EXAMPLES OF COMPETITION

Competition

The only direct competition for Climb Kenora Co. is Vertical Adventures Indoor Climbing Facility (VA). They offer indoor climbing, as well as courses for various levels of ability. VA is a relatively small operation, which mostly deals with indoor climbing. Their one major weakness is that they do not offer the option of going on a weekend climbing trip, but they do offer day outings. Their biggest strength is that they are a climbing gym and can offer people a chance to try before they buy. They are the only operation that deals with climbing both indoors and out. Their location is a little out of the way but does not pose a big problem for them. They have very competitive prices as compared to other climbing gyms in Canada.

The indirect competition for Climb Kenora Co. is other adventure travel tours, which would include things such as mountain biking, hiking, fishing, and canoeing. These types of businesses outnumber Climb Kenora Co. The strengths of these businesses are that they are less strenuous and appeal to the older generation, which outnumbers Climb Kenora Co’s target market. The weakness of those businesses would be that they don’t have the extreme appeal that an activity like rock climbing would have.

Competition

There are currently no retail outlets offering this type of service, however, 3 internet sites have recently opened with similar objectives. All three sites are American based, with prices in American funds. The only ordering option available is on the internet with a credit card. Only 44% of the people surveyed by Your Mix had internet access from a home computer, and 77% with access wouldn’t consider using their credit card online to order a similar product (see Appendix F – Survey Graphs [Diagrams B & C]). There are currently no plans by any of these companies to expand into the retail market. These companies have yet to target Canadians as possible customers. Only 1 person of the 50 surveyed had heard of a similar service, but none mentioned these 3 companies (see Appendix D – Survey Summary). www.customdisc.com: Offers up to 70 minutes of music, chosen from songs on their database which is currently very small and limited. The website is confusing with no prices listed. www.supersonicboom.com: Offers 55 minutes of music for $16.99 plus $3.00 shipping. Songs are chosen from their database which is fairly large in genres such as jazz and adult contemporary, but doesn’t include the top selling popular radio music.