Melbourne City Football Club - Promotional Plan - Case Study Example

SPORT FUNDING AND SPONSORSHIP Students name: Institution: Instructor: Table of Contents Executive summary 4 1.0Introduction 4 2.0 Sport property 5 2.1 Profile 5 2.2 Our vision 6 2.3 History 6 2.4 Events 7 3.0 Target markets 7 4.0 Promotional plan 8 5.0 Benefits 8 6.0 Leverages 9 7.0 Budget, investment, and evaluation 10 8.0 Market plan 11 8.1 Brand bulls eye 11 8.2 SWOT Analysis 11 8.3 PEST Analysis 12 8.4 Competitor Analysis 12 9.0 Inventory of Assets 13 10.0 Conclusion. 13 11.0 References 14 Executive summary Melbourne City Football Club is an Australian soccer club located in Melbourne, Victoria. It is one of the teams that compete in the country’s premier competition that is the A-league. The league was registered under license from Football Federation Australia. Its parent organization is Manchester City FC. The club had many players in different categories of competitions. It is composed of the first team squad, the youth team squad, National Premier League squad and the women team squad. The club needs sponsorship opportunity with Etihad Airways which will be their new shirt sponsor and can lead to Nike producing city’s kit. The sponsorship is to improve the performance of the club through getting more skilled players. It also grows the popularity of soccer and the A-league in Australia. 1.0 Introduction Melbourne city club needs the sponsorship opportunity by Etihad Airways. It is required to improve the performance of the club. For instance, the name of the sponsor is a respected name and therefore, the club earns a status quo. The club being associated with the Etihad Airways as a sponsor will attract world’s best players into the club resulting in better performances. Melbourne city was organized into four categories of teams which include; first team squad, youth team squad, National Premier League squad and the women team squad. The club also has some officials such as the cooperate management who are in charge f the entire club. Team management is also present who are responsible for all activities among the teams in the organization. Each of the team categories has a team manager who responsible for the players training and other activities concerning the team squad. The club also has some objectives which are used by the organization to meet its goals. One of the primary goals is helping to bring the world together. The club unites people from various communities hence becoming a uniting factor. Another objective is to promote the name and integrity of the sponsor in the sense that it becomes well known to the world. It can happen when the club performs well and for that reason the sponsor becomes known. Another way in which the sponsor will become famous is through prints at the stadium and jersey with the names of the sponsor. Marketing is the aspect of promoting the business or activities of any given organization. The club will market the Etihad Airways through advertisements, printing of shirts, etc. Most importantly, the best way to market the club and sponsor is through excellent performance of the club. Melbourne has to get involved in some investments to sustain the sponsor. For instance, it invests in the capacity of the stadium. The stadium should be big enough to accommodate as many fans as possible who pay for entrance fees hence it’s a great investment. Additionally, by having a good stadium and field, the training field will attract more teams to pay for training sessions. As a result, the club earns some money as a form of investment. 2.0 Sport property 2.1 Profile Melbourne City Football Club is a professional club in Australia located in Melbourne; Victoria. It was founded in the year 2009 as Melbourne Heart. It competed under its earlier name from its inaugural 2010-2011 season. It was then acquired and rebranded in the mid of 2014 by the City Football Club which was in partnership with the Holding M.S. Australia. Recently in the year 2015, the City Football Group bought the Holding M.S. Australia acquiring 100 percent ownership of the club. The club operated from City Football Academy facility based at Melbourne’s La Trobe University. Home games are played at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, a 30,050 seat multi-use venue Melbourne’s city. The club has also come up with youth teams which compete in the National Youth League, a senior women’s’ squad which competes in the women’s league and the NPL team which competes in the National Premier Leagues (Aughey, Hammond, Varley, Schmidt, Bourdon, Buchheit & Sargent, 2013). 2.2 Our vision The club seeks to reflect the best football of Australian football club (Arder, Pizzari, Wollin & Webster, 2015). It is culture considerate, generous and warm. It enhances the prestige of players, and all fans as a center of hospitality. Our goal is to be a world-class football club that improves explores the talents of young men and women fully as well as improve the lives of the community. The club has several objectives which include; • To unite the various communities together. It is a uniting factor. • To promote the integrity of the sponsor. • To explore the talents of players of Australian people. • To improve the living standards of the residents. 2.3 History When the National Soccer League dissolved in the year, 2003 led to the Crawford report (Stell & Salisbury, 2015). Plans were then drawn for the arrangement of another competition to begin the next season. Despite the calls for two clubs from Melbourne, the Football Federation Australia in 2004 opted for one team in a city policy announced that the Melbourne victory was the only club in Melbourne to compete in the new national competition known as the A-league. Additionally, a five-year moratorium was established to prevent any other expansion sides from the eight original A-league teams entering the competition until the 2010-2011 seasons. The prohibition allowed victory five seasons to establish itself. The FFA chief executive Ben Buckley raised the idea of expanding the league from eight to twelve teams in May 2008. He also revealed the existence of the third Melbourne known as Melbourne Heart. Heart started its first season against Central Coast Marines at their home ground AAMI Park losing 1-0. On 23 January, the City Football Club acquired Melbourne Heart for $12 million. The 2015/16 season has been the best period of success for the club. 2.4 Events The organization is capable of producing the events aimed at promoting the clubs existence. Examples of such activities are education and clinic events. The club provides football coaching as a part of the Sporting Schools Program. Nevertheless, they also offer clinic services with some specific period. Other events include; selling of shirts, tickets, and competition events (Mercer & Mayfield, 2015). 3.0 Target markets The events were directed to specific market groups. The event of education where the club provides coaching programs, targets are retired players and young managers. They are taught the basic skills of a manager and improving their managerial skills. Additionally, this event also targets team captains in all the squads at Melbourne City Football Club. Another event is through clinics where the club offers medical services to the community. These services are often offered to children of ages 8-15. They are given medical attentions over the holidays hence improving the health and growth of children. The event of selling of shirts to fans and resident of the society as well as tickets is very crucial. Competition events are arranged, and winners are offered free trips to various parts of the world via the Etihad Airways (Coates, 2015). The target groups are targeted based on their interests, values, and opinions such as the training of managers who have the same interest, values, and almost the same views. Market segment of buying t-shirts is so many as well as those who need tickets. However, the market segment participating in competitions events are relatively few individuals. 4.0 Promotional plan The most effective promotional activity is through advertising. The club is advertised through media, and this makes it attractive. As a result, more people get informed about the club which they realize it offers some events to member and non-members. It is, therefore, evident that advertising can promote organization events. Another significant promotional activity is the fact that the club had a good performance record. It can be obtained at the website where people can view the clubs performance. In case the performance is superb, the major events will be promoted because people will want to get associated with a strong club thereby promoting their events (Georgakis & Molloy, 2016). 5.0 Benefits Melbourne City football club is very strategic that favors all stakeholders, that is, the sponsor and audience. Most importantly, it is fit to achieve its values and objectives. It is located in the heart of the city making the facility readily available to the people of the city. It is fit to be sponsored by Etihad Airways in the since it has a record of consistent success meaning that it will not disappoint the partnership. Instead, the agreement will go a long way in improving the status and success of both the sponsor and the club. Additionally, the club has a well build modern stadium that makes the audience comfortable. It is a world class stadium that features a cutting-edge Bioframe design with a geodesic roof that substantially covers the seating area. The beauty part of the stadium is that spectators will enjoy a clear view that is not barred by stands, walls or any other support structures. Its organizational structures and development support the objectives and values. Objectives are always met under the influence of skilled and intelligent management. Etihad Airways will have its name printed on shirts and even on the walls of the stadium. Also, the use of signage both inside and outside the club should be emphasized. Furthermore, the use of tickets as well as banners both inside and outside containing the names or even the logo of the sponsor will have a great influence (Hollensen, 2015).  6.0 Leverages It is realized that the company’s terms as a sponsor are subject to our performance as well as the ability to meet the cited performance criteria. Every company has its objectives, and we can set all strategies right to meet them. We have options that can increase the commitment. One is branding where we advertise and promote the brands of the sponsor through club website, March day promotional activity and even through the use of a stadium signage (Fei, 2015). Another aspect is business to business where the club can be a powerful conduit to new business opportunities with the right strategy put in place. The club has host events and strategies that can help facilitate business dealings. Nevertheless, business to consumer aspect where the league allows business to engage with fans who are genuinely connected with their club. A significant pillar of the club is the community such as schools, charity partners and other genuine commitment programs where tangible, meaningful outcomes can be created. These aspects are advantageous in the sense that it increases the commitment. 7.0 Budget, investment, and evaluation The sponsorship investment anticipated is an in-kind promotional support. The support aims at promoting the club. It is paid for commodities, goods or services instead of money. Usually, the in-kind support is provided for events that the meet the sponsorship guidelines. For instance, the Etihad will Airways use its name to promote the popularity of the club. It will also improve the building and repair of the organization. It can be by either provision of building material or provision of labor. Moreover, the sponsor will provide jerseys printed with their names as a way of appreciating the club’s performance. Most important is the provision of trips to players and management. They are necessary when players are playing away matches and also when they need holiday trips after the end of the season. The sponsor is expected to assist the club in providing community services such as health services. The club will promote the name of the sponsor because the good done by the sponsor will always be visible to the public. For this reason, the integrity of the company becomes trustworthy. It will also increase its business opportunities. It is through the connection of the airways to the public that increases the business opportunities. The Etihad Airways will also increase its profits when fans are traveling to watch away games; hence, the club will have brought a significant effect to the sponsor (Aughey, Hammond, Varley, Schmidt, Bourdon, Buchheit & Sargent, 2013). 8.0 Market plan A plan is a list of steps used to achieve an objective. Melbourne City football club needs to have a defined plan to ensure a smooth flow of activities towards its success (Hollensen, 2015).  8.1 Brand bulls eye The club can use fast tracking process where it can help tackle the branding process as well as to tackle any issues. Bull’s eye provides a trend setting for operational performance management. In the case of branding, it provides an on sight scenario that can best suit the branding process. The bull's eye brilliant solution display is real time through an innovative dashboard. It provides practical solutions that go a long way in improving the performance of any business. It, therefore, displays an effective plan to enable the company to meet its objectives and values as expected (Hollensen, 2015).  8.2 SWOT Analysis SWOT means strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a structured method of planning that evaluates the four elements of a business venture. It is the best tool for understanding owns strengths and weaknesses and for identifying possible opportunities and threats faced. It can be carried out for a country, business, product, place, industry or person. It involves specifying the objectives as well as identifying the main internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve the objective. Strengths are characteristics the give a business an advantage over others while weaknesses place the business in a disadvantaged situation about others. Opportunities are elements that could exploit to its advantage. Threats are the elements that could trouble the business. The goal of SWOT analysis is the identification of strengths, increase opportunities as well as realize weaknesses and reduce threats. SWOTs are important because they intended to meet organizations objectives (Georgakis & Molloy, 2016). 8.3 PEST Analysis It involves identifying the big picture the big picture, opportunities, and threats. It is similar to SWOT analysis in the sense that both determine the risks and opportunities. For instance, the invention of new technology all sectors has led to many businesses realizes opportunities. The club can also carry out this analysis to determine the opportunities that improve the success or rather the performance of the organization. It is a simple and widely used tool that helps in analyzing the political, socio-cultural, economic and technological changes in a business environment. It, therefore, helps in the “big picture” understanding of forces one is exposed. It mission is to spot opportunities and gives advanced warning of significant threats. It also has objectives which are to avoid assumptions when one is entering a new market, Show an effective direction of change any given business environment and helps individual to avoid projects that are likely to fail (Fei, 2015). 8.4 Competitor Analysis It is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of potential and current competitors. It also provides a strategy to identify threats and opportunities. It is essential in co-operating strategy. It supports effective strategy formulation, monitoring, implementation, and adjustment. It was proven that most organizations do not carry out this type of analysis. Instead, many organizations operate on conjectures, informal impressions, and intuition gained from information about competitors (Hollensen, 2015). The club should perform this analysis to gauge itself with the other clubs who are competitors. It has to observe its competitors find an opportunity that can be its added advantage over other football clubs. It mission is to create a competitive business environment. It has objectives such as to enable a company realize its opportunities and threats, improve production of goods and services through competition and drive an organization towards success. 9.0 Inventory of Assets The sponsorship manager ought to know the following inventory of assets. One is the chairperson’s club. It represents one of the most prestigious match day experiences at Melbourne city. It involves a two-course meal in a luxurious environment and best visits to the stadium. The Etihad Airways will present this package. The second one is city class where the clubs premium category is available for purchase. There is enjoyment of the Gourmet grazing menu, live entertainment and access to cash bar. Lastly is the match day hospitality which needs to be catered. Enjoy the prestige of sitting with the principal club stakeholders, the privacy of Corporate Suite and relaxes atmosphere with City Class Cocktail (Irwin & Sutton, 2015). 10.0 Conclusion. Melbourne City Football Club is a club in Australia located in Melbourne city. It is one of the teams in the A- League. The club participates in four categories of competitions which include; the youth group, National Premier League, and the women games. The organization seeks to have a sponsor to engage in a partnership for mutual benefits. Most importantly, the club has to carry out the SWOT, PEST and competitor analysis to realize potential threats and explore opportunities for the success of the organization. 11.0 References Ardern, C. L., Pizzari, T., Wollin, M. R., & Webster, K. E. (2015). Hamstrings strength imbalance in professional football (soccer) players in Australia. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 29(4), 997-1002. Stell, M., & Salisbury, C. (2015). ‘It’s Bigger than the Olympics’: changing Australia through football and the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Soccer & Society,16(2-3), 245-258. Mercer, D., & Mayfield, P. (2015). City of the Spectacle: White Night Melbourne and the politics of public space. Australian Geographer, 46(4), 507-534. Coates, D. (2015). Sports Economics, Management and Policy. Aughey, R. J., Hammond, K., Varley, M. C., Schmidt, W. F., Bourdon, P. C., Buchheit, M., ... & Sargent, C. (2013). Soccer activity profile of altitude versus sea-level natives during acclimatisation to 3600 m (ISA3600). British journal of sports medicine, 47(Suppl 1), i107-i113. Aughey, R. J., Hammond, K., Varley, M. C., Schmidt, W. F., Bourdon, P. C., Buchheit, M., ... & Sargent, C. (2013). Soccer activity profile of altitude versus sea-level natives during acclimatisation to 3600 m (ISA3600). British journal of sports medicine, 47(Suppl 1), i107-i113. Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Fei, G. (2015). The Development Strategy of “Guangxi Beibu Gulf-ASEAN” Cruise Tourism based on the PEST Analysis. Around Southeast Asia, 5, 004. Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach. Pearson Education. Irwin, R. L., & Sutton, W. A. (2015). 15.5 The Olympics and the Marketing of Sports: Sponsorship. In Proceedings of the 1995 World Marketing Congress(pp. 513-527). Springer International Publishing. Read More