Waikato Commerce Club was founded in the heart of Hamilton in 1937. And it was a popular place for people to go and relax at that moment. At present, Waikato Commerce Club is facing the problems of member losing, financial difficulty and attracting people. For these reasons, the project is aimed at identifying the reasons why members leave club, and how the club marketing itself, and strategies to retaining current club members.
Primary and secondary research methods are used for this study. Questionnaire is used as primary research in this project, and the questionnaire is structured as it gives quantitative information. The survey is conducted to identify if people knows the existing of Waikato Commerce Club, and whether or not they are interested in the Club. For secondary research, the researcher collected data from a range of sources including online document, websites articles, and the previous survey on club members which is conducted by Waikato Commerce Club. This research is conducted to gain more marketing skills, and find out the more information about running a successful club, the reasons why members leave club.
The data from the survey had not been calculated and analysed yet as the data had just been collected. But the answered questionnaire had been viewed roughly, there are not many people (participants) have heard about the Waikato Commerce Club, and only a few people are interested in the Club. From literature review, Enrmann (2008) states that many clubs are in the situation that has a turnover rate of 15 – 20% per year. And at a typical club or association, 5% of members run the club and show up for almost every event; another 15% of members regularly participate, another 20% occasionally participate; and the remaining 60% never show up for anything. But literature also reviewed that some examples of successful club. Waikato Commerce Club is one of the typical clubs. As these reasons, it is necessary to understand why the club experience this situation, and what marketing strategies are feasible for the club.