Monetisation in Sports — Overused Discounts & Engaged Fans
The problems when issuing sales promotions are becoming more and more apparent to marketers. As mentioned in the previous post, in the short-term, sales promotions will most likely generate the results the company desires. However in the long-term the effects are a lot more detrimental to the brand.
As marketing guru Laura Ries puts it,
Coupons are like cocaine. The first time you do it, it is the best feeling in the world. But over time it takes more and more of it to achieve that same feeling.
These days’ marketers are going in exactly the wrong direction.
Look in your mailbox, your email inbox or your newspaper and you will see what I mean. Everybody is having a sale.
Sports teams, although a ‘brand’, do not have the same external influencers as a normal clothing brand. Everyday low prices is a strategy well adopted by the likes of Decathlon, and Tesco but clubs are different. They are in most cases premium brands with a lot of heritage. Since sports teams come from years of heritage and are influenced by the culture of the city they are based in; the sports team brand has to be, and should be, handled with a lot more care and prestige.
Alyssa Rimmer believes that,
Discounts are all around us, and as consumers, we’ve started to be conditioned to not purchase unless we’re getting a great deal.
All of these influences should play a part in whether a sports team should discount their merchandise or not. Unlike other retailers, they have passionate fans that are intrinsically linked to the culture and heritage of the club.
This is something which sports teams should utilize to get maximum return; one of the best ways to do this is to engage the fans via their passion for the team.
DiscountIF is a technology platform which can assist sports teams in utilizing this advantage. The platform works in way that links the on-pitch performance of the team to the potential reward a customer can get.
This kind of offering creates a lot of engagement and generates a sense of passion around the purchasing process. If your favourite sports team was offering you a 50% discount IF your team wins over the weekend, would you buy something?
Engaged and passionate fans will follow their sports team blindly, dare I say it. Which brings me to question why sports teams are not yet using this passion to generate the sales they desire and monetize further?
I’ve included a short presentation explaining how the technology behind DiscountIF can be applied to merchandise: https://docsend.com/view/3e769bi
Furthermore, within the next article, we’ll be discussing the positive effects DiscountIF’s technology has had on clients so far. Generating high opt-in rates and uplifting transactions, the proof is in the pudding.
For more information, give us a shout at on contact@discountif.com
References:
http://www.ries.com/2010/12/coupons-groupon-and-cocaine/
https://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/should-i-discount-my-product
