Case Study of Life Centre

ABSTRACT

Life Centre is a role model and pilot project for science city. It is a new and unique integration of science, medicine, business, education and economics. Though, the location of the centre is unfortunate, but Life Centre achieved noticeable success in the science field. Concerning business and economic development, Life Centre is still growing and competing with some other organisations and companies. This necessitate that Life Centre should provide high quality of products and services to attract more tourists and customers. In combining two fields: science and commerce; it needs strong management and robust marketing department to identify the most appropriate techniques to employ in order to make profit.

Management should apply different strategies so as to acquire/ invest revenue to meet the costly expenditure of the Life Centre especially during this recent recession. It is a challenge that should be overcome. The challenge of the past- New Castle has swung from cultural to science city. Present challenge-appropriate strategies and marketing plans to balance between those two different fields. Future challenge: Embracing itself for uncertainty.

This case study highlights strategies used by the management so as to adapt it self in taking the responsibility of managing those two fields. As well, to generate profit to make Life Centre exist and meet its customers' needs. Moreover, this case study will look into the strengths and opportunities Life Centre capitalize on, and at the same time the weaknesses and the possible remedies, Life Centre could afford. Life Centre is a unique experience that deserves case study market wise.

INTRODUCTION

The centre for Life is a pioneering science village based in the heart of Newcastle upon Tyne where scientists, clinicians, educationalists and business people come together to promote advancement of the life sciences.

Established as one of the most successful countries' 14 landmarks millennium projects, Centre for Life grab people's attention, arouse their interest and trigger their desire on national and international plain. Though the Life Centre does not benefit enough from these characteristics commercially. The Centre has a better chance of growing abroad and not mainly relying on local and community partnership such as Regional Development Agency and Business Improvement District.

Partners in the new Centre for Life include Newcastle University; the North East England Stem cell Institute (NEESCI); the NHS Newcastle Fertility Centre and the NHS Northern Centre Services. The core value of those partners is to work together to inspire curiosity in the sense through an imaginative of exhibitions and events, to raise standards in science and education for young people and to engage everyone in contemporary science issues, such as climate change and stem cell technology. In addition to that it provides substantial annual funding and state- of - the art facilities so that world class scientific research in medicine can flourish.

DISCUSSION

The Life Centre works together with the university and health care services and meet up every month-in good will, good relationships and good agenda. This will give them an opportunity towards achieving sustainable growth strategy for the centre in particular and Newcastle area as a whole. The overall aim is to attract businesses, investment and tourism. Meeting up together also enabling them to offer a differentiated product/service for both Life Centre and Newcastle city.

Life Centre- £ 90 million land mark site designed by Sir Terry Farrell and opened in 2000 is geographically unfortunate because of its location in Newcastle which is considered not really tourist destination. This location led to discouragement of business and as well no marketing strategy will work appropriately.

The current recession could pose a threat to all businesses, Life Centre is not excluded. To keep pace with the recent recession, managers in Life Centre should look for new ways and horizons to increase revenue stream.

Because of the existence of the other leisure attractions that compete with the Life Centre in Newcastle city and neighbours, Life Centre should expand its target customers. Managers should work towards marketing concepts that help firms exist to satisfy needs. Also Life Centre mangers should implement a new pricing structure for the forthcoming.

Officials at Life Centre admit that they can not compete with Nintendo & Co, in other words Nintendo out show them. This is absolutely unacceptable in marketing literature. They should demonstrate commitment to provide affordable options for their customers. Though they know their limitations, but at the same time it should not eclipse their horizons.

More importantly, managers in Life Centre should establish a solid updated marketing department (3-4 persons) some of them are part-time will not help as far as a true marketing is concerned.

Marketing department could work towards attracting and targeting new customers and add income streams to the Centre. It has been noticed that Life Centre depends only on family with children, 8-10 years old customers and school children-pre school days. To increase revenue, Life Centre should attract younger people by putting on activities they might be interested in such as alcoholic beverages.

In this situation marketers in Life Centre should study those younger's "power of expectations" and try to be creative and innovative to attract more customers. As Michael Solomon put it "Two people can see, hear the same event, but their interpretation of it can be seen as different as night and day, depending on how the message 'speaks' to their brains and what they thought were going to see".

Nowadays marketing concepts seek to change the organisations' aims to fit one or more specific groups of customers who have similar needs. Consequently, this necessitate Life Centre should mobilise and revolutionise their marketing department to acquire new customers.

It is well known that the average customer will not keep coming back to a firm that does not provide good products and reasonable prices. Without customers there is no business. Now when people pay they want value for money. Jim Blythe clarified this concept by saying "Customers are intelligent enough to know what they need, can recognise value for money when they see it, and will not buy again from the firm if they do not get value for money."

It is worth mentioning that marketing department in Life Centre should focus its attention entirely on the customers and put the customer at the centre of its business. Examples for that over sixties who have rich time to