Target audience

What is a good location?

I would say a decently open area with popular shops around would be a horrible idea but also a good one because people would be too focused on the popular shops than your shop. It’s a good idea though because you are able to get people in your store who would be walking to another one of those popular stores. So I would pick a decently open place with one or two popular shops instead of 5 or 10 and then people walking from both sides will want to go to the other store too but then will see mine and think my store might be another new popular store and take a look.

How much do people make a year and what do they tend to spend it on?

The average salary yearly in Australia is 72k for a full time job. For a part-time it ranges between 34k to 72k, if you make over 80k a year then you are considered financially stable. People who are making a considerable amount of money tend to spend their money on their essentials as well as their personal wants. While there is no statistics showing what a person actually spends their money on yearly we can take a rough estimate that as a person yearly income climbs the amount of products they purchase on the side may increase. Meaning that the average salary per year people are more likely to buy into my shop and purchase running items.

The customers

My target audience age is going to be young adults because there are more young adult that run than any other age group and they tend to be more energetic and will go to sport shops for new shoes because they always ruin their running shoes. But for the wealth my target would middle aged people since they have been working for longer which means they have more money. I will be targeting people who live or run near rivers and beaches and come to the city to buy their sports goods. People who work in the city will also be interested in the store if they run or go on long walks or regular walks. Men are more likely to run than women with the estimated amount of men that run in Perth being 34.3% and women that run in Perth is 28.5%. From that information we can see that men are more interested in running than woman are bringing my target audience to 18-40 Men but also women.

Not my target audience:

The audience for age is would definitely not be 70-100 because when you reach that age your body starts to slow down which is not good for running and there are few 50-100-year-old runners in Perth. Wealth would definitely not be two to fourteen year olds because they do not usually have to the money for sports equipment. I would not be targeting people in the northern territory because there are less people in the country which means there would be much less sales making much less profit. The gender I would not target is none, my store targets both genders leaving none behind.

Trends in sport gear currently

Sport shoes would be worn out quick for athletes like Jake which will be very good because I can make profit easily over time. Sport shoes for running are the more bought items in the running community. I learn this from my  Dad because I am sure he has about 100 sport shoes. Energy bars are also very popular for the running genre which since I have energy bars in my store I can make good profits from the shoes and bars.

Advertising

Running events and races:

Pros:

This form of advertising best suits my target audience as it is specific to them. I could set up a marketing team to take this work on. I would start with a major local event and build from there.

Can start with pamphlets and when the business improves, move to banners at running and racing events.

Could partner with the race organisers to have runners wear an advertisement on their running shirts.

Cons:

Larger events would cost more in terms of organisation and the cost of advertising.

Exposure might be an issue as people in the events will be running and not bothering with advertising, as will their supporters who will be at the event to watch them.

Setting up a marketing team within my business (as they would have the expertise for this work) could be costly when the business is new.

Social Media:

Pros:

The target audience of younger people is appropriate here to social media advertising as they are also a large group using social media.

If the advertisement gains traction then I would have over one thousand people that know about my website.

I can easily set up advertisements that can gain popularity.

If one post goes viral then the others have a likely chance to also become popular.

Cons:

Social media users are not as interested in advertising as they are seeing the social media content they like.

High chance advertisements won’t become popular.

Relying on the website I put the advertisement on, which can end quite badly a decent amount of the time.

First post is unpopular and my business is unrecognised by a lot of people.

Stadium advertisement:

Pros:

Can gain popularity quickly because thousands of people go to places like Optus Stadium for footy games (usually around 30k-40k people each game). The cricket season is over summer and while the spectators are not as high as 30K people, more people are running in the summer months due to good weather.

The stadium also welcomes tour groups.

When games are advertised, my advertisement will be seen by a larger audience across the country.

Cons:

It is really expensive and that would be bad because since I would have a new business which would take money away from me stopping me from being able to restock my items.

I have to rely on people buying tickets which can end badly if people decide to not go.

There is a high chance it won’t be shown a lot or it won’t be seen on the TV broadcast. In line with this, people viewing the game want to see the game and not necessarily the advertisements.

YouTube advertisements:

Pros:

YouTube has a large, younger audience and this fits with my target audience.

YouTube advertisements are across lots of content and would actually reach a wide audience.

A YouTube advertisement might be seen by another platform and they could request to run my advertisement.

Cons:

Australia now has restrictions on under 16s using YouTube so this would mean younger teens who are interested in running would not see my advert on YouTube.

Users of YouTube often skip the adverts.

My content might be misused by other users on YouTube.

Pamphlets into letterboxes:

Pros:

Lots of people across the suburbs of Perth have a mailbox and the pamphlet drop-offs could reach the wider metro area.

I could target suburbs close to the river, including my own, and deliver the pamphlets myself or pay other workers to do so.

I have seen teenagers in my area delivering pamphlets for work. This would help my business but it also keeps young people with work options around school.

Cons:

I would need to think about how to distribute the pamphlets. You can pay people to do this but this would be an extra cost to the business.

Some people have ‘no junk mail’ signs on their letterboxes and pamphlets could be classified as this.

Pamphlets can often get overlooked for the personal mail people are looking for in their letterbox.

Two Best Strategies:

Business research shows that the best approach for a new business is to combine online advertising with community engagement and events. This is why I have decided to chose these two strategies:

YouTube advertisements

I would use this platform to advertise my business as the advert could be set up to be included in online content about running and it could also be specific to Perth. Due to the global presence of YouTube, it might also encourage wider interest in my store for online orders. Research shows that YouTube marketing can be really successful and once businesses start to get established, they can reach out to influencers to market their items. Research also shows that YouTube viewers are more engaged than other platforms which means advertising is more successful.

Running Event

A running event is good to reach out to the local community and get them engaged in my new business. I would reach out to a few events but a key one that I would target is the Perth Running Festival  which is a large running event taking place once a year at Burswood and organised by the Marathon Club and it includes members of the club and others who pay to race. The Marathon Club alone has over 1,000 members. The 2024 Running Festival included 14,000 participants. This is a great audience but there is also their supporters. While the spectator numbers are not calculated, even if only one person came to support a runner, that’s an extra 14,000 people on top of the participant numbers. This would increase the audience for my advertisements to close to 30,000. This is good for a local running event. I could use my YouTube presence to link in with advertising this event and my store.