LIGA PORTUGUESA DE FUTEBOL PROFISSIONAL – RECOMMENDATIONS TO MARKETING PLAN INITIATIVES TO RAISE THE AFFLUENCE ON LPFP GAMES Ricardo Jorge Ribeiro Santos Serra Master of Science in Marketing Thesis Supervisor Henrique Conceição, ISCTE Business School, Marketing, Operations and General Management Department September 2015 Recommendations to LPFP’s Marketing Plan Acknowledgments I will use this area to thank to the people who help me to develop this project. To all my family, a big thank you for all of the attention, patience and support that always gave me especially my mother Paula, and my grandparents Fernanda and João, that will always be with me. A big thank you to my supervisor, Henrique Conceição, for all the support, analysis and inputs that gave through the elaboration of this project. This project wouldn’t be possible without his support. Thank you to Catarina for being always at my side at every second, and for being always very helpful in my project, motivating me to do better and to be better. A final thank you for all of my friends that directly or indirectly help me to go through this journey, especially my friends, from the Marketing class. 2 Recommendations to LPFP’s Marketing Plan Index 1. Context of the issue ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Research Problem and objectives .......................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review ....................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Marketing Plan ........................................................................................................ 3 2.1.1 Definition ......................................................................................................... 3 2.1.2 Objectives of a marketing plan......................................................................... 3 2.1.3 Benefits of a marketing plan ............................................................................ 3 2.1.4 How to conduct a marketing plan .................................................................... 3 2.2 Sports Marketing ..................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Definition ......................................................................................................... 8 2.2.2 Structure of Sports Industry ............................................................................. 9 2.2.3 Types of consumers .......................................................................................... 9 2.2.4 Specifications about sports marketing............................................................ 11 2.2.5 Sports marketing mix ..................................................................................... 12 2.3 Relationship between clubs and fans .................................................................... 17 2.3.1 Organizational and operational excellence .................................................... 18 2.3.2 Active rights media ........................................................................................ 19 2.3.3 Fan Relationship Management ....................................................................... 20 2.4. Success cases in Football ..................................................................................... 26 2.4.1 Real Madrid .................................................................................................... 26 2.4.2 Bayern Munich ............................................................................................... 28 2.4.3 Manchester United ......................................................................................... 30 2.4.4 Borussia Dortmund ........................................................................................ 31 2.4.5 Manchester City ............................................................................................. 34 2.4.6 Barclays Premier League ............................................................................... 36 2.4.7 Bundesliga ...................................................................................................... 38 2.4.8 – Liga BBVA ................................................................................................. 41 2.5 Football in Portugal .............................................................................................. 43 2.5.1 Federação Portuguesa de Futebol ................................................................... 43 2.5.2 Primeira Liga over the last 5 years ................................................................. 44 3. Methodology .............................................................................................................. 45 I Recommendations to LPFP’s Marketing Plan 4. Data Analysis ............................................................................................................ 48 4.1 Primary data .......................................................................................................... 48 4.1.1 Questionnaire ................................................................................................. 48 4.2 Secondary Data ..................................................................................................... 68 4.2.1 External Analysis ........................................................................................... 68 4.2.2 Internal Analysis ............................................................................................ 84 5. Plan of actions ........................................................................................................... 93 5.1 Action 1: Discount for specific segments ............................................................ 93 5.2 Action 2: “Family Fan Pack” ................................................................................ 94 5.3 Action 3: “Bring your strength, leave your car at home” ..................................... 96 5.4 Action 4: “Don’t watch football, Live it!!” .......................................................... 97 5.5 Action 5: LPFP All-Star Day ................................................................................ 99 5.6 Action 6: “Stay in the bench!” ............................................................................ 100 5.7 Action 7: Marketing consulting .......................................................................... 101 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 104 6.1 Project contribution ............................................................................................. 106 6.2 Project limitations ............................................................................................... 107 7. References................................................................................................................ 108 Appendices .................................................................................................................. 114 I – Comparison of occupancy rates of the 3 top clubs on Portugal, England, Spain and Germany 2013-2014 ................................................................................................. 114 II- Primeira Liga’s total attendance from 2009 to 2014 ........................................... 114 III – Quantitive questionnaire ................................................................................... 115 IV – Attendances on Portuguese cinemas from 2009 to 2013 .................................. 121 V – Cinema’s revenues from 2009 to 2013 .............................................................. 121 VI - Number of visitors on Museums and Zoo’s from 2009 to 2013 ....................... 122 VII – Evolution of attendance on other live shows from 2009 to 2013 .................... 122 VIII – Revenues from other shows from 2009 to 2013 ............................................ 123 IX - Product Life Cycle ............................................................................................ 123 X – Pricing policy applied by the distributors .......................................................... 124 XI – Broadcasting revenues from Portuguese teams in 2011/2012 .......................... 125 XII – Average assistances on Primeira Liga from 2009 to 2015 .............................. 126 XIII - Attendance of LPFP competitions from 2009 to 2014 ................................... 126 II Recommendations to LPFP’s Marketing Plan XIV - Average occupancy rate on LPFP competitions from 2009 to 2014 .............. 127 XV - Crossed SWOT analysis .................................................................................. 128 Figure Index Figure 1 - Analysis of external and internal environment ................................................ 5 Figure 2 – 5 strategies to adopt in the market .................................................................. 6 Figure 3 - Sports industry revenues .................................................................................. 9 Figure 4 – Sports industry structure ................................................................................. 9 Figure 5 - Sponsorship objectives .................................................................................. 11 Figure 6 - Specifications of Sports Marketing ............................................................... 12 Figure 7 - Pricing