The La Fitness Centre: Competition Effects on Performance

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Table of Contents

Background
Research Objectives
Research Design
Methodology
Sampling Plan
Issues of Discussion
Data Analysis
Reference List

Background

The La Fitness Centre is one of the renowned fitness centres in the Hatfield region. It started its operations in 1984 (Black, 2013). This organization is equipped with tailored starter programmes, fully supervised gyms, super-free weight facilities, personal trainers, meta-fits, indoor pools, and cricket net facilities (Black, 2013). This organization offers services that support physical exercises. La Fitness faces competition from giant organizations such as David Lloyd, YMCA Health and Fitness, Mill Hill School Sports Centre, and Devine Fitness Ltd (Caster, 2013). Currently, the main problem affecting the La Fitness Centre is competition. Many organizations have ventured into this business, leading to competitive forces based on facilities offered, pricing, customer relations, promotional activities, and service delivery among other issues (Black, 2013).

Market share of the health and fitness club operators in Hatfield.

La Fitness has held the third position, after David Lloyd Leisure and the Virgin Active group. The above diagram shows the market share of the health and fitness club operators in Hatfield. Researchers hold that after the period of recession, the health and fitness sector has been growing at a rate of 2.4%, yearly (Brace, 2008, p. 56).

Research Objectives

Adjustments

Upon reviewing the initial objective of this research proposal, some aspects should be amended. The first adjustment would be to establish the behaviour of each market segment within the Hatfield area. Therefore, the objective will incorporate the demographic characteristics of potential customers in the Hatfield area.

Revised Objectives (RO)

RO1: To assess and evaluate the primary competitors in terms of pricing strategies and other core competencies, in order to identify and copy the best strategies in its operations for different market segments.
RO2: To assess, evaluate, and come up with new promotional strategies that can help the La Fitness Centre to gain competitive advantage within different market segments.
RO3: To create an employee training module, in order to offer consumers personal services and develop good relationship with them.
RO4: To purchase and modify the facilities to enable the La Fitness Centre to be competitive in the market.

Research Design

The evaluation research will be used in completing this applied dissertation. The other strategy will involve the participant-oriented model, which emphasizes on the central importance of the participant evaluation through use of a survey method (Chisnell, 2005).

Process of Research

The evolution research will be adopted to effectively carry out the qualitative research. The first stage will involve personal interviews with customers to establish the general public perception on quality and price of La Fitness’ services against those of its competitors. The survey will be revised within the responses of the focus group.

Methodology

This research will be conducted using survey approach. The researcher chose the qualitative approach rather than a quantitative because scope of the research is focused, subjective, dynamic, and discovery-oriented (Brace, 2004). The qualitative approach is best suited to gain proper insight into the RO1, RO2, RO3, and RO4 objectives as summarised below.

RO1: Direct interview
RO2: Questionnaire
RO3: Questionnaire
RO4: Focus group

Interviews

Data that will be collected through one-on-one interviews will be scrutinized in detail. Through open-ended and closed-ended questionnaires, each question asked will be comprehensive to ensure that respondents have opportunity to give deep answers that provide an insight into research solution. Transcription will then be done to each of the recorded interview transcripts. For each response, from each participant, the recorded transcripts will be perused to coin relevant and most appropriate reactions. In addition, the interviewer will have full control of the interview process and is likely to get first hand information with minimal biases. Moreover, the researcher will be in a position to seek further clarification on specific ideas and responses given within the interview timeframe (Afsar et al. 2010). The interviews are meant to provide information on the following:

The specific needs that the business has not addressed.
Reasons for the changed preference among the customers.
Activities within the La Fitness facility to promote customer-centricity.
Other fitness facilities that the customers visit.

In order to collect the data necessary for this study, several steps will be taken to protect the participants. The participants will be given consent forms which outline the topic of discussion and any relevant information that they might need before agreeing to be interviewed (American Management Association, 2003). Once consent is obtained, interviews will be set up with the selected participants. The researcher will act as the interlocutor with the participant, giving semi-structured individual interviews which will be conducted in the English language so that communication is given depth (Malhotra and Borks, 2010).

Questionnaire

Use of the qualitative research approach will facilitate understanding of the individual attributes that contribute to poor performance of the fitness club, as a result of competition. The researcher will use questionnaire to achieve this. This will allow the researcher to enter observed qualitative behaviour that is indicative of competition. This methodology will help in identification of statistical patterns in the data on competition using questionnaires (Proctor, 2013).

Adopting semi-structured open-ended questions interviews, data collection through one-on-one interviews will take a period of six days (American Management Association, 2003). The large-scale questionnaire survey for the qualitative phase will help identify the competencies and best marketing practices that are necessary to survive competition in the fitness sector (American Management Association, 2003).

The first qualitative question addresses the qualitative phase of the research and is intended to understand how marketing strategies are developed in general (Dubrin, 2008). The second qualitative question identifies the perceptions of the customers on the marketing strategies that the centre uses. The qualitative study will involve administration of questionnaire survey to identify existing marketing strategies and their effectiveness in the La Fitness Centre (Kumar and Kanchu, 2012). The questions are presented below.

What are the marketing strategies that the La Fitness Centre practices to ensure that it attracts more customers?
What best practices do the managers of the La Fitness Centre use to serve different market segments?

Focus Group

The focus group will enable the researcher to draw the customer perception towards the La Fitness Centre and other competitors. The responses will help the researcher to discover the reason behind the changing preference among customers. The researcher will send an SMS to all the registered members of the fitness centre with an invitation message to be part of the focus group. Members of the focus group will be encouraged to invite their friends and family members. The scope of the focus group will be to present the guiding rules of participation, create an environment for open discussion, and micromanage the testing and inference process.

Rationalisation of the Methodology

From responses gathered, one-on-one interview makes it easy to scribe clear responses to questions asked. Since the researcher will accord the research project professional seriousness, the willing respondents are likely to give reliable, credible, and informed responses to questions asked (American Management Association, 2003). The one-on-one semi-structured interviews allow for presentation of open-ended questions, which attract diverse open-ended answers (McGivern, 2006). This is a plus on side of the interviewer who will have an opportunity to gather expansive answers, as the respondent has freedom of speaking widely on problem statement. In the process, the respondent may in fact, provide an insight into a forgotten aspect of the study (Proctor, 2013).

Sampling Plan

Random Sampling

This research will target employees and customers of the La Fitness Centre since they have the knowledge on the reasons for low performance of the centre in relation to completion. A sample space of 45 participants will be interviewed. The sampling criterion that will be used in the initial sampling plan represents the true picture of activities on the ground. To begin with, the sampling plan considers several participants and concentrates on different shifts. Besides, this sample plan is representative of the La Fitness Centre’s market segment population and it is not bias. The results generated are from different sampling units with a sample space of one (American Management Association, 2003).

Issues of Discussion

Demographic Characteristics

Validity and reliability determine the accuracy of collected data in research. In order to achieve validity in questions presented in the questionnaire, it is essential to carry out question pre-testing (Proctor, 2013). On the other hand, reliability quantifies the magnitude of consistency of research instruments and the outcome created by the same. Based on findings from the literature review, participants will be asked to indicate which of the practices they use or rely on most (American Management Association, 2003). Some items may be listed for comparison and respondents asked to rate them in terms of frequency of use in order to gather their relative importance. Some basic information will be asked to identify demographic characteristics of the sample and to confirm eligibility of respondents with respect to meeting criteria for participation (Proctor, 2013).

Scale of Rating

The researcher should include an appropriate rating scale in order to make the statistical analysis authentic. The theory used in this evaluation will be the competition as influencing the level of business performance (Blattberg et al. 2001; Du et al. 2005). Qualitative information will be gathered through a 3-part survey in a Likert-type scale to rate specific information on a 1 (not influential) to 5 (extremely influential) in answer to research-based questions. In addition, theories and methods related to the evaluation of the data collected, methods, and a survey as part of the evaluation will be used to help determine the effectiveness of the research design and relevance of the research outcome (American Management Association, 2003; Hanson and Grimmer, 2007).

Data Analysis

The collected qualitative data will be coded and passed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version seventeen (Esposito, 2002). In the process, cross-tabulation will be used to compare and contrast the effects of competition on performance of the La Fitness Centre. In order to quantify the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, Cochran’s Q will be essential besides figures, charts, and tabular representation of correlation analysis (Catterall, 1998).

The Cochran’s Q

The Cochran’s Q will be designed to examine whether observed variability in the effect sizes lies within the expected range for a common population effect size or not. The purpose of this test will be to ascertain whether differences between responses are acceptable and of practical importance with the aim of identifying the most common skills and competencies. If similarities are found in the list of developmental competencies, with no statistical difference between them, then the hypothesis will be rejected while the null hypothesis accepted. The researcher will look for the extent of similarities or differences between responses (Proctor, 2013).

The Cochran’s Q method is used in qualitative studies where the researcher can quantify subjective opinion (Stephen and Hornby, 1995). The instrument for this method will be a Q-Sort that ranks statements. It is satisfactory to obtain the number of statements between 30 and 80 to validate the outcome of the study using this methodology. In order to avoid a low sensitivity of the Q-statistic, 20 responses will be considered an absolute minimum. If the responses fall below 20, additional questionnaires will be sent out to urge further participation (Proctor, 2013). Some basic information which will be tested is demographic characteristics of the sample and to confirm eligibility of respondents with respect to meeting criteria for participation during the analysis.

Interview Questions

Do you think that the competitors of the La Fitness Centre have better and more affordable services?
What attracts you to the other fitness centres that the La Fitness Centre does not have?
Do you think that the La Fitness Centre’s employees are always competent, professional, and helpful?
What facility or service would you recommend for the La Fitness Centre in order to attract customers?
Are there customised services and promotional discounts for the loyal customers in the other fitness centres?

Reference List

Afsar, B., Rehman, A. & Bangash, R. 2010, Customer relationship management in Relationships as Valuable Assets, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, M A. Web.

American Management Association 2003, A good proposal is hard to find. Web.

Bates, M 2008, Health fitness management: A comprehensive resource for managing and operating programs and facilities, Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL. Web.

Black, J, 2013, Making the American body: The remarkable saga of the men and women whose feats, feuds, and passions shaped fitness history, Nebraska, Lincoln, UNP. Web.

Blattberg, C., Gary, G., & Jacquelyn S 2001, Customer equity: Building and managing relationships as valuable assets, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Web.

Bates, M 2008, Health fitness management: A comprehensive resource for managing and operating programs and facilities. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL. Web.

Brace, I 2004, Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research, Kogan Page, London, UK. Web.

Bradly, N 2010, Marketing tools and techniques, Oxford University Press, London, UK. Web.

Bryman, A., & Bell, E 2007, Business research methods, Kogan Page, London, UK. Web.

Caster, M 2013, ‘Strong-Arm the Gym’, Men’s Health, vol. 28 no. 1, p. 54. Web.

Catterall, M 1998, “Academics, practitioners and qualitative market research”, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, vol. 1 no. 2, pp. 69-76. Web.

Chisnell, P. 2005, Marketing research, McGraw Hill, London, UK. Web.

Du, R., Wagner, K., & Carl, F 2005, “Customers’ Share of Category Requirements,” in Working Paper, Duke University Marketing Department. Web.

Dubrin, A 2008, Essentials of Management, South-Western Cengage Learning, Alabama. Web.

Esposito, J 2002, Interactive, multiple-method questionnaire evaluation research: A case study, QDET, Charleston, SC. Web.

Hanson, D., & Grimmer, M 2007, “The mix of qualitative and quantitative research in major marketing journals, 1993-2002”, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 41 no. 1, pp. 58-70. Web.

Kumar, M. &Kanchu, T. 2012, “Customer relationship management with reference to Business,” The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, vol. 36 no. 8, pp. 1-31. Web.

Malhotra, N., & Borks, D 2010, Marketing research: An applied approach, Pearson, London, UK. Web.

McGivern, Y 2006, The practice of market and social research: An introduction, Financial Times Prentice Hall, New York. Web.

Proctor, T 2013, Essentials of marketing research, Financial Times Prentice Hall, Harlow. Web.

Stephen, P., & Hornby, S 1995, “The joy of statistics”, Library Review, vol. 44 no. 8, pp. 56-62. Web.

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