. An example in this sense would be the individuals taking courses in the studio, whose program ends after closure time. However, this would bring about the security issue.

On the other hand, as we have seen from the case study, there have been no problems with theft or breaking and entry in the gallery for the entire period that the business has been operating downtown. Extended program hours to cover potential new customers should not pose a security threat. Finally, the cost issues needs to be addressed. One simple solution would be to change location. However, a change in location would pose additional problems.

One of these would be a significant increase in rent, given the fact that the rent downtown is cheaper than elsewhere. Further more, the gallery would lose its strategic location in a place where tourists and locals alike are more likely to pass in the afternoon or evening.