Analysis of B2B Buying Behavior for Manchester United Catering

This report analyzes the application of business-to-business (B2B) buying behavior within Manchester United's matchday operations, specifically focusing on catering services. It contextualizes the impact of these services on B2B marketing, examining the club's approach to providing food and beverages to supporters, officials, and guests at Old Trafford. The report details the key issues in catering services, including relationship management with service providers, innovation in offerings, and ensuring security and quality. It further explores the procedure of canvassing specialist companies for catering contracts, including advertising, briefing sessions, and contract renewals. The report concludes that catering is a crucial element of the matchday experience, contributing to the club's overall success and fan satisfaction, while also highlighting the competitive landscape of catering services within the sports industry.

Running head: SPORTS BUSINESS AND COACHING
SPORTS BUSINESS AND COACHING
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
The main objective of this report will be to demonstrate the application and the understanding
of business to business buying behaviour for Manchester United on a match day at Old
Trafford. This report will also help to contextualize their impact on the business to business
marketing. The buying behaviour which will be focused in this report will be catering
services provided n the match days at Old Trafford.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Match day Services of Manchester United................................................................................3
Key Issues in Catering Services.................................................................................................4
Procedure of Canvassing............................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The main objective of this report will be to demonstrate the application and the
understanding of business to business buying behaviour for Manchester United on a match
day at Old Trafford. This report will also help to contextualize their impact on the business to
business marketing. The buying behaviour which will be focused in this report will be
catering, and will be applied on a match day against Barcelona, in an UEFA Champions
League Quarter Final match. There are most important tasks that the club must carry on in
order to accomplish the business purposes for them, so that the amount can be utilized in
advancement of the catering services for Manchester United. To become successful in the
football market place, the 141-year-old club should perform key actions that would be
normally dictated by the business model followed by the club, and all these key activities
would help to achieve the value proposition, reaching to the segment of supporters, sustain
the relationship with the supporters and clients and creation of long-term revenue streams for
the historic club (Brown 2013).
Match day Services of Manchester United
Manchester United is one of the major football clubs in not only on the United
Kingdom, but also throughout the world. The club is based in Old Trafford, having the
nickname of the Red Devils. The club was founded in the year of 1878, and possesses a huge
fan base in and around the world. The club possesses one of the strongest brand names in the
sport of football. Apart from the other services provided by the management of the club, the
Catering Department also possesses some unique features while providing food and drinking
facilities to the supporters as well as the management officials and other dignified guests who
are coming on the match days in order to experience the thrill in what is called The Theatre of

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Dreams. This would help to provide a once in a lifetime experience for the people who would
visit the match against Barcelona (Sihvonen 2014).
In the match days, for example, the match against Barcelona, guests or supporters
who will seat in the Hospitality Sites or Box Areas need to be attended by the organization
who will be providing the catering services. The people will be served the refreshments along
with the welcome drinks apart from the water, which will be provided at the time of the
arrival. The bar section is also included in this services and this also would be provided to the
guests as well as to the supporters. This actually would be done by a pleasant manner along
with some welcoming and cheery personality, which need to be possessed by the catering
service providers. The football club is also well known for its world class hospitality, which
includes three course meal and comp bar. This historic club enjoys of having 21 suites and
over 140 boxes as the hospitality options and the companies who are providing the catering
services need to look after all the available options present o each and every match day, like
this match against Barcelona (Dima 2015).
Full dining options are available on these days for the supporters along with the
dignified guests and members of Manchester United as well as the visiting club. The rates of
the food and drinks available would vary according to the hospitality boxes and suites in the
stadium. The members may enjoy some offers and discounts, which would also vary on the
type of membership cards the member is having. The overall system needs to be preplanned
well and carried out effectively and efficiently, so that the supporters and the guests can enjoy
once in a lifetime experience, mainly for those supporters who cannot come to enjoy the
football matches for their favorite club in daily basis (Blumrodt, Desbordes and Bodin 2013).

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Key Issues in Catering Services
The owners or the senior level managers of the companies who provide these catering
services for the football clubs on their match days. This is a huge task as thousands of people
who come on these match day matches to support and enjoy their favorite clubs. To entertain
them apart from the football is the presentation of food and drinks, apart from other services
which includes in the catering services of these organizations. Building and maintaining the
relationships with the club management of Manchester United is the first and foremost step
that the catering service organization must look on. Relationship is a crucial thing in the
hospitality sector. Thousands of people are associated with the matches that are held on The
Theatre of Dreams, another iconic name of the stadium of Manchester United. They need to
submit the overall plan of hat new and innovative things they can do in order to connect with
the club and gain the competitive advantage over its rivals by bagging the contract with the
club of Manchester United. Innovative ideas are another crucial thing in the catering services
which helps to attract new clients as well as earn revenues for the catering service providing
organizations. The people who would come to visit to witness the match of the team of
Manchester United need would be able to enjoy the facilities provided by the catering service
provider organizations. One club may employ more than one catering service provider
organization at a time. The services are also included in the areas like the fan zones and
entry-level hospitalities areas, where refreshments are provided to the people who would
come to enjoy the football match of Manchester United (Dolles and Söderman 2013).
The refreshments and the welcome drinks would include water, fruit juices, beers,
sodas, tea, coffee and others. Separate units are there for each of the types of drinks that
would be provided to the supporters as well as guests. There is presence of chefs who are
cooking live and serving freshly cooked foods to the guests and dignitaries. An executive
lounge is also present where the catering service providers would be serving plated dining.

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Many security measures are need to be taken by the staffs and employees of this
organizations or the employees of Manchester united in the context of serving foods and
drinks to all the people associated with the match days. In the foods department, the famous
street foods are available within the stadium so that people would be able to enjoy them with
witnessing the football match. On the other hand, different types of foods would be there in
the fine-dining packages which are usually served in the corporate boxes. Those may include
the foods for which the city of Manchester is famous for (Pringle et al 2013). A bar is
available on the concourse area for fans. Some local food companies would also be
contracted in order to serve local foods to the fan zones. This would help to attract the people
to come and enjoy some spectacular moments in the stadium. Another plan that the club
management has taken is the involvement of the local community in order to offering food
which would provide fresh as well as organically grow products for match day catering. This
would include fruits, vegetables and honey. All these would be branded under the official
name of Manchester United, and the money earned would be distributed by the club
management and the shop owners. There would be contracts on yearly basis with all these
food shop owners (Roberts et al 2016).
Procedure of Canvassing
As discussed above, the overall system needs to be preplanned well and carried out
effectively and efficiently, so that the supporters and the guests can enjoy once in a lifetime
experience, mainly for those supporters who cannot come to enjoy the football matches for
their favorite club in daily basis. Prior advertisements are given in different social media
platforms along with the printed versions on different newspapers and magazines along with
the visual formats on televisions through various media channels. As number of tech savvy
are increasing day by day, it would be easier to attract the catering service provider
organizations with the help of the various social media platforms. The interested parties

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would be called for briefing about the contract agreements and negotiations. The most
suitable organization would be given the contract, which would mainly be done with a
contract for multiple years. More than one business houses are usually contracted so that the
huge task of catering services would be distributed among them, and no services are
hampered on the match days in front of thousands of supporters along with the dignified
guests and other people. The services provided by them are analyzed and judged by the club
management of Manchester United, and on the basis of that the decision of the contract
renewal would depend (Homayounifar, Mosaveri and Shahriari 2014).
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that the catering services forms a major
and crucial part in the match days of the club of Manchester United, and it helps to provide
some cherishable moments for the fans, followers and guests. Competition also lies in
providing of catering services by the clubs on their match days throughout the England as
well as Europe, apart from the football matches.

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References
Blumrodt, J., Desbordes, M. and Bodin, D., 2013. Professional football clubs and corporate
social responsibility. Sport, business and management: an international journal, 3(3),
pp.205-225.
Brown, A., 2013. ‘Our club, our rules’: fan communities at FC United of Manchester.
In Football and Community in the Global Context (pp. 60-72). Routledge
Dima, T., 2015. The Business Model of European Football Club Competitions. Procedia
economics and finance, 23, pp.1245-1252.
Dolles, H. and Söderman, S., 2013. The network of value captures in football club
management: A framework to develop and analyze competitive advantage in professional
team sports. Handbook of research on sport and business, 3(8), pp.418-432.
Homayounifar, M., Mosaveri, K.P. and Shahriari, E., 2014. Football marketing and its effect
on economic boom. Atlantic Review of Economics, 2, pp.1-26.
Pringle, A., Zwolinsky, S., McKenna, J., Daly-Smith, A., Robertson, S. and White, A., 2013.
Delivering men's health interventions in English Premier League football clubs: key design
characteristics. Public Health, 127(8), pp.716-726.
Roberts, A., Roche, N., Jones, C. and Munday, M., 2016. What is the value of a Premier
League football club to a regional economy?. European Sport Management Quarterly, 16(5),
pp.575-591.
Sihvonen, M., 2014. Public service priorities in transition: catering for minority interests in
the public service media environments of the UK and Finland (Doctoral dissertation,
Manchester Metropolitan University).