Commercialization Of Indian Premier League

Commercialization Of Indian Premier League Cricket is just one of those many sports which was conceived by the English and perfected by the world; the Indian Premier League is just an extension of this phenomenon. The Twenty 20 format was invented in England in 2003 but it really took off when the master strategist that is Lalit Modi took it upon himself to take this format a step higher into crickets first franchise based sports event. In late June 2007 Lalit Modi who was then Vice-President of the Board of Cricket Control for India spoke to Andrew Wildblood of the International Management Group (IMG), a company with a vast experience in the whole area of sports management. IMG and Lalit Modi then sat down to discuss this model and finally came up with the idea that is the IPL in its current format. The idea behind creating city based teams was based on the model present in sports in US and UK. IMG designed the IPL after an intensive study of the primary sporting leagues around the world such as the NHL, NBA, NFL and EPL. They examined the theoretical models and also the result and impact of each of these leagues before arriving at the final blueprint. As in most other areas, there were at least as many learnings from the shortcomings and weaknesses as there were in the strengths and benefits mapped to the individual market contexts. What has finally emerged as the IPL design is one that has been meticulously refined to work for cricket.The league structure has been modeled so as to flourish in the uniquely Indian context, and drive the development of grassroots talent in Indian cricket. The idea had all the ingredients to be a success as it had the best cricket players of the world, fans from around the world and a dollop of glamour due to the presence of Bollywood celebrities, corporates and Indian politicos. The IPL was the first of its kind sports extravaganza of its kind, prior to this India has been fed a steady diet of 50 overs and test cricket. This kind of model which is common in the west but a first of its kind in India provided many new avenues for all the stakeholders. The grand old game of Cricket has undergone several makeovers in its history. Test cricket was followed by 60 over one day matches which later became 50 overs. The all white strip of the 70s gave way to the colored clothing and day-night matches of the Kerry Packer era. The Twenty 20 format which originated in England was devised to bring back the crowds in English County Cricket. The game in England was going through a major crisis and the introduction of T20 was instrumental in bringing a much needed dose of excitement in the game. Once again English were left to marvel as the sport they had created in their own backyard was spun into the Great Indian Tamasha by Lalit Modi and his comrades. Commercialization of IPL: Indian Premier League (IPL) has defined a new set of paradigm to do business in the Indian landscape. This was bound to happen someday, looking at the craze for the cricket in this country. IPL is not a yet another cricket extravaganza but an event where money is spun around with many different angles and huge stakes are involved in it. IPL has corporatized cricket in a unique way. It has added a new dimension of marketing and branding the sport in India. IPL is a business which has big economy of scale. India has seen the success of different businesses and the organizations or entrepreneurs running them and now it is the turn of IPL. Overall IPL itself has become a big brand under the leadership of Top management and it is a matter of interest that how it has been done as compared to the failure of its rival league ICL. The Value Positioning of IPL is Fast and Quick Entertainment Which has its own pros and cons according to the test and 50-50 Over Cricket Fraternity. The Making of the Franchises: The biggest USP of the Indian Premier League is that, here the teams are run and managed by various corporate houses or Bollywood celebrities. The owners of the teams went through a bidding procedure to buy the teams and after that, the cricketers were also put up forauction. The managements of the teams took part in the auction and bid for their desired cricketers, with a view to make their team the strongest one among all others. Cricketers from around the world, including the Indian cricketers were put up for auction. The BCCI actually followed the format of England`s most popular football event, the Barclays English Premier League (EPL) for governing the rules and regulations of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Right from the ownership of the franchises to the games themselves, IPL saw an exciting cocktail of Cricket, Bollywood and Business Barons. The people involved in buying these franchises were the whos who of Bollywood and Indian Business Houses.The winning bidders for the eight franchises were declared on 24 January 2008. The total base price for the auction was US $400 million but the auction went on to fetch US $723.59 million.On March 21, 2010, Pune and Kochi were unveiled as the two new franchises for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League. The base price this time around was $225 million. While Pune was bought by Sahara Adventure Sports Group for $370 million, the Kochi franchise was bought by Rendezvous Sports World Limited for $333.3 million. The process was to have been completed on March 7 but was postponed by two weeks after many bidders and the BCCI objected to stiff financial clauses. The second franchise auction fetched total $703 million. This auction brought a lot of attention towards the IPL for the alleged involvement of Union Cabinet Minister ShashiTharoor . His involvement in trying to tip the scales in the favor of a particular consortium created much furore in the media Open Auction for Individual Players: Highest bidder becomes the buyer. Each player has a base annual fee which is on a pro-rata basis depending on his availability. Each IPL franchise has a max limit to spend on bidding for players. Television rights and sponsorships: The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1.6 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%. The IPL signed up Kingfisher Airlines as the official umpire partner for the series in a Rs. 106 crore (1.06 billion) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires uniforms and also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions Television rights: On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of Indias Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The record deal has duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament. This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying a staggering Rs. 8700 crores for 10 years. Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Below is a summary of the broadcasting rights around the world. On 4 March 2010 ITV announced it had secured the United Kingdom television rights for the 2010 Indian Premier League. ITV will televise 59 of the 60 IPL matches on its ITV4 free to air channel. Sony charges Rs 4-5 lakh per 10 seconds, (top soaps charge Rs 1.5 lakh per 10 seconds). According to Television Audience Measurement (TAM), the average Television Rating Points (TRP) of the first 14 matches in Season 1 was 4.97; in Season 2 it was 4.52, and in Season 3 its grown to 4.69. If IPL-1 reached 77 million people in the first 14 matches, IPL-2 went to 96 million and IPL-3 is at 108 million. The ratings have also raised team earnings. Winning Bidder Sponsorships: Indias biggest property developer DLF Group paid US$50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013.Other five-year sponsorship agreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one with PepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million. Revenue and Profits: The UK-based brand consultancy, Brand Finance, has valued the IPL at $4.13 billion in 2010. It was valued at U$2.01 billion in 2009 by the same consultancy. There are disputed figures for the profitability of the teams. One analyst said that four teams out of the eight made a profit in 2009.]While the London Times said that all but Kings XI Punjab made a profit. In 2010, the IPL expects to have 80 official merchandising deals. It has signed a deal with Swiss watchmaker Bandelier to make official watches for the IPL. Official IPL applications: DCI Mobile Studios (A division of Dot Com Infoway Limited), in conjunction with Sigma Ventures of Singapore, have jointly acquired the rights to be the exclusive Mobile Application partner and rights holder for the Indian Premier League cricket matches worldwide for the next 8 years (including the 2017 season). Recently, they have released the IPL T20 Mobile applications for iPhone, Nokia Smartphonesand Blackberry devices. Soon it will be made available across all other major Mobile platforms including the Android, Windows Mobile, Palm others. How Does IPL make Money? Auction of broadcasting rights. Title sponsorship and corporate sponsorship. Sale of Tickets (20% allocated to IPL). Auction of Franchisee rights. Official Umpires sponsorships. How is the Income Distributed? Share of the broadcasting money with franchisees. Share of the sponsorship money with franchisees. Share of ticket money with franchisees. Inauguration expenses. Prize Money. Sources of Income for an IPL Franchise (ROI) Share in revenue from the broadcasting rights. Share in the sponsorship money. Share in revenue from the sale of tickets. Revenue from In-stadium Advertising. Sale of Players to other franchise. Revenue from own sponsorship and corporate sponsorship. How is the franchise income distributed? Franchisee fees: 10% of the total franchisee costs every year to IPL. Players cost. Match fees and Inauguration expenses. Rent of Stadium. Marketing and promotional cost. Fees for coaches, physiotherapists and other members. Administrative cost. Franchisees can earn profit in IPL as Team owners get 80% of broadcast revenues, 60% of sponsorship revenues, 100% of team sponsorship revenues, 80% of ticket revenues, 87.5% of all merchandising revenues, and 100% of all hospitality revenues. Brand Finance, which came out with IPL brands latest valuation at $ 4.13 billion, said that the brand alone has risen significantly, providing tremendous economic value to its owner, BCCI. Although the English Premier League is valued much higher at $12 billion, the IPLs valuation has risen above $4 billion in just three years, Brand Finance pointed out. Indian Premier League would generate revenue of $1 billion this season, thanks to huge fan following across the globe, attracting a large number of advertisers. Indian Premier Leagues brand value has more than doubled to $4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crores), while Chennai Super Kings has emerged the most valued franchise this year, says a study. Ranked fourth last year, Chennai Super Kings led by MS Dhoni has moved to number one with a valuation of $48.4 million, followed by Shahrukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders ($46 million) and Shilpa Shettys Rajasthan Royals ($45.2 million). The valuation of teams pale in comparison to the IPL brand itself, which has more than doubled from last years $2.01 billion. The individual franchisees have also seen a fair amount of uplift in value since last year. Vijay Mallya-promoted Royal Challengers Bangalore is ranked fourth this year with a valuation of $41.9 million and is followed by Nita Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians ($40.8 million), Delhi Daredevils ($40.5 million), Kings XI Punjab ($36.1 million) and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers at the bottom with a valuation of $34.4 million. Consider this. Chelsea, one of the wealthiest, most powerful football clubs in Europe the Premiership giants, who were bought by Russian oligarch Roman Abrahmovic for  £140 million (Rs 966 crores) in one of the most high-profile takeovers in international sport in 2003, would appear a mid-table struggler if compared to the  £246.35 million (Rs 1,702 crores) Sahara splashed out to buy the Pune team. While it is almost certain that Rendezvous Sports pumping in money for a Kochi-based T20 franchise sounds the death knell for Keralas traditional favorite, football, at Rs 1,533 crores, the cricketing venture heads both Chelsea and Liverpool, which was taken over by US ice-hockey team owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks for  £219m (Rs 1,511 crores) in February 2007. It should be noted that seven seasons ago, the Russian oligarch was paying the amount he did for an established brand, one that was almost a century old, while the Indians paid these astronomical sums merely to gain entry into what is still a fledgling venture, which recently began only its third season. IPL SWOT Strengths The IPL is set up upon the T20 cricket game which should be completed in 2.5 hours. That means that is fast-paced and exciting, and moreover it can be played on a weekday evening or weekend afternoon. That makes it very appealing as a mass sport, just like American Football, Basketball and Soccer. It is appealing as a spectator sport, as well to TV audiences. The IPL has employed economists to structure its lead so that revenue is maximized. The more unified the sport, the more successful it is. Weaknesses Twenty20 has been so popular that it could replace other forms of cricket i.e. damage the game that generated it. Some fans will also have to pay for travel to the ground. There may be large queues for the most popular games. There may be some distance between where the fan lives and the cricket ground. Stakes are very high! Some teams may not weather short-term failures and may be too quick to get rid of key managers and players if things dont go well quickly. Famously, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) sacked their CEO Charu Sharma for watching his team lose 6 from their first 8 games. Some teams have overpriced their advertising/sponsorship in order to gain some short-term returns (e.g. Royal Challengers), and some sponsors and are moving their investment the more reasonably priced teams. Opportunities Since it has a large potential mass audience, IPL is very attractive as a marketing communications opportunity, especially for advertisers and sponsors. The league functions under a number of franchises. Each franchisee is responsible for marketing its team to gain as large a fan-base as possible. The long-term success of all of the franchises lies in the generation of a solid fan-base. The fan-base will generate large TV revenues. Different fans will pay different amounts to watch their sport. There will be corporate hospitality, season tickets, away tickets, TV pay-per-view and other ways to segment the market for the IPL. There is a huge opportunity for merchandising e.g. sales of shirts, credit cards and other fan memorabilia. Grounds can also sell refreshments and other services during the games. Marketers believe that the teenage segments need to be targeted so that they become the long-term fan-base. Their parents and older cricket fans may prefer the longer, more traditional game. The youth market may also impress on their parents that they want them to buy their clubs merchandise on their behalf as a differentiator or status symbol. Franchise fees will remain fixed for the up until 2017-18, which means that the investment is safe against inflation which is traditionally relatively high in India. Threats The level of competition that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) can generate determines long-term viability of the league. If the level of competition drops, then revenue will fall. For example, if the top names in cricket cannot be attracted to India, the appeal of the game will fall. Often getting hold of the big names is a problem Australian domestic cricket runs concurrent with the IPL and if players move from Australia to India to follow the money then their domestic game will be hit. This is known as Free Agency. If the franchisees fan-base does not generate income then they may not have the cash to pay the salaries of the best players. However, if you invest in the best players and they do not win the trophies, then you may not see a return on your investment. It wont be a quick return on investment so owners need to be in it for the long-term. The most highly priced teams may not be those that have the early success. Revenues will come from the most highly supported teams. Marketing Strategy: IPL The DLF Indian premier league is a concept sell. It is clearly observed that IPL is a perfect example of controversy marketing Strategies: Auctioning the franchisees. Auctioning the players participating in the IPL tournament. Advertisements on various TV and radio channels. Cheerleaders were one of the most important things that is talked about, foreign girls attracted huge crowd. Worldwide telecast. Locations: the venue chosen for the cricket matches was a strategic choice of places which are named after franchisees, which helped attract people. Conflicts with some media partners and some other cricket boards again demanded the attention of people. Timing: IPL has shown its strategic application of intellect by choosing the evening time for the matches, which made people watch game comfortably. ICL: the rival ICL had been one of the reasons for the publicity and emergence of IPL. People started comparing the IPL ICL that caused the huge publicity for the IPL Opening ceremony gala, Live Concerts. Franchises taken by film stars like Shahrukh Khan, Pretty Zinta and Juhi Chawla etc are the center for attraction, which made some Bollywood stars come for the game. Use of models and Bollywood stars for anchoring and promotion of teams like Akshay Kumar for Delhi daredevils, Shahrukh khan for Kolkata Knight Riders. The commentators were not less than PROs, use of phrases that pleased sponsors and made them pay more. Example: for every six it was a DLF Maximum, for every special moment it was city moment of success. Advantages and Disadvantages Players: Advantages Disadvantages Earn at least Rs 80 Lakhs ($200000) or more per season on average. Due to the tight schedule of international cricket, Chances of injury lowers the tenure of career. Bonuses and Prize Money from Team owners. Neglecting other forms of cricket A great stage to show case skills and compete with the best in the world. Fast game. Stamina and patience to build an innings and bowl tirelessly to get wickets is lost. The top 4 highest earning international cricketers are Indians, with the captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, leading the way with annual earnings estimated at US$10m, Tendulkar at US$8m, Yuvraj and Dravid earning in excess of US$5m. Franchise: Advantages Disadvantages Using the cricket property to promote other businesses. Financial Loss if the IPL fails to take off. Prize money if the team wins. Franchises Pays the team and financial costs i.e. Cost of acquisition. They earn from the share in revenue from IPL. Promotional expenses have to be paid by franchises. They also pay the franchisee fee e.g. RCB has to pay $11.16m p.a. for 10 years. Sponsors: Advantages Disadvantages Spot rate charged from advertisers of IPL. Spot Rate may go down if any IPL season is not a blockbuster. Improves customer base. Too much reputation at stake tied to the fortunes of the franchise teams as a whole. Sponsors get branding and recognition. BCCI: Advantages Disadvantages The BCCI makes good money solely from the sale of TV rights, promotion and franchises. May forget to put efforts to promote other forms of cricket Domestic and Test Cricket. Got a great source of revenue. Viewers: Advantages Disadvantages Unlimited Masti and entertainment. Chances of family fights over Channel viewer ship. A great arsenal to make the case strong against the Saas Bahu fans in the family. Capital costs in terms of additional investment in television sets. A very good reason to increase productivity in office Return home by 8 pm. A to Z of IPL Controversies A for Australia Anyone remember that the Aussies had the biggest problems at the beginning of IPL? There were issues regarding the protection of Baggy Green sponsors and availability of the players with certain tours. Our relations with Cricket Australia were at an all-time low. A is also for Andrew Symonds who got a record price in the first auction raising a lot of eyebrows and people wondered how he would fare in the IPL. Now Symmo is on his way to becoming a desi and no-one will bat an eyelid if any Aussies takes Indian citizenship. B for Betting When cricket is played in India, can rumours of betting be far behind? After the Modi-Tharoor spat, everyone is talking about it again. A recent Forbes report puts the illegal cricket-related betting annually at a whopping Rs 160,000 crores. How much of that is IPL related? The Karnataka Home Minister called the shifting of the semis from Bangalore to Mumbai a result of the powerful betting lobby. Even the I-T raids that are taking place on the premises of BCCI and IPL have a betting angle to them. One hopes that nothing comes out of all this for a Betting Scandal has the potential to be the biggest game-killer of them all. C for Cheerleaders They have been controversial right from the beginning, but they continue to charm the crowds. The all-white cheerleaders have raised many an eyebrows in a past edition of IPL. A row was kicked up over two coloured ones being sent home. No case was filed. Various groups at various times have protested against them while there have been uproars in political assemblies too. Bans have been demanded. But Indian or not, they are here to stay. D for Dada Was Sourav Ganguly a victim of the KKR management? Was John Buchanan a villain in wanting to show him the door? Was Shah Rukh Khan foolish in getting into a conflict with him? Did SRK interfere too much with the strategy of KKR? Did Dada refuse SRKs request to talk to the government for tax favours? Did the troika of Dada-Buchanan-SRK fight all the time? One thing is for sure. Theres never a dull moment when Dada is around. E for ECB The ECB was the other board apart from CA that had a lot of issues with the IPL. Player concerns resulted in Dimitri Mascarenhas being the only signed player in 2008. In order to break free of the IPL, the ECB attempted the Stanford 20/20 with the WICB. That ended in a disaster when Texas billionaire Allen Stanford was charged with fraud. Things are finally okay and English players like Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collinwood have done pretty well in IPL3. F for Fake IPL Player Is there anything the IPL doesnt have? As if Twitter wasnt good enough, you had a blogging controversy to boot. A player claiming to be part of KKR started baring all the details of dressing room talk, strategies gone wrong, all the backbiting and salacious gossip in 2009. Was he real? Was he telling the truth? It didnt matter. He got lakhs of visitors and also came out with a book called The Gamechangers. Fake or real, this is the most famous anonymous dude around. G for Glass of Beer In IPL2, a spectator offered a glass of beer to Shane Warne and the Aussie actually crossed the boundary and drank it! Critics cried foul. Others defended him. It was the strategy break! It was technically outside the cricket field. Its just IPL, good pure entertainment! Out of all of Warnes controversies, the spinner will probably rank it at its lightest. Vijay Mallya must have been sniggering somewhere in the background. H for Harbhajan Some people draw controversies like a magnet. Call it the Passion of Harbhajan Singh, but you just cant keep him quiet on the cricket field (or off it, for that matter). The ICC had rules on what to do if a player slapped a player on the field. That dead clause came to life when Harbhajan slapped mercurial S Sreesanth at the end of a match. A sobbing Sreesanth was all over the TV screens and some even said he got what was coming to him! But still it was a grave act for technically Harbhajan could have been handed a life ban. Ouch! I for Icons They were announced with great fanfare and the IPL and the franchisees clung on to them in the hope of drawing popularity and brand recall. But as the IPL progressed they were slowly dispensed with. Rahul Dravid was given the boot from the captaincy and VVS Laxman from the team. Yuvraj Singh hurtled from one disaster to another and was also stripped of his captaincy. Virender Sehwag gave up his mantle on his own. Sachin Tendulkar looked the tired man in the first two seasons and only came on his own in IPL3 when the whole concept of Icons was shelved. J for Joint Ventures While some teams were owned outright by single company, most of them were owned by a group of people. Who owned what percentage and paid how much money? While all this was swept under the carpet in the first two seasons, it suddenly became a hot topic in IPL3 when Modi put up the holding details of the Kochi franchisee. In the beginning was a Modi Tweet Kochi shareholders are: Rendezvous 25% free, Rendezvous 1%,Anchor 27%, Parinee 26%, Film waves combine 12%,Anand Shyam 8%,Vivek venugopal 1% K for Kochi and that directly brings us to the Mother of All Controversies. It encompassed Shashi Tharoor, Lalit Modi, Twitter, North-South Politics, Lok Sabha, I-T Raids, NCP Phew! Who would have thought that something from Kerala would have brought down the whole IPL pack of cards in one huge sweeping stroke! Sunanda Pushkar washed her hands off Kochi and Shashi Tharoor finally had to bid goodbye to his ministry before his first anniversary. And the can of worms has just been opened. They keep coming out one after another. L for Lalit Modi Mr. Lalit Modi. Some time back you could have easily have said IPL = Modi and Modi = IPL. This man is no stranger to trouble. In fact, now controversy has become his middle name. Charged in a US court, in trouble with the authorities with the way he ran the RCA, Modi has been hurtling from one disaster to another in the IPL. And getting away with all of them to boot! He famously declared in a TV channel that he swatted controversies like flies. But such is life where even the greatest of grandmasters can be checkmated! M for Media In season one, the IPL tried to impose all sorts of media restrictions related to images and were faced with a boycott. The IPL backed off and the Indian Newspaper Society played ball. In season three, it was the turn of the broadcasters. A controversy erupted over the amount of footage TV channels could use and another boycott loomed and that too was sorted out at the eleventh hour. N for Ness Wadia While all the KXIP action has been around Preity Zinta and Yuvraj Singh and all that hugging, Mr Wadia is also an owner and has been part of the behind the scenes action. He came in th

Colonialism and the Heart of Darkness Essay examples -- Essays Papers

Colonialism and the Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, is a work that strongly attacks colonialism and its affects not only upon the native population but also upon the colonizers invading the land. Conrad experienced being colonized as a young boy in a Poland under Russian occupation. He also witnessed the affects of colonialism upon a colonizer while he commanded a river steamer in the Dutch Congo. He relays these experiences through the eyes of his character Marlow who is a riverboat captain as well. The attacks upon colonialism come in three classes: directly, ironically, and metaphorically. Conrad attacks colonialism directly throughout the book. Obvious and scathing statements are made telling of the horrors of colonialism. One example is Marlow and his description of the Roman colonization of ancient Britain: They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind†¦. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much (Conrad 140). Through this statement Conrad attacks the vicious and selfish nature that colonialism infests upon colonizers. Another direct attack is Marlows description of the natives. They faced hardships and atrocities, many of whic...

Sponsorship Proposal

Executive Summary In an effort to promote the h. h. gregg brand, we are becoming the official sponsors of two minor league baseball leagues. The two leagues are the Eastern League and the South Atlantic league. In becoming the sponsors of these two leagues, we will be able to raise awareness, expand our customer database, drive customers into our retail stores, and increase sales. Our wide range of promotions will ensure the success of this marketing partnership. These promotions include h. h. regg fireworks night, scoreboard signage, raffles for TV giveaway, and advertising on social media networks as well as on the team and league websites. There will also be in-game promotions that will include a free t-shirt giveaway, an h. h. gregg kiosk located at every stadium, in-game announcements on the PA system, and our â€Å"h. h. says† game. With powerhouse competitors such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, this partnership will increase exposure of our brand over a large geographic loca tion. Partnership Description Minor Leagues General Information Baseball is known as â€Å"America’s Favorite Pastime. However, there is a vast difference between Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. As a result of inconsistent product quality at the Minor League level, minor league franchises are forced to explore other strategies to attract spectators to the game. Minor league games are known to be a â€Å"Family Friendly† environment, which is suitable for our â€Å"target market. † The season starts in the beginning of April and runs to the middle of September with a 4-team playoff following the regular season. The South Atlantic League and Eastern League brought in a combined attendance of over 7 million spectators in 2012.There are 26 teams between the two leagues and each has a total of 68 home games. With the promise of lengthy brand exposure over a wide array of cities, partnering with these respective minor leagues will prove to be a valua ble marketing decision and help achieve our objectives. Eastern League The Eastern League is a Double-A minor league affiliate that was founded in 1923. There are a total of 12 teams that are all located along the east coast. Their attendance throughout the whole season totaled 3. 8 million people in 2012. South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League is a Single-A minor league affiliate that was founded in 1980.There are a total of 14 teams that are located in the Southeast region. Their attendance throughout the whole season was 3. 2 million people in 2012. Proposal Objective There are several objectives that we believe can be achieved through this sponsorship and will greatly benefit our organization. The primary objectives that we want to focus on are raising awareness of h. h. gregg, expanding our customer database, driving customers into our retail stores, and increasing sales. We believe these objectives can be fulfilled through the promotions we have developed. Most people have heard of our competitors such as Best Buy and Sears.Not everyone has the same knowledge about h. h. gregg, which is why one of our main goals is to increase brand awareness. H. h. gregg fireworks night is one of our promotions that will increase awareness of our brand and also bring people into the stadiums where we will have other in-game promotions. We will also have advertisements on social media networks such as â€Å"Facebook† and the league and team websites. Another promotion in our sponsorship is scoreboard signage. This will ensure exposure of our brand to anyone who attends a game. Expanding our customer database is another objective we can accomplish through this sponsorship.With our h. h. gregg kiosk that will be located in each of the 26 stadiums, it will give our employees a chance to interact 1-on-1 with adults in the stadium and give them the opportunity to sign up for coupons and giveaways by providing their personal information. Driving customers to th e store and increasing sales go hand in hand. Our free t-shirt giveaway is one of our promotions that will get customers to the store and buying our products. With a gift card to h. h. gregg found in some of the t-shirts given to the fans, this will encourage customers to buy a product using their gift card.Also, with our 60’ TV raffle, it will get customers into our retail stores knowing they will have a chance to win a 60’ television. Who influences parents more than their children? With our â€Å"H. H. says† game, it will give the children a chance to compete for a coupon that will give them $10 off any video game. If a child wins the coupon, they will push for their parents to take them to the store and possibly buy a product. Perfect Match We feel the sponsorship of the Eastern League and South Atlantic League are great matches for h. h. gregg and will successfully help to achieve our most important objective, which is to increase sales.The main reason why we feel this sponsorship is appealing to h. h. gregg is because of the geographic location of the leagues. H. h. gregg retail stores are mainly located along the east coast and the Mideast region. The reason why we chose these particular leagues is due to the fact that every team is located near an h. h. gregg retail store. With h. h. gregg retail stores being located nearby, it will encourage the fans that attend the games and receive coupons and giveaways through our promotions to come to our retail store and buy our products.Also, with the sponsorship of 26 teams in 26 different cities, it helps increase awareness and exposure all throughout the east coast and Mideast region. Promotions Throughout h. h. gregg’s promotional campaign with the Southern and Atlantic league, we will have multiple promotions which optimize the chance of creating awareness for our appliances and electronics. Our goal is to have the maximum impact on a large sample size of people. Our promotions w ill be spread out across 26 different stadiums with a $2 million budget. Fireworks In order to draw customers to the stadium, we had to look at the motivation from an h. . gregg consumer point-of-view, which are families. So to accommodate the likability of children we decided to sponsor a fireworks night for all teams within the league on Friday night home games. There should be approximately 12 home Friday night games per team within the league. This means that with 26 teams amongst two leagues, our fireworks will attract families to the stadium 288 times more per season. With an average stadium attendance of 1,300 people, the purpose of our fireworks night is mainly to have an element of the baseball game to market to families who are most likely susceptible to buying h. . gregg products. Once we have families visiting the game, they will be introduced to other promotions inside the stadium to make them more familiar with h. h. gregg. T-shirt toss during Fireworks On firework nig hts, employees of the stadium will be throwing 30 t-shirts into the crowd during the fireworks. These T-shirts will have a variable amount of gift cards in the center. Some t-shirts will possess a gift card in the middle of the folded shirt, while others will not, but the total amount of money given out in the form of gift cards will be $200 per firework night.The $200 total gift card giveaway amount will be divided up in increments of $5-$25. The design of the T-shirts themselves will include the specific team’s logo of which the stadium belongs to (home team). Also, on the back of the T-shirt, we will include the classic h. h. gregg logo which will be proportionate in size to the team’s logo on the front. The main purpose of this promotion is to increase awareness of h. h. gregg by encouraging patrons to seek out the kiosk for more details and inevitably stop at the h. h. gregg stores to spend the gift card as a fraction of a larger sum to be spent. Scoreboard signag eSignage on the scoreboard at each stadium is a key component to raising awareness. Since the scoreboard is often looked at during the game, having our 8Ãâ€"30† sign, which will be the largest sign in the stadium, will distinguish itself from other ads and show our scale of contribution to the spectators. Given that everyone who attends the game glances at the scoreboard, this promotion will ensure brand awareness to the spectators. Kiosk Within 30 ft of the turnstiles entering the minor league stadiums, we plan to set up a technology and appliance sampling center for families to observe and become familiar with the unique pricing h. . gregg has to offer. This appliance and technology kiosk will be backed with game consoles for children to sample with the newest games and software available. This will allow time for our associates of h. h. gregg to fully educate the parents on the deals and value they can expect from h. h. gregg. Social networking Minor league baseball games have a following from families looking to maximize their experience for the average â€Å"Friday night out† with the kids. To embrace the already strong following of the minor league teams, we plan to parallel h. h. gregg with the minor league baseball experience.To do this, h. h. gregg will advertise all schedules for teams within the South Atlantic League and Eastern League on their Facebook page. â€Å"Liking† a particular team or league will keep people up-to-date with their team’s wins and losses and allow h. hgregg to target advertising efforts directly towards fans. Most importantly, the â€Å"likes† generated from fans liking their favorite team will ultimately go toward the h. h. gregg corporation to help advertising exposure on Facebook. The Facebook algorithm allows for businesses that have a high number of likes to be more easily searchable and have a higher presence onFacebook as well. The most important concept of posting team schedules and activities on h. h. gregg’s Facebook pages is to create traffic to the page, as well as â€Å"likes,† promote further promotions like fireworks and tech sampling, and lastly, make h. h. gregg in these regions synonymous with minor league baseball to create awareness. Website Advertisement & Commercials H. h. gregg will have advertisements and commercials on the Eastern League and South Atlantic Leagues Websites as well as on all 26 team websites. The advertisements will allow consumers who are interested in h. . gregg's products click directly to there web site, which is www. hhgregg. com. The purpose of these advertisements is to increase awareness of h. h. gregg's products. Having direct links to h. h. gregg's website will also help increase the number of times the site is viewed. This should get more potential customers interested in h. h. gregg's products and increase online sales. As h. h. gregg's Marketing Team, we want to create a commercial for the Eastern Leag ue and a separate commercial for the South Atlantic League.This will allow the fans visiting the website recognize the players from there local leagues and teams. We will not show our commercial on TV because minor league baseball games are typically not shown on television. Instead, we are choosing to show our commercial over the Internet where the minor league teams are advertised. This is also a cheaper rout and allows us to reach more Eastern League and South Atlantic League Fans. h. h. Says h. h. Says is an in-game promotion that is similar to the kids game â€Å"Simon Says†. The marketing team will select 5 kids out of the crowd to play â€Å"h. . Says† on the field near the home teams dugout after the 5th inning is complete. The winner will receive a $10. 00 gift certificate toward any video game. The winner can use gift certificate at any h. h. gregg store. The gift certificate will expire in 14 days which will give kids and parents enough time to get to there local h. h. gregg store. The purpose of this promotion is for fans to become more aware of h. h. gregg. The winner of â€Å"h. h. Says† will be excited about their gift certificate and urging parents to take them to a store so they can use there gift certificate.This will help get more potential buyers into the stores, as well as buying our products, even if it is partially paid with a gift certificate. 60† TV Raffle Two 60-inch TVs will be raffled off per team. Since there are 26 teams total, we will be raffling off a total of 52 60-inch TVs. Any fan who attends a minor league game in the Eastern League or the South Atlantic League can enter to win. On the back of there ticket stub will be a information sheet asking the fans name, address, email, and phone number. The first TV per team will be given out on July 1st, 2013 which is about the midseason point.The second TV per team will be given out on September 20th, 2013 which is at the end of the season. Everyone who en ters the raffle will be put in our customer database to receive coupons and sale papers. The purpose of the 60-inch TV raffle promotion is to get potential customers to h. h. gregg stores. Once they are in the store, there is a possibility they might stay, look around, and purchase items. This promotion also helps us expand and build our customer database so we can keep more people informed about our products as well as offer them special coupons.Announcements Announcements about h. h. greggs products and promotions in the stadium will be made before and various times throughout the game. Information about our h. h. gregg Kiosk will be announced before each game and after the 1st inning. Information about h. h. gregg fireworks night will be announced before each game and after the 2nd inning is complete. This is one of our most heavily advertised promotions; therefore, we want to announce it early so that we can make sure the fans who are late hear it as well as the fans who want to leave early.Information about the 60-inch TV raffle will be announced before the game and again after the 3rd inning. The â€Å"h. h. Says† game will be announced as it is being performed on the field after the 5th inning. Information about how to get to the teams social media page and website will also be announced. We want people to visit these websites because this is where our commercial will be located. The purpose of these advertisements is to build awareness of h. h. gregg’s promotions with the Eastern League and the South Atlantic League. Measuring Return on Investment: Fireworks NightFriday Night Fireworks’ success as a promotion will be measured in terms of the number of fans that are exposed to our brand through its association with the event. More specifically, the number of tickets sold for a given fireworks night represents the number of fans made aware of h. h. gregg, increasing brand exposure. Comparisons drawn between attendance numbers on Frid ay night games that do not feature fireworks and those that do will help determine how many fans are more likely to attend games featuring the post-game show, and as a result are exposed to our brand. Free T-ShirtThe lucky fans that catch one of our free T-shirts with attached gift certificates will be more inclined to come to one of our stores than if they had not received such giveaways. Therefore, the total redeemed coupons will tell us how many customers were brought into h. h. gregg as a result of this specific promotional activity. Furthermore, the number of sales garnered as a result of the promotion can also be quantified by the amount of redeemed coupons. Scoreboard Signs Similar to fireworks night, measuring ROI for our on field signage will be done in terms of increased awareness, more specifically attendance numbers.The amount of paid attendants for a given game (or the average for a season) can also be used to display the amount of people that will be exposed to our bra nd through the scoreboard signage. Because of its strategic placement, the chance that the vast majority of attendants will see our sign is much greater (since the scoreboard is often an area that fans turn their attention to throughout the course of a game). Social Media Placing our advertisement on social media sites, more specifically team and league Facebook pages, gives us the opportunity to run our ad 24/7, as opposed to traditional TV run ads.To measure such exposure we can use the amount of â€Å"likes† that our ads receive on the team/league Facebook page(s). In addition, because our ad will be viewed by all those that visit the page, the number of hits a page containing our ad(s) receives is also indicative of the approximate number of views for said ad(s). These measurements also are specific to increasing awareness for our brand. Team/League Website Ads Similar to social media, the implementation of our ads on team and league websites will allow the commercial to be more likely to reach a greater amount of potential consumers.The exposure to our brand through our ads can also be measured by totaling the number of hits the websites we are advertising on receive. In addition to such info, we will also recognize the amount of people that are drawn to h. h. gregg’s website by our ads with the number of â€Å"clicks† our ad(s) receive. In-Game Kiosks The h. h. gregg informational kiosk is aimed at serving more than one objective, the first being the increase in awareness. Although a ticket sales count may tell how many people could possibly visit our kiosk, such a statistic cannot be proven or verified easily.Therefore, we decided to use the e-mail sign up sheet provided at each kiosk as an indication of how many people definitely came to our kiosk, and as a result realized an increase in awareness for h. h. gregg and our offerings. The sign up sheet will be an exact measure of the kiosk’s success in adding to our existing ma rketing database, which will be done by counting the number of e-mails collected from any given game (or season total). â€Å"h. h. says† The family-friendly â€Å"hh says† promotion serves all of our objectives in different ways that can be explained through fan attendance and recorded sales information.Just as with many of the prior promotions that increased awareness, the â€Å"h. h. Says† event’s ability to do so can be measured through the amount of tickets sold to games featuring said event. The children that are lucky enough to receive the video game discount prize will more than likely use the discounts when they make a purchase; the total sales recorded as involving the discount coupon(s) received from this promotion gives us an idea of the increase in sales resulting from this promotion.This number also gives us a rough estimate of the amount of consumers that set foot in our store because of the â€Å"h. h. Says† contest. 60’ Tele vision Giveaway The television giveaway promotion is supposed to get more people into our actual store and simultaneously contribute to our database marketing system. To explain further, each ticket representing a raffle ticket will include an area for personal information of the respective ticket buyer to be submitted with the â€Å"raffle† ticket in-store.By making it necessary for the raffle tickets to be dropped in one of our locations rather than allowing online submission will force consumers to visit our store, the total being measured by the amount of tickets that were submitted for our drawing. In-Game Announcements The announcement of our affiliation with the Eastern League, along with the promotional announcements, will serve the purpose of increasing fans’ awareness of not only our brand itself but our offerings at the stadium as well.Evaluation of success in doing-so will be on the basis of total fan attendance, and more specifically fan attendance for giv en promotions on their designated night(s). For example, if attendance is usually higher on fireworks night than a night that does not offer the post-game show, then exposure benefits will also change in accordance since we are measuring success through attendance. Pricing (See Exhibit A for a more detailed budget) Establishing h. h. gregg’s new partnership with the Eastern League and South Atlantic League is allotted a $2 million budget.The following shows the cost of each component associated with this new partnership: Budget Per Team * h. h. gregg Fireworks Night: $40,000 * Scoreboard Sign: $8,000 * h. h. gregg Kiosk: $8,800 * Social Media, Website ; Commercial: $7,000 * h. h. Says: $680 * 60† TV Raffle: $2,000 * T-Shirt Shooting: $6,000 * Announcements: $2,000 Total: $74,480 Total Portion of Budget: $1,936,480 Budget For Everyone * Social Media and Website- $8,000 * Playoff and Extra Fund- $55,520 Total Portion of Budget: $63,520 Exhibit A

The Italian Mob And The Russian Mafia - 1323 Words

When people think of organized crime they think of the Italian mob and the Russian mafia. They are the ones that they see in movies and on television, and the ones that they hear about the most. However, they were created a couple centuries after their Asian counterparts, the Yakuza in Japan, and the Triads in China. These Asian syndicates were founded in the sixteenth and seventeenth century and consisted of merchants and other people in what was basically the middle class. They were just groups of poorer people who were just looking for protection or were trying to help other people. The first organized crime syndicates were a kind of Robin Hood, they helped the poor. They weren’t big or powerful, and they didn’t have large numbers. The†¦show more content†¦The heaviest presence is in New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago. The most well-known group though, is still the Italian Mafia. The Italian Mafia in the U.S. can trace its origins all the way back to the Sicilian Mafia which was founded in Sicily during the 1800’s (Italian Organized Crime). After thousands of years of different armies with different nationalities conquering Italy and exploiting its people, the Sicilians became to be more clannish and family focused. Originally they were just resistance fighters that were protecting their friends and family. They were relied on for protection, justice, and survival. Nobody cared if they got money from it because it came from the oppressive authorities. Members of these groups were known as â€Å"Men of Honor† and they were well respected and even admired because they looked out for their family and kept silent sometimes even unto death. They didn’t become an organized crime group until the 1920’s however (Italian Organized Crime). It was around this same time that the US began to see what later became La Cosa Nostra or â€Å"our th ing,† better known as the American Mafia which was aided by the â€Å"thousands of Italian organized crime figures, mostly Sicilian Mafiosi† who came to the United States illegally (Italian Organized Crime). The modern American Mafia is credited to Charles â€Å"Lucky† Luciano who came over in the 1920’s (Italian Organized Crime). Luciano structured La Cosa Nostra just like their SicilianShow MoreRelatedBook Report on The New Ethnic Mob by William Kleinknecht Essay1470 Words   |  6 PagesBook Report on The New Ethnic Mob by William Kleinknecht The New Ethic Mob by William Kleinknecht explores how the current criminals involved in organized crime are no longer just the Italians. He could be Cuban, Chinese, Russian, African-American, Haitian, or Jamaican. These are the new breed of more sophisticated and more brutal organized criminals. 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