Thefinancialsupportorbusinessprovidedtoan organisation,bycustomers,clients,orpayingguests. Patronage is different to charity and sponsorship as it requires funding from governments or other companies unrelated to sport. Most sports organisers look for a patron because of prestige and image, which hopefully will impress their members and sponsors.
Charity
Charity is the generousactionsordonationstoaidthepoor,ill,orhelpless it is somethinggiventoapersonor group in need. The All Blacks teamed up with the charity Kids Can. For sporting teams, supporting a charity can create a positive image for the team name.
Sponsorship
A form marketing in which a corporation pays for all or some of the costs associated with a project or program in exchange for recognition. Corporations may have their logos and brand names displayed alongside of the organization undertaking the project or program, with specific mention that the corporation has provided funding. Sports teams can have sponsors names on their jerseys, for example Nike sponsor the Brazilian football team, thats the reason the Nike logo is on the Brazilian football jersey.
Maslow classifies the human needs in a pyramid shape. The basic, most primary needs, are put in the bottom of the pyramid. The other “less basic” needs are put on top of that level and so on. The result of this classification of needs is shown in the pyramid above.
Psychological
These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food, and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.
Safety Needs
These include needs for safety and security. Security needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Examples of security needs include a desire for steady employment, health care, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment.
Social Needs, Love/Belonging
These include needs for belonging, love, and affection. Maslow described these needs as less basic than physiological and security needs. Relationships such as friendships, romantic attachments, and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community, or religious groups.
Esteem Needs
After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and accomplishment.
Self Actualisation Needs
This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualising people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others, and interested fulfilling their potential.
Generic Marketing is the marketing of an entire sport or league; it does not focus on any particular team or brand. This is a video from 2008 advertising the sport ‘rugby’ in particular the ‘Super 14 Rugby’ competition that was played between 14 teams, ranging from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.
Brand Marketing
Brand Marketing is the promotion of a single brand; it may use things like sport to advertise but is ultimately focused on marketing the brand itself. In this video it is using famous soccer players to market the brand.
Direct/Indirect Marketing
Direct/Indirect Marketing is the marketing of one product whilst also promoting another. In this example Nike is advertising their new football boot, but at the same time Bugatti are having their car promoted.
After 12 years in Boston radio and almost 4 seasons with the Miami Dolphins Wayne Partello is transitioning to a new role with the San Diego Padres. During the 2013 Sport is Fantastic talk Partello talks about his role at the Miami Dolphins. Partello was the Sr. Group Director of Marketing & Content at Miami Dolphins & Sun Life Stadium. In this role he was responsible for marketing, content, design, production, development and in-game entertainment. Partello worked with all departments to ensure brand consistency through all touch points. Partello says his passion is in creating engagements between fans and sports. He mentions that in today’s world there are many ways to do this, and that he enjoys working to master the traditional methods while innovating to create new opportunities for engagement.
Subject & Topic
The focal point of the presentation was the methods used to create a better experience for fans at the stadium. Partello talked about many different areas that were developed to create this experience however one that stood out was the integration of social media and technology at the stadium. Partello spoke about how everyone has a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) and this is what drives our obsession/addiction with social media. Partello developed a plan to use FOMO to their advantage. Unlike any other, the Miami Dolphins stadium has WIFI at every point around the ground, featuring the most access points of any building in America. We as humans have become addicted to the use of our mobile phones, so what the Miami Dolphins Stadium has done is basically use this as a draw card to bring more people to the game. Unlike any other stadium where you have to wait the entire length of the game to get your fix of social media or pay for it using data, they have created a system so you can feed your FOMO. This also enables people to post instantly about their experience, this is of extreme value for the organisation. Partello says that when an outsider sees their friend having a great time at the game through social media it is far more beneficial marketing than anything that they can do themselves. This is another reason why at the Dolphins stadium they have unlimited access to WIFI, its a marketing strategy as much as anything else.
At the Miami Dolphins stadium they have created endless amounts of entertainment for fans ranging from a night club in the end zone watching over the game to a seat upgrade system that enables fans to be on the field and get close to their favourite players, also an application for your phone that has everything that’s happening and going on within the stadium .
The nightclub had been endorsed by Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat Basketball player), Mark Anthony (actor), and Fergie (singer). At the beginning of the night club they had huge name DJ’s playing, to draw people in, but within three years of establishment the club is now the first part of the stadium sold out every week.
Once a ticket has purchased and the holder is in the stadium they can use the Miami Dolphins app to upgrade their seat, it will evaluate the price difference between the tickets, you pay the difference and the ticket is then immediately available on the phone. Also access to the field area for the fans can be paid for through the app.
The application has many different uses, including the latest news from the game, stats, food and beverage prices, where in the stadium to get certain food and beverages. It is a very complex and efficient system, for example, If a concession stand in a certain area of the stadium hasn’t sold a lot of hot-dogs during a game it will send a message to all the season ticket members that gives them a buy one get one free, as a member they feel special, and as a concessioner the product that needs to be moved is being moved.
Sport & Franchise
The Miami Dolphins are an American football team that plays in the NFL. As a franchise they don’t rest on their lorals but also believe that it’s important to celebrate and recognise their history. The Miami dolphins have had a new branding, a new logo, and a new outlook on the organisation. This has come when Stephen Ross took over the Dolphins six years ago and when he purchased the team he had one objective and that was ‘to win’, to win on the field but also to win in everything.
Three Key Takeaway Points
1. The most effective marketing strategy that Partello has used is the social media marketing and using FOMO to their advantage, this can be implemented immediately by having competitions within other stadiums for photos being uploaded and using a certain #. However the implementation of free WIFI later on will be a bonus and encourage more people to be involved in the competitions.
2. Create a fanzone area within the stadium so that people can by ticket to go on the field and get close to their favourite players, this is an easy strategy that can be implemented instantly so long as the stadium has sufficient space, yet very appealing for customers.
3. The third strategy that can be implemented instantly to another stadium is an area to watch the cheer leaders practice, this will a huge draw card for young girls that are not that interested in the football to keep them entertained throughout the match.
Psychologically fans at the game are going to be hungry so their mind will be thinking that it needs food, however there are no current incentives at Metricon stadium that encourages them to buy food, apart from the standard banners and advertisements around the ground. A strategy that I would develop to satisfy this psychological need of the fans, would be to delegate some staff to hand out taste testers for the crowd, this would remind them that they are hungry and encourage them to go and buy the actual product.
Engaging fans through personal factors is the best way to promote the brand its also the best way of getting more people to the game, let me explain, a strategy that I would use, would be through social media. I would create a system and advertise, that if you upload a photo via Insatgram or Facebook and # GCsuns you get your image displayed on the big screen at the game. This gives a person excitement and reward but it is also the most valuable form of marketing that the Gold Coast Suns can get. If someone at home sees their friend at the game having a great time on FB or Instagram while they are at home they will think that it looks like fun and encourage them to go in the future. This form of personal advertising is far more effective than any promo event or advert the marketing team could send out to the general public as they now have a personal link.
I would implement an environmental marketing strategy whereby FREE internet for the customers would be available at all times during the game, I would apply WIFI hotspots throughout the whole stadium for strong signal. This would encourage my ‘personal marketing strategy’ that I explained before. This may be an expensive investment but it would ultimately draw larger crowds to the game and create better brand awareness.
I believe that environmental and personal are the only factors that make a person choose between Gold Coast Suns game vs a Gold Coast Titans game. The environmental factors being where the person grew up and went to school and what influences that these environments had on them making a decision to play/follow League or AFL, people are influenced by those around them so if they lived in an area that only had a local league team, and you had to travel a distance to find an AFL club, the individual is going to be more likely to play Rugby League. Also if a person grew up in an environment where their family was rugby league mad they have much higher chance of playing or following league. What a person plays or follows has a strong influence on what game they would watch out of the Titans or the Suns.
Demonstrate and evaluate the stages involved in the product development, from conception of a product, through the research and development stage, to design, production, promotion and market release
One of the founders of ‘Nike’ Bill Bowerman was a track coach at the University of Oregon in 1971. Nike began when he wanted to make a better running shoe sole for his athletes so he melted rubber onto his wife’s waffle iron. This experiment has changed the world of sport as we see it today. Nike is renowned for its innovative ideas and this is what keeps them as leaders in their industry. The conception of each new product Nike releases starts with an innovative idea, from either a problem people may be facing or a completely new angle that has not been previously explored like Bowerman showed when establishing the company. When conceiving new ideas for running shoes Nike found that when athletes trained with bare feet that over time the athletes feet became stronger, when they returned to track shoes they were faster. So Nike took this information and conceived the idea of a shoe that represented bare foot running without actually running in bare feet, these shoes were named Nike FREE. Nike recommends to have a pair of Nike FREE for training and another pair of purpose built shoes for your chosen sport, this is another way Nike has been able to market and sell this product.
Nike have unbelievable research facilities all around the world but the main Nike Sports Research
Laboratory (NSRL) is located on the Nike campus in Portland, Oregon in the United States of America. The research and development (R&D) centre’s role is to identify the physiological needs of athletes. The NSRL works directly with Nike’s design teams and has established partnerships with major universities throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Nike as a brand put huge emphasis on innovation. At these laboratories is where the ideas are gathered and tested. Nike is constantly looking for new and improved ways to help benefit athletes all around the world with cutting edge technology.
For the Nike FREE shoe production, Nike had to use any materials that could resemble a bare foot. Nike came up with a design that featured an inner sole that allowed the foot to sit naturally inside the shoe, a mesh with holes in it to improve the element of running bare foot, and outer sole that can move and flex as it has many sections that are sliced to once again create that natural bare foot feel.
Nike was aware that it would be hard to get people to buy a new pair of shoes and replace old ones so they marketed them as an extra training shoe. They marketed them to be ‘an additional shoe in your kit bag’ to strengthen your feet and legs and not a replacement of the traditional running shoe. Nike was clever when releasing this product, at the beginning they only released Nike FREE shoes to podiatrists, physiotherapists, and running coaches so it was seen as a form of training equipment before releasing it to the wider market. The campaign Nike launched was called ‘Reincarnate’ it was promoting athletes to use this form of training to discover their true potential. Nike had big names such as Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Cristiano Ronaldo all endorsing the product on a TV commercial that was released to promote the product, this was called ‘power to your feet’.
Understand what is meant by product or brand positioning and analyse market research methods
According to the business dictionary brand positioning is a marketing strategy that aims to make a brand occupy a distinct position, relative to competing brands, in the mind of the customer. Nike applies this strategy by emphasising the unique features of the Nike FREE shoe, the main one being the bare foot feel, through the slits in the outer sole. Once a brand is positioned, it is very difficult to reposition it without destroying its credibility, meaning it would be very difficult for Nike to change customers thoughts on the Nike FREE running shoes from a shoe that’s used to strengthen your foot and give it a bare foot feel, to making them think its an all purpose shoe built for racing.
Identify promotion strategies and their application as they apply to Nike Free and other Nike products.
Nike is such a world-renowned company it can afford to promote its products through the top athletes from around the globe. Nike uses the same promotion strategies for both Nike FREE and other Nike products. The top strategies that Nike implement are TV and commercial advertising with elite athletes, but are also heavily focusing on the website and social media advertising as this is the current trend in society. These promotional activities are applied with extreme attention to detail, Nike has over 1000 employees working on advertising and marketing alone, so there is a huge amount of time and effort put into in this section of the business.
The original Lucozade, now branded Lucozade Energy, is an energy drink produced by GlaxoSmithKlein in Gloucestershire. It was first manufactured in 1927 by William Owen, a chemist from Newcastle, who experimented for several years to provide a source of energy for those who were sick with common illnesses, like the common cold or influenza. It became available throughout the United Kingdom for use in hospitals under the name Glucozade. This was changed to Lucozade in 1929.
1972
Lucozade was being targeted at all ages and genders, it was implicating that it provides energy and helps deal with young energetic children, and also provides a kick to help with sickness (as shown when the mother gives some Lucozade to her son in bed).
Lucozade was sold in a large bottle as its was being targeted at a whole family, meaning that there was enough for everyone to enjoy, it was almost a hinting at it being a necessary thing to have in a household.
The drink is said to help with tiredness and produce energy for the consumer, it also shows a young boy drinking Lucozade at will, which creates the image that it has a great taste to complement the effects it provides.
The slogan ‘Lucozade aids recovery’ is referring to Lucozade being a recovery aid in term of helping with rehydrating the body and providing electrolytes to create energy for the consumer.
Mid 1980’s
The target market has changed, the company has changed its target market from targeting families to targeting the working class man, this is potentially because they see a more profitable opportunity in this area.
Lucozade is looking to be seen as an ‘energy drink’ and be used as a meal replacement. This is shown when the mother yells at her middle aged son saying “Jimmy, I made you some sandwiches”, Jimmy shakes his head in disgust as if to say “why do I need them, I have Lucozade”.
The bottle has shrunk as Lucozade is now targeted at working men for ‘on the go’ use, it would be impractical to carry around a bottle the size of the 1970’s bottles. It has been ergonomically designed to fit into cup holders and large pockets.
The slogan has changed from ‘Lucozade aids recovery’ to ‘The original solution’ because Lucozade it trying to create an image that the drink is a solution to all problems.
Late 1980’s
The 1980’s marketing campaign is targeting athletes. Lucozade has an athletic and strong looking sprinter running for the advertisement to create an image of strength for the target market. The product was sold in a glass bottle with a Cellophane wrap until 1983, when the advertising agency Ogilvy & Marther set about rebranding Lucozade as an energy drink. The rebranding was informed by several breakthrough insights by consumer psychologist Roy Langmaid, who recognised that there was a need to shift the brand’s associations away from illness and towards empowerment. They use the word ‘refreshing’ as an adjective to enhance the product, and make the target market believe that its not only a great sports drink with glucose to provide energy, but is also refreshing and great for after a work out or exertion of physical activity.
‘Glucose’ is mentioned to enhance the product and promote it as a sports drink glucose is actually just sugar, Lucozade uses the word glucose to hide the fact that the drink has a high percentage of sugar and help the image of the brand. Lucozade promote glucose as an energy source.
1990’s
Lucozade have introduced the word ‘Isotonic’, in the 1990’s as not many people were very familiar with this word, they say it balances your body fluids and clenches your thirst fast, these are two very desirable things that would appeal to athletes. In the advert it shows when the football player drinks the Lucozade the blue colour flow throughout the body, and create the image of refreshing the player he then stands up and kick the can into the bin with precision, also adding to the image of a strong athlete.
The packaging has made a dramatic change it now has ‘SPORT’ printed on the packaging as it has focused on this niche market of sport athletes. English and British athletes are also endorsing Lucozade.
Lucozade now use cans as they are cheaper to produce, they are easier to recycle, can be sold in vending machines, and convenient for athletes as they are compact and easy to carry in a sports bag.
2012
The 2012 advert is completely different from the first advert in 1972. This is mainly due to the target market and the use of the drink changing from targeting mothers and children and using it as a form of medical treatment that revitalises and improves health, to being a sports drink that enhances an athletes ability and replenishes athletes needs.
The rebranding of Lucozade was a success, the original packaging was changed to PET (type of plastic) bottling. The effect of the rebranding was dramatic. Between 1984 and 1989, the value of UK sales of the drink tripled to almost $115 million.
The days when it was all about triangular team flag banners, team jerseys, coffee mugs and foam hands that sports enthusiasts would wave around at games to express unwavering team spirit. Oversized T-shirts with silk-screened team logos were also the trend, although they may have been easy to wear and comfortable they were not to be worn outside of the stadiums of the advertised team; definitely not a fashionable item or anything you would wear in mixed company.
These days, sports fans have a larger and more accepted selection of products to choose from to support their favourite teams.
However I will show you some of the strangest items of merchandise that I have come across during my research:
Ruaridh Mackenzie 