The Problem

 

Come up with a retail concept for the College Park Business District, an area that's rapidly growing and continuing to add new developments. Then, present the concept to a panel of judges who will decide if our idea is a good fit for the community.

 

The Challenges 

 

The concept must take into account College Park's unique demographics, where we have University of Maryland students who tend to be more affluent than the residents of the town. How do we target both sectors of our market, without alienating core customers? 

 

Additionally, how will our concept compete with the new restaurants popping up every couple of months in College Park? 

 

Finally, our concept must be financially feasible in terms of marketing spending and general costs. 

 

Our Plan 

 

In The Move, we created a venue where students and residents can relish a weekend brunch or they can enjoy a fun night out in College Park. 

 

Now what separates us from any other bar with a kitchen? We have seasonal themes, that rotate every two months. Themes such as holiday, game day and tiki and corresponding deals on food and drinks to get customers in the door. 

 

We decided to go with a classic, streamlined design in terms of our logo and store design. Black, white and grey were our main colors. This also showed a level of maturity and sophistication that other bars in College Park lack. 

 

The bar would be located in the old comic book shop, right next to RJ Bentleys. This spot is in the heart of Route 1 and has hundreds of students walking past every night. 

 

My job in this was to conduct our secondary market research and create our brand position
 I also worked on our financial statements, which was much much much harder than I expected. 

 

I started the secondary market research by looking at other themed bars across the country. I found some really great examples such as Safehouse which is a spy-themed bar, or Unicorn which is a circus-themed bar. These bars were upscale, which is something we sought to be. Customers do not mind paying more for such a unique experience, and we planned to capitalize on this. 

 

I also looked at the 'Boozy Brunch' phenomena. Brunch has exploded in the past couple of years, alongside the rise of Instagram. Brunch has become a weekend event, one where you go and get drunk and take pictures of your food for Instagram. College Park is lacking a spot for this, and The Move fits perfectly in this hole. 

 

College Park only has 3 main bars, whereas other state schools of similar size have 6-8. Not only do we not have enough bars, but none of them made a "top college bar list". Some schools had multiple bars featured but we had 0. This is a problem for a school where only 19% of the student body is in greek life. 

 

Results

 

Our team worked incredibly well together and the judges ended up loving the concept. We saw the need for another nightlife option, and filled the hole with a bar that is upscale and multifaceted. 

 

Our long term goal would be to attract young professionals from across Prince George's County to visit The Move, and contribute to the growing community in College Park.