Leagues and companies have continued to grow revenues by targeting non traditional marketing segments including malt drinks for me, American sports to foreign audiences, and sports apparel for women. Below are two current examples of company’s or leagues targeting valuable under-penetrated markets.
Smirnoff Ice:
I’ve been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs this year and one thing that really stands out are the new Smirnoff Ice commercials. Now I honestly don’t know any guy (well one dude from college) that has ever drank a Smirnoff Ice by choice, yet somehow everyone person in their commercial is a guy. The unlikely option is that Smirnoff is just really confused about who actually buys there products. The better guess is that they are targeting the essentially untapped male segment that they really WANT buying their drinks.
Whether the reasons are cultural or just the fact that guys are usually bigger, I think its safe to say that guys drink more then women. So if a malt drink is currently perceived as a “chick drink” then the distributor is missing out on a majority of potential clients.
This line of thinking is the basis behind increasing the volumes of goods sold. If you cant increase the “size of the pie” because the number of people of legal drinking ages is fixed, then a company must figure out how to increase its “share of the pie.” By targeting men, Smirnoff is selling into a larger base of consumers, and the campaign will be a success if they can convince even a small portion of men to change their habits.
NFL Games in London:
The NFL proposing a second game in London is one other way this concept of expanding out from a traditional market segment is happening in the news. Growing success in the US has led the NFL to look for a bigger fan base in Europe. Though NFL Europe has now folded as a league, there is likely still interest in some fans to attend games. The fans might not be loyal, but the NFL game is an event the same way Manchester United would be if they played in the states. Even if American Football never catches on around the world, there are still 6 billion people who don’t know the game. Capturing a small portion of that they way baseball or basketball has would be a huge victory for any league.
Definitely not too mind blowing but pretty cool to see some stats behind this.
Winning should increase attendance because of the bandwagon effect. Attendance will increase ticket prices because demand increases while supply (number of seats) remains constant. Higher ticket prices means a more cash coming in to an organization and the ability to afford better players.
