What am I doing wrong halp pls

brain.txt

Zetagym are going to open a new gym in either Donton or Longley. Before Zetagym makes a decision, they need to carry out market research in that area. This is very important for a business like Zetagym, as the need to find out that their potential consumers in the area want from a gym. They need to know customer opinions about the other gyms in the area, so they can setup competitive pricing options accordingly in order to successfully compete with the other gyms.
There are two types of research Zetagym could carry out. Primary Research is when a business makes a survey and / or interviews people in order to gain opinions from their potential consumer base. Secondary Research is when a company carries out internet research and / or research from the library. Primary research is more expensive to carry out, however this shouldn't be a problem for Zetagym, as they are a national company. Also, the data that is collected from the primary research will be relevant to Zetagym. Secondary research is the exact opposite. It's very cheap and easy to carry out as you can just do it at a desk; however the data you collect is not likely to be relevant to the gym industry.
Although Zetagym has carried out some secondary research on the area, such as population and average annual income (see sheet A, Fig 1), they haven't carried out any primary research, which is essential in order to find out what the potential customers want.  I have designed a questionnaire they could use in order to carry out detailed market research (See fig 28). I have used this questionnaire, with the quota sampling technique to select a group of 100 people to reflect the total population. (see fig 29). For example, I asked 65 males and 35 females to represent Zetagym's target market. My primary research is also relevant. For example, I know there are 36 people who would want a free trial before they commit to a gym membership. Without this more detailed research Zetagym is asking me to make a decision on the location without an understanding of all the finer details.
The secondary research they carried out isn't very detailed, only containing information such as socio-economic group, and population figures. The secondary research I carried out, although not relevant to Donton or Longley, contains details not only on my local area, such as population and income, but also details on the competing gyms in Harrogate. The main method of research I carried out was internet research, but I also could have gone into a gym and asked. I feel that zetagym should have also looked into the pricing of the competing gyms in the Donton / Longley area.
In order for Zetagym to best target their consumer base, whey will need to segment the market. This allows them to target the right products at the right type of person. For example, Zetagym wants to expand their "extreme fitness" plan targeted at 18 – 30 year olds, not 30+ people, who are more suited for the "slimfit" plan. Zetagym also needs to target people likely to have disposable income, so the need to target Socio-economic groups A, B and C1.
Sheet 1, Fig 1, shows some research that Zetagym has carried out about the percentage of people in the different socio-economic groups. It appears that Donton has a higher percentage of people in Zetagym's target socio-economic groups than Longley. However, since Longley has a higher population, this means that actually, Longley has a larger amount of people in those socio-economic groups – 88,500 vs. Donton's 78,000.  
In order to recommend Zetagym a location for the new gym, I will need to compare the 2 locations with the data Zetagym has collected. I shall do this by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of both locations. Then I will come to a conclusion based on this analysis.
One of the key advantages of setting up a gym in Donton is that the average annual income of Donton is £4000 higher than Longley. This means that potentially more consumers could afford the more expensive gym packages Zetagym might offer, such as personal training, more expensive gym memberships, and the purchase of extra products and drugs, due to the fact that gym memberships are a luxury item, the extra £4000 average income a month might be key in this recession.  However, due to the fact that Longley has a large amount of people in socio-economic group C, this could have an impact on pure visitor numbers. A chain gym needs a significantly higher turnover than an independent gym to support market campaigns and higher overheads. Longley can supply this demand. 
Another advantage of setting up in Donton is that there are less gyms in Donton – according to fig 1, there are only 3 gyms, compared to Longley's 5. This means that Zetagym will have fewer gyms to compete with. However since all 3 of the gyms in Donton are national chain gyms, this could mean that it is harder to compete, they might already have a good reputation in Donton, making it harder for Zetagym to break into the Donton market. Longley, however, only has one chain gym, and the other 4 are independent gyms.  This will make it easier for Zetagym to compete in Longley – the smaller gyms for likely to have fewer facilities to choose from and a lower quality of service than Zetagym. Zetagym will also have a better reputation,  being a national chain gym.
However, an advantage of Longley is that it has a higher amount of people in Zetagym's target socio-economic groups than Donton. I used the data Zetagym collected to work out that the amount of people in socio-economic groups A, B and C1 is 85,500. This is 10,500 more than the Donton's 75000 people. This is very important to Zetagym – that's over 10,000 people that could be a potential customer at Zetagym.  Although it's likely not all of them would want to go to a gym, it's still a large amount of potential fitness users.
Longley also has a higher overall population than Donton – 30,000 more to be exact. This means Zetagym has a much larger potential consumer base – this is a huge advantage for Longley. It means there are more potential customers, even if Zetagym doesn't currently target some of them, I'm sure Zetagym could try and get more sales by offering a budget plan for the 43,500 people in socio-economic group C2. Also, the Longley market has a higher projected population growth than Longley, which means that in the future Zetagym could have even more customers.                                                                       However, projected population figures can be inaccurate and is guesswork based off past population growth, so I don't think Zetagym should make a decision based on projected figures.
However, the information given to me by Zetagym is rather unclear. Foe example,  the age ranges given are rather vague - the 20-29 age range is a much smaller range than 30-59, surely it would be more beneficial for Zetagym to have the same size age ranges. It also isn't clear what Zetagyms definition of "old" is, even though they have mentioned they are hoping to expand into the older market.. I don't know whether they are targeting 50+ people or 60+people.If it's 60+ then Longley has a clear advantage over Donton.
With all this taken into consideration, I feel Zetagym should target Longley as the location for the new Zetagym. There are many reasons for this. The main one is that Longley has a every high amount of people in socio-economic groups A, B and C1, meaning a larger potential market. Longley also has less chain gyms operating in the area. This all means that it is very likely Zetagym will succeed in Longley.
It is important that Zetagym sets the right price when it locates a new gym in a new area. People's opinion of a business can change depending on the pricing used. For example, if the price is too high, people might not be able to afford the membership and will just go to a competing gym. If the membership price is too low, then people will associate Zetagym with low quality. This will not suit the Harrogate market, as Harrogate is an affluent area. I found out in my research that workers in Harrogate, on average, earn about £450 a week (Summer Research, fig 2). This is only £50 less than the current national average. This means that the Harrogate population is perfectly capable of affording a gym membrship.
Zetagym needs to consider a variety of factors when deciding upon a pricing strategy for the Harrogate market. For example, Zetagym has 65 gyms in country. This makes them a very large and reputable company. This means they could charge higher prices due to its brand awareness. However, there is quite a bit of competition in Harrogate. I discovered that there are at least 11 gyms in Harrogate (Summer research, fig 6). This means Zetagym will have to price its products to compete with the current gyms in Harrogate. 
There are other things Zetagym will have to consider. For example, Zetagym will have to consider the large costs necessary for the process of building and setting up a new gym. Buying all the equipment for the new gym will cost a lot of money – a commercial rowing machine costs around £1,150, and Zetagym will be buying at least 10 of those for its new gym. Zetagym will have to price its services so it can make its money back. 
Another thing that might affect Zetagyms pricing is the demand in Harrogate for gyms. As 62% of Harrogate is aged 16-65, which is Zetagyms target age range (see Summer Research, fig 1), there should be plenty of demand in Harrogate for a new gym. However, as I noted earlier, the competition in Harrogate is high – this could mean the demand is already covered. If this is the case, Zetagym will have to use a pricing strategy to make customers switch.
One of the pricing strategies Zetagym could use is premium pricing. This is where Zetagym would purposefully charge higher prices. Harrogate is an affluent area – this means many people will have disposable income to spend on things like gym membership. Zetagym could charge a premium for some of its products. In order for this to work, Zetagym will have to use high quality gym equipment – people won't pay more unless they know where the extra costs are being spent. For example, the review of Harrogate gyms I found said that Gambaru fitness lacked a pool (see Summer Research, fig 8). However, if the products offered are inferior to the competitors' products, then charging a higher price will just drive people away. This strategy is easier for Zetagym as it is a well-known brand, and therefore a positive reputation.
Another pricing strategy Zetagym could use is Competitive pricing. This is where Zetagym charges their services to match the prices of the competition. This would be an ideal pricing strategy to use. Zetagym could charge its prices accordingly to compete with the major gyms in Harrogate. For example, Nuffield, one of the current chain gyms in Harrogate, charges £65 a month, whilst the Hydro, the council run swimming pool and gym, costs £47 a month. (Summer research, fig 29). Zetagym could price its monthly membership price at £55 a month. This is £10 cheaper than Nuffield, and slightly more expensive than the Hydro offering. Since Zetagym should be able to offer a higher quality of service than the Hydro, and a cheaper service than Nuffield. This will hopefully attract people to Zetagym.
Zetagym could also use differential pricing to price its products according to the person purchasing the products. For example, it could offer discounts to students, as they might want to go to the gym, but may not have the funds for a full price membership. As they are also trying to target older people with its "Slim-Fit" plan, Zetagym could also offer discounts for people over 40. As an example, Gambaru gives an £8 discount for couples if they go together (Summer research, fig 10).
Zetagym should also consider using Promotional Pricing with its new Harrogate branch. A lot of the gyms in Harrogate use promotions to entice people in. For example, Beckwith Health Club allows a friend to use the facilities for a reduced price of only £8 (see Summer Research, fig 27). Zetagym could utilise promotions such as this to get new customers in. For example, my primary research shows that people would like a month's trial period. I feel this pricing strategy will 
However, I feel that Zetagym shouldn't use penetration pricing. This is when Zetagym comes into the market at a really low price to entice customers in. This could have the opposite effect in Harrogate. As it's an affluent area, you often find more upmarket shops rather than cheap "Pound stores." If Zetagym came into Harrogate with very low prices, this could put people off as low prices are often associated with low quality. 
The product life cycle is the various stages that a product goes through, and the pricing strategy that Zetagym uses for a product will change over the course of this cycle. When Zetagym first introduces a product, it will most likely use cost-plus pricing to try and get the money back from investment in that new plan. Then, as people start using it and it goes into growth, they might start offering promotions, such as discounts for friends in order to get even more people using this new fitness plan. Then as interest drops off as everyone interested in the plan might be using it, Zetagym could start charging less.
I have designed a leaflet with some pricings on that Zetagym could use in the Harrogate area. I have priced the plans at a suitable price for the Harrogate area. For example, the cost of a monthly membership is £55 – this is in line with the current competition in Harrogate (See Summer Research, fig 29). And people are prepared to pay this – 48 people said they would pay £30 for a membership in my primary research. I have also used promotional pricing – you can bring a friend for only £6, which is cheaper than the competition. Students and over 40's can also get a 10% discount, all they need to bring is some identification to prove they're a student or over 40.
It's quite likely that the prices Zetagym uses won't be permanent – if anything, they will change over time due to a variety of factors. For example, local economic conditions could affect it – if unemployment in Harrogate was to rise due to a number of businesses closing, there will be less people able to afford a gym membership – Zetagym will have to compensate for this. Or, employment could rise, meaning more people can go to Zetagym and the prices might even increase slightly. 
Another thing affecting the pricing of Zetagym is inflation and interest rates. If interest rates increase, people will be paying more on their loans, bills and mortgages. This means people will have less disposable income, and may cancel gym memberships. Zetagym will have to adjust any pricing to compensate for this.
A large factor that is very likely to happen is if competitors change their pricings to compete with Zetagym better. For example, one of the local gyms could start offering vouchers in the local newspaper for 50% off the first 6 months. Zetagym will need to adjust to compete with an offer like that. If the competitors change their prices, then Zetagym will have to react to this. If competitor prices go up, Zetagym could make their prices slightly cheaper to entice customers in.
Pricing is important to all business in relation to the 4 P's – Pricing, Promotion, Product, and Place. The quality of the product affects the price, as higher quality products mean a greater price. A higher price can also mean that the products are of higher quality. The consumer might think the services offered are better than the competitors.
The location of the gym affects price too – if the gym is in an affluent area where people are likely to see Zetagym, the land rent will be high, increasing the price. However, if lots of people can get to Zetagym because the area is easily accessible, the price might be lowered slightly as Zetagym knows people will come.
The way Zetagym promotes itself will also affect the price. As Zetagym is a national firm, it will have to pay for national advertisements, such as any TV advertisements, online advertisements, or a website. This will increase the price. Local promotions, such as the "bring a friend" promotion will also affect the price – the friend only has to pay £6. All of these are important to Zetagym, which is why it needs to have the correct pricing strategy.
Zetagym need to consider its product mix when opening a gym in Harrogate. The product mix is the range of products and services	 that Zetagym sells so that they can appeal to different people, interests, and budgets so it can appeal to the mass market, for example by offering saunas, weights, and supplementary proteins. As a large company, Zetagym relies on large customer numbers rather than niche market appeal.
It is important that Zetagym should have a varied product mix. If Zetagym has a wide product mix, it means they can reach a wider target market. This will allow them to stand out from the other competitors in the Harrogate market, this is very important in the Harrogate area as it is a very saturated market gym wise (Summer research, fig 6).  They should try to find a product mix that includes a USB to differentiate themselves from Nuffield.
Zetagyms current product mix is quite varied. They offer an "extreme" fitness plan for those who may want to become "superfit." They also offer a "slimfit" plan for the older men and women who wish to get a little fitter and lose some weight. They also provide personal trainers for the people on the "extreme fitness" campaign. They will also provide fitness classes, however they don't specify that in the briefing. 
One of the things Zetagym wants to increase should it move to Harrogate is the amount of personal trainers it employs in order to expand it's extreme fitness plan. I feel that they should increase the amount of personal trainers should they come to Harrogate. There are many advantages and disadvantages of doing this. 
One of the main advantages of doing this is that Zetagym has had experience and success in this area. Zetagym told me in their brief that they have had results when designing individual plans for the "extreme fitness" plan. They also have over 65 gyms in the UK, meaning their firm must be successful. This also means that they clearly know how to design a personal training plan,  and should therefore invest in it further. No new skills will be needed for Zetagym to invest in this.
There is also a clear interest for "extreme fitness" in the Harrogate area. There is a company based in Harrogate that run military fitness training sessions on the stray,  and it appears to be very popular (Summer research, fig 30). This, coupled with the fact that Harrogate is an affluent area,  so people are likely to be able to afford it,  means that the "extreme fitness"  plan is likely to achieve success in the Harrogate market. Zetagym will need a well thought out strategy because of the saturated market. Their size and scale does make it somewhat easier to enter a competitive market.
Its also very likely that people will pay for the personal training. When I was carrying out my survey, I found out that 72 people out of the 100 I asked would pay extra for personal training. Furthermore, 68 people would be interested in a tailored fitness program akin to Zetagym's extreme fitness plan, however Zetagym needs to convert this interest into bookings. (Primary Research Data, fig 8 and fig 9). Also, Andy Hawkswell gave us a talk on his personal training business. There are apparently 45 personal trainers in Harrogate. This is a large number, so there is clearly a demand in Harrogate.  (Powerpoint Printoffs, slide 5).  This means that the demand in harrogate is there, and therefore Zetagym might find success.
There are a couple of disadvantages to this. One of the main ones is that it will increase the amount Zetagym has to pay in wages.  This will increase the prices the customer will have to pay.  This might put consumers off going to Zetagym as the prices could end up being too high. However, because Harrogate is an affluent area, people should be able to afford it.
Another disadvantage is that interest might not be converted to sales in Harrogate. This will mean there will be a lot of staff with relatively little,  if anything, to do. This will not only demotivate the staff,  but if anyone comes to look at Zetagym and finds demotivated staff,  it might put them off Zetagym,  giving it a bad name. A solution to this could be to allow independent instructors to use the Zetagym facilities. Zetagym could charge them for this privilege.
I therefore feel that Zetagym should employ more personal trainers should they come to Harrogate. I feel that the advantages,  such a large interest in extreme fitness in Harrogate and Zetagyms experience in the market, far outweigh the risks. The employment issues could easily be dealt with with the use of temporary staff contracts.
Zetagym are also looking to the amount of fitness plans for older clients. They have already been successful in individual plans for their extreme fitness customers, and it is starting to see growth in its slimfit plan too, which is aimed at older men and women, typically over 30, who wish to get a little fitter and lose weight. I feel this will be very successful in Harrogate. there are a number of reasons for this.
The main reason that Zetagym should extend its slimfit plan is that it will cost very little to setup. As they won't need to buy any specialist equipment or hire very many specialist staff, the low costs to expand it mean interest margins will be little.
Another reason for expanding the slimfit plan is that a high proportion of Zetagym's target market is actually of the right age for the slimfit plan. Assuming the age range the slimfit plan is aimed at is 30-55, this is a high proportion of Zetagyms 16-55 target age range, about 64% to be exact. This means that more people will potentially go for the slimfit plan than the "extreme fitness" plan. This will be beneficial for Zetagym as it means that the class uptake will be strong.
Furthermore, it is often the case that younger people can figure out what they need to get fit without help from a gym. For older people, this might not be the case. They might need some specialist help and direction on what they need to do when they go to a gym. By offering a service that gives them direction, such as the "slimfit" plan, Zetagym could gain and retain those customers.
I feel that extending the slimfit plan is one of Zetagyms best options. Not only will extending the slimfit plan one of the cheapest options, because Harrogate has an aging population, it could also potentially be one of the most profitable because of this. Due to this, I therefore highly recommend extending the slimfit plan.
Zetagym is also considering selling fitness supplies and equipment at its gyms. I do not feel it should sell gym equipment, however selling fitness products could potentially be an interesting venture.
There would be a couple advantages of selling equipment. If Zetagym was to sell fitness equipment in its gyms, then that might be more convenient for Zetagyms customers. Furthermore, as Zetagym is a gym it is quite likely they could recommend the right product for the right person.
There are quite a few people who would buy supplements from Zetagym. 32 people said they would buy weights, whilst 24 people said they would buy protein powders (Primary Research Data,  fig 10). 
I however do not feel that Zetagym should sell equipment such as treadmills or rowing machines. For Zetagym, it is almost impossible for them to compete with online retailers in terms of price. Online retailers can sell fitness equipment at cheaper prices as they do not have to pay for premises. Zetagym has premises to pay for. In an economic recession such as this, people are more likely to purchase from the online store due to the discount compared to the prices Zetagym could sell at.
I therefore feel that Zetagym, if they decide to extend into selling products, should sell a wide variety of fitness products, such as protein powders, vitamin supplements, and specialist fitness clothing. In order to keep the prices of these products down as much as possible, they should try and buy the products directly from the wholesaler. This will allow them to cut costs by cutting out any "middleman."
I feel that Zetagym could go for this, but it would be a large risk. By selling the products mentioned above, they will be able to get some extra income alongside the gym business. It would however, be a big risk. The interest might not be big enough to warrant selling the mentioned products, and most people might potentially buy them online. However, Zetagym might have an advantage over online stores as the consumer can get the products immediately if they brought them in the gym.
To conclude, I feel that in the short term, Zetagym should definitely extend its slimfit plan once it opens its gym in Harrogate. Harrogate's aging population might want to get a little thinner, so they will be interested in a gym plan for older people. Its quite likely that older people will also tell their friends about Zetagym in a conversation. This is good for Zetagym as its basically free advertising. This will mean that in the long term, extending the slimfit plan in Harrogate will yield quite a bit of profit.
Once Zetagym has their foot firmly in the Harrogate market, they could then extend their personal trainers. As mentioned earlier, there is a large demand for personal trainers in Harrogate. This means the personal trainers would be popular. However, the initial outlay for hiring personal trainers and paying for them will cost Zetagym a lot of money. This is why I feel Zetagym should only extend personal trainers once they are more established in Harrogate.
I do not feel that Zetagym should try and sell gym equipment. It is too much of a risk to sell gym equipment as people could buy them for cheaper online, meaning any equipment they buy to sell might just get wasted. Also, people might not want to purchase gym equipment if they already have a gym membership, as they can use the equipment at the gym. Zetagym might however find success in selling protein powders and other fitness products. I feel Zetagym should only start selling fitness products once they are well established in Harrogate.
The Markov Chain algorithm is an entertaining way of taking existing texts, and sort of mixing them up. The basic premise is that for every pair of words in your text, there are some set of words that follow those words. What we effectively do is for every pair of words in the text, record the word that comes after it into a list in a dictionary. Then we "regenerate" the file by taking the two current words, and randomly selecting a word to follow from the appropriate list.
The algorithm as it stands works quite well for large texts, although you're more likely to hit up against the 10000 maximum word counter. I've tested this myself on the text of Les Miserables (from Project Gutenberg), and it took about 30 seconds to read and generate an output file.
One problem with this particular algorithm is it prints out each word on one line. It's simple enough to write a program to print out the text more prettily, but it's uninportant for the main algorithm.
The basic structure of the algorithm was taken from an example in the book "The Practice of Programming" by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike, but was originally written in Perl. I wrote this implementation partially because I liked the algorithm, but also to prove to myself that the algorithm could be written easily in Python too. The ability to use tuples as keys into a dict really make the code look cleaner than the Perl equivalent.

error.txt

C:\Users\Ryan\SkyDrive\python>c:\Python27\python.exe markov.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "markov.py", line 45, in <module>
    create_chain_from_file(braaaaaains)
  File "markov.py", line 24, in create_chain_from_file
    table.setdefault( (w1, w2), [] ).append(word)
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'w1' referenced before assignment

markov.py

from __future__ import with_statement
import random
import sys

stopword = "\n" # Since we split on whitespace, this can never be a word
stopsentence = (".", "!", "?",) # Cause a "new sentence" if found at the end of a word
sentencesep  = "\n" #String used to seperate sentences
braaaaaains = ("C:\\Users\\Ryan\\SkyDrive\\python\\brain.txt",)

# GENERATE TABLE
w1 = stopword
w2 = stopword
table = {}
maxsentences  = 5

def create_chain_from_file(files):
    global w1, w2
    for path in files:
        with open(path) as file: 
            for line in file:
                for word in line.split():
                    if word[-1] in stopsentence:
                        table.setdefault( (w1, w2), [] ).append(word[0:-1])
                        w1, w2 = w2, word[0:-1]
                        word = word[-1]
                    table.setdefault( (w1, w2), [] ).append(word)
                    w1, w2 = w2, word
            table.setdefault( (w1, w2), [] ).append(stopword)
     
def construct_sentence():
    sentencecount = 0
    sentence = []
    global w1, w2
    #note replace lessthan with the symbol
    # I was having trouble with aspn commets
    while sentencecount < maxsentences:
        newword = random.choice(table[(w1, w2)])
        if newword == stopword: sys.exit()
        if newword in stopsentence:
            print "%s%s%s" % (" ".join(sentence), newword, sentencesep)
            sentence = []
            sentencecount += 1
        else:
            sentence.append(newword)
        w1, w2 = w2, newword
    
create_chain_from_file(braaaaaains)
construct_sentence()