Racketlon and the Swiss Racketlon Federation
Recommendations for the further Strengthening and Establishment of the Discipline
Employer: Swiss Racketlon Federation SRF Author: Alain Haller
19 December 2014
Supervisor: Felix Strebel
(Business Administration, International Management)
SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to propose possible measures and implementations in order to strengthen and further establish the Racketlon sport in Switzerland. Racketlon is a young and promising discipline combining the four major return plays table tennis, badminton, squash, and ultimately tennis where players compete in all four disciplines subsequently. The winner is the one contender with the most points after all disciplines have been played. Currently, the Swiss Racketlon Federation (following SRF) is elaborating how to best proceed in the future to promote the sport, the federation itself, and to create advantages for all stakeholders. The project analyses the current and past proceeding in the event organisation, marketing of the sport towards the public as well as junior promotion, and sponsoring activities. A method triangulation by comparing the analysis of the discipline and the federation with literature as well as acquired expert knowledge from qualitative interviews will detect possible areas that could be improved and finally three recommended measures for improvement will be presented. The work implies that the federation generally is on the right track. However, with only small adjustments in terms of its communication policy, sponsoring concept and succession control, the sport could advance at a significantly higher rate.
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Declaration of Authenticity I, the undersigned, declare that all material presented in this paper is my own work or fully and specifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources.
I understand that if at any time it is shown that I have significantly misrepresented material offered here, any degree or credits awarded to me on the basis of that material may be revoked.
I declare that all statements and information contained herein are true, correct and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Alain Haller
19 December 2014
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Acknowledgements This thesis was elaborated under supervision a scientific researcher at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern (FHNW) Switzerland. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Felix Strebel for the very friendly, constructive and competent guidance during the elaboration. Not only he gave me his expertise, but also always had an example or contacts I could consult on hand. This was hugely helpful and has guided me throughout my project, which I am extremely grateful for! A second duo I am very grateful to are the two contact persons of my employer at the SRF: Karim Hanna, the president of the federation and Marc Duckeck, head of Media also facilitated my work. By integrating me in their team I was able to experience Racketlon very closely from a point of view of a player as well as from the federation’s perspective. Furthermore, they have been very understanding and have provided me with all the necessary information from the organisation in an uncomplicated manner. Last but not least, I would like to thank all the people for their contributions such as prove reading and giving their opinions about any other matters!
!THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
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Table of Content
1. Introduction ...... 7
1.1. Initial Situation ...... 7
1.2. Objectives of Thesis ...... 7
1.3. Methodology ...... 8
1.3.1. Analytical Period ...... 8
1.3.2. Conceptual Period ...... 9
1.4. Authenticity of Findings ...... 9
2. Important Aspects of the Sports Market ...... 11
2.1. The Sports Market ...... 11
2.2. Sport as a Product ...... 12
2.3. Marketing in Sports ...... 13
2.4. Internationalisation ...... 15
3. Racketlon and the Swiss Racketlon Federation SRF ...... 18
3.1. Emergence of the Discipline ...... 18
3.2. Racketlon worldwide ...... 18
3.3. Racketlon in Switzerland and the Swiss Racketlon Federation ...... 19
3.4. Financing ...... 20
3.5. Stakeholder Analysis of the SRF ...... 21
4. Important Business Fields of the SRF ...... 26
4.1. Event Organisation and Planning ...... 26
4.2. Marketing of the Sport and Junior Promotion ...... 28
4.3. Sponsoring ...... 32
5. Strategy Development of SRF ...... 40
5.1. Field Research Swiss Indoors ...... 40
5.2. SWOT Analysis ...... 41
5.3. Amendments to Expert Interviews ...... 43
5.4. Room for Improvement SRF ...... 44
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5.5. Positioning ...... 46
5.6. Mission and Vision ...... 46
5.7. Objectives ...... 47
6. Recommended Measures...... 49
6.1. Communication Plan ...... 49
6.2. Further Elaboration of Sponsoring Concept ...... 51
6.3. Crowd Funding ...... 53
7. Controlling and Succession Analysis ...... 55
8. Conclusion and Recommendation ...... 57
9. Bibliography ...... 58
10. Bibliography of Graphs ...... 61
11. Annexes ...... 62
11.1 Annex A: Guiding Questions of Expert Interviews ...... 62
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1. Introduction
Racketlon is the combination of table tennis, badminton, squash, and tennis (Swiss Racketlon Federation website 2014). It constitutes a sport for everybody and interdisciplinary combines the four return plays in a similar manner like triathlon and or decathlon. Players usually have their origins in one of the games and the idea of racketlon as a sport is to combine those 4 racket sports into one comprehensive new challenge. It is played in an ascending mode starting with table tennis using the smallest racket, followed by badminton, squash, and finally tennis (ibid).
A racketlon match contains four sets, one in each sport. Each set is played to 21 points, but the total winner of a Racketlon match is not the one who wins most sets but who scores the most points in total. (Hanna, 2014:3) 1.1. Initial Situation
Since 2007, the SRF successfully acts as the national federation of the Racketlon discipline in Switzerland. Racketlon is a young sport and popular primarily within the players’ environment. In order to expand and to ensure continued growth of active players from all levels and the sport itself, the SRF would like to work on several issues. Since the SRF is a small federation and has limited resources, they happily receive external help. After the request had been sent by the graduate student, the SRF showed big interest in collaborating, getting an external analysis, and support. Because of these reasons, the project was agreed on.
1.2. Objectives of Thesis
The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the current strategy, detect possible room for improvement, and to illustrate measures and possibilities to further strengthen and establish Racketlon in Switzerland. The accuracy and effectiveness of event organisation, discipline promotion, as well as sponsoring activity will be assessed. Comparing the actual situation of the SRF with literature and expert meaning, areas where the federation could improve is detected. Subsequently, three suggestions for the development and improvement of the SRF strategy will be proposed. Apart from the main goals of the thesis, also secondary goals should be accomplished. Promoting and strengthening Racketlon among organisations and the general public during the elaboration is aimed to as well. Bringing up an innovative, new idea and incorporate it into the thesis is also regarded as a secondary goal. By autumn 2015 or spring 2016, a Racketlon challenger tournament, which is a competition of the second highest category, should be realised. This project also represents a preparation with regard to this event since it provides a beneficial framework so that the tournament can be organised and promoted in the best possible manner and therefore becomes a success.
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1.3. Methodology
Following, a graph illustrates the different stages of the project and goals of each phase to make them more feasible and to give an overview of what steps have to be taken within the different periods.
1st stage 2nd stage 3rd stage 4th stage 5th stage 6th stage
•Preparation •Practical •Expert •Field •Implement •Project work and experience at interviews Research findings by closure and Situation the Swiss and detection Swiss Indoors means of handover of Analysis National of room for and SWOT business cases final document Championships improvement Analysis
Fig. 1: Stages of the Project (Author)
During the different phases of the project, analytical tools, methods for gathering expert knowledge, and approaches to assess the received feedback will be used. The applied concepts were acquired during the studies held at the FHNW Olten, recommended by supervisory and supporting sources, or learned during the progress of the thesis. Following, these methods are listed in a descriptive manner and divided into the two stages of the analysis as well as the conceptual phase.
1.3.1. Analytical Period
To start off, decent preparation work has been necessary. Therefore, a lot of literature and online material has been consulted. Either books or electronic documents have been gathered and read in order to gain a general understanding of the Swiss Racketlon Federation, the sports industry in general, the developments in the event planning and organisation area as well as the sponsoring and promotion frontier. Also, conversations with members of the federation have been held in order to get to know the strategic situation of the SRF more in detail and to learn about its current mechanics. The relevant abstracts thereof have been incorporated into the analytical part (sections 2-4) of the project. In order to gain some practical experience in organising an event, the Racketlon Swiss national Championship tournament in Uster has been visited personally. There, the author has been involved in all the steps the SRF completes during such an event – from preparing the tables and courts to receiving results and preparing repertories as game master! In order to get an overview of who is involved and impacted by the SRF, a stakeholder analysis is executed. This measure helps to take into account all necessary bodies when taking actions. As a next step, the author has established a qualitative interview by means of the main
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland subjects the thesis deals with for a consultation of experts in field surrounding the Racketlon discipline. Subsequently, expert interviews with as many representatives as possible from the stakeholder classes have been carried out. During the week of the international tennis tournament “Swiss Indoors” taking place in Basel in October 2014, the author was employed in the control force and achieved a small “best-in-class” field research on site. Especially the event promotion in the stages before, during, and after the event as well as the commercialisation thereof were interesting for the project and most effort was put in gaining knowledge about these aspects.
1.3.2. Conceptual Period
The conceptual period commences with a SWOT analysis taking into account the relevant observations from the benchmark analysis of the field research. Possible room for improvement resulting from the analysis of the federation compared to the literature and expert inputs will be monitored by a triangulation of methods Then, a description of the positioning of Racketlon will follow in order to place the discipline in the market. Following, the objectives of the SRF in the near future for both, the different stakeholders and for the federation itself will be stated. Taking into account these findings, the mission and vision SRF will be stated in order to see what the strategic direction and the goals for the future are. Thereof, the objectives for the federation to reach its vision will be derived. Conclusively, three business cases will demonstrate how the findings and outcomes complemented with the suggestions of the author could be transformed into reality and put into place. The final presentation together with the handover of the final document marks the end of the project.
1.4. Authenticity of Findings
The project team and the client agreed on target experts to be consulted. The experts were interviewed by means of a qualitative interview face-to-face, by telephone or if this was not possible by sending them the questionnaire electronically. The interviewees are all stakeholders of the SRF and Racketlon. This group of experts does not allow statements regarding the whole sector itself. To a greater degree it serves for the SRF to indicate possible trends. The student has interacted with other organisations on behalf of the SRF. This feedback from the contacted organisations will be considered as genuine and professional. The student is not hold liable for misstatements or wrong information from the interview partners due to the position of the undergraduate and its consequences for the project. However, the outcome of this project work is useful on several layers. The SRF gains some insight into the actual situation in its environment. Furthermore, it obtains recommendations for the
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland development of the procedures in the future to reach their goals as soon as possible. The business cases illustrate how the findings could be implemented. Regular contact with the SRF has avoided misunderstandings. This work offers SRF the opportunity to optimise its procedures but also presents a chance for the graduating student to gain real business experience in the sports industry and since the SRF still represents a rather young federation, an opportunity to really have an impact with this work.
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2. Important Aspects of the Sports Market
Pawlowski states in his booklet that there does not exist yet a general consensus about the definition of sport economics and its role within the business administrative field (2014:11). It might be an own component of marketing but also other affinities are possible he continues. The following sections give insights into this highly interesting field. Many topics of the book written by Bühler and Nufer deal with the parts discussed in the following sections. Therefore, and because it is a highly interesting literature, section this part of the thesis is guided to a high degree by this very book and is complemented with fewer inputs from other sources.
2.1. The Sports Market
Due to the increased professionalism in the sports business, the approach of sports organisation in different aspects has shifted too as Bühler and Nufer illustrate it in the graph below.
Fig 2: Traditional vs. modern Sporting Organisations (Based on Hermanns and Riedmüller 2008: 9).
Also, general marketing and sports marketing differ according to Bühler and Nufer in the respects sports market, the sports product and the sports consumer (2006). In the sports market, there exists an active as well as a passive consumption depending on whether the consumer is an athlete or a spectator they continue. Furthermore, sports companies are in steady competition on and off the pitch with other organisations in their field but still need each other to be competitive to a certain degree for representing an interesting contest, called the “associative competition”. The success on a sports level highly matters and is a unique characteristic of sports. Hence, how many trophies you win primarily matters and not only your financial profits. The popularity of sports among the public and the therefore huge media coverage are unreached by any other business field Bühler and Nufer point out. Everybody can do his or her analysis itself and make statements with their own expertise. Bühler and Nufer also state that
mass sports and leisure sports orients itself by the needs of the active participants and is characterised by minor outward and acquisitions orientation. (2014: 7)
Competitive sports on the other hand focus more on market their performance towards spectators as target groups (ibid). These “various customer groups” act because of different
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland motives and have different needs (ibid: 11). Consumers are driven by factors such as passion, loyalty and certain irrationality and due to their affinity prefer one organisation over a second even if it made more sense to take a different purchase decision solely based on rational commercial examination (ibid). Hence, a sports organisation has to develop its strategy according to its own strategy.
2.2. Sport as a Product
When it comes to the sports product, there are both, a core product as well as certain product extension as it can be seen in the graph.
Fig 3: Sports as a Product (Bühler and Nufer 2014:48)
The core product which is the sport itself cannot be planned because there are both, an uncertainty of the happenings during the game itself as well as of the outcome Bühler and Nufer state. Depending on its nature, a core product is targeted to different customers than its extension and because of this, different techniques are necessary to communicate them towards the customers they go on (ibid: 10). Hence, an organisation in the sports market has to take into account certain unique characteristics of sports. Bühler and Nufer confirm with other experts that sport as a product passes the same four lifecycle phases as does a traditional product (84).
Fig. 4: Traditional product lifecycle (Google)
However, in contrast to typical products, some sports originated very long time ago (e.g. football) and their maturity still has not been reached. This implies that sports have a longer
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maturity stage than other sports. In the literature, it is called the “maturity plateau” (88). Bühler and Nufer illustrate a lifecycle model of established sports in their book (91). It shows very well the different stages and the maturity plateau.
Fig. 5: Lifecycle of established Sports (Bühler und Nufer, 2014: 91) 2.3. Marketing in Sports
Following, the general procedure when setting up a general marketing strategy is presented. It is divided in several parts. To start off, an analysis of the internal and external environment is done. Afterwards, the strategic business and subsequent strategic marketing planning over a rather long-term is done before the shorter-termed operative marketing planning is dealt with. After this whole preparation process, the strategy is executed and afterwards assessed in order to monitor is success and the future procedures (ibid: 25 ff.).
Environmental Strategic Strategic Operative Business Marketing Marketing Implementation Controlling Analysis Planning Planning Planning
Fig. 6: Marketing Conception as a Process (Author based on Meffert and Bruhn 1997: 116)
In terms of the environmental analysis, additionally to the different methods such as SWOT or PESTLE analysis, primary or secondary market research like questionnaire surveys, observation, or desk research respectively should be done recommend Bühler and Nufer (2014: 26). Since the stages in general marketing have already been discussed multiple times and the project takes place in the sports sphere, the literature also focuses on the latter area and only discusses general concepts in case they are important for the project.
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Sponsorship, event marketing, and social media marketing are elements of the communication mix which is nowadays many times divided into a classical (above-the-line tools) as well as a non-classical (below-the-line tools) tools (30). Other components include advertising, public relations, sales promotion, fairs and exhibitions, product placement, direct marketing, and viral marketing Bühler and Nufer carry on. After the planning stages, it is about implementing the strategy. “It is vital that the marketing conception is realistically and suits the context in which a company operates.” (ibid: 32). Important documents to decrease risks include time schedules, organisation charts and financial schemes for the respective project. Monitoring during the realisation process called “process-orientated parallel controlling” or also known as “marketing audit” and after an implementation known as “result- orientated ex-post controlling” serve for immediate notification in case of market changes and as a succession analysis of the measures put into place (ibid). In recent years, Bühler and Nufer annotate that innumerable new competitors have entered the sports industry and an increasing professionalism has increased the difficulty to withstand and be successful in this sector (2014: 36). They continue that
this leads to the situation that sporting organisations have to market themselves as well as their sports in a more sophisticated way. (ibid)
A wide range of methods can be selected in order to analyse the environment. Profound analysis beforehand is vital and should be carried out very cautiously and they highly recommend working together with research experts either internally or from external sources (37). The strategic marketing planning of a sporting organisation depends on its strategic business planning Bühler and Nufer further state. Strategic marketing planning in a sports area is about implementing the strategic business planning targets into the field of marketing (ibid). There are quantitative as well as qualitative targets which can be persuaded. Akin to the different methods, the strategy should be chosen according to the respective situation of the club and the environment and has to fit the situation. There is no right or wrong but rather a better or worse… (ibid: 38). These different situations require adjusted market stimulations to in order to satisfy a certain area. An organisation should find the strategy that best stimulates the respective field. Important for organisations to plan in sports is “whether their core product is attractive enough to reach the marketing objectives” (39). Since it is difficult to modify the core product which is the sport itself, “contextual aspects” should be designed as appealing as possible to spectators or the commercial rights sponsors can uses should be well established (ibid). By carrying out market researches and branding with merchandise articles, brand recognition is augmented and a real brand emerges (ibid). By pricing all offers adequately, an organisation ensures a steady visit of
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland the user of the services. Thus, planning beforehand, vigilant implementation and succession analysis are important steps a professional sporting organisation should pass.
2.4. Internationalisation
Bühler and Nufer confirm Pawlowski by saying that there exists neither a clear definition nor is it generally accepted whether sport marketing conforms to an area of sports science or it rather represents a discipline of general marketing such as the already well-established forms “Consumer Goods Marketing (B2C)” or international marketing (33). Indeed, there has to be made a clear difference between marketing with sports and marketing in sports they point out (34)! Marketing with sports includes all attempts that aim to promote any product by putting them into a sportive context and promote it “with the help of sports” (34). Marketing in sports on the other hand deals with sport providers promoting a sport itself with the aid of marketing concepts (34). The following graph illustrates these two kinds of marketing:
Fig. 7: Model of Sports Marketing (Bühler and Nufer. 2014: 35)
Different disciplines are at different stage of internationalisation state Bühler and Nufer (2014: 56). Some are still a local sport only played among a few members of a small community, some are played at a national, domestic level (e.g. Hornussen), others have spread across several
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland countries in the course of colonisation (eg. Cricket), and certain disciplines have established themselves as international sports, for instance football or racing (56). The different stages of internationalisation offer different opportunities declare Bühler and Nufer. Worldwide sport markets offer a talent pool from all over the globe and customers can originate from any corner of the world (56). New markets also provide new competitors and shifts in the amount of leisure time and disposable income lead to new consumers of sports. The international barriers resulting from World War II are steadily being removed again and open new markets too (60). The emergence of new technology such as internet and television, it is nowadays possible for millions of people to participate such an event from home (61). Domestic market satisfaction also lets organisations seek for new customers abroad. With the development of mass transportation and cheaper travel possibilities, affiliates can also voyage to events taking place further away from home (62). Up to today, there does not exist a consensus about what factor contributed the most to this internationalisation but to Bühler and Nufer, a few theories seem possible. The industrial theory based on the interrelation between clubs and their stakeholders, the business strategy theory based on intentions of organisations to expand, a theory naming innovation as the trigger because companies react on “external stimuli”, adaptation perspectives where organisations are supposed to become accustomed with the changing environment beyond themselves, and “transaction costs views” putting rational decisions regarding cost drivers into the focus. Acting on an international level obviously also bears challenges for managers. The access to new markets by opening stores and sources abroad such as players is a big issue in international environments. Promoting with celebrities and finding a trade-off between promoting with the person enough and of different occasions (e.g. Ronaldo and the football world cup) but at the same time still let him or her focus the main occupation might present a next challenge according to Bühler and Nufer (67). In addition, managers in these areas should seek for international collaborations. On the level of human resources, there is the challenge to put an international team together and manage it so that all the beneficial skills come together and that the communication within the team still is guaranteed, for instance football teams of big clubs containing players from abroad. Therefore, learning from companies working in other areas or hiring staff from the respective area to build up knowledge has become popular recently (ibid). Supply chain issues constitute a further point when there is a need to put a lot of material to one place for the purpose of an event such as food and beverages to an international sports event. Finally, risk management might be required when competing on an international level (diseases, etc.). Nowadays, there exist about 500 different sport disciplines worldwide with different degrees of internationalisation and new ones such as beach tennis or speedminton appear regularly (ibid: 78). In contrast to other businesses where the turnover per country or foreign sales indicates the level of internationalisation, Bühler and Nufer emphasize that sports rather is measured by its
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland dissemination across countries and continents (79). This measurement is also used by the International Olympic Committee IOC as criteria. Sports that would like to become an Olympic discipline have to be spread over the globe on a certain amount of countries as well as continents Summer Sports Winter sports Men’s sports 75 countries on 4 continents 25 countries on 3 continents Women’s sports 40 countries on 3 continents 25 countries on 3 continents
Fig. 8: Criteria for the acceptance as an Olympic sport (Author based on das Olympische Museum 2007) depending on whether they represent a summer or winter sports and whether men or women are involved. Only if these criteria are fulfilled, the discipline gets to the stage where the IOC votes whether or not it should be incorporated in the Olympic program. The graph above illustrates the criteria of the IOC.
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3. Racketlon and the Swiss Racketlon Federation SRF
A description of how Racketlon is played nowadays was already given in the introduction of this project. Hereafter, an insight in the appearance of the discipline and a more detailed analysis will be provided.
3.1. Emergence of the Discipline
“The first pioneer of Racketlon was without knowing so, Fred Perry…” (FIR website, 2014). After having won the table tennis world championship in 1929 he conquered the trophy of the famous Wimbledon Tennis tournament only a few years later from 1934 to 1936 three times in a row (ibid). First activities similar to Racketlon occurred then in the eighties in Finland. Four players, one of each discipline, came together and played – arguably in order to find out the best player in all categories - a tournament (ibid). The Finnish name they gave it was “mailapelit” which means racket games. In 1989, the first competition was organised in Sweden by Peter Landberg, a very successful player himself (ibid). One year later in 1990, the first Swedish National Championships were born (ibid). The Finnish and Swedish disciplines seem to have occurred simultaneously but independently because they were played with slightly different rules (ibid). However, this changed in 1994 when the two countries noticed each others’ activity. The Finish rules were easier because every discipline was simply played one set up to 21 points in contrast to the complex calculation of the Swedes and was therefore immediately incorporated by the Swedes too and since then constitute the rules of the game (ibid).
3.2. Racketlon worldwide
In 2001, the first international tournament was played when the Finns and Swedes and players of four additional countries met for an elite event called “Gothenburg Racketlon World Open”. The Finns won all categories and shocked the Swedish players. From then on, one milestone after another was reached. The first international tournament in Finland in 2002 followed the first tournament of this category outside Scandinavia in Scotland in the same year. “At the second World Championships in Gothenburg 2002 a national team competition was played for the first time” is written on the FIR website. Eventually, the first World Tour was played during the year 2003. The International Racketlon Federation (FIR) was established in 2002. The goal of the individual federations (including the one in Switzerland) is to provide the necessary setup and surroundings and offer tournaments for all kinds of potential players from beginners to semi professionals. By doing so, the sport is supposed to become more popular and the member base as well as the number of clubs should grow. The FIR’s ultimate goal however is to be accepted as
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland an Olympic discipline by the International Olympic Committee (Hanna, 2014). Indeed, in order to get there, certain milestones and norms have to be accomplished beforehand. These criteria will be illustrated later in the thesis. To fulfil the requirements within the shortest possible time period, the FIR runs two international projects named “Project Collaborative Partnerships” and “Project Sport Events” with more than 10 national federations but also other bodies such as the Macedonian Badminton Federation, the Slovenian Squash Association, or the National Anti-Doping Agency Austria. Three of the four disciplines (tennis, badminton, and table tennis) already are part of the Olympic disciplines and squash was in the deciding stage to be included for the games in 2020 but in the end got rejected (IOC website, 2014). Meanwhile, there are 42 official member states spread over all six continents part of the international Racketlon Federation listed on their homepage (2014). Additionally to Europe, there are for example national federations in Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, or South Africa. Since all other racket disciplines are considered as “summer sports” by the IOC, Racketlon surely constitutes one of this season as well. True to fig. 8, the sport still needs 33 nations more to set up domestic federations (Racketlon website, 2014).
3.3. Racketlon in Switzerland and the Swiss Racketlon Federation
Racketlon was officially played in Switzerland for the first time in 2007. Nico Hobi, the president of the annual Racketlon Swiss Open tournament in Switzerland, discovered the sport when attending such an event in Germany. For the purpose of a project of his own studies, he then brought it to Switzerland and is therefore seen as the national initiator of Racketlon. The Swiss national federation (SRF) was also founded in 2007. Because the initiators did not have the resources to manage the duties of a federation, Karim Hanna, his brother Amir, and
Fig. 9: Logo SRF (Swiss Racketlon Federation Website)
Marc Duckeck founded the federation. During the last couple of years, the sport has transformed and evolved tremendously. In 2009, a national championship was added to the program as a natural expansion of the offer for players. This change was supposed to foster new club foundations because it is interesting for player to establish clubs if they can compete against each other. A highlight in the Swiss Racketlon history occurred in 2013 when the world championships
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland of Racketlon took place in Switzerland! The Championships were very successful games with more than 600 contestants in all categories! Today, the federation has seven members listed on their website sharing the tasks reaching from presidency over media and other duties among themselves (2014). According to its statutes, the purpose of the Swiss Racketlon Federation is
the organisation, fostering and execution of Racketlon in Switzerland. The SRF represents the interests of the attached members towards international federations, authorities, and public. (2013)
In 2008, i.e. only one year after its foundation, the SRF joined the FIR and is even represented in its council with Karim Hanna, president of the SRF, as the representative of regulatory affairs until the end of the year 2014. In 2013, the first national Championships were held. This year in 2014, the fifth league season, the second national championships, and already the eighth edition of the Swiss Open took place. Meanwhile, there are over 1200 licensed players and 12 official clubs in Switzerland with first clubs based in the French part. Ten official Night Tour tournaments plus the Swiss Open are listed in the event calendar. On average, around 45 players visit a tournament.
3.4. Financing
Because the SRF has existed for only seven years, its finances are of a fairly manageable and uncomplicated size too. In the statutes it is written that the turnover consists of the pillars entry fees to tournaments, member fees of clubs and players, sponsoring contribution, and a small share from governmental sport funds (2013). By far the biggest share of the expenses is spent on the rents of sports centres in order to carry out a tournament. The coupon of the meal that is included in every entry fee consumes a second big part of the budget. The remaining part is spent on smaller issues, for instance running the website or business expenses. Since its foundation, the budget of the SRF has tripled. During the first year, the renting of centres made up 75% of the whole budget and meanwhile it was lowered and the SRF invests around half of its budget on this account. Revenues Year 2013 in % Expenses Year 2013 in %
Entry fees Member fees Sponsoring Other Center rents Catering Other
12%
15% 39% 41% 58% 20% 15%
Fig. 10: Revenues and Expenses SRF (Author)
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3.5. Stakeholder Analysis of the SRF
An active organisation has a certain impact on other bodies in its environment. According to Robert Freeman, stakeholders are members of groups or a society that affect or are affected by organisations (2010). He further confirms that these so-called stakeholders either obtain services from or offer them to an organisation and incentives have to be created in order to receive the necessary services from them in return (2010). In contrast to other approaches where primarily profit maximisation is striven to, a stakeholder analysis is more “community-oriented”, puts the organisation in the centre surrounded by its stakeholder and their needs are taken into account in order to reach a goal that is beneficial and acceptable for all the bodies involved (ibid). The following stakeholder analysis is executed to identify the involved organisations in racketlon. Furthermore, it should be evident from the analysis what services and products are interchanged between the respective organisation and the SRF. Opportunities and threats that should be described complementary to such an analysis will be described in the SWOT analysis later in the document. Eventually, all the above mentioned pieces of the puzzle are put together to supply the whole picture. Consequently, the setting of appropriate goals for the SRF in order to reach the best possible outcome for all involved bodies will be executed. The information revealed in this section was primarily acquired by multiple conversations with the president and head of media from the federation.
Federations
Related Government Disciplines
Sponsoring Players SRF Partners
Event Media Visitors
Racketlon Clubs
Fig. 11: Stakeholders of the SRF (Author)
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Federations:
On an international level, Racketlon interacts with two types of organisations which are other national Racketlon Federations such as the Danish or Dutch Federation but also the international Racketlon Federation “Fédération Internationale de Racketlon” (FIR).
Fig. 12: Logo Fédération Internationale de Racketlon (FIR website 2014)
Other national federations abroad might profit from positive developments in form of increased popularity of the sport or players from Denmark participating an event in Switzerland or increased competition and a therefore higher level of the players in Denmark. The FIR on the other hand is involved insofar that a positive development of Racketlon in Switzerland strengthens the position of the international federation. This might lead to the accomplishment of milestones in terms of allowance as an official sport discipline and as an Olympic discipline at a later stage. So, there is more a flow of information than an interchange of products. The national federations stay in contact with each other in order to discuss and coordinate events such as international tournaments and general updates on the topic of the sport. This might be seen as a service because it provides the respective federations with crucial information. The official international federation FIR rather updates the SRF regarding rules and regulations and the strategy on an international level. The SRF works also closely together with the Swiss Squash Federation because it has its headquarters in the centre of Langnau am Albis where Racketlon tournaments are played on a regular basis. This collaboration is on an informational basis too. Other national federations primarily call for transparency in measures taken, especially from the FIR. Since Racketlon still stands for a young discipline, the different federations should help each other. This help stands for need among national federations too.
Government:
From a certain degree of popularity and importance of a sport, also the government gets involved. When certain threshold values in terms of licensed players (2000) and official clubs (20) are achieved, also the government might accept the sport as an official discipline. This leads to supporting measures such as financial support for the development and formation of professional teachers and access to public schools during gym lectures or in booklets for vacancy physical activity (“Ferienspass”) as well as promotional activity of the government where Racketlon would be included that gave again a big boost. The federal acknowledgement as an official discipline is
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland therefore the biggest need the SRF claims. However, this is not possible at this point due to financial reasons at the BASPO as they responded to a query of the author. However, children sports may be registered and can profit from support. In return, Racketlon as a sport contributes to a healthier community and might decrease healthcare costs to a certain degree. In the future, the SRF might pay back this support by taxes in case the sport reaches a high significance.
Sponsoring Partners:
Sponsoring partners also represent a stakeholder of the SRF. As soon as sporting activities in events or organisations become meaningful enough, they become attractive transmitters for sponsors who would like to make use of their communication channels and other beneficial characteristics. Their significance plus the current sponsoring situation of the SRF will be elaborated in section 4.3. of this paper. The SRF would like to receive support in order to develop itself and the sport quicker and therefore would like to receive support from sponsors.
Media
Media are attracted to interesting activities and happenings. When Racketlon creates such clusters big enough that media would like to report about it, an interrelation emerges. The Media starts to put articles in local means of news if the SRF creates news worthwhile to know. By publishing these articles, the public’s interest is likely to grow and the SRF gets more attention. More attention equals more active and/or passive participation in activities and increases importance again. This makes it meaningful enough for media to put it on more widespread news such as national or even international television and makes it a very interesting and important stakeholder. The SRF would like the media to show up at events and write articles and publish them in order to inform people. In exchange, the media wants SRF to be active and create clusters by means of activities that are worthwhile reporting about and make people discuss about it.
Clubs
In clubs, people with similar interests meet to share and experience mutual topics together. These spots serve for the exchange of information and actualisation about the point of interest and in general keep the movement rolling. Together with the federation itself, they furthermore are the contact point for new players sharing the interest and establish and strengthen the sport in different areas of a community. A growing importance might lead to a higher amount of club members. This might lead again to an enhanced competition and a higher level.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
The SRF helps in organisational matters such as the general administrative concerns, foundations of new clubs or dealing with regulatory issues. Furthermore, every club receives a material package from the federation per team registered for the national league. In case a club organises a tournament, the SRF provides the online registration platform beforehand and the resulting and ranking procedures afterwards. The organisational issues should really be the only issues where the focus has to be set. The SRF needs the associated clubs to obey the regulations whereas the clubs need the SRF to establish beneficial regulations and organise a functioning structure on national level. A future need of the SRF towards the clubs is that they should become more independent and organise more tournaments themselves similar to the structure of Swiss Tennis. This federation is still responsible for bigger tournaments and the national leagues. However, every centre and also clubs are allowed to organise their own events and the Tennis federation provides them with the online registration and result platform.
Visitors:
If there exists an active racketlon community and events take place, there will be visitors following the event in person or at certain occasions also on TV and online. These visitors appear mainly for two reasons: They either come because they know some people involved in the event or they pass by because they think it might be an interesting atmosphere at the event itself. Only a few spectators visit because of the sport itself. This is the case for many sport disciplines. Visitors consume sport and in exchange make use of other offers (food, beverages, and merchandising) at an event which represents a very important source of income for an event. Having the visitor attend or participate the event is the primary need of the federation towards this stakeholder. In order to create a need to visit an event, an organiser should establish an interesting atmosphere that attracts! Naturally, the visitor will only appear when attracted.
Players:
The players of a sport are its face and therefore represent the most important stakeholder of Racketlon. Without them, Racketlon and also any other sport would be nothing! Passionate people about sports start to play and train a discipline and become players. They compete in tournaments, convey the message about experiences to other potential players and to their friends and keep the sport alive. The Federation provides the players with possibilities to execute a sport on tournaments and in the national league. In return, the players pay the yearly license fee which is common in every sport discipline. In the case of Racketlon, normal players pay 30, club members 25 and students 20 francs which is a rather low fee.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
Players need adequate training and competition possibilities need the SRF to provide them with both, regulatory framework and information about news and upcoming national events. Furthermore, the whole administrative work similar to the relation with the clubs like putting results and game plans online is done by the SRF online. The SRF needs to provide the players with good events and tournaments so that they collect good experiences as well as emotions and help spreading the sport further.
Related disciplines:
Related sport disciplines are also to a certain degree impacted by different and/or new disciplines on several levels: There is an increased competition for players and events. The emergence of Racketlon events offered a new possibility to players of all the four involved as well as all other disciplines. Also, from other sports certain players might convert to Racketlon or at least try it out once. This is a rather negative impact on related disciplines but there are also positive. There is an increase range of sports and tournaments thereof that can be played. Generally, there happens no big interchange neither of services nor of products but still are interconnected since Racketlon contains the four other disciplines and many players come from one of the four related sports. Both bodies have a mutual need towards the opposite which is not to influence each other in a negative manner.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
4. Important Business Fields of the SRF
There will be a three-step procedure throughout the following section. Firstly, the primary research of the actual situation within the SRF will be displayed. Following, the analysis of literature research will be presented. Inputs from the expert interviews complete the respective paragraphs. The three business fields this thesis focus most on are demonstrated by the following graph:
SRF
Event Marketing/ Sponsoring Organisation Junior Promotion
Fig. 13: Important Business Fields of the SRF (Author) 4.1. Event Organisation and Planning
As mentioned in earlier sections, the SRF organises all the events it carries out and also the needed documents such as game plan originate from own work. Meanwhile, the federation has organised events for several years and therefore, a lot of preparation work is done out of experience and does not need a big administrative effort anymore. So far, there is no written post processing implemented at the SRF where the goals of events is compared to actual outcomes. Results of tournaments and articles for newspapers are written and distributed but the development is not yet examined on a regular. According to Pawlowski, the thrill for the spectator of a sports event consists of primary factors (2014:21). One represents the “competitive balance” of participants of the same level, which is the degree to which all participating bodies are equally strong and have the same possibility of winning. The constant uncertainty of outcome hypothesis before every occasion on the other hand deals with the fact that a result of a session cannot be forecasted and therefore triggers people to follow them live Pawlowski continues. The competitive balance consists of three levels. The short-term level indicates the equilibrium of one occasion such as a game, race, or a meeting. The middle-term specifies a championship or a season whereas the long-term gives information about developments during several years of the whole unit (Pawlowski, 2014:29). The third pattern can be determined for example by means of the competitive balance ratio (CBR) developed by Humphreys in 2002. It
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland takes on numbers reaching from zero to one getting bigger the more balanced the competition is. Hence, event organisers should arrange events in a manner so that a high power density is present and as a result it is attractive to follow the games and leagues. Nowadays, people expect to experience an entertainment before, during, and after the game by buying an entrance ticket (Pfaff, 2002: p.4). More and more, these happenings are being divided into the main event and sub or side events and these events are being promoted more and more separately Pfaff continues. Side events are by definition happenings that take place next to the main event. Hermanns and Riedmüller confirm that they are organised by sponsors and serve to present themselves and stand out and generate public attention (2003:143). Side events range from public areas and show matches over product presentations to VIP arrangements and aim to generate positive emotions, integrate staff and target groups, and further foster the so often mentioned image transfer Hermanns and Riedmüller add. Mainly, there are four phases of an event to be considered during the planning they conclude: The preparation phase where the strategic decisions are taken, the development and event conception where the event is organised, the realisation and staging of the event, and finally the post processing and succession analysis stage (2003: 167). Also experts from the interviews gave statements regarding crucial factors of event organisation and planning thereof. According to Cotting, the three success factors participants, spectators, and financials are crucial and also the answers of most experts dealt with these areas. Niedermann stated that resources regarding time and labour should be well-planned. How much can be done without any help and what might has to be outsourced should be analysed in advance. Hougaard mentioned that a tournament organisation should have an approximated idea of how many and what kind of people will visit the event and plan it respectively. Furthermore, players should have fun and it should be an amusement to take part. Zeolie stated that it is important to communicate event information early enough so that interested people can organise themselves and put it on their agendas. For the participant, the positive experience and the social intercourse counts above all confirmed Cotting, Mischler, and Ulusoy. For spectators, the “event already starts at home” continued Cotting. This means that the participants and spectators should already be accompanied when searching their way to the venue. Enough parking lots should be provided and the participants should feel comfortable when entering the arena, dressing room, or the hospitality. A reasonable organisation of the games of a tournament within and between categories seems to be important. The players should be granted enough breaks to recover but also do not want to wait too long until the next game. Furthermore, if different classes play at the same day, they should be scheduled with increasing level so that the thrill remains during the competition. A smooth and good organisation is unsurprisingly generally seen as a crucial factor for the success of an event.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
Rudin backs the previous statements by perceiving all the points reaching from resource planning over organising the event towards the targeted audience and selecting adequate infrastructure to having under control financial issues and responsibilities as important too. Infrastructure is for players insofar important too that they would like to find good courts and playgrounds with adequate illumination and, if internationally orientated, proximity to an airport or good shuttle service Zeolie stated as central. Then, also what the biggest obstacles are when planning events, was assessed. The most important aspects also turned out to be the crucial ones. For Hougaard, organisers sometimes run the risk of receiving too little cash for running an event when they are not yet experience which is to avoid. The event organiser should accomplish the goals of all the three aspects participants, audience, and financials that all are essential Cotting reported. Mischler was of the opinion that conflicting schedules with similar sport events and the unavailability of material and other infrastructure should be avoided. Also, an organiser should inform him or her, how big of a success similar events in the past were to get an idea of its extent. Whether any documents are important and which ones used by the interviewed organisation on a regular basis was asked subsequently. In the few cases where interviewed organisations use own documents, practically all were established by the organisations themselves. On a few occasions, documents were taken and optimised according to the particular needs. For instance, Hobi indicated having taken existing game plans and having optimised them in order to meet the requirements of the event he organises. General transparency of the processes during an event and neat game plans are important for Zeolie.
4.2. Marketing of the Sport and Junior Promotion
Promotional activity of the SRF is maintained by a certain communication policy. News are primarily distributed to the public on its website and posts about tournaments are distributed to news several local and regional agencies. However, the decision whether or not these articles will be published is taken by the agency itself and beyond the control of the SRF. In addition, there exists a Facebook account which was opened only this year in May (Swiss Racketlon. 2014). There, primarily updates regarding the national league games are posted. However, it is still in its infancy and does not yet have many followers. In order to attract some visitors to tournaments, a few exhibition matches in Squash or Badminton with national top players were organised in previous years. They attracted a few visitors but it did not result in a continuous development. For illustrations, a member of the federation is photographer and collects photos during events and tournaments and the best shots are put into articles and on the homepage as well. International tournaments are announced and can be reached through the website. The biggest
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland means of communication however is the word-of-mouth among the players, visitors, and other people. Information is spread most effectively there due to the high interconnection of the community. Racketlon players generally are of a little higher age and there are not yet many young players active in Racketlon Hanna writes in the sponsoring concept of the SRF (2011). A major barrier for young players is the rather high material and membership costs resulting from equipment and licenses for several sports. It was attempted to gather more children by organising a training camp in summer but there was not enough response and did not take place in the end. In addition, the SRF would like to get access to schools but the popularity of the sport still is too small to get accepted on a national level and consequently get access there. Also, the formation of coaches is an issue and fails by not yet being accepted at governmental authorities. In the literature, a lot of information can be found when it comes to communication also in a sports environment. In contrast to general communication where a sender and a receiver exist, mass or marketing communication provides general messages without individual elements to an anonymous community Hermanns and Riedmüller state (2003:5). It serves for setting up and preserving relationships with important parties they continue. Two years earlier, the same authors wrote that when performances in a discipline reach a certain level, they can be forwarded to an audience and further promoted (2001: 45). Along with music, theatre, and cinema movies, sport has developed into a significant form of entertainment, for which an increasing amount of consumers get interested in was remarked by them. When it comes to promote and push events by means of all kinds of media, the Americans surely constitute the primary example of how much promotion can be done for an event. Examples such as the super bowl, the basket ball finals or hockey show downs enjoy huge public attention, are heavily invested in, and generate enormous amounts of revenues and reaction worldwide. As written by Bühler and Nufer, there are various communication instruments at organisations’ disposal. Above all however, sports “has to be brought in the public limelight” (2014:41). Especially for rather unknown sports it is crucial to attract public attention. Secondly, a clear positioning compared to related disciplines is important and various channels in order to communicate the position. There are two main risks involved in marketing communication with sports, namely the unpredictable success of sponsored elements as well as the sensibility of sports towards external impacts find Hermanns and Riedmüller (2003:17). Image damage due to unforeseen scandals of this athlete such as tax fraud or inconvenient news in one’s personal life represent a few of them (ibid: 18). Because there is a wide range of products available in the market nowadays and it has gotten more difficult to position an item uniquely, communication thereof has experienced a huge
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland increase in importance in recent years (ibid: 25). Some people even talk about rather a communication than a product competition in their opinion. Due to the development of customer values towards adventure and leisure time, also means of communication have been adapted accordingly. Because sport can generate vast attention and emotions, Hermanns and Riedmüller recommend accomplish an image transfer by means of adequate communication work (2003:26). In order not to have “communication deficits” which is a loss of the communication effect, an organisation has to coordinate its announcement instruments and place them beneficially they add. This can be accomplished by having an integrated communication where the single instruments are reconciled with each other to guarantee the highest possible effectiveness (ibid: 28). The basis of such an integrated communication according to them is a planning process whereof its strategy again represents the core (2003:32). Meanwhile it is widely known that corporate communication is more effective if divided in several stages. A pre event, a promotion during the event and the post advertising combined – often named “flanking measures” together clearly optimize marketing outcomes Hermanns and Riedmüller continue (2003:38). Generally, the competition in the sports market has increased significantly as it has in all other areas of business too. There is way more information available, a lot more companies are active with more diversified in highly segmented market areas and distribute a huge amount of messages about these products to customers. One of the most effective ways to still reach customers’ attention is, according to the same authors, adventure marketing where events that let the participant experience a lot of unique emotions and therefore associate the brands present at such events with these positive emotions (2003: 137). Promotion, sponsoring and side events are the crucial elements of successful communication they append. Promotion equals the transmission of communication by paid means by clearly indicating the source thereof. It can be done at events by advertising boards, shirt as well as poster advertisement, acoustically by means of loudspeaker announcement, promotion in magazines, and many other diverse special means of promotion. Hermanns and Riedmüller add that event marketing contains target-oriented, systematic planning, conceptual and organisational preparation, realisation as well as post processing of experience- oriented events in the context of communication policy of companies. (2003: 155)
In addition, planning sport events and implementing marketing targets should be based on the brand as well as the main communication message and the target group focus. As already mentioned earlier, sport can be attended actively as an athlete or passively as a spectator. Hermanns and Riedmüller recognise nine dimensions which decide upon the experience of a spectator at an event. Some of them read: - Thrill of the impressions and the uncertain outcome of an event
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
- Experience own skills when doing sports which force participants to make good own performances - Admiration of athletes and other participants - Social experience to meet, see and interact with other people - Fascination as a spectator How an event or a discipline can generally best be promoted was the first issue with regard to the communication during the interviews. When it comes to spreading news about an event or a discipline, three factors seem to be decisive and have been mentioned several times. Media presence is by far the most important means of communication and has been mentioned during all interviews! Some mention the importance of announcing events enough time in advance and update players during the event. To get the results as quickly as possible after a tournament might also be a reason why people would like to keep themselves updated also after an event. Word-of- mouth advertisement ranks second and is seen to be fundamental by Mischler, Rudin, Ulusoy, and Zeolie. Experts pointed to the fact that Racketlon still is a rather unknown discipline where new players and participants almost exclusively emerge out of personal relations and talking to people personally therefore represents a very important aspect. Talking to a lot of people at events of other disciplines and wearing equipment labelled with Racketlon-related content attracts attention and opens discussions said Hougaard. The third aspect is the social media which is seen as crucial by Hougaard, Cotting, and Mischler. Especially with smaller events and in areas where the relational factor plays a certain role it seems to be an effective method to promote. The crucial factors so that a sports discipline spreads most widely were dealt with in a second step. Naturally, visibility ranks highest in this section too because publicity and viral contact points obviously help to spread news. But also presenting Racketlon in other disciplines and events thereof or promoting an own event with distinguishing characteristics, for instance a new centre, a venue located in a beautiful spot, or a very strong competition with (inter-) national top players, is seen to be successful tactics and was mentioned by Hougaard, Imfeld, Rudin, and Ulusoy. Further, the author wanted to know how the most possible players could be reached – also abroad. Publicity and updating on a regular basis seems to be the best possibility in order to attract foreign players. Information about the event should be accessible early enough so that players can start planning mentioned Hougaard, Mischler, Imfeld, and Rudin. As many times and by the same interviewees, incentives such as timely information, cheap flights to the destination, personal contact to players from abroad or prize money may attract foreign contestants. National leagues in more countries, which seem to not yet exist in all cases, would constitute a next and beneficial step for the sport estimates Zeolie. Above all, the participant should experience and good event and something different so that he is enforced to come back and talks about it with his connections. For
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland the organiser, the main benefits are the maintenance of the discipline and visibility towards the public that the sports is “living” complemented with a small amount of money resulting from the fees in order to further position itself in the future indicated Niedermann, Hougaard, and Mischler. With regard to the youth promotion, the author tried to find out how the interviewees try to recruit junior players or participants and what the most effective methods therefore are. Hougaard, Cotting, Imfeld, and Rudin indicated that the formation of coaches is crucial for attracting young players because younger players are not yet capable of organising their own training schedules. Hougaard, Cotting, Mischler, and Rudin further point to four other possibilities to get in to contact with the sport such as training camps or trial possibilities at certain occasions. A third opportunity to reach out to the youth is to be present in magazines with popular or otherwise outstanding athletes and get the youth to discuss about the sport said Cotting, Mischler, and Ulusoy. According to Gassmann, a comparison with other disciplines’ attempts to acquire young players might be useful.
4.3. Sponsoring
Sponsoring is seen as a form of communication as stated in earlier sections. Indeed, because it represents a major business field the project deals with, it is paid tribute to in the following section separately. The SRF has a few sponsors in sponsoring classes and indicates what the sponsors get in return for their engagement. However, in case of a termination of any of these engagements, the SRF would get into certain financial straits.
Fig. 14: Sponsoring Classes of the SRF (Swiss Racketlon Federation. 2014)
The graph was extracted from the sponsoring concept of the federation (2011). In this 32 pages large document, information for potential partners reaching from a presentation of the discipline over the tournament calendar, review and objectives for the next years, and possible sponsoring
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland engagements are presented. It is possible to support the sport with amounts reaching from 100 francs and more as favourer over partners from 2000 francs upwards to lead sponsors contributing 5000 francs and more and title sponsors for whole series such as the national league from 10000 francs upwards. Furthermore, there is the possibility to agree with the federation upon combining several forms together. Currently, Wilson is one big lead sponsor for the Night Tour tournaments. In addition, some sports centres where the racketlon events take place support the sport to a certain degree and are listed as partners as well. Apart from the current sponsoring partners, the SRF tried to get into contact with other, mainly bigger, companies. Smaller, local sponsors that do not have a proximity to Racketlon or a racket sport were fairly neglected. This contacting was done by sending them letters containing sponsoring offers and was complemented with an invitation for the final event and the aperitif there. However, there was no big response to these measures and they were not persuaded anymore recently. A lot of literature has been written with regard to sponsoring. In contrast to promotion where primarily a one-way communication is proceeding, sponsoring tries to establish a broader cooperation. Bühler and Nufer explain that there is a difference between supporting sports by means of donations or patronage where the support originates in a holistic attitude compared to sponsoring (2014:45). The sponsor provides the sponsee with financial, material or service-based resources and in return receives the rights to use the communication channels of the sponsored body explain Hermanns and Riedmüller (2003: 141). This kind of collaboration has experienced an increased importance in recent years they add. Among the different sponsoring engagements of companies, by far the highest amount is spent on sport sponsoring (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003: 50). Along with the support of athletes and partnering up with whole teams, sport event sponsoring represent the three sports sponsoring types according to the Metatop website (2012). According to Bühler and Nufer,
professional sports sponsorship is a business-related partnership between a sponsor and a sponsee based on reciprocity. The sponsor provides financial or non-financial resources directly to the sponsee and receives a predefined service in return in order to fulfil various sponsorship objectives. (2010: 92)
Sponsoring in sports may reach out to a unique target group and may be of major importance report Hermanns and Riedmüller (2003: 37). Nowadays, most events cannot take place anymore without sponsors (ibid). Supporters are generally categorised according the proximity of their products to the sponsored event the two authors continue (ibid: 51). Mainly, four areas of proximity are distinguished: direct sporting goods such as clothes and shoes from equipment producers in tennis represent the first grade. The second grade consists of sport related products such as fitness equipment and nutrition. Thirdly, sport distant products such as parcel services in racing
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland can be named here. The last category contains all other products which do not have any relation to sports (ibid). A second categorisation can be made by allocating the sponsored organisation to one of the three dimensions Hermanns and Riedmüller list (2003:55 ff.). The first dimension is the discipline where the sponsor engages in. The discipline determines the public attention to a high degree and therefore the sponsor’s target group. In a big, national survey in 2008, Lamprecht, Fischer, and Stamm list around 200 disciplines that are executed on a more or less regular basis. Basically all disciplines may be seen as a possibility to sponsor if their attributes fit an organisation. Then, the level of performance determines the quality and quantity of the target group and has possibly some image factors attached (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003:56). The level of performance is further divided in professional sports, mass sports, and junior sports (ibid). Due to the by far highest media presence and because the other two levels in most cases need preparation work in the area of public relations, organisations generally engage on the professional sports level (ibid). The last dimension mentioned is the organisational unit where supporter provide resources. This element largely defines the geographical spread of the sponsoring, the available target group and impacts the sponsoring measures put in place. Some units are interdisciplinary and professional federations, clubs, teams, athletes, and event organisers. It is also possible to entitle sponsors according to the degree of their engagement (ibid: 61). There are full sponsors who provide all the necessary external funds and equipment, lead sponsors where the burden is divided on several shoulders, and outfitter, co-sponsors as well as several other kinds which have smaller and smaller obligations and therefore rights (ibid: 64). The most intensive engagement is demonstrated by incorporating a name of a sponsor in an event or sports such as the “Wilson Racketlon Night Tour”. Also very popular are testimonials where well- known athletes wear outfits and use equipment of sponsors and carry out PR events such as autograph sessions in order to represent them (ibid: 62). Sponsors might even organise events themselves to generate media attention (ibid: 63). Hermanns and Riedmüller state recommended basic rules which should be obeyed in order to establish a successful sponsoring strategy. They include establishing targets of sponsorship, defining the target groups precisely, identifying the key messages of sponsorship, making the content measurable and also assess success of competitors to compare afterwards, sharing the results with all other departments of organisation, and finally using results to further plan and improve. There are several motives and objectives for sport sponsorship. They range widely from the possibility to “approach target groups in not commercial situations” over the “multiplier effect of media”, the “support of target group specific alignment” to diversification possibilities – and they
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland consume relatively little monetary resources stress Hermanns and Riedmüller (2003: 53). Sponsoring generally pursues derivative communication objectives of companies (ibid: 74). They are derived from the overlying marketing communication goals of the companies (ibid). Nowadays, engagements also have a tendency to strive towards increased turnover by including sales promotion (ibid). However, the non-monetary goals such as increased popularity and image adjustments are still perceived as more important. Certain sponsors’ that triggers sponsoring is the strengthening and enforcement of awareness. In order to reach this goal, strong media relationships have to be built upfront (ibid). The main reason however why sport sponsoring is mostly done is for image stabilisation or transfer thereof (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003:53). One of the most widely-spread manifestations is the equipment labelling. There are several possibilities to label sponsors at different occasions. Hermanns and Riedmüller name shirt advertising, putting the name of the sponsor on equipment and means of transport in this context (2003:58). Publicity before an event such as posters or radio promotion is a second way of image transfer (ibid). A third option would be touchline advertising next to courts and pitches (ibid: 59). This form also includes textile posters and fix boards of any kind (ibid). Staying in contact with customers as well as the industry and representing themselves with their products also represents a goal of sport sponsoring. More and more becoming the focus of attention also is the motivation of staff in case of visiting such an event in some way. Workers indentify themselves more with the organisation and improve corporate culture. The three elements of brand, target group, and sports discipline should complement each other i.e. represent a good “fit”. Depending on what kind of image a certain brand would like to represent, it chooses a specific sports discipline where its target group get into contact with and tries to transfer these attributes by both, being represented at events and using the communication channels of the sponsee (ibid). If a sponsoring engagement is supposed to be successful, these fits mentioned above have to be aimed at on several levels. The image and “incentive affinity” of the sports discipline and brand should be assessed. In a second step, the “target group affinity” which indicates whether the two aim at the same consumers is investigated. Thirdly, the product and its fit with the discipline which is called “product affinity” is examined. Afterwards, some possibilities to be present at selected events called “event affinity” can be considered. A “know-how affinity” exists in certain occasions when a product with certain skills (e.g. Time measurement systems) can be put in place at an event. Lastly, if there is none of the above existent, long-term engagements may also result in a “familiarisation affinity” where a product gets accepted by participants over time (ibid: 164). The Schmalenbach Business Review of 2004 about sport sponsorships confirms that it is important to be represented at occasions that fit the representing organisation (Grohs R., Wagner U., and Vsetecka S. 2004). Correlations between the sponsor and the activity, involvement of the
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland audience in the action, prior contact of visitors with the sponsoring organisation or its products as well as image transfer increase the chances of a successful sponsoring of which can be benefited subsequently with and increase popularity and sales (ibid). As it is widely known, sponsoring planning, execution, and control are the three pillars of sponsoring. This is also clarified by figure 6 in section 2.3. of this document. The graph monitors that operative sponsoring planning builds up on strategic planning. Subsequently to the first two steps, the execution and the efficiency review afterwards. In a first step, the sponsoring object has to be chosen. This is fairly simple since it has to be decided whether a whole brand or rather only a product thereof wants to be chosen (ibid: 72). A combination of both is possible. In a next step, the target group is chosen (ibid). There is a wide range of target groups and they may be chosen differently according to the preferences of the organisation. One that would like to receive sponsoring support should primarily know what it wants to make appealing to sponsors. Whether it wants to represent the whole entity, only a product or a combination influences the positioning of these elements in later stages. Afterwards the element to be sponsored has to be analysed in order to find out what target group it represents and lastly, companies which might be interested in sponsoring such a group can be searched. In order to set up a strategy, the core message has to be defined firstly (ibid: 75). If it is about increasing popularity, the message includes the company’s or brand’s name respectively (ibid). When it comes to the image transfer, both organisations should be included somehow in the message in order to be able to associate the characteristics of the sponsored company with the sponsor. This is done by assessing the product and target group affinity of the product. The shorter-termed operative sponsoring discusses the following issues: operative sponsoring targets, sponsoring budgeting, the detailed selection of sponsorships, conclusion of sponsoring contracts and their communicative benefits (ibid: 78). Since operative sponsoring targets depend on the strategic targets, they may vary significantly. Indeed, they all have to include a target amount to be reached in the upcoming period. There are five categories of operative sponsoring targets which are popularity as well as image targets, cultivation of contacts, motivation of staff and demonstration of organisational capabilities. Which goals want to be achieved has to be decided depending on the particular situation (ibid). As it is nowadays evidenced, sponsorship has to be accompanied by “flanking measures” in order to unfold its complete virtue (ibid). Empirical studies recommend spending as much money on promoting an activity as for the sponsorship itself. Sponsoring not only increases awareness, but might also win new customers or affiliates (ibid: 45). Furthermore, it seems to be a good platform to get into contact with other organisations and favours “B2B-acitivities” (ibid: 46). Hence, there are many possibilities for sport organisations to partner up with sponsors in beneficial ways and sport organisations should try to establish a sponsoring network.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
In case of an availability of several possible sponsoring objects, a detailed selection is made (ibid: 80). Once a candidate has passed all the prior stages, it is time to think about the extent and content of a sponsoring contract. Such a contract always contains information about a precise description of the collaboration along with rights and obligations of both partners. Furthermore, there is some more information written on it as it is on other kinds of contracts such as name and address of the sponsoring partner, start and end of contract and the signings. After all these steps have been successfully passed, the contract can be executed and the two partners can profit from their agreement. By maintaining a good relationship between the sponsor and the sponsee by keeping regular contact or even organising reunions, workshops, and similar activities together, the success probability can be decently increased and possibly also influences the sponsors decision when it comes to renewing the sponsoring contract is another factor Hermanns and Riedmüller disclose (2003: 46). For many sponsors, also the contact with participants serves for maintaining contacts and to stay close to the consumers in order to receive their feedbacks (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003:54). Furthermore, “the build-up of goodwill” also represents an important goal (ibid). By supporting public matters and showing responsibility, a company gets accepted more widely (ibid). The two issues regarding the sponsoring budget are the determination of the amount of money available as well as the allocation of the amounts to the different projects. The amount can be calculated by taking into consideration the strategic sponsoring concept, operative targets thereof, the total amount of the marketing budged available for the period, budgets of competitors, and experience of past planning periods (ibid: 79). The allocation of the budget is based on a big variety of costs ranging from contractually agreed performance by the sponsor over agency costs and marketing communication costs to post processing and performance evaluation costs incurred. Cost of sponsorship consist of the agreed sponsoring fee, the efforts of the sponsor in terms of labour and other services, the necessary additional investments for communication purposes, the hospitality of guests, and eventually the subsequent risk and succession analysis (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003: 110). From a sponsee’s point of view, sponsoring has become more complex than just receiving the service from the sponsor. Supporting companies have clearly commercial goals they follow with engagements and “therefore expect corresponding services in return” Hermanns and Riedmüller mention (2003: 46). This increased need for economic principles leads to a higher professionalism among organisations willing to receive such support and they have to employ or position skilled people in these areas. Clubs, federations, and organisers are recommended to conceive potential sponsors as an opportunity to position themselves and their brands in addition
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland to just the monetary benefits from them. Sponsoring companies might even provide the sponsee with marketing expertise in order to set up a more successful strategy. Experts first gave their estimation on what the most important aspects of a sponsoring strategy are. Sponsors have to analyse whether the event fits the organisational purposes of company in terms of target group and possibilities to represent itself and its products at the event and in the media was indicated by Niedermann, Gürtler, Rudin, and Ulusoy. Furthermore, a supporter is interested in the visibility of its brand and the amount of media presence generated by its engagement designated Hobi, Niedermann, Gürtler, Hougaard, and Ulusoy. The crucial element for the sponsee is to clearly monitor benefit of an engagement to potential sponsors according to Gürtler, Cotting, Imfeld, Rudin, and Ulusoy. This includes the amount of articles that are written with guarantee or if applicable the time a TV station reports about the event. Niedermann, Gürtler, and Rudin furthermore mentioned different sponsoring classes where the sponsor can see what it gets in return, how the supporter can use the event or communication channels of the sponsee, or that the services in return should be listed as clearly as possible. Mischler and Rudin also mentioned taking into consideration the sponsor for future purchases could be a service in return. Consulting other sports organisations that have established themselves and examine their sponsoring procedure might be a possible way of improving the own strategy stated Gassmann. However, Hobi, Cotting, and Zeolie estimate the potential of sponsoring as rather low at this stage. Either, they already made their own experience in the past, think that the sport should grow to a certain level before it can acquire sponsors, or recommend starting with less substantial support from sponsors such as small discount vouchers for equipment purchases. Subsequently, when having grown to a certain size, increasing the discounts or receiving further services might be added. The experts were asked whether he can imagine possible sponsoring partners for Racketlon. Here, four groups were mentioned. Hobi, Mischler, Rudin, and Ulusoy indicated that sports equipment producers of rackets, clothing or balls constitute good sponsoring partners due to their obvious close connection to sports. A second group consists of small, local organisations that could be beneficial partners for certain events primarily due to their embedding in the local community and their close location. They were mentioned by Cotting, Mischler, and Rudin. Hobi, Niedermann and Ulusoy brought national companies that either sell sport equipment or are in the friendly environment of the organisation. Hobi and Cotting mentioned public supporters such as communes and “Sport-Toto” which can provide event with facility managers, cleaning personnel or financial aid for the development and execution of junior programs or to further establish the sport. Possible attractive services that be offered to potential organisations in return were discussed with experts too. Six times (Niedermann, Gürtler, Hougaard, Mischler, Imfeld, and Zeolie) think that guaranteed visibility either in magazines and newspapers or on equipment such
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland as clothes is very appealing to sponsors, which is no big surprise. VIP invitations for certain occasions might also be interesting for sponsors declared Hougaard. Lastly, inputs regarding engagements of financial or material nature were elaborated. Hougaard, Mischler, and Imfeld receive support from sponsors. Generally, Hobi, Hougaard, and Cotting indicated that it is easier to receive material aid or certain services that sponsors offer than receiving financial support. There is a tendency that an event has to have been around for several years and established itself to a certain degree in order to become attractive for financial support.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
5. Strategy Development of SRF
So far, the research of both, the federation as well as the literature complemented with the expert interviews have been presented. In the following section, a small field research with the “best in class” will be carried out in order to obtain a further indication about the highest development at this point in time in terms of event organisation. Subsequently, the federation will be put on the map by detecting its strengths and weaknesses by means of a SWOT analysis taking into account this field research. Furthermore, the areas where the federation according to the literature and/or the experts still has room for improvement will be monitored. Subsequently, a positioning will illustrate what distinguishes the SRF from other competitors. Then, objectives for the future proceedings will be set. Finally, the current mission as well as a possible vision that takes into account these aims will be stated. Following, a graph illustrates the procedure in this section.
Field Research Mission and Vision Objectives Swiss Indoors
SWOT Positioning
Amendments to Expert Room for Improvement Interviews
Fig. 15: Process throughout Strategy Development (Author) 5.1. Field Research Swiss Indoors
Bühler and Nufer state in their book that it its
often useful to combine a SWOT-analysis with a benchmark analysis in order to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the own company with those of the best competitor (2014: 25).
The Swiss Indoors is a Tennis tournament in Basel of the ATP 500 points category which takes place every year, stands for the biggest event that takes place in Switzerland on an annual basis and therefore represents the “best in class” event. The author was presented with the opportunity to work there in the control department and could experience the event also from behind the
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland scenes. Primarily, the communication, commercialisation, and sponsoring activity thereof were investigated. The small benchmark analysis is divided into three stages which is the pre-event stage, happenings during, and thirdly post event communication after the event. To begin with, a few interesting facts about the event are listed below: – More than 1,9 Million francs of prize money is declared to players – 70‘000 spectators visit the tournament during the whole nine days – Around 600 assistants in and around the stadium impose law and order – About 14 Million TV spectators from 180 countries follow the event – More than 120 sponsoring partners are involved – More than 50 exhibiting organisations are installed in the foyer around the court – 5 of the top-ten players of the world are represented in the starting field (Swiss Indoors Basel 2014)
During the pre-event period, the tournament is promoted by means of posters, the annually year book, advertisement on the official homepage of the tournament, partner homepages (Swiss Tennis, ATP, etc), the players participating the event and being role models for some of the spectators, sponsoring partners that promote the event on their homepages, and many more. Furthermore, the spectators are constantly being updated during the tournament through the homepage, news agencies, daily reports on national TV and the international federation. Post- event communication includes homepage wrap-ups, newspaper rounds and news on TV, and spectators telling their families and friends. Lastly, the commercialisation was also elaborated: Sponsor representation and stalls in the foyer, partners providing the event with cars for shuttle services (Jaguar) and public transport (extra buses), promotion in and around the stadium, special stands around the court, a considerable tombola, restaurants and hospitality as well as VIP areas make the event very extraordinary.
5.2. SWOT Analysis
Taking into account the aspects from the field research and all the other evaluations, a SWOT analysis can now be completed.
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland
Fig. 16: SWOT Analysis SRF (Author)
Strengths: There is a lot of know-how in and around the SRF symbolises a big strength. The members of the federation are highly-skilled people with a lot of knowledge about issues of the federation. In addition, Racketlon represents a very interesting and dynamic discipline connected with a lot of good emotions. The events and tournaments are perceived as very attractive and well-organised. Furthermore, the existing partnerships are very advantageous and fulfil their purpose. The friendship and great social experience among the community is a further distinctive feature of Racketlon. Due to this fact, also the word-of-mouth which is as mentioned earlier one of the decisive factors of promoting a discipline works very well. A last very positive characteristic is the fact that Racketlon mainly hosts financially strong and active players which makes them an attractive target group for other companies looking for clients. Weaknesses: The federation is well aware of all the weaknesses as it turned out to be the case during the elaboration and is working in the improvement of the situation. For the purpose of this project, they stated nevertheless. As a first weakness of the federation are its limited resources both, financially as well as on a staff level. Members of the federation work on a voluntary basis and have normal
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland day-jobs. Furthermore, the federation still has a rather small budget which does not allow tackling too big projects. This fact restrains the federation from proceeding faster in its development. The inconsistent and not yet fully developed media presence stands for a further limitation. Too few people know about the activities of the SRF. The discipline is not yet brought enough into spotlight. Due to the lack of media coverage, the very strong players on a national but also international level are still fairly unknown to the general public. In addition, the sport is very dependent on the availability of sport centres. If the capacity is not high enough, it takes time and a lot of money to accomplish new infrastructure, especially if there is a lack of tennis or badminton courts which cannot just be organised on a short-term. Not only the infrastructure is fairly expensive but also the high costs for new entrants. The different rackets, shoes, and other equipment for the different disciplines cost a lot and complicate the entrants of new players. The high cost complemented with the difficulty to train four disciplines also keeps away young players. More young players could be attracted by junior programs at schools. Indeed, Racketlon is not yet accepted by federal authorities what prevents the youth from getting into contact with the discipline as well. Opportunities: If the interest in Racketlon keeps rising, there is a very high probability that the sport further establishes itself and becomes more know to the population. The growth of players during the last several years might well go on or even increase, the acceptance by the government could be accomplished, and first coaches could be qualified with a consequent increase of young players. Being a national discipline in many countries, Racketlon might get accepted internationally too and ultimately could become a contestant for an Olympic discipline. Threats: If Racketlon rather was a trend instead of a development and its importance downsizes again in the future is seen as one danger. In addition, if there are not enough centres available (also on an international level) the sport will experience a stagnating phase when its maximum capacity is reached. Lastly, other new disciplines might appear and become more popular than Racketlon.
5.3. Amendments to Expert Interviews
The author contacted people from all stakeholder groups of the stakeholder analysis presented in section 3.7. of this document. Thereof, it was possible to speak to most (six) of all (eight) groups. In total, eleven interviews have been carried out and three additional conversations with a financing organisation, a national TV station, and regulatory affairs have been hold. Eight of these eleven interview partners already knew racketlon. Although this is a very high number, it can be verified by stating that the interviews were carried out in the direct or indirect stakeholder area and therefore many partners were already familiar with the discipline. Generally, the sport is fairly unpopular among the general public as the SRF has experienced in the past. During a not
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland representative survey carried out in the environment of the author during the project, only four out of 25 people indicated that they know racketlon or “mailapelit” which represents a more realistic rate. In addition to the main business fields of the SRF discussed in chapter 4, further inputs of the experts on what they did if they were to decide upon the future of the federation were collected. Gürtler adverted to the fact that the sponsoring control should be executed as exactly as possible to make statements about its success. Targets and sub-targets of events and sponsoring activities seem to be helpful to Hougaard. During the conversation with Cotting he mentioned that communication should be person-specific rather than event-specific since most of the spectators come for other reasons than the event itself. Imfeld mentioned that the federation has the royalty and is supposed to introduce rules that are beneficial for the sport and the single events. The last part consists of expert inputs concerning possible next steps for the SRF. Generally, it was recommended to get more public attention for the sport and the events by making use of the different channels available such as social media and newspapers and updating the community on a regular basis in order to put the best players more into the spotlight. Secondly, young players should be targeted by facilitating them the first contact with the sport and creating attractive offers at tournaments and possibilities to try out the sport Hougaard, Mischler, and Ulusoy brought up. The third aspect according to Cotting, Imfeld, and Rudin would be to establish sponsoring partnerships by positioning the federation, establishing clear goals, and illustrate them as exactly as possible to potential collaborators.
5.4. Room for Improvement SRF
Above, the analysis of Racketlon worldwide and in Switzerland, the different stakeholders of the SRF and the discipline itself and the spheres of action of the SRF have been presented. As a next step, discrepancies between literature and the expert meaning compared to the analysis are monitored. This section will reveal the areas where the SRF still can improve. In order to get there, a summary of the different parts of the interviews is presented. Following, taking into account the analysis of the SRF and the literature condensed in the SWOT, room for improvement will be described.
Event Organisation: The current organisational approach by the SRF when organising events is very positive and akin to what literature as well as experts state. These events are almost exclusively tournaments and league games without side-events and do hardly cover other occurrences. However, the events are very well-organised towards their target group i.e. players, the infrastructure is among the newest worldwide and resources are adequately applied. Moreover, the tournaments are perceived
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland as a lot of fun and generate compliments and a good reputation. Also the few partners present at the tournaments (Wilson, Gubler Tischtennis, Swisslos, etc.) fit the event and contain an excellent affinity to Racketlon and its target group. Due to the reasons described above, there exists no discrepancy with regard to event organisation and planning.
Marketing of the Sport and Junior Promotion: In terms of promotional activity, the SRF communicates by means of a few channels and is mostly dependent on word-of-mouth propaganda. Media articles are written and then sent to news agencies in hope of a publication. However, up to today, there does not yet exist an integrated communication with several convoying phases which is the most important factor especially for rather unknown disciplines as mentioned earlier. Although there are very strong and successful players active in the sport, they still are fairly fameless among the public. Announcing national top players in case they attend a tournament might lead to more public attention according to both, literature and experts. When it comes to succession control and analysis, the SRF does not yet have measures installed to analyse promotional activities which is highly recommended by experts. There is a moderate communication discrepancy observable. Some of the differences surely occur because of the young development state of only seven years in which Racketlon as a discipline stands. Others could already be closed and measures incorporated in the strategy. Worldwide, racketlon lacks young players and it is therefore inevitable for all involved bodies to recruit new talents. Similarly, the SRF suffers from a lack of young players too. There have been taken a few actions to attract younger players in the past but they were unsuccessful. Neither the SRF has access to coach formation and governmental institutions because they are not yet accepted by these bodies as described in the stakeholder analysis. Junior promotion is obviously seen as a vital aspect of any discipline because young players are the future of any sport. Therefore, a lot of attention should be paid on this aspect according to all literature consulted. The SRF is already aware of this issue and is keen on reaching goals that improve the situation with the youth. Still, for the purpose of this analysis, the author attests the SRF a moderate-to- high discrepancy in this context.
Sponsoring: The SRF has few sponsors of different sponsoring classes. Depending on the class the compensation the sponsors receive in return for their engagement changes. The procedure of the sponsoring contacting has already been monitored in section 4.6. Due to resource limitations, this procedure is not yet fully developed by the SRF and could be improved. The SRF owns a sponsoring strategy. However, information like a definition of the equivalent value in terms of
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland guaranteed media presence, amount of posts online, and a diversification from other discipline is not yet included which is generally seen as important. Even though most outcomes are evident, sponsoring planning with a positioning of the SRF itself as well as a written succession analysis of the implemented sponsoring activities can still be improved. Therefore, a slight-to-moderate discrepancy in terms of sponsoring activities can be observed.
5.5. Positioning
After having carried out the internal as well as the environmental analysis, gained expert knowledge, and analysing the room for improvement, a positioning of the SRF and Racketlon will be done in this section. According to the Dreizweieins website (2014), these positioning should be done by taking into account the strengths of the SWOT analysis. The positioning is done by answering some guiding questions: What distinguishes Racketlon from other return play and sports disciplines? The Racketlon community is extremely well connected among itself as mentioned in previous sections. Furthermore the players are a little bit older, professionals and therefore in a stronger financial position than teenagers. In addition the combination of the four sports and the rules are a distinguishing feature and very interesting and unique. This mixture enables the SRF to set up an interesting tournament dynamic where the games are played in sequences without long breaks in between. Therefore the games are hard but doable and there is always action going on. For whom does Racketlon represent an attractive discipline? Generally, players of any age and from any other discipline can play Racketlon. People who are either looking for a new, interdisciplinary challenge or just wanting to try something new may find Racketlon an interesting opportunity. Furthermore, Hanna describes in the concept of the SRF players from other racket sports who are interested in the combination as a target group (2011: 18) Which necessities can Racketlon and the SRF cover and which ones not? Racketlon can fulfil many necessities. Having equipment from all four disciplines is quite costly and until today, it is not possible to become a professional Racketlon player. Apart from that, Racketlon covers many other stipulations. Nice games and events, fun at the tournament and among the community, and positive emotions are only of few of them. Even national and international championships such as world championships can be attended relatively easy. And in what other return play is this still possible as a hobby?
5.6. Mission and Vision
After having formulated the positioning, the Mission and vision can now be established. As already stated in the analysis section, the purpose of the SRF is
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the organisation, fostering and execution of Racketlon in Switzerland. The SRF represents the interests of the attached members towards international federations, authorities, and public. (2013)
However, there does not yet exist an official vision of the federation. Taking into account the previous findings, the author presents a possible vision for the SRF. Primarily, the vision is timeless and should still be valid in a few years time. The SRF would like to establish the sport and in a few years time it should complement the return play category in Switzerland. Internationally acknowledged, Racketlon is supposed to be part of the Olympic disciplines as it is the ultimate goal of the international federation FIR. A new assembling of the single disciplines comes up with something new and racketlon is supposed to be seen as an innovative sports. Therefore, the following vision for the SRF is possible:
Racketlon is an inherent part of the popular return plays in Switzerland. It steadily excites new players and by coming up with new ideas stays at the pulse of time to strengthen its position. As the fastest growing return play in Switzerland, it is accepted by the government and well on its way to become an Olympic discipline! (Author)
5.7. Objectives
Having positioned itself and established a mission and a vision, the next step in the strategy development is the formulation of objectives. Hereafter, these objectives are described. It contains objectives for single stakeholders but also general strategic goals for the federation. With Federations: By means of mutual communication and the embedment of further federations, Racketlon is supposed to become more popular and get more public attention. This goal stands for the main aim which all other goals orientate themselves on. With governmental bodies: The SRF would like to work closer together with authorities (J&S, Swiss Olympic, etc.). As mentioned in earlier, certain threshold values have to be reached in order to be accepted. Therefore, the objective with this stakeholder is to reach the required numbers in terms of clubs and licensed players as soon as possible. With Sponsors: Since the sponsoring network still is too little diversified, the SRF aims to attract some new sponsors during the next several years. An additional aim is to create mutually beneficial collaborations with equipment sellers that both organisations profit from. With Media: The objective is to give good stories to the media and consequently to be more present in news. If possible some media partnerships with a regulated amount of articles should be arranged. With Clubs: The SRF would like to facilitate club foundations and provides aid in organisational matters such as a statutes template and their know-how therefore. In addition, existing clubs are supposed to become more independent and they should get rewarded for recruiting new club
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland members by means of material packages or discounts. This leverage is beneficial for both parties since the federation and the sport become bigger and the club receives more member fees and has more members for activities of a club. Furthermore, they should even be provided with the basis and some incentives to organise own tournaments where the SRF only keeps the responsibility of the registration and result editing and act akin to a “Tour Operator” how the Swiss Tennis Federation is operating. With visitors: To attract more visitors and give them a good experience With players: The SRF still would like to attract more players and give them great tournaments. The target is to increase the licensed racketlon players by 250 players which would equal around 1500 licensed players (Hanna, 2011: 18). A few more players from abroad taking part at the competitions are desirable and therefore a goal of next year too. With related disciplines: The SRF aims to establish a combined license which allows players willing to be active in several sports part of Racketlon to purchase this license instead of four single licenses in each sport. This would save the players costs of a few hundred francs and they would be more likely to play tournaments in other sports as well! In addition to all the goals mentioned above, the SRF would like to establish a small secretary in order to provide a contact point for queries from all different kind of people (Hanna 2011: 18). Finally, to bring a new idea into Racketlon embodies a last important goal of the federation.
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6. Recommended Measures
The strategy has already been elaborated. Hence, this section will present the different recommended measures that the SRF will benefit most from. Three options are presented which are not mutually exclusive and the SRF can implement them as far as it would like to.
6.1. Communication Plan
The SRF does promote the sport by means of certain communicative activities described in previous sections. However, the federation does not yet have an integrated communication strategy. Therefore, a communication plan is recommended to gain control over its communication. It is presented akin to the PR & Media course at the FHNW. Following, this communication plan adjusted for the SRF is presented: First, the reason for the communication has to be defined. In the case of the SRF, generating more public awareness and distribute informative propaganda material can be stated as main motives can be stated. As a second step, an environmental analysis is carried out in order to know more about who the information is targeted to. This has already been executed in the analysis stage and therefore only the graph for memorial purposes is put again:
Federations
Related Government Disciplines
Sponsoring Players SRF Partners
Event Visitors Media
Racketlon Clubs
Next, goals by means of the SMART-rule are set. S: Specific M: Measurable A: Achievable R: Relevant T: Timely
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Specific to strengthen Racketlon in Switzerland, provide aid for further club foundations, new players discovering Racketlon, and creating a real national team consisting of the top-ten Racketlon players in this country. Measurable are for instance the amount of own news posts in the media, the amount of qualitative and quantitative publicity generated by external sources, the amount of likes on the Facebook page. The goals can be set according to the SRF. Its goals for 2015 could be to post twelve times (once every month or ten times at every Night Tour tournament plus once at the beginning and at the end of the year respectively) news on their media channels available, to get ten times quantitative and five (i.e. half of it) times qualitative publicity and to Rename or create a new Facebook account and increasing the number of likes on thereof to 100. Achievable is given due to the decent analysis beforehand. Relevant is guaranteed because of the fact that the communication plan conforms to the strategy of the SRF. Timely is given if the SRF set appropriate goals for reasonable time frames. Subsequently after the planning stage, it is time to implement the strategy. When publishing content, it should be held actual, fast and entertaining, clear, and provide added value. This means that content should be written and put online as quickly as possible after happenings when people still are interested and occupied with the subject. There, a deadline of 24 for news about national events or 48 hours for international respectively after the event has ended, where the effect is the highest. Furthermore, remarkable stories should be generated and narrated. As instruments, media releases, interviews, newsletters, Youtube videos, and Facebook posts are possible for the SRF. The channels have to be chosen wisely and fit the target audience best possible. For informational content, press releases as well as articles on the website are a good fit. Due to the high relational interconnection of the Racketlon community and in order to reach a younger target group, also social networks represent a good possibility and a profile there should be maintained on a regular basis. Last but not least, without control of the implemented strategy an organisation cannot assess whether a measure was successful. Because of this, the SRF should incorporate a succession analysis in its strategy. On an input level, the amount of messages spread through the different channels could be added. In terms of output, how many messages were published or how many posts were put on and how the weekly increase of members of the Facebook group are, constitute indicators. Surveys serve for analysing outcomes and potential changes can be monitored. Quantitative and qualitative publicity could be examined as already mentioned earlier. Interviews complete the control measures.
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If a communication strategy is established, maintained, and after all controlled, the federations gains much better insights in the development and can adjust its strategy more adequately and based on numbers and tendencies instead of rather vague assumptions and become more successful in communicational matters.
6.2. Further Elaboration of Sponsoring Concept
The sponsoring network of the SRF still is too little diversified as described in earlier sections. Furthermore, sport sponsoring is as a very important and big field for companies and high investments are completed. Therefore it makes sense to prepare the SRF best possible for possible sponsors and develop their sponsoring concept further. The development is primarily based on the suggestions Hans-Willy Brockes makes in his book “Sponsoren gewinnen leicht gemacht” (2008) and also follows its guidance. Firstly, it has to be decided what sponsoring packages want to offered to potential sponsors. These different classes are already incorporated. Cf. fig. 14 illustrating the different sponsoring classes of the SRF. Secondly, an adequate selection of possible sponsoring partners should be done. A description of how the past procedure of sponsoring acquisition has been done is provided in earlier sections. In the book there are three main categories listed which are also listed in the following graph.
Main Sponsor
Co-Sponsors
Other sponsoring partners
Fig. 17: Model of Sponsoring Partners (Author based on Brockes 2008)
According to Brockes, only one main sponsor is effective. This main sponsor should be selected first and all other sponsors should be selected afterwards and complement the main sponsor (63). Of course, organisations can develop new sponsoring possibilities for external sponsors and need several main and co-sponsors. However, in reality organisations mostly start with smaller sponsors
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland and when trying to acquire main sponsors they mostly interfere with partners from lower levels. Therefore, what kind of main sponsor suits a company is examined as a first step. In the case of the SRF, the federation has several sponsoring engagements available to potential partners. For instance, there is the Night Tour whose main sponsor is Wilson and already occupied. For the purpose of this project, the National League A and B that do not yet have a main sponsor is taken and a possible sponsoring solution is elaborated for that case. Brockes lists several possible main sponsors on a regional and national level (70). Regional suggestions that could match the SRF include car dealers, regional banks, fashion boutiques, electricity supplier, furniture shops, radio stations, and insurances. On a national level, car manufacturers, banking federations, energy companies, hotel chains, music labels, telecommunication provider, and insurance groups may be possible partners. Würth, the insurance broker was selected as an appropriate, national partner and the example is further developed with this possible sponsoring partner for the Racketlon national leagues. Würth would like to transfer the characteristics dynamic, good interconnectivity and attractive combinations from Racketlon to its own company and therefore decides to take over a main sponsoring partnership with Racketlon. In order to conclude such a deal, the SRF has to offer Würth an attractive compensation for its engagement. The most important aspect according to Brockes is that the sponsoring company can see the main benefit of its engagement immediately (71). As the title sponsor, Würth would pay 10‘000 francs for the rights of the national league. In exchange, there would be a name change to Würth Racketlon National League A and B for instance. Other names that contain the name of the Sponsor are possible. Further compensations could include an article on the homepage and on Facebook with guaranteed credits and logo on the articles. Furthermore, theses articles will be distributed to at least two regional newspaper agencies and once a year at the final event to national agencies. The biggest goal however consists of producing a radio or TV interview where the main sponsor either gets visibility (on TV by means of a poster behind the mixed zone with reporters and the interviewees that is filmed during the interview) or is explicitly named during the radio interview. In addition to the compensations mentioned above, the partners‘ logos will be visible on the homepage as well as on official correspondence as the SRF is already doing it on their homepage and letters with existing partners. When putting the sponsoring offer together, Brockes recommends simple rules that should be followed that increase the success rate significantly. The first point is whether the offer is well- structured. More pages do not mean a higher amount of sponsoring authorized. Therefore, the potential sponsors want to understand and recognise the purpose of each single sponsoring offer immediately. Secondly, technical terms should only be used if it is guaranteed that the potential sponsor understands them. “Nobody sponsors something he does not know” Brockes says (71).
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By obeying these simple rules and proceeding true to the recommendations, there is a good possibility of success and the SRF might well end up with many more sponsors in the future.
6.3. Crowd Funding
The third recommended measure is one that combines several aspects together. It fulfils communicational purposes supporting a strong interconnectivity, the need for a wider spread sponsoring network, and might gain media attention. Furthermore it provides the federation with more resources and it works well in a well interconnected environment which with Racketlon is the case as mentioned in the SWOT. The last recommended measure is a crowd funding project. The following project orientates itself towards 100days where such projects can be done. Out of the four different kinds of crowd funding that Outlaw describes in her article on the entrepreneur homepage which are debt funding, royalty funding, donation, and reward funding (2013), 100days offers the reward option where funders do not get money in return but a certain thank you package funders receive. Projects normally last 100 days how the name of the company already implies but the duration can be adjusted according to the needs of the respective customer. At 100 days it is possible to implement certain levels. Certain amounts of money raised fund different projects. For the case of the SRF, the following could be set: 2’000 could mean that a secretary would be set up which deals with responds to any kind of e-mail requests. 3’500 francs could result in an electronic ranking system. 10’000 finally could mean a challenger tournament in autumn 2015. These different stages can be set freely according to the goals of the SRF. Also, the amounts to be donated available and how many times an amount can be donated can be selected by the federation. This crowd funding type rewards fund raisers with a certain present to thank them for their contribution. These gifts can be selected by the SRF itself. Depending on the amount of contribution, these so-called “goodies” can be of a different form. The goal of the SRF has to be to create attractive goodies so that people are triggered to support the project. There, the SRF has to think about rewards donators would like to receive. Following, a possible list of amounts available and reward in return for the project of the National League is presented: Number: Amount Reward: (in francs): 1. 10.- - Donation with no specific reward in return. Thank is expressed in general letter at the end of fund raise - Available innumerable times 2. 100.- - Amount of sponsor (“Gönner”) of actual sponsoring concept and
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same Rewards - Available innumerable times 3. 150.- - One time player amount including a free entry fee for a Night Tour Tournament - Available 25 times! 4.. 250.- - Season player amount including the yearly national and international license - Available 20 times! 5. 1’000.- - Sponsoring partner as mentioned in concept with same compensation too - Available 10 times only! 6. 5’000.- - Main sponsor - Available 4 times only! 7. 10’000.- - Title sponsor - Available only once!
After these classes have been established, the existing channels have to be prepared so that the news is spread to as many people as possible. The communication plan presented as a first measure in this section supports that very much and complements this measure very well. It could be implemented beforehand to increase the level of effectiveness of the crowd funding project. Even TV stations might have an interest of accompanying the project since there is no public knowledge of sport federations in Switzerland having tried to develop by means of such a project. This measure therefore is a perfect combination of the previously recommended measures and would be of high interest to all stakeholders as well!
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7. Controlling and Succession Analysis
Hermanns and Riedmüller name the strategic planning, execution, and eventually the succession analysis afterwards as the three important promotional controlling phases that any organisation should audit (2003: 174). Although all the three areas are seen as equally important, there is not yet set enough focus on the last stage report Zanger and Drengner (2001: 39). Hermanns and Riedmüller present a few common tools to assess performance. Key figures such as planned participants compared to actual numbers give a first impression (ibid: 183). Also, media attention before, during, and after the event are a further indicator of the success. Gürtler recommends media monitoring for the evaluation of media coverage (2014). The critical incident technique (CIT) is based on surveys in order to detect critically (un-) satisfactory elements of an event which have decisively influenced the meaning of a participant. The measure of perception by the participant represents a next tool. Organisations measure the ability of the participant to receive information before, during, and after the event and monitor at what point how much information was absorbed. This reveals information on how to best place information (ibid). The emotional impact is of great interest since positive emotions link immediately with the image of an event. Emotions are measured mainly on three levels which are corporal reactions, facial expressions or the subjective level of experience (ibid: 188). Also expert opinions or surveys are possible according to them. “Sponsoring controlling is supposed to contribute to resolve decision problems in an effective and efficient manner.” (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003: 96). Its goal therefore is to make statements with regard to the correctness of the establishment and the maintenance as well as expansion of a certain strategy (ibid: 97) Sponsoring and Marketing heads nowadays very often receive sponsoring requests of very different organisations Hermanns and Riedmüller further find (2003: 95). However, these requests often are not elaborated very accurately nor detailed. Embellishment is very common and risks such as accidents or financial management are mostly neglected (ibid). Furthermore, the amount of contacts and articles guaranteed are overstated and there barely exist contracts with news agencies with regard to the amount of assured posts (ibid). Therefore, sponsoring managers have to examine sponsoring offers carefully. Due to the characteristics of the sport product discussed in section 2. of this paper, developments in sport are quite unpredictable. A profound risk analysis helps to keep these aspects under control (ibid: 100). A few methods thereof are the early warning systems, scenario analysis, and key figures for evaluating exposition and opportunities-to-see (OTS). Cotting proposes the “sponsorship scorecard” as an analytical tool (2014). This tool should allow the manager to take more effective decisions about “doing the things right” and “doing the right things” (Hermanns and Riedmüller, 2003: 99). The target group perspective observes
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SRF and Racketlon in Switzerland impacts of sponsoring engagements on non-monetary variables such as level of awareness or image changes towards the sponsor (ibid: 103). The control of values and developments leads to an increase of a sponsoring quality and the benefit of sponsoring primarily depends on whether the targets where accomplished Hermanns and Riedmüller sum up (2003: 108). In addition to the different controlling and succession analysis methods, there should be put some focus on the costs and investments that have to be done in order to implement possible measures. All presented measures in part 6 of this document are primarily time-consuming and do not need a lot of resources. Most of the work is already done by this thesis and the concepts mainly can be taken over from it. The federation can embed it in the current strategy on its own with little effort. The SRF is a small federation with limited resources, controlling of the implemented measures is fairly neglected and improvements based on experience. Therefore, the SRF should pick and implement one measure after another. Following, a timeline for the SRF until the end of 2016 is presented which is supposed to help plan the implementation of the different measures by the federation.
•The analysis of the current year is done and data is collected by this thesis • The communication plan (measure 1) can be completed with specific inputs from the SRF • Operative goals for next year according to the smart rule (included in measure 1) are 2014 set
• The targets should be communicated via the available channels to the different stakeholders • The communication plan is applied and data collected • The sponsoring concept (measure 2) is completed with the inputs from this thesis and again own inputs from the federation • First potential sponsors are contacted with the now complete sponsoring concept and attractive sponsoring offers 2015 • The crowd funding project (measure 3) is announced to the public for 2016 • A succession analysis of the results in year 2015 is carried out in order to get figures about the performance during the year and to detect discrepancies and room for improvement. • Operative targets for the year 2016 are set
• Communication of the targets of the year 2016 • Implementation of measure 3 2016 • Succession Analysis 2016
Fig. 18: Timeline for the SRF (Author)
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8. Conclusion and Recommendation
Generally, the SRF already carries out a lot of adequate and effective steps. The members mainly know where further adjustments are required. However, the federation does not yet pursue all of them sufficiently. This is on one hand due to resource limitations and on the other hand due to the fact that there exists a wide range of possible projects that could be tackled. On the level of marketing of the discipline, the lack of an integrated communication system and can be rectified by the suggested communication plan. The accomplishment of threshold values and the consequent acknowledgement by federal authorities leads to the formation of coaches and more young players. The suggested further development of the already existing sponsoring concept increase the possibility to find appropriate sponsoring partners and to diversify the sponsoring network. Moreover, an enhanced sponsoring management also provides the federation with more accurate information about the success of sponsoring activities. Consequently, more finetuned partnerships with higher effectiveness can be established. The crowd funding project combines promotional with sponsoring activity and makes use of the tremendous interconnectivity among the community. The recommended measures should be completed with final inputs from the organisation as a next step and then applied. After these improvements have been made and their impact on the further development has been examined, the SRF should assess again central strategic changes. Until this moment, the author advocates to put carefully into place one improvement after another and measure its impact in order to guarantee the best possible outcome for all involved stakeholders! Controlling methods put into place help to assess the performance during the different stages and enable the federation to adjust its strategy based on evidence if necessary. By incorporating the measures into its strategy, the SRF surely will perform better and be more successful as a federation as well as a discipline and serve all its stakeholders best possible.
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9. Bibliography
Brockes. H-W. 2008. Sponsoren gewinnen leicht gemacht. Augsburg. WRS Verlag GmbH Bühler A. and Nufer G. 2010. Relationship Marketing in Sports. London. Elsevier Ltd. Bühler A. and Nufer G. 2014. International Sports Marketing. Berlin. Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co. Candreia M. 14 April 2014. „Messmethoden der Sponsoringwirkungsforschung“. Argus. Available online at http://www.argus.ch/de/blog/62/messmethoden-der-sponsoringwirkungsforschung/ (Accessed 3 November 2014) Cotting P. 2014. Expert interview with the author on 31 October 2014. Dreizweieins. 2014. Positionierung. Available online at http://dreizweieins.ch/positionierung/ (Accessed 25 November 2014) Outlaw S. 2013. Which type of crowd funding is best for you? Entrepreneur. Available online at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228524 (Accessed 30 November 2014) Fédération Internationale de Racketlon FIR. 2014. Available online at http://racketlon.net/ (Accessed 03 October 2014) Freeman E., Harrison J. and Wicks A. 2007. Managing for Stakeholders. Yale Univ Pr. Gassmann N. 2014 Expert interview representative Swiss Olympic with the author on 9 December 2014. Eiken. Grohs R., Wagner U. and Vsetecka S. 2004. Assessing the effectiveness of Sport Sponsorships. Schmalenbach Business Review. Available online at http://www.sbr- online.de/pdfarchive/einzelne_pdf/sbr_2004_april-119-138.pdf (Accessed 23 October 2014) Gürtler S. 2014. Expert interview with the author on 15 October 2014. Eiken. Hanna K. 2011. Sponsoringkonzept Swiss Racketlon. Swiss Racketlon Federation. Zug. Hanna K. 2014. “FIR - Rules of Racketlon”. Available online at http://racketlon.net/sites/default/files/FIR%20-%20Rules%20of%20Racketlon%20(2014-01- 01)%20FINAL.pdf (Accessed 16 September 2014) Hanlon C. and Jago L. 2000. Pulsating Sporting Events: An Organisational Structure to improve Results. Events beyond 2000: setting the agenda. Sydney. Australian Center of Management. Available online at https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/research/bitstream/handle/2100/430/Proceedings%202000%20Co nference.pdf?sequence=1#page=99 (Accessed 2 October 2014) Hermanns A. and Riedmüller F. 2001. Sport-Marketing. Verlag Franz Vahlen GmbH. München Hermanns A. and Riedmüller F. 2003. Sponsoring und Events im Sport. Verlag Franz Vahlen GmbH. München
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Hermanns A. and Riedmüller F. 2008. Management-Handbuch Sport-Marketing. 2nd Edition. Verlag Franz Vahlen GmbH. München Hobi N. 2014. Expert interview with the author on 20 September 2014. Uster. Hougaard K. 2014. Expert interview president Danish Racketlon Federation with the author on 27 October 2014. Eiken. Huet J. 2012. Die Olympischen Spiele der Neuzeit. International Olympic Committee. Available online at http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reports/FR/fr_report_669.pdf (Accessed 19 October 2014) Imfeld O. Expert interview CEO Swiss Triathlon with the author on 6 November 2014. Olten. International Olympic Committee IOC. 2014. Available online at http://olympic.org/ (Accessed 26 October 2014) Jagre E, Watson J.J., and Watson J.G. 2001. Sponsorship and Congruity Theory: a Theoretical Framework For Explaining Consumer Attitude and Recall of Event Sponsorship. Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research Lamprecht M., Fischer A., and Stamm H. 2009. Sport Schweiz 2008 Factsheets Sportarten. Bundesamt für Sport BASPO. Maglingen Metatop. 2012. Sportsponsoring – Der Klassiker unter den zahlreichen Sponsoringvarianten. Stuttgart. Available online at http://www.metatop.ch/fileadmin/pdf/expertise/whitepaper/metatop-whitepaper- sportsponsoring.pdf (Accessed 16 September 2014) Meffert H. and Bruhn M. 1997. Dienstleistungsmarketing. Wiesbaden. Springer Gabler. Mischler D. 2014. Expert interview with the author on 1 November. Basel. Niedermann A.. 2014. Expert interview with the author on 2 October 2014. Olten. Pawlowski T. 2014. Sportökonomik. Konstanz. UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. Pfaff. 2002. Erlebnismarketing für die Besucher von Sportveranstaltungen. Göttingen. Available online at https://ediss.uni-goettingen.de/bitstream/handle/11858/00-1735-0000-0006-B246- B/pfaff.pdf?sequence=1 (Accessed 10 September 2014) Rudin M. 2014. Expert interview BASPO representative with the author on 10 November 2014. Eiken. Swiss Indoors Basel. 2014. Tennis Year Book 2014. Swiss Indoors AG. Allschwil Swiss Racketlon Federation 2013. Statuten Swiss Racketlon Federation. Zug Swiss Racketlon. 2014. Facebook Swiss Racketlon. Available online at https://www.facebook.com/SwissRacketlon?fref=ts (Accessed 3 November 2014) Swiss Racketlon Federation. 2014. Available online at http://racketlon.ch/ (Accessed 20 February 2014)
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Ulusoy S. 2014 Expert interview president Racketlon Rhine Valley with the author on 18 November 2014. Eiken. Zanger, C. and Drengner, J. 2001. Eventreprot 2001 – Ergebnisse einer Befragung von Eventagenturen und eventveranstaltenden Unternehmen. Chemnitz Zeolie N. 2014. Expert interview Racketlon player with the author on 2 December 2014. Eiken.
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10. Bibliography of Graphs
Fig. 1: Stages of the Project (Author) Fig. 2: Traditional vs. modern Sporting Organisations (Based on Hermanns and Riedmüller 2008) Fig. 3: Sports as a Product (Bühler and Nufer 2010:48) Fig. 4: Traditional Lifecycle (Google) Fig. 5: Lifecycle of established Sports (Bühler und Nufer, 2014: 91) Fig. 6: Marketing Conception as a Process (Meffert and Bruhn 1997: 116) Fig. 7: Model of Sports Marketing (Bühler and Nufer. 2014: 35) Fig. 8: Criteria for the acceptance as an Olympic sport (Das Olympische Museum 2007) Fig. 9: Logo SRF (Swiss Racketlon Federation website) Fig. 10: Revenues and Expenses SRF (Author) Fig. 11: Stakeholders of the SRF (Author) Fig. 12: Logo Fédération Internationale de Racketlon (FIR website 2014) Fig. 13: Important Business Fields of the SRF (Author) Fig. 14: Sponsoring Classes of the SRF (Swiss Racketlon Federation website, 2014) Fig. 15: Process throughout Strategy Development (Author) Fig. 16: SWOT Analysis SRF (Author) Fig. 17: Model of Sponsoring Partners (Author based on Brockes 2008) Fig. 18: Timeline for the SRF (Author)
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11. Annexes 11.1 Annex A: Guiding Questions of Expert Interviews
Your career What is your actual position at your organisation? How did you get to your actual position and what are you major tasks? Event organisation and planning How do you proceed when organising a tournament (base organisation on experience, proceed according to an organisational document, etc.)? What are the most important aspects and steps or obstacles when planning a Racketlon event? What organisational documents are helpful if any in your opinion? Marketing of the discipline and Junior Promotion How do you promote best a tournament and your discipline (channels, media, celebrities etc)? What are the requirements so that a new sports discipline gets wider known (media attention, visitors, big tournaments, etc)? How was the development at your organisation if applicable? How do you attract players of other countries to come to your country and compete at one of your tournaments (offers, combinations with travelling agencies, etc)? Have you got many foreign players at your tournaments? Is there a general pricing strategy or is can the participation fee be set freely by every organisation committee? Have you got many young (younger than 20 years old) players? What was the development of young players during the last several years in your case? How do you convince them to start playing racketlon (sport days where racketlon is represented, combined offers in clubs, etc)? Sponsoring How did you acquire your (main) sponsors? Were they partners from the very beginning? Why do you think they decided to support your sport (what makes you the best sponsoring partner)? Do you receive primarily monetary or material (such as rackets, shuttles, tables, etc.) support? Benefit of a Tournament What are the benefits (monetary and non-monetary) of a tournament? Do you measure benefits? How do you accomplish that? Expert opinion Are there any other aspects/methods/problems/options which have to be considered? What would you did if you were in the situation of the Swiss Racketlon Federation? Are there any other experts I could interview that you know of?
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