ARTICLE IN PRESS

Hospitality Management 26 (2007) 957–973

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Comparing nightclub customers’ preferences in

existing and emerging markets
Krzysztof Kubackia,, Heather Skinnerb, Scott Parfittb, Gloria Mossb
a
School of Economic and Management Studies, Chancellor’s Building,
Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
b
Business School, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, CF37 1DL, Wales, UK

Abstract

This research aims to compare the needs of nightclub and bar customers from two very different
markets—the existing and well-established British late-night economy and emerging and developing
Polish market by examining customer preferences towards the servicescape and service offerings
provided by such venues in both countries. The findings point to the significant similarities and
differences between British and Polish club goers, indicating the importance of various elements of
the servicescape in influencing customer decisions to enter a venue. These findings can assist
mainstream venues in the UK and Poland improve their competitive position by understanding and
then providing both groups of customers with service offerings that match their preferences.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Servicescape; Nightclubs; Customer attitudes; United Kingdom; Poland; Students

1. Background

Reflecting changes that have been evident in the West in recent years the emphasis in
Poland, since the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, has shifted away from heavy
industries towards service economies (Berg et al., 1995; Lennon and Seaton, 1998;
Grönroos, 2000). Both economic and cultural changes gave rise to a new mass
phenomenon in Poland—nightlife. Iwona (2003), investigating the emerging clubbing

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1782 583099.

E-mail addresses: k.kubacki@mngt.keele.ac.uk (K. Kubacki), hskinner@glam.ac.uk (H. Skinner),
sparfitt@glam.ac.uk (S. Parfitt), gmoss@glam.ac.uk (G. Moss).

0278-4319/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2006.12.002
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culture in Poland (described in Polish as ‘klabing’), found that most of her Polish
respondents believed that the best pubs and clubs were located in the ‘‘British Isles’’. The
United Kingdom was perceived amongst Polish pubs and club goers as a source of new
trends and fashion, and therefore preferences of Polish customers may evolve in the near
future to closely mirror those of their British counterparts. It is therefore envisaged that
further development of a relatively new Polish hospitality industry may be heavily
influenced over the next years by the British market.
This research therefore aims to compare the needs of nightclubs and bars customers
from two different markets—the well-established and long running British late-night
economy, which is held in high esteem by customers of the emerging and developing Polish
market. Although there is much literature on general issues surrounding the servicescape in
the hospitality industry in the UK (Jones et al., 2003; Clarke et al., 1998; Skinner et al.,
2005), this paper attempts to ascertain which factors are truly key in customer decision
making in both studied countries. For the purpose of this research Mintel’s (2002)
definition of nightclubs was used, which described them as ‘‘permanent club/discos venues
offering dancing, which would normally charge an admission and whose primary business
activity is as a nightclub’’. That definition was further extended in 2003 (Mintel) to include
‘‘youth-dominated town centre superpubs, pub–restaurants, late-night bars with some
nightclub characteristics, and chameleon bars, changing their character during the hours of
opening to suit a changing customer mix’’.

1.1. Late-night economy

A report by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission in the late 1980s brought an end
to the situation that had developed whereby the market for beer in the UK was dominated
by six national brewers who accounted for 75% of all UK beer production, controlled just
over half of all public houses, and a substantial proportion of off-licence sales. Referred to
as the ‘‘Beer Orders’’, this legislation which required all brewers who owned more than
2000 on-licensed premises to dispose of their breweries or release from their ties one-half of
on-licensed premises above the 2000 threshold by November 1992, was revoked in 2003 as
structural changes in the industry have made the regulations obsolete and irrelevant to the
contemporary licenses trade in the UK (House of Commons Trade and Industry
Committee, 2004). However, as the on-licensed pub trade has experienced structural shifts,
so has the city centre club and bar market. In 2005 a management buyout of one of the key
players in the market, Luminar’s Enterprise Division, resulted in the CanDu Entertain-
ment Group Ltd. becoming the UK’s second largest independent nightclub operator.
However, this still gives the company only 29 nightclubs and 20 high street bars across the
UK (Close Brothers Private Equity LLP, 2005), which is a very small proportion of the
entire mainstream city centre pub, club and bar market. Moreover, as the boundaries
continue to blur between pubs, nightclubs and bars, particularly with recent UK legislation
extending opening hours across all sectors of the industry, there is also evidence that the
training that employees can expect to get, and levels of customer service provided, is
governed more by the individual employer than the type of licensed premises (Association
of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), 2005). Currently in the UK, according
to Mintel (2002, 2004b), there are 1750 nightclubs, 1100 traditional high street pubs, 850
late night bars catering for students and young people, 375 café/wine bars, 175 Irish pubs,
and 200 other themes and late-night venues totalling together to around 4500 outlets.
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Pratten (2006b) and Publican (2005) provide further detailed description of a British pub
market, unfortunately, no similar information on the market structure in Poland is
available.

1.2. Customer base

In the UK, a fairly stable figure of around 40% of all regularly use pubs (Mintel, 2004a),
spending around £35 billion in 2002 drinking in these venues, which reflects ‘‘around 5%
of all consumer spending’’ (Mintel, 2003). The late-night culture of ‘‘clubbing’’ is very
popular with the key target age group of 18–25 year olds, around 40% of whom are
students who ‘‘represent an important part of the customer base of the average club’’
(Mintel, 2002). However, changes in the British drinks industry in the 1990s led to an
increasing ‘‘attempt to offer customer satisfaction by improving the quality of service (y)
and a serious effort to create the sort of establishments which the public want to visit’’
(Pratten, 2003a). Those changes attracted significant amounts of research, focusing on
aspects like structural changes within the industry (Knowles and Egan, 2002; Knowles and
Howley, 2000; Lashley and Rowson, 2002; Pratten, 2003c, 2005a–d; Pratten and Lovatt,
2002, 2005a; Pratten and Scoffield, 2002, 2003), the role of public houses in society
(Pratten, 2006a), legal issues with the hospitality industry (Pratten and Lovatt, 2005b),
supply chain management (Towers and Pratten, 2003), reasons for business failures
(Pratten, 2004a), issues of gender in pub management (Pratten and Lovatt, 2003), training
and recruitment practices in public houses (Mutch, 2001; Pratten, 2003c; Pratten and
Curtis, 2002, 2003), the role of public house manager (Mutch, 2000), marketing practices
of public houses (Pratten, 2006b; Schmidt and Sapsford, 1995a, b), the role of bouncers in
the late-night economy (Hobbs et al., 2003), and the recent issues of smoking policies
(Pratten, 2003b; McNabb and Hearns, 2005) and alcohol-related problems (Boella et al.,
2006; Pratten, 2006a; Pratten and Bailey, 2005; Pratten and Greig, 2005; Pratten and
Lovatt, 2005a).
In Poland the culture of clubbing only began to emerge slowly in the mid 1990s and its
provision was inadequate and underdeveloped for many years, starting out in basic venues
operating simple CD players often imported from Germany (Wyrobek et al., 2001). Over
time customers became more demanding and the quality of service provision significantly
increased, although it is still not a mature market and continues to develop (Iwona, 2003).
The boom in the market started in 2000, and has been attributed to increasing interest of
mass media (Drobot, 2002) and to marketers (Ksi˛eżyk, 2002), who made ‘klabing’ the
main background for selling products to young people. However, a recent survey (Pentor,
2003) indicated that 77.1% of respondents did not think that these venues were safe, and
the majority of nightclubs and bar customers had come across violence (87.7%), drugs
(78.8%) and theft (70.1%). Nonetheless, the numbers of nightclubs, pubs and bars have
since been growing in the centres of all major Polish cities and have become an increasingly
popular form of leisure activity amongst certain groups of young people. Despite such a
vivid expansion of nightclubs and bars there is a paucity of research into that phenomenon
in Poland.
Leszczyński (2006b) argues that although some elements of the culture of clubbing have
been visible in Poland for decades, they have always been dominated by the preference to
socialise at home. Wyrobek et al. (2001) suggest that the first club was opened in Warsaw
in 1992, but went into administration just after a year. Over time, with an increasing
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contact with Western cultures in the 1990s, younger generations of customers began to
spend more and more time in nightclubs and pubs. Currently the largest clubs attract up to
7000 customers in one night (Leszczyński, 2006a) and the market is growing with an
increasing affluence of young people. Nevertheless, in 2000 market research still indicated
that only around 20% of Poles regularly met with friends in pubs, clubs or restaurants
(OBOP, 2000). These respondents who were going out were mostly in their 20s, more
often males than females, and in a relatively good financial situation (OBOP, 2000).
The overwhelming majority of Poles (75%) still indicated their own or their friends’
homes as the most popular venues in which to spend their free time (OBOP, 2000).
By the time of Kowalewska’s (2004) study, the popularity of spending leisure time
outside the home had increased, which may suggest a similar tendency over the next years.
Visiting pubs, restaurants and discotheques was the preferred form of spending free time
by 28% of adult population, 51% of all respondents had visited a pub, club or restaurant
during the year before the survey, averaging just over 30 visits per annum (Kowalewska,
2004).
Contrary to the UK, the late-night economy in Poland is still not recognized as an
important part of the whole economy. Although its cultural significance remains
unquestioned, no official data regarding that industry could be identified.

1.3. Alcohol consumption

Mintel (2002) notes that in the UK ‘‘the average club derives around two-thirds of its
revenue from the sale of beverages, and it is therefore a vital source of profits’’. However,
‘‘there are increasing volumes of research identifying that early-doors discounting and
happy-hours policies fuel the binge drinking mentality’’ (Kinsey, 2002). This has brought
about recent government intervention in the form of the Licensing Act 2003 and the
compulsory licensing of doorstaff since April 2005, the government’s National Strategy for
Alcohol Harm Reduction (Mintel, 2004b), and potential UK and EU legislations against
‘‘Happy-Hour’’ promotions. The social and legal aspects of the Licensing Act 2003 are
discussed in wider European context by Boella et al. (2006), who suggest that ‘‘it has to be
seen how the new 2003 Act works’’. Nevertheless, the alcohol-related crime in the UK has
been recently analysed in a number of Home Office reports (Engineer et al., 2003; Home
Office, 1999, 2003; Maguire and Nettleton, 2003) and its total annual cost is estimated at
£20 billion (Home Office, 2003).
The growing numbers of nightclubs and bars in Poland and increased alcohol
consumption amongst young people has led the State Agency for Prevention of Alcohol
Related Problems to similar concerns. Research carried out amongst Polish students in
2002 indicated that only 5% of females and 4% of males drink no alcohol at all, 83% of
the whole sample drinks moderately or just a little, and 5% drink a lot (Anon., 2004/5).
The comparisons with earlier research show that the percentage of students (industry’s
target market) drinking alcohol regularly increases, leading local authorities to introduce a
number of programmes amongst young people aimed at reducing their consumption of
alcohol (Anon., 2004/5). Another study amongst 10,000 students shows beer as the most
popular alcoholic beverage (45%), (Anon., 2005). That appears to confirm Melliburda’s
(1999) estimation of the consumption structure of the main alcoholic beverages in
Poland—traditionally dominated by beer (44%), with vodka and wine having,
respectively, shares of 32% and 24%. The market shares of other spirits (e.g. whiskey,
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gin), ciders or fruit-based alcoholic drinks, although gradually increasing over the last few
years, still remain marginal (Anon., 2006).
Given the proposed move away from price discounting, venues in the late-night
economy are being forced to identify other means of attracting customers. This move
should bring attendant advantages that may help improve a business’ bottom line, as
‘‘frequent patrons who are highly involved and identified with the organization may
perceive little need for price discounts’’ (Beatty and Kahle, 1988). The service marketing
literature bears this out by highlighting the advantages of competing on the range and
quality of supplementary services provided (Lovelock et al., 1999), rather than on the core
service offering of alcohol provision.

1.4. The servicescape

The service marketing literature recognises the effects that front and backstage
personnel (Pratten, 2004b), along with other customers, can have on customers’
experiences (Langeard et al., 1981), and the effect of the wider servicescape within which
the service is offered (Bitner, 1992). This comprises the elements of ambient conditions,
spatial layout, functionality, signs, symbols and artefacts. A research by Jacob (2006)
suggests that different music styles may also affect consumers’ behaviour. Reimer and
Kuehn (2005) highlight the fact that the servicescape has a much more important role in
the quality perception than earlier empirical studies argued. The servicescape becomes
particularly critical with the offering of intangible services to first-time customers who tend
to ‘‘rely on the tangibles associated with the service as clues or indicators of the level of
quality that is available, thus reducing the feeling of buying an unknown quantity’’
(Knowles and Howley, 2000). The literature also distinguishes between elements in the
environment that would lead to attraction, linking these to the firm’s exterior, and
elements, usually in the interior space, that lead to staying on the premises (Bitner, 1992).
One aspect of the servicescape that can create an image and critically influence
behaviours is the physical environment. Emotional and cognitive reactions to the
environment may be transferred to people and/or objects within the environment
(Obermiller and Bitner, 1984) so that products viewed in an environment deemed to be
pleasing are evaluated more positively than products viewed in an unpleasing environment.
In this way, perception of the servicescape appears to influence unrelated feelings about the
products and service. This influence is thought to play a key role in service businesses such
as hotels, restaurants and retail stores (Bitner, 1992).
As many Polish nightclubs and bars rely on Britain as a source of new styles and fashion
(Iwona, 2003), the question arises whether Polish customers expect the same type and level
of service as their British counterparts. Moreover, Iwona (2003) argues that nightclubs in
contemporary Poland are still mostly based on owners’ improvisation and belief that ‘‘the
spiral of fortune moves itself’’, which leads to many mistakes and bankruptcies. That faith
and lack of any meaningful research into the industry in Poland leads to the recognition of
an urgent need of better understanding of the forces driving that industry—customers.

2. Research approach

In order to compare the needs of nightclubs and bars customers from two different
markets research was conducted in two phases. All the data were collected on two
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university campuses, one in the UK and one in Poland, within the industry’s main target
market age group.

2.1. Phase 1

Purposive sampling was used to establish four focus groups, two in the UK, one
consisting of 5 males (all students aged between 21 and 23) and one group of 4 females (all
students, all aged 21), and two in Poland, one consisting of 5 males (all students aged
between 21 and 22) and one group of 5 females (all students aged between 21 and 25).
Respondents were selected randomly from students who declared visiting a mainstream
city centre club or bar within the previous 12 months. One of the researchers is a native
Pole, so these focus groups were run in-country in the Polish language. The recorded
material was then transcribed and translated into English. Discussions in focus groups
explored the in-depth views of high street nightclub and bar goers within the industry’s
main target market age group.
This qualitative data was analysed from a grounded theory approach (Glaser and
Strauss, 1977) in order to identify the emerging themes and determinant attributes that
were then tested by quantitative data gathered by means of a questionnaire in Phase 2 of
the research. The discussion of application of grounded theory to research into the
hospitality industry can be found in Mehmetoglu and Altinay (2006).

2.2. Phase 2

In order to increase the reliability and validity of the data, the themes arising
from the literature and focus groups were further investigated by means of a survey.
A review of previous research into servicescape in hospitality industry as well as
analysis of four focus groups indicated that those themes could be broadly classified
into 5 groups: security, clientele, seating arrangements, location of dance floor and
service offering. Students on two campuses, one in the UK and one in Poland were
administered 135 structured questionnaires. Only respondents who classified themselves as
British or Polish were included in the study. This gave 62 usable questionnaires in the UK
and 60 in Poland. In the UK sample 48.4% of respondents (n ¼ 30) were male, 51.6%
(n ¼ 32) were female; 95.2% of respondents were aged between 18 and 25 (n ¼ 59), 4.8%
were older (aged 26–54). In Poland the demographics of the sample were very similar, with
48.3% (n ¼ 29) of males and 51.7% (n ¼ 31) of females, and all respondents aged between
19 and 25.
All respondents were approached individually by a researcher, which allowed
achieving a high response rate. Respondents were pre-qualified by asking if they had
visited a mainstream city centre club or bar within the previous 12 months. Of all
respondents 63.1% (n ¼ 77) visited such venues at least once per week, just over 29.5%
(n ¼ 36) visited such venues once or twice per month, and only 7.4% (n ¼ 9) visited less
frequently.
Survey questions centred on relevant aspects of the servicescape and service offering,
with many elements highlighted by pictorial representations in order to minimise the risk
of misinterpretation. Where pictorial representation was used, the order of each pictorial
representation was randomly chosen in order to lower the risk of list bias. The aim of each
question was to collect information on customers’ preferences towards different elements
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of the servicescape, with particular interests in security, type of clientele, seating

arrangements, location of the dance floor and service offerings (music, entertainment,
alcohol prices and promotions).
It is a recommended practice to use ordinal or ranking scales (these do not use interval
values but order items on an underlying continuum) when equal interval scales cannot be
used. This type of ranking is used to rank elements in order of prestige (Oppenheim, 1992).
Adopting this principle, respondents were required to rate a range of six different offerings
in order of preference (with one being the respondent’s strongest preference and six the
lowest preference).
This data was subjected to a frequency analysis in SPSS in order to identify those
elements that were most preferred by the majority of respondents in each country.

3. Findings

As the British late-night economy was often perceived amongst Polish nightclubs and
pub goers as a source of new trends and fashion (Iwona, 2003), it was envisaged that
preferences of Polish customers may evolve in the near future to mirror those of their
British counterparts, and therefore further development of a relatively new Polish
hospitality industry may be heavily influenced by the British market. However, the findings
suggest that despite significant differences in market infrastructure, disposable income of
target markets and behaviour of security personnel, there are already some major
similarities between the interests of consumers.

3.1. Security

As the level of security inside a venue tends to be inferred by customers from the level of
security outside a venue, respondents were asked in the pictorial survey whether they
believed formally or informally dressed door staff emitted a greater image of security.
Although respondents in both countries preferred formally dressed doorstaff, that
tendency was stronger in the UK, where 67.7% believed that more formal attire offered
greater image of security. In Poland the responses were more balanced, with 58.3%
favouring formal dress.
Security was an issue raised by the focus groups in both countries. A female respondent
in the UK believed that ‘if they have bouncers on the door who are dressed smartly then it
looks quite good’ (GBF2—Great Britain Female 2). Another female respondent added
that she does not like ‘going somewhere where you don’t feel safe and have to feel
vulnerable’ (GBF4) because, as her friend completed the sentence, ‘you don’t like having to
look over your shoulder all the time’ (GBF2).
In Poland the issue of security, which was described by most respondents as ‘very
important’, provoked lengthy discussion:

‘I was punched oncey bouncer hit me! Two guys were fighting, I wanted to separate
them, and door staff thought I was involved in it and they caught me, took outside
the club and punched me in my stomach so I couldn’t catch a breath for half an
hour!’ (PM5—Poland Male 5).
‘A friend of mine works as a doorman; he says he is extra paid when there is any
brawl! Because he is risking his healthy so they often start it!’ (PM2).
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‘In my home town, there is a club where door staff is well known, locally, for being
dangerous and aggressive. No one starts a brawl in this club, but we rather avoid that
venue’ (PM1).
The visual aspect of security plays a significant role for female respondents in Poland:
‘There is a stereotype that a bouncer should be huge, strong, with skin head, and
never smile! But they should be friendlier, trustworthy; you want to know that if you
are in danger’ (PF5).
‘Sometimes you can see a bouncer that is big, but behaves like a human being. You
can even talk to him!’ (PF2).

3.2. Mix of clientele

Respondents were asked to rank in order of preference venues with predominantly male
clientele, venues with predominantly female clientele, and those venues showing pictures of
predominantly mixed clientele.
Very similar responses were obtained from respondents from both countries. A mix of
male and female clientele was indicated as most preferred by 77.4% of survey respondents
in the UK and 80% of respondents in Poland, with slightly over 3% in both countries
rating it as their lowest preference. Only 4.8% of respondents in the UK and 3.3% in
Poland rated a male-dominated venue as their most preferred, and the overwhelming
majority perceived this environment least favourably (72.6% in the UK and 83% in
Poland).
Focus groups offered further insight into the reasons why particular preferences hold.
A male respondent in Poland indicated that: ‘really, other people are the most important’
(PM4). This was confirmed by a female respondent, who, when asked what makes a club’s
atmosphere replied: ‘people, only people’ (PF1). The type of clientele was also important
for female focus group members in the UK. To one respondent the ideal other customers
were ‘people who are there for a good timey and not just get plastered... and they could
be any age and from any background’ (GBF2). Very similar opinions were given by a male
respondent in the UK:
‘I don’t mind where I go as long as it’s the right people there. I hate going to place
when there are people there with attitude who just want to bump into you and fight’
(GBM5).
Respondents in Poland were more precise about the ‘right people’, stating:
‘We always go to clubs where other students go, so even if there are drunk they
always have funy’ (PM1).
In the focus groups, men identified the opposite sex as the critical factor in the decision
to select a bar. A respondent in the UK confessed:
‘Women—that’s why blokes go to bars for, and for the drinky the classier the place,
the classier the female population’ (GBM1).
Male respondents in Poland were no different: ‘we rather prefer clubs where there are
more girls than boys’ (PM1). But although one male focus group respondent in the UK
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suggested that the number of women in a bar was important ‘for single lads definitely’
(GBM3), one male respondent in Poland admitted that:

‘I have a girl-friend here, but I think that like most guys I hardly ever go out to a club
with my girl-friend. We have more fun; we are not on a tight lead’ (PM5).

Nevertheless, for female respondents in Poland equal gender distribution in a club was
more important:

‘In places where I go there is usually fifty–fifty, eventually more guys because I
usually go out with groups where more guys is’ (PF1).
‘I would rather prefer mixed clientele’ (PF4).

A male respondent in Poland concluded that ‘if there are more guys than girlsy the
competition is biggery and people become aggressive’ (PM1).

3.3. Seating arrangements

Survey respondents were also asked about the type of seating arrangements
on which they would prefer to locate themselves once inside a venue. Sofas were the
most preferred by 69.4% of British respondents and 65% of Poles. Seating on bar
stools was also offered as an option, but 56.5% of respondents in the UK and 43.3%
in Poland rated this as their least preferred seating choice. However, unlike the
mostly polarised answers to preferences for sofas, or lack of preference to bar stools,
responses for preferences towards seating on individual chairs were clustered around the
mid point.
Responses in both countries suggest that contrary to the stereotypical image of late night
venue customers on barstools (Mintel, 2004b), both Britons and Poles express a preference
for comfortable seating arrangements, with Polish customers showing only a slightly
weaker aversion to bar stools than British customers.
In the focus groups, views were also expressed on preferred seating arrangements.
A female focus group respondent in the UK expressed the view that seating needed to be
comfortable:

‘I think it’s important to have seating so you can have somewhere where you can
relax, a lot of places you go into there will be a couple of chairs or whatever and
that’s it, it’s fine if it’s not that busy but when it’s busy you can’t sit down and have a
break from all the pushing and shoving’ (GBF2).

Similar views were expressed by Polish respondents, who also highlighted comfort as the
main feature:

‘Definitely sofasy but not with these very low tables. They don’t think about tall
people. I hit table top all the time’ (PM5).
‘You can sit comfortable, relax, and lean against backrest’ (PM1).
‘And chairs should not be wooden as they usually are, I can’t sit on them
comfortable’ (PM4).
‘[Bar stools] are OK when you are drinking a beer, but sofas are much better’ (PM4).
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3.4. Location of dance floor

While inside the venue another important element attracting customers’ attention is the
dance floor. Survey respondents were therefore asked about the preferred location of the
dance floor. In the UK similar numbers of respondents rated one of the four given options
as their most preferred, with ‘surrounded on all sides by people’ being the most popular
(29%), ‘surrounded on two sides by people’ the least popular (21%), and ‘away from the
bar’ and ‘near the bar’ remaining between those two (25.8% and 24.2%, respectively).
Although in Poland ‘surrounded on all sides by people’ was also the most preferred option
(38.3%), ‘near the bar’ was rated as first choice by only 11.7% of survey respondent and as
the least preferred by 41.7%. ‘Surrounded on two sides by people’ and ‘near the bar’ were
the most preferred by 26.7% and 23.3% of Polish respondents.
The location of the dance floor within the venue prompted a range of comments from
focus group respondents in both countries. Female respondents argued:
‘I hate it when the dance floor is in front or right next to the bar, you got people with
drinks trying to get passed you, people who are on the dance floor want to dance. In
my opinion the dance floor should be completely set away from the bar’ (GBF3).
‘It must be away from bar, someone may spill something on you’ (PF5).
‘Yes, away from bar, it might be dangerous, someone may be tipsy’ (PF4).
However, the opposite preferences were expressed by male focus group respondents in
Poland:
‘I would prefer the stage to be somewhere in the middle, with people and bar around.
You can see then what is going on the stage’ (PM2).
‘Stage is a basic thing in any club. It must be in the middle, with tables around, or
something like that’ (PM5).
‘If you are sitting around the stage you can get on the stage quicker when you see a
nice girl. You don’t have to worry about your stuff because you can keep your eye on
it’ (PM5).

3.5. Service offering

Survey respondents were then asked to rank in order those service offerings that would
most attract them to a venue.

3.5.1. Music
The most popular service offering in both countries was music, with 55% of respondents
in Poland and 41.9% in the UK rating it their most preferred service offering, with no one
in the UK rating it as their least preferred. This was in agreement with both the male and
female focus group results in both countries. A member of the female focus group in the
UK made the following comment:
‘The music, the people it attracts. If they’re really dodgy people who are brawling all
the time, then you don’t want to be there, but if it’s people who are having a good
time then it just raises the atmosphere’ (GBF2).
A male focus group member made a similar comment:
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‘Music creates a good atmosphere and it draws the people, chart dance party a bit of
R&B, a good selection, you don’t want to go somewhere that’s playing the same type
of music all night, you want a good range of music’ (GBM4).

Respondents in Poland were no different, where male respondents declared:

‘I go where they play the music that I prefer, usually with friendsy oh, and where
live music is, we can have more fun then’ (PM5).
‘For me live music is the most important, I always go if there is any gig. I listen
to very specific music, but would even go to a jazz gig if there was any! Generally,
I prefer live music and a pint of beer’ (PM5).

However, one male focus group respondent in Poland argued that ‘when people are
okay even music is not so important’ (PM3).

3.5.2. Everyday low alcohol prices

‘Everyday low alcohol prices’ was the second popular element of service offering and
was rated as the most preferred by 37.1% of survey respondents in the UK and 35% in
Poland. This is unsurprising given the limited student budget and students’ price
sensitivity. Male focus group respondents in the UK and Poland summarised:

‘Yes, you don’t want to come out of place thinking, Christ, you’ve had like ten drinks
and spent £50, £60 quid in a night. What a waste of money. You don’t want to feel
that ripped off’ (GBM3).
‘Usually everyone looks for cheaper alcohol. But alcohol is cheap in obscure places,
so we usually chose something in the middle’ (PM1).

However, a male focus group respondent in the UK, when asked whether price of drink
was important replied: ‘no, just the selection of drinks. They’ve got to have a good
selection of brands’ (GBM1). Another responded added: ‘price of drinks doesn’t bother me
that much (but) I don’t like to be raped by the prices’ (GBM5). In Poland male
respondents, despite declaring at the beginning that ‘prices arey important’, expressed
very similar opinions to those hold in the UK:

‘I think that everyone has sometimes a bad day and does not care then about prices; I
do not care then where and how much. I have only one life and just spend whatever I
have in my wallet!’ (PM1).
‘The more I spend then, the better I feel’ (PM1).

Female respondents in the UK and Poland were more concerned about prices:

‘Everything depends on my finances. If the club is nice, but the menu is not for my
wallet, for example a beer or juice for 20 PLN, it’s obvious that I’m a student and I
cannot afford it. So it must be a place where I can have fun, but it’s not too
expensive’ (PF4).
‘We go to clubs where we don’t have to pay too much’ (PF5).
‘I think quality is just as important as price, because um, I don’t think you’d go to a
place just because it’s cheap and the quality isn’t very good. I think you need an even
balance of both to make it a good venue all round’ (GBF2).
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3.5.3. Others
Although the other options presented to survey respondents were the most preferred by
only low numbers in the UK and Poland (including holding a ‘quiz’ 3.2% and 3.3%,
respectively, ‘happy hours’ 9.7% and 1.7%, ‘buy-1-get-1-free’ 8.1% and 5%), 43.5% of
survey respondents in the UK and 26.7% in Poland rated ‘buy-1-get-1-free’ promotions on
alcohol as their second most preferred service offering.
Price sensitivity to drinks costs was therefore an important issue for respondents in both
countries. They provoked a lively discussion among members of focus groups.
But while in the UK respondents stated:
‘Yes, you know what venues got drink promotions on. It used to be X (name of a
City Centre venue), used to have cheap drinks on a Thursday, I didn’t even like X so
we’d start there and have a load of drinks there and go somewhere nice after’
(GBF3).
Respondents in Poland declared that they would rather stay in the venue that has got
promotions:
‘In X (name of a City Centre venue) beer used to be cheaper on Thursday with
student card, so all the student were going there’ (PF1).
A male respondent in Poland summarised his and his colleagues’ attitude saying:
‘If someone is short of money we buy him a drink. If we all don’t have money we just
don’t go anywhere. If the club is really expensive we just don’t go there at all. Even
we have lots of money, we don’t go there because it’s a waste of money. It doesn’t
make any sense’ (PM1).
Finally, respondents were asked to indicate the importance of service with a smile. It
cannot be a surprise that overwhelming majority of students in the UK and Poland ranked
this element as ‘very important’ or ‘somewhat important’ (96.1% and 95%, respectively).
Only 1 Polish respondent rated this element as not at all important.

4. Discussion

The town and city centre late-night economy is a highly competitive market in both
the well-established, long running and saturated British nightclubs and bars market,
and the emerging and developing Polish market. The venues in both countries vie for
market share amongst the same target consumers—young people aged mainly between 18
and 25.
This research was therefore designed to compare the needs of nightclubs and bars
customers from those two different markets.
A large proportion of this target market consists of students (Mintel, 2002) and the
respondents used in the study reported here mirrored this target population in terms of age
and occupation. Across the UK and Poland, 63.1% of all respondents were frequent
visitors to mainstream city centre pubs, clubs and bars, visiting such venues at least once
per week, and only 7.4% visited less than once a month. In both countries the highest
proportions of respondents visit high street clubs and bars once per week (41.9% in the
UK and 43.3% in Poland), and very similar percentages of respondents in both countries
visit them very often (4–7 times per week) or very rarely (less than once a month).
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However, here appeared the first significant difference between two studied countries.
Respondents in Poland were less likely than their British counterparts to visit high street
clubs and bars 2–3 times a week and more likely to visit them once or twice a month. The
difference may be attributed to the differences in disposable income.
Our research sought to establish whether these young British and Polish student
customers were motivated by similar factors to visit these venues. Langeard et al. (1981)
found that the service experience of one customer is affected by other customers in a
service environment. Respondents in both countries agreed with this concept, indicating
‘the right people’ as the most important factor influencing their decision to visit a venue.
Where gender of clientele is concerned, the industry research in the UK (Mintel, 2002)
shows that one factor motivating men’s visit to pubs is the opportunity of encountering
women. The comments of the men in the focus groups in both countries bore out this
finding. The literature also suggests that women place a premium on female-friendly
environments (Jones et al., 2003) that are not male dominated (Schmidt and Sapsford,
1995a). Both these findings were tested through the pictorial survey. The results in the UK
and Poland show agreement with the literature insofar as only 4.8% and 3.3%,
respectively, of samples express a preference for a predominately male clientele. A large
proportion of respondents in both countries prefer a mixed clientele. However, unlike the
mostly polarised answers to preferences for mixed environment, or lack of preference to a
predominantly male environment, responses for preferences towards a predominantly
female environment were clustered around the mid point. Therefore no differences between
the UK and Poland were indicated in terms of gender of clientele preferred.
Tangible elements outside a venue can entice customers inside by reducing purchase risk
(Knowles and Howley, 2000). Given that safety and security are perceived as important,
especially amongst females (Schmidt and Sapsford, 1995a; Jones et al., 2003), such easily
managed tangibles can include the attire of doorstaff. Furthermore, as Poles do not tend to
feel safe in nightclubs and bars (Pentor, 2003), doorstaff can create an image of the venue
as a safe place. As far as that image is concerned, the results from the pictorial survey
showed that respondents in both countries preferred formally dressed doorstaff. That
preference was stronger in the UK, where 67.7% believed that more formal attire emitted a
greater image of security. In Poland the responses were more balanced, with 58.3%
favouring formal dress. However, the examples given in Polish focus groups show that
doorstaff attire is only the peak of an iceberg and much more has to be done immediately
in order to improve security and safety, and changing attire of doorstaff will not change
their attitude and behaviour.
Respondents also had particular preferences for the spatial functionality and layout of
the nightclub and bar servicescape (Bitner, 1992). The responses to the pictorial survey
demonstrate a marked preference for group seating (sofas) in both countries. Seating at
bar stools was the least-preferred option. This was explained by respondents in focus
groups who find the provision of comfortable seating very important. They need
somewhere comfortable to sit and relax, and somewhere to socialise with friends who may
not like to dance.
However, when it came to positioning of the dance floor there was no agreement on an
ideal position from either the focus group or survey respondents. While in the UK none of
the four given options attracted significantly more respondents than the others, in Poland
survey respondents showed strong preferences towards a dance floor ‘surrounded on all
sides by people’. ‘Near the bar’ and ‘away from the bar’ were both ranked by many
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respondents as the least-preferred option in the UK and Poland. Finding the right solution
and satisfying all customers may be a very difficult task.
Music was the key attractor to nightclubs and bars for our respondents, especially in
Poland, where over half of survey respondents ranked it as the most important service
offering.
It should be noted that the provision of low-priced alcohol continues to be perceived as a
core offering (Lovelock et al., 1999), but has considerably lesser importance for survey
respondents across both countries than music. The price sensitivity of our respondent can
be best showed by the total percentage of respondents ranking ‘everyday low alcohol
prices’, ‘happy hours’ and ‘buy-1-get-1-free’ as their first or second preference—54.9%
(first preference) and 85.4% (second preference) in the UK and 41.7% (first preference)
and 70.4% in Poland. As 6.4% of survey respondent in the UK and 28.3% in Poland
ranked those service offerings as the least preferred, unexpectedly Polish students appear
to be less tempted by lower prices than their British counterparts.
Our sample can still be attracted by price promotions, but these frequent pub and club
goers will pay higher prices as long as they also get a good perceived service quality.
Service with a smile is a very important factor for all customers.

5. Conclusion

The research aimed to compare the needs of nightclubs and bars customers from two
markets at different stages of development—the mature British market and the emerging
Polish market. Earlier research indicated that the British late-night economy was often
perceived amongst Polish nightclubs and pubs goers as a source of new trends and fashion
(Iwona, 2003), and therefore preferences of Polish customers may evolve in the near future
to mirror those of their British counterparts. However, the findings suggest that despite
significant differences in market infrastructure, disposable income of target markets and
behaviour of security personnel, customers from both markets already show very
significant similarities. Nevertheless, some differences between their expectations exist, and
those details may affect overall business performance.
The presence of mixed clientele is likely to attract male as well as female customers in
both countries. For both groups of customers, the venue’s exterior is of paramount
importance in motivating them to enter a nightclub or bar. In terms of security,
respondents in both countries preferred formally dressed doorstaff, however, focus groups
in Poland indicated that much more has to be done in order to persuade customers that the
venue is safe. This becomes the most important factor in deciding which venue to
patronise.
Exterior cues may be used to attract customers to enter the venue, but further attention
needs to be paid to nightclubs and pubs décor to ensure that customers consider paying a
return visit. Once inside a venue this research focused on seating and location of the dance
floor. Communal seating, e.g. sofas, serves as motivators for customers in both countries.
In terms of location of the dance floor, respondents in Poland preferred when it is
‘surrounded on all sides by people’, while the opinions in the UK were more blurred.
Confusingly, respondents in both countries most frequently pointed ‘near the bar’ and
‘away from the bar’ as their least preferred dance floor location.
Surprisingly, Polish students, although still strongly attracted by lower prices and special
offers, appear to be less tempted by them than their British counterparts. It emerges that in
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K. Kubacki et al. / Hospitality Management 26 (2007) 957–973 971

both countries the industries can indeed gain and maintain competitive advantage in this
saturated market without relying on price promotions on alcohol if attention is paid to
other service offerings such as the provision of the entertainment that meets the needs of
the target market. Particular attention in both countries should be paid to music. There is
as yet no research on cultural preferences between live and recorded music, and then
between different styles of music, and this is a key area for future research.
Overall service quality, including service with a smile, is important to all.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank two anonymous IJHM reviewers for their comments on an
earlier version of this paper.

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