SAM 6270.01: Marketing and Public Relations in Sport
Fall 2014
Dr. Peetz
The main objective for this course was to apply key marketing concepts in the development of my own sport marketing plan. Throughout the specialized marketing plan we were to integrate the key concepts of market definition analysis, market segmentation, product positioning, pricing, promotion, distribution, licensing and sponsorship. The course focused on current factors and issues related to sport marketing and public relations. An emphasis was placed on creating and evaluating a marketing plan and evaluating the relationships between sport organizations and a wide variety of consumers.
I was excited about this class because I took the course during the time that I was beginning my internship handling marketing and communications for the Department of Fitness and Recreation. I was able to use ideas from class and from the book we read, Marketing Outrageously, to implement new ideas for the departmental marketing efforts and guide the conversations had with my marketing and design team. My biggest takeaway from the course were the five P's of marketing: product, place, promotion, price and profit. You always need to know your product, your methods of distribution and what return on investment you will receive for your marketing efforts. Also, recognizing your brand, not the one that you think is your brand but what your consumers see you as is the most important key to the industry.
During the course, Dr. Peetz was asked by the Nashville Predators for the class to create a marketing plan for Student Rush Night promotions. It became a sort of "Shark Tank" experience and the class chose groups to create a large marketing plan and at the end of the semester, each group was to present their plan to the a group of the Predators sales and marketing professionals.
Our idea was to make Student Rush Night a competition. Competition is what makes sports so compelling. So turning a sports promotion into a competition will at least increase interest and it would be expected that participation would increase as well. If there is one thing that marketers have learned about students it is that they have school pride. Invoking that school pride through a competition against other local schools (many of which are rivals), is a great way to increase participation.
The competition among schools would have many layers with the first one being number of attendees. The college and high school with the most attendees would be recognized with a banner in the arena until the next Student Rush Night, as well as discounted tickets to non-Student Rush Night games until the next Student Rush Night. The way we would count the students is by simply asking them if they are a student when they walk in, then having them come to a booth and show their school ID to be counted.
The next layer of the competition would be the in-game promotions on Student Rush Nights, particularly the music during intermissions. All the artists that perform on Student Rush Nights will be students who must audition to be chosen, and the school of the performer that night will receive special prizes and discounts. Auditions will be held at each school and will allow students to vote on who they would like to see perform at the games as a way for the team to further connect with each school. On top of that, every promotional game played during the game breaks will have a student participant. As previously mentioned, every part of Student Rush night should involve students.
The last layer of the competition would be through social media. Whichever school (or district for high schools) hashtag was used the most during the game, that school would receive a free skate night at the Ford Ice Center to be held during their open skate nights. This would be no additional cost to the building as they will already be staffing open skate night and will be a great way to promote the new facility. The posts would also be shown periodically throughout the game on the jumbo tron to connect with the students and make them feel a part of the game.
Each layer that we chose demonstrates a major area of promotion that sport marketers are trying to reach and improve. Through our presentation and creation of the plan, I learned that there are many ways to approach marketing efforts, but you have to continue to be innovative and do what others do not expect you to do: that's when you'll stand out in the sports industry.
SAM 6070: Financial Aspects in Sport
Fall 2014
Dr. Shin
The objectives of this course were as follows:
In my opinion, this course was one of the most beneficial courses we have taken, however, was also one of the most difficult. In my role as a GA with Fitness and Recreation I oversee all of our fiscal management and assist in the weekly review of our budget with our director. It helped to look at the academic piece of finance and then have the ability to apply it in a real world setting. As a sport manager in the future, I recognize the importance of working with the budget and the resources that you are given.
The class was focused around analyzing and understanding company’s financial plans and budgets. The financial statement and ratio assignment assisted in abstaining the computer and financial skills necessary to understand the elements of a company's financial picture. The financial ratios we calculated for the two companies, Dicks Sporting Goods and Sports Authority, provided an idea of how the companies compare financially. The financial ratios help better understand the two businesses profitability, strengths and weaknesses.
Overall these two projects in particular offered me personally a better grasp on the basic financial tools needed in any field of business and, more specifically, how I can use these tools in a sport business environment. With other projects (such as a financial spreadsheet and instructions to cut the budget of a hypothetical university athletic program or case studies on various organizations, etc.) to complement our lectures, lessons, and larger projects, this course successfully gave us the tools to succeed as future sport managers.
Fall 2014
Dr. Peetz
The main objective for this course was to apply key marketing concepts in the development of my own sport marketing plan. Throughout the specialized marketing plan we were to integrate the key concepts of market definition analysis, market segmentation, product positioning, pricing, promotion, distribution, licensing and sponsorship. The course focused on current factors and issues related to sport marketing and public relations. An emphasis was placed on creating and evaluating a marketing plan and evaluating the relationships between sport organizations and a wide variety of consumers.
I was excited about this class because I took the course during the time that I was beginning my internship handling marketing and communications for the Department of Fitness and Recreation. I was able to use ideas from class and from the book we read, Marketing Outrageously, to implement new ideas for the departmental marketing efforts and guide the conversations had with my marketing and design team. My biggest takeaway from the course were the five P's of marketing: product, place, promotion, price and profit. You always need to know your product, your methods of distribution and what return on investment you will receive for your marketing efforts. Also, recognizing your brand, not the one that you think is your brand but what your consumers see you as is the most important key to the industry.
During the course, Dr. Peetz was asked by the Nashville Predators for the class to create a marketing plan for Student Rush Night promotions. It became a sort of "Shark Tank" experience and the class chose groups to create a large marketing plan and at the end of the semester, each group was to present their plan to the a group of the Predators sales and marketing professionals.
Our idea was to make Student Rush Night a competition. Competition is what makes sports so compelling. So turning a sports promotion into a competition will at least increase interest and it would be expected that participation would increase as well. If there is one thing that marketers have learned about students it is that they have school pride. Invoking that school pride through a competition against other local schools (many of which are rivals), is a great way to increase participation.
The competition among schools would have many layers with the first one being number of attendees. The college and high school with the most attendees would be recognized with a banner in the arena until the next Student Rush Night, as well as discounted tickets to non-Student Rush Night games until the next Student Rush Night. The way we would count the students is by simply asking them if they are a student when they walk in, then having them come to a booth and show their school ID to be counted.
The next layer of the competition would be the in-game promotions on Student Rush Nights, particularly the music during intermissions. All the artists that perform on Student Rush Nights will be students who must audition to be chosen, and the school of the performer that night will receive special prizes and discounts. Auditions will be held at each school and will allow students to vote on who they would like to see perform at the games as a way for the team to further connect with each school. On top of that, every promotional game played during the game breaks will have a student participant. As previously mentioned, every part of Student Rush night should involve students.
The last layer of the competition would be through social media. Whichever school (or district for high schools) hashtag was used the most during the game, that school would receive a free skate night at the Ford Ice Center to be held during their open skate nights. This would be no additional cost to the building as they will already be staffing open skate night and will be a great way to promote the new facility. The posts would also be shown periodically throughout the game on the jumbo tron to connect with the students and make them feel a part of the game.
Each layer that we chose demonstrates a major area of promotion that sport marketers are trying to reach and improve. Through our presentation and creation of the plan, I learned that there are many ways to approach marketing efforts, but you have to continue to be innovative and do what others do not expect you to do: that's when you'll stand out in the sports industry.
SAM 6070: Financial Aspects in Sport
Fall 2014
Dr. Shin
The objectives of this course were as follows:
- Recognize the social, economic, and financial factors confronting sport professions in a variety of sport settings.
- Demonstrate the ability to develop and apply budgeting principles as it related to sport and the appropriate computer skills with spreadsheets for managing financial resources.
- Understand the economic impact analysis and problems inherent in these procedures.
- Developed fundraising strategies to generate revenues for sport organizations.
In my opinion, this course was one of the most beneficial courses we have taken, however, was also one of the most difficult. In my role as a GA with Fitness and Recreation I oversee all of our fiscal management and assist in the weekly review of our budget with our director. It helped to look at the academic piece of finance and then have the ability to apply it in a real world setting. As a sport manager in the future, I recognize the importance of working with the budget and the resources that you are given.
The class was focused around analyzing and understanding company’s financial plans and budgets. The financial statement and ratio assignment assisted in abstaining the computer and financial skills necessary to understand the elements of a company's financial picture. The financial ratios we calculated for the two companies, Dicks Sporting Goods and Sports Authority, provided an idea of how the companies compare financially. The financial ratios help better understand the two businesses profitability, strengths and weaknesses.
Overall these two projects in particular offered me personally a better grasp on the basic financial tools needed in any field of business and, more specifically, how I can use these tools in a sport business environment. With other projects (such as a financial spreadsheet and instructions to cut the budget of a hypothetical university athletic program or case studies on various organizations, etc.) to complement our lectures, lessons, and larger projects, this course successfully gave us the tools to succeed as future sport managers.