Sporting Marketing Plan

In order to have a successful sporting enterprise, that being at a professional, amateur, or community level, many aspects have to be addressed and carefully organized in today's sports world. These aspects range from attracting and retaining social support, creating and managing the sporting brand, event planning, sponsorship strategy, communication and media relations, and team/club/association management. All of the features mentioned above have one channel that can help the enterprise achieve success, and that is marketing. Creating a strong and aggressive marketing plan will help any organization achieve success. Developing principles and processes which will produce public awareness, interest, and adherence is the major goal of any marketing plan. In this paper I will be develop a marketing plan for a community based soccer academy which also involves education. The name of the Soccer/educational academy is called Iberia Soccer Academy and it is located in San Diego, California. Some of the aspects that I will be discussing are internal and external contingencies, psychological and sociological influences, targeting and positioning products/services, promotional mix (advertising, public relations, sales promotion, pricing), and how to control and organize the implementation of the marketing plan, and addressing any unique issues that might arise.

The first step of a strategic marketing plan is to delineate internal contingencies, which consist of the organization's vision, mission, objectives and marketing goals, strategy, and culture. Basically, as shank (2009) puts it, internal contingencies are all the influences within the organization that can affect the strategic marketing process. On the other hand, we have the external contingencies that are made up of competition, regulatory and political issues, demographic tendency, technology, culture, physical environment, and economy. These external possibilities can be summarized as all outside influences that can affect the organizations strategic marketing process.

One of the first steps of creating and developing a strategic marketing plan for Iberia Soccer Academy is determining a long-term vision plan for the company. This vision plan consists of four crucial questions; 1) Where does the organization plan to go from here? Iberia Soccer Academy wants to establish itself as the main soccer sporting organization for all youth soccer players in the San Diego area, no matter the level of income or education of its prospects. 2) What business do we want to be in? Be entrepreneurs in the business of developing youth soccer players into men through the values and culture of soccer, and education. 3) What customer needs to we want to satisfy? We want to satisfy our player's goal on being successful on the soccer pitch and in the classroom. 4) What capabilities are required for the future? Many resources will be required for the future, from community volunteers to community sponsorships, and much more. All capabilities will be addressed with time.

Another initial step is creating a mission statement that addresses the principle duties of the organization; 1) What business are we currently in? We are in the business of helping local, and in the future, global communities, in a positive manner through the game of soccer and education. Sports and education is our current business. 2) Who are our current customers? Our current customers are youth soccer players, from all backgrounds, in San Diego County. 3) What is the scope of our market? At the moment the range of our market are youth soccer players from San Diego but our long-term goal is to make it a global soccer academy. 4) How do we currently meet the needs of our customers? We currently meet the needs of our youthful customer base by offering certified and specialized soccer training techniques and methods along with educational assistance for their classroom work. We currently cater to all youth groups in the San Diego region but we try to offer extra assistance to our players that come from inner-city.

Organizational objectives and Marketing goals are the second step when approaching internal contingencies. Aside from the vision and mission statement, financial objectives also need to be defined in order to tackle issues such as, revenue growth, increase profit margins, and return on investment. On the other side, strategic performance issues also need to be considered such as, community relations efforts and customer service. For Iberia Soccer Academy, we would offer our academy services at a reasonable price and offer academy scholarships through community and national sponsorships for the less fortunate. Also, the academy would generate profits through Iberia Soccer store. From a strategic point of view, Iberia would be involve in many community events such feeding the homeless, big brother big sisters program, Rainbow trust children's charities, kicks for cure, and other non-profit organizations. Community relations are a priority and so is customer service. Our marketing goals would consist of 3% revenue profit from year to year (from sponsorships and sales of our services and retail store), introduce new products at our retail store and specified services at our academy, such as personalized training. Finally, our last major marketing goal would be to increase awareness about Iberia Soccer Academy in San Diego and throughout California.

The third step in internal contingencies is the organizational strategies. There are four levels of strategy development within an organization. They consist of corporate, business, functional, and operational strategy. For Iberia Soccer Academy, the corporate strategy consists of competing in the youth soccer industry and getting involved with local and national sponsors. At the business level, the ultimate goal of Iberia is to become the number one soccer academy in San Diego and eventually in California. At a functional level there are many levels within the academy, from marketing to sales, to civic relationships and operations. The operational strategy will consist of how the functional level would operate and focus on. Iberia would concentrate on promotion, public relations, product, and services.

The fourth and final step of internal contingencies is organizational culture. Our cultural belief and approach at Iberia Soccer Academy is based on sporting and educational values. We want to shape tomorrow's generation through hard-work, education, and unity. Helping those in need is a prominent part of our organization and staff.

The external contingencies are technology, cultural and social trends, physical environment, political, legal, and regulatory environment, demographics and, the economy. Competition is basically the attempt of similar organizations, such as soccer travel teams and soccer academies, to serve comparable customers/business.