Conclusions/Recommendations of Project 1: Housexy Research Project

This appendix will present the research data and conclusions/recommendations made in the first project (Project 1). This section is a retrospective view that may be referred to in the body of this project (Housexy Project 2).

Research Data

1) Data obtained from Housexy.com

From the research carried out via Housexy.com, we saw that the majority of respondents were male and between ages 18 to 40. 31% of them go clubbing more than 5 times a month. For these people clubbing and music is important aspects of their life, the majority of these people learn what’s going on by going on line and word of mouth.

55% of the participants have not attended Housexy events but when it is asked to give them chance go to Housexy events 40% wanted to go as often as possible and 32% of them often wanted to go to Housexy events.
Respondents want to see …… at branded night clubs (Average)

• Lots of decor – 3.92
• Some – 2.8
• Celebrities – 3.575
• Themed Nights – 3.45
• Give-Away – 3.97
• Dancers – 4
• Live Elements – 3.52

When asked what draws respondents to other brands, 20% of the respondents say previous experience, 23% answered as line-ups and 25% of them answered as brand. It is clear that most of people want to go to the same place if they enjoy and know the brand so it is essential for Housexy to improve brand image and attract more attention from their target audience.

Finally, the majority of respondents think that Housexy needs more promotion and improved play-lists to improve.

2) Data obtained from Survey Monkey

The demographics of participants that fill the questionnaire placed on surveymonkey.com were as follows;

• 85% of them were men
• 41% of them were between 18 – 24
• 31 % of them were between 30 – 40 ages.

According to majority of participants, clubbing is an important aspect of their life. Most of them wanted to see dancers, lots of decor and give-aways at branded club nights.

Usually, participants identified web sites, e-flyers and word of mouth as their sources for ‘Whats going on’. This result is important for Housexy because it is clear that most of the target audience is going online so by using new web technologies like Web 2.0 services consisting of; blogs, Facebook, MySpace and Google AdSense can be used as a low cost advertising opportunity and can draw attention.

The majority of the participants rate Housexy as 7 – 9. On the other hand 55% of them have not attended any Housexy events or 40% of the participants have not bought a Housexy album.

Lastly, from the most important aspect question which is ‘what should Housexy do to improve’:

• 17% of the participants say that Housexy needs to promote more (Advertising)
• 12% of the participants want to see more variety of music

Consequently, the web survey on surveymonkey.com shows us that Housexy needs to prioritise the development of web related services to create brand awareness and attract more attention. Most of the target audience (who are between 18 to 34) are going online and find out what’s going by word of mouth and websites.

3) Data obtained Face-to-Face

The majority of respondents that partook in our research at Ministry of Sound were between ages 18-24 and Male who are often or religious clubbers. This was a good representation of the attendance of the night as backed up by observation studies.

Most respondents said that their first clubbing experience was pre 18 and that clubbing was an extremely important aspect of their lifestyle.

In regards to clubbers preferences, it can be determined that there is an uncertainty surrounding décor and giveaways preference whereas there is a low interest in themed nights and celebrity djs and a high interest in dancers and live elements.

Word of mouth and the Internet hold high interests from respondents which will be particularly important.

When analysing the respondents who had heard of Housexy it was first of all obvious that there is a low awareness of the brand; less than 27% of respondents had heard of Housexy.

• These respondents responded as follows;
• All respondents were male.
• All respondents were regular clubbers.
• All results reflected those of other respondents.
• Housexy was rated 6.5/10 overall compared to 8.5/10 for Hed Kandi.
• Respondents also felt that Housexy is Sexy and Energetic.

Finally, 60% of respondents aware of Housexy attend events to see the DJ’s but the majority of them had never been to a Housexy event.

4) Data obtained from the DJ Survey

From the DJ questionnaire we can see the following:
Housexy should keep the current music style consistent, including the quality of the DJ’s. Use the fact that the staff are good and promote the diversity of the company. There is a concurrence that the artwork and music are very strong aspects of Housexy. Housexy is considered stylish and grown up by its DJ’s.

According to the DJ’s, Housexy should improve the production (banners and inflatables etc.). There should be an attempt to get into festivals and festival culture or to be tagged onto larger events. The DJ’s feel that there should be more exploitation of free/low cost advertising and that feedback should be obtained and acted on from clients. It should also be considered that 2 albums per year may bring more quality to the brand.

There is a high interest from DJ’s in working on Housexy radio shows.
Housexy is rated as above average by most Dj’s, however, there is definitely room fro improvement.

5) Data obtained from Stakeholders Questionnaire

To summarise the stakeholders questionnaire:
Housexy seems to stand out against it competitors due to the individual approach that Housexy have utilised. The production that is sent to UK events should be improved to make more of an impact.

In addition Housexy should make more use of the media channels available. It is a certainty that Social networking Systems (SNS) should be used to promote the brand and create a community.

It is also obvious that UK gigs should be improved (although this could be said for any brand).

6) Brainstorm Results

From the brainstorming focus group that was carried out, it was determined that:

Housexy

Fashion channels should be exploited, as Housexy is a very stylish brand. Housexy could run a campaign such as ‘design a dress to be worn on a album front cover.

The possibility of a captive audience at Universities should be exploited as the age range almost identically matches that of Housexy target audience. An idea may be to sending packages to universities’ radio stations so that Housexy gains airplay to the target audience. This is also a good way of reaching opinion formers.

Use international popularity could to promote in UK, this may give the brand the image of ‘Grandeur’.

Imagery can be used to diversify, as it is strong – Calendars or professional prints could be used.

Free Advertising

Tracking studies should be used to measure awareness and purchase intentions over time. This will also help to measure the effectiveness of media campaigns.

Sending media representatives to good events will also create positive associations with the UK market.

Web 2.0 tools should definitely be used because they are extremely effective tools for both advertising and market research.

7) Conclusions and recommendations of the Research Project

Nightclubbing is currently in a high evolution business period – this means that the measurement of satisfaction is the wants/needs of clients is extremely important. This will not only give clients the idea that you care about them but also give valuable information to the brand.

There is a high emotional involvement in clubbing which can be carefully exploited. To gain the awareness needed for this exploitation, gig circuiting must be improved in the UK and multiple date tours should be promoted as well as further media platform exploitation.

Housexy is well known but not promoted well therefore, it is necessary to change this and create awareness;

Housexy needs to re-build its website and needs to use some new web 2.0 services, such as using flash radio player to introduce sample songs to visitors. In all the surveys it is mentioned that Housexy needs to promote. For promotion, free advertising tools can be used and also low-cost advertising can create awareness to brand.

Furthermore, Housexy needs to get more public relations for events: this will be achieved if social medias are employed.

Housexy is a well-known brand but is not doing well in UK, therefore international popularity should be used in campaigns to create awareness.

There is definitely a huge untapped market, so it is extremely important for Housexy to create a higher awareness because in time periods such as economic downturns, consumer behaviour tends to change so it important for the brand to prove itself to the potential consumer.

The quality of the brand employees is one of the brand best assets, therefore this strength should be explored more in order to develop relationship with their audience.

It is possible that there has been some strategic drift, we have concluded that Housexy’s target audience is:

• Male
• 18-30
• Often or religious clubbers (going out more than 5 times a month)
• Using Website or word of mouth to decide where to go out
• Considering Line-up is important
• Preferring dancers and possibly live elements

It can also be concluded that Housexy clients believe that Housexy deliver good products and service.

Housexy has a strong and stylish image that should be used in new media ventures and campaigns, which should be measured through tracking surveys.

‘Loyalty correlates directly with how well a company will do financially.’ (Culshaw, 2008) therefore Housexy should look at how brand loyalty can be achieved. What makes being a Housexy client good? This will also mean ensuring all experiences with Housexy are positive, maintaining a high quality product/service and improving advertising.

Housexy should think about the following ideas if the company is to progress;

• Drive repeat purchase
• Generate referrals or cross sales
• Drive revenue through partnerships
• Command a price premium
• Starve off others from the competition

Consequently, it is a certainty that Housexy needs more promotion to improve and create brand awareness. It is also clear that with low cost advertising things can change in a short run.