The Chicago Bulls basketball franchise has found great success based in Chicago, Illinois. They have won 6 NBA championships, own the highest average home attendance in the league at over 21,000 fans per game, and are valued at $2 billion. Though they face threats from other sports teams in Chicago competing for fans, the Bulls have numerous strengths like their star players, loyal fan base, and community outreach programs. Their marketing utilizes various promotions, partnerships, and digital platforms to engage fans and maximize revenue.
Competitive landscape Overview
Target Market
Challenges for Sports Franchises
Best Practice to Address Challenges
Sponsorship Program
Experiential Marketing Strategy
Expanding Game Day Experience
Digital And Social Media Plan
Killer Design Patterns for F2P Mobile/Tablet GamesHenric Suuronen
Presentation on Design Patterns for Mobile and Tablet games presented in July 2013 at ChinaJoy in Shanghai by Henric Suuronen, President & Co-Founder at Nonstop Games
My classmate and I created this pitch deck for an advertising campaign class. We were tasked to choose a brand and develop an advertising campaign by researching their current business and the target consumer, developing an insight, and then selecting media channels and creatives based on the research.
Competitive landscape Overview
Target Market
Challenges for Sports Franchises
Best Practice to Address Challenges
Sponsorship Program
Experiential Marketing Strategy
Expanding Game Day Experience
Digital And Social Media Plan
Killer Design Patterns for F2P Mobile/Tablet GamesHenric Suuronen
Presentation on Design Patterns for Mobile and Tablet games presented in July 2013 at ChinaJoy in Shanghai by Henric Suuronen, President & Co-Founder at Nonstop Games
My classmate and I created this pitch deck for an advertising campaign class. We were tasked to choose a brand and develop an advertising campaign by researching their current business and the target consumer, developing an insight, and then selecting media channels and creatives based on the research.
This presentation gives an overview of how eSports works, what makes it similar to traditional sports, and the challenges it faces as it becomes a more mature industry.
Esport - Quelles opportunités pour les marques ?DigitasLBi Paris
La pratique compétitive du jeu vidéo, communément appelée Esport (pour electronic sport) est un marché en pleine expansion. Il intéresse déjà de nombreuses marques, puisque permettant de toucher une cible jeune, souvent présentée comme hermétique à la publicité présente dans les médias dits traditionnels. Pour autant, doit-on penser que ce milieu est réservé, soit à des marques endémiques (matériel informatique, market place high tech, software), soit à d’autres prêtes à mettre un important budget sur la table ?
Building Games for the Long Term: Pragmatic F2P Guild Design (GDC Europe 2013)Kongregate
Every Kongregate talk they're always saying "guilds, guilds, guilds". Sure, but does that even work for my type of game? And what should a guild design for my game look like?
In this design-focused talk, guilds will be deconstructed into their kernel and then built back up feature-by-feature with an eye on implications for retention, monetization, and engagement. Examples from the industry will be used to look at best practices and missed opportunities while it explores traditional and experimental guild elements. It will also walk through the exercise designing a guild system for a popular casual game, challenging the audience to step outside the boundaries of traditional genres when thinking about guilds in games.
Game Design - Monetization
The Deck covers some of the basic aspects and mechanisms of social game design. This is the 1st out of 4 decks, covering the aspects needed for amplifying MONETIZATION among players and users
The series includes 4 chapters: Engagement, Virality, Retention, Monetization
GDC Talk: Lifetime Value: The long tail of Mid-Core gamesTamara (Tammy) Levy
Are you maximizing the life in lifetime value? Using genre-specific predictive models developed from the Kongregate portfolio, we demonstrate how and why post-D30 retention can be key to increase your revenue. Through case studies, you'll learn strategies to boost both early and late revenue, as well as game core loop modifications to drive better player investment in the long run.
Assignment for my sports business models class. I had to research and create an analysis of the NBA featuring its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
For more information, visit: www.adriancrook.com
This is a sample teardown or game deconstruction based on Supercell's Clash Royale. What is a teardown? Read on for background or drop us a line on how you can learn more: www.teardownclub.com or www.adriancrook.com for our full suite of services.
At all major game developers, product managers regularly produce teardowns. A teardown is an in-depth analysis of a competitor’s product, designed to highlight what can be learned. Product managers then pass these teardowns on to their internal development teams to help them make better products.
The industry term for this analysis is Teardown, and if you’ve never heard that before, it’s because the information Teardowns contain is so valuable that they are rarely shared publicly.
Teardown Club is AC+A's leading edge competitor analysis that your product management and design teams need to make profitable games.
WHAT DO OUR TEARDOWNSCONTAIN?
A teardown is usually delivered in PowerPoint format and contains the following:
Executive Summary
Monetization Features/Economy Breakdown
Context/Background/Genre Competitors
Retention/Compulsion Loop Breakdown
Core Loop Analysis
Viral Loops Analysis (if applicable)
First Time User Experience (FTUE) Overview
Summary with Key Takeaways
A teardown is laser-targeted to divining the valuable lessons from a product. Everything from the latest retention mechanisms to the highest converting monetization implementations - and beyond.
Large publishers have entire worldwide product management groups whose job is to produce teardowns and share this knowledge with their worldwide studios, ensuring their products beat the market.
This presentation gives an overview of how eSports works, what makes it similar to traditional sports, and the challenges it faces as it becomes a more mature industry.
Esport - Quelles opportunités pour les marques ?DigitasLBi Paris
La pratique compétitive du jeu vidéo, communément appelée Esport (pour electronic sport) est un marché en pleine expansion. Il intéresse déjà de nombreuses marques, puisque permettant de toucher une cible jeune, souvent présentée comme hermétique à la publicité présente dans les médias dits traditionnels. Pour autant, doit-on penser que ce milieu est réservé, soit à des marques endémiques (matériel informatique, market place high tech, software), soit à d’autres prêtes à mettre un important budget sur la table ?
Building Games for the Long Term: Pragmatic F2P Guild Design (GDC Europe 2013)Kongregate
Every Kongregate talk they're always saying "guilds, guilds, guilds". Sure, but does that even work for my type of game? And what should a guild design for my game look like?
In this design-focused talk, guilds will be deconstructed into their kernel and then built back up feature-by-feature with an eye on implications for retention, monetization, and engagement. Examples from the industry will be used to look at best practices and missed opportunities while it explores traditional and experimental guild elements. It will also walk through the exercise designing a guild system for a popular casual game, challenging the audience to step outside the boundaries of traditional genres when thinking about guilds in games.
Game Design - Monetization
The Deck covers some of the basic aspects and mechanisms of social game design. This is the 1st out of 4 decks, covering the aspects needed for amplifying MONETIZATION among players and users
The series includes 4 chapters: Engagement, Virality, Retention, Monetization
GDC Talk: Lifetime Value: The long tail of Mid-Core gamesTamara (Tammy) Levy
Are you maximizing the life in lifetime value? Using genre-specific predictive models developed from the Kongregate portfolio, we demonstrate how and why post-D30 retention can be key to increase your revenue. Through case studies, you'll learn strategies to boost both early and late revenue, as well as game core loop modifications to drive better player investment in the long run.
Assignment for my sports business models class. I had to research and create an analysis of the NBA featuring its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
For more information, visit: www.adriancrook.com
This is a sample teardown or game deconstruction based on Supercell's Clash Royale. What is a teardown? Read on for background or drop us a line on how you can learn more: www.teardownclub.com or www.adriancrook.com for our full suite of services.
At all major game developers, product managers regularly produce teardowns. A teardown is an in-depth analysis of a competitor’s product, designed to highlight what can be learned. Product managers then pass these teardowns on to their internal development teams to help them make better products.
The industry term for this analysis is Teardown, and if you’ve never heard that before, it’s because the information Teardowns contain is so valuable that they are rarely shared publicly.
Teardown Club is AC+A's leading edge competitor analysis that your product management and design teams need to make profitable games.
WHAT DO OUR TEARDOWNSCONTAIN?
A teardown is usually delivered in PowerPoint format and contains the following:
Executive Summary
Monetization Features/Economy Breakdown
Context/Background/Genre Competitors
Retention/Compulsion Loop Breakdown
Core Loop Analysis
Viral Loops Analysis (if applicable)
First Time User Experience (FTUE) Overview
Summary with Key Takeaways
A teardown is laser-targeted to divining the valuable lessons from a product. Everything from the latest retention mechanisms to the highest converting monetization implementations - and beyond.
Large publishers have entire worldwide product management groups whose job is to produce teardowns and share this knowledge with their worldwide studios, ensuring their products beat the market.
Philadelphia 76ers Market Research Analysis MulleryMichael Mullery
This Market Research Analysis Paper was a group project in my Sports Marketing class at IU. Our group analyzed the Philadelphia 76ers, and I personally worked on pages 13, 14 and 15, the sections titled, "Analysis of Marketing Efforts", and "Position in The Marketplace." My group and I received an A on this project.
NY Giants Intrapreneurial Business Proposal RyanRoss77
Business environments are constantly changing, and a business capacity to adapt, to innovate, and to respond to competitive pressures may be directly impacted by intrapreneurs. If given the chance, intrapreneurs can lower production costs, improve quality, create new products, and open new markets.
Does having a NBA team improve the economic growth.docxsusanschei
Does having a NBA team improve the economic growth
Introduction The sport industry is one of the key drivers of the country’s economy. The mere presence of, or lack thereof, an NBA franchise does not mean that a city’s or a country’s financial health will be better or worse. It is an investment liken any other hence poor decision making may lead to predominant misuse of public funds.Taxpayers and tourists must have a more recognizable outlet to devote their expendable income to.
Cities often use public funding to help construct and renovate the facilities of large, private sports franchises. As the major sports leagues grow in popularity and revenue, cities have had to offer increasingly competitive incentive packages to owners in order to keep their team from relocating to more profitable markets or cities willing to issue public funding for new facilities. Much literature has been conducted on the economic impact of sports teams with a general consensus that there is usually no guarantee for positive economic effect for cities that serve as homes for these teams from the largest league.
Source of Employment Having a National Basketball Association (NBA) team creates employment to the players.Owners of NBA teams report earnings around $12-30 million per season year (Berri, 2015).After counting player salaries, arena costs and maintenance, and other required expenses, the owners take home a decent payday.
There are a number of variables and they cannot always be discerned from the Team's financials. For example, an owner may take a large salary and out family on the payroll, making him look less profitable but reducing his personal expenses. Or, the same owner may also own the stadium and shift revenues and expenses between the two and report them separately. It is safe to say that owners make a great deal of money. During the pre-Chris Paul days, Donald Sterling would pay his players at the NBA minimum for a team, and bank his TV and revenue sharing money and probably made in excess of $10 million per year. Once he invested in payroll and talent, the team sold for $2 billion. A team like the Milwaukee Bucks, without much recent success, sold for $550 million. That would suggest the pre-tax profits were in the millions of dollars to Herb Kohl when he owned it. All in all, the owners, either through enormous compensation or profits, make a great deal of money.
Establishment of other businessesOwning a team could help other business’s interests which obviously is a big money maker.An example of business establishments that come with an NBA team are advertisement agencies. An NBA team is also major client for the suppliers of games kits such as Nike among others (Josza, 2011).
Owners could help advertise other companies or business’s in many ways since they are well know and successful so therefore people want to have them advertise their business. For people to have the owners advertise for them they pay them good amo.
You have a pristine golf course, fantastic tennis courts and a variety of social activities. Guess what?
So do your competitors.
Your prospective club member is evolving and in the wake of shifting values, country clubs have to find a stake in the ground that drives them toward a group of individuals and away from a specific group of competitors. In this White Paper, we explore why the shrinking pool of membership dollars and resulting club vs. club environment creates 4 weapons that General Managers and Marketing Directors can use to their advantage.
Similar to Marketing Analysis - Chicago Bulls (20)
Club Warfare: Why Smarter Positioning Is No Longer A Luxury For Country Clubs
Marketing Analysis - Chicago Bulls
1. Wills 1
Luke Wills
Sports Marketing
Professor Galuska
4/15/2015
Marketing Summary and Analysis - Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls, based in Chicago, Illinois, is a considerably renowned professional
basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team has won six NBA
Championships, all of which were under team owner Jerry Reinsdorf. The team was purchased in
1985 for $16 million, and has generated a net revenue of $201 million. According to Forbes
Magazine, the team is valued third in the National Basketball Association as of January 2015 at
roughly two billion dollars.
Chicago’s “metro area” population is listed a little less than ten million people, making
the average revenue per fan $17. (Forbes) Part of that revenue comes from concessions, from
which Levy Restaurants carries out every game at the United Center. The team is recognized
famously for Michael Jordan’s time there many years ago, and Derrick Rose’s time in the
modern Bulls era. The team plays at the United Center in downtown Chicago, which was opened
in 1994 and seats approximately 21,000 fans at an average of $78 a ticket. In 2015, the Chicago
Bulls boast the highest overall attendance, highest average home game attendance, and highest
overall game attendance. They sit on top of the league of 32 teams with an average home game
attendance (throughout the first 40 games of the season) of 21,322 fans – impressive given that
the league average is only about 17,000 fans.
2. Wills 2
As a growing organization, it is very important to be cognizant of the following: our
strengths, so we may capitalize on them, our weaknesses, so we may improve upon them, our
opportunities, so we may make the best of them, and our threats, so we may avoid mishaps, cope
with difficulties, and learn from our mistakes.
There are many strengths associated with the Chicago Bulls basketball franchise. For
instance, the team hosts home games at an impressive facility in the United Center, with a high
seating capacity for diehard fans. The team resides in Chicago, a popular U.S. city with a fairly
affluent population and large-scale interest in sports. Additionally, the franchise’s sponsorship
inventory in place is publicly available for potential organization partners in the form of an
online-accessible sponsorship opportunity packet.
The Chicago Bulls franchise website is very accessible and is fairly easy to navigate. Access
to media press releases, box scores, and play-by-play updates is granted to the public quickly and
consistently. The organization, similar to other NBA teams, has live streaming capabilities via
TV networks, computer/laptop streaming, and smartphone applications. The franchise has
multiple key media partners including TV channels like CSN Chicago, WGN, and WPWR and
the ESPN 1000 radio station, along with their own BullsTV.
Experience and recognizable faces in management and ownership under Owner Jerry
Reinsdorf and Coach Tom Thibodeau is another one of the physical team’s many strengths.
Clever draft picks and trade decisions have put the Bulls in to a good spot entering the 2015
NBA Playoffs as the probable third seed in the Eastern Conference. From a ticket sales
perspective, the Chicago Bulls is a market that is fairly easy to sell in, when you can boast about
All-Star Derrick Rose at Forward (when able to play), former Defensive Player of the Year
Joakim Noah racking up steals and blocking shots, and of course Michael Jordan and his history
3. Wills 3
playing with the team. One can almost always fall back on these basketball greats, specifically
Jordan, for whom Team Owner Jerry Reinsdorf was responsible recruiting over 25 years ago.
Michael Jordan, having won several championship rings with the Bulls back in the 1980’s,
became famous for his exquisite basketball ability, but also his shoe line (“Jordan’s”), and later
his pursuit of owning the majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets.
Though the franchise has many strengths, there are certainly several challenges associated
with being a sports team in a city full of other popular sports teams. Expensive ticket prices
could potentially hold consumers back from attending games, though it has surprisingly not
affected fan attendance whatsoever – sometimes the consumer will not mind the higher price if
the sport product’s value is highly perceived among consumers. Another weakness could
potentially be the minor shortage of seating at the United Center, given that the Bulls own the
highest average home attendance among NBA teams at roughly 21,000 fans. One final problem
for the Bulls is Forward Derrick Rose’s knee problem flaring up at any moment. Some would
argue he was at his prime in 2012 before he tore his right meniscus, but the team hopes for his
full healing and highly anticipated return to ‘the norm’, his 25-point average in the 2012 season.
The threats for this organization would first and foremost be the inner-city competition: The
Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bears, and potentially the Chicago White Sox.
The White Sox scenario is tricky because Jerry Reinsdorf owns both the Bulls and the White
Sox. This could be a threat to the Chicago Bulls in the sense that Jerry may be spending more of
his time and efforts with the beginning of the baseball season, whereas if he just owned the Bulls
he could be focusing all of his attention towards the final games of the Chicago Bulls’ regular
season and postseason playoff berth. There may be a game overlap with one of the other teams
that would force Bulls fans to choose which game to attend.
4. Wills 4
One notable threat to the Bulls, along with every other NBA franchise, is over-
commercialization. Based on my own research, I have noticed that there is a potential negative
effect -- decreased perceived product value for sponsors and fans -- paired with over-
commercialization. As sport marketers, we must ask ourselves to what extent we want to
commercialize the franchise? Sponsors love to see their name plastered everywhere on team
memorabilia, game-day giveaways, and media outlets alike, but how much commercialization is
too much? I have learned as Capital University Athletic Department’s corporate sponsorship
intern that it would be wise to moderate in this instance, and focus on building partnerships with
organizations and not just one-year contracts.
The opportunities for the success of the Chicago Bulls marketing department are endless.
Generic marketing opportunities such as Fan Appreciation Night, Fan Cam, Kiss Cam, t-shirt
cannons, a sponsored fan seating section, or halftime entertainment ideas are simple, yet classic
fan engagement tools. Creative ideas like “Chipotle’s Chicago Bull of the Week”, a halftime
wing-eating contest sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings, or some alliterative ‘Fan of the Game’
acknowledgement like “First Financial Fan of the Night” can be expanded on, and have the
potential to aid the franchise in developing uniqueness and effective product positioning – a
positive image and/or experience in the minds of Bulls fans.
The sport product is intangible, inconsistent, and is simply one element of a much larger-
scale product. For sport to take place, the following four basic product elements must always be
present: Game Form, Players, Equipment, and Venue. Sports product extensions, by definition,
are built around sports and are directly affected by sport success. These include novelties and
fantasies (toys, cards, online fantasy games, autograph signing sessions), personnel and process
extensions (enhanced organization-to-fan communication, cheerleaders), ticket and printed
5. Wills 5
material (including promotional and sponsorship tools like coupons), and internet/electronic
products (social media and the hashtag, constant fan engagement, inclusion, and appreciation).
In this particular instance, a physical Chicago Bulls basketball game, though vitally
important, is just one element of a multi-step process that includes game day operations, ticket
sales, marketing/promotions, finance, corporate sponsorship, and more – otherwise known as
product extensions. As consumers, we experience the product in the form of the performances
that the team puts on every game, and we typically experience the sport product extensions in the
form of concessions, in-game promotions and giveaways, break entertainment, and the other end
of the ticket sales process. The sports marketer has quite little control over the core product, and
must therefore focus efforts on product extensions as previously mentioned.
Sports Marketers and management staff must remember to carefully manage their sport
product as the industry is extremely competitive. They must differentiate, develop, position, and
brand their product in a way that attracts repeat business from previous product consumers (fans)
and that ultimately grows the team’s fan base. It is crucial to keep in mind that 80 percent of
market consumption comes from 20 percent of the consumers.
As previously mentioned, the team resides in Chicago, Illinois, a popular city with a
fairly affluent population and large-scale interest in sports. The team’s market segments are
primarily local male residents ages 25-34 with an average income between $50,000 and $75,000
(The Chicago Bulls). The Bulls are known to pride a more upper-class fan feel, though countless
inner-city kids don Bulls propaganda, likely due to the team’s frequent community service
programming and perhaps a youth status symbol.
Chicago Bulls fans typically purchase tickets in advance online, though purchasing
tickets at the door is a somewhat common option. As the sport industry rapidly modernizes, it
6. Wills 6
can be difficult to track exactly where consumers are purchasing game tickets, team apparel
(jerseys), or the like, but it is a sure thing that consumers have the desire to purchase it online.
Whether it be jersey sales through third-party vendors or directly through the NBA website, fans
will purchase jerseys (especially Derrick Rose’s) and miscellaneous fan apparel at the click of a
button. The product is generally sold online in single game tickets, season tickets, group
packages, and/or luxury suites online, and is experienced in the heart of all of the action; the
United Center.
Regarding the Bulls franchise’s pricing strategy, marketers will utilize third party sellers
such as Ticketmaster and StubHub to get consumers to purchase ‘on-sale’ tickets. Often times
the sales department within the organization will sell group packages and season tickets to
interested consumers and loyal customers at a discount to retain their continued purchases in the
future. These ticket packages will be a lower average price per game, whereas consumers likely
will have to pay the regular or premium price for single-game tickets and playoff games. Luxury
suites are often sold to affluent Bulls fans after premium seating rights (must-have before even
being able to access luxury suite tickets) are purchased.
The team and their corporate partners, this season, have provided fans unique Bulls-
themed items to thank them for their support. “Fan favorite giveaways such as bobbleheads will
be back again this season”, featuring players Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, and Joakim Noah
(NBA.com). A camo hat for Veteran’s Day, as well as St. Patrick’s Day paperboy hats sponsored
by Bud Light were given out to fans. There has also been a ‘Benny the Bull Wall Clock’ that was
sponsored by Transunion. Among these unique items, the Bulls marketing department has passed
out many, but not limited to, the following to fans this year: Advocate Healthcare pink breast
7. Wills 7
cancer t-shirts, United Airlines magnetic schedules, Bud Light glow wands, AT&T winter
beanies, Athletico practice jerseys, Comcast SportsNet baseball hats, Digiorno oven mitts, and
BlueCross BlueShield (of Illinois) umbrellas. The team’s major corporate sponsors include
Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Harris Bank, BlueCross BlueShield, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, United
Airlines, and many others (Forbes). Many of these sponsors have created unique partnerships
with the Bulls franchise and it clearly shows.
The Chicago Bulls are serious about volunteering in the community. Their partnership
with Good Sports, for over ten years as of last year, has enabled more than 500,000 kids to “hit
the country's fields and courts with donated uniforms, shoes, balls and other equipment.”
(Athletic Business) The team has key players volunteering at food pantries and homeless shelters
on a frequent basis. According to the Athletic Business database, Bulls players also hosted a P.E.
class recently in effort to save PEP funding. The team has a full page dedicated to their
community service history and continued volunteer efforts. (NBA.com/bulls) In fact, most of the
Chicago Bulls partnerships with outside organizations tend to be community service-oriented.
Overall, the Chicago Bulls franchise does an incredible job with their marketing efforts.
They are constantly making headlines with their community service efforts, in addition to their
team’s recent spark of success primarily thanks to Derrick Rose’s return. Players are being seen
in the community volunteering at food pantries, mentoring kids, and teaching youth basketball
camps all around the country. This certainly helps the image that product consumers have in
mind when thinking of the Chicago Bulls, which ultimately assists the entire organization by
maximizing ticket sales revenue and highlighting the organization’s public relations efforts.
8. Wills 8
References
"Bulls Announce 2014-15 Season Giveaways for Fans." Bulls Announce 2014-2015 Giveaways for
Fans. Chicago Bulls, 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
"Bulls Announce New Strategic Management Team." The Chicago Bulls. Bulls.com, 05 Jan. 2012.
Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
"Chicago Bulls." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, Jan. 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
"Chicago Bulls in the Community." Chicago Bulls. NBA.com - Chicago Bulls, 2015. Web. 15 Apr.
2015.
"Chicago Bulls Staff Directory." Chicago Bulls Team Directory. Chicago Bulls, 2015. Web. 15 Apr.
2015.
Ecker, Danny. "The Biggest Chicago Sports Sponsor You Don't Know." Crain's Chicago Business.
Crain's Chicago Business, 04 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
Jack, Steven. "Chicago Bulls Sell Bathroom Sponsorship to National Plumbing Company." Chicago
Bulls Sell Bathroom Sponsorship to National Plumbing Company. Angie's List, 29 Oct. 2014.
Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
Leo, Andrew. "The Chicago Bulls.” Segmenting and Targeting Markets. Blogspot, 21 Nov. 2011. Web.
24 Mar. 2015.
NBA Attendance Report - 2015. 2015 ESPN Internet Ventures, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
"2014-15 Chicago Bulls Promotional Nights." 2014-15 Chicago Bulls Promotional Nights. Chicago
Bulls, May 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.