Gym Kinetics Marketing Plan

By: Steven Handzik, Katie Ulloa, and Kelley Cross

Overall Plan Summary

Mission Statement:› The goal at Gym-Kinetics Gymnastic

School is to develop each gymnasts potential individually in a safe, progressive, positive atmosphere. Additionally, through the sport of gymnastics, we will help each gymnast develop a greater work ethic, confidence and a positive self image. (http://gymkineticsgymnastics.com)

Company Information› Founded in 1985 we are now the number

one choice for gymnastics instructions and have taught over 1,000 students by Jim and Wendy Fredrickson. We have over thirteen coaches and more part time staff at each location.

› Current business location(s). south suburbs. Servicing Mokena,Tinley Park,

Orland Park, Orland Hills, Frankfort

Growth Highlights  › Currently celebrating our 27th year in

business anniversary.› Girls team places 3rd in 2012-2013 meet

Programs/Services

› Recreational and competitive gymnastics.

› Cheerleading and dance classes.› Open gym.› Birthday parties.

Open gym is for all between ages 5-18 and available on Sunday mornings for current and prior students or any other youth in the local area. We also offer a party room for birthday parties, which can be rented out and includes some gym time under a coach’s supervision.

Financial Information

› We are not seeking financing Future Formats

› It is important to keep in mind that technology is constantly changing and therefore the way we advertise will also have to continually change. We must continue to be aggressive with our advertisement but more importantly we must continue to be relevant and up

Market Research Plan

Primary› Telephone surveys› Online surveys(website)› Group meetings› Personal interviews› Comment cards› Internal records and evaluations

Secondary› Analyze historical data and statistics

Organization Assessment

History of the organization: Founded in 1985 and have become the #1 choice for gymnastics in Mokena and surrounding areas.

Organization philosophy: We seek to grow the youth in our programs physically and emotionally through the sports offered. Gymnastics in particular provides a great foundation for dealing with life experiences and future participation in other sports. We provide safe, appropriate instruction to every participant involved in our programs.

Operational Structure and organizational

stakeholders: GymKinetics is privately owned and operated. Although we do not have stakeholders, we like to consider each of our customers as our stakeholders. Offerings: We offer both recreational and competitive gymnastics, cheerleading and dance classes, open gym time, and birthday parties. Our facility is comprised of two large rooms for gymnastics/other classes, a lobby, and a pro shop. Some of the equipment that is within our two gyms is: two AAI competition spring floors, 9 sets of bars, 14 balance beams, 2 trampolines, and 1 tumble track.

Financial status of the organization: GymKinetics

attendance has been steadily growing annually, leading to a growth of 7% profit margin each year for the past 5 years.

Organization image: We are known in all the surrounding communities as a top-notch facility which continues to serve the community with the highest-quality gymnastics instruction around. The high rate at which we send our students on to earn a college scholarship for gymnastics speaks for itself and serves as our best marketing tool. In the past, we have attempted to get our name out further into the community via advertising in local newspaper. Technology has now replaced our newspaper advertisements with Facebook, Twitter, email, parents in the area, schools, and new home owners. We use all of these mediums to create a well-rounded way to reach every potential customer possible. This new marketing approach has led to our 7% profit margin growth annually for the past five years.

Overall strategic objectives and goals of the organization: We will continue to pursue the targets previously mentioned to grow our product name and increase awareness in our local area. Assuming continued profit growth of 7% annually, in another 8 years time, expansion may be possible. We could either look to expand our current facility or open a second facility to become a chain.

Brand Mapping (SWOT) Strengths: Limited competition in the Cook and

Kankakee county area, able to sell products and prices online, able to use internet as advertisement resource, limited start up risk.

Weaknesses: limited start up cost, high transportation barrier, limited flexibility in pricing, competitors can offer same prices quickly.

Opportunities: continued expansion in sales, ability to build more gyms in more locations,

Threats: Changes in regulations can quickly affect the business, insurance costs are continuously increasing, increase in price of insurance can increase price of everything else.

Assess Global/Industry/Competitive

Financial history and forecast: GymKinetics has seen steady growth in popularity and revenue since opening in 1985. In the past several years in particular, we have seen marked growth with the rise of the economy and the popularity of gymnastics as our country continues to shine on the national and international level. Within the next ten years, GymKinetics looks forward to expansion being possible assuming current growth trends continue.

Competitive environment: While there are a few other gymnastics centers in the local area, none have currently or in the past posed any sort of a threat to our business. On the contrary, we are seen as their biggest competition.

Global concerns and issues: A highly legal environment could lead to movements against the sport due to its historically high risk of injury and/or death. However, even with the rise of technology, the sports of gymnastics and cheerleading have been on the rise and will continue to do so.

Industry-wide trends: The rise of

cheerleading in popularity has been steadily beating out gymnastics for some time now, which means the forward-thinking center will offer courses in tumbling for cheerleading along with regular gymnastics courses. As connected as the two sports are, and considering that each sport feeds into the other, offering both is nearly a guarantee of continued future growth.

Target Market Objectives

Increase membership by 10% Create referral relationships with at least

5 elementary, middle, and high school teachers/coaches to refer business to the gym

Develop an online presence by increasing online registration and merchandise sales by 15%

Attract at least 20 new members from birthday party attendees

Promotional Mix Matrix

Considering that we already market to area schools, there may be another way to reach a wider group of potential customers. At local area fairs and carnivals, anywhere that we know families will be flocking to, we should hold a GymKinetics booth for meeting coaches and students, giving demonstrations of our current talent, and offering a free mini-lesson to potential clients.

Marketing Mix Matrix

Product 1800 square foot gymnastics gym full

of state of the art equipment Programs for ages 1 through high

school in gymnastics and tumbling Place Mokena, IL just south off of Interstate

80 and east of La Grange Rd.

Price Birthday Parties

› 1-12 kids= $200› 13-20= $235

21-28= $270› Clinics› $15

Open Gym› Members= $5› Non-members= $10› Memberships› $112-$183

Marketing Plan and Financing

Marketing resources were centralized around local campaigning› Flyers› Local newspaper ads

Organization website› Word of mouth

Memberships have increased by 15% We have received referrals from 9 different schools

around the area Online merchandise sales have increased by 7% Online registration has increased by 20% 35 individuals have expressed interest in our

programs after visiting for a birthday

Communication Mix Matrix

Audience: Facebook and twitter users, parents, new home owners, schools

Strategy: Because gymnastics becomes a life style choice and is a very physical sport we anticipate that most of our customers will be youth who will stay with us through adulthood. Therefore we are focusing primarily on online sources, parents, new homeowners who may have children, and schools.

Facebook is a free social networking account

that makes its money primarily from those companies who pay to advertise their business on the website. This website is also used mostly by youth ages twelve through those in their twenties. As this is our target market we will take full advantage of the advertisement space available on this website. Not only can we advertise on the website itself but we can also “like” posts in order to find those with similar interests as ourselves and send them coupons and other information. Those who receive these will most likely have friends with similar interests and will pass the information on to their friends.

Twitter although popular is not as widely

used as facebook. However, it attracts our same target market and we can therefore use twitter to our advantage in a more unique way. We may put funny videos, quotes, and pictures followed by links to our main website to draw our target group in.

By targeting parents through email or postal mail we are providing them with information that not only interests their children but with information to ensure the quality and safety of our facility and staff. By parents getting to know our facility they are more likely to take their children to our facility versus one they have never heard of.

Targeting new homeowners will be

very important. Not only may these new homeowners have children but they will also be unfamiliar with the area. We can therefore provide them with a warm welcome through email or postal mail and offer them information and coupons about our facility and what it is that we do. Those homeowners who are interested will seek further information through online resources or word of mouth.

By getting our information out in schools

through advertising and offering free lessons to every school fundraiser children will be sure to remember us and take the information and experiences they have had home to their parents. We can make special offers to new students and something a little extra such as a free t-shirt to those who are current students. This form of advertising will be limited to special events such as large pep rallies, dances, or games as we do not want to exhaust our resources with free giveaways and end up losing more than gaining.

Communication Evaluation

› We will know if we have reached our target marketing objectives by: An increased membership by 30% by

the end of the second year of operation If we can get 1,000 or more “likes” and/or

“tweets” on facebook and twitter

Leisure Experience Assessment

We have a responsibility as both a leisure and recreational facility to ensure we set our clients up with the product they are looking for. A child wanting to achieve competition-level gymnastics won't stick around long if left in the non-competition recreational levels. Constant feedback from both parent and child is necessary to provide a pleasant leisure experience, as the parent and child may have different expectations regarding the class. Further, making each client feel like a part of the GymKinetics family is key to keeping them coming back through our doors again. Greeting each parent and child by name is important in enforcing this feeling.

Future Thoughts

Our family at GymKinetics has nowhere to go but up as time continues on. We will maintain our steady growth by keeping ahead of current trends in gymnastics and technology. Our highly trained staff has been with us for years and will assist us in training new members to strive for those high levels of service as part of our facility culture.