Strategic Marketing Plan for Wollongong Wasps Basketball Club

This report provides a comprehensive marketing plan for the Wollongong Wasps basketball club, which is entering the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). Given a limited budget of $20,000, the plan focuses on maximizing audience engagement through strategic marketing and promotional mix strategies. The report details the 7P marketing mix (Product, Place, Price, Promotion, People, Processes, and Physical Evidence) and outlines various promotional activities, including sales promotions, advertising, internet marketing, sponsorships, public relations, and promotional licensing. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are defined to measure the plan's effectiveness, with an emphasis on increasing spectator numbers. The implementation and evaluation strategy involves leveraging social media, analyzing target audiences, and monitoring the plan's success within the first three weeks of the season. The plan aims to popularize basketball and generate revenue for the Wollongong Wasps club by focusing on cost-effective promotional methods.

Running Head: MARKETING PLAN
MARKETING PLAN
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Executive summary
Wollongong Wasps club is willing to start its new women’s basketball games and is going to
participate in the Women’s National Basketball League. However, for maximising the supporters
and audience the club is going to require a marketing plan. Therefore, the purpose of this report
is to provide an effective marketing plan in accordance with the stated budget and financial
constraints. Therefore, the report incorporates marketing mix and promotional mix strategies in
refer to the KPI for evaluating the efficacy of the proposed marketing plan.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Strategy Determination..............................................................................................................4
2.1 Marketing Mix.......................................................................................................................4
Product.....................................................................................................................................4
Place.........................................................................................................................................4
Price.........................................................................................................................................5
Promotion................................................................................................................................5
People......................................................................................................................................5
Processes..................................................................................................................................5
Physical evidence.....................................................................................................................6
2.2 Promotion mix.......................................................................................................................6
Sales promotion;......................................................................................................................6
Advertising..............................................................................................................................6
Internet.....................................................................................................................................7
Sponsorship..............................................................................................................................7
Public relations........................................................................................................................7
Promotional licensing..............................................................................................................7
2.3 Tactics and performance benchmark.....................................................................................8
3.0 Strategy implementation and evaluation...................................................................................8

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4.0 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................9
5.0 Reference.................................................................................................................................10
6.0 Appendix..................................................................................................................................12

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1.0 Introduction
The Wollongong Wasps is going to establish its new basketball team with the purpose to
develop better entry into the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL). In this regard, it is
important for the basketball team to construct a marketing plan in order to ensure the market
entry effectively. However, due to the small size of Wollongong Wasps basketball team, the
marketing budget is also limited to $20,000. In this context, this report is going to illustrate the
different marketing strategies in terms of the 7P marketing mix and the promotional mix as well
in order to facilitate an effective marketing plan for Wollongong Wasps. It is aligned with the
service variables and the performance benchmark as well with the purpose to evaluate the
efficacy of the marketing plan.
2.0 Strategy Determination
2.1 Marketing Mix
Product
The product that Wollongong Wasps is going to provide is resembled with the sports and
entertainment. In this regard, the team management specifically focuses on the professional
playing style with a sense of entertainment that can create a huge fan base for this new team.
Place
Tickets can be available in both online and offline mode. In the online mode, fans can
purchase tickets from the official website of Wollongong Wasps whereas the offline mode is
associated with the ticket vending from the clubhouse. One of the major aspect for letting the

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fans to buy ticket from the clubhouse only is to analyse the behaviour and attitude of the fans that
will be helpful to establish a better marketing plan (Cunningham et al. 2018, p. 5).
Price
As Wollongong Wasps is new in the basketball games market and has limited resources
to make better establishment therefore the club intends to follow a low price rates for the tickets.
Putting more focus on the fans engagement, Wollongong Wasps wants to offer low prices in
their season tickets. The only purpose of the club is to maximise its fan base and visitors and the
low price rate will help them to achieve the objective.
Promotion
Social media is the primary communication tool for Wollongong Wasps as the club fixes
its budget very low. Moreover, putting emphasis on the Public relation and the personal selling
option will also deliver better advantage for the club to make a good entry into the sports market
(Singer et al. 2017, p. 12).
People
The people of Wollongong Wasps club are mainly the players and supporting staffs. It
can be argued by Schulenkorf, Sherry and Rowe (2016, p. 25) that in a sports management the
players are considered to be the main actors because the clubs are popularised on the basis of the
popularity of the players. However, the team management and the officials are also played
pivotal role in course of the success of the club.
Processes
The sport and entertainment services is the primary product that Wollongong Wasps club
is offering to its target customers. In this regard, the company mainly puts focus on the online

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service delivery for buying tickets. Moreover, there is also a feedback and grievance section
where the visitors and fans can report. Moreover, the official site of the club is also resembled
with a merchandise page where the interested investors will help the club to refurbish its existing
establishment (Ratten 2016, p. 167). In addition to this, the fans can also donate for the
membership through digital transaction and the online website has the gateway in this regard.
Physical evidence
The Wollongong Wasps club management is thinking about providing jerseys and scarfs
with the logo of the club. As a result of that it will help to make a better fan base and promote the
club efficiently.
2.2 Promotion mix
Sales promotion;
The Wollongong Wasps club tries to develop an email newsletter that is considered to be
one of the major sales promotional tool for sports event management. According to Filo, Lock
and Karg (2015, p. 177) the purpose of the email newsletter is to update the loyal fans and
volunteers with the upcoming events. As a result of that the fans will get more interested in the
sport events.
Advertising
For a better participation of the loyal fans and target visitors, Wollongong Wasps club
intends to deal with the three-point shooting contest. As per the research of Armstrong, Delia
and Giardina (2016, p. 145) this contest is highly popular in the basketball games where the
several spectators are randomly selected from the crowd and make an attempt to make as many
shots from the three-point line within the given time. The winner will get free tickets.

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Internet
However, the internet played a significant role in order to deliver better framework for
the promotional measure for Wollongong Wasps club. In this context, creating an official
website for incorporating the fans and volunteers will be identified as a strategic measure that the
club will generate in order to ensure the efficiency and customer friendly orientation of the club
(Waters 2017, p. 85).
Sponsorship
As per the research of Pitt et al. (2016, p. 482) it can be argued that sponsorship is also
important for the organisations to ensure the performance and continuous growth of the club.
Therefore, making connections with merchandise and influence those to invest through the
official website will be highly effective.
Public relations
Moreover, making the sports event more attracting engaging the fans and spectators with
the club will foster better advantage for the organisation (Schyvinck and Willem 2018, p. 355).
In this regard, the programs like Half-court shot contest will be considered effective enough to
maximise the spectators.
Promotional licensing
In the research of Shuv-Ami, Thrassou and Vrontis (2015, p. 510) promotional licensing
is an intricate part of the promotional mix that can maintain the ethical and legal considerations
of the Wollongong Wasps club. In this context, it also generates better framework for the
organisation to maximise its customers and selling tickets rapidly.

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2.3 Tactics and performance benchmark
In this context, the Key performance indicator of Wollongong Wasps club can be set as
to increase the number of spectators. In this regard, Sainam, Balasubramanian and Bayus (2015,
p. 103) advocated that the role of the KPI is to help the organisation to deal with the process of
underlining the purpose of the marketing plan. Therefore, Wollongong Wasps club also tries to
generate a benchmark or measurement unit so that it will highlight the success and failure of the
assigned marketing plan. Henceforth, the research will compare between the consecutive weeks
after starting the season. It will deliver an in-depth understanding of the stated performance
indicator so that the Wollongong Wasps club management will get a clear picture of the success
or failure by implementing the marketing plan. As a matter of fact, it can be argued that the
increase in the spectators in the subsequent weeks will mark the effectiveness of the proposed
marketing plan. On the contrary decrease in the number of visitors will be identified as the
failure of the marketing plan.
3.0 Strategy implementation and evaluation
The implementation of the marketing plan is associated with not only developing an website
for the benefit of the customers and loyal fans but also associated with implementing the social
media marketing to promote and advertise the fame of the Wollongong Wasps club. In this
regard, at first the marketing department will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the club in
order to generate a positive value to the customers. After that it is the responsibility of the
marketing team to analyse and identify the potential target audience (Achen 2016, p. 9). Based
on this, the marketing department will create a blueprint of the marketing plan. However, the
financial constraints and expenses will be discussed with the finance team.

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After that, the marketing team is going to decide the possible tools to make the fans attracted
by the projection and advertisements. In this regard, the role of social media is highly important
and the IT will develop a webpage and social media promotions steadfastly. Next, the
promotional offers are also taken into consideration with the purpose to incorporate the audience
and fans in a robust manner. Subsequently, public relation is also referred as a relevant measure
that the sales and marketing team will deliver in order to increase the sale of seasonal tickets. For
this, promotional offers are played significantly in order to catch the attractions of the visitors. In
this regard, the first three weeks of the season are identified as the most important aspect that can
contribute to the process of the successful implementation of the marketing plan. If the number
of spectators will increase within the first three weeks of the season then it will be taken as a
success for the marketing plan.
4.0 Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be argued that the proposed marketing plan is strongly
related to the objective and the intention of the Wollongong Wasps club. The marketing plan is
closely linked with the proposed budget of the club and therefore the marketing plan did not opt
for any televised promotion. Rather, putting emphasis on developing a social media promotion
with highlighting the promotional offers to the target audience and loyal supporters will generate
more revenue for Wollongong Wasps club. Therefore, it can be concluded that the marketing
plan is highly effective and pragmatic enough to popularise the basketball sports in Wollongong
Wasps club.

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5.0 Reference
Achen, R.M., 2016. Examining the influence of Facebook fans, content, and engagement on
business outcomes in the National Basketball Association. Journal of Social Media for
Organizations, 3(1), pp.1-15.
Armstrong, C.G., Delia, E.B. & Giardina, M.D., 2016. Embracing the social in social media: An
analysis of the social media marketing strategies of the Los Angeles Kings. Communication &
Sport, 4(2), pp.145-165.
Cunningham, G.B., Fairley, S., Ferkins, L., Kerwin, S., Lock, D., Shaw, S. & Wicker, P., 2018.
eSport: Construct specifications and implications for sport management. Sport Management
Review, 21(1), pp.1-6.
Filo, K., Lock, D. & Karg, A., 2015. Sport and social media research: A review. Sport
management review, 18(2), pp.166-181.
Pitt, H., Thomas, S.L., Bestman, A., Stoneham, M. & Daube, M., 2016. “It's just everywhere!”
Children and parents discuss the marketing of sports wagering in Australia. Australian and New
Zealand journal of public health, 40(5), pp.480-486.
Ratten, V., 2016. The dynamics of sport marketing: Suggestions for marketing intelligence and
planning. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 34(2), pp.162-168.
Sainam, P., Balasubramanian, S. & Bayus, B.L., 2015. Consumer forwards: concept and
empirical analysis of a sports ticket market. International Journal of Sport Finance, 10(2), p.103.

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Schulenkorf, N., Sherry, E. & Rowe, K., 2016. Sport for development: An integrated literature
review. Journal of Sport Management, 30(1), pp.22-39.
Schyvinck, C. & Willem, A., 2018. A typology of cause-related marketing approaches in
European professional basketball. Sport Management Review, 21(4), pp.347-362.
Shuv-Ami, A., Thrassou, A. & Vrontis, D., 2015. Contemporary sports club branding: Empirical
findings on basketball and value-based conceptual constructs. The Marketing Review, 15(4),
pp.503-524.
Singer, J. N., Shaw, S., Hoeber, L., Walker, N., Agyemang, K. J., & Rich, K. 2017. Critical
Conversations about Qualitative Research in Sport Management. Journal of Sport
Management, 20(XX), 1-14.
Waters, R.D., 2017. Applying public relations theory to increase the understanding of sport
communication. In Routledge Handbook of Sport Communication (pp. 80-88). Routledge.