Marketing Essay: The Rising Stars Of Football - All 4 Sports

Discussion

Discuss about the Marketing Plan for All 4 Sports.

There exists various organizations performing in the Australian economy with the aim of earning profit and establishing a strong market share. There even exist organizations that do not run after profit maximization but aim to develop the society where it operates. These organizations are non-profit organizations who are engaged in providing all the issues related to the society and the community and developing their lifestyle.

The current study concentrates on All 4 Sports, which is a non-profit organization that provides the society with a complete youth sports program. The firm selects participants from the kindergarten to high school with positive learning and team working experiences along with the providing training knowledge about various sports to the youth who are underprivileged and hail from the backward sections of the society (Schrader, Freimann & Seuring 2012). They try to uplift the youth from these sections and provide them a base to establish themselves in the society.

All 4 Sports has started a new sports program where they try to discover the hidden potentials of youth in the field of soccer. The firm has collaborated with Sydney Football Club, a leading football club in Australia to discover youth having talent in football and try to provide training to them in their club to initiate the first step towards development of professional football players. The firm tries to make this program available and affordable to the talented participants. They initiate the program by undertaking various fund raising activities so that the participants need to pay a minimum amount. The paper therefore tries to highlight the marketing mix and the SWOT analysis of the sports program undertaken by All 4 Sports. 

The need for the youth football program is exaggerated and authenticated by the information that provides long term value to the candidates selected in the program. The involvement in sports results in the reduction in the youth getting involved in drugs, crime etc. The program increases the social and personal value of the youth in a constructive and positive manner and restricts social costs that may occur later. The benefits indicated in the football sports program validates the the concept of All 4 Sports and even attracts sponsors to get involved with the program. The program of discovering future football talents has been named as “ The Rising Stars of Football”. The campaign comes with a tag line “ Come, Play and Enjoy the Game. Lets Football!”

Market Summary

All 4 Sports delivers valuable team game and football experiences to youth coming from the backward sections of the society. The firm provides opportunity to the young people to gain knowledge about the game and improve the  fitness and athletic skills of the youth (Tian & Borges 2012). The program even provides knowledge about sportsman spirit, teamwork, leadership, fair play, self confidence and cooperation among the youth.

The firm undertakes a national level football talent hunt of the youth hailing from the backward sections of Australia. Out of the total number of participants, 58% of the applicants are male and 42% are female. The sports program provides equal training opportunity to the male and female (Machmud & Sidharta 2014).

The following details highlights the strengths and weaknesses that are internal to the firm and the threats and opportunities that are external. The objective is to control the strengths and make use of the opportunities presented by the market and improve the weaknesses and construct contingency plans to eliminate the threats before they become reality.

Reputation of the Program: All 4 Sports is considered to be the best choice for youth sports programs and therefore many football clubs have approached them to start the program. But the firm has opted to collaborate with Sydney Football Club.

Donor Base: The brand image of the firm has led to the enhancement of a loyal and stable donor base from corporate and private sources.

Internal Facilities: The firm provides athletic facilities like gyms, football fields, training courses and sports equipments to the candidates (Tudor & NEGRICEA 2012). They even have a close relationship with the public and private schools and football clubs  to create maintenance agreement.

Internet: The website of the organization turns to be an important technological answer for the firm in the field of communication, registration  and information. The firm has been able to produce current and extensive information at a minimal cost.

Capital Requirements: The firm is in need of improvements in the management of the financial sources. They are in need of extra funds to maintain the quality of the program to meet the expectations of the society. The Fund Raising Foundation established by the firm provides additional financial resources for All 4 Sports. These strategies are useful in reducing the course fee from the participants thereby making the program affordable  (Mohaghar et al., 2012). In order to expand their plan,  All 4 Sports tries to bring in new investors in the sports program.

Market Demographics

Facilities: The expansion of the program requires the need of bigger grounds. Therefore, this is one of the main challenges the firm faces currently. The threats from several aspects rise in the program needs linked with the current restrictions and fees has led them to collaborate with Sydney FC as they do not have the facilities that are essential for the development of the program and provide the participants with quality training and management (Brito 2013). The need for indoor facilities, innovative training equipments and appropriate practice schedule for the candidates has led to the collaboration with Sydney FC by the firm.

Training and Educations for the Officials and Coaches: The officials and the coaches require adequate training to better understand the firm’s philosophy, responsibilities and behaviour with the candidates. The coaches and officials need to be made aware of the football talent hunt program and they need to provide extensive training to the participants so that they can have a professional football carrier (Ayub et al., 2013).

Staff Challenges: The employees face tremendous work pressure in relation to the issues of the program and workloads. 

Geographic Service Area Issues: The continuous improvement in the football program across the country will attract new societies to undertake such programs and would like to take help of the firm to undertake such new programs in other societies (Robinson 2012).

Interest towards Football: Football is one of the most attractive sports and therefore the initiation to discover potential future football players will bring in new candidates to participate in the program.

Program expansion and community education: The community needs to be provided with the knowledge of their initiative so that they become aware of their work and the firm is also in need of expansion of the program as with knowledge about the program to the society, it will lead to new candidates showing interest of joining the program.

Property tax changes: The changes in the property tax will lead to modifications for the firm and they will try to reduce certain costs to maintain their current quality of service.

Legal and Liability Issues: The firm is exposed to various issues of liability in the functions performed by them. The issues range from safety and health to verbal abuses that may even lead to any legal actions (Ngo & O'Cass 2013).

The marketing mix strategy of the firm includes the following aspects:

SWOT Analysis

The product in concern is an intangible product and the core benefit of the product is to provide training and discovering the potential of the youth of the backward sections in the field of football so that they gain extensive knowledge about the game and are able to create a future for them (Payaud 2014). This program even abstains the youth from moving towards consumption of drugs and crime. The program is well supported by the people living in the society.

The course fee for the program is estimated to be around $ 60,000 per annum but the amount is very expensive for the backward sections of the society. The firm has therefore reduced the course fee to $ 10,000 per annum for them and the rest amount is balanced with the help of the donations and the money received from the sponsors. The firm has brought in various private and corporate firms as sponsors who invest in their football talent program and therefore the outstanding amount is balanced with the money received from the sponsors (Sisodia, Vyas & Maheshkar 2013). This action satisfies the candidates and the firm is able to accomplish their goal.

The football talent program is undertaken near the area where there are more backward sections reside so that they are aware of the program and can participate easily.

The program is a beneficial one for the backward sections of the society and therefore it requires extensive promotional campaign to attract the society along with bringing in sponsors and investors in the program. They have undertaken advertisements in newspapers and television along with billboard advertisements so that the entire community has a knowledge about the program (Hans & Gupta 2013). The firm has constructed an advertisement stating the name of the campaign along with their tag line of “Come, Play and Enjoy the Game Lets Football!”. The campaign even highlights the sponsors associated with the program to increase the brand value of the program.

Promotional Campaign Template 

The action plans that have been identified in the study for All 4 Sports will be influential in attracting potential participants for the program. All 4 Sports, in order to attract participants and sponsors for the program has even created an attention grabbing message comprising of:

The effectiveness of the message can be best understood by the responses from the society and the community where the program is being initiated. The positive and negative responses from the community will clarify how the program is being treated. The other way to evaluate the effectiveness of the message will be looking at the number of candidates who are participating in the program. The more candidates participating will indicate the success of the message provided and program undertaken by All 4 sports.

Conclusion

The developmental goal of All 4 Sports to discover the skills and talents of the youth from the backward sections of the society has been found to be effective. The program has attracted various sections of the society proving fund and manpower to undertake the program. A detailed information about the market is provided and a SWOT analysis is undertaken to find out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that are related to the firm. it shows that the firm has minimum weakness and threats and they can undertake steps to eliminate these issues. A marketing mix plan reveals the 4Ps related to the program and therefore it is seen that the program undertaken by All 4 Sports will be successful in the market.

Reference List

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