Sponsorships in Sports Marketing - Case Study Example

Melbourne City Football Club Name Institution Date Course Target Markets Target market involves international sports companies which are capable of providing sponsorship to the organization for the purposes of ensuring that it is able to meet its goals and objectives. The brands of the sponsors will be advertised through the jersey and other properties of the club. The advertisements of the company will also feature the products of the sponsor. This will be useful in ensuring that the sponsor is able gain popularity among the members of the public. The target market will benefit from its sponsorship deals with the organization. Since the company requires huge financial support, the sponsor must be capable of providing adequate financial support to the club. A good relationship has to be maintained with a sponsor in order for the deal to be successful (Athanasopoulou & Sarli, 2015). The target market has to have its operations around the Asia Pacific Region. This is for the purposes of ensuring that the organization is also able to benefit from the deal. The sponsors should also be in a position to develop the women sportswear. This is due to the nature of the club and its league. The market is also full of other sponsors who are responsible for the sponsoring other clubs in the league. This includes the international as well as the local companies. Most of the clubs usually sign sponsorship deals worth millions of dollars. The sponsorship deals are beneficial to both the companies as well as the clubs. Companies such as Adidas are actively involved in sponsoring some clubs in the industry. Benefits The sport property of the club is a strategic fit with the sponsor in various ways. The sponsor is a sportswear company. The label of Nike will appear in the property of the club including the training ground and hence playing an important role in ensuring that the brand image of the sponsor is improved. The sponsor will also benefit in terms of marketing its products as some of it will be used by the club. The popularity of the sponsor will also be increased among the funs of the club as well as the other sports fun. The sponsor will be able to gain popularity in the sports field in the country which is one of its main objectives. Most of the sponsors usually benefit from their deals with the clubs at their popularity is increased among the spectators and hence increasing its sales (Shank & Lyberger, 2014). The sponsor will also be able to receive some customized package which will increase its popularity among the spectators. The sponsor will be able to receive the naming rights for the training ground of the club. The signage rights will also enable the company to be more popular as it will impact positively on creation of awareness about the sponsor. The tickets of the club will also have the label of the sponsor which will play an essential role in ensuring that the popularity of the sponsor among the spectators is increased. The products of the sponsor will experience an increase in sales due to the customized packages. Creative leverage The needs of the sponsor are to build its brand image and increase the sales for its products. This plays an important role in increasing the revenue of the sponsors. The sponsors also need to build a positive image among the customer base. In this case the customer base is the funs and the sports fraternity. A new customer base for the sponsors is important in ensuring that the sales are increased. The sponsor also requires a platform that it can use for advertising its products (Turley, et al, 2015). The club therefore provides a perfect platform for the sponsor to advertise its products among the customers. Due to the high number of funs who are associated with the club, the sponsor will be able to increase its sales. The popularity of the sponsor will also increase as most of the soccer fans will be able to notice the brand of the sponsor. This is also considering that the club has to play in different areas with other clubs. This sponsorship deal is therefore important in ensuring that the needs of the sponsors are met. The club will also benefit from the sponsorship deal. The club will be able to obtain financial and material support from the sponsors. The financial support from the sponsors will enable the club to carry out different functions without facing the financial challenges. The sponsors as well as the club therefore benefit in the long run which makes the situation a win-win situation for both parties. Marketing Plan The marketing plan of the club will involve presenting the club in a positive way to the sponsors. This is important in ensuring that the club is able to present a good image to the sponsors. The plan will also indicate some of the strengths of the club and why the sponsors should invest in it. Most of the sponsors are usually interested in understanding what the club can offer in return for the sponsorship (Meenaghan, 2013). The mission and vision of the club is to emerge the best club in the league. The table below is the SWOT analysis of the club which will be used to convince the sponsors. Strengths Weaknesses The club competes in the top league which has a high number of funs and supporters. The club has a world class AAMI park stadium. The club competes in one of the best ever arenas in the world. The club does not have a proper training facility. The club is not financially stable at the moment due to the huge expenses in the form of wages and salaries. The club does not have a strong support from sponsors. Opportunities Threats The club has an opportunity to increase the quality of club hospitality. The club has an opportunity to reduce the cost of its packages by 20%. The club has an opportunity to work with international and top class sponsors. The competition from the other clubs is high. The club has been losing some of its crucial matches. PEST analysis Political The political environment in Australia is stable and the sponsor is not likely to face any political uncertainties. The laws and regulations in Australia that govern the sports industry are quite friendly and it promotes the sponsorship of the clubs (Hajkowicz, et al, 2013). The club is law abiding and the sponsor is not likely to face any legal problems by associating with the club. Economic Australia enjoys a stable economy which supports the growth and development of the sports industry. The stable economy enables more spectators to purchase the tickets to watch the game (Greenhalgh & Greenwell, 2013). The products of the sponsor can also be purchased by the spectators. The sponsorship deal will therefore be successful under the prevailing economic conditions. Social Soccer is a social event and most of the Australians like spending the weekends watching soccer. As a result of this, the club has been able to gather a lot of support from the spectators. Most of the spectators are loyal to be club due to its ability to entertain them through its matches. This is likely to have positive impacts on the sponsors. Technology Technology is one of the important concepts that is being used by the club for the purposes of improving on the efficiency of its operations. Technology is used for the collection of tickets and monitoring the transactions of the club. Inventory of assets The sponsorship manager is will have access to various inventories that will be useful in ensuring that the sponsor is able to meet their goals and objectives. The sponsorship manager will be provided accesses to the training ground and carry out their branding process at the training grounds. This will be useful in terms of creating awareness among the members of the public with regards to the products of the sponsor. The sponsorship manager will also be provided with the naming rights and will be able to name training ground under its brand name. This will be an important intellectual right that will impact positively on the ability of the brand image of the sponsor. The sponsorship manager will also be provided with access to the properties of the club including its records. This is for the purposes of ensuring that the amount provided by the sponsor is not wasted or mismanaged. The relationship between the sponsors and the club has to b. e good at all times in order to ensure that the deal is successful. The sponsorship manager will also be provided with an opportunity to express nay concern with regards to the packages that have been offered. The success of sponsorship deal is dependant o the nature of the packages that is offered (Biscaia, et al, 2013). This is considering that the packages should meet the needs of the sponsors. The club also has to meet its goals and objectives and benefit from the packages offered to the sponsor. List of References Athanasopoulou, P, & Sarli, E, 2015, The development of new sponsorship deals as new business-to-business services, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 30(5). Shank, M, D, & Lyberger, M, R, 2014, Sports marketing: A strategic perspective, Routledge. Turley, L, et al, 2015, Sponsorships in Sports Marketing: Some Propositions. In Proceedings of the 1999 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 390-396), Springer International Publishing. Meenaghan, T, 2013, Measuring sponsorship performance: challenge and direction, Psychology & Marketing, 30(5), 385-393. Biscaia, R, et al, 2013, Sport sponsorship: The relationship between team loyalty, sponsorship awareness, attitude toward the sponsor, and purchase intentions, Journal of Sport Management, 27(4), 288-302. Greenhalgh, G, P, & Greenwell, T, C, 2013, Professional niche sports sponsorship: an investigation of sponsorship selection criteria, International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 14(2). Hajkowicz, S, et al, 2013, The Future of Australian Sport: Megatrends shaping the sports sector over coming decades, A Consultancy Report for the Australian Sports Commission. Read More