Cosmos Value Chain
New York Cosmo Value Chain
Executive Summary
Professional sports team have to put effort in development and the implementation of value chain strategies. In the case of most sports team the analysing your customers, market, and other trends is important because it identifies sources of cost and revenues. As the New York Cosmos become more and more involved in community outreach, the value chain is a helpful for us to increase revenue. The purpose of this presentation is to indentify the New York Cosmos value chain, what area of the value chain the Cosmos focus on, and what improvements I think could benefit the soccer club in the long run.
Value Chain Defined
The value chain for a soccer club has to be slightly modify compared to the standard value chain used in most businesses. Whenever fans come into the stadium they do not know in advance if the match on …show more content…
the field would meet their expectations. So for the New York Cosmos winning three NASL championship in four year helped their moved to Brooklyn.since moving to Brooklyn, building up a reputation is neccessary for success in a new market. But the reputation does not only have to include the product on the field,reputation of the services provided. Reputation is relevant for the sales of sporting events. Having a good reputation is the first activity to create economic advantages over the competetion in the market. Marketing and Sales of a soccer team rely on the reputation of the team. If the team is winning on the field, ticket sales increase as more and more people would want to see live action of a winning team. Next in the value chain is the inbound logistics, the inbound logistics consist of player, staff, and fans arrival to the games have to be organized. Players and staff must arrive to the stadium at a certain time to make sure pregame matters are taken care of before the gates to the stadium open. Fans are advised to arrive at the stadium one hour before kickoff to ensure that they are seated before the kickoff. Once the inbound logistics are handled, the value chain is service. A big part of the sports industry is providing a service to the fans. Once the fans arrive to the stadium, we provide different services like concessions, catering for suite buyers, birthday parties, group outings, making sure fans are in their right seat. The staff at the Cosmos are always making sure our fans are happy, and have the evening run smoothly. Operations play a big part in the fan experiences at the game.
Fans come to a sporting event to be entertained, and have fun. So a lot work goes into operations to make sure we are providing entertainment for the fans. Some of the ways we provide entertainment is by setting up inflatables inside of the stadium. So while the action is going on, fans can walk around and partake in some fun activities. Another way we like to offer fun activites is during halftime, we would invite group of fans to come down onto the field to participate in plenty kicks.
Each game we are finding more exciting ways to keep our fans engaged. Having great operations and entertainment increases revenue as fans would be more likely to return to more games, since they had a good time at the game. Outbound logistics round out the value chain for the New York Cosmos. When the match is finished, the departure of players, and fans, the stadium has to be cleaned. Alot of post match activities happen like interviews, and highlight clips. With all that said the value chain for the New York Cosmos is broken down like this.
Support
Activities:
Firm Infrastructure
Human Resource Management
Technology Development
Procurement
Primary Activities:
Building Reputation
Marketing and Sales
Inbound Logitics
Services
Operatons
Outbound Logitics
Areas of Value Chain Focused On
The two primary value chains that we focus on the most are Marketing/Sales and Service. These are the two that generate revenue for the soccer team . With Marketing/Sales we tried to focus on offering fans cost-effective price ranges for tickets. Rather than pay $50 for a ticket to a sporting or entertainment event. We offer $10 tickets, sometimes $7.50 tickets depending on the promotion that week. The cost-effective tickets allows our fans to come out, have a good time, and spend money on concessions. We figured with lower price tickets, fans would be more opened to buying food and drinks. Also our parking prices are $16, so lower price tickets softens the blow for our fans to come out.
At the start of the season, we did a full-fledge marketing campagin, that consist of subways billboards, and television commericals letting people know that the New York Cosmos were now in Brooklyn. Since we felt that didn’t move the needle, we looked into other marketing strategies to gain interest in the team. First we decided to do grassroot marketing. Instead of launching our message to wide group, our target became the different local businesses in Brooklyn. Each member of the front office would target different neighborhoods in Brooklyn, hit up local stores, restuarants, bars, introduce as ourselves and ask if we can leave pocket schedules and information about the team. This form of marketing worked, because these were places that people would go in everyday, so the message about the Cosmos were in their face. Once that started rolling, we would then leave special discount ticket vouchers on the counters. Little by little the message was getting out to people . We would host different events as well, bring some of the players out, and have the people of Brooklyn engage. The best marketing at times is word of mouth. If one person tells someone, and that person tells someone, the message of having the Cosmos in Brooklyn starts to spread.
Once we started to have fans come to the game, the second more important primary activity is providing great service. Each game we would setup a fan service table near the entrance way. Usually the table would have special giveaways and promotion for future events. The fan service table worked well because it allowed our fans to ask questions about future games, birthday packages, season tickets, fundrasers opportunities, and other great stuff. Fan service worked well for sales reps, as it allowed them to offer great ticket deals, answer questions, and meet people who were looking to plan company and group outings. People want to feel connected and fan service table allowed that.
Another way the Cosmos staff would provide service, is going above and beyond for fans in the stadium. Fans would always come up to staff and ask for certin favors like if their child can meet one of the players, access to the field and so on. Staff members would find a way to get things done. Doing special favors turned into future sales, and sometimes bigger sales. Providing great service throughout increased sales, because now you would have a satisfy customer that would then tell other people about how much he/she had a great time.
Improvements to Value Chain
While fans are coming to our games and having a great time. There are still somethings I feel that need improving. The most crucial thing that needs improving is our Marketing/Sales. The question I would ask is “ How can we better target the right prospects, with the right products” The solution I have for that question is collecting more data from our customers and prospects. Some of the data I would collect are age, gender, education, martial status, occupation, income, lifestyle interest, and sports interest. Collecting this type of data would allow the sales rep to call prospects and pitching them on different things we offer like season tickets, partial plans, family packages and suite offerings etc.
To make for change I would integrate three things to help generate more revenue for the team.
Need to create effective tools for analysis:
• Determine what date is relevant
• Access data in usable format. ( Suggest using Salesforce CRM)
Use large amounts of data across various sources:
• Ticketmaster
• Concessions
• Ipad at fan services, so that fans and fill out a survey
Comprehensive Ticket Sales Strategy:
• Ticket buyer life cycle ( Track ticket buyers price range of tickets purchased. Does the ticket buyer always go for the discounts, or prefer the best seats in the stadium)
• Creation of a 12 month plan for outbound ticket sales and lead management
• Live analytics of prospects clicking onto our website. Updates on customers viewing page
Conclusion
Based on working in the sports industry, I’ve come to find out that the standard value chain does not apply in sports entertainment. There are alot of moving parts that go into a team. Most fans would rather purchase a ticket to a game from a team that has a good reputation of winning. Unlike the the standard value chain concept, service and sales go together. While we are still improving as an organization, I feel we should take the next steps being more analytical in our approach to prospects. Right now we are worried about having new fans, than having repeated fans.
Executive Summary
Professional sports team have to put effort in development and the implementation of value chain strategies. In the case of most sports team the analysing your customers, market, and other trends is important because it identifies sources of cost and revenues. As the New York Cosmos become more and more involved in community outreach, the value chain is a helpful for us to increase revenue. The purpose of this presentation is to indentify the New York Cosmos value chain, what area of the value chain the Cosmos focus on, and what improvements I think could benefit the soccer club in the long run.
Value Chain Defined
The value chain for a soccer club has to be slightly modify compared to the standard value chain used in most businesses. Whenever fans come into the stadium they do not know in advance if the match on …show more content…
the field would meet their expectations. So for the New York Cosmos winning three NASL championship in four year helped their moved to Brooklyn.since moving to Brooklyn, building up a reputation is neccessary for success in a new market. But the reputation does not only have to include the product on the field,reputation of the services provided. Reputation is relevant for the sales of sporting events. Having a good reputation is the first activity to create economic advantages over the competetion in the market. Marketing and Sales of a soccer team rely on the reputation of the team. If the team is winning on the field, ticket sales increase as more and more people would want to see live action of a winning team. Next in the value chain is the inbound logistics, the inbound logistics consist of player, staff, and fans arrival to the games have to be organized. Players and staff must arrive to the stadium at a certain time to make sure pregame matters are taken care of before the gates to the stadium open. Fans are advised to arrive at the stadium one hour before kickoff to ensure that they are seated before the kickoff. Once the inbound logistics are handled, the value chain is service. A big part of the sports industry is providing a service to the fans. Once the fans arrive to the stadium, we provide different services like concessions, catering for suite buyers, birthday parties, group outings, making sure fans are in their right seat. The staff at the Cosmos are always making sure our fans are happy, and have the evening run smoothly. Operations play a big part in the fan experiences at the game.
Fans come to a sporting event to be entertained, and have fun. So a lot work goes into operations to make sure we are providing entertainment for the fans. Some of the ways we provide entertainment is by setting up inflatables inside of the stadium. So while the action is going on, fans can walk around and partake in some fun activities. Another way we like to offer fun activites is during halftime, we would invite group of fans to come down onto the field to participate in plenty kicks.
Each game we are finding more exciting ways to keep our fans engaged. Having great operations and entertainment increases revenue as fans would be more likely to return to more games, since they had a good time at the game. Outbound logistics round out the value chain for the New York Cosmos. When the match is finished, the departure of players, and fans, the stadium has to be cleaned. Alot of post match activities happen like interviews, and highlight clips. With all that said the value chain for the New York Cosmos is broken down like this.
Support
Activities:
Firm Infrastructure
Human Resource Management
Technology Development
Procurement
Primary Activities:
Building Reputation
Marketing and Sales
Inbound Logitics
Services
Operatons
Outbound Logitics
Areas of Value Chain Focused On
The two primary value chains that we focus on the most are Marketing/Sales and Service. These are the two that generate revenue for the soccer team . With Marketing/Sales we tried to focus on offering fans cost-effective price ranges for tickets. Rather than pay $50 for a ticket to a sporting or entertainment event. We offer $10 tickets, sometimes $7.50 tickets depending on the promotion that week. The cost-effective tickets allows our fans to come out, have a good time, and spend money on concessions. We figured with lower price tickets, fans would be more opened to buying food and drinks. Also our parking prices are $16, so lower price tickets softens the blow for our fans to come out.
At the start of the season, we did a full-fledge marketing campagin, that consist of subways billboards, and television commericals letting people know that the New York Cosmos were now in Brooklyn. Since we felt that didn’t move the needle, we looked into other marketing strategies to gain interest in the team. First we decided to do grassroot marketing. Instead of launching our message to wide group, our target became the different local businesses in Brooklyn. Each member of the front office would target different neighborhoods in Brooklyn, hit up local stores, restuarants, bars, introduce as ourselves and ask if we can leave pocket schedules and information about the team. This form of marketing worked, because these were places that people would go in everyday, so the message about the Cosmos were in their face. Once that started rolling, we would then leave special discount ticket vouchers on the counters. Little by little the message was getting out to people . We would host different events as well, bring some of the players out, and have the people of Brooklyn engage. The best marketing at times is word of mouth. If one person tells someone, and that person tells someone, the message of having the Cosmos in Brooklyn starts to spread.
Once we started to have fans come to the game, the second more important primary activity is providing great service. Each game we would setup a fan service table near the entrance way. Usually the table would have special giveaways and promotion for future events. The fan service table worked well because it allowed our fans to ask questions about future games, birthday packages, season tickets, fundrasers opportunities, and other great stuff. Fan service worked well for sales reps, as it allowed them to offer great ticket deals, answer questions, and meet people who were looking to plan company and group outings. People want to feel connected and fan service table allowed that.
Another way the Cosmos staff would provide service, is going above and beyond for fans in the stadium. Fans would always come up to staff and ask for certin favors like if their child can meet one of the players, access to the field and so on. Staff members would find a way to get things done. Doing special favors turned into future sales, and sometimes bigger sales. Providing great service throughout increased sales, because now you would have a satisfy customer that would then tell other people about how much he/she had a great time.
Improvements to Value Chain
While fans are coming to our games and having a great time. There are still somethings I feel that need improving. The most crucial thing that needs improving is our Marketing/Sales. The question I would ask is “ How can we better target the right prospects, with the right products” The solution I have for that question is collecting more data from our customers and prospects. Some of the data I would collect are age, gender, education, martial status, occupation, income, lifestyle interest, and sports interest. Collecting this type of data would allow the sales rep to call prospects and pitching them on different things we offer like season tickets, partial plans, family packages and suite offerings etc.
To make for change I would integrate three things to help generate more revenue for the team.
Need to create effective tools for analysis:
• Determine what date is relevant
• Access data in usable format. ( Suggest using Salesforce CRM)
Use large amounts of data across various sources:
• Ticketmaster
• Concessions
• Ipad at fan services, so that fans and fill out a survey
Comprehensive Ticket Sales Strategy:
• Ticket buyer life cycle ( Track ticket buyers price range of tickets purchased. Does the ticket buyer always go for the discounts, or prefer the best seats in the stadium)
• Creation of a 12 month plan for outbound ticket sales and lead management
• Live analytics of prospects clicking onto our website. Updates on customers viewing page
Conclusion
Based on working in the sports industry, I’ve come to find out that the standard value chain does not apply in sports entertainment. There are alot of moving parts that go into a team. Most fans would rather purchase a ticket to a game from a team that has a good reputation of winning. Unlike the the standard value chain concept, service and sales go together. While we are still improving as an organization, I feel we should take the next steps being more analytical in our approach to prospects. Right now we are worried about having new fans, than having repeated fans.