Singles Bar Business Plan

Colloquy Grog Shop’s market can be broken down into two different groups, singles and non-singles.  Both groups are well educated and are middle to upper-middle class.

Colloquy Grog Shop competes within the bar/coffee shop industry with a market niche focusing on singles activities.  By concentrating on these single activities, Colloquy Grog Shop also faces competition from other singles groups.

4.1 Market Segmentation

Colloquy Grog Shop’s customers can be broken down into two groups: singles, and non-singles.  The non-singles group is smaller by virtue of the fact that if you are meeting someone whom you already know, the two of you can come up with the topic of conversation yourself, therefore, Grog Shop offers this group less value.  The demographics for the non-singles is similar to the singles, to be listed below. The demographics of the singles are:

• Single: self evident.
• Professional: this characteristic is intuitive since the the underlying element of Colloquy Grog Shop is thoughtful conversation, and most, if not all professionals are intelligent and appreciate thought-provoking conversation.
• Income over $40,000: this to a large degree correlates to the fact that they are professional.  The one exception are teachers who are underpaid relative to their contribution to society.
• Age 25-45: the largest group of singles looking for companions.

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

Colloquy Grog Shop strategy will be based on communicating Grog Shop’s value to the targeted segments.  This will be done through a variety of methods.  The first method will be strategically placed advertisements.  One place that will be used for advertisements is the Willamette Weekly, the liberal arts magazine that details all of the entertainment in Portland.  This will be the main source of advertisements because the demographics of their readership are fairly similar to Colloquy Grog Shop’s demographics. 

Another source of marketing will be done with strategic relationships with companies that have similar customer demographics.  One prime example is the Multnomah Athletic Club.  While the clubs patrons are not necessarily overwhelmingly single, the rest of the demographics match.  The MAC is a fairly exclusive downtown athletic club that by virtue of the memberships costs, attracts professionals.  The strategic relationship with be mutually beneficial where both organizations will develop visibility for each other. 

The other form of advertising will be using “grassroots” methods where customers will be given coupons for their friends to try Colloquy Grog Shop for the first time.  The coupon will be an economic incentive for the newcomer to try Colloquy Grog Shop.  The coupon also has the added force of a referral from a friend.

4.3 Industry Analysis

Colloquy Grog Shop competes within the general bar/coffee shop industry.

The bar industry is a very broad industry.  Participants in the industry do not seriously focus on specific niches.  Sure there is a flavor to specific bars, but it is not an overwhelming trait.  An example of this might be a sports bar that will typically have multiple TVs with sports on.  Beyond this “decoration,” there is not a significantly prevailing theme other than the place that serves alcohol.  The value that bars offer is a place where someone can go to get alcohol in a social setting.  A secondary benefit is an opportunity to meet people.  Please see the Product and Services section for commentary on the effectiveness of a bar’s ability for people to meet people.  To conclude, most bars have some sort of theme, but overriding theme is a place to socially consume alcohol.

The coffee shop industry is made up of diverse coffee shops that typically serve coffee and assorted coffee drinks as well as various food offerings.  Coffee shops are places where people will go to enjoy their favorite coffee beverage, to read a newspaper and relax, or to meet people and engage in conversation.  This last purpose of a coffee shop is an unstructured, unstated purpose.  It takes place at the hands of the patrons as opposed to a concerted effort by the establishment.

4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns

The competition comes from several different sources.

• Bars: there are many different types of bars or taverns.  Some are better than others for meeting people, however, none have the business mission to bring together singles.
• Coffee shops: coffee shops are typically an easy-going social setting that does lend itself for people to meet others.  Conversations occur in part because of the historical underpinning of coffee houses, in part by virtue of the fact that the background music is not blaring. Coffees shops rarely have any type of organized activities to bring singles together.
• Other events activities aimed at bringing together singles: one phenomenon that has started in New York City and moved to a few other larger cities (not including Portland) is an activity that has a long rectangular table that always has one seat opposing the other.  People will sit down and with females on one side and males on the other (this seating arrangement is for heterosexual gatherings, the homosexual gatherings will obviously have the same sex on both sides) and will have a limited number of minutes (usually 10) to chat. Typically, conversations can be be about anything, however you are not to reveal the job/profession that you are involved in, beyond that, anything is fair game.  The table rotates and you end up speaking with a lot of different people. You then create a list of the top five that you would like to speak with again and if the matching person also has you on their list, phone numbers are released to the two people.  Another activity might be some sort of outdoor activity like hiking or rafting and it is organized as a singles event.  There are also other type of singles events, too numerous to mention.  Lastly, there are resources like personal sections in local papers where people can post or respond to personal advertisements.

Every person has their own method of meeting people, some more useful than others.  Colloquy Grog Shop predicts singles will abandon or at least supplement their current method of meeting people with the Grog Shop’s activities as they are thoughtfully designed to achieve the goal of introducing like minded individuals.