Marketing Sport Event

Introduction

In service marketing, it is critical for marketers to determine specific needs that should be satisfied in the market. Without the knowledge on the need gap, it is difficult to address the relevant requirements and thus poor marketing strategies. Among core marketing strategies includes market segmentation, targeting and positioning. There elements enables marketing manager to establish the needs of the market and group these needs according to unique categories of consumers. This will enable the marketer to effectively satisfy these needs. This essay develops targeting and positioning strategies for Wellington Phoenix, a soccer Club from New Zealand playing in the Australian Soccer League.

Targeting Strategy

The nature of soccer in Australian context requires crucial segmentation strategies to be adopted in order to increase the market share for the team and thus boost its revenue base. In order to achieve this, the club shall subdivide its market into segments, focusing on various variables, which will are discussed below, and concentrate marketing promotions to these segments basing on the unique needs from each segment.

Demographic Segmentation

In terms of age demographic, the club shall concentrate on teenagers and middle aged individuals as target marketing segment. May teenagers are soccer fans in the New Zealand and Australian soccer market, and emphasis on their attention shall significantly boost the clubs fan base. It is also estimated that teenagers and middle-aged fans have time and disposable income to attend matches and purchase club merchandises. Children are also increasingly throwing their support to soccer players because of their role models and elder members of their family’s support for the sport (Shank, 2005). This segment will also serve as a back-up target market since it represents the future source of fan base. Although soccer has since time immemorial been regarded as a male-dominated sport, women have begun showing up in matches, accompanied by their male friends and spouses. This presents another unique addition to the target group. Women also are said to be very patient and devoted fans, unlike their male counterparts, and would hold longer their support for a team despite poor performances. Women are also committed consumers of club merchandises and have a wide range of items they can purchase unlike their male counterparts (Amis & Cornwell, 2005). This presents a source of revenue for the club, which increases stability and ability of the club to sign better players.

Geographic Segmentation

Given that the club commands a relatively bigger and unique geographic location compared to other clubs in the league, it is expected that it should have a higher fan base. Geographic segmentation is important because it is based on the notion that fans would support their home teams. The geographic segment is quite a large (general) market that must be carefully considered when formulating marketing strategies (Hamil, 2009). Therefore, in order to appeal to a geographic region as a target market, the club should be able to earn the support of the market. It is hard for the club to earn the support from the larger New Zealand community because of the perpetual poor performances that the club has been posting in the league. Therefore, we should start by increasing the self-esteem of the fans from this geographic region in order to earn their support. This will be achieved through acquisition of better players and gaming facilities. Fans often feel a sense of accomplishment whenever their team posts better performance (Davis, 2012). Otherwise, with the poor results, the fans would continue to dissociate themselves from the team.

Apart from performance, the club can appeal to its ‘home’ fans through perceived attractiveness of the sports and presentation of the team (Hopkins, 2013). There are some teams that do not post better results but the manner in which the players present themselves against their opponents boosts the morale of their fans. The perceived attractiveness can be enhanced by the type of sporting kits worn by players and those for supporters, such as jerseys. Therefore, an improvement in the clamour and performance of the team will consolidate the geographic support and increase the fan base for our club. Geographic segmentation would provide the most share of market share in terms of supporters (Gallagher et al., 2012). However, the team must strive to earn a place in the league before this can be achieved. As such, this strategy does not promise immediate results but can deliver much in the long-run.

Psychographic Segmentation

Psychographic segmentation would largely depend on the level of loyalty ‘feeling’ from the market. Just like indicated in the geographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation will depend on the performance of the club. Although it is highly unlikely that supporters will through their weight behind a team that continually performs the worst in the league (Shaw & Merrick, 2005), there are other factors than performance in terms of goal scoring which can be used to entice this segment of market. For instance, the team could change its playing patterns and the manner in which the players present themselves prior to any match (Dix, Phau & Pougnet, 2010). A highly disciplined team would attract more fans that the reverse. As seen with the Richmond FC, the club has a considerable following in the league despite the fact that it has been underperforming for over 30 years.

Therefore, the loyalty of supporters can be created and sustained through initiatives such as annual membership registration and subscription. Is discounts can be allowed for supporters who subscribe for the whole year to attend all the club matches, then such individuals will always be in the stadium to watch the team matches. Similarly, the club can start a loyalty rewarding programs to enable the supporters who attend the club’s matches regularly to interact with their players and officials whenever they satisfy certain conditions. Some loyalists can also be allowed to travel together with the team to various playgrounds. This will surely increase loyalty and the number of supporters for the club. Another psychographic appeal to supporters would involve a reduction in match tickets. Since the club has not been performing satisfactorily over the past few years, supporters will be attracted by competitive ticket pricing. The ability of the team to increase its number of loyal supporters will be determined by the effectiveness of the efforts explained here. However, loyalists are a reliable market segment that the club can depend on when making crucial marketing decisions.

Behavioural Segmentation

Soccer sports membership is often highly selective and thus it becomes difficult for supporters to switch teams. According to McDonald and Shaw (2005), these supporter are likely to reduce their motivation and commitment to their clubs that switch to rival clubs. Most club members are satisfied with other services provided by their clubs rather than the performance of the teams (Meenaghan, 2013). For instance, there are those individuals who would attend club matches because they would want to meet their associates, or just pass time. Such members are not influenced by the performance of the club but the service offered by the club management as well as the attention given to them. In a study to measure the determinants of NFL club membership, Bauer et al. (2005) found that aspects such as ticketing, club communication through email updates and magazines, services to members such as complain handing, on-field performance, club involvement, administration and home ground facilities contributed a lot towards the satisfaction of members (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). As such, the team should take advantage of these factors, which can easily be implemented compared to the team performance.

When these services are effectively provided to club members, the club would benefit not only from increased revenue collection, but also from loyalty (Summers et al., 2009). In addition, attendance would not only provide the much needed revenue for the club, but it will also provide avenues for sponsorship deals. Therefore, by providing the associated services, the management of the club would tap into this crucial segment, which does not solely rely on the performance of the team. This is because of the fact the team currently suffers from performance weaknesses and improving the league performance may take a longer time to achieve. Thus, this makes the behavioural segmentation the best alternative strategy to implement.

Positioning Strategy

For the targeted market in the previous section, a positive image of the sport will be created in the minds of the consumers. Positioning would be done for various segments so that each segment is promised the best sporting experience from the club (Khamis, 2012).

For instance, in the demographic segment, the club would sign well-known players from other teams within and outside the league. This will increase the number of supporters from the segment, especially when most of the players signed are celebrated and taken as role models (Wilson et al., 2012). Signing such players will present an image of improved gaming experience for the season and thus a high level of entertainment. In terms of geographic segmentation, the club shall customize the team so that it represents the true spirit of New Zealand. This would include re-branding of the teams jersey colours and orientation to represent its geographical region of origin. With such, there will be increased association with club, especially from new Zealanders. By providing the best customer service to behavioural segment, the team will position itself strategically relative to other clubs. This will enable the club to create a positive image as a club that understands and addresses the needs of its supporters. Soccer is a physical non-contact sport that has high standards to ensure fair play and minimal injuries (Lovelock et al, 2009). Therefore, by maintaining the high standards of discipline, many supporters will experience a sense of belonging and feel comfortable associating with the club despite its poor performance record. A positive image is essential for the club’s stability and continuity of operations.

Conclusion

The main aim of event managers is to satisfy customer needs. Unlike the goods industry, the sports industry entails provision of services. Sports club managers must carefully assess the needs of their customers and devise means of satisfying such needs. These needs can be well satisfied through segmentation, targeting and positioning. This essay has evaluated the three elements of service industry marketing for a soccer club. As the Chief marketing Officer of Wellington Phoenix, the strategies developed in this essay shall boost the efforts to increase the attendance levels for the club. By doing so, the revenues realized from increased sale of tickets and club merchandise will boost the financial stability of the club as well as increase its supporters and hence higher market share.

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