Principles and practice of sports marketing

Principles and practice of sports marketing

Introduction

Initially known as the European Champions Clubs’ Cup (European Cup), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) was the result of the measured change in European football (Holt, 2007). The challenge that UEFA initially faced was how best they could maintain their brand equity in the world of football. As a way of ensuring that they remain highly recognized in world football, UEFA has always maintained marketing events either through mainstream media or through digital marketing. The association has done a lot, leading to the introduction of the European Champion League, thanks to their strong marketing approach in trying to reach out to the fans. The shrewd branding demonstrated through the marketing platforms and the cognisant strategy undertaken towards the life cycle of the competitions has greatly influenced the association’s meteoric rise (Desbordes, 2012).  It has been suggested by a number of scholars that UCL is a by-product of digital marketing. After 40 years without any tangible change, the European Cup had become somehow commercially obsolete to the sponsors and broadcasters due to a lack of proper marketing strategy. The present papers analyses and critically appraise the UEFA’s current marketing activity that has kept them so strong in the world of football.

The paper has used the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix to examine possible business portfolios for UEFA. In this case, a business can be classified as either low or high depending on the rate of its growth in the industry. The illustration of the matrix is shown in the figure below:

Figure 1:  illustrating the Boston Matrix

Source (Mutandwa, et al., 2009).

The dog products are those which are least demanded in the market. Though UEFA seems not to be having the dog products, the Organization has to avoid such products within their portfolio. On the same note, the question mark products are not known on whether they will develop to a star or move to the dog quadrant. In the case of UEFA, women, and girls’ football is still under the question mark as it does not attract a large pool of fans. There is a great need for EUFA to work extra hard so that women and girls football can be more attractive (Star Products) than the way it is at the moment. Moreover, there is a need for the organization to maintain its star products (UEFA Champions League). This is one of the most entertaining footballs across the world, and there is a need to sustain it. Equally, the Company needs to milk her “Cash cow products (company T-shirts and advertisements) without killing the cow.” Most organizations across the world use UEFA platform for advertising their events, and this needs to be encouraged by the Company to improve their earnings.

Sports marketing mix

The Four Ps Marketing Mix

Price

UEFA charges relatively high-prices for its matches and the associated products. This is based on the fact that the Organization usually offers highly competitive matches that attract a greater magnitude of fans. The Company adopts a premium pricing technique. A premium pricing technique comprises of providing products at a very high cost than some other compatible products that are present within the market (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016).  For example, a comparison between UEFA and some other football organizations reveals that channels showing UEFA Champion League games are more expensive to subscribe to compared to the other channels. The strategy, in this case, is specifically meant for increasing the Company’s profit margin. Match tickets are equally relatively expensive when compared to other organizations like the FA and EPL. UEFA is the most famous football organization across the planet (Buraimo, Simmons & Maciaszczyk, 2012).  The Organization has made its position very clear of premium pricing through its upmarket presentations. The fan following of the matches sponsored by the Organization is very loyal and is ever willing to pay any amount required from them to watch their favorite team as they play. Therefore, the UEFA Champions League is usually very costly. The Organization charges first-class prices for the tickets. Moreover, the pricing policies for all the products and services of UEFA are not only premium but also of very high quality.

Product

With regards to the market share of UEFA products, the Organization holds a more significant share of the total market. The Organization’s product satisfies the entertainment requirements of different football fans (Brahmana, 2011).  With the Company’s additional entertainment and web-based features, customers and fans are capable of browsing further through the internet to view the teams of their choice. EUFA offers highly entertaining competition, something which has been highly attractive to the fans across the globe. Given the high demand for UEFA Champions League global sponsorship packages, for instance, UEFA plans to incorporate a package-by-package sales approach, unlike the category-by-category approach that is used by other football organizations across the world (Marketing – Administration – About UEFA – Inside UEFA – UEFA.com., 2019).

This is specifically meant to be applied for the remaining European Champions leagues. Worthwhile to note is the fact that the UEFA Champions League presently score greater points with corporate sponsors and sports marketers not only in Europe but also in some other parts of the world (Gerrard, 2006). European Champions leagues are currently considered the biggest club game all over the world and have subsequently become one of the most effective marketing platforms for different brands. UEFA had, in the recent past introduced additional bonus factors of universal interest from different groups of fans across the world. The main product of UEFA is the brand itself. The Organization allows different platforms to broadcast their games at different prices (Londhe, 2014).  The Organization has its website through which it markets its product more efficiently and effectively. The Company also has tie-ups with some other websites which have been authorized to sell the Company’s products. The global brand, UEFA, has made great deals with companies like supersport to sell its own plus some other products.

Place

While the Company is based in Europe, its products and services are distributed all over the world. For instance, one can watch the European Champion League at the comfort of their homes, as long as they have the current subscription from numerous channels (Carmichael, McHale & Thomas, 2011).  The Company equally has an active website, Facebook platform, and twitter handle through which information can move very easily from and to its fans. The Organization introduced the trade partners’ model. The Organization makes sure that there is a sustainable mutual agreement with all its partners so that the distribution channel can continue running (UEFA’s marketing boost for FAs | Inside UEFA, 2019). UEFA strongly believes that by having a high number of partners, the effectiveness and efficiency of its entertainment products become achievable.

Promotion

UEFA promotes itself through a number of ways. It uses sales promotion and advertisement in persuading different groups of its customers to purchase its products. The Organization specifically focuses on the concept of insistent advertisement by applying different marketing channels (Bouzdine-Chameeva, Ferrand, Valette-Florence & Chanavat, 2015).  The Company adopts both digital, print media, and TV advertising channels. The Organization also uses billboards for advertising its matches and also to communicate its brand image.

The literature outlines that billboards are widely readable as they attract attention, more also when placed at the main highways. The writings on the billboards need to be promiscuous. This will reach most of the locals since the Organization is based within one of the greatest towns in Europe (Bouzdine-Chameeva, Ferrand, Valette-Florence & Chanavat, 2015).  The younger generation, as well as travelers get attracted to Billboards and print media and therefore seek the services of the Company, thereby helping in improving UEFA brand awareness. The continuous presence of advertising billboards within highways as well as in public areas is an incentive for UEFA to continue investing in this medium of advertising (Bouzdine-Chameeva, Ferrand, Valette-Florence & Chanavat, 2015).  According to Nielsen, “the visual market is expanding as a result of increased accessibility and emerging technology”. The most significant advertisement locations are in busy streets, as 65% of all non-home radio use occurs there, and it increases to 77% during weekends. With the use of billboards, brands are effectively developed, and relationships with customers enhanced (Graham & Adams, 2013).  Moreover, one of the greatest aspects demonstrated in the Organization’s ads is its uniqueness that is promoted by fans all over the world.

UEFA Champions Leagues have always been delivered to different groups of fans across the world through digital platforms. Subsequent to that, other than the projected audience of more than 150 million fans, more than 300 million fans have always been in a position to watch the League finals through digital content (McLaren, 2019). UEFA uses key digital platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and also Foursquare together with relevant free android smartphone application to share with the fans unique content of the Organization’s festivals with fans found in different parts of the world.

As recently reported by the Organization’s director of communication, the success of numerous social media platforms covering UEFA Champions League and associates activities demonstrate that the Organization has made a great investment on the digital marketing platforms (McLaren, 2019). UEFA has developed a comprehensive infographic platform that details the engagement and traffic across numerous media channels. More than 300,000 viewers are, therefore able to stream the Champion League matches live at the UEFA.com, YouTube, as well as from Google+ (McLaren, 2019). The Company has numerous tweets, and Facebook likes, with more than 20,000 UEFA Champion League Foursquare badges containing the UCL trophy being unlocked during the time there are final matches. UEFA currently use greater portion of its budget on digital marketing compared to the 1% used in traditional marketing activities like having a talk show and putting up posters on the nature of services that the Company is offering.