Marketing Event in 2014: FIFA World Cup - Essay Example

Marketing Event in FIFA World Cup TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: 2 Selection of the topic relevant to marketing: 2 Marketing Issues present in the World Cup 2014: 3 Key players (sponsors) and their roles: 3 Selection of the topic used in the marketing textbook: 4 Conclusion: 5 Reference List 7 Appendix: 9 Introduction: Marketing has become an internal aspect of the business as well as the social activities conducted all over the world (Calder & Malthouse, 2008). With the advent of ICT growth, a new leaf has been turned in the marketing process, and also in the role of various operational segments of marketing activities. It has impacted not only in the business events and activities, but also in several global events related to sports, music, entertainment and other political happenings. This study focuses on the marketing process involved in one of the most happening events in the world, the FIFA World Cup 2014. The choice of the event has been made on the basis of its reputation and attraction to the global audience. Selection of the topic relevant to marketing: In this particular essay, the researcher intends to reflect the growing appeal of FIFA World Cup over the years and the steps taken by FIFA to develop the mass brand equity for the concerned occasion. FIFA World Cup 2014 is relevant to the marketing concept as it includes sales of ticket, promotion of the events utilizing songs of the tournament and huge supports from its sponsors. “Position FIFA marketing as best in class in the sports marketing and sponsorship field” (FIFA.COM, 2014). Marketing target of the event was development of innovative marketing program to enhance fan experience at FIFA events and mange its brand equity by ensuring an inspirational and consistent brand image. Ballantyne & Varey (2009) mentioned that, the success of the marketing process of the FIFA events is automatically boosted with the anticipation of the viewers all over the world. This is one of the key aspects in the marketing process of the FIFA events, the popularity of soccer as a sport, is already established in the sports segment. This reduces the effort of FIFA for promoting the World Cup and they try to provide information to their customers to keep them engaged with the occurrences. Fournier (2007) noticed that, the marketing process of FIFA World Cup 2014 was mainly supported by the sponsors. Marketing Issues present in the World Cup 2014: Although the marketing of the World Cup 2014 was effective, there were certain gaps in the promotional activities of the event. Limited direct focus on the promotional activities which were primarily conducted by Adidas created some gaps in the marketing process and also enhanced the chances of miscommunication. Although, third party promotion is not uncommon in the corporate sector, the total independence provided to the sponsors of the game for promoting their brand and the brand value of the event can be observed as a gap in the marketing process (Morgan & Hunt, 2007). FIFA showcased the internal issues faced by the Brazilian Government, while organising the event in the official FIFA website ensuring consumer engagement with the event development and in the process, also gained consumer confidence courtesy transparent communication process (FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL, 2014). However, companies those are not commercially affiliated, has not participated in the advertisement activities and this has raise to an undue commercial association with the tournament of FIFA (BUSINESS 2 COMMUNITY, 2014). FIFA has strictly restricted free-riding for brands apart from their sponsors to boosts their sales through World Cup related marketing. It has strictly refrain participation of the official sponsors. Key players (sponsors) and their roles: Focusing on the role of sponsors, although Adidas, was the official sponsor for the games of 2014, but other sports companies such as Nike, Puma also participated in promoting the FIFA World Cup 2014 as a part of their business marketing aspects. The contribution of extra promotion reflects that the promotion of World Cup 2014 is based more on the public relations rather than their personalised promotional activities (FIFA.COM, 2014). However, Pelsmacker et al. (2009) argued that, business processes mostly related to the international market place, try to leverage their brand equity in order to enhance their consumer followership. FIFA in this regard, tries to create a platform for revenue generation and at the same time, market their events and occurrences. For instance, selling the World Cup goodies such as team t-shirts, the official mascot key rings or lighters, flags of the participant nations, etc. help in enhancing the brand awareness among the nations of the world. Even in lower developed countries such as Portugal, the demand for World Cup has exceeded expectations as; 24.7 million people viewed the game between Portugal and USA on 22nd June 2014. These figures also suggest that the broadcasting process for the World Cup 2014, where FIFA selected the Host Broadcast Services as the service provider and Sony was the official equipment provider for the concerned event (BUSINESS 2 COMMUNITY, 2014). Selection of the topic used in the marketing textbook: Relating the activities of FIFA with the theoretical models of marketing, it can be observed that the elements of marketing mix have been used in an unorthodox manner during the promotional activities of the event. For instance, the most important factor in the marketing process was not the event itself, but was based on the existing loyalty of the viewers and sports lovers for soccer (FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL, 2014). This helped in generating the halo effect for the viewers, even after their favourite teams were not able to make it to the finals. On the other hand, use of brand equity to enhance the longevity of the World Cup fever among its fans, FIFA has utilised their brand equity of the sports. This has helped them to enlarge the duration of their growth stage and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage over the club representatives of the game. Further, the concept of viral marketing strategy also has been used in its promotional activities to increase FIFA’s brand awareness, not only among the domestic, but also global customers. In theoretical terms, viral marketing refers to as a marketing technique that seeks to exploit social media networking site to increase brand image via viral process (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009). During the event, FIFA have achieved viral tactics through several social media avenues, timeliness of posts and via adopting a unique theme song. In addition to that, with the help of existing brand loyalty of fans for their favourite team, FIFA also has gained additional facilities to diverse their brand message throughout the globe. Conclusion: The paper focuses on analysing and evaluating marketing aspect of FIFA World Cup and evaluates relevance of the event in reference to the marketing literature. The sponsorship and marketing structure allowed mass promotion of the event to its domestic as well as international market. One of the major benefits of FIFA’s sponsorship strategy is inclusion of wide accessories range, which has high brand value in the consumer market. The support of the sponsors and other commercial partners helped FIFA in enhancing the brand equity of the soccer world cups all through the years. Vision of the event was not only to develop the game, but also build a better future opportunity via initiating and developing various plans and program relating to the marketing event. Major sponsors like Adidas, Nike have made huge contribution to provide success to its business aspects. The significance of the marketing event has been used in the theoretical model of marketing mix and social media marketing. In a present day marketing guide, the influence of free riders on the brand development can be reflected as an upcoming trend in the corporate sector. Brand equity of the event has positioned FIFA marketing as best class of sports marketing and sponsorship field. Reference List Ballantyne, D. & Varey, R. J. (2009). Creating value-in-use through marketing interaction: the exchange logic of relating, communicating and knowing. Marketing Theory, 6(3), 335-348 BUSINESS 2 COMMUNITY. (2014). 2014 FIFA World Cup’s Goal-worthy Marketing Campaigns, Retrieved from http://www.business2community.com/marketing/2014-fifa-world-cups-goal-worthy-marketing-campaigns-0929117 Calder, B. J. & Malthouse, E. C. 2008. Qualitative Media Measures: Newspaper experiences. International Journal of Media Management, 6(2), 123-130. FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL. 2014. Online and Official Event Stores for Brazil 2014 open in Japan, Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2013/m=12/news=online-and-official-event-stores-for-brazil-2014-open-japan-2240917.html. FIFA.COM. (2014). FIFA MARKETING PROGRAMMES, Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/programmes/. FIFA.COM. (2014). Sponsorship Strategy, Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/sponsorship/strategy.html Fournier, S. (2007). Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research, 24(4), 343-373. Jarzabkowski, P. & Spee, A. P. (2009). Strategy-as-practice: A review and future directions for the field. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11(1), 69-95. Morgan, R. M. & Hunt, S. D. (2007). The commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 58(3), 20-38. Pelsmacker, P. D. Geuens, M. & Bergh, J. V. D. (2009). Marketing communications a European perspective 5th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Appendix: Official Sponsors of FIFA World Cup 2014 . Read More