Australian Football League's Marketing Essay: Health & Wellness Of Players.

Discuss about the Marketing Plan of Australian Football League highlighting health and wellness issues of the players.

The Australian Football League(AFL) is one of the top professional competition in football. AFL is a governing body who are responsible for controlling the laws of the game. This league consists of 18 teams that are spread over six states. The matches are played in mainland states and territories of Australia, China and New Zealand for promotion of football in other countries. Presently, AFL consists of a pre-season competition which is followed by 23 round regular seasons. The matches are played between March-September every year. AFL was established on permanent basis in Gold Coast in Queensland (afl.com.au., 2017).

The Victorians Football Association (VFA) was established in 1877 and it became a major football rules competition of Australia. The inaugural session of VFA was held in 1897. In addition, VFA has also made several innovations for the fulfillment of public interests. VFA took initiative in organizing annual final tournaments rather than the establishment of modern scoring system and premiership in the team. In 1925, VFA has expanded from nine teams to twelve teams. Collingwood became the first team to win VFL competition and they has won four successive premierships. In 1952, VFL has hosted “National Day” and the six matches were played outside Melbourne (News.com.au, 2017). Moreover, Melbourne became the powerhouse during 1950s. The VFL premiership trophy was awarded in 1959.  In 1970, the VFL match was played in VFL Park and this has helped to gain interdependence from Melbourne Cricket Club. In 1976, National Football League was the administrative body of Australian football. It has also established the NFL Night series to succeed the Australian Football Championship. In 1977-1981, VFL has left the Australian National Football Council. In 1990-2005, a national competition was played and the Australian Football League was renamed which reflected a new national perspective. In 2006, AFL established its permanent field in Gold Coast of Queensland, which is one of the most populous city. In 2008, a meeting was held by the AFL team and several discussions were held of the AFL competition. Moreover, in March 2008 AFL has won the support of the league of 16 club President to establish in Western Sydney and Gold Coast (Afl.com.au., 2017).

The sub categories of Australian Football League has 10 subcategories such as AFL Rising Star winners, Brownlow Medal, Australian Football Hall of fame inductees, Colerman Medal winners, Herald Sun of the Player, Greek Team of Century, Italian team of century.

Market Research

The research of Australian Football League related to health and wellness of the players were carried out with the help of questionnaires. The participants and the sponsors of AFL were given to fill up a questionnaire. On the basis of research, it has been found that 4 people supported that AFL paid great attention to the health and wellness of the workers. 1 player denied the concern of the AFL towards health and safety. This player has denied because the use of social drugs like methamphetamines and cocaine were on rise and AFL did not care about the health of the players.  The AFL Club Essendon were under a separate supervision to investigate Australian Sports anti-Doping authority over the administration of different kinds of supplements The sponsors of AFL also paid great attention to the health and wellness of the workers in the Australia. AFL has developed various benefits for the players such as aerobic fitness, and development of motor skills.  The sponsors also played great attention in improving teamwork and leadership among the players. AFL community also encouraged the players to develop new friends and the players while conducting research through questionnaires stated this clearly. Moreover, the players have also stated that they were provided special mouth guard and football shoes to protect themselves from any injury and harm.

Strength

Australian Football League is one of the top most organizations who are responsible for management and administration of football in Australia. Its main aim was to support the various levels of footballs from junior to the elite level. It is operating as a non-profit organization and this generates one of the greatest surplus costs in the developmental cost. The players are provided prevention training on injuries and they must focus on safety. Moreover, there is a provision of online injury website that provides information on the common injuries, which are suffered by majority of the players.  The website also provides detailed description of the injury treatment techniques, stretches and exercises and an important section i.e. ask from expert. Moreover, fitness also constitutes an important role in the players. The players of AFL are equipped with various instruments so that they can meet the heavy demands of the pre-season training and play the final match properly. AFL also pays great attention on the nutrition of the players. The players are paid great attention so that they eat correctly before the onset of the game. Moreover, they also check that the players have sufficient energy to get through the game.  

SWOT analysis of AFL

Weakness

The professional clubs have trainers, doctors and physiotherapists to deal with different kinds of incidents and mishaps. However, AFL does not have their own trained doctors or physiotherapist. The players are rushed to the nearest hospital and then they are taken for treatment. The players are also supported rehabilitation in the nearest hospital. It can be said that AFL does not have their own doctors or trainers. The players also do not like to talk about the mental health. They always show a sign of weakness. The players find it humiliating and shameful and thus they are not ready to share their opinions with others. AFL does not support the players in such case. They have claimed that the players are not immune and they always complain about their health problems. Mental health remains unaddressed in Australian sporting landscape. The high profile athletes have also opened up several battles with their depression and anxiety and this has been highlighted several times in the newspaper, televisions and media (Weston et al., 2015).

Opportunity

The CEO of Australian Football League has highlighted the importance of the game in the global environment. This was an important opportunity for the new AFL leaders to convey their vision to the national audience (Bradbury & O’Boyle, 2017). Moreover, AFL has announced a record of $2.508 billion broadcast deals with the other network channels such as Foxtel and Telstra. AFL must take the opportunity to improve the environment for the engagement of women payers. It has been found that recently AFL recruits women players on a large basis. If these players are not provided with safety and security measures, the players will not be willing to participate or join the AFL clubs. Moreover, the players must also be provided health camps and refreshment tours so that it will reduce the mental depression and tension of the players.

Threat

Lack of proper health and safety measures of the players are regarded as the main threat of AFL. One of the main objectives of AFL is to drive high level of participation in the community programs for the people of Australia. This is considered as a threat because if AFL do not pay attention to the health of the players, they will not be willing to join the AFL club. The competitors of AFL has the provision of providing more importance in the health and wellness of the employees.

Marketing Goals and SMART Objectives

SMART objectives are those objectives of an organization, which are set according to the criteria of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time oriented (Moore, 2017). AFL helps in the recognition of community football clubs and they make contribution in the recognition of thousands of volunteers to form the cornerstone of the Australian Football unit. The SMART objectives of AFL are as follows.

The target audience for this agenda of AFL would be the players of the league. From the market survey, it has been found that majority of the players thinks that the AFL must improve the health and wellnesss initiatives for the players. Hence, it can be said that, the target audience for such objectives would the players, who are directly involved in the game and will be directly benefitted from the improvement programs (Armstrong et al., 2015). All the objectives under the SMART approach has the same target audience in this agenda, as the initiatives will be designed for improving the health and wellness of the players of AFL.

A good message should be developed by AFL to spread their vision and purpose across the players. The message in this context can be written like the one below.

“AFL wants to provide the opportunity and scope for each of the players of each club to stay healthy and fit for all the time. Therefore, AFL aims to ensure that it provides the best quality health, fitness and wellness services to the players so that they can stay fit and healthy, not only physically, but mentally also. We have taken various health and wellness initiatives that would be suitable for the players of each province and make those convenient for each of them. Health and wellness of the players is the first and foremost priority of AFL and the purpose of this initiative is to improve the life of the players, which would be reflected in their performances.”

The communication methods within a sports organization are varied. In the era of advanced technology, the organizations use the technological methods to communicate with their members. In the present case, AFL needs to communicate their initiatives for improving the health and wellness of the players of each club to improve their health and fitness, which would be reflected in their performances (Pedersen et al., 2016). The players of each club of each of the regions are the target audience of AFL for this initiative. The organization uses various channels for internal communication. Before launching the programs, the players must be intimated about that. Hence, firstly, they can use the emails to send an intimation to all the players for such a program to be organized (Li, 2017). Secondly, AFL can utilize their website to make the announcements about their health and wellness programs. Since, the website is the most visited platform for any kind of notices, the organization can put up the notice in the website and provide details of the programs there itself. Thirdly, AFL can put up advertisements in radio, television and various social networking sites to make the target audience aware about the initiatives (Eagleman, 2013). Fourthly, they can send notices to the member clubs, which they can put up in the public places, such as, notice boards, so that the players get aware about this. Fifthly, AFL can organize presentations, workshops and seminars for the clubs in their respective regions. Sixthly, it can print leaflets, brochures and flyers and hand it over to the target audience. This method is very effective in drawing the attention of the target audience (Patti et al., 2017). Thus, through the above mentioned methods, AFL can communicate with the players about their new initiative.

References

Afl.com.au. (2017). Awards - AFL.com.au. afl.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://www.afl.com.au/stats/awards

afl.com.au. (2017). The official website of the Australian Football League.  afl.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://www.afl.com.au/

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

Bradbury, T., & O’Boyle, I. (2017). The continuing evolution of sport management. Understanding Sport Management: International Perspectives, 273.

Eagleman, A. N. (2013). Acceptance, motivations, and usage of social media as a marketing communications tool amongst employees of sport national governing bodies. Sport Management Review, 16(4), 488-497.

Li, M. (2017). Research on Information Communication Channel and Monitoring of Sports Events.

Moore, J. (2017). Setting SMART objectives. Headteacher Update, 2017(6), 14-14.

News.com.au. (2017). AFL | AFL Ladder & AFL News. News.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl

Patti, C. H., Hartley, S. W., van Dessel, M. M., & Baack, D. W. (2017). Improving integrated marketing communications practices: a comparison of objectives and results. Journal of Marketing communications, 23(4), 351-370.

Pedersen, P. M., Laucella, P., Kian, E., & Geurin, A. (2016). Strategic Sport Communication, 2E. Human Kinetics.

Weston, M., Siegler, J., Bahnert, A., McBrien, J., & Lovell, R. (2015). The application of differential ratings of perceived exertion to Australian Football League matches. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 18(6), 704-708.