Preserving Hardcore

Marty Norris
October 16, 2019
Dr. A
Marketing 301
SWOT

Strength
● High percentage of customers are
regulars
● Has a large following for a short duration
of being in business
● Successful concert venue
● Offers an array of merchandise and music
● Low Prices, high quality product
● Museum attraction
Weakness
● No employees/help
● No money for marketing or
advertisements
● Inconsistent hours of operation
● Located in the basement of a district
court house- unable to have concerts on
certain days
● Perception of Preserving Hardcore-gives
people the idea that it’s just metal music

Opportunities Threats
● Perception of New Kensington
● Poor weather/winter-Believes that
people will stay inside resulting in limited
to no sales

Introduction:
Upon interviewing AJ at Preserving Hardcore, we began to understand his strengths, weaknesses,
potential opportunities, and threats of his business. We have thought of numerous solutions that can
optimize Preserving Hardcore’s strengths and capture their opportunities, while overcoming those
weaknesses and threats. These solutions will work to increase his sales, increase his advertising
opportunities, and improve the perception of New Kensington and Preserving Hardcore.

SWOT Analysis:
The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are illustrated in the chart above. Potential
solutions would be capitalizing on his social media following to promote sales, to show appreciation to
customers, and to advertise the museum and his business as a whole. This can be done by increased
posts on all social media platforms, by using hashtags, etc. By having no direct competitors, he is
potentially able to market himself as the closest shop for rock music enthusiasts and he is a one-stop
shop for CD’s, vinyls, and lessons, as well as concerts. By not having any employees, he is saving money,
but at the same time, he is not able to have regular hours. By hiring an employee or two, he will be able
to still do events with his band, he can own the shop without getting burnt out, and he can have regular
hours so that customers will have an easier time identifying when he is open and when he is closed.
Having a low budget for marketing can be challenging, but we believe that he can advertise through
hashtags on his social media for free, or if Penn State creates a partnership with Preserving Hardcore, he
may be able to get a certain amount of fliers printed for little or no cost to him. This could potentially
help him to gain more online and in-store business, which will increase profit in order to improve his

Innovation Plus +
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marketing further. His threats are much more challenging for him to face, but we believe that if he can
hold events that are winter themed, he may be able to draw in customers that would normally not go on
a cold winter day. Only being able to have concerts on weekends gives him the opportunity to hold
concerts when most people are free, which are weekends, it gives customers a sense of excitement
when concerts aren’t held all the time; it makes the concerts feel special, and it gives AJ a few weekends
that he doesn’t have to worry about concerts, which will keep him from getting burnt out. He
mentioned to us in our interview that his name is something that he would like to change in order to
eliminate the perception that he only has really heavy music, as he has softer and alternative music too.
With a name change, he will have the opportunity to draw other customers who may have looked past
him due to his name. While changing the perception of New Kensington is a difficult feat, he had the
opportunity to work with other small businesses to create events for the public to show everyone that
New Kensington is not as bad as people believe that it is.

Proposed Solution:
The main solutions that we came up with is increasing his communications with customers. were
working to adjust his store hours, giving his store a new name, and by constantly increasing his social
media presence. The first solution will help because a lot of customers will not go to stores if they are
not aware of the hours, so making regular hours, even if that means hiring new people, will help him
with attaining a larger customer base. The second solution will help to give off a vibe that there is more
than just hardcore music there and he will attract many customers that were turned off by the name.
Finally, increasing his social media presence could help in several ways such as increasing webstore
sales, becoming recognized by bigger names, by appealing to a larger amount of people, and by having a
faster way of notifying people of events, increased inventory, etc. We believe that these solutions will be
a great beginning to improving his business and beginning the revitalization process for New Kensington.

Our main solution is to utilize the opportunities of his business to increase communications with his
consumer base. Our solution includes revitalizing the perception of his store name, by improving
communications through his social media presence, and by revising his website.

Revitalizing the perception of his brand name will help customers to understand that Preserving
Hardcore sells more than just hardcore or heavy metal music. They sell music that is softer and more
alternative as well. He does not necessarily need to change his name, but we believe that adding
something to it could be beneficial. One way to change the perception is by adding a slogan that could
be as simple as “and more” that will appeal to more genres and would potentially widen his consumer
demographic. Our team is determined to bring a feeling that music lovers and enthusiasts would feel
invited and glad to be a part of.

There are also aspects of his website and his webstore that could use revision to better communicate
with his customers. An additional service could make him more of a commodity while also attracting
more people into the store. Our team thought that he should offer an exchange service so that the
customer could get rid of an unwanted record while he could benefit from an expanded inventory. This
could increase sales of records due to a higher opportunity of impulse buys or interest in the museum.

SMART Objectives:
● Store name
● Social Media

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● Our goal for his webstore is to increase website viewership by 25% by the end of

Conclusion:
When considering a proposed solution, it is important that we look at Preserving Hardcore’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in order to find ways that the business can shift into being more
efficient and generating more revenue. SMART objectives are developed by finding a way that AJ can
work to improve Preserving Hardcore by setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,
and timely. These goals are found based on the information provided on his website, as well as the
information that we learned upon meeting with him.

Innovation Plus +