Direct Marketing Strategies For Sky Sports: Essay On Importance Of Customer Database. (70 Characters)

You will write an individual I&DM campaign proposal of 2,000 words Max for the same firm that you analysed in your group. This must be an original piece of work produced by you alone -group members will take forward different campaign objectives which should be approved by your tutor. There is more detail on structure and content of the proposal in part 3 of this document. 

Running the business normally is simply known as entrepreneurship. And hence the term business entrepreneur has been referred to an individual that is working as an employee or is running a small business expecting all the risks and rewards of the business. Moreover, the term entrepreneur is commonly referred to an innovator, a source or generator of new ideas, goods and services and business (Abidi et al., 2015). Entrepreneurs play a key role in the process of development and growth of an economy. These are the individuals that have expertise and skills and take an initiative that is required for anticipating the current and future demands and also develop new ideas to the market. The entrepreneurs are rewarded with profits and number of growth opportunities that prove themselves successful in taking risks for starting up the business. The term entrepreneurship has been considered as one of the resources that has been categorized by the economists as an integral player in production and the other three empirical components are the land, labour and capital. The below described assignment has been designed and developed with a prime objective of advancing varied range of employability skills and  the further analysis has been executed over Sky-sports that is a group of a sports television channels. These channels are operated by the Pay-Tv Company Sky Plc.

Direct marketing has been considered as one of the most magnetic medium of attracting the consumers. A good set of direct marketing techniques aid the business organization by focusing and promoting a specific product or service (Armelini and Villanueva, 2011). The customers can act for receiving further information, express their interest, visit the official websites and portals or can also purchase the products or services. This form of marketing has been considered as a direct medium through which the business entity can market or promote the products directly to the customers who need them most. The below described are some of the benefits that Sky Sports can attain for attaining the consumers: 

Targeting the ideal customers: The biggest advantage of direct marketing is that it allows the business firm to target particular group of customers with personalized messages, that will aid the entity in attracting huge pool of customers directly. Sky sports should execute a detailed research and make identification of the customers who are most likely the viewers of the channels and users of the other services. Thus the entity will be focusing the on the marketing efforts where they are most effective and will have the best outcomes (Armstrong et al., 2015). Moreover, organizing a direct marketing campaign will provide the firm with a clear and accurate understanding of how the customers are reacting and what are the feedbacks about the products and the services.

Benefits of Direct Marketing for Sky Sports

Market on a budget: Direct marketing is focused towards a specific segment of consumers and that will aid in establishing realistic objectives and will also enhance sales results even after the business entity is having a tight marketing budget (Baker, 2014). Sky sports can run and manage an effective and purposeful direct marketing campaign at fraction of costs.

Increase the sales to current and lapsed customers: Some customers are found familiar with the business firm’s that are making efforts for understanding the requirements and are also interested in developing the relationship with the customers. By maintaining and developing reliable customer records and making use of simple promotional strategies the business entity bring an increase in sales from the existing customers. Moreover, direct marketing techniques can also be used for the customers those who haven’t returned to the business (Bienkowski et al., 2010). Directing marketing strategies can be utilized for re-establishing the relationships with these customers.

Improve customer loyalty: These marketing mechanisms will aid Sky sports in establishing and developing direct relations with the customer's Personalized promotions and letters and offers for creating an immediate bond with the customers and increase personal links with the customer. This will develop a sense of trust amongst the customers and that will increase the customer loyalty (Bryman and Bell, 2015). The number of business corporations combine direct marketing and customer loyalty tactics for building relationships with the customers.

Customers are considered as the king of the market and the most significant aspect of any of the business organization. And for retaining and growing them the business firm is required to have extensive information about them. Customer information is one of the basic elements that is required to be possessed by the business firm while developing and designing a product or a service (Entrepreneur 2018). Maintaining a customer profile is not a choice but it is considered as a necessity. For making the business successful the firms are required to maintain a well-organized data base. Sky sports can make use of the number of mechanisms for storing the customer’s information. The below presented is the role of customer information:

Organizing customer’s information: One of the rime requirements for growing a business is having appropriate information of a customer. This data can be for both the existing and potential customers of the business. The information can be considered as an empirical component for bringing a hike in the sales. Moreover, the sales and marketing teams will also be benefited in making best-informed marketing decisions and that will bring effective outcomes.

Importance of Customer Database for Sky Sports

Retaining existing customers: The biggest role played by the customer data base is that it aids the business firm in attaining and retaining the existing customers (Fleisher and Bensoussan, 2015). The customer information includes data regarding their needs and demands, income level, taste and preferences, their standard of living etc. Keeping a regular check regarding the fulfillments of all the aspects and components of the customer data base will keep the existing customers satisfied and also help to retain them. 

Monitor potential leads: Another advantage of maintaining customer database of the targeted segments of the consumers is that Sky Sports will be able to monitor the potential customers with an ease. The business firm should ensure that they are having the most updated form of the database on the target market (Hollensen, 2015). This will aid the business corporation in tracking the preferences among the other aspects and that will aid the enterprise in formulating and developing relevant marketing methods.

Further mentioned are the methods that can be adapted by Sky sports for building customer database:

• Contesting:Organizing a contest has been considered as one of the best media through which the business firm can effectively engage with the targeted market and is the best platform for collecting the customer's information (Hope and Fraser, 2013). For instance, a text-to-win contest is a traditional form through which the business entity can develop customer database.
• Instant coupons: This medium is another strategy that can be adopted by the business corporation and that works for both text message and email marketing campaigns.
• Surveys: This is the mechanism under which the business entity asks the customers form the feedbacks over the experience through the purchase and consumption of the products and service (Kim and Hyun, 2011). Some customers feel valued and are excited when the company asks for the feedback.

The business entity faces a number of challenges on regular basis and requires solutions over the same. Direct and interactive marketing has been considered as one of the significant medium through which the business entity can resolve these challenges or can find alternative options for tackling them (Lam and Harker, 2015). The concept of direct marketing offers a wide range of solutions to the business for tackling the contemporary challenges. The following are the solutions that are offered by interactive and direct marketing and can be adopted by Sky sports for facing the contemporary challenges:

Communication gap: This is one of the biggest contemporary challenges that will come across as a barrier in the path of success and growth for a firm (Lee, Barker and Mouasher, 2013). If the business corporation is unable to spread awareness about the products and services then there will be a communication gap between the entity and the targeted customers. This will lead to a decline in demand and sale, the consumers may also develop a thought of switching over the brand and a decline in customer base and market share is also observed. Direct marketing will enable the business firm in developing a direct contact with the targeted market and consumers segment. This form of communication includes direct interaction with the consumers and that leads in collection of accurate data and feedback from customers. Interactive marketing act as a bridging gap between the firm and the customer (Pardalos and Tsitsiringos, 2013).

Solutions offered by Direct Marketing for Contemporary Challenges

Competition: the Competitive environment is one of the biggest threat or challenge for any of the business corporation and so is for the Sky Sports. Interactive and direct marketing strategies enable he business entity in establishing strong relations with the customers that will ensure customer loyalty. Moreover, direct interactions with the customers will develop a distinct image of the brand and will keep them one step ahead of the competing brands. Direct marketing strategies provide wide range of platforms to the business firm for attracting and attaining the consumes and thus enable the entity to maintain a sustainable position and a competitive advantage over the competitors. 

Establishing campaign objective is one of the crucial tasks for any of the business firm while promoting or marketing a product or service. The objectives are the milestones that are required to be accomplished by the business firm in an effective and efficient manner. The objectives provide directions to the efforts made by the marketing team and enable them to attain a high level of effectiveness (Lee 2016). The below mentioned are the campaign objectives that can be established by Sky sports for the marketing campaign:

Increase in TRP (target rating point)

The prime objective of any of the business firm is to bring an increase in sale and as Sky sports is a group of sports television channels bringing an increase in TRP will be the main objective for the firm.

Building brand awareness

Generating awareness for the products and services is the main concern of a marketing campaign and hence this is one of the empirical objectives that is established by the business firm.

Targeting new customers

Increasing number of customers has been considered as one of the basic requirement for attiring success and growth. And hence this can also be considered as one of the integral objectives for Sky Sports. The marketing campaign should be developed and designed by after considering the customers at a focal point. 

Entering new markets

Increasing market share and widening the scope of business is a crucial task for the business enterprise. And this can be done by entering new markets or the new regions in which the business entity is not operating the operations on the current basis. This can also be determined as one of the main objectives for which the business entity can design a marketing campaign.

The below mentioned are some of the marketing strategies that can be used by Sky sports for controlling and managing the activities of the marketing campaign:

• Targeting to a niche audience
• Making clear and concise calls on actions
• Developing a story that speaks to all media

Campaign Objectives for Sky Sports

The above presented campaign objectives and strategies will be proven appropriate for the business organization as the first approach is about targeting the niche audience that means the business entity will be focusing its efforts on a specific segment of audience for a particular product or services. This will be proven advantageous as the entity will already know the amount and direction of the marketing efforts to be made. The next strategic approach adopted by the firm is making clear and concise actions on calls that mean the business entity is required to take appropriate and relevant decisions on the activities and the plans implemented. Taking relevant decisions will be proven beneficial for the business firm as a positive environment will be created and that will motivate the workforce. The last strategic approach that can be adopted by Sky Sports is development of a story that will be communicating the required details and messages to the media. Media is one of the biggest platforms or can also be considered as a connecting bridge between an entity and consumers and hence communicating relevant details to media will be proven beneficial while attaining the consumers.   

Conclusion

After summing up the above-executed analysis it has been inferred that developing and designing marketing campaign is one of the crucial tasks for any of the business entity so as to promote the products and services. Sky Sports is the business firm that planning a marketing campaign for spreading awareness for the services. 

References

Abidi, H., Shafiq, F., Arshad, R., Pirwani, M. and Hassan, A., 2015. Case Study: Stories of Entrepreneurship. Market Forces, 10(2).

Armelini, G. & Villanueva, J., 2011, “Adding social media to the marketing mix”, IESE insight, vol. 9, pp.29-36.

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bienkowski, M., Feldmann, A., Jurca, D., Kellerer, W., Schaffrath, G., Schmid, S. & Widmer, J., 2010, “Competitive analysis for service migration in vnets”, Proceedings of the second ACM SIGCOMM workshop on Virtualized infrastructure systems and architectures, pp. 17-24.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Entrepreneur, (2018). Elements of a business plan. (Online). Retrieved from:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/38308. (Assessed on 23^rd February 2018).

Fleisher, C.S. & Bensoussan, B.E., 2015, “FT Press”, Business and competitive analysis: effective application of new and classic methods.

Hollensen, S., 2015, “Pearson Education”, Marketing management: A relationship approach.

Hope, J. & Fraser, R., 2013, “the Budget”, Budgetierung im Umbruch?, vol. 1, pp.71.

Kim, J.H. & Hyun, Y.J., 2011, “A model to investigate the influence of marketing-mix efforts and corporate image on brand equity in the IT software sector”, Industrial marketing management, vol. 40 (3), pp.424-438.

Lam, W. and Harker, M.J., 2015. Marketing and entrepreneurship: An integrated view from the entrepreneur’s perspective. International Small Business Journal, 33(3), pp.321-348.

Lee, K.H., Barker, M. and Mouasher, A., 2013. Is it even espoused? An exploratory study of commitment to sustainability as evidenced in vision, mission, and graduate attribute statements in Australian universities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 48, pp.20-28.

Nunan, D. & Di Domenico, M., 2013, “Market research & the ethics of big data”, International Journal of Market Research, vol. 55 (4), pp.505-520.

Pardalos, P.M. and Tsitsiringos, V. eds., 2013. Financial engineering, E-commerce and supply chain (Vol. 70). Springer Science & Business Media.

Lee, M, (2016). Marketing that sticks: 7 winning inbound marketing campaign strategies. (Online). Retrieved from:https://www.adherecreative.com/blog/bid/152637/marketing-that-sticks-7-winning-inbound-marketing-campaign-strategies. (Assessed on 23^rd February 2018).