Case Study
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Sport Management Review, 2002, 5, 179–200 © 2002 SMAANZ
Positioning a Youth Sport Camp: A Brand-Mapping Exercise B. Christine Green and Thomas E. Muller Teaching Note and Overview for Use in Class Brand positioning helps establish or “fix” a brand in people’s minds. The resultant image assists the consumer to bring to mind the image, attributes, and degree of desirability of a product or service when choosing among competing brands. The term “brand” should be interpreted in the broadest possible sense: positioning has been applied not only to branded consumer and industrial products, but also to companies, services, institutions, cities, regions, nations, tourist destinations, sports teams and sporting events. Thus, brand positioning is, or should be, a primary aspect of planning for the introduction of a new product or service (Ennis, 1986). It is also at the heart of a repositioning strategy for an existing brand whose current image might be stale, obsolete or inappropriate (Koten, 1984; Kotler, Haider, & Rein, 1993, pp. 212–218). The term “positioning” and its underlying concept were coined in 1969 by American advertising executives Al Ries and Jack Trout as a means of improving communication effectiveness in an overcrowded marketplace that was flooded with brands and cluttered with advertising messages (Ries & Trout, 1986). Consumers, they reasoned, screen out much of the daily volume of marketing messages they are exposed to and rely heavily on a few key attributes to categorise or “slot” alternative brands in their minds and thereby simplify their brand-choice environment. Why should students understand brand positioning and mapping? In today’s sophisticated organisations, private and public, competitive brand positioning and brand mapping is an important and strategic exercise for marketing managers who want to develop a brand’s marketing mix. Increasingly, positioning is becoming a
B. Christine Green is with the Sport Management Program at the University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Place D3700, Austin, Texas, USA, 78712-1204. Thomas E. Muller is with Hagoromo University of International Studies, Osaka, Japan. E-mail for B. Christine Green:
[email protected]
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critical means of brand differentiation in a hotly competitive global marketplace (cf. Aaker, 1996; Cravens, Lamb, & Crittenden, 1996; Dickson, 1997; Ennis, 1986; Huck & Overton, 1986; Keller, 1998; Koten, 1984; Kotler & Roberto, 1989, pp. 147–155; Ries & Trout, 1986). Brand positioning is defined as the marketing decisions and activities that shape and maintain a specific brand’s image – based on key attributes, and relative to competing brands – in the consumer’s mind. Strategically, brand positioning forces the marketer to define the strengths and shortcomings of a new or existing brand (vis-à-vis competing brands), to identify the position which the brand will occupy in consumers’ minds – in terms of attributes important to the target market – and to specify how the elements of the marketing mix will be used to develop or maintain the chosen brand position. Subsequently, brand mapping allows the marketer to check periodically whether consumers’ perceptions of the brand are “on target” or whether these perceptions need to be corrected through an adjustment in the marketing mix. Brand mapping also helps to identify new market opportunities where consumer demand is unmet or under-served. In short, brand positioning and mapping are critical aspects of marketing in a global economy. Thus, students of sport marketing should develop more than a passing acquaintance with this concept. Understanding the concept and its application also leads to a mastery of other key aspects of marketing practice such as promotion, communication and new product development. This said, many students who have taken a sport marketing course come away without a full appreciation of the value and power of brand positioning and perceptual mapping as strategic marketing tools. At best, students appear to be aware of the positioning concept, but lack the ability to thoroughly analyse a positioning problem and interpret a perceptual map or to grasp the marketing implications of the data in a brand map. A discussion of product or brand positioning is included in most introductory sport marketing textbooks, often (but not always) accompanied by a brand map or perceptual map to illustrate the idea (Milne & McDonald, 1999, pp. 44–50; Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2000, pp. 131–134; Pitts & Stotlar, 1996, pp. 154–155; Shank, 2002, pp. 242–247; Shilbury, Quick, & Westerbeek, 1998, pp. 94–96). So, why the typically poor grasp of this concept by students? Two reasons can be put forward. First, some sport marketing texts have tended to pay lip service to the positioning concept – as if its inclusion in the book were purely to avoid the error of omission. The texts which present a perceptual map (Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2000; Shank, 2002; Shilbury, Quick, & Westerbeek, 1998), treat it tangentially – without making clear that perceptual maps play a vital practical (and real) role in marketing sport products and services. If any data are given on how the perceptions are measured and the brand positions determined in the perceptual map, they are minimal and probably insufficient to be actionable.
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Second, the concept as presented in the classroom probably never fully came alive for the student. In reading about or discussing a perceptual map, the work of developing the map has already been done for the student. From the student’s perspective, data were somehow obtained from the marketplace and a map was put together. What is presented in the book or classroom might be an inherently interesting map of consumers’ brand perceptions, the marketer’s intended brand position and the segment’s ideal point (brand preference), but all of this was developed by someone other than the student. It has thus lost much of its value as a learning experience. This exercise gives students the opportunity to construct the brand space, obtain the brand perception data, and analyse the resulting brand map with a view to discovering market opportunities or pinpointing competing brands’ strengths and weaknesses. The case study presents a classroom-tested method for teaching the brand positioning and mapping concept, so that students of sport marketing can obtain a working knowledge and appreciation of positioning as a strategic marketing activity and management tool. The teaching method is designed to enliven the brand positioning and mapping concept for students. Ideally, it is a 3-hour classroom exercise, but the method is flexible enough to be delivered within two 1-hour sessions, or expanded into one 6-hour seminar, if more in-depth learning is desirable. Its explicit goal is to give students the confidence to consider and carry out brand positioning and mapping as a strategic and analytical activity. The thinking skills it is intended to hone come from a thorough appreciation that positioning and mapping are precursors to newbrand introduction and brand repositioning in the marketplace. This involvement approach to teaching the brand positioning concept within the sport marketing curriculum is perfectly feasible in a classroom setting and requires no “external” data collection during the exercise itself. It relies heavily on information that students might already have from individual experiences. Nonetheless, the insights it provides fully justify the fact that the brand maps generated are artificial – in the sense that they are not based on actual consumer surveys or derived via sophisticated statistical tools. An important clarification is appropriate here. Students must perform this exercise with the clear understanding that, in actual practice, the method of obtaining the required data from consumers and generating perceptual maps differs from the method they used in the classroom. At the conclusion of the exercise, our students are made aware that survey research-based perceptual maps are typically derived using data collected from a few hundred scientifically selected respondents representing the target market. These consumers are asked to make comparisons among several competing brands or objects and the resulting brand map is generated via appropriate statistical routines: in the case of attribute ratings, via n-dimensional discriminant analysis; in the case of pairwise similarity comparisons of objects, via
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metric or non-metric multidimensional scaling; and in the case of categorical data on object associations, via correspondence analysis (dual scaling). Should the instructor wish to explore the topic of positioning and mapping further – and to employ a data collection method and statistical software for analysis of these data – students who have been led through the exercise presented here are much better equipped to understand what is going on when these technical tools are introduced at a later stage.
Competitive Brand Positioning and Brand-Mapping Exercise The exercise is appropriate for either undergraduate or graduate students, as well as for executive education seminars, and should work well with class sizes ranging anywhere between 12 and 60 students. It relies on group work, so group sizes will be a function of total class size. For maximum effect, a 3-hour block is ideal for completing the six steps of the learning exercise. Each step leads naturally and logically to the next task, and the momentum generated enhances student motivation and understanding. However, the component steps are modular, so that the instructor working with different blocks of time (3 × 1-hour sessions; 2 × 1.5-hour sessions; 1 × 3-hour session) can still achieve good learning. However, in such cases, students should be given an overview of the entire exercise and reminded that it will continue in the next session(s). The six exercise steps are presented below as headings. The approximate number of minutes needed for each step is shown in brackets.
Step 1: Review of Basic Components of Positioning or Mapping (~25 minutes) Handout 1 outlines the subject matter discussed at the very beginning of the exercise. This discussion sets the stage for students, defines the concepts of positioning and mapping, and presents the six dimensions or components of any brand positioning and mapping exercise. Handout 2 is the perceptual map used to explicate the six components, one by one. During this step, the exercise takes the form of a minilecture to provide a grounding of the concept and to answer students’ questions. It is important to dispel any misunderstandings or misconceptions at this stage before proceeding to the next task. Handout 2 is a useful stimulus for achieving this clarity in thinking. Introduction. Introduce the concept of brand positioning to students. Have students explore their own images of particular sport products, teams or services. Discuss the importance of positioning in marketing strategy. Then use the fitness
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centre example shown in Handout 2 to examine the six components of brand positioning and brand mapping discussed below.1 Brand space. Introduce the concept of a brand space. In this example, a brand space is constructed by representing two important, and more or less independent, attributes on two axes. The attributes in this example are price and program variety. Brand preferences. Brand preference can be introduced by asking one student his or her ideal or desired level (amount) of each attribute represented in the space. These two attribute desirabilities, taken jointly, would then indicate the location, within the space, of a preferred brand for this person. When a representative sample of individuals within the total market express their preferences in this way, the collective result – clusters of individual preferences – would indicate where desired or preferred brands would be located in the space. Those locations can then be marked with circles, and the circles, in effect, represent distinct segments within the overall market. Also, the relative size of a circle can be used to visually represent the relative size of each market segment. Brand positioning. The concept of brand positioning can be explicated with the four hypothetical fitness centres illustrated in Handout 2. For example, Grunt & Jerk Gym occupies a position that is not very expensive, and has very limited program offerings. Fit & Lean Fitness, on the other hand, is a full service fitness facility with a wide variety of program offerings. It is also fairly expensive. Thus, by its unique combination of the two attributes, each fitness centre chooses and fixes (and then signals) its intended position as a competitive option for consumers, within the overall market for fitness centres. Brand mapping. Now the concept of consumers’ perceptions is brought into the picture. How do members of the overall market perceive each of the positioned brands in terms of the two key attributes? When those perceptions are measured and later averaged into a single point for each brand, how closely do perceptions match the actual locations of each positioned brand? Thus, brand mapping is a way of visually representing consumers’ perceptions of competing brands, and checking how well those perceptions correspond with the marketer’s intended positioning. Brand repositioning. A marketer may want to reposition an existing brand in order to improve its performance in the market. For instance, attention can be drawn to the initial position of The Body Works in Handout 2. Consumers see this business as a mid-priced fitness centre with little variety in its program offerings. Segment I members want just that in a fitness centre. However, this positioning is not very profitable for The Body Works (perhaps because it is competing head-on with Grunt & Jerk Gym). It sees more profit potential by moving to attract the segment that wants more variety at a moderate price (Segment II). So, the decision is made to 1
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This example works well as a PowerPoint slide which builds from one concept to the next (e.g., first show the empty brand space, then add a circle for brand preference, and so on).
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reposition The Body Works. This will mean that it now has to find ways to build in more variety, while raising user fees only moderately. The dangers are that it will be confronting a somewhat more competitive market already served by two other brands. Brand opportunities. This concept is illustrated by the circle representing Segment IV in Handout 2. No brands appear to be serving this segment’s unique needs. In effect, this illustrates a case of unmet demand in the overall market. Since no fitness centre currently fills this niche’s requirements, the current vacuum represents an opportunity for a new brand, or for the repositioning of a current brand in order to serve those consumers who would be happy with standard program offerings but would be willing to pay a little more – perhaps for quality or exclusivity. Based on just these two attributes – variety and price – one would not expect customers to be willing to pay more for the same variety. However, variety is not the only way to provide value. Customers could be expected to pay more for the same offerings provided with a higher level of service, or in a more exclusive context. It is important to note that although only two attributes are represented on this particular brand map – variety and price – other maps can include more than two dimensions (for example, price, service quality, and variety).
Step 2: Identifying the Product, Target Market, Key Attributes (~25 minutes) Have students read through Task 1 in the case (Handout 3). Handout 4 outlines the parameters of the exercise – Item 1: the product concept on which the exercise will be based; Item 2: the target market; Item 3: the geographic boundaries of the exercise; and Item 4: the product attributes likely to be important to that target market. The product concept used most successfully in class is a youth sport camp designed for middle to upper-middle class youth (ages 8–13). Note that Items 1, 2 and 3 are the seeding parameters given to the students. Beyond these three guidelines, the resulting ideas generated by students will vary from application to application of this exercise. The seeding parameters can (and probably should) be adjusted to local market conditions, or to provide students with an opportunity to consider a target market of interest (e.g., minorities, the disabled, single parent homes). If desired, the instructor can provide actual data about a target market, but we have found this to be unnecessary. (See Step 4 for a more complete discussion.) From this point on, there are no specified inputs from the instructor, and (apart from a guiding, procedural hand) the substantive aspects of the exercise are entirely in the hands of the students. For instance, following Item 3, at least 15 minutes’ worth of class time is devoted to an open session where students are asked to suggest the activities, events, settings, and options, which actual youth sport camps might include for such a target market. This is an important step, and care should be given to elicit a full range of potential attributes.
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This brainstorming session (with students recalling or imagining what components might be available for assembling youth sport camps) requires probing by the instructor, but, eventually, a surprising number of potential activities and settings are offered by students and recorded on the whiteboard. The objective is to establish the possibilities available from which youth sport camps for the chosen segment may be developed. Typical elements mentioned are: single sport instruction, competitions, social events, multi-sport opportunities, all-star teams, famous coaches, famous athletes, and so on. One may relax this “no external stimuli” format and allow students to use material which sets the stage for the positioning task. For instance, in lieu of brainstorming, students could be shown a sample of camp brochures or view a short promotional video before proceeding to the next step. From our own experience, this type of exposure to external stimuli is an interest-arousing refinement, but is not essential to the success of the exercise, and can sometimes limit the creativity of the group. With this out of the way, students are asked to identify just two important attributes of youth sport camps designed for the target market. A list of possible attributes has by now been generated by students and noted on the whiteboard. After eliciting a number of possible attributes, students may decide that several of their suggestions are similar and can be synthesised into a single dimension. Next, two important attributes are chosen by polling the class. When anchoring on the two attributes to be used in the exercise, you may need to remind students to choose the attributes they feel are most relevant to consumers in their target market. The following attributes often emerge from the class discussion: cost (from “budget” to “luxury”), the variety of activities included in the camp (from “many sport and non-sport activities” to “focus on a single sport”), profile and prestige (from “unknown personnel” to “famous personnel”), and seriousness (from “recreational” to “highly competitive”). This list is only intended as an example of the attributes that students identify. Your students may identify very different attributes. One caution, however – make sure that the attributes are not dichotomous. Dichotomous dimensions do not allow for enough differentiation. For example, students often identify “coed” versus “single-sex” as a camp dimension. However, it is impossible for the camp to be somewhat coeducational; either it is or it is not. So, dichotomous dimensions are not useful for teaching brand mapping.
Step 3: The Brand-Positioning Task (~50 minutes) Tasks 2 and 3 of the case (Handout 3) detail the next steps of the exercise: developing a concept, and positioning it in the two-attribute brand space. The class is asked to form into four (can be five or six) groups of equal size. Appendix A, a two-dimensional brand space, is then labelled with the two identified product attributes and, for the next 50 minutes, the groups get busy developing their own concept to be positioned
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in this space (Task 4). This step typically produces feverish activity within each group and a competitive inter-group spirit is quite evident to the observer. Each group is allowed to prepare up to four overhead transparencies which capture the essence of the group’s camp concept. If necessary, this portion can be done outside class, but we have found it useful to be on-hand to assist groups as needed.
Step 4: Group Presentations to the Class (~25 minutes) Following the 50-minute product development task, the instructor collects each group’s transparencies (to stop groups from adding material past the allotted time), and the 5-minute group presentations begin. With the aid of an overhead projector, a designated member from each group role plays a sales agent selling the group’s concept to the class. As detailed in Task 5 of the case (Handout 3), students are instructed to imagine that they are target-market prospects for this product, to carefully listen to the sales pitch, and then to locate their own perceptions of the sport camp in the blank brand space provided to each student (Appendix A). This procedure is followed until all groups have made their presentations and each student has generated his or her own perceptual map containing the competing brands. Finally, each student adds his or her personal preference (ideal point) for a youth sport camp, to complete the individual perceptual maps. A variation on this procedure can introduce additional realism into the exercise. Some external information about the target market can be provided to students so that they have a better feel for their consumers and can better judge their market’s likely perceptions. In addition, research data on the target market’s ideal points could be provided to them as a starting point, so the students do not have to take an educated guess at what these might be. This has the added advantage of allowing the instructor to “localise” the market by providing data from the local region.
Step 5: Transfer of Student Data, Analysis, and Discussion of Results (~40 minutes) Meanwhile, on the classroom whiteboard, the instructor has already prepared a large brand space, labelled with the two key attributes and devoid of any data. Students are now called upon, one by one, to transfer the data from their individual perceptual maps onto the whiteboard brand space, so that the collective results can be viewed and discussed. It helps to use felt markers in five colours (for the brands labelled A, B, C and D and the ideal point) and to ask students to keep the size of their lettering consistent and neat when they step up to the board to record their individual perceptions. Alternatively, the brand space can be prepared on paper and students can be provided with small coloured stickers (one colour for each camp brand).
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Next, the groups reveal their respective brand positions (as located on their two-dimensional brand space) to the instructor, who inserts them in the perceptual map on the whiteboard. Figure 1 is typical of how the map will look at this point in the exercise. The stage is now set for an analysis and discussion of the results. For each brand, the spread of individual perceptions is compared to the intended position, Figure 1: Typical map of collective brand perceptions and concept preferences generated in step 5 of exercise
Luxury
Recreational
Competitive
Budget
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as designed by a group. Typically, these “consumer” perceptions will vary widely from the “marketer’s” positioning of a youth sport camp. For some brands, the variation will be quite large on one attribute axis and smaller on the second axis. For other brands, perceptions will differ widely on both axes. The finding on each brand is exploited for its instructional value. Answers are sought as to why this may have happened. Students are asked to analyse the “sales presentation” made by the roleplaying sales agent in order to pinpoint sources of incomplete information or misinformation about that brand which might have led to incorrect perceptions by the “consumer”. Following this brand-by-brand analysis, the discussion turns to the ideal points revealed in the map. Students are challenged to identify new marketing opportunities by analysing the distribution of ideal points and examining whether the existing brands are serving all the apparent “pockets” of demand. If there is an unmet demand, attention shifts to a discussion of the nature and composition of a new brand offering designed for this niche of the market.
Step 6: Summary of Brand-Positioning Strategies (~15 minutes) The exercise is wrapped up with a summary of the strategies available to the marketer for correcting brand-positioning problems. The flowchart in Handout 5 is used for this purpose. Having experienced, hands-on, a brand-positioning and perceptualmapping exercise, students are now primed for the alternative strategies available to them for dealing with positioning problems. Also, at this point, the instructor explains that in actual applications of perceptual mapping the raw data are generated quite differently, using formal survey research, and are subjected to analysis using sophisticated statistical tools that are well established, but that require specialists who are competent in their use and in the interpretation of findings. The six steps of this exercise will have taken three hours in total. We have found it valuable to follow up this exercise by allowing groups to learn from any “mistakes” they may have made in their initial positioning by addressing the problems uncovered in Step 5. Thus, each group chooses to either reposition the original concept or to correct the “market’s” misperceptions via a revised promotional plan. Each option is explained in Table 1. We have allowed groups to work through this task during class and present again, but the exercise can also be completed as a written assignment.
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Table 1: Two Options for Correcting Student Groups’ Brand-Positioning Problems
SOLVING THE PROBLEMS UNCOVERED BY THE CONSUMER RESEARCH
Groups can now choose one of two options to correct the brand-positioning problems for their concept, as revealed by the brand-mapping findings. Select ONE of these options to correct your concept’s positioning problems. OPTION 1: REVISE PROMOTIONAL PLAN TO CORRECT MISPERCEPTIONS
1 2
3 4
You have decided to maintain the same position for your concept, as per the brand space (Appendix A). Redesign the promotional message for your concept. Things to consider: • What did you learn about your target market’s perceptions from the brand-mapping research? • How will you correct the misperceptions uncovered by the study? • What communication strategies will be required to bring perceptions closer to intended positioning? Prepare no more than FOUR (4) overhead transparencies for the new sales pitch. Time allowed: 60 MINUTES
OPTION 2: REPOSITION ORIGINAL CONCEPT AND PROMOTE REDESIGNED PRODUCT
1 2 3
4 5
You have decided to reposition your concept, in light of the brand-mapping results. Based on our same two identified product attributes, label the 2-dimensional brand space (provided in Appendix A). Reposition your concept: (a) Redesign the components of the revised concept. (b) Position it in the brand space provided in Appendix A. (c) Redesign the promotional message for the repositioned concept, bearing in mind the lessons you learned from the brand-mapping research. Prepare no more than FOUR (4) overhead transparencies for the new sales pitch. Time allowed: 60 MINUTES
Whichever option is chosen, one group member will make an 8-minute sales pitch to the class
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Recap of Exercise and Post-Experience Questionnaire (~30 minutes) The first 15 minutes are devoted to summarising the entire exercise and answering questions remaining in students’ minds. This done, the exercise concludes with a formal assessment of (1) the degree of learning among students; (2) their perceived confidence in applying the positioning and mapping concept to other problems; and (3) the degree of usefulness of the exercise itself. A post-experience questionnaire (see Appendix B) was developed for this purpose. Judging from the comments made by our students on this form, the exercise generally succeeds in the dual objectives of developing an appreciation of the positioning concept and revealing its usefulness as a strategic decision-making tool. Student responses to the questionnaire indicate a sense of confidence among many students that a positioning and mapping procedure would be directly applicable to currently encountered, or anticipated, business problems.
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References Aaker, D.A. (1996). Building strong brands. New York: The Free Press. Cravens, D.W., Lamb, Jr., C.W., & Crittenden, V.L. (1996). Strategic marketing management cases (5th ed.). Chicago: Richard D. Irwin. Dickson, P.R. (1997). Marketing management (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press. Ennis, F.B. (1986). Positioning for differential advantage. In V.P. Buell (Ed.), Handbook of modern marketing (2nd ed.) (pp. 18/1–18/9). New York: McGraw-Hill. Huck, J.L., & Overton, T.S. (1986). Situation analysis, objectives, and strategies. In V.P. Buell (Ed.), Handbook of modern marketing (2nd ed.) (pp. 47/1–47/11). New York: McGraw-Hill. Keller, K.L. (1998). Strategic brand management: Building, measuring, and managing brand equity. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Koten, J. (1984, March 22). Car makers use image map as tool to position products. Wall Street Journal, 33. Kotler, P., Haider, D.H., & Rein, I. (1993). Marketing places: Attracting investment, industry, and tourism to cities, states, and nations. New York: Free Press. Kotler, P., & Roberto, E.L. (1989). Social marketing: Strategies for changing public behavior. New York: Free Press. Milne, G.R., & McDonald, M.A. (1999). Sport marketing: Managing the exchange process. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. Mullin, B.J., Hardy, S., & Sutton, W.A. (2000). Sport marketing (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Pitts, B.G., & Stotlar, D.K. (1996). Fundamentals of sport marketing. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology. Ries, A., & Trout, J. (1986). Positioning: The battle for your mind. New York: Warner Books. Shank, M.D. (2002). Sports marketing: A strategic perspective (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Shilbury, D., Quick, S., & Westerbeek, H. (1998). Strategic sport marketing. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
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Handout 1: Key Concepts – Competitive Brand Positioning and Brand Mapping
• Brand space • Brand preferences • Brand positioning • Brand mapping (perceptions) • Brand repositioning • Brand opportunities
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Handout 2: Example – Brand-Positioning Map of a Local Fitness Centre Market
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Handout 3: Positioning a Youth Sport Camp: A Brand-Mapping Exercise
Scenario: You are a local sport entrepreneur and parent of two athletic children, aged 9 and 11. It is the middle of summer and your children are complaining that they have nothing to do. As you list five things that they could be doing, the thought occurs to you that your next venture should be a week-long summer sport camp for children between the ages of 8 and 13. You phone your partner and set up a meeting to develop the general camp concept, and to discuss the appropriate target market and its needs. TASK 1: Using the seeding sheet provided by your instructor, discuss and reach agreement on each of the following: • The overall concept of the camp –How long will it be? –Will it be for girls, boys, or both? –What age groups can attend the camp? • The target market’s characteristics – What are the demographic characteristics of your target market? – What attitudes, values, and opinions do they hold? – What activities and interests do they have? • The location of the camp – Where should the camp be held? – In what type of facility? • Two attributes which would be important to your target market – What attributes might be of interest to your target market? Why? – Which two of these attributes would be most important to your target market? Rather than design a camp and then decide on a marketing strategy, your partner suggests that you design the camp in such a way that it appeals to the target market that you have identified. That is, choose the components of the camp to deliver the attributes that are important to the target market. The task is ultimately one of positioning your camp in the minds of potential consumers, much like beach volleyball administrators have done over the past five years. Beach volleyball used to attract a very coastal market. In the United States, at least, it was seen as a California game. In order to increase interest in beach volleyball, administrators developed sand tournaments that take place nowhere near a beach. In addition, rule changes require female players to wear skimpy briefs, thus highlighting the sex appeal of players. In
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effect, volleyball administrators changed the way that people think about beach volleyball; they repositioned the sport. Your team faces a similar task. Your job is to craft people’s image of your youth sport camp by designing it to appeal on the key attributes for your target market. TASK 2: Develop your camp concept further to appeal to the specified target market. What, exactly, will participants be doing? Learning? Experiencing? What will the camp include and what will it not include? Be sure to give some indication of the cost of the camp to participants. Once you have determined the components of your camp, give the package a distinctive brand name. Consider the package which you just created. How will people think and feel about this camp? TASK 3: Using the two-dimensional brand space from Appendix A, label each axis using the identified product attributes from Task 1. Then, position your camp in the brand space. Your team has now completed the development and positioning of your Youth Sport Camp. You have now formed yourselves into an informal marketing department for the camp. Your next meeting with the team is to discuss sales and promotions to kick-off the marketing campaign for next summer’s camp. TASK 4: Your company has been invited to introduce your camp at the meeting of the parent/teacher/student association at a local school. You are one of several summer sport camps making a presentation to this group. Design a promotional message for your camp. Incorporate this message into a sales presentation to a group of prospective parents and children. What will you say, show, feature in your presentation? Be sure to design your presentation to support your positioning strategy. Choose one member of the team to deliver the 5-minute sales pitch. Your group should prepare 2–4 overhead transparencies for the sales agent’s sales pitch. This evening provides your group with a unique opportunity to check out your competition, and your position relative to your competition. You have quietly recruited several parents to listen to the presentations and to map each camp in the brand space provided. In addition, each of your team members will imagine that he or she is a target-market prospect and complete the brand-mapping exercise. TASK 5: Using the two-dimensional brand space from Appendix A, again label the axes. Imagine that you are a target-market prospect. Listen and attend carefully to each group’s sales pitch. Based on what you saw and heard, tentatively locate your own perceptions of each group’s concept in the brand space. Use a pencil and locate each of the competing concepts with a letter – i.e., A, B, C, etc. At the end of all the presentations, reconsider your perceptions. You may need to relocate some letters as
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you finalise your perceptions. Now, on the same map, use a large dot to locate your personal preference (ideal position) for a camp. (Pretend you are a member of this target market when expressing your preference.) Each member of the group will then transfer his or her own brand map onto the class map. Finally, one member of your group should reveal your brand position to the instructor who will mark the position on the class map. Your marketing team meets to evaluate the effectiveness of your positioning strategy. Use the composite brand map to answer the following questions: 1. Did consumers accurately identify your camp’s position? Why or why not? 2. How are you positioned relative to your competitors? 3. Are there any problems with your current positioning? Identify each problem. What would you do next to correct any positioning problems identified?
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Handout 4: Outline of the Parameters of the Exercise
1. Concept to be developed: 1-week, sport camp for kids (8–13) 2. Target market’s lifestyle characteristics: • middle to upper-middle class (double-income) families • university educated (30% with postgraduate education) • health conscious, achievement oriented • traditional values • child-centred family life • want what’s best for their children 3. Geographic location or destination of youth sport camp: • anywhere in the region of your university • accessible to identified target market 4. Product attributes of this concept: Identify two attributes which would be important to this target market.
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Handout 5: Prescriptive Strategies for Dealing with Brand-Positioning Problems
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Brand Mapping
APPENDIX A: Two-Dimensional Brand Space
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APPENDIX B: Post-Experience Questionnaire
1. What is the single most important thing you learned from this exercise? 2. What aspects of this exercise did you like MOST? 3. What aspects did you like LEAST? 4. How would you apply what you have learned from this exercise, in your future studies? 5. How would you apply what you have learned from this exercise, to your work in the sport industry? 6. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the usefulness of this exercise to you? (Circle one number)
1
2
3
4
Not at all useful
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9
10
Extremely useful
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