Promotion plan for increasing attendance at a minor league baseball game - Essay Example

?Promotion plan for increasing attendance at a minor league baseball game Defining the target market The target market represents a group of people with homogeneous characteristics and tendencies that is identified by an organization for the purpose of marketing their products or services. Proper selection of the target market helps in better delivery of values to the customers thereby increasing the demand factor for the products and services that is being marketed to the masses (Lamb and et.al, 274). In this particular case, since the offering is the value associated with the minor league baseball games, hence the target market has to be the sports fans of the United States. Discussing in a more specific manner, it can be stated that the target market for marketing the minor league baseball games mainly comprises of US fans who love baseball as a sport. Measurable objectives While designing the objectives associated with marketing the minor league baseball games for increasing fan attendance, focus has to be given on designing objectives which follows the SMART framework. The SMART framework highlights the factors of specific, measurable, aspirational, realistic as well as timed (McCorkell, 152). For this particular assignment, the SMART oriented objectives are as follows: Increase the game attendance of fans by more than 30% for the present season. Increase the sale of tickets for the games by 40 % during the current season. Increase the sale of merchandise and related patronizing accessories from the gift and memoirs shop by around 5% for the next 6 months. Researching various promotional ideas While scouting about various ideas that are used to create awareness for the minor league baseball games, it was interesting to realise that as of the current days, there are multiple minor league baseball games enjoy differing levels of demands in the country of United States. Because of the existence of multiple number of minor league baseball games in the same country, the marketers for these baseball leagues often try to implement a series of promotion tactics so as to lure the fans of the baseball games. Some of the promotional tactics that are used by the marketers for increasing the popularity of the baseball games comprises of night time fireworks, concessions on fooding items. Also, some marketers focus on executing promotions by conducting three legged races as well as various other contests for children. Also, organizing of concerts, comedy, magic acts are performed to lure the interest of the sports fans for the minor league baseball games (Anderson, “Not So Minor Attractions”). However, to present a unique kind of promotional campaign in this case, focus has to be given to design a campaign which is different from the existing promotional clutter. The promotional idea that will be recommended in this case will be a mix of both online and offline medium. Selecting the Promotional Approach While designing the promotion for the league baseball games, the SMART objectives that were designed have to be considered. The SMART objectives focused on raising the level of popularity as well as the sale of merchandises from the gift shops. Since the expected fans of the baseball games will be mostly young parents and kids who will fall in the category of Gen X and Gen Y category, hence to develop a connect with them, the online medium will be used. Promotion of the event will be carried out in the online networking sites by creating a Facebook Page and thereby providing updates about the latest happening for the minor baseball league games. Also, the Facebook Page can be used to conduct online contests targeted towards the young audience and thereby distributing rewards and freebies to the contest winners. This will help in boosting the interest and attendance rate for the games. Also, the traditional advertising medium can be used as a support process for increasing the awareness and interest for the baseball games of the minor league. For doing promotions using the traditional medium, the marketer can focus on providing advertisements in the television medium. Also, to further enhance the awareness and popularity of the minor games of the baseball league, advertisements can be provided in various movie theatres for displaying them before the start of the movies as well as during the intermission. Also, the marketer can focus on providing large advertisements in the billboards of various locations around the United States so as to increase the awareness and popularity of the baseball games of the minor league. It is however, important to state that the location for displaying the advertisements on the billboards have to be chosen by the marketer while judging the view ratio of the intended target audience. However, displaying the advertisements in various high traffic locations will help in a great way in increasing the demand for the game tickets and thereby boosting its sales.. Developing a theme for the promotion While engaging in the promotion for the baseball game minor league, it is important to consider the fact that America as a nation loves baseball (Stanley, “If you want to understand why Americans love their country so, go to a baseball game”). As a result, a lot of emotions, feelings and sentiments of national and patriotic nature are automatically associated with the game. In order to design a more successful promotion campaign for the minor league, the special patriot feelings of the game endorsed by the baseball fans have to be triggered. As a result, a slogan needs to be designed by the marketer for connecting with the baseball loving sports fans of America. The slogan for the promotion can be “Support the GAME and Show the TRUE SPIRIT of an AMERICAN” Creating a Support Material For the purpose of promotion, flyers and standees can be presented and displayed at various locations around the United States. While designing the flyers, the marketer needs to engage in a lot of visualization effects so as to increase the attractiveness and luring power of the promotional flyers. It is very important to mention that the promotional flyers have to be designed while including a lot of creative content, the date of the games as well as the slogan that was supposed to be used for promotion activities. Sample Flyers of Promotion for Minor League Baseball Games are provided below: Works Cited Stanley, Tim. If you want to understand why Americans love their country so, go to a baseball game. 15 April 2012. Web. 7 Aug 2013. Anderson, Kelli. Not So Minor Attractions. N.d. Web. 7 Aug 2013. McCorkell, Graeme. Direct and Database Marketing. London: Kogan Page Limited. 1997. Print. Lamb, Charles. W., and et.al. Essentials of Marketing.USA: Cengage Learning. 2009. Print. Read More