An Analysis of Warwickshire Cricket Club as a Business - Case Study Example

An Analysis of Warwickshire Cricket Club as a Business Introduction Established in the year 1826, the Wellesbourne Cricket Club was founded on land owned by the earl of Warwick nearby to the Warwick Race-course and in the year 1864, the Warwickshire County Cricket Club was formed by a group of aristocrats (Press Release, 2007). Being the sole representative of certain rural areas of the county, William Ansell, who was a local Birmingham school master, assisted in organizing a meeting in the Coventry, in the year 1882, in order to discuss the formation of a fully representative county club (Press Release, 2007). This meeting resulted in the formal establishment of the present Warwickshire County Cricket Club for the most significant reason that Birmingham cricket was growing apace. The Warwickshire County Cricket Club is amongst the eighteen major county clubs which form the English domestic cricket structure corresponding to the historic county of Warwickshire. It has a limited-overs team called as the Warwickshire Bears, and their kit-colors are blue and gold. It is resident in Edgbaston Cricket Ground in south Birmingham, which consistently is responsible for hosting Test and One Day International matches. 2. The Present Situation and Business Challenge In the early on, Warwickshire made use of the information from a range of databases to mass mail fans regarding the upcoming matches, news and offers. Many a times, there occurred duplication of the information or missing of the data. With such an inaccurate hold on the data, it was quite intricate for them to assemble market intelligence, and obtain a lucid demographic of their fan-base because each of the department would hold a distinct profile. As a result, the evaluation of true success of a marketing campaign was challenging enough to attain. The teams faced enormous problems in the IT, ticketing, sales, finance and marketing departments in order to efficaciously utilize the vast amount of lore stored in these databases. The formation of tailored-lists and attendee profiles was another time-depleting and cumbersome process. Jonathan Cockcroft who was the Marketing Manager at Warwickshire County Cricket Club, realized that the club was finding it difficult to tactically and efficaciously market its products, and hence, alterations to the data infrastructure needed to be made for the Club to develop its full potential off the pitch (Press Release, 2007). With following the delineation of the products and its potential advantages, Venue Solutions was opted to enable the Club for gaining more effectual and effective contacts with the fans, thereby, boosting its long-term revenues. Such an implementation of views designed by the Venue solution, assisted Warwickshire County Cricket Club to target on the appropriate demographic for their individual campaigns. This ability of the system to drive new and existent revenue streams allowed teams within IT, ticketing, sales, finance and marketing to have a realistic access to business performance and extensive customer information. The core age groups attending the matches, and purchasing the trends can easily be identified, thereby, developing targeted marketing campaigns which assist in driving sales. According to the organizational consultants and educators of coaching, the customs of cricket should be aimed to introduce as a basis for organizational culture, across several nationalities. Hence, Warwickshire County Cricket Club has developed as a discipline in the private sector, with its urge to be consistently ahead in its products and services, while moving quicker than the public or other sporting sectors. Some of its ideologies and plans have been lamentable, some are the perfect examples of brilliance. The business world today, has already advanced through the development of functionally specific business coaching, executive coaching, and life coaching (Hitting the Seam. 2005). Categories have been divided in to technical, leadership-oriented, and pseudo-psychotherapeutic. For Warwickshire County Cricket Club, with regard to the construction of a global initiative, in order to make an aesthetic and successful approach to establish a prominent business, the culture of each region where the business is to be done, should be understood. Acute diagnostic skills and creativity in order to facilitate the right product for their target audience, have been achieved through regional workshops led by high profile educators and professional assisted by local specialists. English cricket is enormously rich in culture as the diversity delineates potential and has the ability to respond to the requirements of regional and intellectual differences. 3. Marketing and Sponsorship Analysis According to news feed, the Warwickshire County Cricket Club has appointed Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, VCCPas its retained marketing and advertising agency to oversee the imminent projects which include advertising the forthcoming year's major international fixtures comprising of a test match against South-Africa and a one-day international with New Zealand (Chime Communications news feed, 2007). It also is going to be responsible regarding the creation of awareness of the County's sponsorship opportunities over the next couple of years or two. Edgbaston, being one of the test match grounds hosting the Ashes in 2009, is going to face a series of campaigns with the held of VCCP, in order to delineate the ways in which major hallmarks can achieve prosperous exposures at the ground over the next three years (Chime Communications news feed, 2007). Moreover, due to such reasons, the Warwickshire County Cricket Club has therefore identified the need to position Edgbaston as its all-year round venue. The remit of VCCP is inclusive of the establishment of the Club's hallmark proposition and the development of a new corporate style, designed in order to assist in attracting sponsorship involvement with the Club. In James McLaughlin's words, the Commercial Director of Warwickshire County Cricket Club, the modern cricket landscape is delineated with the element of great commercialism. The clubs require the possessing of a firm commitment to and forethought for their brands in order to achieve the commercial element, so that the complementary brands and services can flourish through their sponsorship relationships (Chime Communications news feed, 2007). It is believed that the opportunities in cricket have nurtured in a drastic manner over the last few years. Clubs like Warwickshire County Cricket Club are exceedingly well-positioned so as to capitalize on the expansion of sports sponsorship. The premier hallmarks should be attracted by such clubs which have developed a clear positioning. 4. PEST and SWOT Analysis PEST stands for external factors like Political, Economical, Social, and Technological. The senior professionals should initially understand the first phase of this program of political factors which includes human rights and legal aid (The Times 100, 2003). It focuses on the specific targets to maximize assistance provided to the members and customers in requirement. The Warwickshire Club is required to adjudicate the stability of the political government, and the laws regulating the tax on business. The officials need to understand the position of government in marketing ethics, and its policy on the economy as well. The Economic factors include the need for the Club officials to consider the interest rates, the level of inflation Employment level of the business, along with the Long-term prospects for the economy Gross Domestic Products per capita (Gilbertsilvius). The social factors include the interpretation of dominant religion and the attitudes to alien products and services. Since, the linguistics impact upon the diffusion of products on to the market, it is necessary for the organization to analyze its consequences. The last factor which is the technological one, is vital for competitive benefit, since it is a major driver of globalization (Gilbertsilvius). The technology allows for products and services to be of a better standard of quality, and therefore, the Warwickshire Club should efficaciously involve the maximum of technology in today's vicinity of competition. Technology will offer customers with more innovative products and services, which would transform the distribution as well. Lastly, technological factors will offer the Club a new way to communicate their customers, i.e. through banners, internet, Customer Relationship Management, etc. The introduction of SWOT i.e. the analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to the universal strategy development are outlined so as to reflect on the results and the implications can have the maximum impact. The owner of the business does this analysis in order to improvise the current position of the business. For the betterment and prosperity of the Warwickshire Club, the analysis should be done with the senior members of the club, which are considered to be the internal aspects of the business, maintaining the quality of the product and the managerial skills (bnet, 2008). Furthermore, the senior professionals should analyze the opportunities and threats as well, which are considered as the external factors, for example, the establishment of an entirely new market or the advent of new competitors. 5. Conclusion In the new economy, organizations tend to share a number of common characteristics such as, the young age of management, rapid transformations in the vicinity, and high grades of reliabilities on strategic skills. To address these issues, the Warwickshire club requires to attempt for having development programs which enable the managers to experiment and experience strategic considerations in an effort so as to prepare them for their current and future poses in the minimum possible time, as well as allow them to think beyond the realms of their ideologies (Stuart, 2001). The usage of provocations has been brought in action for training purposes and in organizations which involve huge capital to learn through the trial and error approach. 6. References Bnet. 2008, SWOT Analysis - To Make Your Business More Profitable. Chime Communications news feed. 2007, Warwickshire County Cricket Club hands VCCP its campaigns. August 31, 2007. Gilbertsilvius. Pest Analysis. [Online] retrieved on December 1, 2008 from . Hitting the Seam. 2005, The Future of Coaching. Issue Number 15. Press Release. 2007, Warwickshire County Cricket Club expands on market intelligence with Venue Solutions. January 17, 2007. Stuart, Johns. 2001, Complexity in Amateur Sports Scheduling. Sheffield Hallam University. The Times 100. 2003, Using PEST analysis to identify external influences. Legal Services Commission. Read More