Cooperstown Strategic Marketing Plan

HRM TEAM Marketing 20100

Juan Aguila, Amanda Berusch, Zach Gifford, Sarah Haley, Garrett Schmelling
Strategic Marketing
Planning Project
Baseball Hall of Fame

May 1st, 2015 HRM TEAM 2

Website Mission and Vision Statements
Mission: Creating a far-‐‑reaching, interactive experience to develop relationships with
members, visitors and fans.
Vision: Create a cutting-‐‑edge, comfortable and enhancing experience.
Millennial Research
The Millennial generation
accounts for the largest share of the
United States population at 24.5% (20-‐‑
37 years old) or 80 million people. This
age group is at a critical life stage,
experiencing life influencing events
such as graduating from college,
entering serious relationships, having
children, establishing a career, or
meeting their first significant other. The
millennial generation is split between two life stages and the two should not be taken as
the same. (Mintel)
Millennials have been affected by racial and cultural inclusion, shaped by the
introduction and adoption of technologies that have disrupted industries, and radically
changed the way consumers communicate and interact.
Young Millennials, in general, spend less than old Millennials do, but not on
education. Young Millennials have a lower household median income and annual
expenditures. Older ones spend more than all adults on alcoholic beverages and apparel.
A majority of Millennials prefer to spend leisure time online, are inclined to think
mobile devices are essential to leisure planning, and have a hard time separating
themselves from their mobile phones even when they are having fun doing something
else.


More than any other factor, Millennials desire to multitask drives their leisure
time technology usage. 49% say that they spend more time reading news and
entertainment online rather than reading books, newspapers or magazines. 57% of
Millennials say they prefer to spend their leisure time online. (Mintel).

Web Comparison
In the beginning stages of planning the Hall of Fame website redesign, we
compared the website to other Hall of Fame websites as well a history museum and an
amusement park. Through these comparisons, we were able to get a better idea of what
changes will make the Hall’s website more competitive. The Pro Football Hall of Fame
website had a layout similar to ESPN, which we believe would be appealing to visitors
who already frequenting these other sites. Also, it had eye-‐‑catching graphics that lead to
their most important links, making the website generally easy to navigate. However, the
website becomes overwhelming due to the high amount of information available. The
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was a very boring website with few exciting
features and a bland color scheme. Furthermore, their poorly designed website had no
search feature, making research difficult. This points to the importance redesigning the
Hall website to be user-‐‑friendly. The Hockey Hall of Fame had a layout similar to other
sports websites, but attempted to display too much information on the front page,
overwhelming first time visitors. However, we liked the Hockey Hall of Fame’s


seemingly constant updates from their social media feeds. We examined Universal
Studios website to get a wider range of ideas. This site did a good job of effectively
promoting visits to their physical location with simple but exciting advertisements for
their attractions on every page. However, this site did little to interact with its users and
in fact, most of the tabs took visitors to completely different websites. Finally, we
examined the Minnesota History Center, which showcased the danger of attempting to
portray too much information, thus creating an overwhelming and boring site. However,
they did give each exhibit’s online page unique settings, which helped to display
different types of information and exhibits properly. From this comparison analysis, it is
clear that if the Hall takes times to redesign the website with visitors in mind, they will
have little competition from similar museum leisure activity websites.
Web Analytics
The web analytics for the Baseball Hall of Fame website give telling insight as to
who is visiting the site and what type of consumer good the site is. In 2014, there were
over 3 million homepage views, from over 600,000 users. The most visited pages of the
site were the Hall hours and admission, Induction weekend, and the Hall of Fame player
biographies. Overall, the entire site received 6.4 million page-‐‑views from over 2 million
users. Of these 2 million users, approximately 1.7 million were new to the site, while the
remaining 15% were returning users.
The devices through which the website was accessed show that over 50% of the
visits came via a desktop computer or laptop, compared to less than 30% who accessed
the site via mobile devices. This is a consequence of failing to reach the millennial market,
which would be more likely to access the site through smartphones. The session sources
illustrate that the site is an unsought good: approximately 80% of website visits began
with a search engine, compared to only 14% of visitors directly accessing the site. This
shows that most consumers are likely unaware of the Hall’s website or how to access it.
SWOT Analysis
From personal observations and further research, we came up with a PEST and
SWOT analysis for the Hall. We found that the Hall and website have some great existing


features. While Cooperstown is not very diverse, the Hall takes advantage of the
demographics of New York City and incorporates many cultural events into the
museum: ¡Viva Baseball!, Pride and Passion: The African-‐‑American Baseball Experience,
and Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball to name just a few. Additionally the site’s
strengths include its ABNER library, which allows for access to huge amounts of baseball
information and data for research; connection to several social media platforms, such as
Facebook and Twitter; a competitive online store where fans can buy official
memorabilia; and large, eye-‐‑catching graphics.
However, the Hall and website must do a lot to improve before they can become
attractive destinations to older Millennials. First, Cooperstown is hours away from major
tri-‐‑state area cities, making it difficult to travel to. Not only is it hard to reach, but also the
visit to the Hall lasts only a couple of hours, turning off potential visitors, who would be
more willing to make the trek up to Cooperstown if the visit was a full day. The Hall also
fails to integrate technology and interactive exhibits into its museums, which are
increasingly attractive features to Millennials. After surveying others to understand their
ideas, many believed that the website does not have a clear focal point, it is hard to
navigate and has an excess of information. Especially displeasing is the lack of interaction
with online visitors, as there are no surveys, activities, or other user input. Overall, it
seems quite outdated and fails to attract this younger generation of people. Hopefully,
with a few improvements and the help of HRM Marketing’s recommendations, the Hall
can optimize its yearly visitors.
Externally, HRM Marketing has found some opportunities the Hall can capitalize
on. Households in the US earning $100,000 or more have grown steadily and after the
recession’s toll on disposable income, per capita disposable income is actually expected
to rise within the next five years (IBIS World, 2014). Essentially, income put aside for
leisure is rising and will allow the Hall to increase its number of visitors if it markets
itself correctly. Therefore, the Hall should market itself mostly to higher income families
and individuals who are willing to pay for expensive tickets and special day events.
According to the New York Times, tourism peaked in New York last year, reaching 56.4
million domestic and international visitors to New York City alone (McGeehan, 2015). In
general, entertainment is the third thing American tourists spend their money on, which


leaves the Hall in a very good position to reap large profits. In addition, the Hall has
received a great amount of support from the “I Love NY” campaign, which promotes
New York tourism. The campaign has also partnered with “Port Authority and MTA to
promote Upstate NY tourism destinations,” which would effectively increase the amount
of city dwellers and other tourists willing to visit the Hall (“Governor Cuomo Launches
New York’s Largest Tourism Campaign in Decades, 2013). Another opportunity is the
mass Millennial use of technology. There is a large Millennial population that is very
familiar with technology already. A study found that 89% of those aged 18-‐‑29 and 82% of
those aged 30-‐‑49 who use the Internet, also use social media sites. Therefore, if the Hall
regularly updated its social media to promote its exhibits and share interesting baseball
news, people aged 18-‐‑49 would be more likely visit the website (“Social Networking Fact
Sheet, 2014). While the Hall does have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, most
of the same information is shared on all three forms of social media. Since the three
attract different interests and people, the Hall should focus on differentiating them.
Additionally, the introduction of Snapchat in 2012 has had an incredible surge with
younger Millennials, and “researcher comScore estimates 27 million people used the app
on iPhones and Android phones in June” (Tan, et. al., 2014). This opens the possibility of
advertising through Snapchat, thus reaching Millennials across the globe. The
opportunities presented for the Baseball Hall of Fame are vast and should be seriously
considered.
Unfortunately, there are still many outside factors that pose threats to the Hall.
Due to the Hall’s location, it reaches a small market and finds itself in a difficult position
to draw repeat visitors, due to its rural location. Another issue it faces is the fact that it
competes with various entertainment options in the area, such as water and theme parks,
distilleries, mountain resorts, and historic sites. The Hall is currently seen as an unsought
good, and if it fails to promote itself correctly, tourists will turn to its competitors. A
problem the website may face if it offers too much free information is the number general
museum visits may suffer. The other outside issue with the website is the existence of
many other sports hall of fame museum websites that have captured the Millennial
market more effectively with their interactive features and modern graphics.


Market Segmentation Process
There are many approaches to marketing to potential clients, however we chose
to practice segmentation market where we assume that there are distinguishable groups
of people who have specific, and different, needs which we can explicitly target.
Segmentation is important because the mass market is dead, and focusing on one market
strategy for all people ignores the great diversity amongst people. Furthermore, it is
prohibitively expensive and unachievable to personally market to each potential client,
especially for the Hall, which is attempting to appeal to a wide geographic market.
1. The first step of this segmentation process is to name the broad market to ensure
our efforts are not to narrowly focused. We believe the Hall’s broad principal
should be to educate and excite people about baseball’s past, present and future.
This idea helped guide the creation of our new vision and mission statements for
the Hall.
2. Before beginning our actual segmentation, the team brainstormed all possible
items we thought customers might potentially need or want in a museum. This
list was closely similar to the core needs we will mention below.
3. Segmentation requires the formation of homogenous sub-‐‑groups of people who
have similar needs and wants. This was done by each group member surveying
various acquaintances they knew in the millennial age group about their “likes”
and “dislikes” in all museums. Following these surveys, we performed a cluster
analysis to form groups of people who sought common benefits from their visits
to the Hall’s website and actual museum. The segments we created after
surveying are, with their similar demographic tendencies:
a. Black-‐‑Tie
i. College-‐‑educated, single, high-‐‑levels of discretionary income,
aged 26-‐‑29
b. Die-‐‑Hards


i. More males, not always college-‐‑educated, aged 27-‐‑31, lower
income levels
c. Nerds
i. Aged 28-‐‑32, college educated and possibly have attended
graduate school, high levels of discretionary income, single or
married with no children
d. Little Leaguers
i. Married with children, 30-‐‑34, some discretionary income,
college-‐‑educated
e. Fair Weather Fans
i. Single males and females, around ages 25-‐‑27, college-‐‑educated
4. In our benefit segmentation analysis, we named the core needs, which can be
found in all five of the segments we created. The needs shared by all are: clean
facilities, interactive exhibits, knowledgeable staff, nice gift shop, stadium food-‐‑
like options, convenient access (easy parking options, reasonable prices, and
hours conducive to a working Millennial’s schedule), social environment at the
museum, unique exhibits, technology incorporated as much as possible, and
different ways of learning about the exhibits (examples of this include videos
showing history unfold, informative signs in every exhibit, a more user-‐‑friendly
virtual tour, a mobile application, etc.) While these needs are important and
focusing on them would help achieve economies of scale, the museum will be
more successful by exploring the determining needs of groups, which make each
group unique.
a. The Black-‐‑Tie group only comes to the Hall of Fame for big events and
galas to further their professional interests and expand their network.
They want a more formal feel at the museum. Also, they are less
concerned with the actual offerings of the museum.


b. Die-‐‑hard’s consider visiting the museum a bucket-‐‑list item, so they also
want lots of online access for when they cannot visit. They are interested
in the history of the game, but also want current baseball news on the
website. Also, they would be interested in a stadium-‐‑feel at the museum.
c. Nerds come for the museum atmosphere and to learn as much as they
can about baseball, so they will need online access to museum exhibits
before they come. They will want a knowledgeable staff as well as
various signs and videos to help them learn while at the museum.
d. Little-‐‑leaguers want an easy-‐‑going atmosphere, where they can feel
comfortable bringing their children. Activities and exhibits should be
family-‐‑friendly and geared towards keeping children entertained.
e. Fair-‐‑weather fans come for a social setting, similar to attending a
baseball game so the website offerings are less important to them. They
want the exhibits to be modern, up-‐‑to-‐‑date and filled with technology.
The hours of the museum need to be conducive to working people.
5. The nicknames we chose for each of our segments (Black-‐‑tie, Die-‐‑hards, Nerds,
Little-‐‑leaguers, and Fair-‐‑weather fans) were chosen to represent and describe the
demographics and determining needs of each group.
6. The sixth step in segmentation requires writing narratives about each target
group’s assumed motivations and attempts to explain why they behave the way
they do. As our project progressed, we chose to target our efforts on the Die-‐‑
Hards as well as the Little Leaguers.
a. Die-‐‑Hards: Dan, 29, and Don, 31, have been researching their all-‐‑time
favorite player, Frank Thomas, and comparing his career to that of the
late great, Minnie Minoso. They’ve been searching Baseball Reference
and FanGraphs to compare the players’ batting averages, home runs,
and RBI totals while also taking a look at the players’ WAR after reading
a column on ESPN comparing the WAR statistic of current players to
past hall of famers. This research has also exposed them to more


advanced metrics, but they admittedly don’t understand what statistics
like wRC+ mean; yet, this wRC+ is exactly why the White Sox look
poised to overtake the Tigers as the team to beat in the AL Central.
Regardless, this web browsing has led them to articles covering the
Chicago White Sox spring training guides, prospect evaluations, and
why Jeff Samardzija is homer-‐‑prone.
b. Little Leaguer’s: As the mini-‐‑van rolls into a parking space, 32 year old
parents Dan and Susan have to do all they can to keep little Jimmy and
Hannah in their car seats until they park the car. As the kids rush
towards the museum imitating their favorite big league All-‐‑Stars, Susan
pulls out her notes and maps of the museum, obtained from the
website, which she has spent hours pouring over in attempts to find the
best family-‐‑friendly and interactive exhibits. While waiting to pay for
admission, Dan tries to convince his wife they should become members,
not for the price savings, but for the perks and magazines he would get
out of the deal. After a few mesmerizing hours exploring the museum
(and losing dad in the Hall of Fame plaques!), it’s time to wash up in
clean and convenient restrooms and find the ballpark style food
everyone has worked up a ravenous craving for.
7. The final step in market segmentation was is to determine the relative and actual
size of each population. Based on census data, we determined that of the 77
million Millennials in the U.S. making up 24% of the population, there are 10.9
million Millennials living within 200 miles of Cooperstown. Because only about
12.6% of people attend a museum in a year, of the 10.9 million Millennials, there
are only 1,373,400 Millennials in the area who will possibly visit Cooperstown.
a. Black-‐‑Tie: 8% X 1,373,400 = 109,872
b. Nerds: 12% X 1,373,400 = 164,808
c. Fair-‐‑weather Fans: 23% X 1,373,400 = 315,882
d. Die-‐‑Hards: 27% X 1,373,400 = 370,818


i. Can be reached at least once: 80% X 370,818 = 296,654
ii. Will be a frequent visitor: 40% X 296,654 = 118,661
iii. Will visit the actual museum: 20% X 370,818 = 74,614
e. Little Leaguers: 30% X 1,373,400 = 412,020
i. Can be reached at least once: 65% X 412,020 = 267,813
ii. Will be a frequent visitor: 23% X 267,813 = 61,597
iii. Will visit the actual museum: 30% X 412,020 = 123,606
Core Strategy Analysis
The Core Strategy Analysis for the Hall and its website focus on its classification as an
unsought good. This is based on the Hall’s rural New York location and the website
metrics. The most important strategies for unsought goods are promotional: the Hall
needs to make the website and museum known to a greater audience. The best ways to
do this are through partnerships with either corporations or sports organizations. Later,
the benefits of a partnership with Little League will be discussed. Another key
promotional strategy is social media penetration. Millennials are constantly using
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, and it is critical that the Hall engage the
millennial market through these forms of social media.


Product Life Cycle
The Hall is in the maturing phase of the product
life cycle. Attendance peaked at around 400,000 visits
per year in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and has been
on a steady decline since. Alarmingly, attendance
dropped over 20% from 2007 to 2011, decreasing from
352,000 visits to only 270,000 (Calcaterra). The Hall now
approaches a critical point: it can continue in this
decline, or renew itself and expand once again. The
growth strategy for the Hall should focus on the
“market penetration” and “product development” elements of the Ansoff Growth
Matrix. The market penetration piece focuses on reaching new users in the millennial
market. To do this, the Hall must increase its social media presence and make both the
museum and the website a destination, which our recommendations aim to do. The
product development facet centers on the need to increase the usage frequency of the
museum website. Interactive web tools that draw in and engage users, to keep them on
the site longer and encourage them to return, are needed. Rotating exhibits to create a
fresh, unique atmosphere gives visitors a reason to become repeat visitors, and repeat
visitors to become members. Furthermore, the Hall should reach out to schools to engage
students and teachers, both digitally and physically. The Hall could offer discounts to
encourage school field trips to the museum, and offer online tools and lessons to teach
math with baseball.
Hierarchy of Effects
The Hierarchy of Effects model illustrates the attitudinal components, which
must be satisfied for a customer to make a purchase, or in the Hall’s case, for visitors to
visit. The model flows through the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of an
attitude, and what must be done to satisfy each piece. The cognitive requirement is fairly
simple: consumers must acquire knowledge of the organization and be aware of the
product that is being offered. The affective (or emotional) requirement involves the


feelings consumers have toward the organization’s product. It necessitates that
consumers desire the product and form a preference for that product over those of its
competitors. Cooperstown competes with all types of leisure activities in this aspect,
including offerings ranging from other museums to amusement parks. The final aspect,
the behavioral requirement, demonstrates that the positive feelings toward the product
must be strong enough for the consumer to decide that this one specific product is what
they want and to take the physical action to purchase it. While the process of convincing
a consumer to purchase one product over others may seem like a simple matter of
persuasion, this model describes the actual psychological processes that play into this
decision.
Hume takes this hierarchy one-‐‑step further by examining what is called
“repurchase intention” and the factors that most influence this in consumers. She states
“service quality performance” and “overall experience satisfaction” as two known factors
which lead to return intent. Her study, which aims to uncover the driving factors behind
perceived service performance and experience satisfaction and their relation to
repurchase intention, reveals some intriguing implications. The first is that the museum
experience has a “need for a significant shift in managerial practice away from solely
focusing on the educational and custodial aspects to increased comprehension of
delivery” (Hume 88). This suggests the presentation of a museum and its services is more
important than museum content, when it comes to repurchase intention. She pushes the
idea that the museum service must shift “from a practice of cultural exhibition to a
consumer-‐‑driven service offering,” again emphasizing the need for museums to focus
less on their content and more on consumers (88).
In his “Comparison between Holistic Museum Visitors and Utilitarian Museum
Visitors,” Dirsehan states the need for a movement toward experiential marketing. He
states, “as a competitive advantage, experiential marketing focuses on the emotional
sides in addition to the customers’ rational sides” (Dirsehan 78). This illustrates that
having an objectively “better” museum does not necessarily mean consumers will choose
that museum over other leisure activities. Dirsehan states that museum visitors “seek a
‘total experience,’ where leisure, culture, education, and social interaction are all
included (Dirsehan 79). These are all factors that influence a given consumer’s attitude


toward the product. If the museum experience takes a proper form and satisfies the
customer, “generally that customer buys the product again” (Dirsehan 80). This aligns
with Hume’s findings about repurchase intention. The findings of this study indicate that
for museums to be successful in their growing competitive environment, they must be
“dynamic in experience (using experience as a competitive tool)” (Dirsehan 85).
Museums must go beyond the traditional presentation of a museum and focus in on
creating individual experiences for individual consumers.
Experiential Marketing Analysis
Educational experiences increase the customer’s skills and enhance his or her
knowledge through active participation in the experience. The Hall website does a
phenomenal job of teaching its visitors about the past with the easily accessed Learn tab
at the top of the page. The website also leads you to the Giamatti Research Center, which
prides itself on being one of the foremost repositories of baseball information in the
world.
Escapist experiences are those where the customer actively participates in events
of a real or virtual environment and that shapes or contributes to the experience to offer
the customer a way of taking on a new persona. This will be later answered by two of our
recommendations: Coach’s Challenge
and an improved virtual tour.
Esthetic experiences are those
where people enjoy the experience
passively by just being there. Through
an esthetically appealing website,
visitors can passively enjoy browsing
and exploring the site.
Entertainment experiences take
place when individuals watch activities or performances of other people. The participant
is not actively involved in shaping the event but is mentally engaged. The website does
not have an entertaining experience due to very little video content.


Die-Hards Marketing Mix Strategy
The marketing mix strategy which best fits the Die-‐‑Hards target segment focuses
on the intensity and detail members of this segment desire. The Hall itself should feature
rotating, engaging exhibits with digital interaction and easy access to more detailed
information about the exhibits, their artifacts, and the stories behind them. The website
should include up-‐‑to-‐‑date headlines and stories relating to current players. A “Player
Comparison Tool,” which will be discussed at length in the Scout’s Take
recommendation, would serve as a hands-‐‑on tool for Die-‐‑Hards to independently create
their own analyses. Memberships to the Hall should continue, but the addition of online-‐‑
only memberships at a cheaper price would appeal to Die-‐‑Hards who may not
reasonably be able to visit the museum. These online-‐‑only members should be able to
gain access to exclusive stories and features, as well as other benefits like the Hall’s
magazine and discounts in the online store. Ticket prices for the museum should
continue to stay comparable to other hall of fame museums.
The best way to promote the Hall of Fame to the Die-‐‑Hards is by establishing a
presence where these targets frequent. This would include advertising at baseball
stadiums and on popular sporting sites like ESPN or MLB. The location of the Hall is
ideal for the Die-‐‑Hards, as they will be familiar with the legendary location of
Cooperstown and would appreciate its small-‐‑town, baseball feel. The museum should
promote a stadium atmosphere, which in today’s sports culture is more of a social
setting. The website should encourage a familiarity similar to popular sports sites to
advance the idea that the Hall’s website is a sports website. Both the museum and the
website should be self-‐‑guided to allow fans to go at their own pace, spending more time
where they need it and less where they just want a glance. The museum staff should be
able to provide more detailed information than can be readily observed in the exhibits.
The inclusion of iconic players both in museum events or online features would
encourage the Die-‐‑Hards to invest more of their time in the museum and its website.
Little Leaguers Marketing Mix


The type of product that will appeal to Little Leaguers is something that will
appeal to them and their children. Meaning the Hall should provide engaging and
interactive exhibits to keep the children entertained. On the website, they will want
educational and engaging resources. If the Hall website does choose to go the rout of an
online membership, a special family plan would be very appealing to this group of
Millennials, as multiple people from their family will be utilizing the website. Both a
website and museum where parents feel safe letting their children freely use will go a
long way in persuading this group of Millennials to visit, perhaps frequently. Facilities
that are conducive to childcare will help get more “Little Leaguers” to visit. While this is
target is made up of young families, the parents are still Millennials, thus the best way to
inform them of all that the Hall has to offer is through a fortified social media presence.
Major Recommendations:
Redesigned Website
We are recommending that the Hall redesign their webpage to be more similar to
other sports websites like ESPN or mlb.com. This is a nod to the Die-‐‑Hards who will
likely be familiar with these webpages already. Links to the Hall’s social media sites on
the side, a changing centerfold picture informing visitors about upcoming exhibits and
events, and various interactive games and surveys will hopefully increase people’s
comfortableness with the site, and encourage them to come back again.
Improve Virtual Tour
In its current state the Hall has a virtual tour that one can only find through “The
Museum” sub-‐‑tab under the “Visit” tab. Our recommendation is to have the tour
narrated in order to feel like a visitor is actually in the museum, eluding to the escapist
experience.
It is easy to feel lost on this virtual tour, so we are suggesting a guide that
communicates where you are exactly in the tour. For example, “you are now entering the
Cooperstown room.” It would be encouraging to the viewer if there were more people in


the photos used in the virtual tour. When the museum looks deserted, it appears to be a
quite place of solace, rather than an exciting experience.
Another addition to the virtual tour could be links to more information on
certain sections of the museum. Links could be used for sections that have been deemed
popular or others that need more attention.
Little League Partnership
Our next recommendation is that the Hall form a partnership agreement with
Little League International, specifically with the Little League World Series. The Little
League organization includes baseball and softball players aged 9 through 18. The World
Series is hosted in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which is just over a three-‐‑hour drive from
Cooperstown. In 2013 and 2014, the tournament brought in over 400,000 in attendance
each year. The teams yearly consist of eight US teams from all corners of the country and
eight international teams from across the globe. The event has become a destination not
only for young players, but also for baseball fans of all ages who flock to the event.
The partnership with Little League International aligns closely with our “Happy
Felton” recommendation: Little League aged kids and their parents are the target groups
for both. It is the family aspect of this target that is important. The World Series takes
approximately three weeks to complete and often takes the form of a long vacation. The
opportunity to include a Hall of Fame visit to this experience would add another
valuable, memorable experience to these players’ World Series trip. Furthermore, by
incorporating the “Happy Felton” competition, the Hall of Fame becomes a destination
for the teams at the tournament and those previously eliminated in just the same way
that the World Series is a destination: it is a chance for young players to be recognized at
the highest level. Coaches would jump at the chance to find a fun, unique way to
motivate their players to practice harder and longer as they prepare their teams, and it is
likely that being featured in this competition would become the primary goal of many
teams. This competition and its association with the run to the World Series would bring
young players and their parents to the Hall’s website; this would give them ample
opportunity to research a potential visit to the Hall, the Hall’s membership program, and
other website features. This increased activity, coupled with more interactive features on


the site, would make the Hall’s website a hotspot for young players and their parents all
summer.
Social Media
As Millennials continue to spend more of their time on line, we recommend that
the Hall of Fame look into ways to use social media to advertise their offerings and give
consumers more of a chance to interact with the Hall. A newer form of social media,
Snapchat, offers the Hall a unique opportunity for free advertising from Millennials, who
account for seven out of every ten Snapchat users. Snapchat offers anyone the
opportunity to create a “geofilter” which only can be accessed when users are in the
geographic vicinity specified by the creater. These are free to make, and will offer anyone
who visits the Hall a fun way to send Snapchats to their friends back home advertising
their location. Furthermore, Snapchat offers the opportunity to create “Our Stories,”
which are video feeds that can be seen worldwide, but only posted to from within certain
geographic boundaries. This feature, especially during an event like the Hall of Fame
Induction Weekend, would give the opportunity for all Snapchat users to experience the
events from the perspective of fans at the event. These stories would need to be
monitored by a Hall of Fame administrator, which effectively allows the Hall to control
all of its contents, while still giving visitors a feeling as though they are actively
participating.
Another way to boost interaction between consumers and the Hall is to create
Twitter and Instagram hashtags, which fans can use in tweets and pictures when sharing
their experiences and thoughts about the Hall. We suggest #FanHallofFame for the Hall,
which can be monitored by Hall members for appropriate social media posts to be
displayed on the newly redesigned webpage. In this way, the Hall will be able to get
more website traffic as people continuously check back to see if they were selected to the
“Fan Hall of Fame.” Social media contests will hopefully give consumers more of a sense
that the Hall is trying to interact with users on a personal level.
Beat the Streak
A recommendation we have to improve the Hall website is to create a Major
League Baseball picks game which we call “Beat the Streak”. The premise is that the


website offers visitors the option to pick the winner of many of that day’s MLB games in
order to get the highest percent of guesses correct in a month (with a minimum number
of attempts) or to build the longest streak of correct guesses. The beauty of this game is
that it is not limited to bland game picks, like the Red Sox vs. The Yankees every day. An
over under on a certain statistic can also be implemented. For example, Bryce Harper
getting at least two hits in a given game or less than two hits in that same game could be
supplemented for a regular game pick.
Two major questions immediately arise with this recommendation: how will this
draw new visitors to the site and keep old visitors coming back, and how can these
current MLB games be tied in with the HOF and the great players of baseball history? We
believe that the answers to these two questions really tie in to one another. By having
each website visitor who plays the game sign in with a username, stats can be kept and a
leaderboard displayed for all to see. This leaderboard creates an environment of
competition, which keeps players coming back day after day to check their standings. It
also allows players streaks to be compared to streaks of some of the greatest players of
the game, like Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak. To increase participation in this game, and
website traffic is to offer visitors the chance to play for more than just the love of the
game. Prizes offered, for each month’s streak winner, percentage winner, and a bonus
grand prize for beating other streaks like the previously mentioned hitting streak of 56
set by Joe DiMaggio, would raise the stakes for most of these players and keep them
coming back for more.
Coach’s Challenge
In order to become more engaging, the Hall website visitors must be able to leave
a mark or show that they have been on the website. That is why it is recommended that
the website include a section for trivia and opinion surveys. It is in the Hall’s best interest
to create a trivia and opinion section because traffic will increase and also act as a gauge
of how many people are visiting the site.
Some trivia questions for example could be any general questions on hall of
famers or current events. Another important factor would be to include pop culture. For
example, when the movie 42 on Jackie Robinson came out, several trivia questions could


have been released for that month pertaining to the movie. Millennials are always
connected, and by including pop culture and current events, they can relate to the
museum. The Baseball Hall of Fame is not a news resource, but in order to stay relevant
to the present despite being a museum about the past, the Hall must look to what is
happening currently.
Scout’s Take
Our next recommendation is the formation of a statistics studio called “Scout’s
Take” for student education as well as statistical analysis and research. Advanced metrics
are becoming the prominent tools to evaluate players past, present, and future and are
even becoming a major part of determining which players are elected into the Hall of
Fame (Schoenfield). Yet, many of the fans reading about these statistics do not
understand what the numbers mean. As such, this feature would appeal especially to the
Die-‐‑Hards, who are the fans most inclined to read this type of detailed player research. A
simple tool that defines what the major advanced metrics mean and how they are
calculated would greatly add to the value fans receive when reading player evaluations
or Hall of Fame ballot explanations referencing these measures. A player comparison tool
could be created by simply allowing website visitors to search for multiple players’
traditional and advanced statistics, and providing a side-‐‑by-‐‑side view to easily compare
these measures.
This workshop would also add to the current educational tools the Hall employs
by adding features that can be accessed and used at any time by individuals. This tool
could be used to teach elementary math skills to younger students, by allowing them to
work through problems in which they calculate the effects of hypothetical game
occurrences. Addition and subtraction could taught by proposing questions where the
student must calculate the number of RBI a player has in a game or number of outs left in
an inning after a set of plays. Multiplication and division could be taught through
problems where the student must determine statistics like batting averages or an ERA.
Algebra could be taught by offering problems in which the student must calculate
traditional statistics such as K/9 along with advanced metrics such as wRC.


This tool could also include features that allow for players or fans to calculate
traditional and advanced statistics to evaluate their own performance, and even compare
themselves to iconic Hall of Fame players. The equations used to calculate both
traditional and advanced metrics should be readily available, with brief information on
how to use the calculations. This would allow young players to pull up a formula on the
website and calculate their season stats, for their Little League all-‐‑star team or their
varsity high school team. Simple features such as input and output tools that show
exactly what numbers must be entered to calculate a given statistic should be included to
aid the calculations. For example, an 11-‐‑year-‐‑old softball pitcher wishing to calculate her
K/9 statistic should be prompted to enter her total strikeouts and total innings pitched.
This feature would have the potential to bring players back to the website after each of
their games to calculate changes in their statistics, which would increase the amount of
website visits and encourage a deeper commitment to the Hall’s website. A comparison
to a past Hall of Fame players could include a brief explanation of how the young
player’s statistics stack up to an iconic player, and a brief letter of advice that Hall of
Famer might have for the young player.
Happy Felton Day
Finally, we recommend a competition and event called Happy Felton Day. This
event is a competition that would tie the Hall and website together, and be reminiscent of
the past with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Happy Felton. To increase site visitation, the
Hall could start off by creating a video competition where kids send in home videos of
themselves playing baseball. Whether the video is of Little League players showing off
their skills, or just toddlers striking out and being funny, this addition will create a
greater sense of entertainment and participation to the site. From the different categories,
a pro-‐‑baseball player would choose a monthly winner. This would increase website
traffic due to the actual submissions, and from relatives and other people who are
interested in taking a moment to watch some entertaining videos. The next step would be
to choose a monthly video winner and during the summer invite all those winners to
Cooperstown for a full-‐‑day event. The yearly grand prize competition would take place
at Doubleday Field and the kids would compete with each other, with mascots and a
Happy Felton-‐‑esque character judging and hyping up the crowd. This lighthearted, fun


day at the Hall would especially target those young families in the tri-‐‑state area looking
to bring their children to an out of the ordinary event. Not only would this competition
be rewarding to the kids, but it would also inspire more kids to enter the competition in
the hopes of winning a prize related to a famous baseball player. This event would create
an educational experience when visiting the Hall, as well as an entertaining experience at
Doubleday Field. Ultimately the event could have the potential to create repeat visitors to
the Hall and the website.


Appendix A: Sources
Alex Gofman , Howard R. Moskowitz , Tõnis Mets Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management, Vol. 20, Iss. 6, 2011.
Anderson, Kristian. Generation Y-not: The Millennial Generation at a Glance and Its
Connection to Museums. ProQuest, 2007. Print.
Antonio Padilla-Meléndez, Ana Rosa del Águila-Obra, Web and social media usage by
museums: Online value creation, International Journal of Information
Management, Volume 33, Issue 5, October 2013, Pages 892-898, ISSN 0268-
4012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.07.004
Bell, Ford W. "From the President: A Perfect Storm in 2012." Museum 91.1 (2012): 7.
ProQuest. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Belson, Ken. "Encouraging a Walk in the Hall of Fame." New York Times, 164.56666
(2014): 20-19.
Brady, T. F. (2012). Do sabermetrics suggest a baseball hall of fame revision? IIE Annual
Conference.Proceedings, , 1-4. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1151089587?accountid=12874.
Bulik, Beth Snyder. “Is Your Consumer Using Social Media?” Advertising Age 79.18
(2008): 12-13. Web.
Calcaterra, Craig. “The Hall of Fame’s attendance is in decline.” NBCSports, Jan. 3, 2012. Web.
"Celebrating the Sporting Life." Souvenirs, Gifts, & Novelties, 51.1 (2012): 170-174.
Chou, C. (2013). Managing museum learning: A marketing research of family visit
experience at the british museum.International Journal of Information, Business
and Management, 5(1), 303-313.
Dawsey, Josh. "U.S. News: Empty Feeling at Hall of Fame --- Attendance Falls as Web
Generation Shrugs Off Cooperstown, Other Sports Shrines." Wall Street Journal,
Eastern edition ed. Jul 17 2013. ProQuest. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.
Denise Cole. Museum marketing as a tool for survival and creativity: the mining museum
Perspective. Museum Management and Curatorship. Vol. 23, Iss. 2, 2008.
"Exhibits for the Selfie Set; Art Galleries have Noticed an Uptick in Newcomers Who
often Share Photos of Themselves with Artwork through Instagram, Twitter and
Facebook." Wall Street Journal (Online)Dec 19 2013. ProQuest. Web. 15 Mar.
2015
Frost, Warwick. "The Sustainability of Sports Heritage Attractions: Lessons from the
Australian Football League Hall of Fame." Journal of Sport & Tourism, 10.4
(2005): 295-305.


"Governor Cuomo Launches New York's Largest Tourism Campaign in Decades." The
Official Website of New York State. N.p., 18 May 2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Holdgaard, Nanna, and Lisbeth IT University of Copenhagen Klastrup. "Between Control
and Creativity: Challenging Co-creation and Social Media Use in a Museum
Context." Digital Creativity, 25.3 (2014): 190-202.
Kidd, Jenny. Museums in the New Mediascape: Transmedia, Participation, Ethics.
KIREZLI, OZGE. "Museum Marketing : Shift From Traditional To Experiential
Marketing." International Journal Of Management Cases 13.4 (2011): 173-184.
Business Source Alumni Edition. Web. 8 Feb. 2015
Koontz, Christie, and Mon, Lorri M. Marketing and Social Media : A Guide for
Libraries, Archives, and Museums. 2014. Web.
Leen, Jasmine Yeap Ai, Ramayah Thurasamy, and Azizah Omar. "Engaging Millennials
in an Evolving Web Environment: Some Key Points for E-retailers." Business
Strategy Series, 13.3 (2012): 111.
Marakos, Panteleimon. "Museums and Social Media: Modern Methods of Reaching a
Wider Audience." Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 14.4 (2014):
75-81.
Marketing Museums and Exhibitions: What Drives the Interest of Young People. Alex
Gofman, Howard R. Moskowitz , Tõnis Mets. Journal of Hospitality Marketing &
Management. Vol. 20, Iss. 6, 2011
McGeehan, Patrick. "As Tourism Record Is Set, New York City Sees Surge in Chinese
Visitors." The New York Times. New York Times Company, 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 25 Feb.
2015.
Mike, Dodd, and TODAY USA. "Sports Museums Feel Squeeze." USA Today n.d.:
Newspaper Source. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
Mintel. “Millennials’ Leisure Trends - US.” Mintel. February 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Mintel. “Social Networking – US.” Mintel. June 2014. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.
Osterman, Mark, M Thirunarayanan, Elizabeth Ferris, Lizette Pabon, Natalie Paul, and
Rhonda Berger. “Museums and Twitter: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of
How Museums Use Twitter for Audience Development and Engagement.”
Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 21.3 (2012): 241-255.
Phillips, Murray G. Representing the Sporting past in Museums and Halls of Fame. New
York: Routledge, 2012. Print.
Robinson, Cynythia. “Into the Future: Adult Professional Groups and the 21st
Century
Museum.” The Journal of Museum Education, 36.1 (2011): 103-111.
Ramshaw, Gregory. "Living Heritage and the Sports Museum: Athletes, Legacy and the
Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum, Canada Olympic Park."Journal of Sport &


Tourism, 15.1 (2010): 45-70.
Robbins, J. E., & Robbins, S. S. (1981). Musuem marketing: Identification of high,
moderate, and low attendee segments. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 9, 66-76.
Russo, Angelina, et al. "Participatory Communication With Social Media." Curator 51.1
(2008): 21-31. Art Source.Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
Schoenfield, David. “Which active players are Hall of Famers?” ESPN, Dec. 20, 2014. Web.
"Social Networking Fact Sheet." Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, 2015. Web. 30
Mar. 2015.
Strategic Plan. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Smithsonian. Smithsonian Information, Nov. 2009. Web. 1
Feb. 2015.
Tan, Gillian, Douglas MacMillan, and Jack Marshall. "News and Ads to Debut on Snapchat
With 27 Million Users, the Mobile App Looks to Bring in Media Content and Sell
Ads to Go with It." Wall Street Journal [New York] 20 Aug. 2014, Eastern ed.: B.1.
ProQuest. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
Thorn, Bret. "Targeting Millenials." Nation's Restaurant News 48.21 (2014): 12. Business
Source Complete. Web. 8 Feb. 2015.
Vernuccio, Maria. "Communicating Corporate Brands Through Social Media: An
Exploratory Study." Journal of Business Communication, 51.3 (2014): 211-233
Wood, Jason. "Olympic Opportunity: Realizing the Value of Sports Heritage for Tourism
in the UK."Journal of Sport & Tourism, 10.4 (2005): 307-321.


Appendix B: Presentation Handout

Cooperstown Strategic Marketing Plan

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Cooperstown Strategic Marketing Plan

Similar to Cooperstown Strategic Marketing Plan (20)

Cooperstown Strategic Marketing Plan