Marketing Plan

Assignment #2

Retail Site Visit and Report

“Sport Chek”

Store Identification and Type

The store that I visited and have chosen to report on for this assignment is Sport Chek. This particular store is located in Upper Canada Mall in Newmarket, Ontario. They have a number of locations across the Greater Toronto Area, but this location happens to be closest to where I live. I have bought hockey equipment from Sport Chek ever since I started playing the sport over 10 years ago, so I’m very familiar with the store.. This store is an example of a “chain store”, which is owned and operated as a group by a single organization. Canadian Tire now owns all Sport Chek stores, as they bought out the previous owners (Forzani Group) in 2011. Sport Chek is Canada’s largest retailer selling sporting equipment/goods and athletic sportswear, categorizing it as a “specialty store”. This means that it specializes in a given type of merchandise – sporting goods – and uses it’s sales associates as a crucial tool for selling their products. Since not all customers have the knowledge on the sporting products, Sport Chek salespeople are heavily relied on to have a high level of customer service.

Retail Marketing Strategy

The typical target market Sport Chek tries to sell to are: healthy sports enthusiasts of all ages who are looking for a wide range of cutting edge sporting goods. These customers are looking for modern and new product whether it is work out clothing, running shoes, a Toronto Blue Jays jersey, or a new hockey stick. As previously mentioned, sales associates are a critical part of the selling process in a store like Sport Chek. They carry many specialty products that require explaining and assistance otherwise potential customers won’t bother buying them. Sport Chek has to have an intense training program so that their sales associates have the proper knowledge to sell their products. Sport Chek has to do a great job of blending product, place, promotion,...