Director of Digital Marketing in the Athletics department
Case Amber Johnson has just been hired as the Director of Digital Marketing in the Athletics department of California University (CU) in Long Beach, California. Amber is a former Auburn University (AU) employee and alum. She had handled the Auburn and Auburn Tigers social media account for a year before getting this position. One of her favorite tweets was introducing the new War Eagle to campus Her old job had been easy but difficult at the same time. Auburn University is a school in Alabama that has a long history of college football (link2). The rivalries and traditions ensure that in the state of Alabama everyone knows about Auburn, love them or hate them. Specific parts of college football have entered Auburn history as iconic moments that people recognize instantly (link3, link4). This history meant she could connect to the lore of the Auburn football team to market the team. However, it also meant that her job was SERIOUS BUSINESS. If she got a player’s statistics or position wrong, then thousands of Auburn fans would instantly tell her. Auburn fans were the core of the strategy. Unlike other digital marketing jobs, her focus was not on getting new fans, nature would take care of that since children in Alabama were either Auburn or Bama fans the minute they were born, her problem was ensuring that the fans were engaged with the University and would go to other events beyond the games. Another core group were prospective students and parents from other parts of the country who were aware of Auburn because of its football program and she needed to translate the feeling on campus to those people outside of Alabama, such as through a hype video (link5). Also, she had to deal with Bama fans. She had done a good job and others had noticed. As part of its efforts to improve its athletics, CU hired Amber. The steady stream of wins had increased attendance at the game and capacity for the games had come close to 89%. Amber’s biggest issue between Auburn and Long Beach was that Wildcat fans were fickle. As the team got better more people showed up to the stands and attendance has gone up but if they started losing games, she was not sure that would continue. Before Amber came to CU they had a website and some presence on social media but both were rarely updated during the off-season. Amber’s plan was to create the same culture at CU that was at Auburn. Fans would now and love their team and see them as part of the family. To help her create that culture, she wants to create an app where people can learn more about the team in an interactive way. The app would have stats about each player and show highlight videos of games. The app would also provide information about the CU team and interviews with coaches and staff. It would also inform the fans about upcoming events beyond games like anniversary events on campus and the team’s charity work in Long Beach. Amber doesn’t actually have experience in app development but the university has an IT department that does create software. To get the app created, Amber will need to send a requisition form to her supervisor who will then send it to be discussed in the IT planning meeting. If it meets their approval then she will talk to someone in IT and provide “requirements”. After the discussion she will wait for a few weeks until the app is developed and tested to meet her needs. Questions Based on Auburn’s strategy, what are the business capabilities of running a college football team. Provide two capabilities for each category and explain the reason for including it. Identify Porter’s five forces for the football industry….