Wallingford Bowling Alley Project for MGT3000

The Wallingford Bowling Alley

            Wallingford bowling ally is a 24-hour state of the art bowling ally that is looking for areas to increase their profitability.  The Wallingford bowling alley has opportunities to increase their margin as well as drive more daily sales.  We see an opportunity for Wallingford because they already have a profitable business.  By making the following advancements to achieve more business during slower times of the day they can seize this opportunity.  By putting more consideration into using labor hours more effectively, creating community partnerships, and taking advantage of beneficial organizations, Wallingford will see a considerable growth in their bottom line and an expansion of their brand and recognition.

Solutions for Growth

            The Wallingford bowling alley faces the opportunity to increase their profitability and simultaneously attain a larger return on investment.  Through a reengineering process Wallingford bowling alley will drastically improve profits through promotions and cost control.  There are several opportunities facing Wallingford that we will examine and analyze to determine the most effective course of action needed to achieve our goals.

            To help appeal to their consumers, Wallingford needs to enhance their image as well as their accommodations.  With the addition of customized bowling balls to fit the needs of their customers, Wallingford would be able to bring in a new market looking for these higher end products.  Also, by creating a more appealing menu to offer the residents of Wallingford they could potentially bring more customers that are interested in dining out.  This could also create a new customer base for potential marketing.

            After looking at the times at which they are doing business as well as the reported expenses we were provided, we believe that there is a huge opportunity to cut costs by closing the top half of the bowling ally from the hours of 1am until noon. The following is a chart showing the large amount of expense that labor takes up at Wallingford:

As you can see, about a third of Wallingford’s expenses come from payroll.  By making these cuts in available lanes they can decrease this payroll amount and increase their profits.  This will decrease utility costs, employee wages, and make the ally appear busier by having everyone bowling on one level during slower times. Say there are 3 employees needed to staff the upstairs when it is open; the average wage for an employee is $12 an hour.  If cut, that’s $72 a day and over 26 thousand dollars a year going straight to increasing the bottom line and decreasing overhead costs.

            As well as cutting labor to help increase the bottom line we can help eliminate the threat of revenue loss on Sundays due to church services.  Wallingford should offer discounted rates during times that church is in session.  By focusing on getting these customers in the door they could increase revenue during a slower time of the week.  The following is a current schedule of Wallingford.  The slower times are affecting Wallingford’s business and profits:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
1am
2am
3am
4am
5am
6am
7am	Slow						Kid's League
8am
9am
10am
11am		Women's League		Women's League
12pm
1pm
2pm
3pm
4pm
5pm
6pm	Men's Bowling - 100%					50% Open Bowling
7pm
8pm
9pm
10pm
11pm
12am

            In order to take advantage of these slow times we saw an opportunity for the bowling alley to make some sales revenue.  Wallingford could offer local schools a discounted rate for large groups to use the bowling alley for field trips or for Physical Education classes.  This would give the bowling alley sales during slow periods and also gain interest for bowling in younger markets and hopefully a gain in future customers.

            Another opportunity is to join the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America.  The BPAA is an organization focused on enhancing the profitability of their members through grants and a stronger purchasing ability.  The costs of becoming a member and loss of some administrative control create an opportunity cost for Wallingford but the long-term ability to be able to create programs with these grants would make up for the short-term costs.  This would allow Wallingford to cut down on operation costs through the added buying power supplied by the BPAA, and the savings in money would go to the increased profits.  Also, with the opportunity to receive grants from the BPAA, Wallingford would be able to start high school bowling programs to increase interest in the bowling ally.

            We felt Wallingford was not doing enough promotions to attract value conscious customers to their bowling alley.  In order to capture more sales during slower periods we feel that offering special promotions like a free game with the purchase of an entrée from the restaurant,  the rental of shoes would not be included in this promotion.  Not only would this get more bowlers in Wallingford, but it would increase revenue for the restaurant located at the alley.  This promotion would run from 10am to 2pm Monday through Friday.  Other promotions would be happy hour bowling from 4pm to 7pm where bowlers could get a discounted rate for games during this period.

            So far, we have only focused on capturing sales during slower mid-day hours, but not for late night.  The ability to be open 24 hours in a unique characteristic and sets them apart from a lot of other businesses.  In order to take advantage of these late hours, we felt like having a late night bowling special.  Bowlers who are up late would be able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Also, in order to capture sales from bar going groups, partnering with alcohol companies or breweries could capture some of their customers and would increase popularity with an under-utilized group.  These partnerships could also give Wallingford a cheaper form of advertisement and low cost or free labor from these partners.  Wallingford can really tap into a new market by taking advantage of these promotions and partnerships.

Top Two Solutions:

1)    Bowling Proprietors Association of America

The Bowling Proprietors Association of America is an organization focusing on creating wealth for their members and creating profits through grants as well as national buying power and sponsorships.

Strengths ·         Buying power ·         Sponsorships	Weaknesses ·       Memberships
Opportunities ·         Tournaments ·         Increased awareness ·         Grants	Threats ·         The presence of bars or nightlife in the area.

Strengths

            The BPAA allows their members to participate in numerous different buying promotions from office supplies to foods and drink.  These discounts could save Wallingford money and increase their bottom line.  The money that the BPAA could provide would help promote school partnerships by supporting transportation and other costs associated.  This could increase interest with kids 13-18 and create returning customers.  Increasing interest with this market influences other markets like parents of students looking for family activities.

Weaknesses

            The cost of the BPAA is a draw back. Like any premium membership there is a premium cost associated with it.  However, with these costs come also numerous benefits and increased profitability.  Membership costs would be offset by increased revenue and improved customer base.  Another weakness may be loss of some creative or administrative control.

Opportunities

            The partnership with high schools that the BPAA provides would cause an increase in high school tournaments being held at Wallingford.  This would bring in hundreds of people on an annual basis and increase profits for food, drink, and merchandise.

Threats

            Like in any business there are always substitutes for your consumers.  In this case substitutes for Wallingford would be movie theatres, bars, and community events.

2)    Cross Promotions and Partnerships

Cross promotions are a low cost form of advertising that gives the company high exposure and strong partnerships with local business and takes advantage of other company’s loyal customers.

Strengths ·         Low Cost ·         Low Risk ·         Low Labor ·         Business relationships  ·         High exposure ·         Community involvement	Weaknesses ·         Partnership conflicts ·         Transaction uncertainty ·         Competition ·         Lofty expectations ·         Partner promotions
Opportunities ·         Sponsored lanes ·         Free or discounted supplies ·         Sponsorships ·         New customer base	Threats ·         Customer opinion

Strengths

            The ability for Wallingford to utilize local businesses for co-sponsored events creates a higher exposure by advertising to new customers and creating high exposure.  In addition to higher exposure for Wallingford the use of their partners labor and products would help with labor cost and product costs.

Weaknesses

            The draw back of these partnerships would be the conflict of two or more differing opinions from two or more organizations.  There is also a certain level of uncertainty with these partnerships through not knowing the expectations of each others’ business practices.  These weaknesses could be harmful to the business practices of Wallingford but the opportunity to bring in a new customer base to the bowling alley is too big to not use this resource.

Opportunities

            One of the opportunities that are involved with these partnerships are sponsorships.  We believe that the addition of sponsored lanes would add an increase and draw in customers loyal to our sponsors which would bring in a new customer base.  This would be a new market for Wallingford and would bring new customers and profits to the bowling alley.

Threats

            There is a threat of customers who may be opposed to our sponsors and subsequently will not want to support the bowling alley.  Paying attention to the opinions of their consumers can give insight on to who Wallingford chooses to do their cross promotions with.  By implementing polls or surveys to their customers, they could find out what local business appeal to them and develop partnerships with them to create a more effective promotion and increased sales.

The Decision

            We feel like the best solution for Wallingford would be to focus on cross promotions, partnerships and strategic alliances.  We feel that this is an opportunity because they are not currently doing any program like this.  By focusing on this option Wallingford is able to penetrate untapped markets, increase marketing, actively engage the community and their business, and ultimately increase profitability. 

Evaluation

Wallingford could evaluate the success of promotions, partnerships and strategic alliances by measuring the increase or decreased customer count that promotions and partnerships supplied.  Wallingford could keep track of customer awareness by asking customers how they heard about the bowling alley.  After a trial period of six months we could come together with Wallingford management and evaluate the decision and the effect it had on increasing the profitability, customer flow and look for a decrease in slow times.