Club IT

Club IT, Part1

Club IT is a state-of-the-art downtown nightclub, which has recently been extensively remodeled. It is owned by Lisa Tejada and Ruben Keys, who followed their dream to open a nightspot of this nature. They have a passion for music, whereby Lisa played jazz and Ruben played drums to support themselves. Club IT is spacious with 6000 feet of space and a 600 feet dance floor. It also has high ceilings and high-energy lighting that brings in the perfect ambience for high energy and fun. The club has a live DJ from Tuesday to Thursday who uses MP3 playlists to play techno, hip-hop, electronic and some top 40s. On Saturdays and Fridays, the club hires live bands, while remaining closed on Sundays.

The mission for the Club IT is to offer live music, DJ’s, dance space and refreshments to suit the clientele lifestyle and create a community that meets regularly at the club. This will be made possible by the input of the owners who are not only graduates in business administration, but also have experience in music having been musicians themselves. Club IT’s target clientele are the young and the young at heart, professional people with high energy and looking to have a time of their lives. However, judging by the large variety of music played, it seems the club owners are targeting people from different backgrounds. The club website details information about the club and can only be accessed by a limited number of people as it has a password. Apart from giving new clients information about the club, it also lists the employees of the club to inform anyone interested on who deals with what. It also has the menu and the music on offer.

The best strategy to use for competitive advantage is differentiation strategy. A competitive strategy is one that identifies a business strategy that can be used in order to complete its aims. It also identifies the plans, and policies, that will be required to carry out those goals. The customer differentiation strategy means adding value to an organization’s products by putting in unique features in them (Peng, 2009). This ensures that they satisfy the customer’s unique needs, and can be charged at an extra cost. This strategy thus relies on the value added to the product rather than maintaining a low price. Improving the quality, of a product, giving it distinct features, design or additional features are some of the ways of differentiating a product.

Club IT can differentiate the music they offer by ensuring that the other clubs do not offer the same genre of music. That will mean that they will be able to target a specific clientele not catered for in the market thus increasing their profitability (Rainer & Turban, 2007). However, the password on the website limits the people who can access it. Club IT’s website it has a large variety of functional information for customers and the employees. For customers and people doing research on where to go have a good time, they have a schedule of the live bands performances or events slated up for each month. Differentiation strategy can also be used on the menu offered by Club IT. Having a unique dish on the menu will attract a new class of clientele and improve Club IT’s competitiveness. The food could also be cooked in a unique way to attract more clientele or improve profitability by charging a premium. An additional service like free delivery can improve the clientele base and improve the overall sales.

The type of music played in Club IT can also be differentiated to suit the target clientele. Since the club offers a large variety of music, it can be changed to a hip-hop only club for example, depending on the targeted clientele. This would suit the young. In addition, if the target were the middle age, then top 40s would be more appropriate. The music could also be played on different days or times to meet the needs of the clients. This is seen where there are some nights for live DJ, and other nights for live bands.

The ambience of the Club IT can also be used in the differentiation strategy. The high ceiling and high-energy lighting seems to appeal mostly to the young. The presence of a dance floor also makes it appealing to the people interested in dancing. The merchandise can also be essential in differentiation strategy. If the clients get a chance to win something after attaining a set condition then this will encourage more clients to come in and try to win the merchandise. The owners can also include other competitions to attract more clientele.

From the discussion above, it is clear that information technology is not only crucial, but it is the most important aspect of today’s business. The World Wide Web has become the heartbeat of many businesses making it essential for all businesses (McGrath, 2000). It is therefore not enough for the Club IT to rely on only the intranet to attain its clients need. The clients who need to be targeted are physically away from the business and can only be reached through the internet. Use of short messaging services in which clients can be alerted of new bands performances or new products on offer can be employed. This could be preferably on subscription basis and would help greatly to increase the clientele base. The club can also use a simple printer to generate flyers and posters to advertise new offers or performances. This would only take a negligible amount of capital as compared to the returns.

Use of a fax machine would also increase the profitability of Club IT since orders for supplies can be made at the comfort of an office thus cutting down on travel cost. Client orders can also come through the fax and this would increase the volume of the food sold. Band confirmations and schedules can also come in through the fax machine. A simple modem can also be used to connect the club’s website and to update it when the need arises. The computer will also be used to design the posters to be used by Club IT and the flyers. This proves that even on a small scale, information technology can be used to impact greatly on a business. Thus, even though a nightclub may not need the same volume of information technology, it is equally crucial for boosting the data management and decision-making capabilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

McGrath, M. E. (2001). Product strategy for high-technology companies: accelerating your business to Web speed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Peng, M. W. (2009). Global strategy Mason, Ohio: South-Western

Rainer, K., & Turban, E. (2007). Introduction to information Systems: support and transforming business Hoboken, NJ: Wiley