Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making

The setting

The HOLLOW RIVER music festival sold more tickets than its site comfortably holds. Queues were long, the local council has asked what will change before next year's permit is granted, and the organisers are still arguing about whether the problem was the crowd or the layout.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of operations associates at HOLLOW RIVER.

Your task

The HOLLOW RIVER music festival has grown every year since it began on a farm outside town. This year it sold more tickets than the site could comfortably hold. Attendees waited a long time at the entrances, food stalls and toilets, and several social media posts about the crowding were widely shared.

The local council, which grants the festival's annual permit, has written to ask what will change before next year. The organisers disagree about the cause: some blame the number of tickets sold, others blame the layout of the site and the number of entrances.

The festival director (judge) wants you to recommend what changes. Explain how emergency situations should be handled on a site at capacity, explain the procedures for handling accidents in a crowd, describe the health and safety regulations the festival has to satisfy, describe the customer service mindset the stewards need, and explain how complaints from this year should be handled before next year's tickets go on sale.

Performance indicators

• Handle and report emergency situations.
• Explain procedures for handling accidents.
• Describe health and safety regulations in business.
• Demonstrate a customer service mindset.
• Handle customer/client complaints.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Would you cap attendance or change the site? Defend the choice.
2. 2.What do you say to the council next week?

The setting

SUMMIT ATHLETIC signed a young runner to a multi-year endorsement and built a campaign around her season. She has been injured, the season is in doubt, and the campaign was due to run next month.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of marketing associates at SUMMIT ATHLETIC.

Your task

SUMMIT ATHLETIC signed a young and rising distance runner to a multi-year endorsement and built its next major campaign around her season, with advertising, a signature shoe and store appearances all planned. The campaign was due to launch next month.

Last week she suffered an injury that her coach says may keep her out for the whole season. Fans and the media have been sympathetic. The campaign materials feature her racing, and SUMMIT now has to decide what the partnership and the campaign become.

The brand director (judge) wants you to recommend what the partnership becomes. Explain the types of promotion available while she is not competing, explain the role of business ethics in how a brand treats an injured athlete, identify the public relations activities you would run, explain what the handling does to the corporate brand, and explain what SUMMIT's brand promise obliges it to do.

Performance indicators

• Explain the types of promotion (i.e., institutional, product).
• Describe the use of business ethics in promotion.
• Identify types of public-relations activities.
• Explain the nature of corporate branding.
• Identify company's brand promise.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What does the campaign become if she does not race this season?
2. 2.How would quietly stepping back damage the brand?

The setting

The CEDAR VALLEY BISONS have traded their best-known players and expect to lose more games than they win. Season ticket holders are deciding whether to renew, and the club has nothing to promise them about the standings.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of marketing associates with the BISONS.

Your task

The CEDAR VALLEY BISONS are a minor league baseball team that traded its three best-known players in the off-season to rebuild with younger talent. Local media have predicted a losing season, and many longtime fans have said they are disappointed.

Season ticket holders are deciding whether to renew, and early renewals are well behind last year. The marketing team has always promoted the club around its star players and its chances of winning, and now has neither to offer.

The president of business operations (judge) wants you to recommend how the club sells this season. Explain the concept of market identification and which supporters will come regardless of the record, explain the marketing strategy for a rebuilding year, explain the role of situation analysis in shaping it, identify the elements of the promotional mix you would use, and explain how the club keeps its relationship with the supporters who do renew.

Performance indicators

• Explain the concept of market and market identification.
• Explain the concept of marketing strategies.
• Explain the role of situation analysis in the marketing planning process.
• Identify the elements of the promotional mix.
• Build and maintain relationships with customers.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What are you selling if you are not selling winning?
2. 2.How do you keep the fans who renew this year?

The setting

At COASTLINE ARENA the queues at the food stands run so long that supporters miss part of the game, and the complaints arriving afterwards are about the arena rather than the vendors who run the stands.

Your role

You and your partner are to assume the roles of guest experience associates at COASTLINE ARENA.

Your task

COASTLINE ARENA hosts professional basketball and concerts. Its food and drink stands are run by a separate catering company under contract, but fans see them as part of the arena. At recent games, queues at the stands have grown so long that fans have missed part of the game while waiting.

Complaints arrive at the arena, not the caterer, and fans have begun posting photos of the queues online. The caterer says it is staffing the stands as its contract requires. The arena's general manager wants the problem solved regardless of whose fault it is.

The general manager (judge) wants you to recommend what the arena does. Describe the customer service mindset the stand staff need, explain how to handle a supporter who has already missed part of the game, describe how these complaints should be handled when the vendor is a separate business, explain how service orientation is reinforced through what staff say, and explain what the arena's operations have to change to support it.

Performance indicators

• Demonstrate a customer service mindset.
• Handle difficult customers.
• Handle customer/client complaints.
• Reinforce service orientation through communication.
• Explain the nature of operations.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Whose problem is this, the arena's or the vendor's? Defend it.
2. 2.What would you change before the next home game?