De Montfort University Employees

DE MONTFORTUNIVERSITY
LEICESTER CASTLE BUSINESS SCHOOL
Leicester City Football Club Consumer Engagement Consulting Project
FULL NAME(S)
[PROGRAMME]
DATE
[Month and year]
1

Executive Summary
Consumers in sports are becoming extremely aware regarding their products and services.
Consumers are now participating, analysing, criticise, fantasize and connect with their
favourite teams and players in real time. Consumers are emerging as brand partners and in
order to leverage this new relationship is gradually becoming integral for harnessing the
acceleration of digital technology. Analysing the intersection of digital innovation with
consumers can harness success of sports teams such as Leicester City Football Club (LCFC).
The current scope of consulting project analyses the key drivers of fan experience for
development of strategies for improvising interactions outside as well as within the game.
Many sports provide platform for engaging their active programmes for enhancing fan’s
connection with LCFC team outside and within the game season and even after the season.
The consulting project will be focused upon Leicester City Football team (LCFC). The
project will aim at exploring the identification and analysis of the key drivers of fan
experience for fan-team interactions. It is used in developing and proposing strategies for
enhancing interactions to connect with the LCFC team outside of the game and in the season
as well as after the season of the game. This consulting project will enable connecting with
sports consumers for the football team and increase their participation in the sports. This
consultancy project by means of exploring strategic drivers will enhance engagement with
digitally savvy fans, which continue to grow in numbers.
English football teams such as LCFC have a fan following around the entire world. The team
has captured imagination of fans over the years and are still growing strong. The fans believe
in the team and has continued support for the club. The top leagues around the world
undertakes tremendous efforts to capture its fans imaginations and to maintain steady
relationship with them. Passion of fans and their adoration has made this team a household
name in varied world region. Sports league as LCFC can gain a lot by valuing and fan
engagement in every possible manner. Fan and consumer engagement had been the major
activity for generating earnings and profitability for the club. The club till date have
encompassed some of the traditional mechanisms in planning for its sports fan engagement
and in development of consumer market for providing its unique club experience. The
consultancy report includes qualitative analysis of risk and returns along with certain
recommendations that can be adopted by the club.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Table of Figures.........................................................................................................................3
Table of Tables...........................................................................................................................4
List of Abbreviations (if any).....................................................................................................5
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................6
1.1 Brief of Consulting Project..........................................................................................6
1.2 Strategic Aims.............................................................................................................7
2. Implications of research methods.......................................................................................8
3.Impact of external and internal market analysis...................................................................10
3.1 External Analysis...........................................................................................................10
3.1.1 SLEPT Analysis:.....................................................................................................10
3.1.2 Porter’s Forces:.......................................................................................................12
3.2 Internal Marketing Analysis...........................................................................................14
4. Organizational culture and stakeholder analyses.................................................................19
5. Benefits and limitations........................................................................................................21
6. Quantitative resources and qualitative risks and returns......................................................25
7. Recommendations................................................................................................................27
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................30
Appendices...............................................................................................................................33
Appendix 1...........................................................................................................................33
Appendix 2...........................................................................................................................33
Appendix 3...........................................................................................................................35
Appendix 4...........................................................................................................................36
Table of Figures
Figure 1: SLEPT Analysis.......................................................................................................10
Figure 2: Premier League Profit/Loss before Tax....................................................................11
Figure 3: LCFC's Porter's Five Forces.....................................................................................12
Figure 4: LCFC comparison with other popular clubs.............................................................12
Figure 5: Customer Value Chain..............................................................................................16
Figure 6: LCFC Revenue Details.............................................................................................16
Figure 7: Organisation Culture.................................................................................................17
Figure 8: Stakeholder Analysis of LCFC.................................................................................18
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Table of Tables
Table 1: BMC for LCFC............................................................................................................7
Table 2: SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................................13
Table 3: Profit and Loss Account of LCFC.............................................................................13
Table 4: TOWS Analysis.........................................................................................................14
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List of Abbreviations (if any)
LCFC-Leicester City Football Club
5

1. Introduction
Acceleration and harnessing power of digital technology has led to several digital innovations
in consumers are being offered products. Sports fandom does not have a clear definition in
research but includes the state or attitude of being a fan or spectator. Sports fandom includes
sports fans and sports consumers. Consumers in sports are becoming extremely aware
regarding their products and services. Consumers are now participating, analysing, criticise,
fantasize and connect with their favourite teams and players in real time. Consumers are
emerging as brand partners and in order to leverage this new relationship is gradually
becoming integral for harnessing the acceleration of digital technology. Analysing the
intersection of digital innovation with consumers can harness success of sports teams such as
Leicester City Football Club (LCFC). The current scope of consulting project analyses the
key drivers of fan experience for development of strategies for improvising interactions
outside as well as within the game. Many sports provide platform for engaging their active
programmes for enhancing fan’s connection with LCFC team outside and within the game
season and even after the season. Sports is the primary platform fore recreation hence
connecting with people with interests can support their community and enable designing of
effective engagement strategies and action programmes for increasing loyalty for LCFC
management to eliminate the barriers and increase participation.
1.1 Brief of Consulting Project
The consulting project will be focused upon Leicester City Football team (LCFC). The LCFC
is an English professional football club located in Leicester in the East Midlands. The club
plays its home games at the King Power Stadium and competes in the Premier League. Clubs
are harnessing sports fandom and sports consumers by applying various digital technologies.
Advent of digital technology has enabled exploring varied types of interactions with fans for
driving success of sports teams. Varied digital technological innovations are being applied for
reaching out to fans and attracting them towards the club. The project will aim at exploring
the identification and analysis of the key drivers of fan experience for fan-team interactions.
It is used in developing and proposing strategies for enhancing interactions to connect with
the LCFC team outside of the game and in the season as well as after the season of the game.
This consulting project will enable connecting with sports consumers for the football team
and increase their participation in the sports. This consultancy project by means of exploring
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strategic drivers will enhance engagement with digitally savvy fans, which continue to grow
in numbers.
1.2 Strategic Aims
The consulting project will target at exploring the following strategic aims for providing
recommendations to the client.
Aim: To identify the key drives of fan experience for fan-team experience
In order to attain to the above strategic aim, the following objectives will be met through the
project.
 Project Objective 1: To understand the current market segment of sports fandom and
sports consumerism existing in England by providing evidence of online fans.
 Project Objective 2: To investigate the current digital fans and investigating their
experiences
 Project Objective 3: To arrive at project findings in terms of supporter engagement
and consistent and fan experience Project Objective 4: To provide recommendations that can enable LCFC to adopt
strategies that can enhance interactions and enable fans connectiveness with the team
Current problems faced by the club is increasing digital fans and consumers which the club
has not yet described in its target customer segment. The club did not yet establish any
engagement strategies for digitally engaging its customers hence it will need to identify target
market segment to penetrate the current market scenario and attract more consumers. This is
the reason that the club founder wanted varied information regarding the market, so as to
attract consumers before, during the game and continue even after the game is over.
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2. Implications of research methods
In order to explore the strategic position of the club by exploration of strategy framework,
three pertinent parts needs to be analysed strategic position, strategic choices and strategy in
action. The strategy framework will enable a linear approach for the client to adapt the
strategy in action. This consultancy report will adopt the framework for arriving at strategy in
action. Defining strategic position is the first part of this framework and understanding the
internal and external environment of the club. The implications of undertaking analysis of
internal and external environment of the club will enable understanding of the various
external forces that causes impact on the club. The external factors and the competitive
factors within the sports industry is essential for devising strategies appropriate for the club
for its fans.
The next step is to understand the strategic choice regarding the club and business model of
the club is essential. The client does not seem to know their business model in a clear manner
though it is already functional and wants to adopt consumer engagement strategies. The
project will adopt an approach through the business model canvas (BMC) in strategic choices
(Birkinshaw, and Mark, 2017). The selection of this model will allow the client to identify
Analysis of the business model will enable understanding of the strategic choices the club can
undertake for its consumer engagement strategies. Furthermore, the club needs to ascertain its
organisational culture and stakeholder analysis to understand the relevant the relevant
stakeholders for the club. A management model can suggest a suitable framework for
suggesting areas to improve can be arrived at. In strategy in action, the client needs to
undertake the client will undertake one-to-one consumer engagement as a mean of
communicating for consulting.
The following business model canvas for the client will enable visualisation of the key
elements that defines the club’s value proposition.
Table 1: BMC for LCFC
Source: Author
Key Partners
o Media
o Advertise
ment
companie
s
o Other
club
Key Activities
o Conducti
ng
matches
o Recruitin
g players
o Fan
engagem
Value
Propositions
o High
price
with
high
associat
ed
Customer
Relationships
o Fan
engagem
ent
strategies
o Personal
assistanc
Customer
Segments
o Fans
in
Engl
and
(Nic
he
8