lesson 4.5 – positioning copyright © 2014 by sports career consulting, llc

Lesson 4.5 –

Positioning

Copyright © 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC

LESSON 4.5

Marketing Applications

Positioning

Fixing company products in the Minds of Consumers

All about “perception”

Relative to competitor products

Positioning:

The fixing your sports or entertainment entity in the minds of consumers in the target market


LESSON 4.5


Positioning


Positioning is important to all sports and entertainment products

Sports leagues (NFL vs. Arena Football League)

Sports teams (The Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980’s as “Showtime”)

Sporting goods (Under Armour as comfortable performance apparel)

LESSON 4.5


Positioning



Sports drinks (Gatorade as a performance beverage)

Movie studios (Pixar as a leader in animated films)

Entertainers (Will Ferrell as a comedic actor)

LESSON 4.5


Positioning



Entertainment products (DVD vs. Blu-Ray)

Facilities and venues (Premium seating vs. general seating)

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


Positioning is About Perception

Puma’s “Calling All Troublemakers” spot launched in 2014 (part of the brand’s new “Forever Faster” campaign) encourages fans to be more daring and push boundaries to achieve “danger, risk and potential fugitive status” in an effort to differentiate itself from Nike, Adidas and Under Armour as it continues its efforts to gain credibility and position itself as a legitimate performance apparel brand

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


Positioning is About Perception

To drive the campaign and assist in their positioning effort, Puma partnered with athletes with “bad boy” reputations like Olympic champion Usain Bolt and soccer player Mario Balotelli

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


Wheaties cereal has positioned itself as a brand affiliated with athletic performance and its slogan, “the breakfast of champions”, has

remained since the brand’s introduction in 1924

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


With sales declining, General Mills (parent company of the Wheaties brand) introduced a new spin off product aimed to take advantage of consumer perceptions of the Wheaties brand. General Mills developed three formulations of the cereal (dubbed Wheaties Fuel) with the help of a sports nutritionist and five world class athletes: the NFL's Peyton Manning, the NBA's Kevin Garnett, gold medal-winning decathlete Bryan Clay, the MLB's Albert Pujols, and triathlete Hunter Kemper.

LESSON 4.5


High (variable one)

Low (variable one)

Low (variable two)

High (variable two)

Product A

Product B

Product C

Product D

http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_positioning.htm


Positioning Map:

Products or services are grouped together on a positioning mapwhere they are compared and contrasted in relation to one another

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


Reebok has engaged in a unique marketing initiative by positioning itself as a leader in “The Sport of Fitness”, a phrase it has incorporated into its cross-promotional efforts with the CrossFit brand

LESSON 4.5



How might a sports and entertainment marketing company utilize a positioning map to help determine a ticket sales strategy?

Positioning Discussion

LESSON 4.5


High Price

Client Entertaining

Lower level seats for Disney on Ice

Luxury suite at an NFL game

“Cheap Seats” at a minor league baseball game

Night at the movies

Family Fun

Low Price

Club seats at an NBA game


Ticket Sales PositioningMap

LESSON 4.5


High Price

Top Row Corners

Mid/Upper Level Sidelines

Upper Level Seats

Low Price

Lower Level End Zones

Courtside Seats

Lower Level Seats


LESSON 4.5


Positioning Strategy


Identify all possible competitive advantages

1) Products, services, channels, people or image can be sources of differentiation

2) Organizations often position their products relative to competitor Weaknesses (5-hour energy)

LESSON 4.5




Choose the right competitive advantage

1) How many differences to promote?

2) Unique selling proposition (5-hour energy)

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


5-hour Energy Drink focuses on its small packaging size and claims to provide a long lasting energy boost without the “usual jitters associated with energy drinks.” These purported features are intended to provide the competitive advantage necessary for distinguishing this energy drink from the many competitors on the market.

Click here to view the latest endorsement from legendary pro athlete, Bo Jackson

LESSON 4.5




Positioning errors to avoid

1) Which differences to promote?

2) Are the differences legitimate?

LESSON 4.5


Positioning


Despite positioning their product in a highly successful manner, the makers of 5-hour energy were hit with a lawsuit in 2014 citing deceptive advertising charges

LESSON 4.5


Product Differentiation

Product Differentiation:

Refers to a positioning strategy that some firms use to distinguish their products from those of competitors


Kentwool (a 168-year-old company known for selling upscale niche clothing) recently introduced a $25 pair of golf socks to the marketplace, positioning the product as “performance” apparel for the golf aficionado

LESSON 4.5


In an interview with CNBC’s Darren Rovell, Kentwool CEO Mark Kent explains: "Ninety-five percent of all socks are fashion based. Five percent are performance based. We basically set out to put ourselves in the top one percentile of that five percent to make the highest performing sock in any market segment. So to differentiate yourself you have to become in layman's terms the Ferrari of the market, you have to be the fastest car on the street or the best performing sock in the marketplace."


LESSON 4.5


A private golf course may be suffering slumping membership sales.

Management may choose to open up the course to the public, which will ultimately require a well planned re-positioning strategy

Re-Positioning

Re-Positioning:

A marketer’s plan for changing consumers’ perceptions of a brand in comparison to competing brands


LESSON 4.5


Re-positioning involves identifying who the new target market is and a strategy for creating awareness and demand within that market

Part of the re-positioning effort in this case would require sending a message to the target market that the club is affordable by public standards

Re-Positioning


LESSON 4.5


Slogan might be “Enjoy the benefits of a private club at public course rates!”

Re-Positioning


LESSON 4.5


The average age of a Major League Baseball fan is 44 years old, but the 18-24 age demographic is the target audience most sponsors and advertisers try to reach. To help reposition the brand as a product that would attract a younger demographic, MLB has focused on developing their “Fan Cave” program through integration of new, hip technology, a trendy location and relationships with unlikely partners like MTV2.

Re-Positioning


LESSON 4.5


Re-Positioning


According to the Sports Business Journal, as part of their new deal with CBS, the Pro Bull Riders Association will now be grouped among other major properties online, like the NFL and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to re-position it as a more legitimate sports property (in the past, PBR was grouped under the “CBS Sports Spectacular” banner alongside some niche sports)

LESSON 4.5


Blank Slide Available

for Teacher Edits


Marketing

Applications

LESSON 4.5 REVIEW (ANSWERS)LESSON 4.5 REVIEW (ANSWERS)

1) Illustrate the concept of positioning

Positioning is the fixing of a sports or entertainment entity in the minds of consumers in the target market


lesson 4.5 – positioning copyright © 2014 by sports career consulting, llc

Documents

sports career consulting

sports nutritionist

llc positioningcopyright

positioning effort

fixing company products

llcpositioning map

wheaties brand

positioning copyright