Business Growth Report Case Study: Ape Index (UK)

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ENTE3533_1920_520 Developing Business

Assignment 2: Business Growth Report

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Case Study: Ape Index (UK)

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Andrew Hill

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  Ape Index (referred to as ‘AI’ throughout) are a training gym specialising in bouldering (like rock climbing) activities and ‘ninja’ agility training catering for all ages outside of Leicester city centre. They are part of the growing indoor fitness sector. As a local business operating in Leicester, they are limited in the number of people they can actively serve at any one time. As a small business, they need to grow and this report aims to recommend ways in which AI can optimise their growth, as well as analysing the sector and their key competitors.

Organisation Summary
Organisation name & Logo	Ape Index .
Organisation’s web address	http://apeindex.rocks No ownership of other key domain extensions including .com, .co.uk or .net – these have already been acquired by other organisations/individuals
Profile	For profit, private limited company operating a local business in the indoor fitness sector offering agility training, bouldering/obstacle course exercises and venue hire on a pay per use and membership (excluding venue hire) basis
Customer & Target Market	Primarily B2C. Targeting customers of all age groups with an interest in fitness and leisure.
Main Competitors	Local	National
	Tower Climbing Centre (local authority operated) Social Climbing Parklands Leisure Centre GoKidsGo Clip’n’Climb	Ultimate Ninja UK Ninja Warrior UK
Social Media presence	Strong presence on Facebook powered mostly by video content (Appendix A.12). Less prominent on other social channels, uses personal accounts for several other social media platforms.
Table 1. Organisation Summary detailing key elements used to form a basis of analysis and recommendation. .

AI are experiencing several obstacles to growth, including a lack of convenience exacerbated by an unstructured, disorganised website leaving customers unable to find key information easily, including a contact number or even where they are based (Appendix A).

Their web presence presents an unprofessional image in key areas, including social media (Appendix A.12), excluding Facebook, and their homepage, where they use mobile numbers as a primary form of contact (Appendix A.7) and breach data privacy legislation where their website is insecure without an adequate SSL certificate yet they request personal information to be shared with them (Appendix A.9-10) meaning personal data can be intercepted putting customers at risk of identity theft and decreasing trust (Deshpande, 2020). Another element that adds to this image is the lack of privacy policy informing users of how their data will be handled and who it will be shared with (including Google Analytics and other third-party software providers).

They also use personal profiles across YouTube and Twitter (Appendix A.12) which adds to the unprofessional image. This isn’t the case for Facebook which AI boasts a community of 3332 users, featuring relevant content their audience want.

Despite these drawbacks, AI are differentiating themselves from the market by operating specifically as a training gym and not a soft-play area (Tripadvisor, 2017) or traditional gym catering their product to adults as well as children. Focusing on Ninja training as a fun, unique selling point with only nine Google business listings displaying for the term “Ninja training school UK”, AI is, unfortunately, not one of them. This is a result of a disregard for SEO, where the term “please” features more tthan “gym”, “training”, “Boulder”, “Rock Climbing” or even “Ape Index” – all of which are more relevant keywords than “please”.

Their unique equipment demonstrates the innovation that has positioned AI as an authority in the market, but they fail to tap into this potential effectively. Their authority is derived from their video content posted on Facebook but AI have done little so far as evidence shows to tap into the value of their audience built as a result of these efforts, especially those nationwide who would usually be impracticable to serve as a traditional premises-based business. They have neglected their YouTube videos which have gained little viewership as a result of poor SEO.

Any effort of growth has further been hindered by a government ‘lockdown’ of the United Kingdom in response to the Covid-19 Novel Coronavirus pandemic (Johnson, 2020) and it will take radical innovation to continue growing during a time where non-essential businesses have been shut whilst lockdown measures are imposed.

Sector Analysis

  AI fall into the Health & Fitness sector and make up one of the 6700 businesses in this sector (Lange, 2019) and the sector is continuing to grow – it’s expanded by 20+% since 2013 (McGuiness, 2018). There are approximately 6million private fitness memberships in the UK expected to rise by 700’000 before 2024 (Davies, 2019).

The Fitness sector is dominated by traditional gyms (Davies, 2019), whilst the leisure sector is dominated by music festivals, with leisure clubs coming in second (Ryan, 2019) though leisure, sport and fitness sectors are expected to be disrupted significantly as a result of Covid-19 (Mintel, 2020). Sports participation alone has remained steady (Walmsley, 2019) with expectations for participation to fall as disruptions resulting from covid-19 continue.

By reviewing the fitness, leisure and sports participation sector in relation to gamification, it provides a good insight into sportainment; sportainment hasn’t been adequately explored by academics to draw conclusions relating to the sportainment sector alone, which in itself is a subsector/hybrid of fitness, leisure and sports participation.

Considering Porter’s 5 Forces, which enables businesses to monitor their strategic performance and take decisive actions to improve their competitive advantage and boost profitability (Porter, 2004), AI are in a strong position as there are few direct competitors and the threat of new entrants and substitutes, when considering the number of direct competitors nationwide, is low. This means it may be difficult for customers to find a competitor who offers better value for money and the low risk of new competition forming sustains this advantage.

Furthermore, the power of suppliers to AI is low; the wide availability of agility training equipment for sale from commercial suppliers means they don’t have to rely on a single supplier, so if their supplier’s prices increase, AI can replace them.

The power of customers is very high, there are a lot of competitors offering agility training or bouldering activities which customers may turn to if they weren’t satisfied with AI.

By monitoring Porter’s 5 Forces, AI will be able to notice changes in the competitive environment

Competitor Analysis

  In Leicester, AI doesn’t have so many direct competitors able to replace them outright and when applying a VRIO framework to the organisation, it is evident that they maintain a temporary competitive advantage over the local market. No other business in Leicester offer bouldering or ninja obstacle training, where courses can be altered on a whim to suit the customer’s wants/needs, this provides value to customers who cannot easily substitute AI because they are unique (rare) in their local area (Jurevicious, 2013) though individual organisations have similar offerings. On a national scale, there are more organisations who could easily substitute AI, including Ultimate Ninja UK meaning imitation isn’t out of the question, especially if AI expand into the same areas as competitors with substitute offerings – this can be overcome by developing new, valuable products such as information products, and serving customers these organisations wouldn’t usually expect through the use of sales and marketing automation (see recommendations).

Tower Climbing Centre

  The Tower Climbing Centre offer bouldering and rock–climbing activities, similar to AI.

  Tower Climbing are a local authority owned organisation, part of the ActiveLeicester scheme designed to introduce more people to healthy, active lifestyles (Leicester City Council, n.d.). They do not have as strong a need to generate revenues and all profits are reinvested in other schemes and services offered by Leicester City Council, instead of growing the service. They’re not a major concern for private companies though they do still possess a share of the market that is valuable to AI.

Social Climbing

  Social Climbing in Leicester city centre boast 700m² of climbing surface with a workout gym, catering for children’s parties and catering for all ages. Like AI, they offer coaching/training programs but do not offer Ninja training. Social Climbing are a substitute competitor to AI in terms of bouldering activities.

  Social Climbing are different to AI in their focus towards socialising and “[chilling] out” (Social Climbing, 2019), they mix a “friendly and relaxed space with world-class climbing”.

  Located in the heart of Leicester, down the road from The Gym and within walking distance from Gannon’s Mixed Martial Arts, they’re in a prime position to serve fitness fanatics travelling to either venue. Their proximity to universities, where students/young adults appear to be their primary customer also serves them well.

Ultimate Ninja UK

  Ultimate Ninja are based in Colchester and like other Ninja training centres around the UK, they don’t pose a massive risk to AI currently. However, as AI look to expand, they may find themselves directly competing with these organisations if they expand out of Leicester. AI still differentiate from these competitors as they’re the only ones in the UK to integrate bouldering and ninja training. They have a much wider service variety too, meaning they’re likely to better cater to different customer profiles (Kahn, 1995).

Other Competitors

  AI face competition from Go Kids Go, who cater primarily for children offering soft-play areas and children’s activities, however, the risk of this competitor stealing market share from AI is low; for many parents (evident from reviews) would find Go Kids Go to be a reasonable substitute for parties (Tripadvisor, 2017).

  Parklands Leisure Centre are another competitor, targeting mostly an older audience with a more traditional focus on fitness and leisure. For those unable to climb or take part in high-intensity sports such as swinging between bars and climbing ropes, Parklands are in a position to capture this market share; they have a lot to offer from a swimming pool, gym, fitness/swimming classes and Play World, a “multi-tiered soft play zone” for children (Everyone Active, n.d.) making them a direct competitor to AI. Whilst Parklands doesn’t have an obstacle course, Ninja training or bouldering/rock climbing activities, they offer a far greater range to customers; for those unable or uninterested in bouldering or agility training, Parklands will be a strong substitution, their membership fees are affordable and tailored from £25-£59.99 per month compared to AI’s £30 membership option.

Business Growth Recommendations

  AI need to achieve two things to optimise their growth, one follows a traditional growth strategy for local businesses whilst the other is more radical but presents an opportunity to serve customers traditional local businesses would rarely be able to serve, this is highly beneficial during periods of regular business interruption as AI are currently facing as a result of coronavirus:

Without expanding to new locations, the strategy will begin to hinder AI due to overcapacity; customers will be deterred from visiting as convenience decreases with increased waiting times (Eliadis, 2011) to use equipment, for example, or enter the facility all together at peak times risking the loss of market share to a competitor; game theory suggests when operating at overcapacity, customers will find substitutes who can serve their needs more immediately (Kou & Luo, 2015). Three objectives to achieve a sustainable customer acquisition strategy are set out below:

To do this, AI will form an integrated, sustainable customer acquisition strategy enabling them to establish new locations over time as capacity is reached in the current premises and future premises beyond that. It’s important to maintain customer acquisition and to develop relationships with existing customers to justify opening new premises to accommodate the growing customer base; without maintaining a stream of new customer and retaining existing customers, the new premises risks making unsustainable losses.

One of the ways to do this is to develop their website to improve user experience, making important information more prominent by developing structure to the website (using headers, footers, sidebars, rows and columns), organising information across different pages relevant to the user’s needs (contact information, booking forms, blog, etc), displaying contact information on every page. Improving navigation will improve the convenience (Salehi, Abdollahbeigi, Langroudi & Salehi, 2012) and therefore satisfaction (Weissman, 2012). As a result of the disruption to business as a result of the coronavirus epidemic forcing businesses to close to the public, means AI can use this time to invest in their digital strategy; creating content, developing online training materials, building funnels and integrating tools to enable automation of the entire process.

The digital content will be worthless, however, if AI refuse to invest in their SEO strategy (Appendix A), increasing relevant keyword density throughout their website and content shared across social media. Currently, they mention the term “please” more than any other term across their website which is very polite but limiting their potential search engine results position (SERP), “please” is mentioned 15 times, making up 3% of the copy on their homepage whilst the terms “Bouldering” and “rock climbing” make up less than 1% of the copy (Appendix A.3). Social media also neglects good SEO practices, where AI’s YouTube videos feature no links to Apeindex.rocks, nor does it detail what the video is about, any contact information or how to find them! Customers watching the videos are unequipped to visit the premises in absence of any contact details.

AI already have the foundations of a content marketing strategy in place through the videos already published on their website and across Facebook, but the number of videos are limited and the lack of blog means there aren’t frequent updates with relevant content which benefits SEO, especially when blog articles are picked up by the Google Newsfeed (set up via Google Publisher Centre) driving more traffic to the site. Content shared on social media will direct users to visit the blog where they’ll be introduced to sales funnels and value ladders allowing AI to maximise the value of their online audiences, including those they wouldn’t typically serve.

The time to start developing sales funnels and online content has never been better. AI and other non-essential businesses have been forced to shut for a minimum of 3 weeks in March 2020 but whilst they can’t currently serve their customers during this time, they could be developing digital assets; they should focus their efforts on creating content including training exercises their customers can do from home, or developing an online Ninja athletics course that customers will pay for. They must focus on developing funnels and building value ladders to maximise the value of the assets, considering other ways to monetise their audiences especially during periods of disruption, one way to do this is to model how Shaun T’s Beachbody HIIT Workout program was sold (Appendix G), an automated sales and marketing process using video demonstrations that could be left on repeat with an automated telephone sales line – a more modern approach would have numerous benefits to AI including:

Like Shaun T, AI should automate the sales and delivery processes of the course, investing in video advertising like the infomercials displayed on early hours shopping channels, like QVC, and offering a subscription model for on-demand access to training.

Using funnels, payment gateways, autoresponders and drip marketing tools, the marketing, sales and distribution processes can be automated allowing AI to generate revenues around the clock (Brunson, 2015), this is a huge benefit to organisations disrupted by the government lockdown measures in response to the covid-19 pandemic, it minimises the risk of cashflow disruption (Hall, 2010) by increasing the number of revenue generating opportunities.

Sales Funnel and Value Ladder Integration
Funnel Stage	Ladder Stage Example	Cross/Upsell
Email Signup	Free Guide ‘How to build a home Ninja training facility!’	Equipment/tool sales to build home training facility, assembled equipment (monkey bars, etc)
Small Purchase	Invite to free webinar on the benefits of bodyweight exercises in relation to Ninja training	Upsell to a tailored 3-day video training session (boiler plate – not bespoke)
Large Purchase	Option to purchase full Ninja gym set up with bouldering walls, etc (subject to space allowances)	Assembly and installation of the gym set up
Recurring Purchase	Membership to on demand training service	VIP membership including access to meal plans and affiliate schemes, enabling brand advocates who are willing to purchase the top-priced offers to introduce even more customers to this funnel like clockwork.
Table 2. Example sales funnel and value ladder integration demonstrating how AI may implement sales driving customers to an online Ninja training course. .

As growth accelerates, any unexpected circumstance can impact success as resources need to be prioritised, this increases the importance of sales funnels as, when implemented correctly, are low-cost, high revenue generating assets (Brunson, 2015) – in the case of the coronavirus outbreak, businesses are experiencing disruption to cashflow as they’ve been forced to close (Johnson, 2020), meaning businesses who are already in the process of growing may struggle to furnish new premises due to the costs associated with it, they may be unable to pay staff or find contractors to carry out services and their obligations relating to lease payments may cause significant financial damage to the business as a whole. Having sales funnels generating revenues without relying on being able to physically serve customers on a local level (and nationally as AI continues to expand) due to closures decreases the impact of losing one source of revenue as these losses are offset by other gains.

Sales Funnel and Value Ladder Integration
Funnel Stage	Ladder Stage Example	Cross/Upsell
Email Signup	Free Guide ‘How to Train to be a Ninja!’	Discounted day pass to visit the facility
Small Purchase	Purchase of discounted Family Ticket	Family focused training classes
Large Purchase	Invite to host their next Party at the venue	Out of Hours access at the higher rate
Recurring Purchase	Membership	VIP Membership
Table 3. Example sales funnel and value ladder integration demonstrating how AI may implement a sales funnel intending to acquire new customers locally (or nationally when there are enough locations across the UK to adequately serve all customers entering the funnel .

Using sales funnels that are equipped with analytics software will allow AI to understand where most of their new customers are coming from, this data will provide an indication as to which location may be suitable to expand to. The sales funnel above will be most effective when used by an organisation with several locations around the UK or, for businesses like AI before expanding, when used to attract local residents – this would be achieved through interest-based geographically targeted advertising both online and offline.

By expanding into new locations, AI will see an increase in their bargaining power as supplier influences decreases (Porter, 2004) due to the economies of scale allowing AI to acquire resources at a lower cost, undercut the competition or provide extra value at little extra cost giving a competition advantage over their competitors (Badorf, Wagner, Hoberg & Papier, 2019). As the value offered to customers increase, so could their prices increasing the amount of revenue achieved being careful not to price themselves out of the market.

Continuing the use of social media, focusing on videa and sharing relevant content will benefit AI as video is the most effective content type on social (Hutchinson, 2016; Barnhart, 2017). However, they let themselves down by not optimising videos for search. The absence of SEO in video descriptions (Appendix A.12) and other content descriptions means these pieces of content aren’t showing up in search when people are searching for specific content – search engines cannot interpret video (Moz, n.d.; Wilson, 2017). Another social recommendation is the migration toward branded profiles, instead of using personal accounts – this increases trust and opens the business up to more tools relevant to managing their business (Allton, 2013).

Future Recommendations

  As AI expands, they must bear in mind the risks their current operations present. For example, two breaches of the Data Protection Act 2018 have been identified (Appendix A.9 & F) relating to AI in that they have no registration with the enforcement body relating to the processing of their customers data and that their website is insecure whilst requesting personally identifiable information from individuals putting their customers at risk of having their data intercepted and used to steal their identity or sold on to undesirable third parties. The fines associated with this are 4% of annual turnover or €20million (£equivalent), whichever is higher (ICO, n.d.) – clearly, this would impede any small business’ growth plans by eliminating their cash resources preventing them from covering the costs of expansion. Therefore, AI urgently have to secure their website using an SSL certificate and explain to customers how their data will be processed and ensure their registration with the ICO is up to date. This will improve trust and therefore loyalty to the brand (Sheung, 2015) as customers will feel their data and privacy are taken seriously. Using a platform like WordPress would make it easier to manage their website, SEO and add structure through the use of themes and plugins.

  With their expansion, undesirable characters may want to harm the brand (deliberately or inadvertently). AI have no ownership of .com, .co.uk or .net domain names – in fact, all of these are taken and parked or used by companies overseas providing a similar service (Appendix A.11), owning domain name variations will increase brand authority and reinforce brand identity (Pinsky, 2018), customers would be forgiven for not being aware of the little-used extension “.rocks” and instead visit “.net” where they’re greeted with a US company that clearly doesn’t operate in the UK – the customer will likely feel they made a mistake and discount AI from their thoughts in future, not realising two different organisations with the same name, similar value offering and similar domain names exist.

  Finally, when it comes to expansion, it is important to consider the method of expansion; will they open new premises that are owned and operated directly by AI or offer licenses to franchisees sacrificing some control over the brand but requiring significantly fewer resources over time (Franchise Direct, n.d.) as they do not have to purchase/lease premises themselves? This can be delegated to the franchisees, alongside fit–out costs and local marketing activities minimising expansion costs (Siebert, 2005), the savings could be invested in advertising to potential franchisees. They lose a degree of control as the management of individual locations is up to the franchisee, subject to license conditions, which increases the risk burdened by AI; joint liability often arises between franchisor and franchisee, especially with respect of employment and staff training where franchisee and franchisor face joint-liability (Siebert, 2019) and reputational damage resulting from franchisees who aren’t as committed to maintaining a positive brand image as the franchisor or other franchisees. However, if they expand without franchising, they risk cashflow and resources becoming more difficult to manage as growth accelerates and volatility increases (Coad, Frankish, Roberts & Storey, 2016) with the distribution of resources between multiple locations instead of one.

Summary/Conclusion

  This report analysed AI and their competitors, as well as the sector they belong to, ascertaining the most effective growth strategy and making recommendations on how to achieve this, from changes to their website and SEO strategy to improve their visibility online (Lines, 2014) to the further develop of content and social media marketing in an effort to drive traffic to funnels to increase sales channels and revenues (as well as allowing customers easy access to important information, including contact details) whilst considering the risks AI are currently taking with regard to how these risks become greater as AI grows.

Overall, Ape Index are in a strong competitive position and have the capabilities to grow without significant financial outlay until they need to expand to new locations. Maximising the revenue opportunities of online audiences and developing a strong content marketing strategy to introduce customers to funnels enabling relationship development and new revenues to be generated through selling information products, including training courses, eBooks and guides will enable them to sustain growth, minimising some of the risks associated with growth by maintaining economies of scale, replacing the added expenses of expansion with the revenue generated from other products sold via funnels.

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Appendix

Appendix A: Analysis

1: Website Copy

Text dense webpages aren’t so effective. A lot of the content could be placed elsewhere and does not need to be displayed on the home page.

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2: Menu & Services

Users of the website have to scroll down to view what Ape Index does and what they offer. Users will be unlikely to see this important information if they’re skim reading or scanning a page for specific information. The text explaining what they do isn’t prominent, the lack of these keywords in headings misses key SEO opportunities (see keyword density below).

Menu doesn’t feature a contact option, the website doesn’t prominantly display contact information which lowers customer trust.

3: Keyword Density

Keyword density X1/X2 refers to the number of words used in a keyword term. It is evident the website isn’t optimised for search engine rankings.

Ape Index do not feature any keywords prominently and therefore fail to rank on search engines like Google (see Search Engine Results for results based on keywords Ape Index should increase the density of to rank higher). For example, increasing the density of the term “Ape Index” which is mentioned three times on the homepage would likely have a more positive on SEO than mentioning the term “opening hours” five times. Likewise, “please” is featured more prominently than “climbing”, “gym” or training. Leicester is barely mentioend at all meaning local SEO is less effective than it should be for a local business.

4: Search Engine Results (Google)

“Ninja warrior training” features numerous articles on “how to be a ninja”, a category Ape Index could become the authority on by continuing to develop their content marketing strategy. The use of search ads will introduce new customers who are searching for ninja training to funnels, developing their loyalty and value.

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Only two listings on Google for “Boulder Climbing”, for Ape Index to not feature here is missing out on prime search engine real estate, especially when they’re not on the first page of Google (see below) – Google My Business could be their golden ticket to the top of page one of the search results under what should be their most prominent keyword.

Ape Index doesn’t feature in Google Business listings under this keyword and doesn’t make it into the top ten search results (it’s the 11^th result, usually found on the second page of results).

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5: Confusing Call-to-Action

The CTA isn’t distinguished enough to be effective. It looks like the element has been duplicated by accident. The sub-text is far too small to be able to see properly.

6: Website isn’t built for mobile-first

7: Use of mobile number as primary contact method

The first contact method displayed is a mobile number, decreasing trust.

8: Footer

Lacking a clear footer means important information cannot be displayed easily on all relevant pages, including opening times,

9: Insecure website

Personal data at risk, breaching Data Protection Act 2018 – Booking page collects personal data, an insecure website means this data could be intercepted resulting in lower customer trust and a risk of substantial fines which could impede their growth by costing them resources and bad publicity.

10: Booking Form

Booking form isn’t user-friendly. For example, it asks for mobile number AND email address, this doesn’t follow the usual data-capture format where email and mobile number are captured in separate form fields. Form logic would clear up a lot of usability issues, where the age range of participants, if below 16 would display relevant questions. “Who is the party/event for, and their age if U16” is confusing, do they want to know who the party if for if they are under 16 years old, or just their ages if they are under 16 years old?

The submit button states “Save”, but this would mislead customers into thinking this would save it to the timetable above the form. Most customers would not want their details, or the details of their children, published on a timetable publicly available on the internet. “Submit” would be more appropriate.

There is also no privacy policy, which is a common norm online and a legal requirement to explain to customers how their data will be used again decreasing trust.

There is also no notification of where the classes are held on the booking page, no address, contact number or any contact information whatsoever on this page.

Their waiver form, which you have to fill in (though no notice of this is made on the booking form) if someone books onto a class or event that they’ll be participating in, requests enough personal data that a person could intercept and steal the identity of the customer filling the form in. Again, decreasing trust. There is no notice as to how their data will be used and there is an absence of privacy policy or terms of use.

Ultimately, the organisation looks unprofessional as a result of their online shop window.

11: Domain Name

Apeindex.com has already been purchased by someone else, putting Ape Index at risk of damage to their reputation by customers mistaking this domain for their domain. It appears to be the same for Apeindex.co.uk.

Apeindex.net is a more developed, professional looking website for an Arizona based company who provide similar services and events.

12: Social

The YouTube links featured on the Ape Index window direct the user to a personal YouTube account, instead of a brand YouTube account. The YouTube channel neglects to use the descriptions to their full effect in relation to SEO – without an adequate description, users searching for this video will not find it, which could explain why they’ve only achieve 319 views on this video in over four years.

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12.2 Facebook

This is the only reference to any social channels found on the homepage (and website in general). The website has no social icons.

Their Facebook page lacks their logo as a profile picture, making it difficult to differentiate them immediately from any other rock-climbing gym in Leicester.

They have a strong community on Facebook, driven through regular updates and relevant contents. The majority of recent posts feature video, one of the most successful media types on Facebook (Hutchinson, 2016).

Facebook Search Results for “Ape Index”

There is no way to tell which listing is a rock–climbing gym in Leicester. The profile picture of the correct result isn’t immediately identifiable as a climbing wall, instead, the listing below it features someone climbing a wall so people would be more likely to visit this result instead of Ape Index Leicester. To list Ape Index as a sporting event is incorrect too, it is not an event, it should be listed as a gym or local business. Their overseas doppelganger specifically identifies themselves as a “rock climbing gym” and their location, something Leicester’s Ape Index completely neglects. This eliminates opportunities for Ape Index to maximise reach across social media.

12.3 Twitter

A company in Arizona has the same name and similar set-up. They appear unrelated to Ape Index Leicester. Nigel Leeming’s Twitter account, which features Ape Index in their handle, has not branded or developed this social media network, missing out on exposure to new customers.

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Appendix D: Limited Press Exposure

Ape Index only have one feature in any press publication online that is prominently displayed. The majority of 3^rd party sites mentioning Ape Index are review sites, including Trip Advisor

Appendix E: Ape Index Leicester’s logo compared to Ape Index Arizona’s logo

(Ape Index Arizona (Centre and Right) appear to use two logos)

Appendix F: ICO Registration

Ape Index lack any ICO registration. This is another breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). It is important to be compliant with data protection legislation (including GDPR), especially as the business grows where the risk of being ‘caught out’ by the ICO (enforcement body of the DPA).

Appendix G: Shaun T’s Insanity Beach Body HIIT Workout

Shaun T has specialised in fitness info/training products for several years, Ape Index may find benefits in following suit, especially during the coronavirus epidemic where customers are unable to use the facilities. Video Ninja training courses would enable Ape Index to serve customers where business is interrupted due to national emergency measures.

Infomercial Stills

Source: Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GchiVhhjKGo & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTEDDmCjd1k

It is not expected that the DVD offer shown above will still be available, the product appears to have been developed into an ‘on demand’ subscription service (below)

Beach Body on Demand Subscription Options

Source: https://www.beachbodyondemand.com/plans/offers_bb

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Appendix H: Advertising competing businesses on their own website

Source: http://apeindex.rocks/leicestergyms/default.html