Essay Instructions: Please have this review write by "writergrll 101" if it is possible. If not, it's OK too.
Answer ONLY PART 2 in one page, which is SUMMARY PART (others parts 1, 3, & 4 will answer by others). HOWEVER, THE FOLLOWING IS FOR THE WHOLE COMPONENT SO YOU WILL HAVE BETTER IDEA ABOUT WHAT WE ARE DOING AND WON?T ANSWER OTHER PARTS. REMEMBER, WE HAVE TO ANSWER ONLY WHAT IS ASKED FOR (part 2 SUMMARY) and have to be very specific and just answer what is asked for.
Following two parts is our last component (what we are going for) so you can take a look and summarized.
Please read the component (second part) and guidelines (first part) and then answer my part which is SUMMARY.
Purpose
The purpose of this component is for you to develop your executive summary, contingency plan, summary, and conclusion (summary and conclusion will be two different parts).
Assignment Overview
You are now ready to work on the final 4 sections of your marketing plan. The first of these is a contingency plan. You should ask and answer the question, ?What if the plan we have created is not successful?? Obviously, you are not expected to present a complete alternative plan. However, you should make several specific suggestions about what directions your business could pursue should your plan not reach the level of success you had hoped for. This section should also address what competitive response your plan is likely to generate and how you suggest that your business prepare and respond.
Next, you should compose the summary and conclusions (two) sections. This is often the most difficult sections to write because it must convincingly address the critical question, ?So what?? You have invested many hours of hard work into creating the plan, but it is all for nothing if you have not persuaded the business that the changes you are recommending are necessary and the tactics that you have suggested are appropriate, realistic and feasible for meeting the stated objective. These two sections are the section of the plan where you must, in a concise yet persuasive manner, guide the reader through the major components of your marketing strategy, lead them directly to the expected outcomes and, spell out the resulting benefits to the business.
Even though it is the first thing that the client will read, the executive summary is the last section you should write. Plan and write this section very carefully. It is often said that if the reader is not impressed with the executive summary, the rest of the plan may never see the light of day! What the reader will expect to see is a synopsis of the entire plan written in an inviting, catchy, yet highly professional tone. A successful executive summary should inform the reader, capture their imagination, and encourage them to read on ? all in one to two pages! Because your executive summary is where the reader will form a first impression of your plan, it is particularly important that this section be free of errors of any kind, especially spelling and grammar.
Your Task
To complete this assignment please answer the following questions:
1. Contingency Planning
* What will the business do if the tactics you are suggesting do not work out? What are your recommendations for an alternative strategy?
2. Summary (WHAT I HAVE TO ANSWER)
* Why should the business be persuaded by the components of this marketing plan?
I HAVE TO ANSWER THESE THREE PARTS SPECIFICALLY UNDER THIS SUMMARY SECTION):
- our business (Cornell Sports Marketing) situation
- objective of our plan
- how we planned to meet our objectives
3. Conclusions
* Why should they make the recommended changes and implement the suggested tactics?
4. Executive Summary
* What is the big picture?
- Highlights of what the business offers.
- To whom does it offer these products? (i.e. target market/s)
- What needs and wants does the business fulfill?
- At what level of funding and expense does it fulfills these wants and needs?
* What have been the business?s keys to success in the past?
* What does it need help doing now? (i.e. purpose of the plan)
* What are the most important projected marketing opportunities and their associated expenses?
Last Component
Marketing Plan Objective (from previous Component )
Increase attendance at Cornell Basketball games by 20% of freshman students by developing promotional programs (Cornell Big Red Athletic Club, strategically placed literature on North Campus, and advertisements on Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit?s buses) and increasing entertainment game value (Student group half time performance) for the 2006-2007 Men?s basketball season.
Specific Marketing Changes: Target Market Analysis
Based on the our SWOT analysis and objective, the current target market, the Cornell community, does not make sense. Cornell Sports Marketing?s principal weakness is its shortage of funds and human resources; therefore, it cannot proficiently reach the Cornell community. Instead, Cornell Sports Marketing should target Cornell freshman. The opportunity for targeting Cornell freshman exists because all Cornell freshmen (2008 freshman class is composed of 3,093 people) live on North Campus; therefore, Cornell Sports Marketing could successfully target Cornell freshman with its $29,000 budget. The defining characteristic of Cornell freshman is their affiliation with their class at Cornell (such as: class of 2008).
Specific Marketing Changes: Positioning Strategy
An effective positioning strategy that will appeal to the proposed targeted market of Cornell freshman should place emphasis on the entertainment value of the Men?s basketball team. Currently, the positioning strategy lacks a specific point of difference and does not entice students into attending games rather than spending their time with competitors such as work and school. Major competitors to Cornell Sports are the other outlets that students have to watch quality sporting events. Since the Ivy League conference requires players whose academic abilities are representative of the entire student body, the quality of athletes does not measure up to other national conferences . For this reason, the current positioning should be changed from concentrating on the quality of the Cornell sports teams to the overall entertainment value of the sporting events. All proposed promotional tactics are aimed at increasing and emphasizing the entertainment value of the game.
Specific Marketing Changes: Promise
The proposed promise that Cornell Sports Marketing would deliver to its target market, Cornell freshmen, is an entertaining venue. Cornell Sports Marketing cannot guarantee a win?it has no control over the outcome of the games. What it must guarantee is a fun and entertaining time at the game. The sport should be considered more of a show than a game. It will benefit the target market by delivering a positive entertainment experience.
Suggested Changes to the Marketing Mix: Product
The current product mix does not completely deliver on the anticipated entertainment benefit of a basketball game and the number of products and services offered at a Cornell Men?s varsity basketball are too few. Enthusiasm decreases during half-time of a basketball game, which is a precedent for the second half. However, half-time performances by local student performance groups would increase the perceived benefits of the product mix. Cost estimates for performances from Impact (an all female dance troupe) and the Sport Taekwondo Club are free, and Last Call, an a cappella group, charges $150 for a 15 minute gig. Freshmen with friends in the various groups performing will attend games to support their friends.
Suggested Changes to the Marketing Mix: Price
Basketball game prices are free to students and that would not change. However, the perception of the event?s quality would be changed. This can be done by advertising the high quality of play rather than ?Cornell vs. School A.? Free admissions may cause freshmen expectations of the game to be low. It is important to impress freshmen attending their first Cornell basketball game. The actual game cannot be controlled, but performances and contests at halftime can improve the overall experience of the game.
Suggested Changes to the Marketing Mix: Place
Basketball games are currently played in Bartels Hall; however, at least one exhibition game should be held on the basketball courts of Helen Newman. Hosting games on North Campus would decrease the effort that freshman spectators would expend to see a basketball game.
Suggested Changes to the Marketing Mix: Promotion
The suggested changes to the promotion is implementing the Big Red Athletic Boosters Club, positioning posters on North Campus (dorms, dining halls, and fitness centers), having basketball players give out tickets and eat in dining halls, and placing advertisements on the Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit?s buses.
Promotional Tactics and Implementation Schedule
Strategy 1: Big Red Athletic Booster Club
An overwhelming number of universities with large and successful athletic programs sponsor athletic booster clubs that raise awareness of the school?s athletic program. Allowing students, alumni, and friends of the University to come together and recognize the importance of university athletics would greatly benefit Cornell. The club will initially be marketed to freshman students. The club will also start out with a minimum of activities and functions primarily centered on men?s basketball. Once the club is deemed successful, Cornell sports marketing can decide on the best course for expanding the club.
The club will offer memberships to all freshman students for a reduced price of $10 per year. Each membership includes a t-shirt with the club logo and the basketball events calendar. The membership also entitles students to attend special fan receptions at all basketball games and a unique seating section at all games. The seating section will include the first ten rows of seating behind the basket on the Cornell side of the stadium. This section of the sectioned off seating will be used to gather excited fans in one central location. The reception (light refreshments) will occur in a roped off area near the entrance of the stadium. Each game will have a budget of $100 to spend on refreshments. The purpose of the reception is not to feed the fans but to offer an atmosphere where fans can socialize. Each reception will require a staff of three people (mainly volunteers). These volunteers can include retired and current faculty and friends of the university as well as coaches and trainers in the athletic department who want to help promote Cornell Athletics. They will serve three crucial roles, checking in members into the reception, replenishing the refreshment and assisting with set-up and signing up others who want to join the club. The club will also help sponsor promotional strategy 2, 3, and 4.
Strategy 2: Posters advertisements on North Campus
Effective posters that target freshman would be placed in the North Campus dining halls, fitness centers, and bathroom stalls of residence halls. These posters will provide a more intimate snapshot of Cornell?s basketball players, dates of future basketball games, and fun facts about Cornell and Cornell basketball. These posters will be changed twice a month during the basketball season.
Strategy 3: Basketball players distributing tickets and eating in dining halls
Basketball players would distribute tickets at Appel Commons or Robert Purcell Union the weekend before their first at home game. Afterwards, the team would have dinner at the dining hall. Meeting and eating in the same vicinity as the basketball players would increase the team identification that a freshman feels; therefore, increasing their patronage of basketball games.
Strategy 4: Advertisements on Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit?s buses
Advertisement on the bus routes 80, 81, 82, 84, and 84 of Tompkins Consolidate Area Transit would be effective because these bus routes popular with freshman commuting between North Campus and central campus. Ads would be inside the buses and on the outside bus displays, which would be up twice during each basketball season for 60 days each. However, advertisements will not be on buses during the winter break.
Financial Analysis
Strategy 1: Big Red Athletic Booster Club
Membership fees are $10 every year and there will not be a limit to the number of members. Our target number of members is 200 people, which equates to $2,000 budget for the Big Red Athletic Booster Club. T-shirts cost $3 each, which leaves a budget of $1,400 for 11 at home games. After the costs of refreshments for games, there remains $300 that would be reinvested in the promotion of Cornell sports.
Strategy 2: Posters advertisements on North Campus
Posters would be placed in North Campus residence hall bathrooms, dining halls, and fitness centers. They would be changed every two weeks when school is in session, which requires the creation of 6 different posters. 150 color copies will be made of each poster, which results in costs of about $672 (at Kinkos) for the poster campaign every year.
Strategy 3: Basketball players distributing tickets and eating in dining halls
The only cost of strategy 3 is the cost of the meal for the basketball players, which is approximately $12 per person or about $150 per team dinner.
Strategy 4: Advertisements on Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit?s buses
Rosanne Sall Advertising Inc. (Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit?s advertising agency) would give the Big Red Athletic Booster Club, a non-profit organization, discounted prices that are about half the regular price ($165 and $175 for street and driver?s side displays for 30 days period) and 25 free posters placed inside the buses for a whole academic year. If we placed our game ads twice throughout the basketball season on our 5 targeted TCAT buses, total cost will be roughly $1,700 for 60 days.
Summary of Business Mission
The purpose of Cornell Sports Marketing is to create school pride with the University?s athletics and to attract spectators to the sporting events. Cornell Sports Marketing can do this by capitalizing on its current strengths. It will take advantage of Cornell?s ?prestige? and take advantage of the fact that the market it faces is homogenous and easy to target. The sports marketing team will also take the opportunity to create the Big Red Athletic Booster Club which will increase awareness for Cornell sports. For this to be done effectively, Cornell Sports Marketing might have to add more personnel to its present staff of one and it must beat out competing events which presently prove more attractive to freshmen students. Cornell athletics must appear more attractive than nearby professional sports and it must have excitement to draw students from academic pursuits for a portion of their time.
Assessment and Measurement
The success of our plan can be measured in two ways. First attendance records will be taken at all Cornell Men?s Basketball games. Stadium personnel will track attendance by tabulating the number of entering students at all home games occurring during times when school is in session.
Additionally stadium personnel will hand out survey materials to all students as they enter the basketball games. In exchange for filling out the small survey students will have a chance to win season hockey and basketball tickets at half-time shoot out contests. At the end of the first half an announcement will be made to remind all students to return their survey to ?Big Red? boxes located throughout the stadium. Shortly thereafter survey boxes will be collected and three names will be drawn to participate in the half time shootout contest. The student that shoots the most baskets from the three-point line in thirty seconds will win season hockey and basketball tickets.
The survey will consist of a few short questions to measure whether promotional material targeted at freshman influenced them to attend the game and whether they will attend future games. The first question will determine if they are freshman. Those persons who are not freshman will not be included in analyzed data. Specific questions of the survey include:
? What influenced you to come? a. Friends b. student group c. interest in basketball d. Cornell Daily Sun coverage e. promotional literature materials on campus including posters and flyers f. Big Red Athletic Booster Club g. half time performance h. other
? Did you see promotional material on campus? (Check all the apply: __ dining hall __fitness center __residence hall __Internet __Cornell Daily Sun coverage __other)
? Are you a member of Big Red Athletic Booster Club?
? On a scale of one to ten, how likely are you to attend future games? (1 is very unlikely and 10 is very likely)
? Did you see the half time performance? If yes, then how much did you enjoy it? (1 is did not enjoy and 10 is enjoyed a lot)
To measure our success we will use computer generated analysis of attendance records of two basketball seasons. The season before our marketing plan takes effect (2005 to 2006 season) and the season after we implement the Big Red Athletic Booster Club and distribute promotional literature at strategically located places (2006 to 2007 season). We will also use graphical computer comparisons of the two different seasons. If we see an increase of freshman attendance rates of 20% then we will have achieved our marketing goals. We will also look to see if our promotional activities targeted at freshman students influenced them to attend the games. We will measure the success of the promotional activities through a computer analysis of the second sample survey question: ?Did you see promotional material on campus?? If at least 85% of the freshmen at basketball games cite having seen at least one promotional material then we will have achieved our marketing goals.
Part of our objective is to increase attendance of freshmen at men's basketball games by 20%. Based on information from the 2002-2003 season, 2,619 total students attended the twelve home basketball games. On average, 281 students attended each game. However, there is no information on the demographics of those who attended the games, so at the moment, it is impossible to determine how many freshmen attended the games. Because of this absence of information, our first goal is to collect this data during the regular season. At one game, only eight students attended a game. A 20% increase would mean only getting 2 more people to attend the game. Of course, this is an extreme case. On average (keeping in mind that these numbers are for all students, not just freshmen) there would need to be 43.6 more people at all home basketball games to achieve our goal of 20%. Breaking it down to the freshmen class, this would mean that an estimated 11 more freshmen would have to attend each game. This number is very realistic and feasible to achieve.
