BSS050-6 Strategic Management Assignment Sample 2023
Introduction
Implementation of effective strategy is essentially needed for the development of business as with formulation and implementation of effective strategy, upgradation of the business can be done. Regular analysis of the market and the capability of business organisations should be done to develop effective strategies which helps in the development of competitive advantage for a commercial unit.
In the Assignment-1, the analysis of external and internal business consideration has been done. However, extensive analysis of competition brands need to be done to identify the underpinning factors which enhance the competitiveness of the market. The organisations like The Fitness Circle, Educate Fitness and YMCA Fit are creating major stress for the business of Study Active.
The purpose of this report is to analyse the competitors and to develop effective strategy for Study Active. Justification for each of the strategy should be provided in this report.
Competitor analysis for Study Active
In the Assignment-1, the external and internal factors acting in the business of Study Active have been pointed out. In the external factor analysis, it has been identified that the threat of competitors is a potential issue for which the business of Study Active is under pressure. As per the idea of Annarelli et al. (2020), pressure from competitors makes the business situation more complex and creates less scope to achieve competitive advantage.
In the case of Study Active the same factors has been noticed. The organisations like the Fitness circle, YMCA fit and Educate Fitness are the major competitors of Study Active. In this section analysis of the competitors of Study Active should be done before identification of the possible strategies which can be implemented for the business development of Study Active for the competitive market of UK.
Educate fitness
Educate fitness is a direct competitor of Study active which is associated with the providence of certified courses for fitness training, which can be utilised in the industrial level. As per the official report, the organisation provides certified courses for personal trainers, fitness instructors along with other professional courses (Educate Fitness, 2021).
Additionally, diploma courses are also available for personal training and Gym instructing. As per the idea of Zhu et al. (2021), in the current time of the post-pandemic period of Covid-19, the strategy of online training and courses in the online platform has especially focused. This strategy has also been taken up by Educate Fitness as they have initiated distance learning apart from face-to-face learning.
YMCA fit
Previously the analysis of Educate fitness has been done. The services of YMCA fit are also very close to that of Educate fitness. As per the idea of Ilyas and Osiyevskyy (2021), unique value proposition always helps in attracting more customers and to get better market share. The proposed value for YMCA fit and Educate fitness is close to each other.
As per the official report, YMCA fit is also providing certified and diploma courses for the candidates who have the goal to be gym instructor, personal trainer (YMCA fit, 2021). However, YMCA fit is providing diplomas in special courses like Sports massage and yoga. The diverse service is provided by the YMCA fit which includes courses for STOTT Pilates and group exercise as well.
The most interesting factor is that this organisation provides courses to the population having special needs such as the people with mental health, postnatal and antenatal women and older adults and disabled persons (YMCA fit, 2021).
The Fitness Circle
The Fitness Circle is another major competitor of the organisation of Study Active which is also running its business in the fitness and physical training industry of UK. The major vision of the company is to empower the future of the fitness professional to switch the providence of effective training certified courses. OM the Assignment-1 it has been noticed that Study Active provides their coaching in the online platform.
The same factor has been identified in the core activity of The Fitness Circle. As per the official report, the organisation provides personal training diplomas in both online and offline platforms and gym instruction (level-2) and personal training-level 3 (The fitness Circle, 2021). Study Active is also providing level 2 and level 3 diploma training in gym instructing and personal training.
Additionally, a certified course for CIMSPA Gym Instructing- Level 2 is also provided by Study Active. Hence, from this angle. It can be mentioned that the services which are offered by The Fitness Circle, are highly close with Study Active and also with YMCA Fit and Educate Fitness As well.
The special courses for fitness have also been offered by this company with unique value. As per the official report, The Fitness Circle is providing training for children fitness instructors completely on the online platform for the UK market. Previously analysed competitor companies are offering personal training and gym instructor training for the adults only.
However, this organisation is providing a special course to develop children fitness instructors for the market of the UK. This factor has created a distinguishable position for The Fitness Circle in the fitness training industry of UK.
The pressure of competitive brands are creating major stress over the business of Study Active. As per the viewpoint of Hofmann and Osterwalder (2017), the same type of service or product offered by multiple organisations in the same industry over a same market creates the threat of substitution.
The Same factor has been noticed in the context of the fitness and physical training industry of the UK and this threat of substitution is creating a major challenge for the Study Active. Further challenges imparted by the competitor organisation of Study Active should be analysed in the upcoming section.
Challenges imparted by the competitors to Study active
The previous analysis has identified that the major three organisations like YMCA Fit, Educate Fitness and The Fitness Circle are enhancing the competition of their market and creating challenges for the business of Study Active. The major challenge created by the competitive brands is maintaining the uniqueness of the service offered by the Study Active for the UK market.
As per the idea of Payne et al. (2017), unique value proposition is essentially important to enhance profitability and to minimise customer churn rate in the market. All the training services offered by the competitive organisations are highly close to that of Study Active’s services regarding the quality, approach and in the pricing as well. Hence, from this angle. It can be analysed that the Study Active cannot enhance its market share due to the pressure of its competitors in the UK market.
It has been noticed that competitive brands like YMCA fit have implemented a social media marketing strategy which is highly effective for the UK market. However, this strategy has not effectively been implemented by Study Active which is another challenge for Study Active to create effective and direct integration with its clients and customers. On the other hand, The Fitness Circle has been doing its trade for the last 25 years and has created its exclusive presence in the digital platform (The fitness Circle, 2021).
The organisation is a pioneer in providing online fitness education which has helped in the creation of a strong customer base for the UK market. Additionally, the organisation have earned the fame of a renewed brand by being the pioneer in online fitness education. All the mentioned factors have created a crisis for Study Active to get appreciable response from the online customer base.
Identification of possible strategies for Study Active
Effective pricing strategy
Implementation of low pricing strategy should be more effective for Study Active as it has been noticed that its competitive brands have moderate to high pricing strategy. For example, the course fee for a gym instructor diploma is 166 pounds per month or 1995 pounds per annum (YMCA fit, 2021). On the other hand, the fee for a diploma in personal training for Educate fitness is about 699 pounds (Educate Fitness, 2021).
Hence, from this angel, it can be analysed that the implementation of high piercing strategy is the trend for which most of the cutlers are not assembled to get access to these courses. It should be unique for Study active to provide moderate to low pricing strategy for its courses. This should help to attract more students in its business. Study Active is currently providing the level-3 diploma course in personal training with the course fee of 1248 pounds (Study Active, 2021).
This piece should be minimised to get more students. The competing brands are not giving any special discount or offer regarding less course fee. This strategy should be utilised by Study Active to address better growth in its market share in the fitness instruction industry of UK. In this context the theory of the Bowman’s clock can be implemented.
Figure 1: Bowman’s clock
(Source: Bhasin, 2019)
In the above figure, different pricing strategies have been represented in a clock structure each of them having unique value and objective. It has been stated that Study Active should imply the strategy of low pricing. Bhasin (2019) mentioned that the pricing strategy-1 represented in the Bowman’s clock indicates low pricing with low added value.
With the lowering of the price, the features along with its added values should also be lowered. This is not implementable for the business of Study Active as the competitors of Study Active have high added value and they are serving high quality courses which helps the studies to establish themselves effectively in the industrial level. From this angle, it can be mentioned that this organisation should get an effective competitive advantage with the implementation of moderate to low pricing strategy of the business.
Social media marketing strategy
Implementation of social media marketing strategy is highly effective for Study Active as it helps in the creation of better integration with its customers. As per the idea of Jacobson et al. (2020), in the current time, usage of social media has got integrated with the behavioural aspect of the customers. In UK, more than 53 million of individuals are actively using social media (Statista, (2021).
Hence, from this angle, it can be determined that the active promotion in social media should help this organisation to get better penetration in the UK market of UK than its competitors. YMCA fit has been actively using social media for its promotion among its target population in the UK.
As per the official report, the social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn are mostly utilised by YMCA fit. This factor has directly helped this organisation to get a high rate of success in the operating market. YMCA fit, has trained more than 70,000 aerobic teachers in the organisation and developed more than 120,000 physical instructors.
This high rate of duchess has been promoted with the utilisation of social media, as one of the major tools for marketing and communication. Active communication with customers along with placement of the advertisements has helped YMCA fit to get a high level of success. However, Study Active has taken such initiatives to utilise social media platforms for marketing.
Initiation of new courses
Initiation of the course for the children physical instructors
In the analysis of the upper section, it has been noticed that the competitor brand, The fitness Active has its providing training courses especially for the physical structures of children. This is an emerging trend for the market of UK. It has been noticed that in UK market, physical fitness for children is highly prioritised. In UK, the department of education is inspiring physical fitness and activity of children in the school and recently new online resources have been published to include children in the fitness activity (Gov.UK, 2020).
In this context, pursuing a career as a children’s fitness instructor should be considered by the individuals and this needs to be addressed with the provision of certified courses for the instructions of child fitness. Hence, from this angle, it can be analysed that Study Active should implement the strategy of providing the course of Children’s physical instructor.
Initiation of Yoga course
The competitor brands are providing specialised courses regarding Yoga. This factor should also be included by this organisation. As per the idea of La Torre et al. (2020), yoga has its application in the development of mindfulness and relieves stress. This is the main factor for which professional peoples are getting included towards meditation practice and yoga in the current time to relieve the stress factor.
It has been noticed that in UK about 460,000 people are taking part in Yoga for its active health benefit (Finder, 2021). Hence, from this angle, it can be analysed that Yoga has high demand for the UK market and people are pursuing their career as yoga trainers. Hence, certified courses for yoga instructors should help the organisation to create unique value. The class should be offered in the online platform which should help in achieving greater acceptance among the customers.
Justification for the implementation of the possible strategies
Justification of the strategy as per BCG matrix
In the previous part, the strategy of serving the training programme for the child fitness instructor has been proposed. This should be highly profitable for the Study Active organisation. This strategy can be analysed with the support of BCG matrix of marketing.
As per the idea of Chiu and Lin (2019), the BCG matrix of marketing analyses the quality of product or service with which an organisation is doing its business and the product with which an organisation is going to do its business. From this angle, with the help of BCG matrix, the effectiveness of this strategy of doing business regarding the certified course for child instructors can be done.
Figure 2: BCG Matrix
(Source: MSG, 2021)
In the above figure, BCG matrix has been reprinted, in which four quadrants are placed. The first quadrant is star which indicates the products or services which creates high revenue in the current context while, the third quadrant is the cash cow which provides perpetual profitability for the organisation in the competitive market.
The dog factor is the products or services which is creating pain for the organisation as it is not generating appreciable revenue for the business. The question market is those products whose effectiveness cannot be determined properly. In this case, implementation of the strategy of offering the special courses for the child fitness instructor should be considered as a star factor as this should generate high revenue in the current context.
Additionally, this service should be provided in the online format to get better response in the post Covid-19 context.
On the other hand, the strategy of implementation of social media marketing has previously been proposed in the upper section. This strategy should be considered as the cash cow for Study Active. The availability of digital technology is widely noticed in UK and the use of social media has got integrated with the behaviour of the customers.
Nunan et al. (2018) direct notification to the customers along with direct interaction with the customers at any time can be done with the support of social media. The impulse of getting associated with the course can be created with posting of attractive images and promotional content in the social media platform like Instagram or Facebook. Hence, from this angle it can be mentioned that the digital transformation of the marketing division of this organisation should act as a cash cow which should provide beneficial support for the long term.
Analysis of the strategies as per Mckinsey matrix
Figure 3: McKinsey Matrix
(Source: Cuofano, 2021)
Mckinsey matrix analysis helps in the identification of the position of ta business organisation in the competitive market. As per the idea of Cuofano (2021) the two factors like industry attractiveness and competitive strength of the organisation is considered in the Mckinsey matrix in which each of the factories is considered in the three states, that is, high, medium and low.
This organisation has a low competitive advantage in the market due to the strong competitors like YMCA Fit, The Fitness Circle and more. However, the strategies like social media marketing, implementation of moderate pricing and initiation of the special training courses for the child instructors should help to achieve medium to high industry attractiveness.
Hence, from this angle, it can be considered that Study Active should invest more in the implementation of all the mentioned business strategies. Additionally, the organisation should protect its business and the business strategies to get better profitability for the long term. With the development of profitability and the inclusion of more number of customers, the organisation should invest more as the competitive strength also grows from low towards high for this business unit.
Analysis as per Ansoff matrix
Both the strategy of initiation of the course for child fitness instructor and yoga instructor should be implemented for the existing market of UK. Hence, these strategies should be considered as service development. This factor can be analysed with the help of the Ansoff matrix.
Figure 4: Ansoff Matrix
(Source: CFL, 2021)
The tragedies can be categorised under four quadrants under the Ansoff matrix analysis. Loredana (2017) has mentioned that the first quadrant of the matrix determines the market penetration in which strategy is developed for existing products and existing market while, the second quadrant is the product development, where new products or services are entitled for the existing market.
In the case of the third quadrant existing product is initiated in a new market which is considered as market development while, in the fourth quadrant a new product is developed for the new market (Yaqoob and Omer, 2021). In this case the strategy of initiating the yoga training and child instructor training should be considered under product diversification they are new service for the existing market of UK.
On the other hand, implementation of the strategy of social media marketing and implementation of moderate to low pricing strategy is market penetration. Both of the mentioned strategies are developed for the existing services and also for the existing market of UK.
SAFe criteria analysis
| Suitability | The strategies are quite suitable for Study Active as m, the competitor organisations are proceeding with the same strategy for the same market. The competitive brands have implemented high piercing tragedy for online fitness and training courses for the instructors.
In the post pandemic period of Covid-19, the economic crisis has influenced the entire UK market along with the purchasing power of the customers. This factor has been considered for implementation of the strategy of moderate to low pricing. From this angle, it can be analysed that this strategy is quite suitable. |
| Acceptability | All the strategies proposed and justified in the above section are acceptable as the strategy of yoga instruction course or child fitness instructor course have been implemented by the competing brands. Additionally, no new infrastructure is needed to be developed to implement the mentioned strategies. |
| Feasibility | The strategies are feasible as they can be implemented in the current business context. This should help in the development of competitive advantage of Study Active. |
Table 1: SAFe criteria analysis
(Source: Self-developed)
Conclusion
At the end of the study, it can be concluded that development of strategy as per the trend and need of the market is highly essential. It has been noticed that the services provided by the competitive brands are very much close to each other. This factor is creating the target of substitution for the business of Study Active. Training for personal fitness instructor and Gym institute along with the other allied courses are offered by the competitive brands like YMCA Fit, The Fitness Circle and Educate Fitness as well.
The analysis of the business of the competing brands have revealed that all the competitors are providing high priced services. Hence, from this angle, it has been determined that Study Active should imply medium to low pricing strategy along with the strategy of social media marketing. The strategy of providing child fitness training courses and yoga instructor’s courses has also been identified as feasible and profitable for this organisation.
The analysis of Ansoff matrix determined that the strategies are suitable for market penetration or for product diversification. On the other hand, analysis of social media marketing strategy and low pricing strategy as the cash cow for the company. This should provide a perpetual source of profit.
Recommendation
Study Active is currently moving through a critical phase and the degree of competitive advantage of the company is quite low for the market. With providence of special offers, more customers and students can be involved in the business. Offers regarding price discounts should be provided to the customers. Special discount weeks for the specialised courses need to be organised.
On the other hand, implementation of the strategy of email marketing should be utilised the email regarding the new courses should be provided to the existing and the new customers. Additionally, in the online magazine and in the social media, advertisements of the new courses would be represented. The importance of yoga courses and the attractive child fitness instructor’s course should be promoted through e-mail marketing.
The Gym professionals should also get attracted with the mentioned courses and for the discount offers. This should help in the development of market share for Study Active in the operating market of UK. The courses should be provided in the online platform and this factor should effectively be promoted in the email marketing.
This factor should help in the better association of the customers with the new courses. With effective promotion, the new courses should take the place of a cash cow which should further help in the organisation to get competitive advantage.
References
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Bhasin, H., (2019). What is Bowman’s Strategy Clock?. Available at: https://www.marketing91.com/what-is-bowmans-strategy-clock/ [Accessed on: 8 December 2021]
CFL, (2021). What is the Ansoff Matrix?. Available at: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/ansoff-matrix/ [Accessed on: 9 December 2021]
Chiu, C.C. and Lin, K.S., (2019, July). Rule-based BCG matrix for product portfolio analysis. In International Conference on Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Networking and Parallel/Distributed Computing (pp. 17-32). Springer, Cham.
Cuofano, G., (2021). What Is The GE McKinsey Matrix And Why It Matters In Business. Available at: https://fourweekmba.com/ge-mckinsey-matrix/ [Accessed on: 9 December 2021]
Educate Fitness, (2021). Level 3 Diploma in Planning and Delivering Personal Training (Online). Available at: https://educatefitness.co.uk/product/level-3-certificate-in-personal-training-distance/ [Accessed on: 8 December 2021]
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The fitness Circle, (2021). Children’s fitness. Available at: https://www.thefitnesscircle.co.uk/courses/childrens-fitness-courses-uk/ [Accessed on: 9 December 2021]
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Appendix: Summary and recommendation
Summary
This report has been developed regarding the upgradation of the business strategy of Study Active, in the introduction, the purpose of the report has been mentioned. After that, the analysis of the competing brands has been done. The companies like The Fitness Circle, YMCA Fit and Educate Fitness have been done. After that the challenges imparted by the competing brands have also been analysed in this report.
The strategies like low pricing, social media promotion, initiation of the new courses for professional yoga instructor and child fitness instructors have been mentioned. With the support of the models like BCG matrix, Ansoff matrix, Bowman’s strategic clock, McKinsey Matrix and SAFe approach, the analysis of the proposed strategies has been done and justification has been provided. The strategy of email marketing and the province of special offers has also been recommended.
Recommendation
Study Active is currently moving through a critical phase and the degree of competitive advantage of the company is quite low for the market. With providence of special offers, more customers and students can be involved in the business. Offers regarding price discounts should be provided to the customers. Special discount weeks for the specialised courses need to be organised.
On the other hand, implementation of the strategy of email marketing should be utilised the email regarding the new courses should be provided to the existing and the new customers. Additionally, in the online magazine and in the social media, advertisements of the new courses would be represented. The importance of yoga courses and the attractive child fitness instructor’s course should be promoted through e-mail marketing.
The Gym professionals should also get attracted with the mentioned courses and for the discount offers. This should help in the development of market share for Study Active in the operating market of UK. The courses should be provided in the online platform and this factor should effectively be promoted in the email marketing.
This factor should help in the better association of the customers with the new courses. With effective promotion, the new courses should take the place of a cash cow which should further help in the organisation to get competitive advantage.
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