NC State Mens Soccer Marketing Plan

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NC STATE MEN’S SOCCER MARKETING PLAN

Kickin’ it with the Pack

Ryan Olli, Wes Purcell, John Purcell

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Executive Summary

This marketing plan is an overall all in depth analysis and plan that will be used to improve to the image and the brand of NC State Men’s Soccer and insure its flourishing future. We started out by reviewing and analyzing all of the strengths and weaknesses, threats, and our unique selling position to see where we stand. We next went over our competitors direct and indirect and who their target markets are to see where we stand next to them and what we are up against. It was then key for us to go through our customer’s wants and needs, and our target market. After all of the research was completed we then created our marketing strategies and tactics. All of the work we put into this marketing plan and its correct implementation should pay big dividends for the NC State soccer program.

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Company Description/Mission Statement 4

Background 4-6

SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................... 6

Internal Analysis 6-7

External Environmental Analysis 7

Product Portfolio and Positioning 7

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................ 8

Competitors 8

CUSTOMER ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................. 9

Section One 9-10

Section Two 10

MARKETING GOALS ..................................................................................................................................... 11

MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS ............................................................................................. 12-16

IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL ......................................................................................................... 16

Action Plan 16

Budge 17-18

Examination 18

APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................................ 19-23

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................... 24

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Introduction Company Description/Mission Statement

Prepare student-‐athletes to compete at the highest level and to inspire them to be leaders now and for the future by providing the best environment to achieve their athletic, academic, and personal aspirations as well as providing support for the professional development of our coaches and staff, all within the role of greater institutional relationships to the University. Our Goal

● ACHIEVE national recognition for competitive excellence, as measured by ACC

finishes and the national Director’s Cup competition ● GRADUATE student-‐athletes at rates that compare favorably to our ACC public peer

institutions and achieve same for the NCAA Academic Progress Rates. ● CULTIVATE an environment where NCAA rules compliance, the pursuit of

excellence, gender equity, respect for diversity and recognition of achievement are fundamental values held by staff, coaches and student-‐athletes.

● ALLOCATE the financial resources required to achieve the Department’s vision of excellence, while operating successfully as a self-‐supporting auxiliary unit of the University.

● RECRUIT and retain the caliber of student-‐athletes, coaches, and staff who are committed to the achievement of the Department’s vision of competitive and academic excellence.

● GENERATE the funds required to pay the annual scholarship bill, facility debt and operating costs.

● CREATE an innovative branding program that will promote the Department’s vision and tell the NC State story.

Background Soccer began through an effort of the growing population of international students. NC State's first international student was from Japan and graduated in 1896. He played football. But it wasn't until after WWII that the international population really began to grow. Those students organized a club team in 1947. They played exhibition games against teams from other schools for two seasons under the guidance of PE professor Ed DeGroat as advisor and coach. The first players were students from India, China, Norway and other

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countries. The athletics council voted to make soccer a varsity sport in December 1949 and the first varsity season was in 1950. The first coach was Bill Leonhardt of the PE department. The team played a 10-‐game season for about a decade. Kare Kargas, in just the second season of the program, was named All-‐American in 1951. Leonhardt complained that his team, and other minor sports, did not get enough publicity despite good effort. Nellie Cooper, also of the PE department, was the coach in the 1960s. He thought the program didn't get enough support from students. In 1963 the team had a 7-‐6 record. Max Rhodes took over the program in 1964 and coached through the 1970s. He helped grow the sport in the area with a summer soccer camp. In 1964, Benito Artinano tied the NCAA record by scoring seven goals in a single game against Appalachian State. It still stands as the school and ACC record for the most goals in a single game. Rhodes was replaced in 1978 by lacrosse coach Larry Gross, who coached both teams until 1981 when lacrosse was disbanded. Gross also started the women's program in 1984 and coached both teams for two seasons. In 1986, assistant George Tarantini, a native of Argentina, took over the men and Gross coached the women. The teams in the '80s had great scorers like Chris Ogu, Sam Okpodu, Sadri Gjonbalaj. Perhaps the greatest player in NC State history was Tab Ramos (1984-‐87), a U.S. Olympian and three-‐time World Cup team member. He was a successful professional player in Europe and the U.S. And was elected in the inaugural class of the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012 and a 2005 inductee to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. The heyday of NC State soccer was in the late '80s and early '90s under Taratini, who was twice named ACC Coach of the Year in '92 and '94. In 1990, behind the scoring of Roy Lassiter and Henry Gutierrez, Taranini led nc state to its only ACC championship. That team later went to the NCAA semifinals, where it lost to UCLA on penalty kicks. State's ACC Players of the Year are Somnuk Vixaysouk (1971), Prince Afejuku (1980), Sam Okpodu (1982), Henry Gutierrez (1990-‐91), Scott Schweitzer (1992) and Kyle Campbell (1994). NC State Men’s Soccer’s primary market area is Raleigh, but it also reaches to surrounding cities in the Triangle, including Cary, Apex, and Holly Springs. Being that this soccer program is apart of an established public university, many across the country support the athletics of NC State, including its soccer program.

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The Sports Marketing department at NC State University has recently had administrative change, as Director of Athletics, Deborah A. Yow has announced that Fred Demarest has been named NC State’s Associate Athletics Director for Communications and Marketing. Demarest brings 20 years of experience from two SEC powerhouses, University of Florida and Louisiana State University. In his new role, he will lead and manage the creative development and delivery for NC State Athletics’ overall communications and marketing efforts, while ensuring alignment and collaborations with the university's message efforts.

Situational Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Internal Analysis (Strengths and Weaknesses) Strengths • On-‐campus venue and seating (convenient parking is available in the Coliseum Parking deck

● Detailed explanation: • The schedule does not conflict heavily with football, volleyball, women’s soccer, or other sports, • Home schedule features 4 in-‐state opponents (UNC-‐Wilmington, Davidson, Wake Forest, • Kay Yow Pink Match (Saturday, October 19th – Notre Dame) is a great way to raise money for breast cancer, • Budget providing for increased advertising and incentives for 4 marquee events (Clemson, • Local players on the roster (12 athletes from the Triangle) Weaknesses • Lack of a “true” home-‐field advantage; fans are not as into the match as they are at other • Paid advertising is limited to a handful of matches per season (4 marquee events)

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• UNC, Duke, and Maryland matches will be played on the road this season

External Analysis (Opportunities and Threats)

Opportunities

• Head Coach Kelly Findley is continuing to build momentum with the program • Early season matches usually draw strong attendance figures due to nice weather • High number of youth teams and soccer clubs in the area • Continue to place a larger emphasis on the student section – potentially increase SWPC point events Threats • Relying on the Student Wolfpack Club to help drive attendance • Student attendance is driven by freshmen and sophomores – once students move off • Once the weather cools down, attendance may drop campus they do not attend as frequently Examine product portfolio and positioning

• On campus students, easy to access and it is free for them • Great promotions every game and you will not be disappointed at the experience

weather the team wins or not. • Cheap for fans, lot of games are half off with promotional offers • Kickin’ it with the Pack; our catchy tag line will make you want to come check us out

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Competitive Analysis

In the triangle area, the NC State soccer team has several direct and indirect competitors. Some of the direct competitors are other local college soccer teams, such as UNC – Chapel Hill and Duke. Also, the professional soccer team, the Carolina rail Hawks, is a direct competitor. One of the factors limiting our brand compared to UNC and Duke is that they have been more successful, with a longer tradition of excellence. The Railhawks, being a professional franchise is the highest level of soccer in the state of North Carolina. They also have more money for promotional opportunities, a nicer stadium, and has very accessible, easy parking. Indirect competitors are also working against NC State soccer, Such as NC State football because there is a greater widespread interest in this fall sport. Capital area soccer league and Triangle Football Club have a large draw that pulls attendance away from NC State soccer. All soccer players and the families involved with these two leagues are usually traveling on the weekends for soccer tournaments away from Raleigh.

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Customer Analysis Section 1

Soccer equipment: Total Consumer Market Balls-‐ $87.6 m (2013); $63.5 m (2003) + 27.5% Shoes-‐ $213.2 m (2013); $198.6 m (2003) +7% Total-‐ $300.8 m (2013); $262.1 m (2003) +13% Demographics: Total fans age 13+: 37,965,000 Age Group

-‐ 13-‐17: 8.5 -‐ 18-‐34: 31.6 -‐ 35-‐49: 23.6 -‐ 50-‐64: 20.6 -‐ 65+: 15.7 -‐ MEDIAN AGE: 41.0

Gender -‐Male: 55.1% -‐Female: 44.9% Geographic Location -‐Northeast: 18.9 -‐Midwest: 19.7 -‐South: 38.8 -‐West: 22.6 Income 31.7% of fans have income of $100,00+ Social Media: 8,030,00 Facebook followers 3,986,000 Twitter followers 18.5% à % of fans who participate in Soccer at any level 14.6% of US population 45-‐54 (Baby boomer age) still participates in this sport

When marketing for any business or sport it is essential to identify who exactly your market is. College Soccer is unique in the fact that while it is not one of the 2 or 3 revenue sports in college, its popularity is rising..

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According to SBR.net, college soccer has a total of 3,796,500 fans ranging of all ages, genders, geographic location, and incomes. 8.5% of fans are in their teenage years ranging from 13-‐17. College Soccer is now almost equal in popularity to College Baseball. The largest percentage of fans by age group is those 14-‐27 at 31.6%, with the remaining fans (59.9%) being 45 and older. In terms of gender, it is more evenly distributed that the majority of major sports in the US, having 55.1% of fans being male, and 44.9% being female. Section 2 The target market for our soccer program ranges from youth soccer players and fans in the area all the way to older adults that have a passion for soccer. We plan to reach each of these markets and anywhere in-‐between to meet our goals. We know that we can certainly appeal to these audiences so there is no reason why we will not be able to get them excited about coming out to games and being a part of our great experience.

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Marketing Goals

The goals of our organization are to develop a premier men’s soccer program that is recognized nationally and create an increase in the exposure of the program. NC State Men’s Soccer strives the be the best collegiate team in the ACC and amongst the best in the NCAA year in and year out, along with developing a prominent presence in our market. Our marketing plan will help us to meet these goals through the use of various marketing strategies. We will implement our strategies with different marketing tactics that we feel will enable increase the value of our program; as well as achieving our set objectives. The Men’s Soccer Program at NC State University is in the growth stage in the product life cycle. Having identified the stage our product is in, we plan to gear our marketing efforts to gaining more of our market share, in hopes of simultaneously stimulating and maximizing profits. A SWOT analysis identified a major threat to our program being a reliance on freshmen and sophomores students. With that in mind, we plan on utilizing different elements of the marketing mix to implement strategies and achieve our overall goals. Our first strategy will be based around the promotion and public relations elements of the marketing mix as we look to establish a presence amongst NC State students and avid fans. We will enhance our product through the developing a consistent fan base, while concentrating our exposure efforts through promotions and media outlets.

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Marketing Strategies and Tactics

The first marketing strategy we will focus on is reaching out and educating NC State students about the Men’s Soccer program. By reaching out to this market and positioning our program, it will in-‐turn help us to achieve our goal of creating and increasing exposure of the NC State Men’s Soccer program. Goal: Create and increase exposure of NC State Men’s Soccer program. Strategy: Reach out and educate NC State Students about the program. Tactic: Collaborate with the “Pack Pride” twitter account. See Appendix 1: Consistently around campus there are small signs that show the time of the soccer games, only on game day. The fact is that you don’t reach the maximum amount of students through this marketing tactic. Social media is the not only free, but the best way to reach our target market of college students. Pack Pride is currently one the major current twitter account that covers NC State Athletics, but largely does so only for three sports, men’s basketball, football, and baseball. Our tactic would be to collaborate with the “Pack Pride” twitter account in hopes that we reach out to their 28,000+ followers, in hopes of increasing exposure of the NC State Men’s Soccer program. Pairing with Pack Pride would be an excellent and efficient way to reach a large market, which we already know has an interest in NC State athletics already. Goal: Create and increase exposure of NC State Men’s Soccer program. Strategy: Reach out and educate NC State students about the program. Tactic: Create and utilize a personal Twitter and account for NC State Men’s Soccer See Appendix 2: Again like I have said previously, social media is the most effective way to reach the target market and execute the strategy of reaching out and educating NC State students about the men’s soccer program. Pairing with Pack Pride will enable us to gain exposure to significant amount of our market, but creating our own Twitter accounts will allow us to personalize our promotional tactics. For instance, having a weekly trivia about the soccer team or program in general and the first to answer the question correctly over social media, wins free memorabilia. We will reach out to alumni of NC athletics, local organizations, and “Pack Pride” to retweet our account to gain more followers and increase exposure even more to our market.

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Goal: Create and increase exposure of NC State Men’s Soccer program. Strategy: Reach out and educate local community and about the program. Tactic: Railhawks Play the Pack See Appendix 3: The Carolina Railhawks, a local professional soccer team, may just be NC State men’s soccer team main competition, but a combined event could gain exposure for both programs. This event would take place at NC State soccer’s home stadium located in the heart of campus. They would compete in an exhibition game, which would encourage fans, largely families, of the Railhawks from the surrounding cities of Cary, Holly Springs, and Apex. Instead of going against the competition, collaborating with them would help reach out and gain exposure from the local community. Goal: Develop a premier Men’s Soccer program in the ACC and NCAA, year in and year out. Strategy: Increase ticket sales and attendance Tactic: ACC Bundling Package See Appendix 4: The men’s soccer team plays a total of 17 games per season, but on average only 4 of those games are home games against ACC opponents. While the out-‐of-‐conference games can offer good competition, the ACC games offer elite competition with the inclusion of built in rivalries between the players and teams. We plan on offering a special package that allows customers to purchase the “ACC Bundle” where they will receive tickets to the 4 ACC home games. This package will be offered at $85, which will allow customers to get a discount from the original price per game. Due to the fact that these games in particular bring the greatest entertainment value and have the most intense fan base amongst soccer games, it is more likely that these customers will enjoy our product and not only return for ACC games, but for out-‐of-‐conference games as well. Goal: Develop a premier Men’s Soccer program in the ACC and NCAA, year in and year out. Strategy: Increase ticket sales and attendance Tactic: Season-‐ticket Specials See Appendix 5:

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The best way to obtain committed fans for the long-‐term is through consistent viewership. Being that collegiate soccer, including NC State, are very rarely televised the only way to view the game is live at the stadium. We are going to offer a “Season-‐ticket Special” in order to drive consistent attendance and ticket sales. The package will include season tickets to all home games, an NC State soccer t-‐shirt, an NC State soccer gym bag, as well as the opportunity to meet and receiver signatures from the players and coaches prior to the home-‐opening game. The package will cost just $280, offering a great value to fans and families around the triangle area. By doing this we will gain committed and potential long-‐term fans that will result in increased ticket sales and attendance. If we are able to gain more attendance and committed fans, it will make for a great environment for the home games, which will result in more soccer recruits choosing to come and play for NC State so they have the opportunity to play for the best crowd in the ACC. It becomes a cycle, where increased long-‐term fans results in a great crowd environment, which will in-‐turn result in higher talented players coming to play for NC State creating a better product that fans want to come see. Goal: Develop a premier Men’s Soccer program in the ACC and NCAA, year in and year out. Strategy: Increase ticket sales and attendance Tactic: World Cup Night See Appendix 6: Soccer, more than any other sport in the United States, has the most diverse fan base. While popularity of soccer has increased in the United States, it still is largely focused on the World Cup and the US National Team, rather than Major League Soccer, English Premier League, or La Liga. The problem is that the World Cup only occurs every 4 years, which means between that time interests in soccer declines. In order to reach our diverse target market and remind our fans of the World Cup, we will make a “World Cup Night” for one of the out of conference games where we would bring in a food trucks offering atypical food options (Chinese, Greek, Italian, French, German, Mexican) and encourage fans to dress like their favorite international team. This will bring absolutely drive ticket sales and attendance to a diverse population which will hopefully lead to these same fans attending future NC State Men’s soccer games as well. Goal: Develop a premier Men’s Soccer program in the ACC and NCAA, year in and year out. Strategy: Increase ticket sales and attendance Tactic: Loyalty point reward system See Appendix 7:

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For NC State Athletics loyalty points are given to those who attend Football and Men’s basketball games, which will add up and give you a higher chance of getting tickets to the most desired and competitive games (UNC vs. NC State, Duke vs. NC State, etc). Many attend some of the less competitive football and basketball games in order for them to have a better chance of getting a ticket to the most popular games of the year. Our tactic is to work with NC State to include men’s soccer as an event in which students can gain loyalty points to put toward the more popular football and basketball games. This will result in a large increase in attendance for NC Students, because not only do they get to support their school and student-‐athlete peers, but also you receive another benefit, which will increase the value of attending games. In order to increase attendance at less popular out-‐of-‐conference games, we could make those games worth more loyalty points than other games. We also plan to have a special game each year in which you have the opportunity to gain three times the amount of loyalty points in which you would receive at just a normal game, in order to drastically increase attendance for these particular regular season games. Goal: Develop a premier men’s soccer program in the ACC and NCAA, year in and year out. Strategy: Create the best environment for Men’s Soccer in the ACC Tactic: Craziest Fan Competition See Appendix 8: As discussed earlier in the marketing plan, there is a cycle to developing a premier men’s soccer program at NC State University. In order to recruit the best players and put the best possible product on the field, it is essential that we create the best home environment for men’s soccer in the ACC. A tactic in which we hope to achieve this is to have a promotion of “Craziest Fan Competition,” in which at halftime 4 fans are chosen from the crowd to come on the field and act like the craziest NC State fan for a minute, and the winner is determined their attire and crowd noise to the support of one of the candidates. The winner will receive a free NC State soccer memorabilia package, which includes a t-‐shirt, hat, and gym bag. This event will drive for more of an intense and supportive atmosphere which will help reach our strategy of becoming the best environment for men’s soccer in the ACC. This will result in better talent coming to play for NC State, which will in-‐turn increase attendance to watch the highly touted players. Goal: Develop a premier men’s soccer program in the ACC and NCAA, year in and year out. Strategy: Create the best environment for Men’s Soccer in the ACC Tactic: If NC State wins, everyone wins See Appendix 9:

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In order to create the best environment for men’s soccer in the ACC, we need to give fans a reason to care about the team and their success. Our tactic will be to pair with Marco’s Pizza, a pizza chain located very close to campus, where if NC State wins and you attend the game you earn half off any size pizza. In order to be able to obtain this promotion, you will have to show your ticket stub from the game to prove your attendance. This will not only drive attendance to the game, but will give students and fans a reason to have a passion for the success of the team as they would benefit from their success as well. Unlike NC State football and basketball, which are televised and popular nationally, soccer is not so developing the pride of the soccer team’s success can be difficult. We believe this tactic will do an amazing job and developing a passionate fan base. In the long-‐term we may look to use a variety of different restaurants to include promotions rather than just Marco’s Pizza, which could result in an increase in sponsorship revenues for the team and program.

Implementation and Control

Action Plan January 2015 -‐ Reach out to Pack Pride twitter account February 2015 -‐ Create our own twitter handle, @NCStateSoccer and reach out to alumni to create interest through retweets March 2015 -‐ Reach out to Carolina Railhawks about a exhibition game at Dail Soccer Field. July-‐August 2015 -‐ Market to initiate Craziest Fan Competition. If successful, then continue to do it throughout the entire season. -‐ Market the ticket stub promotion with Marco’s Pizza to fans and attendees -‐ Market and offer ACC Bundling Package -‐ Market and offer Season Ticket Special

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October 2015 -‐ Start to market and reach out to food trucks and bands about coming to the World Cup Night on October 28th. -‐ Market Loyalty Points Game of the Year all throughout the month Budget As with any project or plan for an organization, money will be a big factor in the creation and implementation of the entire process. Some things require a greater amount of budgeting while other things can be done almost expense free. In preparing our goals, strategies and tactics for completing those goals and strategies, the necessary financial means have been estimated. The great advantage of the first two tactics is that they use social media. Social media is an amazing marketing tool because not only does it reach a significant amount of our target audience, but also it is also absolutely free, so there is no budgeting required for these tactics. The Railhawks are a professional soccer team, which means they should receive compensation to play in this game because it takes away from practice time and other possible revenue earning opportunities. The thing is that this tactic does help market and promote the Railhawks to a growing demographic of soccer fans, collegiate students. In order to compensate them for coming, we will split the profits 60% (Carolina Railhawks) and 40% (NC State Men’s Soccer). This won’t make it necessary to budget money for this event, but will just have to adjust our expectations for revenues from this event. The ACC Bundling package is not an event that costs money, but is one that will just give discounts to those who buy tickets in bulk. It will save customers an approximate $15 for buying the package, so it is important to budget accordingly to make sure we don’t overestimate how much revenue is coming in from these events based on the average ticket price. The season ticket special will offer discounts like the ACC bundling package, so we will need to avoid overestimating. The package will include the costs of a t-‐shirt ($10) and gym bag ($10) for all those who purchase the season tickets. We are going to assume that 100 people will purchase season tickets, which means we will need to budget $2,000 for this promotional tactic.

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World Cup Night will be the most costly of our marketing tactics. Paying the food trucks to attend the events will cost approximately $200 per food truck, because their sales will encourage them to come already. The hiring of bands will cost $500 per band. We plan to hire 6 food trucks and 2 bands, which means we will need to budget $1,200 for food trucks and $1000 for bands (Total: $2,200). Loyalty Reward Night will cost absolutely nothing because it is only giving students the opportunity to gain access to other NC State sporting events. We will need to budget $0 to cover this event. The Craziest Fan Competition will be giving a t-‐shirt ($10) and gym bag ($10) to one lucky fan at each home game throughout the season. Being that there are 14 home games, we will have to allot $280 total for the season. The partnership promotional package between Marco’s and our ticket stubs will again be a free promotion because Marco’s benefits from marketing as well. If this promotion leads to success for Marco’s it could actually lead to revenues for the Men’s Soccer program. In total we will need to budget a total of $4,480 for our marketing tactics, which is cheap compared to other major NC State sports like football and basketball; but the fact is that our sport doesn’t bring the type of revenue that these other major sports do. Evaluation These plans are not 100% guaranteed and cannot be assumed to have immediate success. We feel that our plan is very practical and attainable, and with the right resources can be implemented successfully. The best way to monitor success and evaluate our tactics is to gain feedback and complete research on how effective our plan has been once implemented. Simply we want to achieve or goal to create and develop exposure of the men’s soccer program as well as develop a prestigious soccer program that contends in the ACC and NCAA on an every year basis. After the first year of implementation we will gather information, reevaluate, and make necessary changes.

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Appendix Appendix 1:

Appendix 2:

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Appendix 3:

Appendix 4:

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Appendix 5:

Appendix 6:

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Appendix 7:

Appendix 8:

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Appendix 9:

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References

Tim Peeler NC State Athletics Marketing Department www.collegesoccernews.com SBR.net