The Sports Event Pyramid

The sports even pyramid is made up of 5 levels. The first level, which is the top level, is Global Events. This level is the broadest level on the pyramid. These events are covered around the world and are a huge deal to many people. Examples of a global even would be the Olympics. Every country comes together and competes against each other in sporting events and everyone around the world LOVES watching these events. Sponsorship opportunities for a Global event would be huge name brands, even food brands, sponsoring the event and the athletes.

The second level on the sport pyramid is International Events. These events are still widely known but they are not known around the world. They are more focused in one geographic region. Examples of an International Event would be things like the Rugby World Cup or European Cup Soccer. These are still widely known but are not cared about in certain areas. Sponsorship opportunities for an international event would be brands like Nike and Adidas using there brand on players uniforms.

The third level is the National Event level. This level is focused in one country and is very important and highly celebrated by the people living there. An example of a National Event would be the Super Bowl in the U.S. The Superbowl is one of the biggest sporting events in the U.S. and almost everyone watches it. Sponsorship opportunities for a national event would be things like stickers on a football players helmet of a brand or Gatorade sponsoring a player and that player drinking their drink on TV.

The Fourth level of the sport event pyramid is the Regional Events level. These events are more focused in a narrow geographic area but are important to that region. An example of a Regional Sports event is the basketball Big East tournament. A sponsorship opportunity for a regional event would be things like restaurants or fast foods establishments using commercials.

The fifth and final level on the sport event pyramid is the Local Events level. This is the smallest and most narrow geographic focus. These events are in counties are communities. Examples of local sporting events would be things like high school sports. A sponsorship opportunity for a local event would be signs that show which local business donated to this league.

Sources:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/25255612/choosing-the-sponsorship-opportunity/7

The Product Life Cycle (PLC)

What is the product life cycle? It is essentially the stages of life that a product goes through from the beginning when the product was first thought up until the product comes off the shelves. The stages in the product life cycle are as follows:

• Introduction
• Growth
• Maturity
• Decline

Introduction is the first step that a product goes through. This is where the product is initially thought up and created. The product is being heavily marketed and is going to be sold in only certain stores. This stage is creating an awareness of the product. The next step in the PLC is growth. This is where the product is making a lot of sales and companies are starting to notice the product. The third stage is is called maturity. This is where the sales growth stabilizes and price wars and sales promotion become more common. The fourth stage of PLC is decline. This is where sales start to slow down, the product may not be relevant anymore or it is not in trend.  This is where the product stays until it is taken off shelves and no longer on the market.

The PLC is very important to sports marketers because it helps them know where their product is in the cycle and helps them choose how to market the product and who to market too. It also shows them what they need to do to keep their product in the maturity level longer. Brands like Gatorade use product life cycle to make sure their products are staying on track. They come out with new flavors for consumers to try and have them rate their favorite flavors to keep making.

The Product Life Cycle of a product can be extended if companies can find how to keep their product in the maturity stage for longer. If a company keeps marketing well and keeping up with trends and having a competitive price, it can stay in the maturity level for a long time.

Lebron James is a huge basketball player right now and has been for a while. He is one of, or is, the best basketball players in the world. Everyone knows who he is.  If I were to put Lebron on the PLC he would be in the maturity stage nearer to the decline stage. Lebron is still a great basketball player, but he is getting older and is going to have to stop playing at some point.  http://www.lebronjames.com/

Michael Jordan is another great basketball player. He will forever be one of the greatest basketball players in the world. People continuously compare Michael and Lebron all the time over who the best is. Michael doesn’t play basketball because he retired some years ago. I would place Michael Jordan in the decline stage. He is no longer a huge idol in everyday media like he used to be. Yes, he is still talked about all the time and is considered the GOAT but his basketball career has ended.

Serena Williams is one of the greatest female tennis players ever. She is very powerful on the court and off the court. She has been around for a while in the athletic world but just the past few years I have really started hearing her name on the news and social media almost daily. I would place her in between the growth cycle and the maturity cycle. People already know who she is but she is still growing more attention.

References:

Times, T. E. (n.d.). The Product Life Cycle. Retrieved from The Economic Times: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/product-life-cycle

 

Product Mix, Product Lines, & Product Items & How They’re Used for Sports

Product mix is the total number of product lines a company offers to it’s customers. Product mix is important to a business or franchise because it helps customer needs, business image or franchise image, provides focus, and helps inventory management. Product lines, which are groups of items that have similar characteristics, make up a product mix. The nature of product items consists of the classification of a product or service.

All three of these concepts can be used in a professional sports team and how they are marketed. Sports teams use product mix to figure how many different products they want to market to their customers. Product lines are used in the marketing of professional sports teams use products with similar characteristics to figure out what products they want to put in the marketing mix or product mix. The nature of the product item is used by professional sports teams by choosing whether they want to use a tangible or non-tangible item, or a separable or inseparable good, etc.

For an apparel brand like Nike or Adidas, their product mix is going to consist of clothing items and shoes. They will have a bunch of different clothing items and shoes in their product mix and will choose which ones they want to market for their brand. Brands like Nike and Adidas both have similar items with similar characteristics, but they have differentiated themselves to their customers. Their items make up the product line which will be used in the product mix. These brands will then choose the nature of their product which for these brands will mostly consist of variable/invariable items and separable/inseparable items.

For a sport service, like a golf course, fitness center, or a sport equipment rental place, they will use certain types of products in their industry. For a golf course, their product mix will be solely for golf. There will more than likely be a golf shop on the course where customers can buy golf clubs, golf shoes, hats, golf clothing items. For a product line, a golf course will use products and services with similar characteristics, for instance, all of their items and services are made up of golfing. The nature of a product will be used by a golf course by choosing the classification of what they’re providing. A golf course would mostly use variable/invariable, tangible/intangible, and separable/inseparable.

Sources:

(Suttle, 2019)

(Diwesh, n.d.)

Sports Marketing Research and How it Works

What exactly is sports marketing research? Sports marketing research is the systematic process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting information to enhance decision making throughout the strategic sports marketing process (Shank & Lyberger, 2015). The steps to sports marketing research are:

1. Defining the Problem or Opportunity
2. Choosing the Research Design Type
3. Identifying Data Collection Methods
4. Designing Data Collection Forms
5. Designing the Sample
6. Collecting, Analyzing, and Interpreting
7. Preparing the Research Report

Step one is where the researcher has to specify what information is needed to assist in solving problems and/or identifying opportunities. After finding what the problems and opportunities are, researchers will then write a marketing proposal. After this they will move onto step 2 which is choosing the research design type. This is the framework for a study that collects and analyzes data. Researcher will choose either an exploratory design, descriptive design, or a casual design (Shank & Lyberger, 2015). After choosing what design they want researchers will then move onto the third step. Here they will identify data collection techniques, which is where they choose what type of technique they want to use to find the data they are looking for. These techniques can include books and journals, interviews, focus groups, surveys, etc. Researchers will then move onto step 4, designing a data collection form. This is where researchers will choose how to get the information they want by designing the content of questions, forms of response, wording, sequence of the questions etc. After designing their collection form, researchers will then move onto step 5, designing the sample. Here they will choose whether they want a non-probability sampling or a probability sampling and then their sample size. Next is step six, where researchers will analyse the data they have received to make sure there are no mistakes or errors with the information received. After they have finished their analysis, they will move onto the final step, preparing their final report. This is where researchers will make sure that their report is clear and understandable to their target audience (Shank & Lyberger, 2015).

Here is a marketing research proposal I found for UVM football; Marketing research proposal.

The research proposal is trying to show how to get more fans to come watch the school football team. They are deciding whether to sell shirts and other clothing items with the schools logo on it, the teams reputation, rivalries, etc. They are going to send out emails to get more people to come and host more Alumni events so they will want to attend more as well. They believe that by enhancing the awareness of the school, they will gain a greater attendance rate for their games.

 

The Finale

 

For my last assignment in my Advertising and PR class I had to work in a group and create an ad campaign for Gino’s Pizza in Weston, WV. This was a fairly challenging assignment because of how much work had to be put into it and how unorganized and unmotivated my team was in the beginning. We had a very hard time wanting to start the project but once we did I believe it turned out very well.

 

For this project my group met with a representative of Gino’s to get information about the company and what needed to change. We learned that Gino’s has a fairly large problem with its clientele. Almost all of the customers who eat at Gino’s are senior citizens. They can’t get any young people into their doors, and that’s where we come in. Our group decided that Gino’s needed to expand to digital and electronic. Gino’s Pizza needs more presence in social media and needs to get online ordering in place and working properly and effectively.  Like I said before, Gino’s needs to make its presence on social media more known. Facebook and Twitter would be the best fit for Gino’s. We are wanting to target the younger age group and those are two of the biggest platforms that fit this demographic.

This is just a summary of everything we touched on in our presentation. I had a fun time with my group and getting to learn more about Gino’s and what we can do to help it flourish as a company.

Ads, Ads, and More Ads

 

Have you ever wondered how many ads you saw a day? Have you ever sat down and actually paid attention to the ads popping up on your phone’s, laptops, or tablets? Well I decided to count how many ads and what kind of ads I saw for a whole day. I ended up only getting through thirty minutes of counting ad’s because I saw so many in that little time. I went into this assignment thinking I would see a lot of ads about grocery stores, Amazon, and different kinds of phones but what I found was that there are ads for EVERYTHING. I never realized how many ads a person see’s throughout their day. It’s honestly amazing at how many I saw when I actually paid attention to them.

I decided to go on Twitter, as I do when I’m bored, and see what ad’s come up. I scrolled through twitter for about 20 mins writing what ad’s came up and just couldn’t take it anymore. In just this little time frame I saw ad’s from:

1. Domino’s
2. Panera

   

   Panera

3. Ben and Jerry’s
4. AT&T
5. Wendy’s
6. Macy’s
7. Sensodyne Toothpaste
8. Subway
9. Jeep
10. Target
11. Sprint
12. Bass Pro Shops
13. Disney World
14. Staples
15. MasterCard

    

    Mastercard

16. Chevrolet
17. Chik-fil-A
18. Coca-Cola
19. Ruffles
20. Philadelphia (Cream Cheese)

I saw 20 advertisements on 20 different products. And this was just on Twitter alone. Each ad came up on my timeline after around every 6 tweets. That is just completely astonishing to me. I even saw some ads for products come up a few times like Domino’s, which I saw 3 different ads for. I also got on Facebook to see what ads came up but I didn’t see nearly as many on there. I was only on Facebook for around 10 minutes and saw ads from:

1. Autotrader
2. Bounty (paper towels)
3. Amazon
4. Walmart

I only saw 4 ads while being on Facebook. The ads usually don’t come up unless you watch videos. I only watched 2 which is where the Amazon and Walmart ads popped up. The other 2 ads popped up when I clicked on an article on Facebook and started reading it. An ad for Autotrader came up and I exited off of it and not even 5 mins later a Bounty ad popped up.

I never realized how many ads we see everyday. I saw 24 ads in 30 minutes, can you imagine how many ads a person sees in an entire day? Ads get so annoying when you’re watching a video or reading an article and they continuously pop up. You either have to exit off of them or watch the whole ad, which is the absolute worst. I’m honestly surprised more people have’t gone crazy seeing so many ads. I know ads are great for businesses and companies to make their product known but having so many ads thrown in our faces is getting really out of hand.

Enough is Enough

 

 

 

 

NFL Ratings and the Affect on Marketing

NFL ratings this year have dropped compared to ratings in 2016. Yes, that hurts the NFL but what about companies using the NFL to market. How will this affect their revenues and reach of such a diverse group? Viewership of games is down 7.5 percent compared to 2016 viewership. On average, 15 million people watched NFL games in the first 6 weeks of this season, but in 2016 16.2 million people on averaged watched NFL games. Ratings this seasons are down 18.7 compared to the first 6 weeks in 2015. Commercials during football games are being seen by less people so companies are paying tons of money for less and less people to watch their advertisements.

“If ratings don’t improve materially, we see a potential headwind to domestic advertising revenues,” Omar Sheikh.

ESPN

If the NFL ratings keep declining the way that they are then the price for advertising and commercials during games will go down. That may sound good for marketers but it will hurt the NFL because they will lose money and will also hurt marketers and companies because less people will be viewing their advertisements.

CNBC states that ‘the weak NFL ratings are forcing Wall Street to reduce its profit forecasts for the owners of major television networks.’ Less viewers watching your show means less profit going into the network. If ratings don’t start going up as the season goes on the NFL and many companies who advertise through the NFL season are going to lose profits and are going to have to find new ways to reach customers.

InnerAction Media Presentation

What does it truly mean to be a marketer? Does it matter how many credentials you have or what school you went too? Of course that’s always good to know but what clients are looking for is how well you reach their customers and bring more customers in with your marketing tactics. Like Mike Arbogast said during his presentation, “It’s not about you”. It’s about the client and what they need.

During the presentation, Mike handed out different pictures to everyone and had us work together to figure out what the “big picture” was. The room was separated into two groups and we each had different pictures to put together. This activity took a lot of talking and trusting what the other people said about their pictures to finally put it all together. In the end we all lined up and each of our pictures correlated with each other to show a sequence of events. This activity was to show us that marketers need to work as a team and bring different things to the table to come together and make a great plan for an advertisement or whatever the client is wanting.

Mike talked about everything a client may be looking for including ways to better get their company noticed by more people. Here’s a list of what most clients need/want when they come to a marketer:

• more money
• more customers
• more time
• less distractions
• less stress
• less wasted expenses

When a client comes to you for help with their company they are trusting you to be honest with them and to help them as much as you can. Marketers have to be very accessible so if the client needs something changed or fixed they can get it done as soon as possible.

We learned about the different types of agencies there are and what InnerAction Media mainly focuses on. InnerAction Media focuses more on advertising, digital, and inbound media. Other types of agencies include branding, public relations, design/creative, and full service.

I feel like I learned a lot about marketing and ad agencies during this presentation. Mike did a very great job at explaining and teaching us how a marketing team runs and how you need to be able to work in a group. He showed that marketing is done better by a team than by just one person.

Source: Teamwork