Marketing Plan

PACK THE HOUSE CHALLENGE

“Pack the House” is a marketing initiative full of promotional activities to sell tickets, increase attendance and create an entertaining, fan-friendly atmosphere.
SWOT
STRENGTHS: NEO Basketball has many organizational strengths surrounding them. They are a diverse team in a small city. Many of their players come from all over the U.S. However, some of theirplayers are from outside of the U.S. This gives people the chance to see how basketball is played here, but also how the game is played in other parts of the world.
WEAKNESS: NEO Basketball games are at night during the week. Community is more allowed to attend weekend’s games. No matter what anyone says, the number one ticket seller is a team that wins games. If they lose games, they lose fans andticket sales. Sad to say, but that is the way it is in any level of sports. People want to see a win and if they know there isn’t one, then they will not attend.
OPPORTUNITY: Miami is an overall supportive community. Environmental opportunities for NEO basketball include their potential to be dominant in their conference. Any one of the teams in the conference could win the conferencechampionship. For the most part, all the teams are pretty even with one another. NEO needs to take advantage of this, and eventually they will become a contender. Winning teams sell tickets.
TREATHS: Where there are opportunities, there are also threats. Everyone in any business has them. There is no escaping them, but there is the chance of reducing them. Environmental threats facing NEO includethe diversity of the demographics in the population surrounding campus. It is tough for them to please everyone, but need to find a balance where all people feel welcome to attend games. Miami is a football town and the community will be more interesting to stay at home and watch those on T.V.
OBJECTIVES
“Packet the House” initiative has set the following goals for the 2012-2013 NEO basketballseason:

* Increase ticket revenue.

* Improve game atmosphere/entertainment.

* Increase student attendance.

* Improve student support/involvement.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Strategic Alternatives
In choosing our market strategy, we realized that all potential market segments are important. In fact, the strategy that we chose touches upon almost all the segmentpossibilities. However, we realized that the first step in creating a solid fan base starts with the students. The other segments were not as easily identified, accessed, or influenced as the students. One segment considered was the alumnus. Although this group was the largest segment, we felt that the accessibility and responsiveness of this group was too low and would cost too much money to pursue. Thenext possible segment that we could have targeted the main focus of our plan toward would be the faculty, administrative, and support personnel. This segment was too small to meet our desired results. The final segment that we considered was the surrounding communities. This segment is very large and has a lot of potential, but we felt that the only way to reach this segment is to have a winningbasketball team, and that promotional efforts would be useless.

Target Market
The best way to increase attendance at NEO basketball games is to start with the students. They are the most easily identified of all the possible consumer segments. Approximately 75% of students reside on campus, which makes the opportunities to promote the basketball games to students almost endless. Themost difficult part of gauging the student segment is knowing whether or not they will respond to promotional efforts, and whether it is worthwhile to satisfy the needs/wants of the students in order to persuade them to attend games. The students at NEO do seem to respond to promotional efforts. An increase in school spirit and unity would without a doubt be a positive influence on the...