Development Plan for Kuopion Palloseura
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May 23rd 2011 BACHELOR DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THESIS KUOPION PALLOSEURA Hogeschool INHolland - IBMS | Cedrick van der Aar Educational supervisor: Andy Denz 78 I. INTELLECTUAL CONTENT This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to Hogeschool INHolland or to any other educational body neither for assessment nor for other purposes. Except for all the expressed acknowledgements, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content included into this thesis is the result of my own efforts and research. signed Cedrick van der Aar 1 II. PREFACE This individual research project (IRP) has been written for Hogeschool INHolland Diemen 1. It represents the student’s ability to carry out independent research as part of the International Business and Management Studies. The main focus of this thesis lays on the international management and marketing competences acquired through-out the four years of studies. The objectives of this thesis are not only to demonstrate skills on studied subjects and on the application of used theories. An important function of the IRP is to test the student in terms of planning and organizing the research project; time management, achieving deadlines, collecting and analyzing large amounts of data and other challenges faced in a real life international business world. This Bachelor thesis has been commissioned by and written in cooperation with Kuopion Palloseura (KuPS) 2, a professional football club acting on the highest professional level in Finland, the Veikkausliiga 3. The main objective of this thesis is to provide the commissioning client, KuPS, as well as any other institutions closely related to Finnish football with a widely researched document that will study some of the problems the client is faces in its business. Thorough research and theoretical analysis will lead to clear recommendations on how the addressed issues can be dealt with. Various different sources have been used during the writing of this thesis, all of which can be found in the bibliography. Before going into more detail concerning the content of this thesis I would like to thank my educational supervisor, Andy Denz; my practical supervisors Tero Taipale and Jarmo Heiskanen; interviewee Job Dragtsma, my always helpful friend Petri Oravainen and all the fans of KuPS that have taken the time to fill out a questionnaire as part of this thesis. 1 http://www.inholland.nl 2 http://www.kups.fi 3 http://www.veikkausliiga.com 2 III. TABLE OF CONTENT I. Intellectual content ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 II. Preface .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 III. Table of content .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Executive summary ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Terms and abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 7 3. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Finnish football, an introduction.............................................................................................................................................. 8 3.2 Brief introduction to KuPS ....................................................................................................................................................... 10 3.3 Problem statement ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 3.4 Research questions ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11 4 Methods .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 5 Supporter satisfaction .............................................................................................................................................................................. 15 5.1 Introduction to the questionnaire ........................................................................................................................................ 15 5.2 Analysis of the results ................................................................................................................................................................ 16 5.2.1 Basic information ................................................................................................................................................................ 16 5.2.2 Advertising and ticketing ................................................................................................................................................ 18 5.2.3 Partner affinity ..................................................................................................................................................................... 19 5.2.4 Game-day experience ........................................................................................................................................................ 20 5.2.5 The image of KuPS .............................................................................................................................................................. 21 6 Finnish football according to an expert: Job Dragtsma ............................................................................................................. 23 7 Football as a product ................................................................................................................................................................................ 26 7.1 Product life cycle .......................................................................................................................................................................... 26 7.2 The product called Finnish football ..................................................................................................................................... 28 8 Football co-marketing .............................................................................................................................................................................. 30 8.1 Product augmentation and strategic alliances ................................................................................................................ 30 8.2 Co-marketing in practice .......................................................................................................................................................... 31 8.3 Media partnership ....................................................................................................................................................................... 32 9 The virtuous circle of a football club ................................................................................................................................................. 34 9.1 What does it mean? ..................................................................................................................................................................... 34 9.2 The weakest link .......................................................................................................................................................................... 35 3 9.3 Young clubs, short life-span .................................................................................................................................................... 36 9.4 Image issues ................................................................................................................................................................................... 38 10 The parties involved ............................................................................................................................................................................... 40 10.1 Football convergence .............................................................................................................................................................. 40 10.2 Football stakeholders .............................................................................................................................................................. 42 10.3 The Finnish approach to football convergence ............................................................................................................ 43 11 Football facilities .....................................................................................................................................................................................