Sport marketing opportunities

1. Sport marketing opportunities Chapter 4

2. Sport marketing framework • The Sport Marketing Framework is made up of 4 stages and is outlined on p.56 in your book. • Stage 1 of the process is “Identify Sport Marketing Opportunities” and involves 3 parts: • The analysis of conditions of the internal and external marketplace • The analysis of the sport organization’s unique position, such as its mission, vision, objectives, performance measures and stakeholders • The analysis of the market and its consumers

3. Identifying sport marketing opportunities • Stage 1 recognizes the importance of conducting preliminary research and analysis before it is possible to make sensible marketing decisions. • The 3 parts of stage 1 should be conducted at approximately the same time, as the three analyses are interconnected.

4. Analyzing internal and external environments • The internal environment refers to the unique circumstances of the sport organization for which the plan is developed. In other words, the strength and weaknesses of the sports organization must be outlined. • The external environment refers to the marketplace in which a sport organization operates. • The tools for conducting an internal and external analysis include SWOT analysis, with external environment analysis, and the Five Forces Analysis.

5. SWOT Analysis • SWOT is an acronym for the words: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. • An organization has control over its strengths and weaknesses. They are internal. Strengths and weaknesses should be focused on present-day circumstances. • The elements that an organization has no control over, and therefore are external, are opportunities and threats. Opportunities include environmental circumstances that can be used to an organization’s advantage, while threats include unfavorable situations in the external environment that need to be avoided. The analysis of opportunities and threats should be future-oriented.

6. External environment analysis • P. 62 illustrates the External Environment Analysis • The largest circle in the figure represents the macro external environment, which consists of the following environments. • Political • Economic • Legal • Technological • Social, and • Physical

7. External environment analysis cont. • Figure 4.4 (P.67) provides a summary of the specific sport industry environmental factors that may influence a sport organization’s marketing decisions. They include: • Media • Finance • Staff/Members • Commercial • Government and Leagues • Public

8. Direct and indirect competition • Competition occurs when numerous sport organizations attempt to meet the needs of the same group of consumers. • Why study the competition? Competitors may have weaknesses themselves that can be exploited. Also, competitors may have strengths that could be a threat, or provide helpful lessons. Lastly, competitors change over time. • Direct competition = competition that occurs between sellers who product similar products and services. • Secondary competition = when sellers produce products that meet the consumer needs in a different way • Indirect competition = sellers who produce different products and services that satisfy similar consumer needs or encourage consumers to seek the satisfaction from different needs.

9. Five forces analysis • In addition to a competitor analysis, it is advisable to conduct a Five Forces Analysis. This is the most commonly used tool for describing the competitive environment. • This analysis examines the five forces driving competition in the sport industry which comprises • The intensity of rivalry among industry competitors • The threat of new entrants into the marketplace • The threat of substitute products into the marketplace • The bargaining power of buyers (such as media and sponsors) • The bargaining power of suppliers (including players and athletes)

10. Analyze the organization • The 2nd stage in identifying sport marketing opportunities is to analyze the organization. • There are 4 tools that help with this function: • Mission statement • Vision statement • Organizational objectives • Stakeholder analysis

11. Mission and vision statements • The mission statement identifies the purpose of an organization. When developing a marketing plan, the mission statement offers fundamental guidance in the development of a strategy. • A vision for the future is like a clear mental image of how a sport organization would like to see itself in approximately 3-5 years’ time. A vision statement is a written record of this future image, usually no longer than a sentence.

12. Organizational objectives & stakeholder analysis • Organizational objectives are the stepping stones along the way to the destination of the vision for the future. They are the targets that must be reached in order to make the vision a reality. • Stakeholders need to be considered by the organization before an analysis is completed. Stakeholders are all the individuals, groups, and other organizations that have an interest in a sports organization. Examples include: employees, government, community, the league, sponsors, broadcasters and fans.

13. Analyze market and consumers • The 3rd step in identifying sport marketing opportunities refers to gathering information about the market and the consumers it contains. • Market research is the process of learning about the marketplace and what consumers want, assessing their desires and expectations, and determining how to entice consumers to use a sport product.

14. Types of market research • Two types of market research: • Quantitative – involves numerical information, tends to be superficial and is usually gathered from a diverse and large sample of people. • Qualitative – involves non-numerical information (such as words from an interview with a customer), tends to be more in-depth and is usually gathered from a narrow and relatively small sample of customers.

15. Quantitative vs. qualitative • Quantitative Research: • The most common method for gathering is to use a survey or questionnaire. • Quantitative research should be used when a sports organization already knows something about its customers and would like to refine this knowledge with greater precision. • Qualitative Research: 3 effective and inexpensive approaches to qualitative research include: (1) interviews and focus groups, (2) suggestion boxes, and (3) complaint analysis.

16. Sport market opportunities • The information gathered in stage 1 of the Sport Marketing Framework should highlight potential market opportunities, or situations where a new or modified product or service can be introduced that meets an unfulfilled sport consumer need. • However, it is first necessary to establish whether the opportunity is worth capitalizing on. • A useful tool for examining available market opportunities is the Product-Market Expansion Grid.

17. Product-market expansion grid