Thorpe Park
Task 1 AO1
Company history * What is Thorpe Park
Thorpe Park is a theme park located in England, surrey which was built in 1979, with an aim of being a water themed park. At first the site was a gravel pit owned by Ready Mixed Concrete Limited who excavated gravel, but then in the 1970’s the company flooded part of the site with the intention of creating water based theme park; the other side of the park would have been used for an educational park with the theme of the history of British people. In 1998 the Tussauds group bought the park and made it into a ‘thrill seekers’ amusement park with rides such as The Flying Fish, Depth Charge and No Way Out. Then in 2008 Tussauds group was bought by Merlin Entertainments group which is the second largest visitor’s attraction operator in the world and the largest visitor’s attraction in Europe for £1 billion which meant they now owned Thorpe Park. Merlin Entertainments own Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures, Warwick Castle, Heide Park Resort and Gardaland Resort.

Thorpe Park is an LTD which means it’s a private limited company it has members which are people or businesses which share the company. In Thorpe park the companies Kirkbi, capital partners and Black stone group share the responsibility. These companies are not liable for debts that the business can’t pay, but they are responsible for the money they put in at the beginning. If the business goes bankrupt the owners only loose there investment they made into the business and they are not liable to pay the debt.

Define what is meant by aims and objectives
An aim is a goal that a business wants to achieve in a certain time span. The aim of business could be to increase profit, increase market share or to grow. Aims help the business focus on the key areas of the business and to outline the destination of the business. Aims should be determined by the size of the business, the purpose of the business and owner of the business.
Thorpe Parks aim would be “To be the global leader in location based branded family entertainment” they would achieve this aim by making objectives that are smart.

Objectives are goals or a target that a business set’s for themselves to achieve their aims. Objectives are useful because they help the business operators focus on their aim. The main objective of businesses would be sales, growth, and profit and customer satisfaction.
Sales – Sales revenue is the total amount of money a company has earned by providing their service.

Growth – An increase in the Business capacity to produce more stock or provide better or greater service.

Profit – value gained from business operations after cutting out expenses such as stock cost etc.

Customer Satisfaction – Providing service to customers to their satisfaction level such as hygienically clean place or high quality food.

Objectives have to be smart which stands for
Specific – Not to general / vague
Measurable – use numbers to check
Achievable – possible for the business to meet
Realistic – not to ambitious
Time Related – a time period. E.G a year
Impact – the impact it will have on the business

McDonalds Aim & Objective
McDonalds is a fast food restaurant located in the UK with different branches around the world. The aim of McDonalds is to “McDonalds seeks to be the UK’s best fast food restaurant offering good food in a fun and friendly environment. They also have a target of 30 new restaurants every year with 1800 new job opportunities created.” They would achieve this by making objectives.

OBJECTIVE 1
To achieve 100% customer satisfaction every day, in every restaurant for every customer.
Specific – they want satisfy their customers everyday
Measurable – They want to measure it everyday
Achievable – this is possible for the business to meet
Realistic – this is not too ambitious as McDonalds has loads of customers each day
Time Related – it is possible to achieve 100% customer satisfaction every day.
Impact – McDonald’s would make a profit as they would gain customer loyalty

OBJECTIVE 2
To sell 5000 meals a day every week
Specific – they want to sell 5000 meals a day
Measurable – They want to measure it everyday
Achievable – this is possible for the business to meet as they sell loads of meals
Realistic – this is not too ambitious as McDonalds has loads of customers each day
Time Related – it is possible to sell 5000 meals a day
Impact – McDonald’s would make a profit as they have loads of customers purchasing their meals everyday

OBJECTIVE 3 Providing customers with high quality food and superior service
Specific – they provide customers with high quality food and good service
Measurable – They would measure this by the amount of customers they get
Achievable – this is possible for the business to provide
Realistic – this is not too ambitious as McDonalds
Time Related – it is possible to provide high quality food and a superior service
Impact – McDonald’s would make a profit as they have loads of customers purchasing their meals everyday as the food is high quality and also they would make more profit and get customer satisfaction.

SAM’S Windows cleaner’s Aim & Objectives
Sam’s window cleaners are a business that provides quality service to the Community. The aim of a window cleaner would be to be the best window cleaner in Essex.
They would achieve this by making objectives to reach their goal.
OBJECTIVE 1
Clean 50 windows in a day
Specific – They want to clean 50 windows a day
Measurable – They can record how many windows they clean
Achievable – this is possible for the sole trader to meet
Realistic – this is not ambitious as it can be done
Time Related – in a day
Impact – earning more profit than usual

OBJECTIVE 2
Get 100 new customers a month
Specific – They want to attract new customers
Measurable – They can record how customers they attract
Achievable – this is possible for the sole trader to meet
Realistic – this is not ambitious as it can be done
Time Related – in a month
Impact – earning more profit by gaining new customers

OBJECTIVE 3
To clean windows in 20 minutes maximum
Specific – They want to clean windows in a specific time
Measurable – They can record how long it takes
Achievable – this is possible for the sole trader to meet
Realistic – this is not ambitious as it can be done
Time Related – in 20 minutes
Impact – earning more profit than usual
Oxfam’s Aim & Objective
Oxfam are a charity that helps tackle poverty. Their main aim is to eradicate poverty and injustice around the world. They also aim towards improving the lives of poor people and help them to have a say in decisions that may affect them.

OBJECTIVE 1 “To raise enough money to keep the service going for another 6 months”
Specific – They want to raise enough money to keep their service going
Measurable – They can record how much money they raise
Achievable – this is possible because a lot of people donate to charities
Realistic – this is not ambitious as it can be done
Time Related – in 6 months
Impact – they keep the charity going; help the less fortunate

OBJECTIVE 2
To help 2 countries’ with poverty a year
Specific – They want to help 2 countries a year
Measurable – They can record how they help the countries
Achievable – this is possible because a lot of people donate to charities
Realistic – this is not ambitious as it can be done
Time Related – in a year
Impact – help the less fortunate

OBJECTIVE 3

Describe the main aims and objectives of Thorpe Park.
The aim of Thorpe Park is “To become world leader in branded, location based Entertainment” this shows us that Thorpe pork want to become the best source of entertainment in the world, in order for Thorpe park to achieve this they would have to create an objective to reach this goal. These objectives would be survival, meeting stakeholder’s needs, maximising sales revenue, maximising profit and growth.

Survival
It is essential that any business is able to survive within the market. The owners of the company will have spent a lot of time and money researching and setting up the company. An example of this is the owner of Dream Aid had spent £60,000 researching and creating the website for this business. This business specialises in helping artists to help themselves. In total the owner has invested £500,000.
When a business is making little or no profit it would need to focus on trying to stay in business until times improve.

The Merlin group will expect Thorpe Park to meet its targets in terms of number of people attending each week, month or year and the amount of money they spend not only on tickets but also whilst in the park itself. For example in the park, you would spend money on food. Snacks e.g. water or crisps, in the arcade and also from the game stalls they have. Also in the park customers would spend money on the dryers located near the water rides so that they wouldn’t have to walk around the park wet.

Meeting stakeholder’s needs
It is important to meet the stakeholder’s needs because they make up a successful business.
It’s important to meet the staff’s needs because they are needed to carry out activities. For example in Thorpe Park you would need the employees to start the rides and also to check that the people are safe in the ride.

Meeting the customers’ needs is important because the customers buy the goods produced. In Thorpe park the customers would buy fast track tickets to go on a ride, they would also buy food from the shops, when they get wet they would want to dry off so they would spend money on the dryers.

The suppliers are important as the park would need to get there resources from their suppliers. Thorpe Park would need to get there merchandise from their suppliers they would also need to get there food for their shop from their suppliers. It’s good to meet the supplier’s needs as they would need to get good quality goods at reasonable prices to sell to their customers.

The community are also very important and you would need to meet their needs as they would mostly provide Thorpe parks staff. They would also be regular customers to the business as they live near it and there is easy access. Thorpe Park are good to their community as on a normal day the park closes at 5 which is early for a theme park to close.

Maximising sales revenue
Revenue is that amount of money flowing into the business. The money can come from several sources. Sales revenue is the main source of revenue. It comes form the customers who pay for the services and the goods of a business. For example the customers that would pay for the games at the stalls would maximise sales revenue because they are paying for the services. Also in the shops at Thorpe Park the customers are paying for the goods in the shops so they would be maximising sales revenue. This is a good objective because it would mean Thorpe Park would make more profit.
Profit Maximisation
This objective means making as much profit as possible, in the shortest time possible. Thorpe Park could maximise their profit by adding more ‘thrill seeking rides’ so that they attract new customers. When they do attract the new customers it would mean the park would be full so people would buy fast track tickets to get on rides quicker instead of them waiting in the line.
Thorpe Park can also maximise their profit by making the prices of their merchandise expensive.

Growth
Over the years Thorpe park has grown as a business because it started off with rides like x no way out which used to be a ride that goes backwards in complete darkness but now it’s a ride that has light in it and goes forward. It has grown because it has made new rides which attracted new customers and gave Thorpe Park more profit to expand more with more rides

An objective would be to “build rides every year so that Thorpe Park can get popular so they can make more money and profit,”
This objective is smart because its
Specific – building a ride every year
Measurable – you can record how many people came before and after the new ride.
Achievable – more people would be attracted with new rides
Realistic – it can be reached within a year
Time Related – you can build a ride in a year
Impact – they would have new customers coming to the park to go on the ride.

1 Give realistic and detailed examples to illustrate the aims ad objectives of Thorpe park
A stakeholder is an individual or a group that has an effect on and is affected by the activities of an organisation. Each stakeholder group would have their own set of objectives for them to meet.
There are two types of stakeholders, internal and external. Internal stakeholders are members of the business whilst external stakeholders are not members of the business but they have involvement with the actions the business takes.

Internal stakeholders groups are:
Employees – they are important as there performance can dictate whether the company survives or it doesn’t, they are also want the business to do well because if it doesn’t they would loose there jobs and be out of employment.
Shareholders – they would want the business to make profit and they have the power to vote out any directors who they believe are running the business badly.
Managers and directors of the business - they want the business to success they also want profit.
External stakeholder groups are:
Suppliers – want the business to continue to buy their products
Customers – want the business to make quality goods and sell them at a reasonable price. The business would want to make the customers happy as if they ignore their concerns o there complaints they would find themselves loosing customers.
The community –the employees are of local people. Business activities also affect the local environment. E.g. noisy deliveries at night. Each of these groups have an impact on Thorpe parks success, they would also be affected by any changes in the businesses activities. For example if Thorpe Park were to extend the times they open over the years this may lead to: * Employing more staff * More orders for supplies ( shops ordering more merchandise and stock) * More traffic for the local community * A wider range of products for the consumers
The government – the government would have an interest in the business because the businesses would have to follow the laws and legislations and the government would have to make the final decisions. For example Thorpe park would need the government to allow them expand there business if they wanted to make the park bigger.

Conflicts with stakeholders
Conflicts between stakeholders arise when the needs of one stakeholder needs are opposite to another stakeholder group. For example an employee who wants higher wages may cause conflict with the managers because the managers would want to boost profits and satisfy there own objective.

Trends in sales and profits

There are a lot of trends in Merlin entertainments sales and profits. Over the last 5 years we can see that as the years have increased there have been more visitors and there revenue has increased significantly. In 2008 we can see that Thorpe Park had 35.1 million visitors and in 2010 they had 54 million visitors. These numbers may have increased due to the fact that they added new rides and attracted new customers which would have increased the revenue as there are more people entering the park so the company would be gaining profit. There is also a trend in the revenue because as the years have gone on the revenue has increased. This may be because Thorpe Park’s ticket sales the increased as the park got better. This may have also increased because in the shops they may have increased the prices of the souvenirs and the snacks they sell in the shop.

Profit levels

The profit level of Thorpe Park has increased over the last 5 years for various reasons. This would be due to all he things Thorpe Park does seasonal. Thorpe Park has many events other than the normal daily theme park. They have events such as Fright night which is a Halloween themed night where the park opens till 10 allowing the customers to ride in the dark. This would increase profit because the park closes late so the customers would get to goon all the rides they want to also the customers would get to the park early and they would be hungry during the day so they would buy food. Another event that would increase profit would be mash up which is where they open the park to people who like to ride bikes.

* How the business is growing

Thorpe Park is growing as a business for many reasons. They have recently built a crash pad which is a place where there customers can stay the night. For example if a family were coming from a far area such as east London, they wouldn’t have to cut their time short at the park because they have to avoid traffic on the way home instead they could sleep in the crash pad and continue their fun the next day. This is good for the business in growth because this would mean that the customers would be satisfied with their day. This could lead to advertisement for Thorpe parks crash pad which would / could bring them more customers.

The park is also growing because they are planning on building a new ride by 2015 which will increase their customers as they would want to try out the ride it will also make Thorpe park go that one step further in becoming the best theme park. The new hotel that Thorpe Park want to build will increase their growth not only profit wise but size wise. The new hotel will be in the park, it will be like the theme park with detonator as the lifts and slides as a lift for the children. This hotel would attract not only children but their parents as it’s a different hotel.

Task 2 (AO1)

* 2.1 External constraints

External constraints are factors that are outside the control of the business, which directly affect the business. Some castrations prove to be positive whilst others are negative. The main external constraints consist of changes in consumers taste, laws and regulations and economic factors such as the level of spending in the economy as a whole.

Social factors
Social factors can affect businesses because it’s the changes in the lifestyle of the consumer like tastes and trends, fashion and the demographic factors which can affect their buying pattern. For example if the customer doesn’t have a lot of disposable income because they had to pay more for one of their bills they wouldn’t be able to spend money in Thorpe Park’s arcades or in their merchandise shops.

Legal factors
Legal factors can affect a business because they would have to keep up to date with the law and be able figure out ways in which changes in the laws will affect the way they must act. For example the way Thorpe Park would pay their employees, they would have to pay them at least minimum wage as that’s the smallest amount of money you can pay someone working for you by law.

Economic factors
Economic factors affect a business because it relates to changes in the wider economy. A growing economy provides greater opportunities for businesses to make profits, so living standards rise. For example when Thorpe Park import goods from china

Technological factors
This factor consists of changes in technology to provide the best solutions. For example technology created the dryers that you can go in after a wet ride to dry yourself instead of walking round the park wet. This was a good idea as it increases profit and it also makes the customer happy as they wouldn’t be wet the whole day.

* 2.2 The degree of competition faced by the business

Some markets are extremely competitive, whilst others are a lot less. The amount of competition determines your ability to achieve aims and objectives. There are good reasons why a business should keep an eye on competition these are to help the business understand that they can create an advantage. Competitor’s advantage is an advantage over competitors by proposing to customer’s greater value, either by lowering the prices of their goods/services or by providing greater benefits and services that would justify higher prices for the goods/services. This would affect Thorpe Park because if a competitor like Alton towers has a 2 for 1 sale on their tickets and Thorpe Park sell theirs for the same price and are not offering anything more than the normal theme park they would lose their customers as the customers would be getting a better deal at Alton towers. Spot the changes in customer’s purchases. Thorpe Park should spot this because if they sell things that the customers won’t purchase their profit would decrease as the customers would not be buying the goods/services that they provide. Another one would be if the competitors are investing in new and better products. This would be good for Thorpe Park to know so that they can make new rides for their park and up their standards in their park so they are offering a better service than their competitors which would increase their customers which increases profit that could be used for an investment. There are different types of market structures such as competitive markets, pure monopoly, oligopoly and duopoly.

Competitive Market: The competitive market is where many forms compete fiercely with each other and have no real control over the price in the market.

Pure monopoly: this is where there is just one firm in the market, a sole supplier who can set prices

Duopoly: this is where two firms dominate the market.

Oligopoly; this is where the market is dominated by a few large businesses

* Thorpe Parks competition

Thorpe Park’s competition is all the other attractions in the UK like The London Dungeon, LEGOLAND, and Chessington world of adventures, Warner brother’s studio, Alton towers and their biggest competition Disneyland. They are all competing to be the number 1 attraction in the UK or the world.

High quality

High price
High price

High price Low price

Low quality

* Marketing mix

Thorpe Park is very good at marketing; this is because they follow the 4 P's, otherwise known as the Marketing Mix. The 4 P's for the park are:

Place – the location
Price – the amount it costs to enter the park.
Product - the rides and other products in the park
Promotion – adverts, on line and in the park.

Place – the location
Thorpe Park is located in a good area. It’s on an island surrounded by water which gives it a unique view that other theme parks don’t have. Thorpe Park use their water as an advantage because on some rides it may seem that you are going to land in the water which would make the experience on the ride more frightening and scary this achieves the target to make the ride more thrilling for the customer. The park has a train stations near it, Staines station. There is a shuttle bus that would take you to the park every 15-20 minutes, or there’s a bus that’s 5 minutes away from the station that would take you to the park. The park is also situated close to the M25 and M3, so it has good roads that people can access who have to travel a distance to get there.

Product - the rides and other products in the park
Thorpe Park has loads of different product they market, such as food, merchandise, pictures of the customers on rides, rides and fast track ticket to rides. These are the main products that Thorpe park market. Thorpe Park has a wide selection of rides which can be split into three groups, thrill seekers, families and young families. This is a good thing as it shows that the park isn’t only for “thrill seekers” as they have previously advertised it but it’s for the whole family. For example Swarm is the newest ride in the park and is the newest thrill seekers ride which would attract the teenagers to the park where as there’s no new family/ young families ride. These are products that keep the customers satisfied. Price – the amount it costs to enter the park. The prices of Thorpe Park vary