Marketing Strategy and Development

Mullins et al (2000, pp.22) defines strategy by the “setting of long-term goals and developing plans to achieve those goals”. Therefore, “marketing pays attention to the development of a product, its pricing, promotion and distribution” (Smith, 2008, pp.2), which links to the marketing mix also referred to as the 4 P’s of:

·       Product- Physical good.

·       Price- the cost to the consumer.

·       Place- where the sport can be accessed.

·       Promotion- communicating to the market place.

In order to gain an exchange with the consumer (usually monitory value) for the service delivered. By combining Mullins et al (2000, pp.22) definition of strategy and Smith’s (2008, pp.2) definition of marketing, Marketing strategy can be defined by Beech and Chadwick (2007, 400) as “a process of planning, implementing and controlling marketing efforts to meet the goals of an organisation while at the same time satisfying consumer needs”.

During the 2010 South African FIFA World Cup the beer sponsor was Budweiser, blocking all other alcoholic (Beer/Larger) merchandise sold and advertised to captivate the greatest audience possible. However, the Dutch brewers Bavaria used marketing strategies consisting of ambush marketing in order to confuse audiences and gain wide publicity. Through the use of 36 women in orange mini dresses modelled by the wife of famous Dutch footballer Rafael van der Vaart, carrying a label with the brand, which prior to the tournament was campaigned greatly within Holland. Therefore, when images were captured of a group of fans in these minis dresses supporting and being thrown out of the stadium during a Holland match, the dresses that were instantly recognisable due to previous campaigns sparking media attention for the brewery who otherwise wouldn’t of been noticed due to the large sponsorship fees required for FIFA (Kelly, 2010). 

I am going to use the marketing mix to identify and target the largest possible audience.

Product- the sports I have decided to pick are canoeing/kayaking, running/mountaineering and downhill mountain biking to capture the largest possible audience, as statistically shown by sport England’s active survey (Appendix A), due to the already niche market tri extreme operates within.

Price- The price to the consumers will consist of an entry fee to cover the cost operations to the event, whilst each participant is being a charitable fundraiser as demonstrated by the Great North Run (GNR, 2014). The commercial aspects are seen through sponsorship, creating a tier bracket like the Olympic sales rights (IOC, 2014).

Place- The destination requires all three sports to be accessible, such as Fort William where all three physical environments are a lake, mountain range and downhill bike track exists.

Promotion- Tri Extreme will try to communicate to adventure lovers, but also offering an alternative to the tradition triathlon with the potential to gain a market share, elite athletes from each sporting discipline can also compete to make the idea more commercially viable. For example setting off the elite athletes at the front of the race before letting the mass participants start.  

References

Beech, J and Chadwick, S. (2007) The Marketing of Sport. New York: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.

GNR. (2014) GNR website. Available at: http://www.greatrun.org/Events/Charities.aspx?id=1 (Accessed: 3^rd December 2014).

IOC. (2014) IOC website. Available at: http://www.olympic.org/sponsors (Accessed: 3rd December 2014)

Kelly, J. (2010) How ambush marketing ambushed sport. Available At: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8743881.stm (Accessed: 3rd December 2014).

Mullins, B. Hardy, S and Sutton, W. (2000) Sport Marketing. 2^nd edn. Human Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics.

Smith, A. (2008) introduction to Sport marketing. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. 

Appendices

Appendix A