Golf Select - Entry Strategy Assessment Answer

Key Topics

• Golf Select - Entry Strategy in Scotland
• Evaluation of Alternative Strategies:
• Target Market, Positioning and Marketing Mix Strategies:
• Objectives:
• Recommended Strategy:
• Economic Evaluations:
• Implementation and Control:
• References:

Golf Select - Entry Strategy in Scotland

Evaluation of Alternative Strategies:

Market Entry Strategies:

The case here is of entering the international market, where the people are educated and above that, pretty well informed and educated. The recent stats states that amongst the most emerging countries in the World, Scotland is positioned at amongst the top and the important to be noted here is that people are pretty well informed about the game (R&A, 2015). The modern game of Golf has basically evolved out of Scotland. So it will be very wrong to say that entry strategy must be such that it creates more awareness about the product which is the training and play institute for learning Golf with the best players and also enjoying the Golf Holidays. There are a few strategies that directly comes to mind, irrespective of the type of business, but more focused on the expansions in general and basically related to service offerings (Arnstorp, 2013):
New Product Introduction – The offering in our case is not something that is unique but it can be made unique by studying various issues that the current offerings lacks.
Product Differentiation – This is another strategy that is more focused when the entrant wants to enter into the market independently. This may makes sense to us, as we have been successful in the similar market globally.
Entering through Partnerships – This is one the good ways to enter into the business as the issue of establishing the infrastructure and operational set up is lost. However, the negative point here is the loss of unique identify that the brand may have to face.
Re – branding the current offering and establishing a refined brand – This is something which we have to do, because when there are many other players in the market offering similar proposition. Hence a total rebranding is somehow we have to do.
Entry based on the segment we are targeting – We need to make the entry in the market in such a way that it makes it very clear in the mind of the people that why are we entering the market and what is the main concern of our entry and whom are we basically meant for (Gurumurthy, 2014).

The focus that we will be following is the entry by Product Differentiation and based on the segment we are targeting, the reason for this focus is that the market is pretty matured and they understand the game well and playing Golf has been a part of the tradition of Scotland. Taking in to consideration this point, we are clear that the product must be much differentiated. The other reason the differentiation must be targeted as the differentiation as a part of offering, because there has not been much focus of Luxury Golfers (Porter, 2006).

Target Market, Positioning and Marketing Mix Strategies:

Target Market:
When it comes to targeting the customer or market segment of Golfer and that to when it is defined on the basis of the Golf Holidays that people enjoys. We have options for four defined segments, which are as follows (Bane, 2014):
Golf Buddies

• Golf Escapees

Luxury Golfers

Golfing Tourists

• Activity Golfers
• Golf Purists (Classis Golfers)

Serendipity Golfers
From the above targets that we have listed down, we are only targeting the Luxury Golfing Segment, the reasons are as follows (Heine, 2012):

It is easy to establish and be noticed, when we enter a brand with a luxury tag.
It provides an easier avenue to showcase the brand as a differentiated brand, when it is segmented primarily to luxury segment.
It is also easy to build co – networks when we have contacts of luxury seeking people with us,
People seeking luxury are more there to see the services and hence they won’t mind experimenting.

Positioning:
Since we are targeting the luxury golfers segment, we also want to position ourselves as a place, where one can come with the family and enjoy golfing and other holidaying experiences. Since, the people usually travels with their families or the close social group. They want the best of the services as the prime offerings and the best golfing experiences is the bare minimum that they expect to get when they seek luxury.
In that regard our market offerings will include a Seven Star Holidaying facilities and special services like personal Golf Instructor etc. This is the kind of positioning that will enable us to manage ourselves as the best in class place for Luxury golf holidaying people.

Marketing Mix Strategies:
We will focus here on the traditional marketing Mix strategy that is the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price, Promotion and the following is the analysis:

Product:
The product that we are coming up in the market is an exclusive place for people enjoying the Golf Holidaying and treat it more like an experience than the game and this is the reason they pay a lot of attention on the luxury that they are getting and hence they starts to choose only those destinations which are able to provide them that cadre of luxury and hence is our product which is capable of providing them that level of luxury.

Place: 
The place where we will be opening the golf ground and more of an experience center. This is basically opened in the outskirts of the city and that is because the places are easier to get and people will get a secluded place to stay and enjoy their golfing to the fullest.

Price:
The pricing is such that it is based on the lifetime membership system and there will be an annual maintenance fee that is to be paid by the visitors and in that they are also not allowed to anyone else other than their immediate family members

Promotion:
The promotion will be done with exclusive pamphlets that will be sent to the targeted people, who are keen for playing golf we will get this information through research and their social profile.

Alternative Generic Strategy:

The generic strategy that the Golf Select must focus is on:
Business Partnerships: Since the focus lies on fetching more and more customers in the supreme league, we must tie up the alliances with the best of the luxury hotels and the high end clubs through which we may get the entry in the desired segment.
Holiday Service Alliances: It is highly unlikely that the people will count on their whole holidays just on the perception they will make through the offerings on the pamphlets. So, we must alliance with the best holiday service providers and ensure that in the tour guide they get to gain access to these high end tourists and hence gets us the most desired opportunity to gain access.
Business Houses: We get to know a lot of business conferences in Europe are planned in Scotland and hence that alliance would be a great opportunity for us to gain access to the top level executives of the houses and also ensure that people get to know the Golf Select.
Financial Strategy: We must only work in the membership and maintenance model as that will ensure the dedicated customer base. However, the membership may be for the customer directly or for the alliances as well.
Recruitment: Must follow a strict agenda that the people to become to part of Golf Select should have the best international exposure and they have been in the business for close to 10 years and they are culturally strong to deal with people from different geographies and ensure that they are able to serve in the best way.
Funding: Must keep a close watch on this and not rely on the VCs and investors for this expansion as they will always seek partnership in the business and that is not a healthy avenue for the Golf Select.
Preferred Strategy: Since, we have analyzed the market and the marketing mix that we are trying to pursue, in this section we will be keeping focus on the end to end strategy that we will be applying in order to make the greatest impact on the mind of the targeted market and customers.
The strategy is that we will be bringing in the different model of approaching the customers that is by the selective invitation. We will be sending customized prepared pamphlets to the selectively targeted base of customers and that will enable us in becoming the premiere players in the segment of getting closer with the customers.
We will be showcasing them that the experience of playing golf is not just restricted to playing the game and there is lot more that can be added to the game and it can become a great experience in itself. We will also target not just them but their whole social group. We are targeting the luxury golfers and price is not a problem for them at all. We will give them special offering if they come in groups, since each of them would be having a group of themselves other than this group and that is like enhancing the market segment and that is the strategy that we will be following in order to be titled as the differentiator and the game changer in this segment.
This will be a big game changer of a strategy as it is targeting the people for playing golf in an altogether different way, they will get a good opportunity to socialize beyond the part halls and they are able to enjoy their game to the fullest and ensure that they come with their other group for sure and will also recommend it to their peers and relatives.

Objectives:

The objective in a single line can be termed as an offering that is able to elevate the game of Golf for which people actually travels for playing. We want to elevate this game plan so that people not just travel to these destination only for playing game, they get an enhanced experience and this is what will differentiate us from other competitors. From the competition perspective they also get to play golf with the best players in the world and they also get opportunity to get some superlative skills form some of the best sports coaches in the world. We will ensure that people who are visiting, should feel that the amount of money they are putting in the membership of the Club is worth it and we are currently focusing on few of the achievable objectives. In order to give it a lucid visibility, we have divided the objectives section in to two different sections, which are Short term or immediate recognizable objectives and medium term or time based realizable objectives and we are currently not giving much focus to the long term objectives since, it is too early to comment on that part. We can only set those objectives ones we are in the game in the real sense and hence ensure that where we are heading to and also we cannot be ensured that whether they can be segmented as smart goals or not.

Short Term Objectives:

Marketing Objectives:

• We want to increase the Target segment geographies from 4 main geographies to 7 main geographies. This is to ensure that people from other geographies to come in and that can be showcased as the network and business opportunities to the visitors.
• We want to increase our partnership allied level clubs and hotels, so that this can be taken to ensure that we are attached with more places.
• Make the standards of our trainers as those who have international exposure and must keep 2 trainers for a group of 6. This will ensure that the services are supreme

Financial Objectives:

• We want to achieve financial independence in the coming 6 months and break even in 12 months and for this we need a 100 members enrollment in the coming first month of commencement of operations.
• We will keep the first set of trainers and staff on contact so as we get the opportunity to see their performance and ensure that they are actually best

Medium term Plan:

Marketing Plan:

• To establish operations in all the Seven Star and Five Star Hotels in Scotland and this will ensure that we have the most elite crowd to serve. Currently there are 27 Five and Seven Star hotels in Scotland and we want to bring in our operations in all
• To establish a membership and partnership with Elite clubs of Scotland
• This will enable us to develop the customer base of 1000 members globally and from all the main continents in the world.

Financial Objectives:

• To work on 70% Margin and specifically target the business houses and enhance their spontaneous business trips as well
• To increase the revenue by more than 200% in the coming two years

Recommended Strategy:

The strategy for now is good to start with and it is also a sustainable business strategy, but the fact of the matter is same that how difficult is it to imitate the strategy and that is where our recommendation comes up and so we are here recommending that what could be the strategy that can be adopted by the Golf Select in order to ensure that even though the market segment may be shared by the potential competitors and strategy imitators, it should not hamper our business.
We must ensure that the existence of any business in the world is to earn profit and money and to bring in harmony in their cash flows and for that reason we wish to state here the following points that will help Golf Select in shaping their further strategy is Scotland:

• For the breakeven aspect the strategy is good that they wish to target the best and luxury seeking population but they must also ensure that the Luxury seeking people are easily pulled by a better offering easily and that may be just a temporary switch but it can result in huge losses for us.
• Seek for better avenues of partnership and must muster the fact that any sub – level person may soon become the high end person of the company and hence may result in the fact that he may come in our target customer base, so must maintain a close watch on the prospective customer base for the company.
• Keep and maintain a huge focus on the family holidays as the bigger people may want to play golf but smaller ones are not really interested and hence we must offer skilled tutors for them and that may increase their interest in the game and that could also be big game changer for us.
• Lastly, we must diverse our offerings so that it is able to fit in the pockets of other customers as well as we should keep in touch with them as well and hence ensure that people of other segment are not left out and these days almost all the high end brands are doing that.

This would be our recommended strategy apart for the strategy that they have prepared in order to enter the Scotland Market, which in a way is a pretty established market and is in this stream of business from a longer time now. In that situation this strategy could be a booster, when the exiting strategies would fail for them to sustain and hence it will ensure that the constant flow of funds will flow continuously.

Economic Evaluations:

Planning Assumptions:

• The following are the assumptions that are backing this business proposition. In Appendix 1 we can see that the revenue wise the highest tourism in UK is being sold by the Scotland, with poised high at 6.51 Billion Euros Sales and that is something looks very promising to us (Scotland-Tourism, 2014). In Appendix – 1 we can see that the sales and the days spend in the Scotland is highest, this is also an indicator of the fact that. The tourism revenue is not highest because of rates, but also due to the fact that people have spent in time there.
• The sport tourism in Scotland is on a high and that is a huge base for us to base our analysis, the current markets that supersedes in Golf Tourism is USA, Germany and England and Scotland amidst all these is a pretty new but a promising player. The Appendix 2 shows here that amongst the most upcoming economies in the Gold Tourism is Scotland and here we can possibly gain competitive advantage (Hudson, 2014).
• The sentiments about Golf overall is pretty huge and it is also showcased in the emerging economies of the World. In Appendix 5 we are showing the positive sentiments of major economies of the world towards the game of Golf (HDFC, 2015).

So, based on these basic assumptions we are pretty sure that the Scotland choice and the business proposition is pretty promising and looks good to produce the good. We could also chose any emerging economy, but the choice of Scotland goes for the fact that people already have pretty sensitive and positive inclination regarding the game and it has been the part of their culture for a long time now and that is what is pretty positive. 
Our basic assumption would be that we will be able to convert the existing tourism base on the Golf Tourism and that is what will be pretty fulfilling and insightful. We are pretty sure of our target and how we are going to achieve it and based on the assumptions that we are relying upon, we are focused on the fact that being the premiere and early entrant on the business. We will be able to reap the early fruits of international expansion and hence our name will be able to sell easily in the other geographies as well.

Sales Forecast:

The Sales are dependent on the following parameters and they are as follows:

• No. of Members
• Expected No. of Members in the coming years
• Member ship fees year on year
• Maintenance Charges
• Other miscellaneous revenues
• Repeat businesses
• Revenue by Selling the Golf Equipment

Market Share:
The idea of market share here is that how much new customer base id fragmented and how is it divided among the existing players and currently our focus is only on the Scotland market and that will be our focus area. The current market segment country wise in Scotland is shown in Appendix 6 (Scotish-Government, 2012)
Currently the market is pretty staggered and this goes on to show that there is huge potential of the market to be captured in the report says that by 2020 Scottish market will be the biggest in the world as far as the Golf tourism is concerned. The expected revenue is expected to be around three hundred million pounds in the coming years and that is to be achievable by the end of this decade. 

Cost and Profit Analysis:

The following are the expected costs that we have to incubate in order to maintain the fact that we are able to attain the possible profits. The costs will be:

• Operational Costs: Van, field etc.
• Infrastructure Cost
• Resource Costing
• Refreshments
• Maintenance
•  Miscellaneous Costs

We are expected to achieve the breakeven of the costing by the end of 2017, which the second year of the operations, that is because in the first year we have to establish everything from the base and thus costing involved would be huge as evident from the figures and thus by increasing the customer base in the coming years and concentrating on the other aspects like market capturing and generating revenue from other aspects as well and hence we can easily establish that we will be able to attain the breakeven and that is the most critical aspect that is to be fulfilled by the business for their stakeholders and other business leads.
We must not forget that the prime reason for any business to exist is that it has to earn profit and that is what the Golf Select is up to and it is well aligned to achieve the same.

Implementation and Control:

Action Plan for implementing the recommendations:

The following is the step wise approach for various heads:
Revenue Indicators:

• We must collaborate with the big hotels which we found are some 27 in number in Scotland and must ensure that there is good degree of control that we have in the partnership. Golf Select must give them a partnership model and not contractual model. There must be a profit share of around 60% to 40% and that is because we will be utilizing the space, the customer base and also the ready infrastructure of the potential customers and the benefits to be shown to the hotels is that they will enhance their service offerings and there must be assurance that the service level will be of supreme quality
• We will collaborate with various business houses and high end clubs and that will give us direct access with those high end customers that will have a strong inclination towards golf as it is perceived to be a very elite game. This is very critical because people in these places have a strong social connect and they will always seek more opportunities to collaborate further in a new environment.

Business Enhancements:

• As a starting point we must establish a strong network with people that have good supply of high end sports equipment and introduce it our offering, this must be the first step.

Operational Enhancements:

• We must hire the best of the staff who are well versed in languages and cultures and are capable of managing people from various horizons continents. This will elevate the level of services that we are offering.

Monitoring the Plan:
The plan will be monitored by the following steps:

• Ensure at a regular basis in which direction the sales are moving and what all offerings are competitors making in the similar space.
• We will also keep a very detailed and thorough analysis of business development and will ensure that new business areas are being explored regularly and it is thoroughly achieved.
• Ensure that the services of the offerings is of high repute, this is critical for the business and hence we have to keep a closer watch on it.
• Business Development must of higher level.

Contingency Plan:

• There must be some trainers and helpers that must be kept in buffer and bench so that there is never a situation, where there is no supervisor.

All other points are covered in monitoring plans itself.

References

Arnstorp, H. (2013). Foreign market entry strategies in developed and emerging economies. London: Industrial Economics and Technology Management.
Bane, T. (2014, December 25). Golf Travel - Holidays Type. Retrieved from http://www.golftraveletc.com: http://www.golftraveletc.com/11/layout
Gurumurthy, G. K. (2014). Market Entry Strategies: Pioneers Versus Late Arrivals. Dallas: School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas.
HDFC. (2015). Golf Tourism 2020. Hamshire: HDFC researches.
Heine, K. (2012). TThhee CCoonncceepptt ooff LLuuxxuurryy BBrraanndds. New York: Handbook for the Creation of Luxury Products and Brands.
Hudson, S. (2014). Golf TOurism. London: Goodfellow Publishing.
Porter, S. (2006). Attitudes Towards Golf Breaks In Scotland Research. Glasgow: VisitScotland Publications.
R&A. (2015). Golf around the world 2015. Saint Andrews: The R&A, St. Andrews File Publication.
Scotish-Government. (2012). Driving Forward Together Scottish Golf Tourism Development Strategy 2013 – 2020. Amsterdam: Scotish Government.
Scotland-Tourism. (2014). Tourism Statistics. Edenverve: Visit Scotland Organization Publications.