Cricket Australia: Strategic Market Segmentation for Spectator Growth

This report discusses Cricket Australia's need to identify new market segments to increase spectator turnout and revenue across various cricket formats. It highlights three key segments: teenagers aspiring to be cricketers, women seeking entertainment, and middle-aged spectators passionate about test cricket. The report proposes tailored ticket plans for each segment, including affordable pricing for teenagers, merchandise and complimentary offers for women, and family packages with additional perks for test cricket enthusiasts. These strategies aim to boost attendance and revenue by catering to the specific interests and preferences of each market segment, ensuring the long-term sustainability and popularity of cricket in Australia. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Sports Marketing
NAME OF STUDENT:
NAME OF COLLEGE:
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Running head: SPORTS MARKETING

SPORTS MARKETING
Discussion
Cricket Australia which was formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board is governing body
for professionals and amateur cricket in Australia. Cricket Australia conducts various cricket
tournaments throughout the year which features both men and women cricket team. As cricket is
a highly popular sports in Australia, therefore the game has high marketability in different parts
of Australia such as Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth where different
tournaments are conducted to attract potential supporters of game. The various cricket
tournaments in Australia attracts lot of spectators to the grounds and most of the stadium remains
fully packed during international matches and during the Big Bash League, which is one of the
most popular domestic twenty-twenty competition in the world.
Currently, due to increasing popularity of twenty-twenty cricket all over the world, the domestic
cricket tournaments of Australia along with women’s cricket tournament and test match series
are losing their craze and popularity. Therefore Cricket Australia needs to identify various new
market segments in order to ensure high turnover of spectators in every type of matches which
will help in increasing revenue of Cricket Australia.
As opined by DeSarbo, Chen & Ashley (2017) the first market segment which should be targeted
by Cricket Australia is teenagers who have passion towards the game of cricket and aspire to
become professional cricketers in their future. The age group of individuals belonging to this
particular segment of market is between age group of 13-21.
As stated by Gallagher, O'Connor & Gilmore (2016) the second market segment which should be
targeted by Cricket Australia are women spectators who love to watch the game of cricket and
who seek entertainment and refreshment while enjoying cricket matches. The age group of
individuals belonging to this particular segment is between 15-35 years.
As stated by Peša, Čičin-Šain & Blažević (2017) the third market segment which should be
targeted by Cricket Australia are middle aged spectators and retired personnel’s who have
unmatched passion for the game of cricket and who mainly love to watch test cricket, love to
spend free time with families and seek to watch high quality of cricketing battles. The age group
of individuals belonging to this particular segment is between 35-65 years.
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SPORTS MARKETING
The ticket plan of first segment will be to keep the prices of tickets as low as possible in order to
attract more children and teenagers for different age group cricket matches and other domestic
tournaments conducted by Cricket Australia. The price of ticket for first segment can start from
$6 AUD. The other features which are associated with this ticket is that it will allow children and
teenagers to act as ball boys and ball girls at the boundary edges for a limited period time on
ground so that they will be able to interact with players from boundary edges and seek tips and
autographs from them.
The ticket plan of second segment will be to keep prices of ticket reasonable in order to mostly
attract women spectators to watch cricket tournaments such as The Women’s Big Bash League
and the Big Bash League. The prices of ticket for second segment can start from $12 AUD. The
other features which are associated with this ticket is that it will provide free merchandize to the
spectators such as caps, jerseys etc. Moreover, complimentary food and drinks options will be
offered in stands for premium ticket purchasers and also the opportunity to gain free match
passes for ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup will be offered.
The ticket plan of third segment will be to keep the prices of ticket as moderate as possible in
order to attract more spectators towards test cricket which is slowly declining. In this particular
segment the prices of ticket for an individual watching test cricket can start from $10 AUD for a
single day and $40 AUD for 5 days. Moreover, prices of ticket for a family of 4 can start from
$30 for a single day and $120 AUD for 5 days. The other feature which is associated with this
ticket is that it will provide complementary food and drink option at the stands during the match,
will provide half refund of ticket value in case the match gets washed out. Another feature of this
ticket will be that first 100 purchasers of 5 days family ticket will be given a chance to watch the
opening ceremony of ICC Cricket World Cup in England.
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SPORTS MARKETING
References
DeSarbo, W. S., Chen, Q., & Ashley, S. B. (2017). A parametric constrained segmentation
methodology for application in sport marketing. Customer Needs and Solutions, 4(4), 37-
55. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40547-017-0086-7
Gallagher, D., O'Connor, C., & Gilmore, A. (2016). An exploratory examination of the strategic
direction of the athletic association via the application of sports marketing segmentation
bases. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(2), 203-222. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1776674812?accountid=30552
Peša, A. R., Čičin-Šain, D., & Blažević, T. (2017). New Business model in the growing E-sports
industry. Business Excellence, 11(2), 121-132.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.22598/pi-be/2017.11.2.121
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