The Successful Strategy of Stade Francis - Assignment Example

Based on your knowledge of strategic and operational sport marketing, explain the successful strategy of Stade Francis and how it differs from other clubs or sports in Europe. The sports industry is experiencing tremendous growth and sports marketing is playing an important role in this emerging industry. Sports marketing is the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products and the marketing of non-sports products through associations with sport. Many sports organizations define their businesses as entertainment providers. In addition, sports organizations know that in order to be successful in the competitive environment of sports, they must practice a marketing orientation (Raney, 2006). An organization with a marketing orientation concentrates on understanding consumers and providing sports products that satisfy consumers needs. Sports marketing will continue to grow in importance as sports become more pervasive in the culture around the globe. This phenomenal growth of the sports industry can be seen and measured in a number of ways. Growth can be identified by looking at the increasing numbers of sport spectators, the growth of media coverage, the increase in sports participation, rising employment opportunities, and the growth in sports internationally (Raney, 2006). Stade Francis has evolved to follow the simplified model of the consumer-supplier relationship in the sports industry that consists of three major elements: consumers of sport, sports products, and producers/intermediaries. Three distinct types of sports consumers are identified in the model. These consumers of sport include spectators who observe sporting events, participants who take part in the sporting events, and sponsors who exchange money or product for the right to be associated with a sporting event. The spectators, participants, and sponsors use sports products (Lagae, 2005). A sports product is a good, service, or any combination of the two that is designed to provide benefits to a sports consumer. The primary sports product consumed by sponsors and spectators is the sporting event. Products related to the event are athletes like Michael Jordan and arenas like the United Center which both provide their own unique benefits. Other categories of sports products common to the sports industry include sporting goods that are mainly equipment, apparel, and shoes, licensed merchandise, collectibles, and memorabilia, and personal training services for sports, and sports information such as news and magazines (Lagae, 2005). Stade Francis has been different than other clubs across Europe by bringing a dynamic change in the way rugby is followed and viewed. The product is developed in such a way that it develops a bond with the spectators and is true to the local culture of France. The club has been able to attract as many people as a full stadium because of the creativity of the way the sport is presented to the people. The sport has kept the traditions of the people intact as people follow normal cultural experiences like wine and social interaction as much in the stadium as they would outside maybe at a wedding. Furthermore, one important aspect to know about Stade Francis is that unlike other sports or rugby clubs across Europe, it does narrow its market down to its own self but is a supportive part of all the other sports in France as well. Whereas, all across Europe, rugby holds a very closed circle around its fans and tends to dominate the rest of the sports to such an extent that they may not even get a chance to grow and become main events even if they have potential (Lagae, 2005). Apart form these reasons, rugby for the Parisans is more for entertainment where the spectators enjoy the environment of the game more than the outcome. As often as Stade Francis may have won the game or lost it, it has not lead to any acts of vandalism or over joy. As many fans of different rugby or other sports clubs may sing and chant slogans around to enjoy the victory, the people of Paris just about look content with the entire day of game to have enjoyed it as they would have enjoyed a good meal (Kahle, 2005). What has made it all possible is the environment set for the game that is the music such as Gypsy Kings, the Pink uniform of the players and the cheering of the team and the crowd by the introduction of the cheerleaders called “les pom pom” girls. This in turn amalgamated with the idea that even if the team lost there would be another sport to follow has been closely linked to the way ,arketing is done for the NFL in America. Producers and intermediaries represent the third element of the simplified model of consumer-supplier relationship in the sports industry. Producers include those organizations or individuals that help manufacture the sporting event such as owners, sanctioning bodies, and sports equipment manufacturers. Intermediaries are also critical to the sports industry because they bring the sport to the end-user of the sports product. Sponsors, the media, and agents are the three intermediaries in sports marketing (Kahle, 2005). Although sports marketers must have a thorough understanding of the sports industry to be successful, the tool of their trade is the sports marketing mix. The sports marketing mix is defined as the coordinated set of elements that sports organizations use to meet their marketing mix objectives and satisfy consumers needs. The elements of the marketing mix are sports products, distribution or place, pricing, and promotion (Kahle, 2005). In addition to the marketing mix, another central element of marketing is the exchange process. The exchange process is defined as a marketing transaction in which the buyer gives something of value to the seller in return for goods and services. One of the things that makes the sports industry unique is the complex nature of the exchange process and the many exchanges that take place within a single sporting event (Kahle, 2005). To manage the complexities of the sports industry and achieve organizational objectives, sports marketers use the strategic sports marketing process. The strategic sports marketing process consists of three major parts: planning, implementation, and control. The planning process begins by understanding consumers needs, selecting a group of consumers with similar needs, and positioning the sports product within this group of consumers (Shilbury, 2004). The final step of the planning phase is to develop a marketing mix that will appeal to the targeted group of consumers and carry out the desired positioning. The second major part of the strategic sports marketing process is putting the plans into action or implementation. Finally, the plans are evaluated to determine whether organizational objectives and marketing goals are being met. This third, and final, part of the strategic sports marketing process is called control (Shilbury, 2004). The idea to sell the environment of the sport has been developed to such an extent for Stade Francis that people rarely recognize the happenings of the players or the coaches and the entire event is more focused on promotions than the number of tackles in the game. However, to add to the spice of the environment, Stade Francis has been able to promote the image of its players as the attractive man image on their tickets as well as other promotional items. Moreover, some famous coaches have been hired over time to maintain the quality of the game as well. Contact sports around the globe and mainly in Europe and the USA are projected with an image of the sport and the players being projected as the macho machine that never goes down without a fight. However, for Stade Francis the image has been totally the opposite. The team is a part of the culture of Paris. Founded by rich people and classic styles of wine and conversation- Stade Francis is kept in the heart of people not by the eventuality of winning but to sell the right environment and image to the people (Shilbury, 2004). Word Count: 1,293 Provide a critical analysis of the article’s title. Sport finds commercial sponsorship a tougher game in todays climate Over the period of time and the development of capitalistic markets around the globe and especially in the United States and Europe, competition has grown extensively. Many companies find themselves with products and services that are no longer much different than their competitors. Moreover, the boom in the consumer industry has lead to many companies divert their funds more into the product and marketing more than what has actually been the need. Still the sports market has developed to grow to be one of the largest around the globe with companies sponsoring players and teams to fund the costs related to major events (Milne et al, 1999). The sports market has developed along with the consumer market. The sport events are larger and at a much bigger scale than they used to be before. Where many events may have used to attract a few thousand viewers, today these events may attract a relatively higher number and may reach tens of thousands. Sporting arenas have been developed to accommodate an exponential growth in the turn over of the viewers and sports have been tailored to entertain more of these people everyday (Milne et al, 1999). However, this increase in the development of sport events has lead to huge costs involved in the maintenance of the facilities as well as the compensation packages of the management and players of the sports. The flair added by the companies in sponsoring events and players and their teams has been hiked up so much that now many of the same companies feel that it is hard to crunch out their advertisement budgets to meet the sponsorship amounts every year or season (Masterman, 2004). The budget crunches have made it hard for the sponsorship planners to justify the huge financial costs applied towards supporting of such events and making it commercially viable for the company. This financial crunch for the companies has not just been because of the increased budget requirements by the teams and events. The downward trend in the consumer market has made many companies to cut their advertising budgets as many consumers are now not as actively spending as they used to globally. Since the team financial costs have been covered by these companies as much as upto three fourths of their total, it amounts to a huge burden on the sponsoring companies. Furthermore, with decreased revenues and increased costs, the companies operations managers or higher management is finding it more and more difficult to justify these spending to the stakeholders of the companies (Masterman, 2004). However, although the budget cuts may seem to be the only reason for such a change in the marketing mixes of the companies, it is however influenced by many other factors. These factors may include a shift in the choice of sport of companies to sponsor- as many new sports have come into the arenas over the last decade. Extreme sports for the new generation and induction of many snow skiing and surfing sports have shifted the balance from the ever-present car racing and other sports of the type (Andrews, 2001). Viewers may have switched their preferences to different sports for many reasons as well. One of them may be that as the present sports activities have been shadowed a lot by the corporations and influencing the way teams operate, their fans may have found the sports redundant and not entertaining any more. The sponsorship may influence the contracts of the players as well making the team selection and the plays seem biased towards the company. This redundancy may allow viewers to adjust themselves to a newer sport rather than sticking with the same (Andrews, 2001). One of the many examples of such a switch is the higher ratings of golf on networks and its progressively developing fan following across the globe. Whereas this sport attracted just enough people as players at one time it has now become a recurring international event- as popular as tennis at one time. Many corporations have turned their focus on this sport and have helped in projecting it as an international event (Andrews, 2001). Support of new sports form the companies may have made way to a new path for advertising managers as they may now spend within their budgets. Furthermore, corporations are also getting more image conscious and are planning to relate their image to more neutral images than focusing on a sport such as football where their brand name may be related to vandalism and profanity. This switch in advertising preferences has made many sports managements break down their initial high demands of reserved space and now more and more focus is given on the sponsor than the sport itself. Team names are less visible than the sponsor name on the shirts and kits of all players. Many viewers may have been put off as loyalties to respective teams may be switched and even to the extent where the sport is now not as interesting as it used to be (Amis & Cornwell, 2005). However, it may not be sufficient to analyse these reasons for the lack of sponsorship present at this time. For many decades the events have been possible due to the participation of alcohol and tobacco industry. These corporations along with their huge hundreds of million dollar budgets have been key players in the development of all sports and a prime example is Formula one. The tobacco companies have engineered this sport since its initial commercialisation and have helped develop better teams and better cars in collaboration with other companies that manufacture technology (Amis & Cornwell, 2005). However, as the legislations and laws have been amended and passed across the globe to discourage and bar advertisements form tobacco and alcohol industries. This has impacted a lot on the sport marketing as the major chunk now has to be picked up by many more sponsoring companies and where there used to be one tobacco company sponsoring the entire team, now there are a few grouped together to manage the same financials. This has lead to lesser gains from the advertising spaces that are available as the uniforms and other placements of the brands are getting cluttered up with many different messages (Slack, 2003). Over the years as a lot of companies had jumped into sport sponsorships, it has affected the overall outlook of the game. Players have been demanding more and more money than the sponsorship is actually worth to endorse different brands. Teams have been over paid by these sponsors in millions of dollars and euros to support one corporate image and another. Sport arenas have expanded to accommodate minimal brands with higher price tags attached to the sponsorships. The media has been employed to support advertising activities and cover these events extensively and had hiked the price of airtime rented for these events (Slack, 2003). The above factors have influenced in a balloon effect in the sport industry. However, as many corporations have moved away form mainstream sports as the number of viewers have decreased substantially out of boredom or over presence of sponsorships in these events, these sports now have limited resources to grow and even conveniently complete their main events. The companies have also suffered due to these as tehse events have been set for high budgets and have increased the ticket value for presence in these events. The consumers have reduced to show up more as the extra funds have to be generated by increasing the money value of the entrance fee to these events (Slack, 2003). Overall, the sport marketing industry has to face a lot of challenges in the coming years as they have to shift and balance out their budgets with the absence of the tobacco and alcohol industry especially after their more aggressive global bans in the advertising markets. Other type of companies will find it hard to manage on their own to sponsor such a big event on their own and the entire sponsorship may eventually look like more than brands playing with each other rather than players (Samaranch, 2004). Works Cited Amis, J. & Cornwell, B. 2005. Global Sport Sponsorship, Berg Publishers. Andrews, D. 2001. Sport Stars: The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrity, Routledge. Kahle, L. et al. 2005. Sports Marketing and the Psychology of Marketing Communication, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lagae, W. 2005. Sports Sponsorship and Marketing Communications, Financial Times Management. Masterman, G. 2004. Strategic Sports Event Management: An international approach, Butterworth-Heinemann. Milne, G. et al. 1999. Sport Marketing: Managing the Exchange Process, Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Raney, A. et al. 2006. Handbook of Sports and Media, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Samaranch, J. 2004. Economics, Management and Optimization in Sports, Springer. Shilbury, D. et al. 2004. Strategic Sport Marketing, Allen & Unwin Academic. Slack, T. 2003. The Commercialization of Sport, Frank Cass. Read More