IAAF World Championship in Cape Town Stadium
Introduction
South Africa is characterized by diverse cultures, religion and languages. The country does not experience extreme weather conditions with its climatic conditions ranging from temperate from subtropical in the northeast, and interior plateau to the Mediterranean from the southwestern corner. The country is characterized by cool nights and warm sunny days. This makes South Africa an ideal destination for IAAF championships. South Africa also takes pride in Cape Town stadium also known as Green Point Stadium, a work of art stadium (Stone, 2018). The stadium has hosted many international sports events, including 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2015 South Africa Sevens rugby tournament . The stadium has a capacity of 55,000 people.
Partnership
Hosting the IAAF championship requires sufficient resources and support. The event will not only help in displaying our unique and diverse cultures to the world but also bringing revenue to country. The tourism board has played a significant role in making sure that the event is successful. The visitors will have the opportunity of travelling around South Africa while touring the vibrant cultural-oriented cities where they will learn more about our history. The tourism board of South Africa has enhanced maximum security for visitors. In adition, South African Airways has also partnered with the South African sports association in making the event successful.
PEST Analysis
Political Factors
The sports and recreation department of South Africa supervises the management and development of sports and recreation in the country. The government has developed policies aimed at increasing the accessibility of recreation and sports facilities as it attempts to achieve the goals of the national development plan of nation-building, healthy national lifestyle, and social cohesion. The government is encouraging sports participation by facilitating sports transformation and supporting talented athletes to excel in the international arena. The government is encouraging mass participation in sport through school sports, campaigns and other events such a Big Walk and national youth camps. Policies have also been made where the disadvantaged communities have access to resources to their accessibility to sports facilities.
The government is supporting talented athletes through Ministerial Sports Bursary, especially students from grade 8 to 12. The bursary gives the young athletes the opportunity to attend sports-focused schools (Mihai, 2013). These institutions have adequate facilities and capable sports coaches that nurture young athletes’ talents. Holding IAAF championships in South Africa will motivate the young athletes who are being natured by the government. They will have an opportunity of learning from other professional athletes.
Economic Factors
South African is the second largest economy in Africa after Nigeria.. The country is among Africa’s most industrialized countries together with Mauritius, Botswana, and Gabon, which are upper-middle-income economies in Africa. In 2011, the gross domestic product tripled to $400 billion although the trend has since declined to $295 billion in 2016 and 2017. The foreign exchange has rapidly grown in the same period from $3 billion to almost $50 billion, a fact that created economic diversification with sizable and growing middle-class in two decades (Dollery & Worthington, 2008). The country has numerous state-owned enterprises, which contribute positively towards the growth of the economy. In the year 2016, one of the main challenges that faced business establishment in South Africa was inefficient government bureaucracy. Based on the economic stability, the country is better placed to host IAAF World championships.
Social Factors
Presently, there has been an increment in several competitive games in IAAF championship. The presence of diverse games has motivated many people to participate in sports. In the past, a limited number of sports activities limited the participation of people in the games. The inclusion of various sports activities has also encouraged participation even to peoples living with disabilities. It has increased a feeling of belonging because every individual can play an activite role in sports. The incorporation of culturally popular games in African setup such as javelin has made sports more enjoyable and popular.
Technological Factor
The advancement of technology, most sports have greatly improved. Technology has enhanced honesty and reduces cases of cheating. South Africa, is the leading champion in sports technology. The country has a polar real-time monitor and a player tracking system that monitorthe fitness of a player. Thus, this technology helps in reducing injuries to the players.
SWOT Analysis
Strength
Cape Town stadium is among the best stadiums in Africa. South Africa is also rich in cultural diversity; some of the African cultures include; Swazi, Tsonga, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana and Venda. The people are friendly with different backgrounds such as Asian, mixed African and European descent. South Africa produces almost half of the world’s gold, It among the most developed countries in Africa. The country improvement of infrastructures and other vital services. TChere are many tourist attraction sites in South Africa with numerous of them found in Cape Town. Some of the sites in Cape Town include; Cape of Good Hope, Kirstenbosch National botanical garden, Robben Island, Table mountain, Zeitz MOCAA Museum (Stone, 2018), Boulder Penguin Colony, Groot Constantia and District Six Museum among other attraction sites in Cape Town.
Weakness
The government is working tirelessly in trying to combat the current safety situation in South Africa where there have been sporadic farm attacks. However, the government has assured the visitors of their safety in their stay in South Africa.
Opportunity
Despite some challenges, South Africa has maintained political stability, whichhas played an important role in boosting peace in the country. The political change has also addressed the socio-economic sphere. The government has utilized a Growth, Employment, and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) and Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), to enhance the economic growth of the country (Turok, 2010). Positive economic growth has put South Africa above many countries in Africa.
Threat
Football, rugby and cricket are among most popular games. Hence, athletics is not popular and this could affect the attendance.
Marketing objective
Marketing plan develops short term objectives, which assist in attaining the long term performance goals. The marketing plan will enahnce the awareness of IAAF championships in South Africa (Jin, Lee, & Lee, 2013). People will learn different features in South Africa, such as the location of Cape Town stadium, various cultures, and tourist attraction sites. The awareness will significantly increase ticket sales by 98 percent.. The sponsors and partners of IAAF will use this opportunity to launch new services and products while the country can use this opportunity to advertise locally made products on international platforms. Apart from the IAAF participants and the fans, marketing would attract international investors.. In addition, marketing will improve the relationship among 200 member states of IAAF. Hence, marketing will change the perspective that many people have towards Africa, such as associating the continent with drought, violence, and diseases..
Consumer and Markets
Segmentation and Targeting
Segmentation,targeting, and positioning strategies are crucial to customers. First, it is possible to target the right customers and then choosing the market segment to use. To understand the target customers for IAAF World championship, the three market segmentation will be utilized, including geographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation, and demographic segmentation (Valentine & Powers, 2013). In using geographic segmentation, the target customers are based on the existing geographical boundaries. It is critical to understand that customers have different interests, needs, and preferences ( Stanislav, 2014). South Africans understand the climate conditions of the countries around them making the advertisement easy. IAAF World championship is a significant event that brings people from different countries and background together. The event keeps growing by increasing the number of games in the list of the already existing games. For instance, in 2017, IAAF added 50km women’s walk on its list. Currently, IAAF is planning to add a 4x400m relay on its list of games. Therefore, the attendance is expected to increase if other categories are included in the list of available games.
The IAAF World championships is a major event. Hence, it is expected that people from all over the world will attend; therefore, the target customers will be segmented demographically. This segmentation classifies the targeted customers according to their education, age, race, income, size, and family (Zuberi, Sibanda, & Udjo, 2016). Customers with more income are expected to buy the tickets much earlier than those with minimal incomes. Demographic segmentation is the most commonly used form of segmentation.
The target of customers will also be based on behavioral segmentation, which is classified according to decision-making pattern and through behaviors, which include the lifestyle, usage, purchase and consumption of the customer (Valentine & Powers, 2013). Notably, 202 countries are expected to participate in this year’s IAAF World championship. Over 5000 athletes together with their coaches and technical advisors are expected to arrive in the country for the event. The local spectators are also anticipated in huge number as they come to cheer their local athletes and their favorite international athletes. Schools around Cape Town have also been asked to permit students to attend the events; a deliberate move by the government to motivate the young generation since the most popular sports in South Africa are rugby, football, and cricket while the participation in athletics is low in comparison to the three sports. The advantage of using the segmented market focusing on purchasing behavior helps the marketer to establish a much-targeted approach.
Positioning
Positioning is related to the creation of a brand image of the product in the consumer’s mind. Positioning maps help to create marketing positioning strategy. The positioning is typically based on the customer’s perception. The position map will help South Africa government to understand their progress, regardingsuccessful preparation of IAAF World championship. The positioning will give the IAAF organizing board crucial insight concerning the success of the process.
Marketing Strategies
Their marketing strategies can be adapted to meet the changing consumer demands, the pattern of purchasing, and lifestyle. The IAAF organizing body is South Africa can use social media and other platforms to sell tickets and increase sales. Improvement of advertising strategies will significantly help to bring new customers into buying more tickets. The organization can also offer a discount to customers who buy more than one tickets to encourage existing customer into buying more tickets for family and friends.
Marketing Mix
Marketing Mix, according to Philip Kotler entails controllable variables utilized by an organization to influence the response of the buyers. The variables are the 4 P’s (price, product, promotion, and place of distribution) (Aziz, 2017). The mix is crafted in line with the needs of the targeted customers and varies from one firm to the other depending on the existing marketing mix.
Product
Tickets are the main product sold by the IAAF organizing committee. The organizers have used various platforms to sell the tickets based on segmentation and targeting aspects. Other customers will go to South Africa as tourists.
Prices
The committee has placed affordable prices to encourage more fans. Notably, more than 55,000 people are expected to attend the event. The IAAF committee has set a discount on customers who buy more than one tickets. Therefore, the prices of the tickets are different, depending on the number of tickets bought.
Place
The IAAF committee has established various ticket access points. Therefore, they have involved various platforms to sell their tickets, includingonline channels. For instance, the IAAF committee has set up portals where customers can log in to buy tickets.
Promotion
Promotion is an essential factor in the marketing mix because it entails the process of persuading, influencing, and informing the customer to make the right choice about a product. It is done through adverting, sales promotion, personal selling, and publicity. IAAF organizers have brought the awareness to the customers through radio and TV commercials both locally and internationally. In addition, they have erected billboards about IAAF World championships, while setting set up booths for selling the tickets.
Evaluation and Control
The workability of marketing strategy implementation is examined by studying how many customers have complied with the process. It can also be evaluated through scoring the customer satisfaction rate. In our case, it will be easy to assess the success of the market strategy by calculating the sale revenue obtained from the selling of tickets both internationally and locally.
Conclusion
To understand the current situation in regards to the preparation of IAAF World championships in South Africa, the development of SWOT analysis is of importance. The marketing objective developed will significantly help in increasing the sales of the tickets by the utilization of innovative marketing strategies. The marketing strategies will help in the improvement of customer satisfaction and experience.
References
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Zuberi, T., Sibanda, A., & Udjo, E. O. (2016). The demography of South Africa.