2 THEME 2: STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Learning Objectives

*Understand the concept of strategic sport marketing

*Learn to develop a strategic marketing plan by using the PIE contingency framework

*Identify appropriate marketing goals and objectives

*Learn to perform analysis for making sound marketing decisions through WORST case analysis model

*Appreciate the process of implementing and controlling a marketing plan

Contingency Framework for Strategic Sports Marketing

Sport marketers are bestowed with the responsibilities to carry out an effective marketing plan for their organization. Whether their organization is a professional sports franchise, intercollegiate athletic program, non-profit fitness center, or a municipal park and recreation office, they all need to take a strategic approach to make good business decisions and execute an effective marketing plan. A marketing plan is a written document outlining an organization’s strategy and the necessary course of action to implement the strategy (Parkhouse, Turner, & Miloch, 2012). There is numerous marketing text explain various steps for establishing and implementing a successful marketing plan. First, the authors would like to introduce a pair of self-created acronyms, “POLICE MADSON,” to remind all sport marketers about the most important elements and functions of carrying out their marketing plan. We believe these two acronyms can be a great supplemental tool that help readers understand the framework of strategic marketing plans that are proposed by many other marketing scholars (Parkhouse et al, 2012; Shank & Lyberger, 2015; Stotlar, 2009). Readers can refer to Table 1 for meaning of each represented letter.

Table 1. A pair of acronyms for managing and executing a successful marketing plan

A strategic framework is a foundation that helps sports organizations to design and maintain a sound marketing plan. According to Shank & Lyberger (2015), a strategic framework that is suited to the sports industry is the contingency framework, because the contingency framework is flexible and adaptable to rapid changes in the marketing environment. Typically, a marketing plan contains the common elements such as introduction, goals and objectives, data and analysis, target markets, marketing strategy, implementation, evaluation, and executive summary (Parkhouse et al., 2012; Stotlar, 2009). The authors would like to use another simple acronym “PIE” to introduce the contingency model for developing a strategic sports marketing plan. The PIE model contains three parts: (1) Planning of the Strategic Processes, (2) Internal Contingencies, and (3) External Contingencies. Each part of the PIE model as relating to features and contents will be addressed in detail in the following paragraphs.

Question 1. A __________ is written document outlining an organization’s strategy and the necessary course of action to implement the strategy.

• (a) contingency framework
• (b) marketing plan
• (c) marketing analysis
• (d) none of the above

Question 2. Which of the following element is commonly found in a marketing plan?

• (a) Introduction
• (b) Implementation
• (c) Goals and objectives
• (d) All of the above
• (e) Only b and c

Question 3. The Contingency framework is very suitable to the sports industry because it is flexible and adaptable to rapid changes in the marketing environment. True or False

The PIE Contingency Model of a Strategic Marketing Plan

The authors adopted several experts’ ideas (Parkhouse et al., 2012; Shank & Lyberger, 2015; Stotlar, 2009) to recreate the PIE Contingency Model for developing a strategic marketing plan.  In the first part, “Planning of the Strategic Process”, there are critical five critical phases that address the purpose, goals and objectives, and delivery methods for carrying out the organization’s marketing plan. The other two parts, Internal and External Contingencies can be viewed as the frameworks for collecting and analyzing strategic data in order to assist the decision-making process in the Planning of the Strategic Processes,

Planning of the Strategic Process

(a) Introduction

Introduction is the beginning section that helps the readers understand the basis of an organization’s marketing plan. It often contains the organizations’ history, background, mission, and information concerning future development. In addition, this section may include an overview of the organization’s marketing goals, objectives, and efforts. In other words, the introduction is equated to the About Us or Mission Statement that we often find on the organization’s official webpage. The vision, future direction, and service orientation of the organization are also covered in the introduction.

The mission statement is a written statement about the organization’s present situation and the direction of the organization. Simply put, it explains what business the organization is in and who it serves. The following paragraph lists the Mission Statement of intercollegiate athletic programs and its organizational objectives.

The Intercollegiate athletic program at Kent State University competes at the highest National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division-I level (FBS for football) and provides select men and women with the opportunity, challenge and support to achieve their full academic and athletic potential, while operating as an integral part of the University’s educational mission (Kent State University, 2012).

Some of its primary organizational objectives are:

• (1) Support and enhance University mission and objectives by furnishing an academic support system;
• (2) Prepare student athletes to be responsible citizen;
• (3) Facilitate competition in the Mid-American Conference;
• (4) Comply with the spirit and letter of MAC and NCAA rules;
• (5) Employ and develop coaches who are teachers and role models; and
• (6) Achieve gender equity.

Photo 1. A community event sponsored by college programs (Photo Courtesy by Google Commons)

In general, organizational objectives are like signposts along the road which help an organization focus on its long-range purpose stated in the mission statement. A popular acronym, SMART, is often referred by the marketers to illustrate five specific characteristics of organizational objectives. This means that any given goals and objectives must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant to the mission, and time-specific (Horine, & Stotlar, 2017). Typically, the organizational objectives also include both financial and strategic dimensions. Examples of financial components may include growth in revenues and profits. Examples of strategic components may include enhancing corporate image or increasing customer satisfaction. As for the marketing goals, there are objectives that tend to be short-term and business driven.

Some of the Kent State University Intercollegiate Athletics’ general marketing related objectives include: (1) augment attendance and revenue, (2) operate in financial solvency, and (3) represent the university in an exemplary fashion to the general public and play an active role in the community. In the following paragraph, the authors provide a more specific marketing driven statement to illustrate the mission and objectives of the Morehead State University (MSU) Athletics External Relations and Marketing Department.

The MSU Eagle Empire’s mission is to be a model of intercollegiate athletic programs that serves its student-athletes with best educational and competitive experience and provides its fans and community the most exciting sports entertainment and family-oriented fun experience.

In order to achieve the stated mission, MSU Eagle Empire emphasizes following elements of objectives to strive for performance success, revenue profits, and program efficiency with dignity, respect, and 100% commitment. An acronym, “Go Eagles” (MSU’s mascot), is created to describe the intended eight aspects of objectives and remind all the staff members to strive for excellence in those aspects.

Table 2. Eight aspects of MSU Athletics marketing objectives

The Green Bay Packers’ mission is to be a dominating force in professional football’s competitive arena. On the field, the Packers will continually strive to present their fans with the highest level of performance quality available. In their operating activities and relations with the NFL, the Packers will also continually strive for excellence in the quality of work performed. Overall, the Packers will commit themselves to doing their part in representing the state of Wisconsin with competitiveness, respect, and dignity.

(b) Understanding consumers’ needs

The second step of the strategic planning process is to understand the needs and wants of all consumers. The consumers of a typical intercollegiate athletic program include various groups of people. Marketing scholars usually like to differentiate consumers as either participants or spectators. In a collegiate athletic setting, the participants can be viewed as individuals that are involved to produce sports competitions. They are athletes (players), coaching staffs, and athletic administrators and staffs. The spectators are those who attend the events and watch the games. Those individuals may include students, parents of athletes, faculty and university staff, community fans, alumni, and sponsors. There are also dancers, cheerleaders, and business associates who are at the events that perform dual roles. It is vital and advised that marketing administrators must conduct proper marketing research to identify the needs and wants of all the involved individuals. The collected data will be properly analyzed, and research findings can be further used to satisfy the consumers of the events.

(c) Decision making

In the decision-making phase (the third step), the marketing administrators would need to select their decisions dealing with three tasks: (1) recognize market segments (knowing how many groups and what are the alternatives), (2) target the ideal markets, and (3) position the product to the minds of segments. To help the marketing administers make proper decisions or select ideal strategies, it is vital to perform marketing research to collect strategic information. A popular analysis process, SWOT, is also performed to examine the internal and external contingencies. In the later section, the authors will address the application of the traditional SWOT analysis and a new self-proposed analysis model, and their importance of delving both aspects of contingencies.

In general, the next two steps (phases) are usually initiated after the completion of appraisal analyses. The fourth step Action plans are formed based on the results of data collections and analyses of contingencies. The final phase, Implementation and control, serves as the re-evaluation process on the effectiveness of action plans. Additional suggestions for improvements and concerns for addressing the future direction are also included in this phase.

(d) Action plans

The authors use the term, action plans (the fourth step of the Planning process), to describe the selected strategies for executing the marketing plan. These strategies are developed and integrate every aspect of traditional marketing mix (also known as the four Ps: Place, Price, Promotion, and Product) to satisfy the consumers’ needs and wants. Often time, the target markets also need to be recognized and effectively reached. Target markets are the consumer segments that marketing administrators prefer to pursue and expect the most success (Parkhouse et al, 2012). Customer analysis are conducted to gain information on issues such as: (1) what are various categories (or level) of consumers that the organization is trying to target? (2) how are needs and want of consumers supplied by the organization? And (3) what are measures that need to be taken to improve existing strategies (practices) and consumer satisfaction? The process of how the sports organization place an idea or image of its service or product in the mind of their target markets is called “positioning” (Ries & Trout, 1981).

Any good ideas for your action plans??

Photo 2. Diagram for Action Plans Photo courtesy by Keywordsuggest.com

(e) Implementation and control

During the execution phase of the plans and strategies, two more additional steps are extremely vital. The implementation stage addresses who will carry out the plans, when the plans will be executed, and how the plan will be completed. So activities associated with implementation step will involve: (1) organizing priorities of tasks, (2) identifying the leadership for operation, (3) allocating resources, (4) coordinating activity schedule, and (5) managing information.

Control is the last step of the strategic process that evaluates the responses to the action plans and determines their effectiveness. This means more marketing research may need to be conducted to judge the relevance and effectiveness of the selected strategies. Often time, those required research studies may focus on analyses of sales, profitability, customer satisfaction, and the ratio of achievement on goals.

Marketing audits can be a useful tool to document the planning details of the strategic plan. It is a systematic and exhaustive appraisal of an organization’s marketing activities. This report reflects the use and adoption of various action plans for executing strategic (contingency) plan. The report would also serve as the official document for presenting the marketing operation of the organization. Readers will also be able to obtain the highlights of the marketing plan by reviewing the Executive Summary.

Question 4. According to the PIE contingency model, the introduction section may contain:

(a) the organization’s marketing goals

(b) the organization’s marketing objectives

(c) the organization’s marketing effort

(d) all of the above

Question 5. Marketing scholars usually like to differentiate consumers as either participants or spectators. True or False

Question 6. According to the text a(n), _____ is a systematic and exhaustive appraisal of an

organization’s marketing activities.

(a) marketing audit

(b) implementation of the marketing process

(c) strategic marketing exchange

(d) sport marketing pricing audit

(e) strategic audit

Internal and External Contingency Assessment

(a) The WORST-case analysis

The WORST-case analysis is like the popular game/strategy planning model, SWOT, adopted by most of the sport teams. The acronym stands for weaknesses, opportunities, resolutions, strengths and treats. The authors would like to highlight two unique aspects of the WORST-case model that are different from the traditional SWOT model. The authors want the marketers to treat every situational analysis as the WORST-case scenario, because the survival of the organization heavily depends on the success of the analysis. Secondly, our model adds an element of resolution, to signify the importance of executing the decisions and strategies for achieving the success of the program (or plan). In general, the initial step of the WORST-case analysis is an extensive examination of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses and follows by the identification of treats and opportunities through examining external contingencies (or factors).

(b) Internal contingencies and organization’s strengths and weaknesses

Numerous factors within one’s organization have potential influences on the strategic marketing process. These internal contingencies often reflect the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Organizational vision, mission, objectives, marketing goals, and strategy are the most critical elements for anyone in understanding the function and operation of the organization. While examining the strengths and weaknesses of the internal environments, the following components listed in Table 3 should be closely examined to design and plan marketing strategies. The illustration is explained using an intercollegiate athletic department as an example.

Table 3. Key Components of Internal Contingencies

To illustrate the practical use of WORST-case analysis model, the Table 4 highlights examples of the internal strengths and weaknesses of a mid-size intercollegiate athletic department of a regional public institution in Appalachia.

Table 4. Examples of a mid-size intercollegiate athletic department’s internal contingencies and Environment

(c) External contingencies, threats and opportunities

The external environment and contingencies consist of influences outside the organization that may affect the strategic marketing process. The authors use another acronym, CREST, to discuss areas that are popularly suggested by many other experts (Parkhouse et al, 2012; Dees et al., 2022; Shank & Lyberger, 2015). The acronym CREST stands for competition, rules/regulations, economy, surrounding environment and situation, and technology. The importance and concerns associated with each of the five areas are addressed in the following paragraphs.

Table 5. The CREST model of External Contingencies

Video Clip: (Useful lecturing video: External Business Environment)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8_W8tAEsfQ

After understanding the CREST model of external environment and contingencies, the marketers will be able to adopt and think over the model’s significant points to identify the potential opportunities and threats, while making strategic decisions for their marketing plan. Table 6 continues to highlight the opportunities and threats of the aforementioned intercollegiate athletic department (as discussed in Table 4).

Table 6. The Analysis of Opportunities and Threats

Question 7. Which of the following is not considered as a part of internal contingencies is? (Choose the best answer)

(a) Organizational culture

(b) Geographic location

(c) Human Resources

(d) Organization’s financial resources

Question 8. The definition of positioning is _____.

(a) placement of a product on a page

(b) where a sports product appears on a page

(c) placing sports products in movies

(d) fixing the sports product in the minds of the target market

Question 9. Marketers of sporting events at any level realize their true competition is other forms of entertainment. This is known as ______ competition.

(a) direct

(b) indirect

(c) professional

(d) minor

(e) both a and b

Question 10. The three broad parts of the contingency framework include _____.

1. external contingencies, the sports marketing exchange, internal contingencies
2. external contingencies, the sports marketing mix, internal contingencies
3. external contingencies, planning of strategic process, internal contingencies
4. external contingencies, sports marketing selections, internal contingencies
5. external exchanges, sports marketing contingencies, internal sport processes

Conclusion

Once again, the authors use the following diagram to illustrate the PIE model of a strategic marketing plan. After reviewing the model, the readers should have obtained necessary knowledge and understanding to compose a strategic marketing plan. Please be sure to attempt the Brainstorming activity below and challenge yourself in designing a well-sound sport marketing plan.

Figure 1. PIE Model of Strategic Marketing Process (adopted from Shank and Lyberger, 2015)

Brainstorming Activities

You will try to join your friends with a group of 3-4 people to compose a marketing plan for a community partner. The choice of these partners may include (but not limit to): (1) department of Athletics of a nearby institution, (2) park and recreation department or sports authority of your community, (3) local professional sports franchises, or (4) a nearby sport marketing agency.

Here is a suggested list of tables of contents for your marketing plan.

• Executive summary: A one-page letter addresses your plan that will be presented to the executive officer of the partner organization
• Introduction: Covering information of current marketing situations, missions, goals, and objectives
• Opportunity and issue analysis: Using either the SWOT or our WORST-case analysis model to examine internal and external contingencies (investigating the demand trends that apply to your industry segment, and recognizing the technological trends that will affect your marketing plan);
• Action Plans and selected Marketing strategies: Showcasing your decisions through the use of traditional marketing mix or our 6Ps model (i.e., identifying the target markets and specific demographics pertinent to the plan,
• Implementation and controls: Selecting proper tools and methods to research relevant information, reflecting how goals and objectives are achieved, and addressing feedback, challenges, and concerns; and
• Appendices: i.e., survey questionnaires, flyers, reports of analyses, online materials, notes, and references, etc.

P.S. More discussions on incorporating marketing mix to formulate Action Plans will be found in later themes.

____________________________________________________

FYI: Examples of Annual marketing reports

https://www.mplans.com/sports_equipment_marketing_plan/executive_summary_fc.php

[1] Image courtesy by Steve Chen use by personal permission

[2] Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, under cc4.0

References

Dees, W., Walsh, P., McEvoy, C., McKelvey, S., Mullin, B.J., Hardy, S., & Sutton, W.A. (2022). Sport Marketing (5th ed.). Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.

Greenfeld, K.T. (2015, August). The death of golf. Men’s Journal.

http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-death-of-golf-20150625

Horine, L., & Stotlar, D. (2017). Administration of physical education and sport programs (5th ed.). Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press.

Kent State University (2012). Kent State Intercollegiate Athletics mission statement and objectives. http://www.kentstatesports.com/athelticDepartment/missionStatement,2012

Kros, J. F., Moore, M. E., & Zemanek, J. E. (2021). Corporate sport marketing: Strategies and applications for a changing world (2nd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Parkhouse, B. L., Turner, B. A., & Miloch, K. S. (2012). Marketing for sport business success. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Pitts, B., & Stotlar, D. K. (2007). Fundamentals of sport marketing (3rd ed.). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Ries, A., & Trout, J. (1981). Positioning: The battle for your mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Sawyer, T. H., & Hypes, J. A. (2012). Marketing principles. In T. Sawyer & L. Judge (Eds.). The management of fitness, physical activity, recreation, and sport (pp. 397-409). Campaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing.

Schwarz, E. C., & Hunter, J. D. (2008). Advanced theory and practice in sport marketing. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Schein, E. H. (1991). The role of the founder in the creation of organizational culture. In P.J. Frost, L. E. Moore, M. R. Louis, C.C. Lundberg, & J. Martin (Eds.). Reframing            organizational culture (pp. 14-25). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Shank, M. D., & Lyberger, M. R. (2014).  Sports marketing: A strategic perspective (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Stotlar, D. K. (2009). Developing successful marketing plans. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Info Tech.