Hothouse Design
Supa-Scuba Dive School
Following our previous meeting we must now concentrate upon developing the promotion of the localised diving services, called the Supa-Scuba dive school.  As well as just the advertising of these services, Supa-Scuba has also requested an investigation of the potential for market growth in this area, including the expansion of these services from local into regional ones.  This will involve some regional market research and studies of all the competitors shares of the marketplace.  
Supa-Scuba is a small company, based in a small commercial unit on the outskirts of Manningtree in East Anglia, England.  They are looking to expand their current business from a small local provider of retail goods and services (diving courses), into a regional provider of these services and a global retail outlet.  The managing director has many years experience training scuba divers and operating resorts.  He has been a PADI Master Instructor for 14 years.  Starting scuba diving over 30 years ago it was a different sport, mostly conducted in cold waters with ill fitting wetsuits and twin hose regulators.  Initially a BSAC Instructor he has also qualified with CMAS and SSI.  In the early years he was involved in wreck hunting and located dived and filmed some spectacular wrecks.  He has trained over 100 instructors, and has operated an international dive resort in the Egyptian Red Sea.  Supa-Scuba currently use a variety of public swimming pools throughout their immediate locality to teach the first part of the PADI open water courses, as well as using these facilities for a number of taster, starter and junior sessions.
Outline Plan
Our initial steps were identified as:
Identify available staff
Identify available locations
Identify competitors
Population analysis
Proposed strategy
Staff
For the available staff there are currently 17 trained instructors working with the company and there is a huge potential for training more as required.  This could be accomplished using the committed and enthusiastic pool of young local divers who would like to enhance their skills and work in this field.  It would however put a strain on the management of the company as the master divers (who are qualified to train instructors) are also those in senior positions within Supa-Scuba.
Location
There are several existing locations close to the companys base in Manningtree, these include:
Other suitable locations need to be sought.  For at least one of the sessions for the open water course a minimum pool depth of 3 to 4 metres will be required, but this would not be needed for all other sessions, especially taster sessions.  As there are a limited number of public swimming pools in this area, it may be worth investigating the use of private pools through local health and fitness centres.  One advantage of using this route would be that many of these health clubs are operated by chains so courses and details could be centrally arranged and all advertising could be covered internally.  Another advantage would be that members of these private health clubs are likely to be in the right socio-economic group to be able to afford the courses and subsequent overseas holidays.
Existing courses
Little is yet known about these other than the details already mentioned in these briefing notes.  This must be an area for immediate research if we are to understand enough about the clients business.  In order to see this business through the eyes of a customer, Abisayo has been enrolled on a taster session on Saturday evening, followed by the open water course, which will start next Tuesday.
Competitors
As the business is planning to become regional, rather than just localised, it is important to identify any competitors who may be established in the new areas.  This must be done in terms of who the competitors are, the scale of their operation and how much of the estimated market share those competitors have already taken.
Population analysis
If Supa-Scuba is to expand the dive schools regionally we must analyse the demographic trends within the region.  Population data, in terms of numbers, age analysis and economic analysis must be undertaken.  These analyses must be mapped to the location of suitable venues, chains of health and fitness clubs (with swimming pools), and maps of competitors locations (and if possible the data about their market share).  Please remember that the potential market for this type of activity is limited to individuals within a pre-defined income group.  More specific briefing notes on this element will be available to you within the next two days, but are not available at the time of printing these notes.
Links between the school and shop
Another thing which must be given consideration, is how we tie in the dive school with the sale of equipment, through either the shop or the internet.  One element would be to use the products that are available from the shop within the dive school, allowing customers to get comfortable with the gear, and then purchase it as and when they become qualified divers.  To this end we need to consider certain products to promote within the dive school.  For example a range of buoyancy control devices (BC) that could be used would be:
At some stage a full analysis of the number of each product types sold within the shop will be needed.  Our client thinks that it may be worth investigating this fully.  We would probably need to present this information graphically in a format similar to this:
Proposed strategy
In order to have everything prepared for our next scheduled meeting with the client, we must ensure that all of the above tasks are completed.  A list of these tasks and the staff assigned to these will be e-mailed to all team members by 4 oclock this afternoon.  Please ensure that you consider the links to objectives set for others within the team as you each fulfil your specified tasks.  Another element which must be identified as part of our strategy is; Does our client currently have the capacity (in every sense) to expand, or what additional requirements are there?  This may mean that a phased implementation strategy will be required.  
I can confirm that the details will be discussed in the full team meeting on the morning of Wednesday 18th at 9:45 and the next meeting with Supa-Scuba which is on Monday 23rd at 2 oclock.
