Devise a new sports service and justify your choice with reference to appropriate theory and contextual information

• For this assignment, based on knowledge and understanding of the contemporary sports marketing environment, you are asked to devise a new sports service and justify your choice with reference to appropriate theory and contextual information – the sports service is

“The Qatar Foundation Healthy Employee”

Reference theory on health / participation in sports and increased work performance, decreased sick days etc also generally about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle https://www.sportengland.org/research/benefits-of-sport/health-benefits-of-sport/ is a good starting point. But there is loads of literature out there on this

The Qatar Foundation Strategic Plan 6E.1 states “Further develop and implement a holistic and integrated QF-wide plan for health and welfare”. So the concept is in line with this company strategic element

The Qatar National Vision highlights some key national challenges that the country needs to address including health related challenges, such as a high rate of chronic diseases including diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Would be good to find some figures and statistics to reference here about Qatar and how unhealthy the country is and its general implications. These challenges are primarily being tackled by the Qatar Olympic Committee under the Qatar Sports Sector Strategy http://www.aspire.qa/Documents/sports_sector_strategy_final%20-%20English.pdf
“The Qatar National Vision belongs to the government, the private sector, civil society and to all Qatari citizens” (Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani)

• You should provide a description of your new product concept. This should be in the form of text and can include diagrams if appropriate.
There would be an assessment of Qatar Foundation employees health this will become benchmark to work from and this could actually form the first stage of the advertising campaign for the service. A team would gather as much health and sports participation information on all the employees through face to face visits / or departmental workshops collecting information through questionnaires or other appropriate methods. This would primarily determine how often employees participate in sports and also how healthy employees are. The aim is to improve on this figure ever year and also hopefully be able to show a correlation between less sick days and increased employee productivity.

Employee’s already have free access to facilities but have to pay for most classes and events

For the “The Qatar Foundation Healthy Employee” they pay a monthly or annual fee and they get free access to all classes and events.

Employee (customer) has an initial meet with a Corporate Health Specialist (CHS) and can discuss what they want in terms of staying healthy and if they any specific goals eg lose weight, gain muscle, 5k PB etc etc. The CHS will also aim to educate the employee on the health benefits of sports, healthy diet etc and will have a standard workshop they provide. Also tour of all facilities and details of all the things on offer (details in first assignment)

Fitbit, nike fuel (or similar product) upon annual registration.

The CHS will tailor a package that suits the employee. We have specialists in the majority of sports areas and for any areas that we don’t a collaboration with the Qatar National Olympic Committee would be sought.

Nutritional guide lines are also provided and for a additional fee you can have specialist food brought to you – outsourced from a supplier (diet shops that deliver food) Qatar Foundation will facilitate it for the employee and would strive to work out a discounted rate with the service in general.

The CHS will come to the employees office fortnightly (at employee convenience) and go through activities of the week and conduct another health test – weight, BMI etc to monitor progress and give feedback (CHS is professionally qualified to do this) This will also offer as a motivational tool.

Constant contact with your CHS for questions regarding timetables, your personal coaches etc. is included

Dedicated website for the service with a leadership board, peoples statistics etc. User can upload themselves, can remain anonymous (cultural concerns) details of goals, weight, BMI, improvements etc are on here. Will serve as a motivational tool and social platform too.

Annual awards for all participants with certificate of participation ideally signed by Sheikh Saoud (the Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee) as we are actively contributing towards to the Qatar Sports Sector Strategy. An award for “most improved participant” – “most improved” is intentionally vague as everyone has specific goals

Discounts on local sports stores will be worked out with GNC, Holland & Barrett, sports stores etc for participants.

• Within your essay, you should also outline the target market for your new product or service. Evidence on the size of the market would be helpful at this point, to justify why there would be a demand for your new concept
It is only for the Qatar Foundation staff and their families who are entitled to use the Qatar Foundation facilities. Around 25, 000 people currently.
The actual target from this group is the professional who doesn’t know too much about how to stay healthy or have much time but wants to stay fit and healthy. This service offered by Qatar Foundation for its employees makes all of this as easy, hassle free and as informative / educational as possible

• You also need to develop a brand identity for your new product or service. This includes a brand name, logo and possibly a slogan, if appropriate.
I have said “Qatar Foundation Healthy Employee” this is just the concept, not the brand name and a new name should be thought of.
Logo needs to be designed
Slogan would be good too
• The presentation should also outline the launch strategy for your product or service, i.e. how you will use the marketing mix elements in launching the new product or service. The product element will be covered in your description of the product, so this section should discuss price, place and promotion. You should propose and justify the price you will charge and your distribution strategy. In terms of promotion, you are asked to produce at least one piece of marketing communications material (e.g. poster, TV/radio/online advert, or a press release). You should show your piece of marketing communications in the assignment and also discuss, as part of the launch strategy, the other marketing communications tools that you would use. For example, if you are going to use social media, viral marketing, PR and radio advertising, you would produce one of those and then discuss how you’d use the others. All of your ideas within the presentation should be justified based on appropriate marketing theory and evidence. This should include academic underpinning and primary research. In terms of academic underpinning, you might, for example, refer to literature on branding to support your choice of brand name, or literature on different areas of the sports marketing mix to justify the decisions you made regarding your launch strategy.
The majority of the marketing methods and an analysis of current marketing methods are highlighted in the previous assignment (also attached) so something new needs to be created for this service
Price will be low and the figures don’t need to be mentioned – it is not a money making scheme but a service in line with corporate and national strategies. Covering costs are important though. Payment could be linked to HR and directly deducted from an employees salary keeping in line with making the service as “no hassle” as possible for the employee

• Your essay should conclude with a discussion of how the product can grow and develop in the future. Again, this is an opportunity to draw on theory, for example, relating your discussion to the product life cycle or the Ansoff Matrix.
The Qatar Foundation Vision states “Qatar Foundation leads Human, Economic, and Social Development of Qatar, making Qatar a nation that can be a vanguard for productive change in the region and a role model for the international community” The hopes would be that other organizations in the state of Qatar would see what we are doing and try and adopt something similar.
Not all companies are blessed with the same sports and recreation facilities as Qatar Foundation. However Qatar Foundation is working towards an open campus and with this in mind corporate deals on membership to other organizations could be granted and the same service offered to other companies. This is also in line with the Qatar Sports Sector Strategy of “improved and integrated planning for community sport facilities”

Marking criteria
The first marking criterion relates to the product idea. Therefore, we are looking at the quality of the product idea and how well the need for the product or service is justified. This justification may be theoretical or more practical, for example, based on an analysis of the market or from primary research findings among the target market.
The second marking criterion concerns the discussion and justification of the target market, the brand identity and the launch strategy. As such, you need to ensure that you not only cover all of these areas comprehensively but that your arguments are robust and coherent, showing clear understanding of how to launch a new sports product or service.
The third marking criterion relates to the piece of marketing communications that you are asked to produce. This is assessed in terms of its suitability to the target market and product as well as in terms of whether it is informed by theory, such as literature on what makes a good advert or press release.
Suggested and ideal reference list:

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