Thank You

Since we have arrived at the end of the semester I'd like to take a moment to thank the members of my peer-review team from the Social Marketing course. Your feedback and comments have been invaluable in the development of my project. This is a project that I plan to pursue and implement over the course of the next year so I will try to continue updating this blog and I would appreciate any future feedback or thoughts that you may have. Thanks again!!

Pricing

The strategy for pricing for the AAVC is a little complicated because we are seeking donations from local companies that are interested in sponsoring cycling activities in Ann Arbor. At this point we have organized our pricing scheme by defining different levels of donors and specifying what donors can expect from the AAVC at each donation level. Below is an initial draft of what we are thinking:

Sponsorship Levels

Presenting Sponsor ($5000 cash or equivalent in-kind donation, only one per team or event)
• Logo or brand displayed prominently on club jersey (center front and back and on leg panels of shorts).
• Logo presented on AAVC website, brochures and race announcements.
• Team members available to sponsors for use in advertising or promotional materials and events.

Premier Sponsor ($3000 cash or equivalent in-kind donation)
• Logo or brand displayed prominently on club jersey (jersey front and back, or jersey sides).
• Logo presented on AAVC website, brochures and race announcements.

Supporting Sponsor ($1000 cash or equivalent in-kind donation)
• Logo or brand displayed prominently on club jersey (upper chest, upper back, or sleeves).
• Logo presented on AAVC website, brochures and race announcements.

Associate Sponsor ($500 cash or equivalent in-kind donation)
• Logo or brand displayed prominently on club jersey (rear pockets)
• Logo presented on AAVC website, brochures and race announcements.

Channel Emphasis

Because the strategy for the AAVC is acquisition/stimulate demand, our focus will have to be on educating potential donors about the value of sponsoring the AAVC and cycling broadly. Since we are seeking donors, it seems to me like our proposition is fairly low-involvement and the cost is highly variable and relative depending on the donor, though generally my feeling is that the donors will see this as a low-cost investment. There are not many organizations that the AAVC is dependent on to operate or offer our products (teams and events). So using the Big Picture framework I think this means that we have a short channel and relatively narrow distribution.

4P's (part 1)

Product attributes:

Essentially for the AAVC I see our "products" as our teams and events. These are the things that donor funds will go to support. Conceptualizing these elements as "a bundle of benefits" is a little complicated but I think of the teams and events as different modes of outreach and advocacy for the sport of cycling. At a different level the teams and events provide a promotional outlet for the donor because the team uniforms and event branding can be used to incorporate the name and logos of the donor. Because we are implementing an acquisition/stimulate demand strategy our focus will be on 'search attributes' that we can demonstrate to potential donors before they make the donation. Examples of these attributes will be things like the number of members in AAVC and the number and attendance levels of events put on by AAVC.

STP (part 3)

Positioning and the five-box:

For the ideal donor to the AAVC (our customer in this framework), I've put together this five-box exercise to help with identifying the positioning strategy that the organization should adopt.

1. Current Do: I'm not a donor to the AAVC

2. Current Belief: I'm not aware of how to support cycling in Ann Arbor or the impact that my donation can have.

3. Consumer Proposition: Supporting the AAVC is a great way to support cycling in Ann Arbor and even a relatively small donation can make a huge impact.

4. Desired Belief: AAVC is a great way to support cycling in Ann Arbor and my donation can be very impactful.

Somehow this doesn't seem quite specific enough but maybe that's not the point of this part of the strategy development.

5. Desired Do: Donate to AAVC

STP (part 2)

Target audience description:

"Scott is 49, he lives on the north side of Ann Arbor with his wife and 3 kids. Scott owns and operates a successful physical therapy practice in Ann Arbor that has primarily focused on serving elderly patients, but he has been looking to expand the practice into the rapidly growing area of sports injuries. He has always biked recreationally but has recently taken an interest in competitive cycling. While he has heard of the Ann Arbor Velo Club, he is not really aware of what it does, one of his friends (a local dermatologist) just joined the AAVC which has Scott considering it as well. Scott usually donates $5,000-10,000 annually to a variety of national and local organizations that support active and healthy lifestyles. He is involved with a local high school, providing physical therapy services and even working as an assistant coach for the cross-country team when his daughter was running. He considers himself very health conscious and an advocate of sports as a way of staying healthy."

AAVC Mission

Someone had asked to see the mission for the AAVC so I pulled this from their website:

To develop skills and abilities across all groups (junior riders, senior men and women and masters racers) and to give members the opportunity to develop these skills and abilites through organized coaching, scheduled training rides and clinics and a variety of racing opportunities. Riders with the ability and desire to go further with their racing, are encouraged to join an elite team when ready to do so.

Feedback

Thanks to everyone that has provided feedback. Let me try to clarify a couple of things.

First, I realize that I failed to include the organization's core competence and I'll have to go back and append that post. The way I see it, the AAVC's core competence is a skill at event management and promotion. An "event" in this context also includes organized group rides, training sessions, and skills clinics, in addition to the large organized races that the AAVC puts on. I struggled a little with defining this because I feel like what the AAVC is really good at is educating new riders and developing their racing skills, and the strategic assets that lead to this ability are the members of the organization that are experienced and have a lot of knowledge of the sport. But what it comes down to is that the AAVC is best at is giving these experienced members an outlet for sharing their knowledge with new riders through the events that we put on.

My goal with the stimulate demand portion of the strategic quadrant is to stimulate growth in the area of donors. As I mentioned in class (and have since confirmed with the organization) we have almost entirely "heart loyal" donors. My goal is to stimulate demand among some "head loyal" donors.

STP (part 1)

For the AAVC I think that because I'm focusing on an acquisition/stimulate demand strategy in terms of source of volume, I need to be focusing on the main or category variable. I'm not entirely clear on how to define my category variable but I think that I want to change the perception of the AAVC as a valuable platform for supporting the activity and sport of cycling in the community. The risk focus is promotion of cycling. The focus will be on plotting the latent demand, that is, estimating demand for potential customers.

Category, customer definition, other players.

The category that I've chosen is bike racing support in Ann Arbor. This positions the Ann Arbor Velo Club (AAVC) as the leader in the category. Their customer definition is non-donors to the AAVC because the goal is to increase donations rather than increase membership at this point. The other players in this space might be other local groups like MCG, The Ann Arbor Triathlon Club, and the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring society, though none of these groups do exactly what the AAVC does where we do it in terms of supporting new bike racers as they work to develop their skills, strength, knowledge, and confidence around cycling. This is a little challenging because I feel like the AAVC fills a very specific niche and there are not really many direct competitors locally. This may be because AAVC has been the main player in the market for nearly 40 years and has built up some strategic assets and a size in the market that makes the cost of market entry too high for local start-ups to be successful.

FE, Core Competence, Business Objective, Etc.

-The Fundamental Entity that I'm going to be working with is the Ann Arbor Velo Club (AAVC), which is an umbrella brand for the 6 racing teams that we have in development. A number of these teams have their own sponsors and donors which means they are essentially branded differently even though they are still technically a part of the AAVC.

-My Goal for creating an effective marketing plan for the AAVC is to increase donations and sponsorships to the club by 20% for 2011 over what we received for the 2010 season. The timeframe for this goal will be January 2011 because we will need to order the team uniforms which operate as our primary means of advertising for donors and sponsors in the upcoming year.

-Category definition: The AAVC is in the business of training and supporting new bike racers.

-Customer definition: Any person or business in the Ann Arbor area that is interested in supporting the sport of bicycle racing.

-Marketing objective: To acquire new donors and sponsors to the organization.

-Strategic assets: Coaches, existing knowledge, branded events, skill at event management and promotion, existing donor base.

-Source of Volume: Acquisition/Stimulate Demand will be the primary strategy employed. Since the goal is to increase donations, we will begin by trying to attract new donors to the organization.