Situation Summary
Objectives
Sony is willing to promote its TV products as a partner of the Texas Rangers Club. The company emphasizes on the fact that if TVs produced by Sony are to be installed at the Rangers’ Ballpark, then they can be easily fixed up in houses as well. This will ultimately raise the awareness of the brand.
Marketing tactics
Pre-event strategies
Sony will raise awareness among people in order to remind the public of the partnership it has had with the Rangers (Kurtz 37). The public awareness will involve ads; commercials will account for about 60% of the total budget set for ads during the pre-event period.
The purpose of the pre-season advertisement is to instill a notion in the minds of the public that the coming season is a fully entertaining event; by its advertising Sony highlights the fact that thanks to the digital TV any person has the chance to watch their team perform and play. Therefore, if Sony can provide such an entertainment at the ballpark, then the product will appear even more entertaining in homes.
During the sporting period
During the sporting season, Sony will take the advantage of the massive number of fans visiting the stadium to watch their team performing on the pitch (Koekemoer and Bird 21). The company has weighed the advantages of advertising its product during the sporting season.
The estimated number of fans attending every sporting event at the Ballpark is around 42,719. During the season, Rangers plays about 162 games, 81 of which are home events. This means that every season around 3.4 million fans attend home events. By placing the advertisements in the Ballpark, the company will make sure that about 3 million fans see the ads 81 times in the Ballpark and 162 times on TV screens.
The marketing tactics during the season will also involve television advertising during out matches. In this case, Sony will seek to advertise itself in the leading sporting media – the Fox Sports TV that reaches approximately 6.5 million homes in the five southwestern states. The Sony product and its name, consequently, will appear every time Rangers Club appears on the television with additional ads to remind people about their partnership with the club.
Finally, during the season, Sony will communicate the role it plays in sponsoring the club by placing its ads free in the club’s print magazine, on social media pages and the internet (Kress 231). Rangers has an estimated number of 3 million visitors of their website every season, most of whom are looking for daily updates about the club, its events and performances.
Visitors to the website will gain awareness that Sony is the sole sponsor of the club, and the one that organizes the events they enjoy watching. Graphics, pictorial representatives and videos on Sony products about their importance in homes will appear on every page at Ranger’s official website and on social media pages. (Koekemoer and Bird 21).
Post-event
Every post event will involve an analysis of the club’s performance, its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. The analysis will be fully a project of the Sony Company and the Club. Airing the analysis of the team performance on TVs is likely to attract a large number of viewers, especially men who are Sony’s main target group.
Promotion mix
Sony’s completive advantage will largely rely on its strategy of sponsoring the big club. Competitors sponsor only a few sports events or clubs in the region. The promotion of the Sony product will rely on the contract between the company and the club. Television ads will take up 60% of the total budget; they will attract attention of most fans, who check on the updates about the club and its events on television.
TV commercials will run throughout the season during games, and will frequently appear on television during the pre and post-game analysis. Secondly, fans may buy and read print media, including the official yearbook, the club’s magazines and its pocket schedule.
In each of these kinds of media, Sony’s product and name will appear as a part of the game and the team. Its name and pictures of the products, including their benefits, technology and favorable prices will appear on several pages. Print media will take up 20% of the total budget.
Fans like visiting the club website for updates on its events and other information. In addition, the club has some accounts with leading social media. The agreement with the club will allow Sony to place its ads on both the website and the social media pages. The internet takes 10% of the total budget. Finally, billboards, most of which being digital technologies created by Sony, will appear around the stadium as well as in the lounges, cafeterias, inside the stadium and on the way to it.
Creative brief
The TV ads will reach the largest number of customers. The internet and print media ensure that every fan seeking information about the club sees Sony products quite often, while billboards seek to create an impression that Sony is the only partner to the fan’s club (Charan, Bossidy and Burck 122).
Men, mostly those between 35 and 50 years, are the target group of the advertising company. Most of them work earning between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. They have the capacity to recognize the brand in the shops, and choose it based on its involvement in sponsoring the clubs they like.
Execution plan sample
Works Cited
Charan, Ram, Larry Bossidy and Charles Burck. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. New York: Springer, 2010. Print.
Koekemoer, Ludi and Steve Bird. Marketing Communications. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2004. Print
Kress, Markus. Intelligent business process optimization for the service industry. New York: Springer, 2009. Print
Kurtz, Dave. Contemporary Marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2010. Print