Enactus Warwick - Business Intelligence Unit

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The 2015 Leamington Spa
Independent Retail Outlook
Enactus Warwick - Business Intelligence Unit

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3. MEET THE TEAM
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The Enactus Warwick Intelligence Unit’s overall aim is to improve the local business environment
through identifying opportunities and issues within the community and propose actionable
recommendations on how to capitalise on these opportunities or how to tackle common problems.
Through this we aim to increase business revenues; cut costs and improve overall engagement
between the University of Warwick and the local business environment. Our target is to increase
overall student spending in the local business environment by £250,000 over the course of the next
year.
Daniar Rusnak, Director of Enactus Warwick Consulting
A final year Law and Business Student who has been primarily
responsible for developing relationships for the Intelligence
Unit.
Evelyn Gower, Team Leader of the Intelligence Unit
A final year Management student who has been leading the
entire team, keeping us all on our deadlines and committed
throughout the process.
Ria Sethi, Retail Specialist
A final year Management student who has been our primary
retail expert.
Zara Yaqoob, Technology Specialist
A second year Philosophy student who has been our
technology specialist.
Tomas Gliviak, Data Specialist
A first year Management student who has been primarily
responsible for the development of the survey, data analysis
and operational implementation.
Eleanor Huish, External Relations
A first year Mathematics student who has been our
primary lead in developing relationships with businesses
and external parties important to the Intelligence Unit.

4. CONTENTS
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1. Foreword 5
2. UK High Streets & Leamington Spa 6
3. Problems Identified 7
4. Solutions
1. Student Engagement 8
2. Experience 10
3. Digital Marketing 12
4. Data Analytics 14
5. Policy and Predictions 16
6. The Future of the Intelligence Unit 17
7. Enactus Warwick Consulting 18
8. Data Collection 20

5. FOREWORD
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Enactus Warwick is a student-led organisation aimed at creating social impact
through entrepreneurial action. Enactus Warwick Consulting is a student pro bono
consultancy working with charities and businesses in the local community by
pairing them up with some of the most talented students at the University of
Warwick. Past projects have included successful business turnarounds, helping
start-ups getting on their feet and designing marketing strategies for charitable
organisations. Every year we work with approximately 15 organisations in the local
community from Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington Spa and beyond with
approximately 90 talented student consultants offering their fresh perspectives,
rigorous analytical skills and raw ambition to advise them. While our work with
organisations has been greatly successful and even generated nationwide
acclaim, this year, we begin a new innovative project; the Enactus Warwick
Intelligence Unit.
Through our work with the community, we have come to notice how
disconnected the university is with Leamington Spa. This may be due to the
relative youth of the university, but we believe that as students we have a
responsibility to contribute to the development of Leamington and its businesses
as it provides us with an excellent place to live.
We hope that both students and local businesses will heed our call to a greater
future unity. We want to create a bond through this project and encourage other
student activities to engage with the local community in similar ways.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has made this
project possible. Firstly, the Leamington BID for providing us with crucial support
and feedback throughout our research activities. Secondly, our WBS Mentors
Maja Korica; Stephen Roper and Bryan Thomas (the CEO of CPB Projects Ltd.
(WBS Alumni)) for assessing our work. Enactus Warwick Consulting for building
the blocks to bring this project to reality, and finally, the independent businesses
of Leamington Spa who have given their time for our research.
Sincerely,
Daniar Rusnak, Evelyn Gower, Eleanor Huish, Tomas Gliviak, Ria Sethi, Zara
Yaqoob

6. UK HIGH STREETS & LEAMINGTON SPA
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UK high streets are facing a large degree of
uncertainty. High-street spending has fallen
significantly over the past decade. In 2000,
49.9% of total retail spending was on the high
street, this has now fallen to 39.9%
(Economic Policy and Statistics 2014). This
decrease is associated with pressure exerted
by large out of town centre shopping, online
retailers, digital delivery and robust physical
delivery infrastructure in the UK.
In response, some UK high streets have
managed to differentiate themselves and
emphasise their unique features in order to
attract custom. For example, Ludlow and
Stratford-upon-Avon have been highly
successful in developing nationwide
reputations for food and history respectively.
However, other high streets are suffering, with
towns in the North West being worst hit -
seeing 17% of shops unoccupied (The Local
Data Company 2014).
The Leamington high street has to compete
against the same issues mentioned above.
However, the town has some distinctive
features that present opportunities for growth
- its spa and floral heritage, excellent
restaurants, cafes, independent businesses,
and large student population. Businesses
must leverage these factors and focus on
things like the student population and
experience-based retailing (going beyond
selling products and services, and creating an
exciting and emotive experience for
customers) in order to create a profitable
environment that will attract custom long into
the future.

7. PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED
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Our survey has shown that currently, there is a feeling of confidence within the
independent businesses in Leamington Spa, with a majority expecting a growth in
revenue over the coming year. However, we know that there are always ways in
which the business environment can improve and our survey has highlighted
various problems that many independent businesses in Leamington are currently
facing. A summary of our findings are presented below.
Initially we asked businesses to identify main problems and found that 4 areas were
regularly mentioned:
• Increasing footfall
• Lack of customer loyalty
• Increasing costs
• Brand awareness
When asked about the relevance of various technologies to their business, the majority
of businesses claimed that, for each area suggested, that technology was not relevant
to them. This is an interesting finding - we feel it highlights a lack of understanding and
awareness. Social media was the most popular form of technology used by surveyed
businesses, with all of them stating that it was relevant in some capacity. However,
extended research on this topic has shown that many businesses could benefit from
further guidance on the benefits that this technology can provide.
Collecting customer data was something that almost all businesses stated they were
doing, yet only 50% felt their practices to be adequate. We noticed that this data was
mainly collected through face to face conversations and feedback from customers, very
few businesses were using data analysis software.
Surprisingly, 70% of businesses surveyed could not identify a unique customer market,
and therefore may not be tailoring their products or services. University students were
only being targeted by 50% of the businesses, despite the 5000 students living in
Leamington. Out of their £84m spending power, only £2.4m is being spent in local
businesses. We believe this is a result of two things - businesses overlook the student
market and students are not aware of what local businesses have to offer.
The remainder of this report will address how some of the findings and problems
identified can be resolved. We have split solutions into 4 main categories; student
engagement, experience retailing, digital marketing and data analytics.

8. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
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What makes Leamington Spa unique is its close proximity to the University of
Warwick. With around 5000 students living in Leamington every year, this presents
the distinctive opportunity for businesses to engage with the university and the
students. In the following pages, we have identified possible ways for businesses
to enter the student market and benefits that can be gained from doing so.
Tailoring to students
Following a survey conducted on
students, we found that 63% believe
that businesses in Leamington Spa do
not effectively meet their needs. By
tailoring product and service offerings
to students, your business can attract
this segment, raising revenue and
Societies
The University of Warwick has more
than 250 societies located on campus,
ranging from food and drink oriented
societies to cultural and fashion groups.
By exclusively partnering with societies,
your business can enter the student
market. We identified word of mouth
recommendations as one of the major
reasons students will choose to use the
products or services of a new business,
and partnering with societies has been
seen to create these recommendations.
Warwick Cocktail Society
The society has organised pub crawls
with different businesses like Leif
Tearoom and Piano Bar agreeing to
extend their happy hours for the
society.
“I would definitely recommend the
businesses to friends, they’re so
friendly!”
Vipan Parmar, Cocktail
Society Exec
2014-2015
Zou Bisou
Recognising the importance of taking into account customer needs, owner Stephanie
Summers recently launched a discount for students visiting the cafe after 6pm to run
throughout the exam term of the University of Warwick.
“I remember what it’s like being a student. I wanted to create an environment where students
can take a break from revision in the evenings, feel extra welcome and feel like we care.”
Stephanie Summers, Owner of Zou Bisou

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Raising and Giving society:
Student skills
The proximity to the University offers the
opportunity to employ student skills in
exchange for providing students with
valuable experience and insight into the
workings of a business. Examples of
such an association would be social
media management by students for
businesses, bands and DJ’s performing
in cafes and restaurants and ad hoc
services such as those provided by
organisations like Warwick Enactus.
Our research identified social media as
an important tool that can be employed
to improve operations and increase
popularity amongst different consumer
groups.
When questioned about the use of social media in their businesses, business owners
indicated that while they would like to use social media, they don’t have the time to
learn how to effectively use it and/or regularly update the different outlets.
Keeping this in mind, we suggest there is an opportunity for you to utilise the student
population to your advantage. With students at the university being adept at using social
media, employing students to set up and monitor social media profiles would provide
them with the valuable experience of managing a marketing communications platform
for a real business in their spare time at university. For business owners such as
yourself, this is a great chance to utilise student skills at a low cost.
With the student population increasing, it is becoming more and more important for
businesses to engage with this demographic. Utilising word of mouth advertising
through partnerships with societies, tailoring product/service offerings to meet student
needs and utilising student skills are all simple yet effective ways of creating this
engagement which will be crucial in capturing a bigger share of the £84m student
market.
Raising & Giving Society
Raffle prizes such as vouchers were
donated to the society by businesses
such as Nando’s, Momenti and The
Jug.
“Giving raffle prizes has definitely
improved the society's relationships
with venues - we've held socials at
restaurants that've given us raffle
prizes before simply because we
wanted some way of saying thank
you.”
Andy King, President of
RAG 2014- 2015

10. EXPERIENCE
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As highlighted previously, with increased online competition, the high street is no
longer primarily about utility - it is about differentiation and experience. One way of
creating this experience is hosting unique events, activities and workshops. These
events offer a great way to increase revenue, improve capacity utilisation and
appeal to a new customer group.
They can take many forms, for example:
Using your skills and knowledge to teach those willing to learn
Sarah Horne is a multi-award winning florist based in Leamington. She has fully
embraced this idea, running a regular flower school and evenings with champagne,
dinner and flower arranging.
Tasting events
SH Jones, a wine merchants on Regent Street regularly runs wine tasting events,
charging for tickets but with the aim of selling the products being tasted. This could be
altered to attract a different customer group, for example an introductory event with
cheaper wines for students. Particularly relevant for businesses that deal with food or
drink, but with some creativity this concept could be expanded.
Opening your space to be used by other organisations
If you have a space that is flexible, why not make it available during times that you are
quiet or closed to create extra revenue? An example of a business in Leamington that is
already working this strategy is Havana Cafe on Warwick Street. They are a Cuban Cafe
which runs salsa nights every Wednesday whilst serving cocktails and tapas.
New product launches and new season
stock previews
Taking Shape, a clothing boutique on the parade
launched its Christmas evening and party wear with
an event involving competitions, dancing, drinks and
hair and makeup advice.
Transforming your space outside of normal
opening hours
Ginger Ace on Regent Street recently launched its
‘After Dark’ events. Normally a cafe, the business
extended its opening hours and offered alcohol and
music to great success.

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Events for loyal customers
Esque is a beauty salon on Bedford Street. They recognise the benefits of keeping a
loyal customer base and so they hold events for their top customers with discounted
treatments. Offering events like this creates a great incentive for customers to hand over
their personal information, meaning that products and services can be tailored to the
customer base more effectively.
Incorporating a new element for a limited period of time
Warwick Street Kitchen on Regent Street hosted local artist Jane Williams and her
paintings for a week in the summer. This added an interesting, interactive element to the
cafe, mutually beneficial to both parties. Adults could browse the art or watch Jane at
work whilst enjoying food from the cafe whilst children could have a go at drawing
themselves. Another idea would be to invite local musicians into your business, so that
they could advertise their services whilst creating an inviting atmosphere, offering
something unique for customers to experience.
Collaborating with other local businesses
Rather than seeing other local businesses as competition, why not explore the mutually
beneficial opportunities to collaborate? McIntosh and Paul, a gifts and home
accessories retailer on Regent Street celebrated its 1 year anniversary by opening late
and offering mulled wine and mince pies from the Rustic Food Company next door.
Sarah Horne Flowers
Sarah runs a monthly Flower School which offers clients the chance to learn how to make
arrangements whilst sampling locally baked cakes. After networking with others in the industry,
Sarah decided to add various courses for birthdays and hen do’s on a demand basis. Sarah
kindly offered some advice for any business attempting to set up a similar service:
• Always do your research - need to assess whether there is demand for the service
• Don’t give up if it doesn’t work immediately - it takes time and hard work
• Think about advertising - advertising in the press is often too expensive, but you
could invite the local press to experience your service and write a story on it, or
collaborate with local businesses to promote in a mutually beneficial way. Sarah says
that most of her business comes from recommendations and a pavement sign.
These courses add an extra day of turnover to Sarah’s business each month. She says they
are an invaluable chance to get to know customers and tell stories about the business,
creating a relationship meaning that attendees think about Sarah’s flowers and other services
when they are in need in the future.
Planning these events is one thing, but making your target audience aware is another. The
Leamington Spa website has an ‘Events’ section and social media can be really effective (as
we show in the next section of this report). There is also potential to create relationships with
other local businesses, as Ginger Ace and Coffee Architects have done, so that events can
be advertised in a mutually beneficial way.

12. DIGITAL MARKETING
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In the last five years, the use of social media has dramatically increased. Both
corporations and SME’s alike have been employing more tools that allows them to
interact with customers on a more personal level. In a report, it was found that
42% of SMEs do not use social media, but 61% of those who do, believe that it is
worthwhile to the business. With social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram, it has never been easier for SMEs to connect with their consumers.
The main reasons for adopting social media practices are as follows:
Building customer relationships: This is one of the most important reasons to use
social media for any business. Using Twitter and Facebook will allow a business owner
to instantly and directly communicate with their current and potential customers. It
means that customers can build relationships with the business owner and it also helps
the business owner to consolidate their brand.
Adapting and improving: Social media exposes the business owner as well as the
business, which can be made into positive or negative exposure. To make this positive,
it is important to take feedback from your followers and use it to your advantage. For
example, if, they want more pictures of competitions, then it might be best to integrate
this in some way.
Increasing web traffic: In order to keep up with competition, it is vital that your
business is able to increase web traffic and divert it from alternative sources. Using
social media frequently will mean that your website (and social media profiles) will be at
the top of Google search, and will this make your various profiles more accessible to
current and potential customers.
Winning new customers: As an SME, it can be difficult to be consistent with social
media. However, if done correctly, you can expose yourself to new people and
demographics, such as students. By allotting specific times in the day, or allocating the
responsibility to one person will make it much easier. There are also applications that
can be downloaded, such as HootSuite, which will allow you to look at your Twitter
account more systematically. More of these will be discussed.
Keeping up with competition: by having a social media presence, you are
automatically aligning yourself with your competition. Having online competitions or
discounts are a great way to distinguish yourself, and means your customers will
interact with you and your business on a daily basis.

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Sweet Tayloula
This sweet shop is a fantastic example
of how to use social media well. They
often hold competitions on Facebook,
directly respond to customer requests
and complaints, and post pictures of
events. They also synchronise all their
social media profiles, so their
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
accounts are all consistent.
Tools to keep control of social media accounts
Keeping control of social media accounts can be difficult. However, with the right tools,
they can be managed effectively. Applications that you could utilise include:
Types of Social Media
There are many types of social media. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the most
popular with 31%, 37% and 30% of SME's using them to interact with customers.
Instagram is used less, but considering the business environment of Leamington, and
Instagram’s popularity amongst SME's in Leamington, it is another form of social media
that should be considered. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are fantastic ways of
keeping in contact with customers, whereas LinkedIn is better for expanding your
network in Leamington Spa and the Warwickshire area.
Using social media is becoming increasingly important for SME’s. While it can be initially
difficult to get used to and initiate, the rewards for investing some time into creating and
updating social media accounts will be worthwhile. It can be used to build a buzz
around your business, improve your brand reputation, help you find out more about the
needs of your consumers, attract new talent and improve customer loyalty. There is
plenty of evidence of this, and as the majority of social media is extremely cost-
effective, there is no real reason to not starting using it.
Using one or two of these well, will
mean that you can schedule automated
tweets and Facebook posts, have
access to in-built analytics software that
report on your performance, as well as
giving you advice on who to interact
with and when to schedule posts. Most
of these applications have free demos
and then they either do monthly
subscriptions or a plan specific to your
business.
• Hootsuite
• Social Mention
• Klout
• Social Booster

14. DATA ANALYTICS
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In this section, we would like to show you that data analytics is not something to
be afraid of, but that using the right tools can support your business in many ways.
There are four solutions presented, all of which are free and can help you to
understand who your customers are, what is driving traffic on your website or
engagement on your social media profiles and how to use this information.
80% of the businesses we surveyed have social media profiles and 75% of them own a
website. However, less than 20% use customer analytics and less than half use any
data analytics tools whatsoever. Data analytics software was the form of technology that
most businesses wanted to learn how to implement.
We believe understanding data is a key skill in delivering relevant products and services.
To make it less daunting, imagine it as simply understanding the bigger picture and
numbers behind it. These tools will help you to put those number into context and make
them more understandable.
Facebook analytics
This is a free, easy to use and simple tool from Facebook that allows business owners
to see how their engagement with online followers is working. It provides data on,
demographics of followers, post reach, engagement and page likes.
Using these tools, you can understand what kind of content to post, how to optimise
pages according to where likes are coming from, reach desired levels of engagement,
see which posts work and which don't and when fans are online. Moreover, it provides
additional information about what external sources are driving traffic to the page, i.e. if
people are coming from the business webpage.
This is essential information that can give a basic
overview and drag down costs, however this is best
used in conjunction with other software to provide more
valuable insights.
Watson Analytics
Watson Analytics is a valuable piece of software from IBM that was launched just
recently. It is an intuitive data analytics software package that aims to provide similar
services that experienced data miners offer. It currently operates in a freemium model
(free up to a certain amount of data) and could be very valuable for you as a small
business, enabling you to understand relationships in data that cannot be easily
spotted.

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Google Analytics
Another useful piece of software is Google Analytics,
particularly helpful for the 80% of our surveyed businesses that
have a website, but even more for 15% that are planning to
implement an e-commerce site. It helps businesses to
understand their websites, where traffic is coming from, if their
online and social media campaigns are working and why or why
not people are staying on their website.
SumAll
The most impressive software out there is customer relationship management and
analytics software. There are many many solutions available at different price points,
tailoring to both big and small businesses. The one that impressed us most was SumAll.
It integrates all the data from social media, e-commerce, emails, google analytics,
campaigns and more to one report that allows businesses to track and show
relationships between, for example, a Facebook post and sales of a particular product.
New York Live Arts
New York Live Arts used SumAll to
discover that Instagram was a valuable
channel for them. They also found out
when their campaigns weren't working
as anticipated, allowing them to target
more effectively.
There are many other useful pieces of software available on the market that can drive
engagement, lower costs, improve targeting and serve many other functions, ultimately
making your business more profitable. Most of these services have easy-to-understand
websites and videos to teach you how to use them. It is not only about using analytics
software like Excel, but also online platforms that gather and analyse data on the go,
making it available to you, freeing up your valuable time and allowing you to make
decisions when they are due.
The Spillers Group
This restaurant chain uses an app
called Roambi to share and collect
data from their tills, accounting
information and labour metrics to
determine managers' pay in relation
to restaurant performance. This has
decreased their labour costs by 10%.
This solution is more applicable to
businesses operating/planning to
operate more than one shop.

16. POLICY AND PREDICTIONS
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In the survey, we asked businesses what policies or schemes they felt would
benefit the Leamington high street as a whole.
The next most popular policy change
was increased government concessions,
a choice we predicted to be popular,
and an increase in events in
Leamington, which BID have plans to
implement.
Parking was identified as a common
problem for businesses in Leamington,
with the most popular policy suggestion
being longer periods of free parking.
Other popular suggestions included an
increase in parking facilities, park and
ride facilities and a scheme offering
discounts to parking after spending on
Leamington’s high street.
Predictions
We also asked businesses about their
opinion on the growth of the high street
in the past and their predictions for the
year to come.
The majority of businesses surveyed
were positive about the state of the
business environment over the past
year in Leamington, with an even larger
majority predicting a positive change for
the coming year.
Data from BID Leamington reports
support this trend and with the BID’s
ongoing plans to encourage more
visitors to Leamington Spa, these
results should continue into the future.
Posi%ve((
55%(
The(same(
38%(
Nega%ve(
2%(
No(
response(
5%(
Predictions for change in the
Leamington business environment
over the coming year

17. THE FUTURE OF THE INTELLIGENCE UNIT
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The Intelligence Unit will continue next year, building on the progress
that we have made this year…
Tomas and Eleanor are both first year students and they will recruit a new team next
academic year in order to continue the work of the Intelligence Unit. They plan to assess
the impact of our research by following up with businesses to see if any of the
suggestions we made have been implemented. We hope they will find success stories
and gain feedback in order to improve the usefulness of future reports.
This year has been an opportunity to try out ideas, but there have been difficulties along
the way. The team next year will learn from our mistakes and build on our progress in
order to create an even more insightful report. They will increase the scale of the project,
getting more businesses involved, gaining deeper insights and improving the validity
and credibility of research results. We hope that the team will also be able to start
spotting trends in the growth and confidence of independent businesses.
The team will continue using surveys but with some changes. Making questions more
specific, relevant and easier to understand. We are planning to introduce more
interviews to ask about opinions, context and gain even deeper understanding. The
biggest change will be the introduction of focus groups with students to give more
relevant insights on students needs and desires and how these are reflected in
Leamington.
Finally, having noticed a demand for help with student interaction, the team will spend
more time researching ways in which the Intelligence Unit can use its own expertise as
students to encourage this.
We hope that you find our research useful and will be willing to take part in this
project next year.

18. ENACTUS WARWICK CONSULTING
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The Intelligence Unit is a subset of a larger organisation, Enactus Warwick. Enactus
Warwick is a society at the University of Warwick founded in 2005. Enactus, formerly
known as SIFE, is a global non-profit organisation in over 1800 universities. Enactus is a
community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of
entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. At
Warwick, drawing on the talents of our globally leading Business School, Economics
and STEM departments has built Enactus Warwick Consulting; a pro-bono student
consultancy dedicated to helping local charities and business by providing advisory
services.
If you are looking for advice on your strategy, marketing, operational support or further
tailored advice in relation to the recommendations contained within this report; please
get in touch. Each project involves 6 talented students, generally a mix of Business,
Economics and Mathematics students. They work under the supervision of the
professional services firm EY Advisory as well as WBS Professors. The engagement
lasts approximately 5 months.
This proposition is in return for your time and a voluntary charitable donation to Enactus
Warwick. The donation is voluntary and dependent on your satisfaction with the work.
The amount of the donation is also fully in your discretion. These have ranged between
£250 and £500 in the past. The most important value Enactus Warwick students receive
from participating in projects is practical experience associated with such an
engagement, exposure to real world problems, exposure to EY Advisory and
inspirational business owners like yourself. This model of consulting engagement has
been undertaken by 53 organisations since 2009 and the overall model, quality and size
of our organisation has been recognised at national level by Enactus UK. http://
www.enactusuk.org/what-we-do/project-stories/warwick-consultancy.

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We invite you to read about one of our project engagements:
Brief: Client requested our help to grow profitability and revenue as they had been
experiencing negative profits since the financial crisis of 2008.
Action: The team conducted a company and market analysis to paint an accurate
picture of the business environment the company operated in. Following this analysis,
the team developed creative approaches to the problem and actionable
recommendations that were simple for the client to implement.
Impact: Following up with our client a few months later revealed that our strategy and
pricing recommendations drove both revenue and profits up for the company;
exceeding sales targets by £90,000 and effectively turning the firm around.
If you are interested please Contact Us at:
Enactus Warwick Consulting
enactuswarwickconsulting@gmail.com; 0795 037 0824

20. DATA COLLECTION
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We conducted two surveys and numerous interviews to gain both quantitative and
qualitative data about the Leamington business environment and the views of various
stakeholders, including independent businesses, students and academics from the
University of Warwick.
The main business survey was first conducted online (Google Forms) starting in early
December. Businesses were invited via email by the Leamington BID. Due to the
inappropriate timing (Christmas period), we received an inadequate number of
responses so we decided to create a paper version of the survey, handing it out to to
businesses in person. We received 43 responses, out of which one was identified as
being from a high-street chain and was not included in the presented data. In total, 42
independent business survey responses were analysed.
Potential limitations include response rate, sample of businesses and formation of
questions. We tried to address these problems by consulting with academics from the
University of Warwick. The response rate was around 10% of all Leamington BID
members which we think is a reasonable sample that covers wide range of industries,
revenue groups and locations. We have tried to contact as many businesses as possible
and never excluded an independent business from our data.
Our second source of data was the student survey conducted online (Google Forms).
We received 38 responses from University of Warwick students. While this represents
only a small fraction of all students, we received a balanced mix of responses from
students in different years and locations. We believe this sample is representative of the
opinions of University of Warwick students.
Lastly, we conducted many interviews with business owners and other stakeholders in
order to help us gain understanding of the Leamington high street. These were usually
carried out by one or two team members, with prepared sets of open questions that
were discussed with the whole team prior to the interview.
We are well aware of the limitations of the methods we chose (surveys and interviews)
and for the next year, we are planning multiple changes. We want to continue with
surveys, however making them more specific and delving deeper into past events and
future intentions. We are planning to introduce more interviews to ask about opinions,
context and gain even deeper understanding. The biggest change will be the
introduction of focus groups with students to give more relevant insights on students
needs and desires and how these are reflected in Leamington.

21. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
21
Student Languaging / Tailoring
Tailoring your business to students is not
just about discounts. Think how you can
tailor your products and services to the
students and communicate it in their
language.
For example, PureGym provides student
membership of £100 for a term time
instead of a three month membership paid
at £42.50 per month. Similarly, consider
the offering of a ''Hangover'' smoothie
cure - a clearly well thought through
product for students.
Customer Experience
Think about why someone
would want to repeatedly
come to your shop; instead of
shopping online. Hosting
events and incorporating a
truly charismatic experience
has worked for the successful
businesses of the Leamington
high street.
Student Skills
Not enough time to do social
media? Is it hard to wrap your head
around it? Why not talk to some of
the students that regularly come to
your business about how they can
help you and what they think?
Consider 'employing' a student by
paying with product or service
rather than cash; in exchange of
management of social media.
Social Media
Automation
Social Media is important, but
time consuming. Did you know
you can programme social media
posts to go out automatically?
For example Hootsuite, enables
you to automate messages on
social media and track user
engagement and make sense of
the data!
The High Street is a
System
Remember, that the sum of the
parts of the high street is less
than the whole. If you have one
successful business on the
high street; the others benefit
from its success. Cooperation
is key and underpins the future
success of Leamington's high
street.

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