Strategic Marketing Plan in Recreation - Case Study Example

Strategic Marketing Plan in Recreation Section Executive Summary The wrestling team of the University of Illinois is already one of the top wrestling programs in the United States of America. This report aims at devising a suitable strategic marketing plan for the wrestling team of the University of Illinois. The strategic marketing plan for this wrestling team is prepared so that it can be used to support the sustainability and the growth of the wrestling team in the future. The strategic marketing plan includes the identification of four main objectives that are to be attained through its practical implementation. These objectives are mentioned as follows. To improve the total image of the wrestling team. To enhance the awareness and popularity of the wrestling team of the university. To increase the participation of the student-athletes in the wrestling team. To increase the viewership level for the wrestling team. The strategic marketing plan is structured on the basis of the key marketing aspects including market research for the wrestling industry in the United States of America, target market selection, product positioning, product development, promotional activities, pricing and distribution. The report also includes an evaluation of how the strategic marketing plan can be implemented in the practical scenario. Along with this, a section is dedicated to the identification and discussion of the control factors that would be required to implement the strategic marketing plan and achieve the main goals of the same. Section 2: Market Research Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world. Wrestling as a sports activity is very popular in the United States of America. The country has been experiencing a high growth in the popularity of this sports segment in the last 10-15 years. In the past five years, the participation rate in the wrestling competitions and activities has increased by almost 8 times. Apart from being a common professional sports activity, wrestling is also very popular in the high school level in the United States. The number of high schools and universities that are involved in sponsoring wrestling activities has increased from 8509 in 2001 to more than 10,000 in 2012. The number of participants in wrestling activities has also increased significantly with a 15% growth rate over the same period. As per the report of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NEHS), wrestling is recognized as the sixth most participated sports activity in the United States. This sport is continuously gaining popularity throughout the country, especially in the high schools of United States. Both the professional wrestling sports as well as amateur wrestling sports in the universities and colleges are extremely popular in the United States of America (Beekman, 2006, pp.501-502). The students have a high level of interest to participate in these activities as a form of entertainment as well as a mainstream athletic activity. It is identified that the students of the high school have suitable capabilities, health and interest to participate in the wrestling activities. Also, the external market for wrestling teams, especially in the highs school level is a high growth market. Thus, the University of Illinois can suitably position its team in the United States wrestling segment as an important sports team with the target market selected as the students of the university, their friends, guardians and other people who have interest in athletics. Section 3: Target Market / Product Positioning In order to utilize the strategic marketing plan fully, the University of Illinois should determine the target market from which the wrestling team can gain adequate support and participation. The section of the target market is integral for the success of the overall strategic marketing plan of the wrestling team. The university has to identify the suitable segments within the whole population and design the marketing efforts with the aim of eliciting adequate responses from the constituents of these target markets. The target market selected for the Wrestling team of the University of Illinois includes all the students of the University who can participate in the wrestling activities and sport events either as participants or as audiences. The University of Illinois is much particular about promoting its athletic division. Thus, the university wants to position the wrestling team as a highly functional team of the college athletics department (Stotlar, 2001, pp.414-415). This is in line with the increasing popularity of wrestling as a sports activity among the high school level students. The University should ideally try to promote the wrestling team and position itself as an interesting and beneficial part of the activities of the students in the university. The target market includes the students of the university who would be capable and/or interested to participate in the wrestling sports teams. As such, if the university positions the wrestling team as a team encompassing interesting and rewarding activities, it is likely to gain more interest from the students and thus the attendance level would subsequently increase. The team should be positioned by highlighting a win-win situation for the university as well the students related to their participation in the wrestling team. Other than the students of the university, the target market for the wrestling team should also include the wrestling alumni, the community organizations and the youth wrestlers. Extending the target market suitably would help the University to enhance the attendance and participation rate in the wrestling team as well as in the wrestling events. The mission statement of the University of Illinois Division of the Inter-collegiate athletics Activities indicates that the university aims to promote athletic activities as an integral part of the culture of the university. Also, the university aims to develop a culture within the premises that would support the development of the athletes in the college so that they can excel in different domains including social and academic domain through the demonstration and adoption of utmost integrity in all their work (Smith, 2008, pp.60-62). The development of the student-athletes of the University of Illinois Athletics Department is to be done in adherence to the governing institutional bodies of the university while promoting the competiveness, academic and social excellence of the high school student athletes. The University of Illinois aims to achieve excellence in its athletic department through the use of some pre-defined criteria. These criteria include integrity, financial stability and financial health, equity and diversity, championship programs, academic performance, welfare of the student-athletes, engagement and a wide number of facilities for the same. Section 4: Marketing Mix—Product The main aim of the University of Illinois Athletics Department is to increase the participation and viewership numbers for the wrestling team and wrestling activities of this team. The University aims to extract and demonstrate the full potential and value of the wrestling events and activities to the different stakeholders of the team. It aims to do this through putting an emphasis on every aspect that should be included in the wrestling team or is associated with the participants of the wrestling team. These are multi-dimensional aspects like academics, competition, leadership and service. The wrestling team should be developed and structured as a highly competitive team which would also encompass ancillary dimensions like entertainment, health, socialization, team work etc. The university should focus on attracting and recognizing talent among the student-athletes and encourage them to participate in the wrestling team. This would lead to the creation of a mutually beneficial scenario for both the university and the student-athletes and also foster the development of a cooperative and supportive culture within the athletics wing of the University. The wrestling team should be built up and promoted on the basis of key functional values. These values are necessary to build up a sports team operating at a high school level (Gavora, 2002, pp.99-103). These functional values and principles should include factors like responsibility, dedication, integrity, accountability, honesty and respect. Responsibility would encompass the fulfillment of all the necessary tasks, functions, duties as well as the assignments of the individual student-athletes and that of the team. This should be done while ensuring credibility and trust in adherence to the national wrestling standards and requirement of the United States. Integrity would mean being true to the personal missions as well as the mission of the whole team while focusing on the differentiation of right and wrong and acting on the basis of these differentiations. Dedication would mean working towards achieving the goals of the team and the university while acting with consistent discipline and sacrifices. Accountability is another key factor that should be engraved in the team spirit and includes providing suitable reasons and answers for different behaviors and actions of the individual wrestlers and the whole team so that the ultimate mission of the wrestling team and that of the wrestling industry of the country are supported. Honesty would mean being truthful and transparent regarding people and issues related to the wrestling team and wrestling activities and events with the aim of promoting wrestling as a fair and justified sports activity in the university. Respect is a key to success for a team. Without mutual respect it is impossible to create a unified team spirit among the individual members of a team. Also, respect towards other stakeholders and entities from external environment are mandatory to make the team a functional, consistent and strong unit. Respect in the wrestling ream would mean the recognition of the dignity of every human being and caring for the well-being of other people through compassion and concern so that the other factors like integrity and honesty evolve along with the evolution of this factor in the wrestling team. The integration of these key factors in the wrestling team along with the talents of the student-athletes would ensure the development of a team that would act as a strong pillar for the University of Illinois Athletics Department. This would also make sure that the participation and attendance level of the target market of the wrestling team is fully enhanced. Apart from developing the wrestling team as the product, the university can introduce specific associated sports goods like jerseys, toys, apparels, posters, trinkets etc. which the university can use for sale as well as for promoting the team. Section 5: Marketing Mix—Promotion Promotion is a highly critical part of sports and recreational marketing. Therefore the University of Illinois Athletics Department should emphasize on developing a robust and innovative promotional plan as a part of the overall strategic marketing plan for the wrestling team of the university. The wrestling team of the University of Illinois Athletics Department is a popular sports team which operates at the high school level wrestling segment in the United States of America. The high school level students in the United States are highly accustomed with the use of internet and mobile phones. Therefore, promotional activities conducted through the social media and mobile phone technologies are likely to have greater impact on the target group for the wrestling team (University of Illinois, 2014b). The university should promote the wrestling team and the wrestling activities through the popular social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Hi5, Google Plus etc. Also, the university should employ suitable electronic mail marketing and text marketing to ensure that it reaches the maximum number of potential consumers. Already, the university has been promoting the wrestling team and wrestling events through the very popular Individual Wrestling Camp (The original home of University of Illinois Athletics, 2014). The university organizes the wrestling camp every year for duration of a week. This camp is aimed at encouraging the students to take part in the wrestling activities, to promote the team as a whole and to increase the rate of viewership for the team events. Since this camp is based on competition among different participants from the university and other external institutions, it acts as an important strategy for enhancing the competiveness as well as viewership in the wrestling team events. The University of Illinois should focus on continuing and enhancing the wrestling camp activities so that it acts as an important driver of word of mouth publicity for the wrestling team. Section 6: Marketing Mix—Pricing and Distribution One of the main objectives of any sports event, be it college sports or national level sports, is to sell the tickets of the event. Sport marketing is based on a strategic business perspective which aims at marinating the pace of the business with the continuously evolving external business environment (Shank, 2005, p.112). The wrestling team is promoted and distributed on the basis of a sports-based strategy in which more focus is given on the recreational factor as a dimension of the team and its events than on other factors like products, themes, amenities etc. The ticket prices for the wrestling sports events of the team of the University of Illinois Athletics Department are priced in a medium range which is a suitable pricing strategy in the current situation. The university mainly wants to increase the participation level and the viewership of the wrestling events (Beech & Chadwick, 2007, pp.212-215). Two main factors come into play in the pricing and distribution aspect of sports products and services. The first factor that is significant in affecting the viewership level in the wrestling team is the access to the tickets for the events. -The sale of tickets is fairly good for the University of Illinois wrestling team. The tickets for the event are sold by the event organizers in the university premises, in busy areas like shopping malls and tube stations as a part of the promotion. The tickets are also distributed through the website of the University of Illinois Athletics Department. The second factor impacting the pricing and distribution is the level of competition in the field of play. Access remains of no value to the viewers if the level of competition in the field of play is low. The level of competition in the playfield is a critical recreational factor affecting viewership because this factor leads to the interest and entertainment of watching a sports activity. Thus, the distribution of tickets should be made more effective to increase the accessibility of the tickets while ensuring that the level of competition in the wrestling events remains high. This would add to the accessibility and the entertainment factors of the wrestling team activities. Section 7: Implementation and Control Any successful strategic marketing plan involves three main stages: planning, implementation and control. Planning involves the formulation of relevant strategies to steer the organization in the preferred direction. The implementation stage involves the practical use of the plan. The control stage includes the ways in which any fallouts or drawbacks in the implementation phase are identified and rectified. The strategic marketing plan for the wrestling team should be implemented with suitable control guidelines to ensure that the maximum benefits can be extracted from the use of the marketing plan (Guttman, 2006, pp.90-93). In the case of the implementation of the strategic marketing plan for the wrestling team, two types of control should be exercised. These are profitability control and strategic control. Profitability control will involve the event organizers and the marketing controller and would be used to evaluate whether the company is experiencing more sales and profit through the implementation of the strategic plan. The strategic control would involve the top management, the coach, other training personnel and the marketing auditors and help to evaluate whether the strategic plan is effective in helping the organization to tap in the best available opportunities in its market of operation (University of Illinois, 2014a). References Beech, J. G. & Chadwick, S. (2007). The marketing of sport. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Beekman, S. M. (2006). Ringside: a history of professional wrestling in America. California: Greenwood Press. Gavora, J. (2002). Tilting the playing field: school and sports. Encounter Books: San Francisco. Guttman, J (2006). World wrestling insanity: the decline and fall of a family empire. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann. Shank, M. D. (2005). Sports Marketing: a strategic perspective, 4th edition. New York: Prentice Hall. Smith, A. (2008). Introduction to sport marketing. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann. Stotlar, D. (2001). Developing successful sport marketing plans. Morgantow: Fitness Information Technology. The original home of University of Illinois Athletics. (2014). The basis for institutional control at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved from http://www.fightingillini.com/compliance/institutionalcontrol.html. University of Illinois. (2014a). Video interview with Mark Johnson, former Head Wrestling Coach University of Illinois. Retrieved from https://compass2g.illinois.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1158552-dt-content-rid-13326328_1/courses/rst_515_120148_116229/projects/video_1.html. University of Illinois. (2014b). Marketing Strategies. Retrieved from  https://compass2g.illinois.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1158552-dt-content-rid 13326328_1/courses/rst_515_120148_116229/projects/video_2.html. Read More