Condensed Marketing Plan
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#1
We have decided to take the topics and other key components of the marketing principles and framework and relate them to Hot Yoga, the topic of our condensed marketing plan. We believe that a Hot Yoga studio would be a very simple, popular and profitable business in a college town such as Oxford, Ohio. What is Hot Yoga? Bikram Yoga, also known as Hot Yoga, is a new trend reaching many health and wellness driven people all over the country. Hot Yoga consists of performing yoga in a studio or gym heated to roughly 100-105 degrees along with a humidity of 40%.
As entrepreneurs who know our target market, we are extremely tuned into our buyers’ behavior. Going to Miami, people are extremely “trendy”. Once a trend hits Miami EVERYONE wants or does what they can to join that trend. This can be seen at Miami with brands such as Apple, Lulu Lemon, Patagonia, Ray Bans, jerseys, and Jeep. I wouldn’t expect the increasing trendy activity of hot yoga to be any different.
There's a multitude of components that create such a demand for Hot Yoga. In a town like Oxford, the "drive" or emotional trigger for consumers to demand a service such as Hot Yoga would mainly be due to the appeal of health and wellness to college students. With a lack of statistical evidence, it's hard to disagree with the statement that Miami students have grown a stronger awareness of health and fitness (disregarding the night life), a trip to the rec center anytime between Noon and 8 pm would validate my point. My second point is one could also notice that a silent yet major advocate of appearing to be fit is the Greek life on campus. Also, if you take a trip to the rec center anytime between Noon and 8 pm, every letter in the Greek alphabet could be seen on clothing apparel, which would validate my second point. The desire to look fit and healthy is an appreciated value on campus and continues to be a top priority among college students. Many students on campus within the Greek community come from families with a higher income status, meaning a majority of products or services demanded from consumers within the Greek community could be considered almost recession-proof. If a sorority girl wants to have lulu lemon yoga pants, her dad is going to buy her lulu lemon yoga pants, no questions asked! Following that remark, focusing on the female side of the market, it can also be pointed out that women on campus may quite possibly have enough yoga pants to wear a different pair for every day of the week. What this ultimately means is that being healthy and physically fit is a top priority on campus in general. The gym used to be a standard place where men would go lift weights to be physically fit. But as women are becoming more and more physically active, they are starting to put their own spin on how to work out in a gym by incorporating exercises that meet their specific needs. The foundation is already built here in Oxford, where women here have dad's monopoly money, they have a strong desire to find new ways to work out and they already have the attire to perform a workout such as yoga. Why not introduce Hot Yoga to Oxford?

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#2
Strengths: The foundation is set; we have a demand for Hot Yoga. We have a consistent consumer base to reach from Miami University as well as the community of Oxford. Hot Yoga has many benefits that aid college students that can be highly marketable. We would be the first to enter the market and may be able to name our own price; there are currently no local Hot Yoga studios. Another strength of opening a hot yoga studio is the ability for multiple revenue steam. Not only can we provide the service of hot yoga, but we can also supply the extremely trendy and popular yoga attire.
Weaknesses: Hot Yoga comes with liability of health when performing. During winter and summer break, the majority of our consumer base will be out of town thus we are heavily dependent on Miami for a majority of our business. But we believe the implementation of J-Term will drastically help over winter break. The economic conditions of citizens of Oxford could be a weakness as well, especially during our down periods during winter and summer breaks.
Opportunities: The trend for being fit is growing each year within the student body. Miami itself is currently growing and increasing enrollment. We could use Miami as a testing ground and expand business into very similar demographic locations with college towns such as Athens, Ohio and others. We could also incorporate the sale of popular fitness apparel such as lulu lemon yoga pants and other yoga athletic apparel. We could also implement a student development program or in other words an internship. The internship would be for a Marketing position. The main goal of this position would be to advertise and educate the citizens of the city of Oxford on hot yoga. This would occur in the summer, so it would allow someone who is taking summer classes to have an internship as well. That opportunity to have an internship as well as take class in Oxford would create an extremely high demand for the position. Due to this rare opportunity being presented to summer session students, we could test with making the internship unpaid and simply just allowing them to do yoga for free. Something I believe is still an attractive incentive. This high demand for the position in itself will be advertising as people will get to know the business and what we’re all about. The advertising and education of citizens of Oxford will also hopefully help the slow demand expected in summer.
Threats: The REC center will become a competitor and it can be expected Miami will enter the market once Hot Yoga becomes popular in Oxford. We will have to battle convenience of the Miami ID, where Miami could include Hot Yoga fees into tuition or could be paid via MUlaa and make paying for Hot Yoga much more convenient to purchase or if included in tuition it may even seem "free" at the REC center to students and low ball us out. Another problem would be if Miami enters the market, it would be hard to not only compete with pricing, but the REC is right by the sorority quad where a large part of our market could walk across the street for a Hot Yoga class versus wherever our location may be. We would have to battle convenience with convenience by putting our studio uptown or at a location where upperclassmen would have easy access. However there is a potential barrier for entry for Miami in terms of legal health issues. The high cost of insurance needed to protect them from being liable for disease and other bacterial infections caused by the extreme hot and humid conditions could steer them away from entering the market.

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#3
Pricing would be difficult. As I previously mentioned, Price would have to be set where we have an acceptable profit margin after acquiring a necessary location and aside from start up costs. Our main concern would not be our initial price but rather how we would compete with Miami if they enter the market. We could still charge a premium price because I believe Hot Yoga would be an inelastic commodity within a town such as Oxford, but we would have to be convenient and innovative in how we charge such as accepting student currency such as MUlaa or MU Bucks. Due to most of our customers being students, we could allow the purchase of gift cards (in store or online). This would help with sales during winter break as gift cards would be bought by parents to distribute as gifts. Also, offering a variety of packages/memberships at different prices could be a good pricing strategy as customers can pick the package that fits their economic condition as well as their schedules. Being able to pick and choose when a member could come in would be a huge source of value for the customer.

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#4
The Gym, Health and Fitness Industry are a highly competitive market that one could argue takes the shape of monopolistic competition. There are already a large variety of gyms in Oxford that all for the most part offer the same thing. I would argue that the main ways each gym differentiates itself are through store hours and level of occupancy. The rec for example has different fitness classes, a pool, a basketball and soccer court, a gym, a rock climbing wall and etc. Because the majority of people there are for the use of the gym, it's always packed and not always open when college students want to work out. Many don't even try to fight the crowd and are willing to buy a membership at Anytime Fitness or the Tri just so they can workout without having someone waiting on them to finish their set each lift. Many others try out for the club weightlifting team simply because members have electronic access to the gym 24/7 and can go at whatever time they please and it is guaranteed to not be busy.
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#5
I would not consider Hot Yoga to be highly affected by hard economic times when referring to students. At Miami, the majority of students who are enrolled here and are in the Greek system are probably not going to be hit has hard as most middle to lower class consumers doing Hot Yoga elsewhere. When referring to the faculty or citizens of the city of Oxford, I would assume our business would be affected, as hot yoga isn’t a major necessity but more of a luxury and could easily be cut from someone’s budget. The only absolutely devastating thing that could occur was if the economy was so terrible, students started being pulled out of school by their parents because they couldn’t afford paying the tuition every semester and instead had to save the money for other expenses. The chances of this occurring however are slim to none.

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#6
Yes, there are legal and ethical issues associated with Hot Yoga. Hot Yoga entails performing a fitness regiment in a very hot and humid environment. With that, we must have insurance to protect ourselves if an accident were to occur from a health safety standpoint regarding our customers that participate. We also must be aware that with Hot Yoga comes many opportunities for bacteria from sweat and other factors. To do our part with honoring ethics guidelines, we must invest in standardized cleaning supplies and be persistent in our process of cleaning the studio after every session to maintain a clean environment to protect each customer from bacteria that may be transmitted through contact and cause skin infections and other unwanted symptoms. Other legal issues would be requiring participants to be at least 18 years of age (legal adult) unless they are with an adult. Another ethic issue could come about due to the fact that many attractive girls are wearing skin tight, at times exposing, clothes while putting their bodies in a variety of “positions”. We would have to hold ourselves, our employees and our customers to high ethical standards to ensure a safe, comfortable and friendly environment.
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#7
Because our Hot Yoga studio would be a small market business in Oxford, Ohio, our promotional mix will be engaging potential customers mainly through advertising and public relations with the community. We would be doing the majority of our advertising through word of mouth. This campus is a breeding ground for word of mouth advertising. Once a new Hot Yoga studio is in town every sorority on campus will be talking about it. I think sending emails to each sorority with a promotional coupon offer for girls to come to a class with a discount would be VERY beneficial. I also can say that the majority of campus goes to the same top 2 bars: Brick Street and The Woods. I believe we could reach a large majority of our consumer base if we went to each of these two bars and set up a booth at the door to give out t-shirts or plastic cups with our brand on it, and pay the bar to give out drink specials (of popular healthy drinks most women order like a specific vodka soda etc.). I think this would embed in women's minds that every time they drink their healthy alcoholic beverages they think of Hot Yoga (which they drink a lot). We could also set up a booth or table at the top of slant walk and by the gates to Farmer. These are two extremely high traffic areas where we could reach a lot of our target market. This would also allow us to answer any questions or concerns regarding hot yoga considering it is a new trend. As discussed above in the SWOT analysis, the summer internship program would also help aid and serve in advertising. Another successful way of advertising would be social media. Social media is popular everywhere but due to the nature of Miami students; social media is bigger than popular. By creating a Facebook and Twitter account, it would allow us to directly get into contact with our target market. This would also allow us to receive feedback and suggestions.

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#8
After doing some research, I have become aware that gyms in general have a low profit margin. What I can also assume is that with a gym, there is much needed equipment and other various start up expenses and maintenance costs that a Hot Yoga studio will not need. According to Yoga Teacher Training Spot, the profit margin on a yoga studio is roughly 14%. Also they have pointed out that in most yoga sessions, 12-14 customers per session would be typical to make your break even costs for a smaller yoga studio operating during the afternoon and evenings. Because utilities will be our ultimate downfall having to pay to have a room temperature of 105 degrees, to maintain or even increase our profit margins we are going to have to offer larger class sizes and charge an above average price per session. I don't think the price per session would hurt our business being in Oxford, Ohio as I have mentioned previously.
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#9
Performing Hot Yoga can be classified as a mix of a Low-learning product and a Fad product. My reasoning is that it definitely is a low learning product because there is an instructor specifically to teach and be morally supportive of customers through the whole session so learning is rather simple, all the customer would need to do is give their best effort. Not to mention since yoga is already popular, many of our customers would be coming in with at least basic knowledge of positions. We believe it is also a seasonal Fad product. People in general grow up and sometimes give up on a healthy lifestyle. Many people get too busy with work to be able to keep up with working out or going to the gym every day. Another part of our consumer base is middle aged to upper age women that live in the community. We could easily see the seasonal Fad trend in this age group where they become a strong customer base after their new year's resolution. We would also expect to see a fad trend in the weeks leading up to spring break. The beauty of being in a college town is that we are guaranteed to have healthy, energized college students willing to actively participate year round to stay fit. It could a
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#10
Hot yoga would be considered a pull product. A pull strategy is one that directs the promotional mix at ultimate consumers to encourage them to ask the retailer for the product. The promotional mix for hot yoga isn’t an advertisement or a billboard but simply the growing number of hot yoga studios in the hometown communities of students and the gossip of the new trend once those users return to campus. When those students who perform hot yoga at home return back to school, there is all the sudden a demand for a service (hot yoga), which neither Miami University nor the city of Oxford can provide. The positive gossip of the new “hot” trend is free advertising in itself, as it will educate new people about the service along with making them curious. This curiosity is also demand. Therefore, the demand of current users along with the demand of newly informed users would “pull” the hot yoga studio into Oxford.
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#11
Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Because hot yoga is a service and not a product, we wouldn’t have to worry too much about suppliers, so this force wouldn’t have much effect on us. The only way I see this coming up in our business is if we indeed proceeded to sell yoga-related products in our store, such as lulu lemon yoga pants, or even simple things like workout beverages. Then we would have to communicate with multiple suppliers to make the best possible deals and sort through the bad ones.
Threat of New Entrants: This force comes up in our previous discussion relating to Miami entering the market. But what gives us the advantage here is that by being the first people in town to provide this service, it would give us enough time before anyone else entered the market to create a monopoly in the area. If anyone else tried to join the business we could simply charge lower to entice our customer base to continue coming to us and most likely drive the other companies out of business because they have to charge higher prices in order to overcome their large initial start-up costs.
Bargaining Power of Buyers: This one would be challenging but fairly easy to deal with. With hot yoga being such a popular product at the moment, I feel that people, especially sorority girls, would pay anything to attend a few sessions. What makes it better is that these girls are most likely spending their daddy’s money and won’t have to worry about whether or not are prices are too high. Another factor to take into account here would be that being the only people offering such a service, the customer would either have to pay our asking price, or refrain from participating in such a popular activity. All the issues relating to bargaining power of buyers could be resolved from effective marketing that makes our service seem like the best workout out there. Threat of Substitute Products or Services: This one would most likely cause us the biggest headache. Most people would agree that hot yoga can be classified as a workout, and the definition of a workout is very broad, thus leaving room for tons of other activities that could substitute hot yoga. What would protect us from people canceling their hot yoga memberships and going to do other activities at the gym is the popularity of it. If everyone is doing it, you’re not going to stop and be different than them, you’re going to continue going.
Rivalry among Existing Competitors: Being the first company offering hot yoga as a service, the only thing we would have to overcome here is being able to market hot yoga as the best workout out in the market.
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#12
The differential advantage of Hot Yoga compared to going to an everyday gym is huge for women, especially college students. Hot yoga is done in a hot environment that adds more value per session to a client versus going to the gym and running or taking a yoga class at the rec center. With the room being much hotter while doing yoga, the body reacts much more strongly to get proven results. The blood vessels dilate and muscle tissues expand more, improving blood flow and distribution of oxygen to muscles and organs throughout the body. This improves the body's ability to heal soreness. The increased blood flow also has been claimed to help flush out toxins in the body, increase weight loss and flexibility, improve posture and increase mental clarity that helps with emotions and stress.
This has everything to do with college students. Students will be willing to take a class on Monday to help flush out all the toxins in their body from the weekend activities. They will also be willing to take a class during the week with hopes of improving their posture so their back won’t hurt as often after long days of sitting in class or studying in the same position. Because of all these reasons, people would be more than willing to try a hot yoga class.