2. MIB Group “A”
Monika Baublyte
Simon Berger
Jean-Marie Carron
Anton Mladenov
Marco Foubert
Contents:
1. Primary Research
2. Secondary Research
3. Competition Research and Analysis
4. Market Research – Process and Instruments
3. 1) Primary Research
Primary research basically is based on online questionnaire, focus groups and Poll survey.
So far we do not have the final results because primary research is still on the process.
Basically the questionnaire is set up on Survey Monkey in spread out to potential customers
(companies in Germany and France) in three different languages: English, French and
German. The online questionnaire already gave some responses, but it is still requiring
more time because at the moment there are not enough responses to start a deep analysis.
Poll survey is in progress as well (requirement for sending more personal messages because
so far the percentage of responses is dramatically low).
Focus groups are under development for the next week. Since it is not easy to find
German and French participants, one of the focus group will be set up online using the blog.
Second focus group will be started with French and German participants who were founded
as appropriate for the survey. It is important to create a specific set of questions for the
people who are going to participate in focus group. After the focus group we will be able to
understand and decide how can we add value to our basic services and customers as well.
Basically, we need decision makers in the company such as Human Recourses Managers or
directors and the information we will use will be collected by approaching German and
French professionals.
2) Secondary Research
Secondary data is mostly based on Barcelona’s Convention Bureau, Barcelona’s Statistics
Department and international statistics websites such as: Ebsco, Emerald and GMID.
Additional statistics recourses will be included on during the process. Need to mention that
for more precise information the meeting is arranged with a person from Barcelona’s
Convention Bureau, who responsible for foreign professionals. In this part will be shown
main figures that are related to Business Project our team is doing. Main data will cover
the: origins of tourists in Barcelona; Congress Activity Indicators; World Ranking of Cities by
number of International meetings.
Below in the Congress Activity Indicators table there are all the most important indicators
that show how the total number of meetings and delegates hosted in Barcelona city since
2007 to 2010. After all, separated parts are explained in more detailed way.
Congress activity indicators
2007 2008 2009 2010 Variation 2009 - 2010 (%)
Total meetings 1,775 2,482 1,857 2,138 15,1%
Congresses 340 383 294 310 5,4%
Conferences, symposia, courses N/A 286 215 226 5,1%
Conventions and incentives 1,435 1,813 1,348 1,602 18,8%
Total delegates 629,704 695,902 576,157 616,833 7,1%
Barcelona became a very sophisticated city in last five years and is one of the largest
convention centers in Southern Europe. According to “Barcelona Tourism”, there were 1,775
business meetings arranged in 2007; 2,482 meetings arranged in 2008; 1,857 meetings in
2009 and in 2010 Barcelona has hosted 2,138 meeting. The number of hosted meetings
since 2009 to 2010 increased by 15,1%.
4. As it seen form the graph below, the number of events organized in Barcelona city
since 2007 until 2010 is fluctuating depending on different category. The highest
number of events organized was conventions and incentives. Comparing 2009 and
2010 the variation was positive and reached 18,8% what means that demand and
capabilities to organize conventions and incentives in Barcelona is increasing year
by year.
There is a big gap in terms of volume of events. Conferences, symposia and various
courses are unlikely less popular in Barcelona. The number is slightly decreasing in
last three years. The number of conferences organized in Barcelona since 2007 to
2008 was increasing, but in 2009 slightly dropped but there was an insignificant in
increase in 2010. All in all, obviously the conventions and incentives are taking the
most important place in terms of business events, which are organized in Barcelona
since 2007 to 2010.
According to the selected secondary data need to mention that the number of delegates
who are coming to Barcelona to participate in various business meetings since 2009
increased by 7,1%. There was a slight decrease in 2009 comparing with 2007, 2008 and
2010, but the final percentage is still very promising. In 2007 there were 629,704, in 2008
– 695,902, in 2009 – 576,157 and in 2010 616,833 international delegates who were
participating in various conventions, congress in Barcelona.
5. Barcelona is one of the leading European regions in hosting foreign investment
projects, which were 1,348.3 million Euros in 2009. Leading to this, the largest
amount of foreign companies in Barcelona are from France (626), Germany (572),
USA (366), Italy (346), Holland (307), The UK (245), Switzerland (188), Japan (98)
and other countries (633). It is important to mention that Barcelona is ranked as 5th
best European city to do business according to “Doing Business” survey made by
World Bank in 2011. Precisely this date gave an idea that France and Germany are
the countries we are going to be focusing on.
6. 3) Market Segmentation
For the segmentation of our customers we decided to separate them into two main
groups which are agencies located here in Barcelona, only focused on events and
activities in Barcelona and the second group are agencies in Germany and France.
Agencies in Barcelona
Most important for customers (German and French companies) is the direct
connection with a German or French representative of the company in Barcelona.
During the organization of the event they want to feel comfortable and understood
from their supplier. Therefore it is important for the agencies to have natives here
on the ground. As shown in the following analysis, only some of them actually have.
Main companies here in Barcelona:
>YBT Event Producers
http://www.y ourbarcelonateam.com
Is a company founded by a German and a Dutch business lady living in Barcelona.
They are mainly focusing on the German and Dutch market by providing language
and cultural knowledge.
The service is from accommodation to activities, guest speakers and “stars” for
conventions, cultural events and furthermore they offer more or less “a tailored
event” for the customers.
“We will operate as a temporary team of your company and we will take care of any
requirements you have for your stay in Barcelona.
We would perfectly fit into their offer and complement their administrative work
with German customers by operating their events with the same knowledge of
them. Agency and customer could benefit from that and have a responsible and
reliable partner.
7. >Passion Events
http://www.passionevents.eu
Passion Events is a Barcelona located company (Carrer Reina Cristina 1) which is
only focused on events here in Barcelona. This company offers a wide range of
activities in terms of sports, culture and event organisation. Although they offer
some “Sports Camps” they do not focus on very creative or funny events. For most
events the customer is a pure spectator but no active participant.
They do provide German event operators, but generally have no native German in
their company.
By adding our services to Passion Events they could more focus on German and
French markets and widen their spectrum of customers.
>Event in Barcelona
http://www.eventinbarcelona.com
Event in Barcelona is founded in 1992 and located in the area of Vila Olimpica. They
belong to a bigger organisation (Evento Network based in Hungary) working all
over the world and offer several different services. They do not give very detailed
information on what kind of events but they are active in corporate events, public
events (congresses, conventions) as well as incentive activities and celebrations like
cocktail parties etc.
As well as Passion Events they have no German or French speaking person here on
the ground in Barcelona, but of course are able to organize someone guiding and
translating the events.
Here we also can be a “door-opener” for the German and French market, if they
cooperate with us and promote us as their cultural link to the countries.
8. >Barcelona ON-LINE
http://www.barcelona-on-line.es
Barcelona ON-LINE is a local business travel agency which offers all around a
business trips for its customers. They are located in Carrer València 352 and was
founded in 1996. They claim to be “the very first interactive City Guide about
Barcelona on the Internet” and their offer contains from organisation of the flight,
accommodation, events and congresses as well as incentive trips. Although they
already worked with a lot of German and French Customers, they do not have
natives here in Barcelona, but of course can organize them if demanded for the
events.
By adding our services to Barcelona ON-LINE they could more focus on German and
French markets and widen their spectrum of customers.
International Agencies
>Ssquard (S²)
http://www.ssquared.de
Ssquard is a German based Business travel agency which offers trips, conventions,
teambuilding and road shows for their customers. As their homepage is only
available in German, they are mainly focusing on the German, Austrian and
Switzerland market.
They have no company member here in Barcelona and therefore could use our
services to increase their destinations, which is according to their homepage not
focused on Spain.
9. >EventSpirit
http://www.eventspirit.de/
EventSpirit was founded in 2006 by a young entrepreneur in Allgäu, Germany. They
already worked in 60 different destinations and with over 8400 participants. They
are offering both private and business sevents and trips all over the world and join
the groups themselves. Therefore the customer can rely on the Germany quality
from the planning until the event. EventSpirit does not mention Barcelona as
destination on their homepage, but for sure can manage events there.
Here we see a chance to add value to their program by acting as a partner here in
Spain.
4) Marketing Mix
- Product – because of the nature of our service we consider that it’s relevant for the market
and the customers, since there is an increasing trend for managers to seek incentive
benefits for their employees. We should add value to our service by providing exceptional
benefits for employees by means of superior process and execution.
- Price – in respect to price we are in an analyzing phase of benchmarking our service with
the competition. We position ourselves in the premium price segment because of the added
value to the service through cultural understanding and high-class operation and
procedures.
- Promotion – we are not going to use above-the-line promotion strategy, but will rather
participate in events, fairs, conferences, etc. to promote our business among agencies and
their associations. We should increase customer awareness of our service by providing all
relevant information to clients.
- Place – We are going to place our service by using agencies to connect with our clients. In
this sense we are dependent on the agencies on how they are going to distribute the
requests themselves among the contractors. We should convince the agencies of the
superiority of our service so that they can forward the most significant request to our
company.
10. - Physical Evidence – the places will be both indoor and outdoor and they will be clean and
visually attractive, contributing for a better service environment. Everything related to the
settings will be created with respect to safety, aesthetics and customer preferences.
- People – we will be managing our company. If we expand our business the recruitment
process will be made by using the most developed selection and assessment instruments.
Trainers and event operators will be hired on an event base, not permanently.
- Process – the process will be very important aspect of our business. We will count on
professionals that are aware of the way the service has to be executed. We will provide a
safe and entertaining working environment for our customers.
5) Tactics and Programmes
We provide to our customers exclusive events and activities.
Our company is understanding needs and wishes in order to offer the best services.
We contact agencies directly to make appointments and convince them of the
supremacy of our service based on cultural understanding (as we have employees
from both France and Germany) as well as the languages skills.
We will additionally attend fairs, events, conventions and conferences to familiarize
the market with our services, get known and make promotions in order to create
relationships with our customers.
As Barcelona is the second biggest centre for such events, it will be a great
promotional advantage for us.
We will manage any working or leisure commitment for our customers in order to
provide them exclusive services to turn any incentive in an amazing and successful
experience.
Our activities include a complete programme of innovative activities to achieve
corporate goals and provide to our participants a unique experience.
We guarantee the high service support with professional staff for any client’s
request.