Marketing and football

Marketing and football

Executive Summary

The proposed business plan is in the form of a partnership between a football club and a car manufacturing company, and it is intended to ensure that the two parties involved realized their specific predetermined objectives. In this plan, a strategy to implement the proposed business plan has been proposed and a rationale provided. Part of this plan is a discussion of the inventory that each party will provide and the expenses to be incurred by either of the parties as well as the value gains for both parties. Lastly, the plan has a SWOT analysis for both parties.

Partnership Strategy

The proposed business involves Albion City Football Club (Albion Fc) and Samuel Grace Ltd (SGL), a car manufacturing company. Each of the two parties involved is independent, and have specific objectives they intend to meet in entering into the partnership. Notably, the partnership should result in a win-win situation for the two parties involved. As a result, there is a need for a well-defined business partnership strategy that will ensure that in addition to meeting the specific objectives of the partnering parties, consumer utility is maximized.

Football co-marketing is a recommendable partnership strategy for Albion FC and SGL. According to Desbordes (2012, p.133), co-marketing is the process of having two organizations develop marketing activities that are planned, organized, and controlled to realize predetermined objectives, which are either common for the partnering parties or inherently different. One of the organizations should be a sports organization, in this case, Albion FC. Desbordes (2012, p.114) provides several conditions that should be met in co-marketing.

First, the organizations involved should be able to operate independently, but their partnership is meant to aid the realization of objectives that cannot be realized independently. Both SGL and Albion FC continue to operate independently. However, the two organizations have identified objectives that necessitate partnership between them. Albion FC sees the proposed business as an opportunity to increase the players’ budget. SGL, on the other hand, has an opportunity to, through the partnership, increase general awareness of its brand and increase its sales both nationally and internationally.

Second, in co-marketing, all parties involved gain value. As per the proposal, SGL is offering five cars and £100,000. The marketing activities will be planned and organized in such a way that Albion City will utilize part of the budget offered by Albion FC on the marketing activities and the remaining budget realizing the club’s primary objective of increasing the players’ budget. Hence, the club stands to realize monetary value from the partnership. SGL, on its side, will realize its marketing objectives that enable it to maximize its profitability.

The proposed business partnership will utilize mainly online marketing to realize the objectives of SGL. Football is arguably the sport with the largest number of fans. Lovers of football go as far as visiting football clubs’ websites for information about the current whereabouts of the clubs they support. As a result, advertising through Albion FC’s website will go a long way in reaching a large number of target consumers both nationally and internationally. Albion FC has fans across the world. Hence, putting an advert on the club’s website will help in realizing SGL’s objective of ensuring greater awareness of its brand both nationally and internationally. The aforesaid will, in turn, increase the volume of sales for SGL.

According to Desbordes (2012, p.133), co-marketing utilizes product augmentation to influence consumer behavior. Product augmentation involves informing consumers of the associated benefits of purchasing a certain product (Perez et al. 464). It is meant to ensure that the product is differentiated helping to beat the competition in the market. The website will hold video ads for the company. Through the use of video ads, it will be easier to augment the cars sold by SGL. In a bid to position the cars sold by SGL in the minds of the consumers, the management of SGL will be charged with the responsibility of designing video ads with the augmented cars. A major objective of SGL is to communicate to the potential consumers about the safety and high performance that comes with SG1. Video ads provide a suitable platform for the company to communicate to the target consumers about the benefits of SG1, including, among others, its safety and high performance.

Social media ads will also constitute part of online marketing. Ads about SGL and its cars will be put on the club’s social media platforms. Information contained in the social media ads will be communicated automatically to the club’s social media followers in both the domestic and global markets. It is a strategy that will enhance the realization of SGL’s objective of increasing the awareness of its brand and increasing sales in both the domestic and international markets. Albion FC’s pitch can offer pitch advertising through the use of 3D CamCarpets. Hence, products of SGL will be advertised to the local fans and football fans across the globe watching on television during the club’s home games. It further provides an opportunity to realize SGL’s objectives. Notably, an increase in sales attributable to marketing on the above-discussed platforms will result in a profit maximization rate that is more than the expenses incurred in establishing a partnership with the football club. Hence, SGL will have monetary gains from the proposed business partnership.

Media and high-tech individuals are stakeholders of football (Desbordes 2012, p.135). The stakeholders mentioned above will help in advertising the cars manufactured by SGL on the various web-based platforms. The club may utilize its technical experts to ensure that the ads are expertly managed on the various web-based platforms.

In addition to online marketing and marketing through ads on the football pitch, SGL, together with the club, will organize an iterant tour around Albion City. During the tour, five players from the first team will be given the five SG1 cars given by SGL to drive across the city. Banners will be used as part of the marketing materials in the course of the iterant tour. Fans in the city long for chances to interact with their players. As a result, it is expected that the tour will attract a large turnout, which will provide an opportunity for the company to sell its cars to the fans. The tour will be financed by the Club utilizing part of the money provided by SGL in the partnership deal.

Expenditure by the partnering organizations

Samuel Grace Limited

The company will incur costs in 2 main areas, i.e., the monetary budget of 100,000 pounds given to the club for marketing purposes and the five SG1 cars given to the club over three years. The total amount of expense incurred by the company will include the sum value depreciation of the five cars after the three years. It is worth noting that the cost associated with the cars also include the financial risk attributable to potential changes market value rates within the three years.

Albion FC

The club will not incur any monetary expenses in the proposed partnership deal. However, the club will incur the opportunity cost of entering into the partnership. Though it may not be possible to compute the exact monetary value of the opportunity, there is an opportunity cost involved considering that in the modern world, football clubs provide lucrative opportunities for advertising agencies.

SWOT Analysis

Albion FC

Strengths

• The football club is well established in the Albion City, and as a result, it has a large following within the city and beyond. Hence, through the club, an advertising agency can reach a large volume of potential consumers.
• The strong culture of football within the city serves as a strength for the club. Consumers may want to be associated with the club. Hence, it is likely that they will consume products/services that are associated with the club
• The club has well-established web-based marketing platforms, a factor that attracts many marketing agencies to partner with it.

Weaknesses

• Budgetary constraints – Over the years, the market values of professional football players has been increasing significantly. As a result, clubs that have the financial capability are becoming more competitive both on the transfer market of players and on the pitch. Hence, Albion City being relatively weak in terms of its financial capabilities, faces stiff competition in the league in which it competes, making it necessary to enter into such partnerships as proposed to enlarge player budget.
• Albion FC’s management may not have the technical expertise required to seize the marketing opportunities that the club has by virtue of being a football club that is established. For instance, the club may have to outsource technical expertise to utilize the 3D CamCarpets advertisement.

Opportunities

• Football is a coveted sport in the modern world. Albion FC enjoys a large following in social media platform a factor that presents it with an opportunity to attract deals from marketing agencies
• Sports betting has influenced the popularity of football clubs positively, i.e., even football clubs that are not counted amongst the top clubs in the world are well known internationally as people keep track of teams’ performance for ease of predicting outcome when betting. The popularity gained by Albion FC in the global market makes it suitable for marketing agencies that are interested in entering the global market.

Threats

• Financial constraints are the main threat that the club faces. Notably, over the recent past, the transfer market for football players has experienced significant players that have seen the market value and wages demand players that are good enough to play in professional leagues increase significantly. Hence, clubs like Albion FC are finding it difficult to compete with clubs with financial stability due to the difference in the quality of players.

Samuel Grace Limited (SGL)

Strengths

• Financial capability – the company has the financial power to undertake suitable strategies to enable it to beat the competition in the market. For instance, the proposed partnership between the company and Albion FC can place it in a very competitive place in the car manufacturing industry both nationally and internationally.
• Technical expertise in marketing gives the company a competitive edge in the car manufacturing industry. For instance, the proposed idea has been conceived by the company’s management, an indication that the company has experts with knowledge and expertise to seize opportunities available in the market.
• The company has well defined competitive priorities that enhance its competitiveness in the market. For instance, safety and high performance are unique competitive priorities for the newly launched SG1.

Weaknesses

• Though SGL may have the technical expertise required to differentiate its cars in the market place and enhance its competitiveness in the market through strategic marketing, it does not have well-established marketing platforms, e.g., web-based marketing platforms. The proposed partnership business between the company and Albion FC addresses this weakness in that the company will utilize its resources to seize the marketing opportunities presented by the football club.

Opportunities

• Ethnocentric tendencies may impact positively on local consumption. According to Modi (2017, p.12), ethnocentrism influences consumers to prefer locally manufactured products to imported products. Hence, SGL has an opportunity to maximize sales, and therefore, profitability in Albion City, Ceteris Paribus. A lot of football fans in the city owe their allegiance to Albion FC. The proposed partnership presents an opportunity to further maximize sales in the city once the company’s cars are associated with the football club to which many of the local people owe their allegiance.

Threats

• Though ethnocentric presents an opportunity to maximize sales in the local market, it presents a threat to the company in the global market. In incidences where the foreign market in which the company operates have ethnocentric tendencies, and there are local car manufacturers, SGL is likely to find it challenging to break into the market and acquire a significant market share.
• Like any other company, SGL operates in a highly competitive environment. The proposed partnership between the company and the club is for three years. Though the partnership is likely to enhance the competitiveness of SGL in the car industry significantly, it is worth noting that its competitors may, along the way, devise new marketing strategies that may threaten the profitability of the company.

References

Desbordes, M., 2012. Marketing and football. Routledge.

Modi, S., 2017. Ethnocentric Tendencies and its Influence on Consumer Purchase Intent. In International Conference on Technology and Business Management April (Vol. 10, p. 12).

Perez, K.S., Clavin, J., Geisner, K.A., Latta, S.G., Mount, B.J., Tomlin, A.C. and Poulos, A.G., Microsoft Corp, 2013. Product augmentation and advertising in see through displays. U.S. Patent Application 13/464,944.