1. Name of your client and what product/services they provide
Arena Sports Seattle provides service, facilities and equipment for various sporting and recreational activities for people in the Washington state area. They currently have three locations in Magnuson, Sodo, and Redmond. The facilities include; indoor soccer fields, beach volleyball field, basketball field, fitness gym, and lacrosse. The services they provide include; various sport classes such as soccer skills classes, training programs, and they also provide clinics for people of all ages. They also accommodate special events such as birthday parties, etc.
2. Select which areas of social media are the best match for your client and, for this assignment, a short reason why.
Since currently Arena Sports are utilizing various social media websites such as; Twitter and Facebook, it would be a good idea for them to build on that. Their Twitter and Facebook account that the company currently has are generally successfully implemented to spread awareness about certain events and various activities the company is planning. Despite this, certain aspects could be improved such as their interaction with interested customers (includes answering questions, resolving problems, etc) and maybe increase their activity on such sites to make customers more interested in following the company (provide interesting updates/tweets such us providing live score from live soccer games, etc). Groupon will be another social media tool to consider, as it’s increasing popularity will be able to reach those customers who the company were not even able to target/reach previously (in this case, people who have no interest what-so-ever in sports or soccer).
3. You must include a formal word of mouth marketing plan so include the 5T's but for this assignment you don't need to identify each element of the 5T's unless you wish to
Talkers: 1) Parents with young kids
2) Soccer fans: soccer is increasing in popularity in the US due to the World Cup =
new soccer fans
3) Foreigners who used to play soccer in their countries but has been unable to here
due to difficulty finding playing fields or due to unfamiliarity with the city.
Topics: 1) Individual walk-in hours for individuals who does not belong to a team
2) Great brand new facility in Magnuson Park
3) Coupons for discounts and free lessons distributed through social media sites and
mobile marketing
Tools: 1) Social media sites: Facebook, Twitter and Groupon as means of communicating and
to distribute various topics to attract customers.
2) Blogs: a lot of people blog about their favorite sports or sports team. Perhaps the company could begin a blog or find someone who is willing to regularly blog about a local team (e.g. Seattle Sounders) to work together with them by giving him coupons for discounts or free lessons/training.
3) Company website: I find the current website to be a bit clunky and not mobile
friendly – definitely could use some improvements.
Taking part: Respond to comments, complaints and try to resolve them as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Take customers feedback in and incorporate useful ones into the overall operations of the company to show that the company cares what the customers think. Join in conversations and provide useful insights on a regular basis.
Tracking: Online tools such as Google Alerts could be used or employees could manually search for the company to find out what people are thinking about it.
4. Think about mobile and whether it could help your client. If so, what kind of mobile marketing are you looking at? QR code, phone app, iPad (tablet) app, and, for this assignment, a short reason why.
Mobile is not a great part of Arena Sports Seattle but it should be, as research have shown that more and more sites nowadays are accessed through mobile devices. The company’s current website is not mobile device friendly and should be improved. A n automated system in the website that would enable customers to register, pay, donate or reserve a sports field without talking to an employee would be a welcome addition as currently the whole process of registering and reserving fields/facilities are done only by phone or face to face and is more complicated than it should be. It would even be more successful if the system could be accessed through mobile device.
QR code would be another tool to consider. As I have written in my previous blog post, the QR codes could be used to link users to said mobile-friendly website. The QR codes could also link people to various coupons or deals that is exclusively available if people scan the codes.
5. Does it make sense for your client to create an alliance with a partner for cause marketing? If so, for this assignment, a short reason why.
Yes.
They currently have formed several alliances with various association, organizations and companies. These partners are quite diversified and could relate to the business itself, ranging from business oriented ones such as; National Sports Center Consortium (NSCC) and SportsIT to those who relate more directly to the business such as Golazo and Protime. They do not currently have any alliance that would generate cause-based marketing but I think doing so will greatly increase their brand awareness and would attract more customers as research have shown that a majority of US consumer would choose to purchase from companies with a social cause incorporated to their operations.
As I have written in my previous blog post, I think it would be beneficial for them to alliance themselves with Sport without Borders as it relate directly to service they are selling. The organization works with young kids in the US would also be a selling point since a lot of parents come to Arena Sports just to get their kids to exercise and for them to be more active which is why I think these parents could definitely relate to the cause.
6. You should include ethical standards appropriate to your client.
1) Disclosure of identity and relationship for bloggers and organizations who the company is communicating and working with.
2) Disclosure of consideration and compensation received – linked with the one above as the company is planning to give out coupons so that the bloggers/influencers could actually come and try the facilities themselves.
3) Honesty – not to make false statements or testimonials regarding their service
4) Marketing to adolescents as the company has a lot of children under the age of 13 participating in their training programs, leagues, etc.
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