The Carolina Mudcats Marketing Program
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Carolina Mudcats Marketing Program Created by: Will Byrd Patrick Moore Gabe Hackney 1 Executive Summary The Carolina Mudcats is the Class-A Advanced Affiliate of the Atlanta Braves located in Zebulon, North Carolina. The Mudcats look to provide the friendliest and safest environment for all in attendance to enjoy, specifically we are going to look at attendance and how we can increase game attendance throughout the year by using specific strategies and tactics to get people into the gates and watching games. Looking at the Mudcats organization closely, the Mudcats they have many strengths that make them such prestigious minor league organization. They have many close sponsorships with companies such as Bojangles, Budweiser, the Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina Packers, Coca Cola, Miller Lite, Wal-Mart, and Yuengling. However, there are weaknesses that the Mudcats have that we can try to improve on, the biggest weakness that the Mudcats have is the location of their stadium. Another area of weakness that the Mudcats have is their ability to market out to a larger population because of the lack of funds they have as a minor league organization. To expand on the Mudcats organization within the state of North Carolina, we wish to implement several marketing efforts to help obtain our goals and gain an even larger following. Our main goal for the Mudcats is to increase our attendance at games by providing fun and family oriented promotional nights that will engage those in attendance and provide them with an enjoyable time at Five County Stadium. We hope to accomplish our goal of increasing attendance not only with promotional nights, but also through public relation campaigns that will help build awareness of the Mudcats within the community and want to bring more fans to Five County Stadium and watch the Mudcats play. From promotional nights and through our public relations campaigns, we believe that we can bring a new and larger fanbase to the Mudcats on top of the already established fanbase that have been coming for years. After creating our goals and strategies to help market the organization more, tactics must be used to make sure that we can get the largest benefit possible. We will implement nine tactics to accomplish our goals and strategies. These tactics include an “Under the Sea Night” to market to young children so they can dress up with swimming attire and attend the game with their family, having a grocery shopping promotion for families who spend large amounts of money at certain grocery stores, a car giveaway promotion to a Mudcat fan, an Easter Egg Hunt at the stadium for families to bring their young children and explore the stadium and have fun, a stuffed Muddy giveaway doll to lucky fans who show up early for a certain game, a sombrero night to help bring a diverse population to the stadium and to offer new food items at the concession stand, a 2 Hot Dogs for Cancer campaign to raise awareness for the Jimmy V foundation, and a mustache contest to give fans incentive to come to games and support the Mudcats. 3 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4 Company Description/Mission Statement 4 Background 4-6 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ..........................................................................................................7 Internal Analysis 7-9 External Analysis 9-11 Product Portfolio and Positioning 11-12 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................13 Competitors 13-14 CUSTOMER ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................15 Section One 15-16 Section Two 16-17 MARKETING GOALS ................................................................................................................18 MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS ......................................................................19-25 IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL ......................................................................................26 Action Plan 26 Budget 26-27 Examination 28 4 Introduction Company Description/Mission Statement The Carolina Mudcats are a minor league baseball team based in Zebulon, North Carolina. They are currently members of the Carolina League and are the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Mudcats mission is to excel in the Magic of Baseball, provide a positive atmosphere for families to escape to a sparkling venue that provides creature comforts that enhance quality time together. We must protect our image of America's pastime and present innovative, affordable, quality experiences that will be passed to future generations. To take the lead in community involvement and give back with charitable acts and remember above all, it is about the kids. The main focus for the Carolina Mudcats is to provide a fun, family environment for all to enjoy at Five County Stadium. The Mudcats market themselves to families close to the city of Zebulon and most attendee’s are families with children between the ages of 3 and 13. This gives the Mudcats plenty of opportunities to have family nights at the park and use these nights to build a strong foundation for a family environment in the park. Background The Carolina Mudcats primary marketing area is around the town of Zebulon and some remote parts of Raleigh. Because Zebulon is too far away for most families in Raleigh, the Mudcats have to stay local around Zebulon and smaller local towns in the area to build their fanbase. Also, competition from the Durham Bulls takes away some of that fanbase from the Raleigh area, but the Mudcats still have devoted fans who come to every game. Duke Sanders has been the Director of Promotions for the Mudcats since they came to North Carolina in 1991, and has held that position for over 20 years. Because the Mudcats are a minor league organization and have a very limited budget for marketing and promotions, they try to use their money to its best ability by partnering with local radio stations to get maximum coverage, and using print media to market out to the public. They have a very limited budget to be putting themselves on television, but do find themselves using ABC 11 sparingly to market themselves. 5 The Carolina Mudcats do have many corporate sponsors with both local companies and other organizations that has allowed the Mudcats to gain a much larger exposure to potential customers around the Triangle Area. Through these sponsorships, the Mudcats have allowed themselves to market to a more diverse population throughout the state of North Carolina, as well as strengthening the Mudcats brand. The Mudcats advertising program consists of many techniques and methods to help themselves and the organization that is sponsoring them grow. One of the major ways that the Mudcats advertises its organization is through banner/billboard sponsorships. Most of these sponsors are corporate business that either provide financial help to the Mudcats or they provide food and beverages at discounted prices and in return, the Mudcats promote their business. Through these kind of sponsorships, both companies receive benefits because the Mudcats are receiving discount items and services from these companies and the companies are receiving visual signage for all spectators to see and word of mouth advertising from attendees who have bought products from the game. A major advantage that the Mudcats receive from using many different sponsorships is that they can attract a diverse crowd, but also create their family environment that they are striving for. Because the Mudcats have corporate sponsorships, they give these companies visual signage at their field and people who are in attendance at these games receive benefits from fans being able to see their company exist. Some of these major sponsors include Bojangles, Budweiser, The Carolina Hurricanes, Carolina Packers, Click It or Ticket, Coca Cola, Farm Bureau Insurance, Miller Lite, The NC Education Lottery, Piggly Wiggly, John Deere, WakeMed, Wal-Mart, Yuengling, Chevrolet, Great Clips and many more, and by having all of these organizations that people who live in the Triangle know about. By displaying these organizations names on the outfield wall, the Mudcats are helping promote these businesses and these sponsorships provide a huge target market due to the partnerships created by the Mudcats and the corresponding businesses. Due to the amount of funds that the business wants to give to the Mudcats the more funds that the business gives, the bigger the signage on the outfield wall. This type of sponsorship shows how much a business is invested in the Mudcats, the more money they invest, the bigger their sign is on the outfield wall and the more coverage they receive because of it. Because Minor league baseball is a summer endeavor, the Mudcats marketing plan is seasonal based. The Mudcats will spend less time during the winter trying to market to the public because baseball is out of season and they want to save the hype for the new season until spring when opening day draws near. Because the players have a very demanding schedule they are 6 unavailable during pre season because of spring training so they have very limited time to make public appearances. However, the Mudcats do use Muddy for appearances around the state because of his popularity as one of the creative and best mascots around. People who want Muddy