Masaryk University

MASARYK UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Sports Studies

Department of Social Sciences and Sport Management

Communication strategy of the sports club – FC Zbrojovka Brno

Master’s thesis

Supervisor: Author:

Mgr. Oldřich Racek, Ph.D. Bc. Adam Kyselica

Brno, 2018

I hereby state that I elaborated this submitted Master’s thesis myself on the basis of the literature and sources given in the list of references.

Brno ………………... ……......

I would like to thank Mgr. Oldřich Racek, Ph.D. for supervising the thesis as well as for all his comments and patience throughout the elaboration of this thesis. I would also like to thank all the club representatives for their helpful attitude and willingness to provide the information necessary for the elaboration of this Master’s thesis.

Abstract

This Master’s thesis examines the communication strategies of the FC Zbrojovka Brno football club. The first part of the thesis provides the theoretical basis necessary for further research. It is followed by an analysis which explores the current situation in the club, and it concludes with a series of suggestions which could be used by the club in order to improve the current communication strategies with the interested parties.

Keywords: Football, Communication, Marketing, Sport, Strategy, Zbrojovka

Anotace

Tato diplomová práce se věnuje komunikační strategii klubu FC Zbrojovka Brno. V teoretické části jsme na základě odborné literatury objasnili teoretické základy práce. Praktická část se věnuje analytické oblasti, kde jsme objasnili aktuální situaci v klubu. Na tu navazujeme návrhovou částí, kde předkládáme různé formy návrhů, které by klub dále mohl využívat pro zlepšení komunikace se zainteresovanými stranami.

Klíčová slova: Fotbal, komunikace, marketing, sport, strategie, Zbrojovka

Table of contents Abstract ...... 4

Anotace ...... 4

PREFACE ...... 9

1. Theoretical preliminaries ...... 11

1.1. Management ...... 11

1.1.1. Sport management...... 11

1.2. Manager ...... 12

1.2.1. Sports manager ...... 12

1.3. Sports club ...... 13

1.3.1. Professional sports club ...... 13

1.4. Strategic managament ...... 14

1.4.1. Goals ...... 15

1.4.2. Vision ...... 15

1.4.3. Mission...... 16

1.4.4. Strategy ...... 16

1.4.5. Strategic analysis ...... 17

1.4.5.1. SWOT Analysis ...... 18

1.5. Organizational structure ...... 18

1.6. Marketing ...... 19

1.6.1. Marketing of sport ...... 21

1.6.2. Marketing mix ...... 25

1.6.3. Marketing communication ...... 25

1.6.4. Market segmentation ...... 26

1.6.5. Marketing research ...... 27

1.7. Communication mix ...... 28

1.8. Services ...... 29

1.8.1. Accompanying services ...... 30

1.9. Sponzoring ...... 32

1.10. Structure of football matches attendents ...... 33

1.10.1. The Spectators ...... 33

1.10.2. The Fans ...... 33

1.10.3. The Hooligans...... 34

1.10.4. The Ultras ...... 34

2. Research aims, research questions, hypotheses ...... 35

2.1. The aim of the thesis ...... 35

2.2. Research questions ...... 35

3. Methodology ...... 36

3.1. Case study ...... 36

3.2. Interview ...... 38

3.3. Document analysis ...... 39

3.4. SWOT analysis...... 39

3.5. Questionnaire ...... 40

4. Analysis of the current situation of the club ...... 41

4.1. FC Zbrojovka Brno introduction...... 41

4.1.1. Club management and organizational structure ...... 42

4.2. Communication strategies of the club ...... 44

4.2.1. Target audience of the communication strategy ...... 45

4.3. Communication mix of the club...... 46

4.3.1. Advertising...... 46

4.3.2. Sales promotion ...... 50

4.3.3. Personal selling ...... 51

4.3.4. Public Relations ...... 52

4.3.5. Direct marketing ...... 54

4.3.6. Sponsorship...... 55

4.3.7. Interactive marketing ...... 59

4.3.8. Mobile marketing ...... 61

4.3.9. Event marketing...... 62

4.4. Club’s communication with fans organizations ...... 64

4.5. SWOT analysis of the FC Zbrojovka Brno communication mix...... 64

4.5.1. Strengths ...... 65

4.5.2. Weaknesses ...... 65

4.5.3. Opportunities ...... 66

4.5.4. Threats ...... 66

5. Communication strategy of FC Zbrojovka Brno for the seasons to come ...... 68

5.1. Communication mix ...... 68

5.1.1. Advertising...... 68

5.1.2. Sales promotion ...... 69

5.1.3. Public relations ...... 71

5.1.4. Sponsorship...... 74

5.1.5. Interactive marketing ...... 76

5.1.6. Mobile marketing ...... 80

5.1.7. Event marketing...... 80

5.1.8. Renewal of cooperation with the fan club ...... 84

6. Discussion ...... 85

7. Conclusions ...... 88

Literature ...... 90

Elektronical sources ...... 93

List of figures ...... 95

List of tables ...... 96

Appendix 1: Marketing offer ...... 97

Appendix 2: Partnership offer ...... 110

Appendix 3: Results of a Questionare ...... 132

PREFACE

It was not long ago when league stadiums used to be crowded with excited spectators and fans as well as detached visitors who were attracted by the electrifying atmosphere specific for Czech stadiums. In this context, Brno was a dominating city not only when it came to football stadiums, but also ice-hockey stadiums. While the Kometa hockey club takes the opposite direction than most other clubs in the highest ice-hockey competition and its arena is almost always sold out, the Zbrojovka football club unfortunately follows the trend of most football leagues which do not attract that many fans. Despite the promising start of the season, when the first league matches noted a considerable increase in attendance that exceeded the usual average figures, the level of attendance gradually declined and settled at very low numbers. For most clubs, this usually means that not even 50% of the stadium capacity is filled.

This thesis deals with communication strategies of sports clubs. Specifically speaking, it will focus on the Brno-based football club FC Zbrojovka Brno. It was not long ago when the club boasted with its Za Lužánkami stadium which used to reach the attendance rates comparable to clubs from leading European leagues. Nevertheless, since the club was moved to the City stadium in the Srbská street, the club has been losing its strong group of regular visitors.

The first time I visited a football match was in the Za Lužánkami stadium, but I have also experienced the stadium in the Srbská street filled to its capacity. I am currently working asone of the match managers for Zbrojovka Brno. During my practical training I got the task of creating a questionnaire whose aim was to discover the fans’ opinion on the current situation of the club and the stadium itself, in order to use their ideas for possible improvements and measuresI would therefore like to use my gained knowledge, experience and results of the survey in this thesis.

The Master’s thesis will also focus on various ways of communicating with visitors of football matches not only in the Czech Republic. The thesis will mention various ways of involving the fans and working with them, as well as new methods which could be used to attract people to return to football stadiums. Moreover, we will attempt to suggest a potential 9

strategy for the Brno football club. As its home is the second biggest city of the Republic, it surely has big potential to increase the interest in football. Higher attendance rates would be beneficial to Zbrojovka from the economic and marketing points of view. Even the city of Brno could profit from this, as further success in sports could promote significantly many other activities as well.

1. Theoretical preliminaries

1.1. Management

The term “management” is complex and difficult to comprehend. There are many definitions which often only differ in interpretation. The term “management” as well as “sport-management” is focused on controlling all business processes. This is what distinguish management from only partial processes which are labelled as “control”.

“Management is a process between an individual or a group who manages, called a management (or managing) entity, and an individual or a group who is managed, called a managed entity. Within this process, the management entity sets targets and such behaviours that lead effectively to accomplishing targets are specified from variety of disposable behaviours of the managed entity by interaction of both, the managed and the managing entity.” (Blažek, 2011, s. 12)

Elsewhere, management is understood as function of a manager related to accomplishing the aims of an organization. Most of the definitions are also similar in including activities as planning, organizing, leading, controlling and motivating as integral parts of management. Management means leading individuals within certain organization. Through these individuals, manager is accomplishing given assignments and trying to reach his targets.

1.1.1. Sport management

Sport Management, also Management of Sport or Management of Physical Education and Sport, refers to coherent management of sport teams that are at least partly engaged in profit-oriented activities. However, it may also refer to a way of managing business activities in the field of sporting goods production and running paid fitness services.

The area of sport management includes common managerial activities (planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling), but also extends to accounting, marketing, economy, finance and law. Spectatorship may be seen as a feature of sport management that is not normally found in other fields of management. This area is focused on consumption of entertainment, as well as the area of athleticism which concentrates on active participation of sportsmen at a sport event (Čáslavová, 2000).

Sport management also includes three characteristic features, distinct from management of any other enterprise (Durdová, 2002, s. 15):

 Sports marketing  Entrepreneurship in sports  Employment in sporting goods industry

1.2. Manager

Manager manages whole organization and directs it towards its goals. These goals are to be accomplished through its employees which need to be led and coordinated by the manager. Manager should be able to deal effectively with people inside and outside the organization and influence and motivate them to work effectively. As a leading figure, he or she should have strong influence over other people using his knowledge, proficiency, experience, and authority.

1.2.1. Sports manager

The number of managers working in the field is growing thanks to the sports industry development. Given that the industry is developing so rapidly, the responsibilities of sports managers are growing together with the demand placed on them. Sports managers may

pursue their career in sports clubs, in the sporting goods manufacturing market, or as agents of professional athletes. The sporting industry offers a wide range of different opportunities.

An ideal sports manager should be able to make the right decisions at the right time, assess well different situations, and use available resources effectively. The responsibility of managers is continually increasingt together with the amount of money invested in the sport. According to Čáslavová (2000) and other authors, management of sports also includes accounting, marketing, economy, finance, law and other areas, beside the usual managerial functions (planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling).

1.3. Sports club

Sports clubs act as legal entities. They may be established as profit or non-profit organizations. According to Čáslavová (2000), non-profit organizations are most often established as a voluntary association, while profit-oriented organizations are mostly structured as a joint-stock company, or eventually as a limited liability company.

Each sports club may either cover only one sport or include multiple disciplines. A sports club may be for instance a football club providing training areas, facilities and sponsorship to all age categories ranging from the youngest children to adult players. As another example, we may consider an athletic club not only offering athletic disciplines, but also e.g. a football team and other sports for all age categories.

1.3.1. Professional sports club

A professional sports club represents the highest performance level of a given sport discipline. As mentioned in the previous section, professional clubs are being established as joint stock companies, or eventually as limited liability companies. Thus, they are profit- oriented organizations, expected to sell some product. In sports, the “product” means

primarily sport matches, with the consumers being represented by the people present at the event: the fans (Kubíček, 2012).

1.4. Strategic managament

According to Hoye et al. (2012) and others, strategic management is a process determining the direction of an organization and the extent of its activities with respect to its capabilities, but also the environment in which the organization operates.

Thus, strategic management is focused on the future development of a given organization in long-term perspective. Strategy is created e.g. to determine competitive advantages of an organization, differentiate it from competitors and reach certain position on the market. As Porter (1980) specifies, an organization is primarily oriented on one of three basic approaches towards a competitive advantage, namely:

 Cost reduction,  Quality improvement, and  Innovation.

According to the book by Nová et al (2016), a club may benefit from multiple assets that may be used to gain a competitive advantage. It may e.g. use the resources of its contractual relations (donors, public administration), public relations, broadcasting rights, ticket sales or merchandising more effectively. Also, they should be proficient in processes such as:

 Ticket pricing  Performance evaluation (players, management)  Working with the fans  Effective usage of existing equipment and administrative processes  Effective usage of IT in management of the organization and sporting event

1.4.1. Goals

Goals define and describe states that are to be reached following the given strategy. They may be seen as indicators of fulfilling a vision. Goals are focused on three main areas, namely:

 Sporting,  Economic, and  Social.

Goals also function as performance indicators. They should be defined according to the SMART method: an acronym of first letters of the recommended criteria of each defined goal:

 Specific  Measurable, meaningful  Achievable, acceptable  Realistic  Time specific, trackable

1.4.2. Vision

Vision is a certain view of the society on the desired future. It defines medium-term and long-term ambitions of an organization. Vision is also reflected in strategic decisions of the organization and it determines the direction of its planning and activity. According to Nová et al. (2016), a vision is also emotionally charged, it resonates in the members and employees and helps them to be proud and excited about being a part of something much bigger then themselves. For a chance to succeed, a vision should be communicated, shared and understood by all members of an organization.

1.4.3. Mission

Nová et al. (2016) defines the mission of a sporting organization as follows:

 It identifies the purpose of the sporting organization (why it was established, which products or services it offers and to whom)  It communicates the essence of the organization to: o Members o Public o Any other interested parties

The mission should be well-formulated so that it may answer questions such as:

 What is our business / activity?  What is the purpose of our organization?  For whom our organization works?  What are our shared values and beliefs?

1.4.4. Strategy

Johnson and Scholes (1999) define strategy as “the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.” According to Ansoff (1965), strategy is simply a rule that determines decisions to be made.

Strategy is chosen by each organization with respect to its goals and visions. It is a long-term plan in order to accomplish the goals set: strategy means a document with a long- term plan. The strategy should be understood and ideally shared by those employees of the organization, who directly participate on its accomplishment. Thus, comprehensive documents are not the best option as their length discourage many people from thorough reading (Sedláčková, 2006).

In large organizations, there is usually more than one level of strategy. There is the main, corporate strategy of the organization that implicates the subordinate, functional strategies for different entities within the organization. Based on the main, corporate or also global strategy, separate strategies may be defined for the marketing department, financial department, human resources department or a strategy for organization-wide development.

The way towards implementing the strategy needs to be evaluated and assessed continuously, together with monitoring the changes in external environment of the organization. The assessment is usually done once a year; however, it is also possible to choose different intervals, e.g. in case of a turbulent environment where external changes need to be monitored constantly, with subsequent readjustments of the strategy.

1.4.5. Strategic analysis

An extensive research of the external environment of the organization (external analysis) as well as a research of the strategic opportunities of the organization (internal analysis) are crucial for defining goals and strategies. The external analysis is focused on the micro-environment, i.e. the businness environment, while the macro-environment researches economic, political, legislative, demographical, social and technological conditions. The internal analysis maps resources the organization has to its disposal: tangible and intangible resources and human and financial assets (Hoye et al., 2012).

The strategic analysis should ensure a competitive advantage, predict future trends and situations to anticipate and prevent possible problems that could jeopardise defined strategy. There are many kinds of analyses of internal or external environment and goals. In the following paragraphs, we mention some examples of strategic models that may be the best fit for the sporting environment, such as the SWOT analysis, PESTLE or the analysis of competition. In this work we, however, explore more thoroughly only the SWOT analysis which we use in the next chapters.

1.4.5.1. SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is one of the most popular methods in strategy development. The letters stay for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

It is obvious the SWOT analysis is focused on the external environment (opportunities and threats) as well as the internal environment (strengths and weaknesses) of the organization. According to the results, the organization determines ways of minimalizing the weaknesses and threats and developing the strengths and opportunities (Keřkovský, Vykypěl, 2006).

1.5. Organizational structure

According to Blažek (2011), organizing may be understood as the process of creating the structure of the system, i.e. as defining the elements of the system and their interconnections. Using the term “organizational structure”, we mean the structure of the management system of an organization. This structure may be divided into procedural structure (the set of activities and various relations between them) and departmental structure (the set of positions and business and power relations between them). The basic parameters of the organizational structure are division of labour, span of control and allocation of powers.

Each organization (or each club, respectively) is building its own organizational structure. Therefore, it is impossible to define any general scheme applicable to every organization. For an example, see the following scheme of a joint-stock company, depicted on the picture nr. 1:

General meeting of shareholders

Supervisory board

Board of directors

Marketing Operational and Sports-technical economic Secretariat department division division

Realizational Operational teams division

Economic Youth teams division

Figure 1:Example of sports club organisational structure.

Source: author’s arrangement

1.6. Marketing

Kotler and Keller (2007) define marketing as a social process in which individuals and groups satisfy their needs by gaining what they desire and need. During this process, products and services are created, offered and freely exchanged for those ones that are valuable for the subject. In managerial definitions, marketing is sometimes described as “art of selling products and services”.

Marketing is based on relationships with customers. Marketing is ubiquitous, and we may see its examples almost always and almost everywhere. Therefore, setting a marketing philosophy is one of the crucial decisions of each organization, regardless of its size or form.

In the field of sports clubs, it relates especially to the main product, a sporting match or event. This field satisfies the definition of a marketing service, according to Vaštíková

(2008). Among the basic features of services, which are also reflected in the way they are marketed and illustrate the specific difficulties of their marketing, are:

 Intangibility – they do not consist of a physical substrate that might be grasped,  Inseparability – a service is consumed and produced simultaneously. Therefore, presence of the customer is necessary.  Inconsistency / variability – a service is always heterogenous and it may never be bought repeatedly in the same quality.  Transiency / Destructibility – being intangible, a service must be sold and consumed in the moment when it is offered, and it cannot be stored or sold later.  Impossibility of ownership – a customer is only buying his / her right to use the service.

Kotler, Bowen and Makens (2014) define marketing as the process of identifying needs, desires and expectations of people and offering utility value of satisfaction through exchange process, as depicted on the following illustration:

Wishes, needs and demand

Market Products

Exchange Value and and relationships satisfaction

Figure 2: Basic marketing concept.

Source: Adjusted according to Pachrová, Janoušková, Šedivá Neckářová (2017)

1.6.1. Marketing of sport

In sporting environment, marketing is undergoing ongoing development. Therefore, its signs are increasingly pronounced. Among those pursuing marketing of sports, we may find sporting goods manufacturers, marketing agencies and of course, sports clubs. Sports clubs are increasingly aware of the significance of customers for their own development. For them, market is limited to the field of sport and its components. The aim of sporting organizations is mainly to collect financial resources for the operation of the club, which is also reflected e.g. in building a sports brand or advertising of the sports industry in general (Čáslavová, 2009).

“Sports marketing reflects all activities taking into consideration suggestions and wishes of sports customers and their satisfaction through exchange. Sports marketing developed in two main directions: marketing of sporting products and services related directly to sports customers and marketing towards other customers and industry products and services using propagation in sports” (Mullin, Hardy a Sutton, 2000).

Chadwick (2011) lists characteristic features of sports which are distinct from other industries, namely:

 Uncertainty of results – the essence of sports is based on uncertain results  Competitive balance – attempting to maximize the uncertainty of results, sports require precise balance of the competing parties. Such equilibrium ensures more suspense and interest of parties concerned in the contests.  Product-oriented industry – in sports, the core of the product and competitive contest are crucial for deciding about the organization´s activities, while in other industries, organizations tend to be market- and customer-oriented.  Coordination and collaboration – the “cooperation for competition” principle is crucial for the sports industry. It is even more important than pursuits to ensure organization´s business success on the market (groups and individuals need to

cooperate in order to establish competitive contests as a consequence of sport contests).  Limited organizational control over the product – sporting activities need to respect laws establishing rights and obligations in the sports industry, on the local, national and international level. Sport is subject to external sets of legal and operational criteria which are not present in other industries, such as specifications of the core of the product (format of contest, duration of game or its format are not under control of particular organizations, clubs or individuals). This removes many variables for institutional decision-making, but also reduces manoeuvring space for achieving competitive advantage.  Performance measurement – the usual performance indicators known in other industries (profitability, turnaround etc.) are also relevant for sports. Sports are, however, subject to different performance measures, specific for the sports industry with its typical levels of control. The other levels of control and performance measure may include league tables, sporting charts, medals earned or analytical evaluation of sportsmen. There may be problems arising from the difference between performance in terms of sport indicators and the generic ones.  The fans (customers) are producers as well as consumers – people in other industries buy and use their products. In sports, they are both, the consumers and the producers. Not only they buy and consume the product, they also help to create the interest, intensity, atmosphere and competing that give strength to the core of the product in sporting industry.  Symbiotic relationship with media – sporting products create contents for media which may consequently deliver the products to customers all over the world. At the same time, they provide sport with such level of exposition that ensures it remains in the public domain. This symbiotic relationship is self-propelled in a way we do not find in other industries.

In a publication by Nová et al. (2016) authors point out that the process of customer´s decision-making is influenced by multiple factors. The factors may be divided into two separate categories: those we may affect only vicariously, if at all, and those we may affect in every possible situation.

While the first group of factors belongs to so-called marketing macro-environment, the second group is included in so-called marketing micro-environment. And authors split each group of factors even more in detail:

a) Marketing macro-environment consists of the following factors:  Political and legal – entrepreneurs, companies and sports organizations are subject to the legislation of the European Union as well as national legislations. As an example, we may mention the football environment with the clubs being subject to the standards of FIFA, UEFA and FAČR (the Football Association of the Czech Republic).  Economic – the clubs need to estimate the prices in respect to quality of the services offered, especially in terms of entrance fees. According to Jakubíková (2013), among economic factors we may include e.g. the unemployment rate, inflation rate and average wage.  Demographic – the market consists of people, which makes demographic factors important for the marketing of sports, too. According to website of the Czech Statistical Office (czso.cz), there were over 10,5 million inhabitants in the Czech Republic in March 2016. In addition to the number of inhabitants, the demographic factors may include the population density, gender and age structure as well as scale of migration, changes in level of education or the population growth.  Sociocultural – authors quote Koudelka and Vávra (2007) who connect this factors with shopping behaviour of the consumers and divide them into: o Social (social class, changes in the standard of living, lifestyles etc), and o Cultural (cultural values, self-perception and perception of others, language, personal images etc).  Technological – together with the emergence of new technology, products and procedures, the technological factors are becoming more important and dominant. Many assets are invested in the research and development. The sports clubs are almost unable to operate unless they are connected to the Internet. For faster and more effective communication they use mobile phones, tablets, notebooks etc. Even in football, usage of video-systems is being considered for better control over disputable cases.

 Ecological factors – in respect to ecological factors, authors quote Jakubíková (2013) who mentions natural resources, climatic conditions and weather. b) Marketing micro-environment consists of:  The organization (sports club) – as Boučková (2003) and Kotler (2007) claim, an organization functions in a similar manner as a living organism: it always develops and undergoes constant change. A symbiosis between different departments is vital: they need to cooperate to satisfy customers (fans, spectators).  Suppliers – the success of an organization often depends on quality of its suppliers which makes knowing one´s suppliers extremely important. Jakubíková (2013) describes suppliers as companies, organizations or individuals who provide the organization with resources essential for the organization as well as its competitors to produce goods and services. In sporting environment, it may include e.g. other sports clubs (training talented sportsmen), suppliers of energy, technologies or services for fans etc.  Marketing intermediaries – here the authors refer to Kotler (2007) who includes among marketing intermediaries e.g. distribution companies, marketing agencies and financial intermediaries. Generally, it is possible to say that this category of factors consists of companies who help with the sales and distribution.  Competitors – ideally, their competitors are pushing clubs forward. Clubs should identify their competitors and gather and analyse related information to earn competitive advantages that may help them to achieve higher satisfaction of their customers.  The public – Jakubíková (2003) and Kotler (2007) according to the authors understand the public as any group that has an actual or potential interest in the ability of the organization to accomplish its goals or may influence the goals. According to Kotler (2007), the public may be divided into seven groups, namely: o Financial institutions o Media o Governmental institutions o Public campaigns / action groups o Local communities and citizens

o General public o Employees  Customers – natural and legal persons with whom the business is conducted (consumers, producers, merchandisers). In the sporting industry, it includes especially shoes concerned in sportswear, sporting tools and equipment, but also customers in terms of the end service – direct spectators physically present at the event as well as those watching through mass media.

1.6.2. Marketing mix

Marketing mix may be described as a set of tactical marketing tools combined by managers into the right set of product or service features with respect to the wishes of customers, with the same goal as when creating whole marketing strategy: to achieve profit and customer satisfaction. As follows from general definitions of marketing, a marketing strategy is concerned especially with identifying needs of customers and finding ways of satisfying them with respect to missions of companies and their goals (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004).

The original, most popular and most frequently used marketing mix consists of four tools, so called 4P, staying for product, price, place and promotion (Srpová and Řehoř, 2010). As Racek (2016) states, all sporting products are dependent on human performance, which makes it necessary to extend the marketing mix with two more elements, namely people and processes. Hladík (2013) also includes a seventh “P” – presentation, which may be understood as advertising services for partners.

1.6.3. Marketing communication

Karlíček and Zamazalová (2009) define marketing communication as all communication related to marketing and supporting marketing strategy of the company. It is

the form of communication that is used by the company to inform, convince or influence consumers, intermediaries and certain groups of general public. Marketing communication means deliberate and targeted production of information in a form acceptable for the target group.

Pospíšil and Závodná (2012) add that the marketing communication offers means and procedures by which make it possible to inform a potential customer about existence of the brand, product or company and cause such an attitude change that makes him or her buy the product. Understanding marketing communication as mere advertising is amateurish; in fact, marketing communication is using other methods and procedures so-called communication mix consists of. Marketing communication is essential also for all football clubs as it helps them influence and convince fans to cheer for the club and attend its matches.

Novotný (2011) states that with help of marketing communication, clubs try to increase attendance rates and improve public awareness of the club. In long-term perspective, more ambitious clubs attempt to sell out their stadiums regularly. Increasing annual average number of visitors is usually targeted as a medium-term objective, and among short-term objectives we may place stimulation of spectators´ visits on certain matches or periods of time, with help of various tools of the marketing mix.

1.6.4. Market segmentation

Horner and Swarbrooke (2003) define market segmentation as “the process of segmentation of whole market into groups of people with relatively similar needs for products, in order to create a marketing mix or mixes that precisely target needs of the individuals in given segment or segments.”

Information required for subsequent market segmentation may be gained e.g. by questionnaire survey. Markets consists of many types of customers with various needs. Marketing specialists must identify which segment of customers offers their companies the best opportunities. To put it in other words: the chosen target segment must correspond to the vision and mission of the company.

Norner and Swarbrooke (2003) distinguish five categories applicable to the customer segmentation. These include demographic (age, family life cycle, gender etc.), socioeconomic (e.g. education, income, social group, ethnic origin, religion), geographic (e.g. region, size of residence, population density), psychographic (lifestyle, personality type) and behavioural (reasons for purchase, attitudes towards the product, user profile etc.) criteria.

1.6.5. Marketing research

The essence of marketing research is to ask questions and answer them. Kozel (2006) quotes John Milton who noted concisely that “if you steal from one author, it is plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.”

Machková (2015) states that marketing research means “systematically organized collection and evaluation of information with an output in form of an organized set of data gathered according to certain methodology. Its aim is to provide data for strategic and operational decision-making which may help developing the company and reducing risks of faulty decisions.”

Preparatpory stage Implementation stage

Defining the Plan of the Collecting the Conclusions and Data Analysis problem research information recommendations

Figure 3: Marketing research proces. Source: Adjusted according to Pachrová, Janoušková, Šedivá Neckářová (2017)

1.7. Communication mix

Stoličný (2011) describes communication mix as means of communication of a company with its actual or potential customers and general public. Often, we may also see the term “propagation mix” that comprises of advertising, sponsoring, sales support, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing.

Most of other authors (e.g. Karlíček and Král, 2011; Přikrylová and Jahodová, 2010; Nagyová, 1994) agrees that the basic tools of the communication mix are the following:

1. Advertising, 2. Direct marketing, 3. Sales support, 4. Public relations, and 5. Personal selling.

Most of these tools are also used by propagation mix in the sporting industry and individual sports clubs. Morgan and Summers (2005) extend this mix to seven tools, with the four traditional being advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales support, plus additional three specific for sports clubs – direct marketing, interactive marketing (Internet) and sponsoring.

Among those methods of propagation of sports that should be used by sports clubs, Durdová (2010) includes advertising, sponsoring, direct marketing, special business meetings, booking in advance, mass media, corporate packages, exhibition games and competitions, days for meetings of players, “old times meetings” for ex-members of the club, autographing events, press conferences, sporting balls, festivities and social events, sporting events for children and the youth, educational sports events (drug abuse or youth crime prevention), sporting events for disabled sportsmen, workshops and trainings of trainers.

1.8. Services

Services may be characterized as self-identifiable activities especially of intangible constitution that offer satisfaction of needs or wishes. Their production does not necessarily involve usage of physical goods. When usage of tangible goods is necessary, its ownership is not transferred. The essential features of services, that are also reflected in marketing and illustrate their demanding specifics in marketing, includes (Kaňovská, Tomášková, 2009):

 Intangibility – services cannot be consumed in parts, due to the nonrecurring character of their consumption. Detailed description of a service helps to unify the apprehension and expectation of customer in terms of what a service may offer him, with the apprehension of those realizing the service. Such unification of perception of the service should prevent possible disappointment of the customer after buying the service.  Transiency – service is a matter of moment and its utility value is very short. To put it simply: it begins with starting and ends with finishing realization of a given service. It is also not possible to produce a service in advance, into stock. As the product is not aging, it is possible to react to new requirements and wishes with flexibility. Considering the transient nature of services, it is necessary to pay even stronger attention to emotional experience of customers during their realization. Excited customers not only will preserve their experience and be likely to use the service repeatedly, but also will spread their excitement to other people.  Absence of samples – given the intangible and transient nature of services, it is not possible to provide samples in advance. Before purchase, a customer is not able to compare the quality of services offered by different entrepreneurs. Therefore, the selection is made based on experience of friends and acquaintances, description of the service, or intuitively.  Ownership – regarding ownership, it is very difficult to determine the owner, prove realization of a service, or protect the service by patent; it also introduces many other difficulties.

 Inseparability – first, it is not possible to separate production and realization of a service. It is possible to plan the realization tentatively, however, during the process, its realization needs to be adjusted to current situation in a flexible manner. Second, it is not possible to separate realization and consumption of a service: the service is being consumed during its realization. Therefore, production, realization and consumption of services may be separated neither in terms of time, nor in terms of location. The last inseparability relates to the person providing the service who cannot be separated from the service itself.  Difficult quantification of value of a service – both, tangible goods and services are consumed to satisfy needs, however, in case of services, even attentiveness or flexibility of the provider may produce an increase in the value of service for a customer. Value of services vary in different customers.  Variability – a service is difficult to be standardized. To some extent, it is possible to say that in case of services each piece is an original. Despite that, service providers should try to maximize uniformity of all relevant aspects of the service (quality, attentiveness and attitudes of personnel towards customers, flexibility, price…).

1.8.1. Accompanying services

The term “accompanying services” covers broad range of various activities. Definitions vary to a high degree as it is always possible to discover new accompanying services. As an example, we include several different definitions which, in our opinion, describe the essence of accompanying services most cogently.

LaLonde and Zinser (1976) define accompanying services as “activities realized between the customer and the organization that improve or facilitate sale and usage of products and services. They include all actions of the producer for the customer during the transaction of sale of a product/service to the customer”.

According to Bové and Thill (1992), “accompanying services include everything a company does to satisfy its customers and to help them get the best possible advantage of the

goods and services they purchase. They are activities that may add additional value to basic goods and services.”

D´Amico and Zikmund (2001) claim that “services provided to customers represent activities of the organization that are realized in order to increase the value of sold goods or services and intensify satisfaction of customers.”

Kotler (2001) sees accompanying services as “all perspectives of interrelationships between producer, distributors and end-users.”

Accompanying services are customer-oriented, and the customer may be targeted by:

 Researching and understanding customer needs and offering services that have the necessary value for the customer.  Orientation towards satisfaction of the customer with given product and company (measuring and evaluating customer satisfaction and extending current services).

While the goal of basic services is to satisfy a customer, the accompanying services are trying to delight or surprise him. Outstanding accompanying services may dazzle a customer to such an extent that he may be satisfied with an average product. Therefore, it is increasingly important to pay attention to accompanying services. Especially in sports, where the basic product – a sports match – may not be influenced in a sufficient way, the accompanying services are even more important.

Cunningam and Roberts (1974) concluded that accompanying services are one of several important variables affecting supplier selection and may be perceived as the factor that determines the final decision of a customer.

There are multiple classifications of accompanying services. For this work, we have chosen the classification of LaLonde and Zinsera (1976) who divide accompanying services into three groups, based on their time and location. There are the following types of accompanying services:

 Pre-transaction (pre-sale) services – these are formed and provided before realization of the prospective transaction and should create a convenient environment for the actual sale.

 Transaction (sale) services – are related to the sale itself and to transfer of the utility value from provider to customer.  Post-transaction (post-sale) services – all activities that support a product in the phase of its usage and safeguard actual realization.

1.9. Sponzoring

Today, sponsoring is an integral part of marketing communication. A sponsor is getting into public awareness thanks to his support to culture, sports or another area. In case of sports or culture, the sponsor may also target a specific segment of the citizens. Sponsoring is characterized by reciprocal relationship where the sponsor offers a service (e.g. financial, or a barter) and the sponsored party offers a return service (especially promotion and propagation of the sponsor).

Deloitte (2009) claims that sponsoring is very important resource for sporting organizations. According to a study made by KPMG, sponsoring makes approx. 10 % of income of Czech sporting organizations (in Nová et al., 2016).

Mullin, Hardy and Sutton (2000) define sponsoring as “acquiring the right to associate with a product or action in order to gain profit related to this association. The sponsor uses this relationship to achieve promotional goals or to support his broader marketing goals.”

Used in the right way, sponsoring has big potential in sports. According to Durdová (2005), “achieving communicational goals is much easier in sports compared to cultural or social domain, due to participation of the public in sport and fitness activities. Sport sponsoring is increasingly used even by smaller companies, especially on regional level.”

As Martinec (2015) claims in his work, every sponsored event attracts attention of media. As a result, increased publicity is helping to build position of the brand in society and to outrun competitors. Participants have experience of the event written in their

subconsciousness together with logos of the partners. Subsequent emotional binds eventuate in loyalty of customers and partners.

1.10. Structure of football matches attendents

Despite of gradual decrease in attendance in most of sports matches, most of sporting clubs do not surrender and try to attract as many visitors as possible. Football clubs have long tradition and they are proud of high attendance and great atmosphere. Mareš, Smolík and Suchánek (2004) divided visitors of today’s football matches into three groups. Sekot (2008) came with fourth group which is currently often mistakenly confused with the groups of hooligans, despite its definition.

1.10.1. The Spectators

The mentioned authors define a football spectator as a “passive observer of the game who is not influenced by rivalry of the teams and observes the match completely neutrally.” As a rule, he is interested in other sports, too, and is interested in the course and result of the game. He is not adherent to any club and therefore does not carry any of their symbols. He evaluates the game and performance of the players objectively and, to some extent, he perceives the game as a theatre play.

1.10.2. The Fans

A football fan is someone who relates to football through his favourite club or player. Thanks to identification with the team he experiences the successes and failures of the club

emotively. Unlike the spectators, he is usually not interested in any sports but football. This group usually dresses up in the colours and dresses of “their” club.

1.10.3. The Hooligans

Hooligans group together, often with young, militantly oriented fans and arrive to the stadium with the primary aim of provoking a conflict with the same-minded groups of fans of the rival team. This specific groups are well-organized and have their own names that differentiate them from others. Hooligans often identify with their group rather than with a club. Belonging to a group is manifested with dresses, flags or scarves, specific to a given group. They often have their own websites.

1.10.4. The Ultras

Sekot (2008) defines ultras as “highly homogenous loyal fans striving for the most spectacular course of the match while avoiding direct conflicts, violence and vandalism. They bear the choreography of the match, use pyrotechnics, banners and singing to cheer, and are characterized by high level of emotional experience and interest in the life of the club.”

Nikl and Volovecký (2007) also mention specific roles in the “Spion Kop”, such as the speaker, offender, clown, hooligan, organizer, bully, drunk. Furthermore, they divide hooligans based on their political orientation to apolitical, ultra-right-wing, ultra-left-wing, ethnically-regionalist and religious.

2. Research aims, research questions, hypotheses

2.1. The aim of the thesis

The aim of the thesis is to analyse the current situation of the FC Zbrojovka Brno football club. From the point of view of the communication strategy, a focus will be put especially on communication with fans and parnters. The main aim is to create a communication strategy which would efficiently support successful communication with parties of interest so that all the parties could profit from it.

2.2. Research questions

RQ 1: How can the club make use of modern means of communication in its further development?

RQ 2: What are the possible ways to develop the facilities for match visitors and fans of the club?

3. Methodology

This thesis will make use of method which have been found the most suitable and efficient with regard to the topic chosen.

These methods are:

1. Case study 2. Interview 3. Document analysis 4. SWOT analysis 5. Questionnaire.

3.1. Case study

Case studies are dealt with in the works about researches by Hendl (2008who states that a case study is ”a detailed study of one case or a small number of cases. While during a statistical research a quite limited amount of data from many units (or cases), during a case study a big amount of data is collected from one or a small number of units. The point of a case study is to depict the complexity of a case as well as to describe relationships as a whole.

The above-mentioned author distinguishes the following types of case studies with regard to the case studied:

1. Personal case study 2. Community study 3. Social groups study 4. Organisation and institution study 5. Events, roles and relationships study

Since the football club is a profit organisation active in the field of sport, an organisation and institution case study will be used; from the point of view of working with

fans a community study or rather a social groups study could be considered as well. With regard to the required type of result Hendl distinguishes these kids of case studies:

1. Explorative 2. Explanatory 3. Descriptive 4. Evaluative.

The thesis is going to attempt to describe the ways of the club’s communication with its fans and the tools of the communication mix as well as to specify the ways of communication with the club organisations, I am going to make use of a descriptive case study which will provide a complete description.

According to Hendl (2008), conducting a case study consists of these steps:

1. Determining the research question, 2. Choosing the case and the method of data collection and analysis 3. Data collection 4. Data analysis and interpretation 5. Preparation of the report

The data necessary for this thesis will be collected by the means of a number of personal interviews with parties of interest as well as by the means of analyses of all available documents relevant to the topic.

The club owner has allowed an inspection of the original version of the marketing strategy, the sponsorship proposal, the marketing proposal and the historical data of the club. Furthermore, he has provided us with personal sources of the economic situation of the club which have been used rather as orientation points for the suggested strategies.

We have studied mainly the past league season which should serve as direction indicators; therefore, we have focused especially on attendance rates and changes in the organisation structure.

3.2. Interview

Interview is a conversation between two or more people with the purpose of gaining various pieces of information. Jarošová (2007) states that it is a method of data collection based on unaffected verbal communication of an interviewer and a respondent. It contains a direct face-to-face contact as the personal contact facilitates a deeper understanding of the respondent’s motives and attitudes. Interview as a research method differs from ordinary interviews as it contains a clear aim, standardised question, standard conditions, a standard interpretation and a trained interviewer.

The author distinguished these types of interviews:

1. Standardised interview – the interviewer uses a prepared set of questions according to set criteria with respect to their exact formulation as well as the order in which they are written; the questions are only read out with no commentary from the interviewer and the answers are recorded; it contains solely closed, categorical, multiple choice or ordinal questions. 2. Non-standardised interview – it resembles everyday communication but the interviewer has a precise aim determined as well as the scope of information; formulations of the questions as well as their order is solely up to the interviewer who can freely return to unclear or interesting points in the respondent’s answers; it is recommended to use recording equipment for a better quality of the record.

Semi-structured interview is often used as well. As Kozel, Mynářová and Svobodová (2011) state, it contains a list of question which have to be asked. A part of the interview is generally conducted in the set order. The formulations of the questions can be altered or other questions can be added with regard to the respondent’s knowledge.

For the purposes of this thesis, both unstructured and semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The interviews have been conducted with the club owner and the club staff as well as with representatives of the media which cooperate with Czech or Brno-base sports clubs.

3.3. Document analysis

According to Hendl (2008), document analysis is a standard part of both qualitative and quantitative research. These documents, which the author defines as everything that has been written or recorded, can be analysed from various points of view. Documents show personal/group conscious or unconscious attitudes, values and idea. Documents comprise book, newspaper articles, recordings of officials’ speeches, diaries or posters and paintings.

According to Pán and Somr (2007), these materials are a source of sociological information and for the purpose of its analysis a method called the content analysis has been developed. The content analysis can deal with the contents, the form, the author or the addressee of the information. It is an objective method of information analysis which means that every researcher should come to the same conclusion while analysing a particular material.

From the documents which are publicly available the club’s sponsorhip proposal and the marketing proposal have especially been analysed. Several chapters from the book Zbrojovka, which was published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the club have been used for certain purposes as well.

3.4. SWOT analysis

As has been mentioned above, SWOT analysis is one of the most commonly used methods of internal and external analysis of an organisation. The individual letters of the abbreviation stand for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

SWOT analysis is therefore a method combining features of both internal analysis (strengths and weaknesses) and external analysis (opportunies and threats) of the organisation. Based on the results the organisation subsequently determines the steps to minimise the weaknesses and threats and contrarily develop and make use of the strengths and opportunities. (Keřkovský, Vykypěl, 2006).

In this Master’s thesis the SWOT analysis will be focused especially on the FC Zbrojovka Brno football club. It will define its strengths and weaknesses and it will also attempt to discover potential threats which could slow down the club’s development of football environment as well as opportunities of which the club should make use in order to prevent or minimise the threats.

3.5. Questionnaire

For the purposes of the research, a questionnaire was created; it is an important tool for obtaining information and thus achieving the result of the Master’s thesis. According to Kotíková and Zlámal (2006) a questionnaire should follow certain principles. It should not burden the respondent too much; it should be brief (it should not take more than a few minutes); it should not contain more than 30 simple questions; and the questions should be appropriately and clearly organised.

This thesis makes use of a questionnaire containing open and closed questions divided into several sections related to individual spheres of the club. The questionnaire contains 31 questions (segmentation included); 26 of the questions are closed, the other 5 are open with the option of expressing an opinion.

The questionnaire has been filled out by 848 respondents most of which have responded to all the questions. The closed questions have been evaluated in the form of charts; the open question have been sorted according to the responses and the relevant responses have been written down in a document.

4. Analysis of the current situation of the club

4.1. FC Zbrojovka Brno introduction

The first mentions of what would become today’s FC Zbrojovka Brno come from the then suburban district of Brno-Židenice. On 14th January 1913, members of “Students team” met members of the junior team Achilles in the U Machů pub and founded the SK Židenice football club. Cyril Lacina, who was a son of a rich miller, was the main and the most enthusiastic initiator.

The club tended to attract thousands of visitors ever since the 1920s and in 1926 the title of the Czechoslovak amateur champion became its first big success. Since the 1930s the football players of Brno were at the top of the Czechoslovak league which can be proved by them gaining three third places in 1935, 1938 and 1946.

After the second world war the club was renamed to Zbrojovka Brno. The club lived its most famous moments in the second half of the 1970s under the coach Josef Masopust under whose four-year coaching the club managed to gain its first and only first-league champion title as well as a second place in 1980 and a third place a year before that.

The 1990s became another period of success for the club which at that time renamed itself to Boby Brno. In 1995, the club finished third in the highest competition under the coaching of Petr Uličný. The club returned to its original name of FC Zbrojovka Brno in 2010; nevertheless, the first season after this change saw the club relegated to the second league. However, it managed to regain its position after a year and since the 2012/2013 season the club has been in the Czech First League. In the 2015/2016 season Zbrojovka finished sixth, which has been its best result since the 2007/2008 season.

4.1.1. Club management and organizational structure

The table below shows the club management and the staff dealing with running the club. From the point of view of business entities, the club presents itself as a joint-stock company; as such, it has to have the basic bodies such as a board of directors and a supervisory board. The members of the board of directors are Václav Bartoněk (the club owner), Oldřich Merta a Jaroslav Hradil. The members of the supervisory board are Jiří Crha, Ladislav Býček, Libor Zábranský, Pavel Blaha and Petr Gál.

Using the table below the current organizational structure of the club management can be estimated. Nevertheless, some of the members of the management – such as the chief executive officer Vlastimil Ostrý and others - are missing from the table.

Table 1: The board of directors,, the supervisory board and the management of FC Zbrojovka Brno.

Source: fczbrno.cz

Figure 1 (see chapter Organizational structure) shows a common organizational structure of a sports club as a business entity of a joint-stock company. Figure 4 then shows an attempt to arrange the organizational structure according to table 1 given above.

GeneralValn meetingá hromada of shareholders

Supervisory board Dozorčí rada

PředstavenstvoBoard of directors klubu SekretarSecretariat Jaroslavaiát Došková GenerGenerálnal ímana manager žer Petr Došek Jaroslav Petr Došek

Sales Communicati TechnicTechnical Komuni Fanshso department on and press Fanshop and ticketing manager ký kaceagent a Andreap Zanki Barbora Martin Číhal Martin Lísal Mrlíková manaže tiskový Andrea Figure 4: Organizational structure of FC Zbrojovka Brno according to the table nr.1.

Source: author ’s arrangement

Based on my observations and the investigation of the club situation, I have arranged the organizational structure (Figure 6) from my own point of view combined with my theoretical knowledge gained in the courses which I have passed during my studies. However, the structure lacks certain key positions such as professional and separate marketing department as well as the position of the sports director. The official articles on the club website state that the current A-team coach Roman Pivarník has refused to occupy both the post of the coach and of the sports director at the same time. This means that while the coach picks the players himself, the dealings, scouting and other roles of the sports director must be distributed among other members of the management.

General meeting of shareholders

Supervisory board Secretariat Jaroslava Board of directors Došková

Operational Sports/techn Communicati Marketing and ical division on and press department economic Chief agent divisiona executive Martin Lísal Organization A-team + Technical al manager junior team director Petr Došek Team Martin Číhal supervisorLib Sales Youth teams Economic department Head coach division and ticketing of youth Barbora Valdemar Fanshop and communicati on with fans Jaroslav Hajn Figure 5. Author’s view of the FC Zbrojovka Brno organizational structure.

Source: author’s arrangement

4.2. Communication strategies of the club

In the 2015/2016 season the club finished sixth, which happened to be its second-best result in the highest competition on the football city stadium on the Srbská street (in the 2011/2012 season the team finished fourth in the table). Nevertheless, the coach Václav Kotal was replaced by Svatopluk Habanec who was also supposed to fulfil the position of the club’s sports director. This should have been the first step of the new conceptual work in the long term. However, after a year and several months, the club opted to make another change when poor results and fans’ protests led to the resignation of the sports director and the coach in one.

As the club owner Václav Bartoněk sr. said in interviews, the club always followed a certain stated conceptual work. Even though the owner’s vision is clear, its way to glory still appears to be full of obstacles. One of these obstacles could be overcome by drawing up and official document of strategies, especially the communication strategy (so far existing and passed on only in oral form). Therefore, those steps which clearly stem from the strategy will be mentioned further.

4.2.1. Target audience of the communication strategy

Generally, the crucial target audiences of the strategy are:

 Fans  Partners  Media

Fans are the most important target audience of the club as it is their interest in the club from which the partners’ and the media’s interest in the club derives. The interest of partners in cooperation with the club and of the media in informing about events in the club rise with the rate of attendance of the club’s matches or their viewer ratings on TV, with increased traffic to its website and social networks and high attendance of the club events. Therefore, a separate section of this thesis will be devoted to the work with the fans.

Sponsors are another important target audience as they help the club with their budget by the means of both financial and non-financial cooperation. The club attempts to establish long-time partnerships with sponsors as well as to find the general sponsor as finding one means a substantial coverage of a part of the club’s budget. Sponsors will be dealt with in the chapter “Sponsorship“.

Moreover, the club would not be able to function on the highest level without media which assist the club with the necessary media exposure in order to create the desired image of the club in the eyes of the public.

The only official group of fans which is also supported by the club as Zbrojovka’s official fan club is OS Zbrojováci. Another group trying to participate in the club events is a group of fans called “Věříme Zbrojovce” (we trust in Zbrojovka) which planned to buy a proportion of the club’s shares in order to have a say in the business of the club. There are many more smaller groups of fans whose flags can be seen in the stadium; nevertheless, they are not official groups and therefore will not be dealt with separately. However, nowadays there are many fans who are not members of any group and who visit the matches for other reason than to actively support the club.

A separate group of fans (who can also belong in one of the above-stated groups) is formed by the holders of season tickets. This group is crucial to the club for several reasons. By having a season ticket, they express their support of the club; it can also be expected that they will come to see all the matches in the season which entitles the club to receive a principal before the beginning of the competition; and finally, they also ensure certain atmosphere during the matches. The club therefore attempts to cooperate and communicate with this group of fans more closely and provides these fans with a wide range of benefits such as bonuses and discounts from the sponsors, free bulletin etc.

4.3. Communication mix of the club

The tools of Zbrojovka’s communication mix which will be dealt with and described closely are advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, sponsorship, direct marketing, interactive marketing, mobile marketing and event marketing.

4.3.1. Advertising

This tool is used by Zbrojovka mainly to spread the information and awareness of the club as well as to spread the image and to draw people’s attention to important club events. The club uses both printed and electronic media as well as outdoor advertisements.

4.3.1.1. Printed media

As far as printed dailies are concerned, Zbrojovka cooperates the most closely with the Brno-based daily called Deník Rovnost (Equality Daily). This daily provides its readers with reports from each match and interviews with the players; moreover, it organises regular competitions for free tickets to matches with Zbrojovka playing. Before the beginning of a season, it also publishes a comprehensive supplement with detailed information for the fans of the club.

Figure 6: Deník Rovnost supplement (brnensky.denik.cz)

4.3.1.2. Electronic media

The electronic media with which the club cooperates are radio stations, TV stations as well as online dailies.

The club uses radio stations mainly to invite fans to home matches. Throughout the season the players are invited to the studios of certain radio stations where they provide an interview, invite the audience to a match or report on the club. Table 2 shows the daily and weekly audience ratings of affiliated radio station according to the STEM/MARK agency. The Impuls and Kiss stations are nationwide which is why their numbers significantly higher than those of other radio stations which are only regional. The given numbers are valid as of 9th August 2017.

Table 2: Nationwide audience rating of selected radio stations. Source: stemmark.cz

RADIO AUDIENCE DAILY AUDIENCE WEEKLY IMPULS 1,013,000 1,908,000 KISS 352,000 682,000 ČAS 146,000 285,000 HITRÁDIO CITY 104,000 183,000 KROKODÝL 96,000 198,000 PETROV 42,000 94,000

Another electronic medium used is television. Its situation is specific as the club does not directly own the broadcasting rights; these are dealt with by a marketing company of the STES union which subsequently redistributes the overall sum of money from the broadcasting rights to the clubs. The STES company explains the situation of the 2017/2018 season on its website:

“The STES company is the exclusive owner of the TV rights of the competition and of a proportion of the advertising rights (a certain number of billboards in each stadium). By the contract with Pragosport a.s., STES guarantees 58 live broadcasts per season (i.e. 2 per each round at minimum) on the channels of Česká televize. However, Czech audiences can nowadays watch 3-4 live broadcasts from each round on the channels of Česká televise and O2 Sport. An innovation of the 2015/2016 is that the first option belongs to the paid TV station O2 Sport.” (stes.cz)

Moreover, The STES agency guarantees at minimum 7 other live broadcasts from matches during the MOL Cup.

The club’s latest cooperation has been established with an online daily called Brněnská drbna (the Brno gossiper); on its homepage, the daily publishes invitations to Zbrojovka’s home matches containing a link to the official invitation located on the website of the club.

4.3.1.3. Outdoor advertising

Outdoor advertising is used in the form of billboards but it can be said that their usage is intermittent. More regularly, the club uses the form of invitations near some of the main access roads to Brno.

Figure 7: Billboard inviting to a FCZB match (author’s sources)

In the current season the club has also begun to cooperate with TOP1TAXI which now has the Zbrojovka logo on its cars. This form of outdoor advertising is active in the whole city of Brno and its surroundings and is a part of the service called “Zbrojovácké Taxi“ (Zbrojovka Taxi); nevertheless, the company and the club use these cars also to transport the players to league matches.

4.3.2. Sales promotion

In the context of the club, this tool mainly consists of tickets and season tickets, various competitions and occasionally also certain accompanying events.

4.3.2.1. Tickets and season tickets

The strategic goal is to sell as many season tickets as possible. To promote the sales of the season tickets the club cooperates with its sponsor in order to create a wide range of bonuses – e.g. Top1Taxi offers an advantageous rate per kilometre, the Host publishing house offers a 25% discount off entire purchase etc.

Moreover, the club offers a fidelity season ticket to those fans who use it regularly. Students and the elderly can also purchase a season ticket with a significant discount.

Having improved its results under the new coach, the club has also begun to offer season tickets for the spring part of the season besides the regular season tickets which are valid all year long.

As of the season 2017/2018, all tickets to all sectors of the stadium are sold for a price of 200 CZK. Presale tickets sold by the Ticketportal network cost 150 CZK. Single-game tickets can be bought on discount only be the disabled; children up to 160 cm of height are free of charge. Furthermore, the discounts for students and the elderly can only be applied for when buying a season ticket.

4.3.2.2. Competitions

Throughout the season during the half-times there are competitions for the club’s merchandising. The competitors are randomly picked out from the audience and are generally

required to compete in penalty shootout. Nevertheless, the competitions take place irregularly and the selection of competitors is not entirely transparent.

4.3.3. Personal selling

Personal selling is a scarcely used tool; it tends to be used mainly in dealing with potential as well as existing sponsors.

Before a league match, hostesses sell match programmes in the surroundings of the stadium; the tickets can be bought at the box office. There is also a fanshop, where the club’s merchandise, clothes and other promotional materials can be bought. During the autumn part of the season there were hostesses located in the city centre where they sold tickets, distributed promotional materials and informed people about the opportunity to download the mobile application (see Figure 9).

Figure 8: Hostesses as “walking ads” (author’s sources)

4.3.4. Public Relations

This communication channel is very important as it can help influence the relationships with the key groups (fans, sponsors, media). Furthermore, PR is a tool to create the desired image of the club in the eyes of the public. The activities used here are mainly events such as autograph sessions, celebrations, discussions with players and special events for fans as well as interactive marketing to which a separate chapter will be devoted. The club also use other activities such as club identity support, written materials, media relations or community relations.

4.3.4.1. Club image

The club attempts to decorate the interior of the stadium as well as its nearest surroundings with the club motives so that the atmosphere of the place be recognisable for not only the fans but also for the passers-by even at the time when no match is taking place there. A new poster referring to the history of the club has appeared by the players’ entrance (Figure 10). The inside of the door is covered by stickers in the club colours.

Figure 9: The poster by the players’ entrance. (author’s sources)

4.3.4.2. Written materials

Before every match 1,000 copies of the match programme are issued. The price of the programme is 20 CZK; season ticket owners obtain a copy for free. Every issue contains the basic information about the opponent, an interview with a player, a review of past matches with photos as well as the result of the youth. Naturally, the sponsors are presented in the programme as well.

Furthermore, before the beginning of the season the club cooperates with Deník Rovnost in order to issue a comprehensive supplement containing detailed information about the club (see Figure 7). There are also collectible cards with the players and the staff available.

4.3.4.3. Media relations

Media relations are in the competence of the press agent of the club. The club cooperates the most closely with its media partners Česká televize, Deník Rovnost and others but also with other public media. The club invites media representatives to press conferences and sends to them press releases. During home matches the media representatives are provided with accreditations, parking places and facilities for sports commentators including refreshments.

4.3.4.4. Community relations

Zbrojovka organises regular charity events; the most famous is the Daruj krev se Zbrojovkou (Donate blood with Zbrojovka) even which takes place every year in autumn in cooperation with the University hospital Bohunice. The players assist with all the services;

they arrange the dressing room, do the administrative work, assist during taking of blood; they also distribute tickets and small gifts to fans.

The Zbrojovka players used to visit various children’s homes and institutions where they gave the children gifts as well as positive energy. This event has been replaced by a special Christmas event: during Christmas, children are invited to the stadium where an all- day programme with the players is organised for them.

At the beginning of 2016 the club also founded an endowment fund Nadační fond Zbrojovák whose purpose is to support the former players of Zbrojovka who represented the club, the city and the region in the past.

Moreover, before the beginning of the season an introduction of new players, team jerseys or sponsors is organised. The event includes an all-day programme for children and refreshments for adults. The event is called Zbrojovák na Svoboďáku and many fans attend it regularly. Last year for example, there was a competition for a hot-air balloon flight.

If needed, recruitment events are organised for the youngest football players; these events can have a form of e.g. camps with former players such as Luboš Kalouda or Petr Švancara.

This summer, Zbrojovka is going to cooperate with Coerver Coaching in organising a summer football camp for boys and girls where children will undergo 25 hours of training under the coaches from both the organising institutions; there will also be tests of skills and various tournaments prepared for them.

During the season players take part in other charity events such as for example slippery slope races supporting the disabled from the F. D. Roosevelt school etc.

4.3.5. Direct marketing

Direct marketing is used mainly with the aid of the database of contacts which are taken from the season tickets holders. Fans can also sign themselves up for the newsletter which will regularly inform them of the current situation of the club.

4.3.6. Sponsorship

Club sponsors participate in presentation of the club and its financing. They are an integral part of the whole organisation. Even though Brno is the second biggest city of the Czech Republic, it is still more and more difficult to find a strong sponsor. Over a long period of time the club has lacked a general sponsor which would associate itself with the club in the long term. The figure below shows the structure of the sponsors of the club according to the official sponsorship proposal.

As can be seen in the appendices (Sponsorship proposal and Marketing proposal), both the documents are filled with minor errors and non-transparencies. The Sponsorship proposal does give a certain structure of sponsors (Figure 11) but from the more detailed division of sponsors (appendix Sponsorship proposal) the Titular sponsor, who is according to the sum of his financial contribution located between the general sponsor and the main sponsor, is missing. Moreover, the Marketing proposal states numbers from the research run by Factum Invenio which on the first sight are not quite relevant. The proposal also contains number of minor formal errors and printer’s errors as well as not current data.

Figure 10: Structure of sponsors (author’s sources)

The sponsorship proposal contains a spectrum of alternatives of which the potential sponsor can make use as valuable consideration. The below-stated alternatives can serve as an example of those of which a potential sponsor of the club can make use – in this particular case, the general sponsor itself:

 Advertising boards (rotating, fixed, LED), illuminated boards  A-team jerseys  Presentation of the company logo and name (web, social networks, radio, the match programme and other printed materials, VIP Gold and Silver areas, sponsors’ boards in the mix zone and the press centre  Entries (10x VIP Gold, 10x parking permits, 10x season)  PR activities – using the players and coaches for own PR

The most attractive spots for the sponsors to place their advertisements are on the jerseys of the A-team. The team wears the jerseys during 30 league matches per season as

well as during several cup matches, winter Tipsport league matches and approximately 20 other warm-up matches. The presentation is guaranteed for every match not only in the stadium itself but also in all media. Jerseys with the logos of the sponsors are sold in the fanshop and players wear them while having their photographs taken and during other club activities as well. The distribution of the logos on the jerseys can be seen in Figure 12.

Figure 11: Distribution of the sponsors’ logos according to their contribution. (author’s sources)

Sponsors are divided into categories in accordance with the sum which they contribute or with the type of cooperation:

 General sponsor – contributes over 10 million CZK  Title sponsor – neither the contribution sum nor the valuable consideration are stated in the sponsorship proposal  Main sponsor – contributes over 3 million CZK  Significant sponsor – contributes 1 – 3 million CZK  Promotional sponsor – contributes up to 1 million CZK  Promotional sponsor (?) – contributes up to 200 thousand CZK  Match sponsor – as agreed during negotiations  Benefit sponsorship – contributes 50 – 200 thousand CZK

The club has been unsuccessful in finding the General sponsor for a long time; therefore, the strongest sponsor of this season is the Synerga company. Many companies nowadays discontinues football clubs’ sponsorships and focus rather on different branches of sport in which they manage to fulfil their marketing goals more successfully. Football clubs therefore have to create new reciprocal services for sponsors and be more and more creative in searching for new ones.

The club has for a long time belonged among the best in training the youth; the youth team has its own sponsorship proposal issued. However, despite the excellent results of the teams there is no exclusive partner for this category. Below is the distribution of partners of the youth teams (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Youth partnership proposal. (author’s sources)

4.3.7. Interactive marketing

This channel of communication is currently the most widely used for communication with fans and not only them. Not only do the channels of interactive marketing enable the club to communicate with fans but they also enable a certain form of interaction. This way the fans can participate in the club affairs as well as provide a quick feedback. The basic channel is the internet where the club uses mainly its website, the club TV on YouTube, Facebook and other social networks such as Twitter or Instagram.

4.3.7.1. Website

The most important channel of communication is the website. It is maintained mainly by the press agent and its correct functioning is taken care of by the eSports.cz company. The website contains information such as the history and management of the club, the A-team and youth line-ups and results, information about tickets, sponsors, the visitor regulation etc. Furthermore, interviews with players, invitations to matches and their subsequent evaluation with comments can be found on the website. The website is divided into these sections:

1. The club (Club information, management, contacts, accreditation, history of the stadiums in the Srbská street and the Za Lužánkami street, history of the club) 2. The A-team (The team, the staff, changes in the team, tables, statistics from all competitions) 3. The Junior team (News, the team, the staff, tables, statistics from competitions) 4. The Youth teams (Staff, youth recruitment, the youth code, the Zbrojovka camp, line-ups and results of each category, the Academy) 5. Women (Staff, news, line-ups, matches, statistics) 6. Fanzone (Discussion forum, Fanshop, competitions and links to social networks) 7. Multimedia (Zbrojovka TV, photo gallery, the news archive) 8. Tickets (Price list, presales, season tickets) 9. Sponsors

10. NF Zbrojovák 11. Application

The Marketing proposal of FC Zbrojovka Brno states that in 2016 the website was accessed by 973,372 people and 580,777 of them came from the South Moravian region. The number of previews of the website has risen to 2,778,113 and the average time spent on it is 3 minutes.

4.3.7.2. Facebook

As of 11th March 2018, the club’s Facebook page has gained 15,480 fans. The club publishes important information, links to interview and articles on the website as well as videos from Zbrojovka TV on the Facebook page. Through photo galleries the fans can have a look into the dressing room before a match or see interesting moments from the match; subsequently, they can see a whole gallery of a whole A-team or Junior team match and occasionally also of other youth teams. Fans can write their commentaries under each article.

Fans can also ask questions in the club chat and administrators try to answer them as soon as possible.

4.3.7.3. Twitter

As of the date given above, the Twitter account of the club has 3,877 followers. The followers can watch photos from training sessions but the biggest amount of information is published during matches when all important moments are tweeted about. Similarly to the Facebook page, there are links to club the articles on the club website and videos from Zbrojovka TV published.

4.3.7.4. Instagram

The Zbrojovka’s Instagram account is followed by 3,362 fans who mostly get information about results of matches or birthdays of players and staff members from it; furthermore, they can also see interesting photos from matches and club events there. This channel is not quite as frequented as the two previously mentioned ones.

4.3.7.5. Zbrojovka TV

The club also has its own TV on YouTube; it is called Zbrojovka TV. The club uses the TV channel to let the fans see the premises of the club. The fans can therefore watch interviews with players, press conference recordings, chanting in the dressing rooms after a won match and the atmosphere of training as well as of matches themselves.

4.3.8. Mobile marketing

Fans who do not use the internet communication channels can apply for a newsletter sent to them via SMS. However, this newsletter contains only basic and abridged form of articles. This type of communication is not widespread much.

Nevertheless, the previous season saw the introduction of the application called Zbrojovácká aplikace which offers information services and a combination of news from the website accompanied by the links as well as the online version of the match programme, information about the match development (the line-up, crucial moments, the results and a summary of the match) and many more. The application can be downloaded and used for free.

4.3.9. Event marketing

The goal of the club is to bring positive emotions and experience of the match to the fans so that they would come back to the stadium regularly or, ideally, buy a season ticket.

4.3.9.1. Programme accompanying the match

The programmes differ from each other due to event according to which they can be adapted. In this season for example, there were awards and presents presented to the legends of the team and to those members of the team celebrating their jubilee. At the beginning of one match the tennis player Lucie Šafářová took the honorary kick-off. In February this year Zbrojovka celebrated the 105th anniversary of its founding. The jubilee is going to be celebrated during the spring match with the Slavia football club on 7th April 2018. The players are going to be accompanied to the football pitch by children from the Zbrojovka’s youth teams or from the neighbouring clubs. During the half-time pause the children are going to play a short match. Throughout the whole season there is one sector (most often the U sector behind the gate, during the spring part of the season in a substitute location due to the reconstruction of the sector) devoted to the children’s area prepared in cooperation with the Kroužky Brno company.

4.3.9.2. Farewell parties for players

Farewell parties for players are organised rather scarcely by important players who have decided to retire or spend the rest of their career in another club. The last farewell party was organised by the fans for Pavel Zavadil during the autograph session after the last league match of the season 2016/2017. Unfortunately, T-shirts with farewell party themes became available only after the autograph session which is why the farewell party was organised mainly by the fans who had created thank-you banners for the captain and while chanting gave him small symbolic presents. 62

4.3.9.3. Autograph sessions

Autograph sessions tend to be organised after the last match of the season in the stadium. The players and coaches distribute signed cards and posters the fans can also take a photo with them. In this season the club has sent its players to autograph sessions during the sports trade show Sportlife (where Zbrojovka presented itself in cooperation with Unie sportovních klubů) as well as to the Olympic festival. Moreover, the players participated in so-called Kroužkobraní during which children could find out the options of free-time activities in Brno.

4.3.9.4. Meetings and discussions with players

Apart from some of the mass events, various meeting with players take place rather spontaneously. In February this year (2018) a discussion between fans and the coach Pivarník took place during which a number of curious people gathered in the press centre. The event had not been promoted much even though there was the opportunity to have a photo of oneself taken with the winner’s cup of the winter Tipsport league which surely would have attracted even more people.

The club used to organize regular meetings of fans with selected players who answered their questions and distributed among them autographed cards and other small promotional materials.

4.3.9.5. Celebrations

As has been mentioned above, the club celebrated its 105th anniversary in February this year. The celebrations have so far been mainly in the hands of fans represented by OS Zbrojováci who organised a procession which led from the original stadium in Židenice

across significant historical sites. The procession was finished by fireworks and a pyro show on the walls of the Špilberk castle in the Brno’s city centre. As for now, to celebrate the anniversary the club has organised a private event during which the legends and significant personas of the club were honoured; moreover, recording of important matches of Zbrojovka were played and other steps towards the popular Lužánky stadium were outlined.

On 7th April 2018 the club took advantage of a prestigious match with the Slavia Praha football club and used the days to celebrate the 105th anniversary of the club as well. The programme consisted of the fanzone with a band playing for the fans, competitions for children and for adults as well as refreshments were available and an autograph session with selected club legends took place. During the match the players wore special retro jerseys.

4.4. Club’s communication with fans organizations

The official fan club of FC Zbrojovka Brno is call OS Zbrojováci. In the recent years after the changes in its management, the fan club exists in the form of rather individual members who do not communicate with the club in any official manner. The president of the fan club mostly deals with the atmosphere during the club’s matches but the formal aspects of management have been neglected not only by him in the recent years. For this reason a following section of this thesis will be devoted to this issue.

4.5. SWOT analysis of the FC Zbrojovka Brno communication mix

The analyses presented in previous chapter, author’s experience and interviews with members of the club’s management makes it possible to present an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the communication mix as well as of other threats and opportunities.

4.5.1. Strengths

 Cooperation with the University hospital Bohunice, more specifically with its transfusion department where the players assist during taking of blood twice a year;  Emphasising the history of the club and „returning to the roots“. During the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the club the players wore jerseys in the original club colours; before that, the club returned to its original name Zbrojovka under which its first and - so far – the only title,  Cooperation with Deník Rovnost,  Creating the club image inside the stadium,  Cooperation with dobročinnými organizacemi (Agapo, o.p.s., V růžovém sadu, z.ú., children’s homes,…),  Creating the Nadační Fond Zbrojovák endowment fund which supports the former players of Zbrojovka who have got into a difficult life situation,  The mobile application offering information from league matches and club events,  ZbrojovCup, the summer football tournament for fans.

4.5.2. Weaknesses

 The management of the club lacking important positions, dealing with the communication channels with important parties of interest (marketing department, chief executive officer, …),  Not enough employees in the important positions for communication with parties of interest (Sales department, communication, …),  Poor promotion of the youth,  Lack of advertising in the proximity of the stadium and in the nearby districts  Little effort to make the services in the stadium during league matches more efficient,  Non-effective communication with fans,

 Non-existence of a formal organizational structure and subsequently non- transparent decisive and communicative processes and responsibilities,  Overstating the actual number of visitors of a match.

4.5.3. Opportunities

 Building a stadium in Lužánky  Regular competitions for fans,  Regular communication with fans and sponsors either personally or via questionnaires,  Media days during which media representatives can spend a day at a stadium and see the whole daily programme of the team,  Open days, during which fan can visit the premises of the stadium or a training session or a team meeting,  Wider cooperation with Brno’s union of sports clubs, e.g. more common tickets and events, promotions of clubs on stadiums etc.,  Regular discussions/meetings of fans with the coach or other members of the staff or players as well as with the club management,  Extension of Zbrojovka TV, e.g. by video or photo contests, invitations to various events etx.,  Winter ZbrojovCup for fans in the indoor pitch.

4.5.4. Threats

 Persisting lack of fans’ interest in the club,  Growth of rival clubs in the area,  Relegation to lower competition,

 Lack of sponsors’ interest in cooperating with the club,  Lack of sponsors’ interest in cooperating with the club,  Ending cooperation with key players or other key personas of the club.

5. Communication strategy of FC Zbrojovka Brno for the seasons to come

This section is going to have a form of suggestions to the club about the possible changes of the current situation and new steps that could be taken in order to make the communication strategy of the club more efficient. The aim of this section is to improve the communication with fans, sponsors and other important stakeholders. The suggested strategy should also bring new fans and sponsors to the club as well as improve the image of the club. This section will focus on current opportunities of the club related to the communication mix; more specifically, it will deal with the work with fan but potential opportunities of the near future will be mentioned as well.

5.1. Communication mix

This chapter focuses on the areas in which the club should improve or completely change its communication channels. These steps should enliven the current situation and stimulate fans to visit the league matches of Zbrojovka.

5.1.1. Advertising

The club should intensify its cooperation with Deník Rovnost; the daily could publish special sections about the club affairs which would be available exclusively in this daily in both printed and electronic form. The sections would include interviews with the club owner or the club management about the current affairs; they would also bring more information about the youth teams and the successes as well as e.g. interviews with the fans or the sponsors of the club.

Making the relationship with the most important media closer would show the club’s determination and willingness to cooperate in setting mutually advantageous rules which

might attract other important media which would spread the positive image of the club. One of the possibilities is e.g. to cooperate with Deník metro – a daily which is distributed every day for free all over the city as well as in the municipalities in the proximity of Brno.

What is also crucial is the outdoor advertising, especially in the club’s neighbourhood. The advertisements would be placed especially in public transport stations, on billboards or on buildings. Another possibility is to use the advertising space of the Královo Pole shopping centre where the club could also begin to cooperate at least with sporting goods shops. The club’s presentation might have a form of information posters; figurines of players or larger posters of the whole team could also be placed nearby the shops.

As the club cooperates with the Brno Public Transport Authority, it should also consider placing advertisements on bus and tram lines that run in the proximity of the stadium on the Srbská street (i.e. especially the trolleybus line 32 and tram lines 1, 5, 6 and 8). The stations near the stadium should be covered in club themes and advertisements that would attract also new young fans from Brno and beyond who might otherwise be unaware that a football stadium is near them.

5.1.2. Sales promotion

Sales promotion should follow the segmentation of the customers portfolio which can be obtained e.g. via questionnaires. The questionnaire survey with 842 respondents conducted in winter 2017 for the club enables us now to create a profile of an average fan visiting Zbrojovka’s home matches. The average fan is a 34-year-old man working on a managerial or manual job position with high school or university education (60 %) and a monthly income of at least 20,000 CZK; he lives in the commuting distance of approximately half an hour from the stadium of the Srbská street (78 %) but most often he comes to support Zbrojovka when the club is playing with a well-known club or in a local derby (44 %). The profile of the average fan should be taken into account by the club during pricing and supporting sales events (for the detailed data from the questionnaires see Appendices).

As far as tickets and season tickets are concerned, there is a big space for improvements for the satisfaction of fans. In my opinion, the tickets are expensive even though they can be bought for an advantageous price during presales (100 CZK; before a match it is already 200 CZK). If the club wants to attract as many fans as possible despite its mediocre results of the last season, it should follow the strategy of reducing the entrance fee and support it with various vouchers included in the price of the ticket. The last year’s questionnaire survey shows that fans are willing to pay the entrance fee of 150 CZK at most, which is also why the club should by no means cross this sum in its price strategy.

The season ticket holders are entitled to discounts at the sponsors of the club; nevertheless, it is quite difficult to find what kinds of discounts there are and whether they are available. In this context, the recent move of FC Viktorie Plzeň seems to be very likeable; the football club (in cooperation with the city authorities) prepared an advantageous offer of a season ticket which can also be used as an electronic wallet card through which the fans can buy public transport tickets for reasonable prices as well as park their cars cheaply on the day of the match in the parking houses in the city. This move would be suitable for Zbrojovka as well as only 6 % of respondents uses a different form of transport than cars or public transport (trains and buses included) when visiting the home matches. (See Figure 13).

What means of transport do you use when visiting a match?

By car By bus By train Public transport Other kind of transport

34% 48%

6% 6%

Figure 13: Means of transport to FCZB matches. (author’s survey)

It might also be possible to enable the usage of a ticket or a season ticket as a public transport ticket on the day of the match in order to reduce the traffic around the stadium. This opportunity would be appreciated by e.g. those fans who commute to Brno by car (46 %); this way they could park their cars in a suburban part of the city or in a parking house and use the public transport to get to the match itself.

The club could also promote sales for example by offering the season ticket holders the opportunity to mark their own seat by their name or nickname.

Club competitions which would take place not only in the stadium during the half- time break but also throughout the season should be a simple form of sales promotion. The prices in the competition can be promotional gift items, tickets to matches or meeting the players etc. An example of a competition could be Zbrojovácká tipovačka (Zbrojovka lottery) in which the fans would try to guess the results of league matches and Zbrojovka’s exact result. Tipovačka must have strict and specified rules as well as a transparent system of counting points. It could take place during two terms (autumn – spring) and the winner of each term would be allowed to choose the price of a certain (e.g. a season ticket for the following season or an autographed jersey.

Last but not least, the club should prepare regular bargains for its fans in the fan shop which according to the financial results has been highly unprofitable in the past years (club sources). For example, the club could reduce the prices of jerseys and offer them in larger sizes so that the fans could wear them even in winter over warm clothes and thus show their club affiliation. Similar steps should be taken with other kinds of merchandise as well (scarfs, caps, hats,…). The club should opt for the same strategy as in the context of tickets sales, i.e. reduce the prices after which a rise of sales could be expected.

5.1.3. Public relations

As far as the PR is concerned, the club organises or co-organises quite successful and interesting events (Christmas with Zbrojovka for children from children’s homes, Donate blood with Zbrojovka) which are appreciated not only by the participants but also by the co-

organising parties (children’s homes, University hospital Bohunice,…). Nevertheless, the club should strive to influence the public opinion of the club in the positive way especially in its home district (i.e. Královo Pole) and it neighbouring districts. Having successfully built this base, the club can subsequently support events in its wider surroundings. Following sections will mention certain areas in which the club can get involved besides the working projects.

5.1.3.1. Club identity

The club should decorate its closest surroundings with club symbols, signs and colours to make it clear where the club currently resides. This can be connected with the above-mentioned steps in advertising – i.e. covering the public transport stations in the proximity in club colours or advertisements.

During league matches and other public events the club should play the club anthem with the lyrics clearly audible and intelligible so that they stay in the memories of the fans. The lyrics of the anthem should also be depicted at the entrance where the fans could not overlook them. As for me, I would suggest the line saying “I believe that Zbrojovka is coming back“. It is also possible to strategically choose a different slogan or line which will have an emotional effect on the fans.

In relation the promotion of sales of club merchandise a campaign should be organised which would make the fans wear the club colours at least a day before a match so that as many potential visitors as possible know that there is going to be a league match played at Srbská.

The club should also observe the most loyal group of fans who supports the club the most often at both home matches and away matches. This group could participate in creating a photo calendar with the Zbrojovka’s A-team. The yield from the sales of the calendar would be donated to the OS Zbrojováci fan organisation.

5.1.3.2. Community relations

As far as the community relations are concerned, the players could participate in more widespread events such as Clean the world – Clean the Czech Republic or organise a similar event called e.g. Clean Brno with Zbrojovka.

Moreover, the club could adopt an animal in ZOO Brno and the fans would be the ones to decide which of the new-born or expected animals it should be.

Furthermore, the club could organise an event to support a selected charity project e.g. by auctioning club merchandise autographed by players or celebrities supporting Zbrojovka. The charity projects of the Pomáhám, z.s. society could serve as an example; this non-profit organisation organises fund-raising campaigns for children in need or for hospital departments; moreover, its founder are fans of Zbrojovka and therefore the cooperation would be pleasant for both parties.

There could also be open days during which the fans could be with the team during training sessions or see the premises of the stadium and watch the treatment of the grass and other daily routines in the stadium.

5.1.3.3. Media relations

The club should establish very good relationships with selected media so that both parties could profit from them. At present this type of cooperation exists between the club and Deník Rovnost. Nevertheless, there should also be a cooperation established between the clubs and some photographers or even Česká televize, which broadcasts several matches per season. The representatives of the media (directors, editors, managers,…) and the club management representatives could regularly discuss the current situation and each party’s view of it.

The club could also organise a “Media day“ for wider media groups; the representatives of the media could spend the whole day with the team – training sessions, a

formal demonstration of tactical preparation and other programme. The premises of the stadium would be accessible as well.

5.1.4. Sponsorship

Even though the sponsorship and marketing proposals have recently been updated, there are many formal errors and not current data (as has been stated in the analytical section of the thesis). Therefore, I suggest that both the documents should be updated every season in order to prevent the errors and to gradually improve the documents. Except for minor errors and inexact numbers, the proposals are quite good; therefore, after fixing the minor problems it would be sufficient to update the data regularly and to put a bigger emphasis on the youth as it regularly manages to get the highest places in the youth competitions. The youth has its own sponsorship proposal but it is not publicly available.

For these reasons I would further suggest that the proposals should be published on the website (at least their basic parts) so that potential sponsors can see at least the sponsorship forms. The section on the website that should contain the proposals contains only a non-functional link on the webpage of the marketing department. This could also discourage many potential sponsors, which should be prevented.

Another part of sponsorship is the efficient usage of all the possible spaces to promote the sponsors of the club. This will enable the extension of the portfolio of sponsors as well as more options of their presentations. Nowadays, sponsors are presented mainly at the stadium (jerseys, advertisement boards - see figures 11 and 14), in media (newspapers, spots, the bulletin) and on the websites of the club.

Figure 14: Advertisement boards in the stadium

As far as the stadium is concerned, an unusual step in promoting the sponsors could be taken – apart from the interior of the stadium the exterior could be made use of as well. The sponsors could therefore be presented also on the outside of the stadium or in its proximity – e.g. on the training pitches by the stadium.

A very important part of sponsorship is supporting the youth. The club has a sponsorship proposal prepared even for the youth teams. Nevertheless, it tends to be very difficult for them to find sponsors as their publicity in youth competitions is not on such a level as it is in the highest men competition. The club should therefore a wide range of other benefits for the sponsors. As can be seen in the appendix “Youth sponsorship proposal”, the sponsors are presented only on the jerseys, on the website and on fixed advertisement boards.

The club should offer to present these sponsors also during the league matches in specific blocks, be it in the form of radio, a page in the bulletin or a separate advertising banner. The sponsors should also have their own distinctive spot on the websites, e.g. in the box “youth sponsors”. The players regularly represent the club in junior national teams and the former players often play in famous Czech or foreign clubs. For this reason, the youth teams should have their own sponsors who would in return get a significant promotional support from the club.

For their advertising purposes, the sponsors of the A-team and the youth teams could make use new premises around the stadium, the youth training centre and neighbouring buildings as well as the objects used during training sessions which can be seen in the photos and videos on the club’s website and on social networks.

5.1.5. Interactive marketing

The website and the accounts on social networks are maintained by various employees or by people from outside the club which is what I believe should be changed. These platforms of easy and efficient communication should be taken care of by at most 2-3 people with clearly distributed tasks and competences. The information on the website and on the social networks should have a unified form which can be guaranteed only by their maintenance by a small amount of people.

It is also necessary to update all these platforms. The articles are interconnected between the social networks and the website which ensures the up-to-datedness of information. The social networks are maintained and functionally adjusted externally. However, the website lies within the authority of the club’s employees and of the website operator (eSports.cz, s.r.o.).

5.1.5.1. Website

The club should consider a reconstruction of the website as soon as possible. When the current version of the website was introduced, it was significantly more advanced than other clubs’ websites as it contained various features which no other club had on their websites at that time. Nowadays however, the website is outdated and less clearly organised as their look has not changed dramatically in a long time.

The data of 2016 show that the website was accessed by 973,372 visitors and 238,103 of them were unique visitors (i.e. they stayed on the website for more than 5 minutes). 580,777 of the above-stated visitors came from the South Moravian region.

The websites should contain simplified click-on menus in which the fans could quickly and simply find what is interesting to them. The fans should be able to access the most important information in at most 2-3 clicks. The “Sponsors” section should be identical with the club’s sponsorship proposal which would lead to the maximisation of transparency and clarity of information. All information should also be updated regularly and only current data and information should be available.

At present, there is a project of the stadium in Lužánky being prepared as well as a documentary about the resurrection of the project. Therefore, some of the related parts in the sections such as History of the Za Lužánkami stadium could be shifted to the following websites which could then serve as a complete information service of the Lužánky project. (thestadiummovie.com, zaluzanky.cz)

The History section should also include a link to the book Zbrojovka which was published for the 100th anniversary of the club in 2013. The information about the book is completely missing from the website.

Since the season 2019/2020 the Junior league project will be ended as the club should already work on other issues not only in the game but also on the website

The Youth section should be one of the main sections; the information contained in it should be simplified, regularly updated and supplemented with photos of each team or even of individual players and their statistics.

The women of Zbrojovka have their own website which is not linked to the official club website in any way; this is why all the information on the Zbrojovka website has been outdated for several years. Redirecting the visitors to the website of the Zbrojovka women should go without saying so that the fans of women’s football could get the current information too. (fczbrno.eu)

The Fanzone section contains several other parts which either do not work or have been closed (Discussion forum, Player of the Year, Tipovačka, Competition, Fan league, 77

Google +). The club has two options here – the obsolete and disabled links should either be deleted or activated again with the fans being informed about it.

The tickets section contains current information; however, it is not quite clearly organised. The potential season ticket holders are also faced with complicated bureaucracy which can discourage many of them as well.

The above-mentioned Sponsors section should be reconstructed in such a way that it is in accordance with the Sponsorship proposal (see appendix Sponsorship proposal). Both the materials must contain the same information especially in the methodological division (Title sponsor, General sponsor, Main sponsor,…). The website should contain at least an abridged copy of the proposal which every potential sponsor could access with no other steps necessary.

The survey which was conducted for the club in winter of 2017 showed a strong interest from fans; nevertheless, another survey stemming from the original one has not been conducted. Through its website, the club should use this simple and quick method regularly – at least twice a season. The basic results should be presented in such a way that would enable the fans to react to them. The club would thus receive a simple feedback which would show it whether the fans’ demands have been understood and solved correctly.

5.1.5.2. Social networks

The presentation of the club on the social networks can be divided into Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The date given further are valid as of 27th March 2018.

The Facebook communication with fans is very good; the club shares links to articles on the website; during a match, it presents the fans with graphic charts of the team, the development of the match as well as photos capturing the atmosphere of the match. The fans can also find interesting information and photo galleries there (matches, training sessions, training camps,…). The Facebook communication is therefore very good; the only thing that should be paid attention to is to aim at all the 15,228 fans of the page as only a small

proportion of them participates in regular discussions. The Facebook page of Zbrojovka contains direct links to the website, the fan shop, Zbrojovka TV and Ticketportal.

The club’s Twitter account is followed by 3.894 fans who there can obtain current information with links to the website as well as photos and videos from the club events. Generally, the club publishes several tweets a day.

Zbrojovka’s Instagram account is followed by 3,407 fans who there can get the news and the photos from the matches and other club events. The photos tend to be accompanied with a brief title.

Zbrojovka’s Google+ account has not been used for more than year, even though the club profile still exists. The club should fix this situation immediately and delete the account as an obsolete and inactive account on any network will probably do the opposite of helping the club with its promotion. An employee within whose competence it lies should delete or cover the account so that the several months (or years) old information is not accessible.

Zbrojovka TV is followed by 1,310 fans of YouTube; the spots and videos are published in several sections:

 Juniors, youth  Match reviews  Press conferences  Invitations to match  Club events  O pohár Hejtmana JMK 2018  Training camp Turkey 2018  Preparation and training – season 2017/2018

This channel works very well; the only thing that should be changed is the link to the above-mentioned Google+ account; the quality of some of the videos is not very good either. A new “Fans” section could be created as well.

5.1.6. Mobile marketing

Zbrojovka has its own application which enables the fans to read internet articles, get all the information of the match development and buy tickets via Ticketportal.

The application could also contain options such as participationg in survey or giving feedback to the stadium services. Overall, the application should comprise all fan services at one place and in a simple form.

5.1.7. Event marketing

Given the general success of events such as Donate blood with Zbrojovka, Christmas with Zbrojovka and others, this section will be devoted especially to the crucial event for a football club - the league match. At first the club should aim to achieve the real attendance rate of at least 5,000 paying visitors (if the season tickets are included, the average number of visitors per a match during a league season should then be 6,200). This goal can be achieved by taking the step mentioned above. Nevertheless, the top priority must be a successful organisation of events related to league matches.

The questionnaire survey showed that fans very often criticise the quality of refreshments, the state of the stadium and the security agency (see figures 15 and 16). These areas should therefore the primary ones on which the club should focus while organising league matches. The stadium maintenance, the new system of preparing and distribution of refreshments, the change of the security and improvement of other things that the fans stated might discourage them from another visit should form the basis for all further steps. These should make the fans’ experience in the stadium pleasant enough for them to come back to the stadium despite the club’s erratic results.

Are you satisfied with the quality of the refreshments in the stadium?

Yes No

48% 52%

Figure 15: Fans’ satisfaction with the offer of refreshments in the stadium. (author’s survey)

Are you satisfied with the state of the stadium?

Yes No

45%

55%

Figure 16: Fans’ satisfaction with the state of the stadium. (author’s survey)

While the players’ facilities in the stadium are generally met with positive feedback, the fans do not feel it this way. More than 50 % are dissatisfied after a visit to the stadium. Even league matches with top Czech teams have not yet managed to improve these feelings. Therefore, the area where fans can spend their time before the match and during the half-

time break should be expanded. I would suggest using the premises located by the largest stand (Figure 17) which tends to be used as a Fanzone with attractions and stands for children and for adults during big matches.

The entrances to the zone could be marked by turnstiles on both sides; this would be a solution to many problems that plague the fans such as poorly programmed ticket readers, inexperienced staff at the readers etc. The introduction of electronic turnstiles would also ensure the transparency of attendance rates as well as solve the problems of re-selling the tickets and simplify the security checks.

Figure 17: Expansion of the premises for the league matches according to the plan of the match. (fczbrno.cz, author’s arrangement)

As far as refreshments are concerned, the newly expanded premises could include new stands which would bring relief to the rather limited space above the tribunes J, K, L and M stands. The fans have also stated in the questionnaire that they would appreciate a

lower fluctuation of staff and subsequent slow service due to inexperience. Moreover, payment terminals could be introduced to make the whole shopping faster.

A big problem discouraging many potential visitors is the limited number of parking spots around the stadium. The club should therefore negotiate with the city of Brno or the Brno Public Transport Authority the possibility of the fans using their ticket as a public transport ticket as well within approximately 2 hours before the match and 2 hours after it. This would reduce the parking problem around the stadium and the fan would possibly be able to spend the saved-up money in the stadium for refreshments or in the fan shop etc.

Another possibility is also obtaining regular feedbacks from fans via short and simple questionnaire which would regularly map the process of changes. This would show the club after every match whether the steps that have been taken have the desired effect or whether it is necessary to have made other changes in the match organisation by the next home match.

5.1.7.1. Competitions

The club should begin to organise regular competitions for the fans during the programme of the match. Te competitions could take place during the half-time break and could include e.g. trying to hit the crossbar or spots in a canvas attached to the goal construction etc.

There could also be season-long competitions organised. These competitions could also have a goal of increasing the sales – fans could therefore compete in drinking the most beers or eating the most sausages per season etc. While the price might be a season ticket for the following season, the aim of the competition would be to stimulate the sales of refreshments.

There could also be competitions that would take place outside the stadium on the website and on the social networks (the lottery, photo contests, …). Moreover, there could be a separate event based on the nationwide campaign “Clean the Czech Republic”; the aim of this event would be to clean not only the stadium but also its surrounding or some parts of the Královo pole district where the club has its headquarters. Players would participate in the 83

event as well; they would compete with the fans in the amount of garbage collected etc. and thus the club would gain new fans.

5.1.8. Renewal of cooperation with the fan club

As one group cannot exist with the other, there has to be a clear form of cooperation between the club and its fans; it is essential to create two separate organisation which will cooperate with each other. The fan club is nowadays active on social networks and web but is not very active in the formal way.

The fan club should run its own business in order to get financial resources to pay for fan activities. It should also support the club not only on stands but also outside the stadium. Moreover, it should not damage the image of the club by using pyrotechnics during matches, vandalism and other misdemeanours for which the club would have to pay substantial fines.

Contrastingly, the club should help the fan club with finance during creating the choreo in exchange for respecting the above-mentioned rules. While pyrotechnics is still an important feature of Czech league stadium, it would surely be possible for the fans cooperate with the club and postpone its usage until after the final whistle when there is no threat of financial sanctions for the club.

6. Discussion

In the discussion we will attempt to summarise the suggestions for practical usage in the FC Zbrojovka Brno sports club. We will focus on each of the fields with regard to their division in the previous chapter and we will provide a comprehensive suggestion of the crucial problems with which the club should deal.

As far as advertising is concerned, the club cooperates with printed (Deník Rovnost) as well as electronic (especially the Impuls radio station with daily audience ratings of over 1 million) widely followed media. It can therefore be asked why advertisements placed in media with such an audience are not mirrored in the increase of attendance rates. One of the answers could be their wrong aiming – e.g. the poor usage of accounts on social networks where young people (the potential fans in seasons to come) generally tend to seek information.

Sales promotion should be aimed at the most distinctive segments which the club wants to attract to the stadiums. As almost a half of the respondents commute to Brno to see the football matches by car, the parking problem around the stadium should be solved. There are several options – building a parking lot or a parking house near the stadium or, contrarily, arranging a high-capacity parking lot further from the stadium but at the same time allowing the fans to use the public transport on the day of the home match for free. This step should lead to an increase of attendance rates. Apart from the free public transport usage the ticket could also contain the option of using them as discount coupon in the sponsors’ shops.

The field of public relations offers a wide range of opportunities to gain a competitive advantage. The club can make use of the surroundings of the stadium which have to show that it is the home of Zbrojovka. The nearest public transport stations should be decorated by the club colours and direct people towards the stadium in Srbská street. Nowadays, many passengers have no idea that there is a stadium just around the corner. The club would thereby approach potential new fans; there is a big potential in the tram stations of the tram line 12 (e.g. Červinkova) which are daily crowded by students many of whom have no idea about a stadium standing nearby. Another frequented junction near the stadium is the Semillaso station from which another line leads directly towards the city stadium in Srbská street. A 85

form of guerrilla marketing could be made use of here – the stations could be decorated in a surprising form which would attract even hesitating fans to come to the stadium. Other projects can be made use of here – e.g. naming baby animals in the ZOO, participating in mass events etc. There can also be “media days” organised during which media representative could spend a day with the team in the stadium and in the training areas.

Moreover, the club should consider revising the sponsorship proposal. In the long term, the club has lacked the general sponsor with whom a long-term cooperation would be established. The question is why big organisations are disinterested in associating themselves with the Brno-based club. One of the options is to reduce the sum of the initial financial contribution which would allow the club to establish deeper relationships with the sponsors who in the future might consider increasing their contributions to sports. Nevertheless, the sponsorship proposal should definitely contain only transparent data which will appeal to the potential sponsors.

Interactive marketing is nowadays a crucial part of all clubs’ everyday routine. Its purpose is not only to provide information to the existing fans but also to approach new people who are still hesitating to which sport to dedicate their time – either actively or passively. Approaching new segments of fans is accomplished especially by social networks which offer a number of tools for aiming to specific groups of users. The website, which is commonly referred to even on the social networks, must subsequently provide the visitors with clear and brief service which gets them to the information needed in three clicks at maximum.

Mobile marketing is another tool which enables to get all the information in one place by a mobile phone. Zbrojovka makes use of its own application; therefore, there is plenty of room for its development and efficient usage.

Event marketing is a crucial field contributing strongly to the decision whether regular match visitors are going to become fans of the club or at least regular visitors. The club’s main effort is to retain its regular visitors as well as to attract new visitors. The limited premises of the stadium therefore press the club to expand the fan zones beyond the stands, especially over the main covered stand. The expansion should be followed by introducing electronic turnstiles which would record the attendance rates transparently. This would lead

to a rapid decrease in attendance rates; nevertheless, according to opinions of some it would lead to an increase in sales due to preventing illegal entrance to the stadium as well. On one hand, the numbers presented to the sponsors would decrease but on the other hand, dealing transparently with all parties could help the club build a strong position attracting new sponsors which would surely appreciate these steps.

The last important step which should be taken against the current situation of the club is to support the creation of an independent and fully-fledged fan club dealing with more than just creating choreographies and supporting the club during matches. There is a strong group of fans in Brno who support the club not only in the city but also during away matches. This is why the communication with fan club representatives should be promoted to a certain level where each party will have its rights and duties from which both of them would benefit.

The discussion could be concluded with a question whether all the above-stated steps would lead to stable increases in attendance rates despite the club’s fluctuating performance or whether higher attendance rates could motivate the players to better performances during matches.

7. Conclusions

The final chapter responds the research questions which are:

RQ 1: How can the club make use of modern means of communication in its further development?

RQ 2: What are the possible ways to develop the facilities for match visitors and fans of the club?

The research questions have been answered in detail in the previous two chapters. The club should make us of modern means of communication in order to attract attention of specific groups of fans. In these days of interactive media, it is necessary to observe the usage of new means continuously and use them actively.

Following the first research questions the second research question can also be answered as the facilities for fans can be improved and facilitated by modern method of work as well. Nowadays, innovative methods are essential even in the context of sports clubs. In its extremely even and competitive environment the club has to keep searching for specific ways which could be used as a competitive advantage in the competition for fans and sponsors not only among various teams and sports in the club’s close environment but also in the competition among other league teams throughout the Czech Republic.

This research could be considered as the first conceptual link in the chain of other possible researches both in the field of communication (continuous and follow-up) as well as in other essential fields of the marketing mix as a whole.

As there are currently no official and complete marketing strategy or other essential documents written up, this thesis should be the starting point for writing up an extensive document which should serve as a fundamental source of information for all employees from every department.

In relation to conceptual strategies there should be a transparent and clear organisation structure formed. This will facilitate the distribution of competences and duties within the club which will result in more efficient achievements and completion of set tasks and goals.

The logical sequence and completion of tasks will lead to progressive achievements of set goals. These goals should be focused on transparent communication with all the parties of interest within and outside the club; this should subsequently lead to an increase in attendance rates of league matches as well as to the trust of sponsors who would be willing to participate in financing the club’s operations.

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List of figures

Figure 1: Example of sports club organisational structure.

Figure 2: Basic marketing concept.

Figure 3: Marketing research proces.

Figure 4: Organizational structure of FC Zbrojovka Brno according to the table nr.1.

Figure 5. Author’s view of the FC Zbrojovka Brno organizational structure.

Figure 6: Deník Rovnost supplement.

Figure 7: Billboard inviting to a FCZB match.

Figure 8: Hostesses as “walking ads”.

Figure 9: The poster by the players’ entrance.

Figure 10: Structure of sponsors.

Figure 11: Distribution of the sponsors’ logos according to their contribution.

Figure 12: Youth partnership proposal.

Figure 13: Means of transport to FCZB matches.

Figure 14: Advertisement boards in the stadium.

Figure 15: Fans’ satisfaction with the offer of refreshments in the stadium.

Figure 16: Fans’ satisfaction with the state of the stadium.

Figure 17: Expansion of the premises for the league matches according to the plan of the match.

List of tables

Table 1: The board of directors, the supervisory board and the management of FC Zbrojovka Brno.

Table 2: Nationwide audience rating of selected radio stations.

Appendix 1: Marketing offer

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

Appendix 2: Partnership offer

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

Appendix 3: Results of a Questionare

1. Pohlaví

Muži Ženy

95%

2. Věk

 Medián = 32  Průměr = 34,28

3. Povolání

 Studenti = 110  Dělníci, skladníci, montážníci atp. = 90  Manažeři, účetní, právníci atp. = 80  Podnikatelé = 60  Řidiči = 30  IT = 30  Státní správa, učitelé atp. = 25  Důchodci = 20  Marketing = 2  Trenér = 1  Majitel firmy = 1

132

4. Vzdělání

Základní Vyučen/a Vyučen/a s maturitou SŠ VŠ

26% 22%

11% 34%

5. Průměrný měsíční příjem

Méně než 10 000,- 10 - 15 000,- 15 - 20 000,- 20 - 30 000,- 30 000,- a více

13% 23%

10%

21% 33%

133

6. Bydliště

Brno Brno - venkov Jiné

23%

55% 22%

7. Působíte v nějaké fotbalové organizaci?

Ano Ne

33%

67%

134

8. Kryjí se často Vaše utkání s utkáními Zbrojovky?

Ano Ne

29%

71%

9. Dojezdová vzdálenost na Srbskou

Do 10 minut 10 - 30 minut 30 - 60 minut Déle než 60 minut

13% 9%

41% 37%

135

10. Kolik utkání Zbrojovky za sezonu navštívíte?

1 _ 5 6 _ 10 11 _ 15

28% 44%

28%

11. Za jakým účelem navštěvujete utkání Zbrojovky?

Ostatní

Dobré jídlo /pití

Setkání s přáteli

Podpora Zbrojovky (fandění, výpomoc na stadionu,..)

Atraktivita soupeře

Sledování fotbalu (nestranní fanoušci)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

136

12. Průměrná útrata na zápase

 Medián = 200  Průměr = 230

13. Je cena vstupného dle Vašeho názoru adekvátní?

Ano Ne

20%

80%

14. Jakou maximální cenu byste byli ochotni zaplatit za vstupenku?

 Medián = 150  Průměr = 162,7

137

15. Jste spokojeni s nabídkou občerstvení na stadionu?

Ano Ne

48% 52%

16. Co v nabídce občerstvení postrádáte, nebo co by podle Vás bylo potřeba změnit?

 Nestřídat každý zápas lidi, obzvlášť na navštěvovanější utkání, aby se fronty ještě více nezdržovaly  Dříve bývaly i nějaké stánky dole pod tribunou, což spousta lidí chválí a neví, proč se to zrušilo  Nějakým způsobem rozvrstvit stánky s pivem nebo nealko a párkama/ klobásama i zvlášť, pokud by někdo chtěl jen jednu věc, aby nemusel stát celou frontu  Další si zase neuvědomují, že Gambrinus je sponzorem celý ligy – je spousta připomínek na změnu piva.  Z nealko přidat kofolu nebo nějakou další možnost  V zimě třeba svařák nebo grog  Aspoň na větší zápasy rozšířit nabídku, kde by bylo možné koupit něco k jídlu i mimo klobásy a párky v rohlíku (bagety, sušenky, …) mohlo by to fronty urychlit o Roznos nejen piva, ale třeba i brambůrek nebo něčeho lehčího, co by mohly holky nosit v průběhu zápasu o Větší výběr věcí pro děti (fruka, brambůrky, lízátka, zmrzky,…) – třeba by to šlo aspoň někde kolem dětského sektoru, a tak by se tam nalákalo víc rodin s dětma

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o Chválili nabídku např. panini, takže by se to mohlo zkusit znovu…aspoň pár jich do začátku tam dát předpřipravených, hodit tam nějakou ceduli, aby o tom lidi věděli, většinou to jde celkem na odbyt na spoustě míst o Na juniorku aspoň na Srbské dát klobásy, dost lidí se jde k tomu fotbalu i najíst, a takto se nají jinde a na fotbal ani nejdou o Zkusit zavést nějakým způsobem placení kartou, případně udělat nějaké Zbrojovácké karty, aby lidi nemuseli půl hodiny tam hledat v peněžence o Nealko pivo

17. Jste spokojeni se zázemím na stadionu?

Ano Ne

45%

55%

18. Jaké jsou podle Vás nedostatky, které by byly potřeba změnit?

 Dámské WC vypadají ok, moc stížností tam není, spíš naopak  Pánské WC už tak dobrý ohlas nemají, především chybějící mýdlo v tubách a čistota  Ploty kolem hřiště poměrně brání ve výhledu, ale větší problém vidí hodně lidí v „reprácích“ na plotě

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 Spousta stížností míří i na Čechymen. Ať už na vstupech, kdy to někteří přehání, tak u čteček na lístky, kdy s tím neumí pracovat, nebo vystupování a jednání, celkově to vidí spousta lidí dost amatérsky. o Při odchodu otevřít všechny brány, aby se lidi mohli rychleji dostat ven o Při vstupech tak nebazírovat na správné bráně – když je prázdná např. brána u sektoru M, měli by mít možnost projít i lidé, co jdou např. na sektor K o Pohlídat kuřáky na stadionu, minimálně na A a B  Programy – více Informací o dění v týmu, o plánech atp. Kartičky nebo soutěže o např. setkání s hráči nebo aspoň podepsanou kartičku  Parkování – jak bude vidět v dalším grafu, je spousta lidí, co dojíždí autem. Nevím, jak je to s případným prostorem, ale současná situace spoustu lidí, kteří musí jet autem, odradí – byli by ochotní si za parkoviště i zaplatit, pokud by peníze šly klubu  Lepší ozvučení tribun  Údržba sedaček – padla zajímavá myšlenka, že by např. někteří mlaďoši mohli před zápasem aspoň s hadrem oběhnout sedačky  Lepší zviditelnění lidí, kteří prodávají programy kolem stadionu a přímo na něm.  Prodej vstupenek – často asi na otázky, jestli je to místo na vstupence striktní, odpovídají, že ne…a pak prý dochází ke konfliktům, když dojde permanentkář nebo někdo, kdo chce sedět na místě, které má na vstupence a nechce si sednout o dvě sedačky vedle.

19. Jak se na utkání dopravujete?

Autem Autobusem Vlakem MHD Jinak

34% 48%

6% 6%

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20. Jezdíte na venkovní utkání Zbrojovky?

Ano Ne

42%

58%

21. Pokud ano, kolik venkovních utkání během sezony obvykle navštívíte?

1 _ 5 6 _ 10 11 _ 15

88%

141

22. Uvítali byste klubem organizované výjezdy na venkovní utkání?

Ano Ne

35%

65%

23. Kolik byste byli ochotni za cestu zaplatit? (pouze jízdné)

 Medián = 500  Průměr = 246

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24. Jste spokojeni s nabídkou klubových předmětů ve fanshopu?

Ano Ne

24%

76%

25. Co byste v nabídce fanshopu dále uvítali?

 Hodinky  Velkou osušku  Trenýrky k dresu  Povlečení  Rozcvičovací tréninkové soupravy  Více oblečení pro děti  Nálepky na auto  Vesty  Vlajky  Kartičky hráčů  Velké plyšáky  Venkovní variantu dresů  Více dámského oblečení  Obuv  Koberce  Závěsy  „Kancelářské“ oblečení (košile,…)  Dětské školní potřeby (batohy, pouzdra, propisky, tužky, …)  Dresy se jmény hráčů  Hračky (?)

143

 Oblečení např. s vývojem znaku klubu (viz mix) a s ozdobným nápisem „FC Zbrojovka Brno“  Větší velikosti  Sportovní tepláky nike  Bundy, jaké nosí trenéři (červeno černé)  Retro věci (např. z mistrovské sezony)  Doplňky do auta  Větší nabídka produktů Nike  Kalendář Zbrojovaček  Po určité době obměňovat design některých věcí

26. Které z uvedených marketingových projektů FC Zbrojovka Brno znáte?

Spolupráce s NF Martina Foukala Spolupráce s NF Modrý hroch Daruj krev se Zbrojovkou Zelený život Kopeme za fotbal Prohlídka stadionu fanoušky před zápasem Kapitán představuje Beseda s vedením klubu Sportovní dny pro děti Beseda ve škole

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

144

27. Jak hodnotíte předzápasovou fanzónu?

450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1 (špatný 2 3 4 5 (super nápad) nápad)

28. jaké vylepšení fanzony navrhujete?

 Minimum odpovědí, takže vyberu ty, který dávají smysl o Více stánků s občerstvením o Více soutěží a her o Besedy s bývalými hráči a legionáři o Upozornění na fanzonu – spousta lidí o ní pořádně nevěděla o Více prostoru na sezení o Představení hráčů (třeba i bez jejich účasti) o Stánek fanshopu o Menší koncert o Zaměřit se i na fanoušky z větší dálky (Nějakým způsobem jim asi zkusit vyjít vstříc skrz parkování, servis…nevím, co přesně si pod tím mám představit, ale asi jich takto jezdí víc)

145

29. Zaregistrovali jste vznik rodinné tribuny na stadionu?

Ano Ne

32%

68%

30. Jak hodnotíte prezentaci FC Zbrojovka Brno v médiích?

400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1 2 3 4 5

31. Co dalšího od klubu v dohledné době očekáváte?

 WEB o Mírná obměna grafiky po určité době (nebo něco nového) o Seznam hráčů na hostování, případně i nějaké statistiky jak si vedou atp.

146

 Komunikace o Obnovení fóra o Více videí z tréninků o Pokládání otázek trenérům, kapitánovi nebo hráčům (Vybrat pár nejlepších, které můžou být i s odpovědí v programu) o Zajímavosti z kabiny o Sloupek s trenéry a majitelem  Zvýšení propagace v rádiích, popř. TV a tištěných médiích  Modernější / lepší hudba na zápasech  Zastaralé repráky na plotech kolem hřiště zavazí ve výhledu a není jim často ani rozumět  Programy o Buď nabízet u vstupů, nebo zviditelnit lidi, co je nabízí

147