Sports Event Management Marketing - Case Study Example

Sport Event Management Marketing Name Institution Sport Event Management Marketing Background and Problem Definition The tough Mudder is an event which involves a series of challenges. It involves military style obstacles where participants navigate a sixteen to nineteen kilometer course. It was established in 2010 by a corporate lawyer and a Harvard Business school student to test physical and mental strength. The obstacle challenges play on peoples fears such as heights, water, fire and electricity. The challenge focuses on attributes such as group participation as the obstacles are designed to encourage team work. To participate in the challenges, participants have to overcome their fears, work as a team and help each other. About 78% of participants complete the challenges. The Tough Mudder is currently worth seventy million dollars. The co-founders of Tough Mudder are Guy Livingstone and Will Dean who formed the company in 2010. The first event was held in May 2010 in the United States. The vent was promoted using word of mouth and Facebook advertisements and it drew over four thousand, five hundred participants. By 2013, the company had more than seven hundred participants with events in Australia, , Canada, The United Kingdom and The United States. In April 2016, the company announced that it will partner with Seroja Partners to host events in Indonesia and Bali. It has also partnered with IMG to host events in the Middle East and Asia. The Tough Mudder Melbourne will be held on November 19th and 20th 2016. Marketing is one of areas which would require improvement to expand and improve the number of customers and participants in the event. The external environment can affect the marketing of events. These factors can be divided into micro and macro factors. Sometimes, macro and micro factors are beyond the control of marketers. However, they are important when making a marketing strategy in business. When marketing events the one of the micro factors which can affect a business is the suppliers. The micro factors include the suppliers, the customers, the competition, the general public and the resellers among others. The macro factors that affect events marketing include economic factors, demographic factors, political and legal forces, natural forces, cultural and social forces and technological factors. The Tough Mudder clients have various needs. There corporate clients who take part in the event for team building and there are also individual clients and groups of friends who join the events. The aim of the challenge is to improve the participants’ strengths and how they deal with physical and mental challenges. The challenges in the Tough Mudder event are suitable for corporate clients as it requires team building capabilities. They are designed to be taken by teams and not by individuals. Therefore, the teams are expected to work together to complete the challenge. The challenges are tough and not all participants can handle it until the end. Couples can also complete in the challenges together so that they can get to know more about each other through the sporting options available. People who are also keen on their physical health and adrenaline junkies are clients as the event is adrenaline filled. Literature Review The purpose of this review is to determine the importance of marketing in events management using the example of the Tough Mudder Melbourne. The main aim of this review is to find ways to improve marketing efforts of the Tough Mudder Melbourne so that the number of customers is increased. To determine this, I will review literature on theories, concepts and practices in event management that are relevant to event marketing. One of the marketing theories which is important in sporting events is the marketing Mix. Marketing is important and it is an area of focus for the Tough Mudder Melbourne event. Improving the marketing efforts can increase the number of customers participating in the event. The discipline of marketing is continually evolving. If one does not constantly employ marketing strategies in business, they may be left behind by their competitors. Example of change in the marketing strategies is seen in the evolution of the marketing mix (Allen, 2005). Initially, there were four marketing P’s which has since changed to seven P’s adding depth in marketing as some theorists go further. The four marketing P’s include Product, Place, Price and Promotion. The product is important in marketing as it should fit the needs of the consumer. In marketing the product in Tough Mudder Melbourne, it is also important to understand the client’s needs so that they can understand how to plan for future events. The product should be useful to the client for it to be good for marketing. The product is also important as it should meet the expectations of the consumers. For instance, the Tough Mudder Melbourne should be advertised and be no less than what the customers expect. Place is another component of the marketing mix. The product should be easily available to its target audience. In the case of the Tough Mudder Melbourne, it is important as the venues to the event should be accessible for it to be convenient. This would mean holding the event in various locations to make it easily accessible to numerous people. Price is the third P in the marketing mix. The price of the product should be affordable for the client. The service being offered should also have value for the price tag. Customers can add more money for a product that works for them as long as they get value for their money. Promotion is another important aspect of the marketing mix. Promotion includes tools such as sales and promotion, advertising, Public relations, social media and personal selling. Promotion involves conveying the organizational message and the product to the target audience. The extended marketing mix was created in 1981 (Booms & Bitner). This introduced three P’s to the basic four P’s. These included services to ensure the products were not just physical. The P’s were extended to include people, physical evidence and processes. People are the workforces who run a business. The staff/people are important as they interact with the customers, product or services. Hence, the right personnel are always important in business. Processes are important as it involves the delivery of services. This is sometimes done with the customer present which is part of the package the customer pays for. Physical evidence is also important even when dealing with services. For instance, The Tough Mudder Melbourne has the physical element of the experience and the obstacle challenges which the clients would later feel the effects. The P’s are important in marketing of events and can be used to actuate various changes in a business or events. It can be used to actuate various changes when marketing a product or service. The second marketing theory which would be useful in sports events marketing is PESTLE Analysis. PESTEL analysis is used to monitor macro-environment of business. This can help identify weaknesses and threats in an organization. PESTEL is an initial for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. Political factors affect event marketing as different governments have various ways of intervening in the economy. Government interventions include stability of a country politically, policies in place, tax policies, foreign trade policies, environmental law, labor law, trade restrictions and environmental laws. This can affect businesses and organizations way of business. Therefore, before businesses settle in an area, they need to be aware of legislations that could affect them so that they can change their policies on marketing. Economic factors are factors also have a huge impact in business marketing (Berridge, 2006). This is because it affects the profitability of business. Some of the economic factors which affect business include interest rates, economic growth, inflation, exchange rates and disposable income for clients and organizations. Therefore, if the market is doing well, more clients would probably participate in the Tough Mudder challenge while the number would reduce when people have less disposable income. Economic factors can be subdivided into either micro or macro economic factors. Factors that are macro-economical deal with demand management. This includes governments using government expenditure, taxation policies, interest rates control to control events and businesses. Factors that are micro-economic affect how customers spend their money and can influence whether they can attend events or not. Social cultural factors involve attitudes and beliefs which are shared by the population. Socio-cultural factors are important in marketing as they help understand the target clientele. Therefore, Tough Mudder Melbourne would benefit from doing a socio cultural survey in their regions to understand the population so that they can market the event and increase the number of participants. Technological factors in PESTEL analysis involve change in technology when marketing. Technology changes affect marketing and businesses have to keep up with the trends when marketing. In the case of the Tough Mudder events, advertisements were initially done through Facebook and word of mouth. To change with technology would mean finding ways of advertising the events in other popular sites to reach a greater audience. Technological changes are seen in production, communication channels and distribution (Berridge, 2006). Environmental factors should also be considered in marketing. Environmental factors are important as events and businesses should be done in a sustainable ways. This means that events should be marketed in a way that shows that they are sustainable so that it can draw in clients who are environmentally conscious as it could cause issues to marketers. Legal factors are also an important component in marketing. It involves equal opportunity, health and safety, laws and consumer price, product labeling, advertising standards and product safety. For a business to trade successfully, they need to meet all legal requirements. Legislation varies everywhere and the legislations for Tough Mudder Melbourne may not be similar to those held in other countries. For a sporting event like Tough Mudder Melbourne, a PESTEL analysis would be suitable for use when conduction a SWOT analysis. To understand consumer decision making process, another important theory is the buyer or consumer decision making process. This theory enables companies to understand how customers make decisions to purchase products or services from beginning to the end. There are five stages in this theory. These include recognition of problem, information search, evaluating alternatives, purchase and satisfaction or dissatisfaction post purchase. Problem recognition in sporting events would require the business to understand the needs of their clientele. This includes finding out the needs of the Tough Melbourne individual and corporate teams as well as spectators. Finding out there needs is important to make it easier to deal with their needs (Bowdin, McDonnell, Allen, O’Toole, 2010). For a business setting, the corporation may realize that they need team building to solidify working relationships among employees. For a sporting corporation, identifying the time that client’s needs are likely to develop is good so that they can advertise their services. The next step after this is information search. Research for ideas for team building activities or other sporting activities can be done online. They can get this information from the company’s website, social media or online reviews about the events. For a sporting event to be considered, it should advertise itself well so that people can find it when they are doing their online search (Tum, Norton, Nevan, Wright, 2005). Customers also evaluate their alternatives. This helps them find the right product or package for them. For Tough Mudder to stand out, they would definitely have to offer better packages as compared to their competition. When evaluation alternatives, customer use reviews, compare prices and get opinions from people they know. After evaluation, the client may choose to purchase the product. Customer choices to purchase may be influenced by advertisements, marketing campaigns, logical conclusions, experiences or a combination of the reasons. For instance, previous participants who competed in the challenge may continue participating because of good past experience. After the purchase of a product or service, the customer can either be satisfied or dissatisfied. Customers get satisfaction when a product meets or exceeds their expectations. If this is the case, they can give the event good reviews and influence other potential participants. When customers are dissatisfied, they can tarnish the name of the company and affect future sells. Therefore, keeping customers happy is an important aspect of marketing. Concepts of marketing are also important to understand how to market an event. Marketing concepts include societal marketing, production, selling, product and marketing ( Jobber, 2006). The concept of production states that consumers want products that are available and those that are in their price budget. The product concept is a concept that states that consumers go for quality, innovation and performance when selection a product. Management that focuses on this concept improves their products over time and aim to make superior products. The concept of selling is one which states that consumers need to be probed to buy products and that they cannot buy a product unless promotional and selling efforts are in place. To stimulate more buying, promotional efforts have to be in place especially when a company has overcapacity. The marketing concept is a philosophy in business that challenges the production, product and selling concepts. This concept states that achievement of business goals is based on effectiveness as compared to competitors in delivering, communicating and creating its value to customers. The marketing concept differs from the sales concept because the sales concept focus is on customer needs while the focus of the marketing concept is customer needs. The sales concept focuses on cash transfer while marketing concept focuses on customer satisfaction. The marketing concept forms the basis of competitive advantage. The societal concept in marketing is the evolved marketing concept. According to this concept, organizations should determine interest, wants and needs of the market to deliver customer satisfaction than its competitors in a way which enhances the well being of the society and the consumer. Using these concepts, the Tough Mudder can further increase the number of their participants. Methodology Case study The aim of the study is to find out ways to improve marketing efforts for Tough Mudder Melbourne to expand the number of customers and to grow the market for the Tough Mudder Melbourne event. The two questions that arise from the study are: How do we improve marketing efforts for Tough Mudder Melbourne? And; how do we increase number of participants in the Tough Mudder Melbourne event? The methodology adopted for the research is a case study. There are three types of case studies. These are descriptive, explanatory and exploratory. Explorotory reviews data from the point of interests. The questions such as how does Tough Mudder Melbourne market its product? The questions in this type of case study leave room for further examination. Descriptive case studies explain phenomena within the data. Explanatory case studies tries to explain the phenomena through reviewing the data from the surface and deeply. Using case studies can help find ways of growing the market for the Tough Mudder Melbourne event. The case study approach is suitable for qualitative studies and helps to answer why and how. It also helps to determine causes and patterns. Case studies get information from documentation and interviews. Content and thematic analysis can be used to determine data meaning. Sampling Sampling is another suitable method for qualitative inquiry. It focuses on small samples instead of all possible cases. This is suitable when samples that are selected are rich in information. Purposeful sampling is good to ensure quality samples are selected for the study. To select samples who are rich in information, there are several sampling strategies that can be used. First is criterion sampling. This is important as it helps determine samples based on meeting some predetermined criteria. In this case of the Tough Mudder Melbourne, the sample for this study may be people living in Melbourne. From the literature review, it would be important to select a sample from the community to understand what impacts them to participate in events. According to Jober (2006) intensity samples are chosen from cases which are rich in information. This will enable the research produce information which is rich to illuminate success nature. This would involve contacting corporate teams around the region and individuals who like taking part in sporting activities. Selection could be done through internet search such as sporting groups in Melbourne to find contacts who like engaging in sporting activities. This information can be listed and sampled. Research can also be done from sites such as Facebook to get people who are active participants in sports in the area. The sample can afterwards be contacted and asked if they want to be participants in the study. Interviews Interviews are a good way of getting information from the sample population. The questions should be constructed in a way where the company can get good information that they can use to review customer interests so that they can increase the number of participants in the challenge. Interviews used can be focused, in-depth, unstructured or structured. The interview should be designed the study questions. Example of questions include asking the potential customers the factors that make them participate in events to know how to design the marketing plan so as to target more clients. This can help the researcher get insight on customer needs in the region. Advantages of Interviews 1. Interviews done face to face provide accurate screening 2. Suitable in capturing verbal and non-verbal cues 3. The interviewer can keep focus of the interviewee as they control the process 4. Behaviors and emotions can be captured. Disadvantages 1. Conducting interviews can be expensive as compared to other methods of data collection 2. The interviewer may influence the quality of data 3. Data entry may be consuming if done manually 4. Interviews may be time consuming and sample size may be limited Questionnaires Questionnaires are another suitable way of collecting data for the study. The questionnaires can be sent to the residents in the region through post, email or other relevant sources. This is a good method of data collection as it can cover a wider target population. Questions designed should be designed to find out the needs of the community members to know their interests and an advertisement strategy. Advantages 1. It is a practical means of data collection 2. It is cost effective as information can be collected in large numbers in a short time 3. Results are easily quantified 4. Results can be analyzed objectively and scientifically Disadvantages 1. It is hard to use to understand other forms of information 2. Lacks validity 3. Truthfulness of respondent is assured 4. People may interpret the questions differently. 5. There may be researcher imposition when questionnaires are developed. Focus groups Focus groups are also suitable when getting information from the customers. Understanding the customer needs can be done through this method to determine what they want and what changes can make them participate in the program. Focus groups involve intervieweing people in manageable groups to answer the study questions. This is suitable to find out ways of improving the Tough Mudder Melbourne challenge as it can help the company understand the local community and attract more clients. Advantages 1. Suitable for identifying personal and group feelings 2. They are cheaper and time efficient compared to individual interviews 3. Information received may be broader 4. Interviewer can seek clarification Disadvantages 1. Disagreements can occur when holding the discussions 2. Information may be hard to analyze 3. It may be hard to manage the group 4. Finding a wide range of participants may be difficult Summary The data collections method can be used hand in hand with the literature in the study. Information produced from the research can be used to find consumer needs which can help understand the consumer decision making process. This information can be used to improve marketing campaigns. Review of literature can also help the business find gaps in its marketing structure. This can help the company make improvements that would increase their sales in the Tough Mudder Melbourne challenge. Understanding the marketing theories, concepts and practices in event management is also important to determine ways the Tough Mudder Melbourne event can be marketed. References Allen, J. (2005) Time Management for Event Planners. New York: Wiley. Berridge, G. (2006) Event Design and Experience. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Bowdin, G., McDonnell, I., Allen, J., O’Toole, W. (2010) Events Management 3rd edition. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Goldblatt, J. (2010) Special Events: A New Generation and the Next Frontier. New York: Wiley. Hoyle, L. (2002) Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events, Festivals,Conventions, and Expositions. New York: Wiley. Jobber, D. (2006) Principles and Practice of Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Johnston, R. and Clark, G. (2008) Service Operations Management. London: Prentice Hall. Masterman, G. and Wood, E. (2005) Innovative Marketing Communications: Strategies for the Events Industry. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Communications, marketing and PR strategies are all analysed with the use of some very helpful case studies. Robinson, P., Wale, D., Dickson, G. (2010) Events Management. CABI: Wallingford. Tum, J., Norton, P., Nevan Wright, J. (2005) Management of Event Operations. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More