Segmenting the British Sports market Essay Example for Free

Segmenting the British Sports market Essay Introduction Sport England is the government agency responsible for building the foundations of sporting success, by creating a world-leading community sport environment of clubs, coaches, facilities and volunteers. They want to create a vibrant sporting culture working in partnership with national governing bodies, national partners, the HE/FE sector, local government, county sport partnerships and community organizations. Their focus is around three outcomes growing and sustaining the numbers of people taking part in sport and improving talent development to help more people excel. Five targets which will see us deliver these outcomes: 1. Grow   More people taking part in more sport   More children and young people taking part in five hours of PE and sport a week These targets account for 15% of the investment. 2. Sustain   More people satisfied with their sporting experience   25% fewer 16-18 year olds dropping out of at least nine sports badminton. basketball, football, hockey, gymnastics, netball, rugby league, rugby union tennis These targets account for 60% of the investment. 3. Excel   Improved talent development in at least 25 sports This target accounts for 25% of the investment. 4. What does our work involve? We invest expertise, resources and both government and Lottery money into community sport. ?480 million is invested directly through 46 national governing bodies of sport. And there are five open funding streams other organizations can apply to. We have a statutory role in protecting playing fields and must be consulted if community playing fields are threatened by potential developments. We provide a wealth of expertise and advice on range of sports subjects including planning, facilities, coaching, and volunteering and sports development. And we act as advocates for community sport bringing together a wide range of partners from local and national government, the commercial sector, higher and further education and the third sector to make the most of their investment in sport. 5. Who do we work with? To succeed, we have to work closely with a wide range of organizations, including:   Our sporting landscape partners Youth Sport Trust and UK Sport   National governing bodies of sport   National partners   Local authorities   County sports partnerships   Higher and further education   The third sector   The commercial sector. London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Delivery Authority. Questions 1. Using the full spectrum of segmentation variables, describe how Sport England has segmented the sports market? In order to understand the British people’s attitudes and motivations about sports, Sport England has developed 19 sporting segments all around the United Kingdom to target its customers in the sports market. In the segmentation process Sport England worked closely with Experian Business Strategies consulting group and analyzed data of the English people aged 18 and older. Each of the 19 segment profiles contains information about how sporty they are, the activities they enjoy, possible barriers and motivations and guidance in how to effectively market sport to each profile. The segmentation was based on Demographic and Geographic variables. This segmentation process allowed them to understand the top sports that people want to involve themselves in and helped them to identify the characteristics of their target groups for projects and initiatives. An example of their successful market segmentation policy is South Gloucestershire Leisure’s reopening of a refurbished leisure center in the year 2007. With the help of their market segmentation data and knowledge on how to market to its customers by identifying which activities people are more interested in. 1. Sport England created a segment profile which identified the largest segments within a 1-, 3-, 5-, 7- and 10- mile straight line buffer of the leisure center. 2. The largest segments were then mapped to show the geographic location of these segments which allowed them to localize the market and focus on specific things like information on lifestyles of customers in the Gloucestershire region, the proper community needs of the region. 3. They identified the dominant segment in each postal code and accordingly produced marketing material targeting at those segments. 4. They identified the areas where the population of children were more and targeted it with the right marketing techniques. Segment Name| | Forename| Population| Male| Female| In Million| Competitive Male Urbanites| A01| Ben| 6. 4| 13. 3| 0| 2,521| Sports Team Drinkers| A02| Jamie| 5. 4| 11. 1| 0| 2,127| Fitness Class Friends| A03| Chloe| 6. 9| 0| 13. 4| 2,717| Supportive Singles| A04| Leanne| 4. 7| 0| 9. 1| 1,851| Career Focused Females| B05| Helena| 5| 0| 9. 7| 1,969| Settling Down Males| B06| Tim| 9. 4| 19. 3| 0| 3,702| Stay at Home Mums| B07| Alison| 4. 6| 0| 8. 9| 1,812| Middle England Mums| B08| Jackie| 4| 0| 7. 7| 1,575| Pub League Team Mates| B09| Key| 5. 8| 12| 0| 2,284| Stretched Single Mums| B10| Paula| 3. 8| 0| 7. 4| 1,497| Comfortable Mid-Life Males| C11| Philip| 7. 8| 16| 0| 3,072| Empty Nest Career Ladies| C12| Elaine| 5. 3| 0| 10. 2| 2,087| Early Retirement Couples| C13| Roger Joy| 6. 2| 6. 2| 6. 3| 2,442| Older Working Women| C14| Brenda| 4| 0| 7. 6| 1,575| Local ‘Old Boys’| C15| Terry| 3. 4| 7| 0| 1,339| Later Life Ladies| C16| Norma| 2| 0| 3. 6| 788| Comfortable Retired Couples| D17| Ralph Phyllis| 3. 7| 5| 2. 4| 1,457| Twilight Year Gents| D18| Frank| 3. 5| 7. 1| 0| 1,378| Retirement Home Singles| D19| Elise Arnold| 8. 3| 2. 5| 13. 8| 3,269| A 18 24 year olds B 25 45 years C 46 65 years D 65 + 1. 2. Choose a segment and describe a campaign that could be used to encourage people in that segment to participate in one of the named sports related to their segment. I chose Segment 5 Helena â€Å"career focused females†. Characteristics:   Mainly aged 26-45   Single   Full time professional   Enjoy life in the fast lane As there are all career focused women in this segment, they are busy with their office work during the week and have a busy schedule. The working women also suffer from physical and mental fatigue. . Helena likes to keep in shape. After a long working day women in this segment might decide to catch a class or a long workout on the machines In this segment the participants in the cycling sport (11%) are less compared to swimming (22%) and keep fit gym (26%). Sport England could encourage more participants in the Cycling sport by organizing cycling rallies and events on the weekends. This could also help out in giving a social message to the community regarding health and environment. 3. Describe the role that Sport England plays in targeting a segment. South Gloucestershire Leisure center is an example of the role played by Sport England. The company is encouraging more and more people to participate in sports. Their web tool methods and using the media and communication platforms is being one of the most successful ways to target a segment. Sport England also carries out its target segmentation through various mediums like Internet, mobile phones, newspapers and magazines. These mediums are used by large audience and therefore the product information reaches them easily. 4. Choose a sport not listed and select appropriate segments that might participate in it. Explain why the sport might appeal to people in these segments.   Sport: Yoga   Segments:   Helena- Career Focused Females   Jackie-Middle England Mums   Paula- Stretched Single Mums   Brenda-Older Working Women It has been proved over the recent years that Yoga is one of the most successful exercise sports and helps in keeping fit and relaxing the mind. As Yoga is mostly a female oriented sport, it could be used to target the ladies in the above segments. There can be daily or weekend yoga sessions arranged for the segments according to their availability. As for the career focused ladies this would be the best form of exercise as it would relax them both mentally and physically. It is one kind of exercise which would appeal to all the age groups of women and motivate them to participate in it. 5. Briefly outline a marketing campaign for your chosen sport. 1. We will start a marketing campaign that focuses on the benefits of Yoga:   Yoga can help cure insomnia, as its regular yoga practice leads to better and deeper sleep. Yoga can help fight fatigue and maintain your energy throughout the day.   A regular yoga practice helps boost antioxidants throughout your body, resulting in a stronger immune system and improved ability to heal quickly from disease or injury.   Yoga can help you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight throughout your life. Power yoga is an excellent form of cardio conditioning, which strengthens core muscles while it keeps blood and oxygen circulating throughout your body. 2. We will use the appropriate marketing tools to reach our target customers and deliver the necessary message.