COMMUNICATION JOURNAL Wilson
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COMMUNICATION JOURNAL Wilson - tennis rackets A project for Prof. Walter Mills By Paola Cigui TABLE OF CONTENTS Wilson COMMUNICATION JOURNAL ..................................................................................4 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................4 Context Analysis..........................................................................................................................5 Customer Context .......................................................................................................................5 Business Context.........................................................................................................................6 Internal Context ..........................................................................................................................7 External Context .........................................................................................................................8 Main Communication Needs ......................................................................................................9 Marketing Communications Goals............................................................................................10 Corporate Objectives ................................................................................................................10 Marketing Communications Objectives ...................................................................................10 Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP).......................................................................10 User Profile……………………………………………………………………………….…...11 Marketing Communications Strategy........................................................................................12 Message and Creative ...............................................................................................................13 Coordinated Communications Mix ..........................................................................................13 Resources .................................................................................................................................15 Scheduling and Implementation ...............................................................................................14 Issues.........................................................................................................................................16 Evaluation and Control .............................................................................................................16 Feedback…………………………………………………………………………...…….……17 Conclusion and Summary .........................................................................................................17 References .................................................................................................................................18 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………….19 Appendix 1: The Rackets...........................................................................................................19 Appendix 2: Competitors...........................................................................................................21 2 Babolat: The rackets......................................................................................................................21 2.1 The rackets…………………………………………………………………….……..21 2.2 Babolat Play.................................................................................................................21 Appendix 3: Global campaigns.....................................................................................................21 3.1 #GenerationFast...........................................................................................................21 3.2 #MyWilson..................................................................................................................22 Appendix 4: Partnerships. .............................................................................................................23 4.1 Australian Open...........................................................................................................23 4.2 ITA...............................................................................................................................23 4.3 Camps...........................................................................................................................24 Appendix 5: Marketing Communication Strategy.........................................................................24 5.1 Point-of-purchase.........................................................................................................24 5.2 Sponsorships................................................................................................................24 5.3 Social Media................................................................................................................25 Appendix 6 Communication Mix..................................................................................................25 6.1 Product Placement.......................................................................................................26 Appendix 7: Scheduling and Implementation...............................................................................26 7.1 Facebook......................................................................................................................26 7.2 Twitter..........................................................................................................................27 7.3 Snapchat.......................................................................................................................27 Appendix 8: Effectiveness of the communication tools…………………………………………28 8.1 Website grader……………………………………………………………………….28 3 WILSON COMMUNICATION JOURNAL EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Wilson Sporting Goods Co. is one of the world's leading manufacturers of high performance sports equipment, apparel and accessories, and is owned by Amer Sports. Wilson is headquartered in Chicago, IL, with offices and staff in more than 100 countries. Since 1914, Wilson has been on one and only mission: “to help athletes everywhere reach their true potential.” (Wilson.com) Over 100 years, Wilson has studied the powerful and symbiotic relationship an athlete has with his/her equipment. With that relationship in mind, “the Company invents, designs and engineers game-changing products using state-of-the-art sports technologies and expertise, and the insights and ambassadorship of its 10,000 member strong Wilson Advisory Staff.” (Wilson.com) This staff is comprised of top youth, college, amateurs, and professional athletes, teams, coaches, programs and leagues from all around the world. Wilson Sporting Goods manufactures high-quality products for team sports, including basketball, baseball, football, soccer, and volleyball; racquet sports such as tennis, racquetball, and squash; and golf. Wilson also produces footwear, team uniforms, and both high-tech and mass- appeal sports apparel. For this project, I will be limiting my research in tennis. For tennis, Wilson provides the following sport equipment: rackets, balls, bags, strings, grips, accessories, apparel and shoes. The leading products are rackets, balls and strings. My research will be centered in tennis rackets. The present marketing communications journal analyzes the Wilson brand through three of its main marketing communication tools: point-of-purchase marketing, sponsorships and social media. The three channels provide various opportunities to reach consumers in unique ways. I will analyze the advantages of Wilson’s point-of-purchase marketing first. Wilson also affiliates its rackets with elite athletes such as Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Kei Nishikori, which attract 4 the other segments. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of sponsorships for Wilson. Finally, I will discuss about the social media behind the brand that is used as a particularly effective marketing tool directed towards the younger target audiences. I chose this brand for my project, because I am interested in learning about a communication strategy within a tennis brand. I am a tennis coach and a former tennis professional player. My official sponsor was Babolat, a French brand, which is one of the Wilson’s main competitors. However, for this research I wanted to pick an American brand and learn about their communication strategy. CONTEXT ANALYSIS 1. CUSTOMER CONTEXT Wilson (tennis) has two main target audiences: competitive tennis players and amateurs (people who engages in tennis, on an unpaid basis). The category of competitive tennis players can be divided in two subcategories: professional tennis players (who compete in ATP/WTA professional tennis tournaments with price money) and junior tennis players (children and young adults from 6 to 18 years old that play regional, national or international tennis tournaments without price money). The amateur category is made of “recreationals”, men/women of all ages that play for pleasure/fun, eventually competing in local/club tournaments or leagues. (see page 11 for User Profile) Wilson is a technical and an advanced brand offering athletes the highest quality and innovation. This is the reason why mostly competitive athletes that want to achieve their best performance would buy such a technical and expensive racket, while