‘Marketing Audit; Juventus Soccer School’

‘Marketing Audit; Juventus Soccer School’

Introduction:

According to Activehumber.co.uk (2015) in 2010, sport contributed GBP 20.3 Billion to the UK economy. The global economy of the sports industry has been increasing and changing dramatically since the 1990’s, due to this sport is now playing an important role in contributing to the health and success of many societies.

Globally, the number of people participating in sports is increasing both at amateur and professional levels therefore, the demand for sport is now higher than ever before. This demand has opened new doors into the Football (Soccer) market for European professional clubs; such as; Juventus, Liverpool, Barcelona to offer international partnership deals and franchise packages for businesses to operate soccer schools in partnership with the respective club. Furthermore, this demand has also opened doors for amateur soccer schools such as local clubs to invest in their own soccer academy.

Footballhistory.org (2018) state that Juventus football club is an Italian based club, commonly known as Juve and founded in 1897. Despite many issues the club has faced from corruption, interference of mafia and according to Dowley (2016) match fixing scandal and allegations from Serie A to Serie B. However, Juve is still counted as one of the top football clubs in the world. Due to their continued sporting success and enormous fan base that they have built throughout the decades, in 2004 Juve began to offer international soccer schools and now have over 20 schools worldwide.

This paper will now discuss the situational analysis of Juve soccer school (JSS) specifically in Kuwait, it will also include a SWOT analysis discussing the internal strengths and weakness, and the external threats and opportunities. Furthermore this report will establish marketing objectives which aim to assist Juve in achieving its commercial goals. It will also include some of the development marketing activities using the 4P’s marketing mix concept and will conclude by discussing the benefits that resulted from implementation of these marketing activities by JSS.

Situational Analysis:

The face of Sport in Kuwait, and soccer in particular, has been changing rapidly. In 2008, there were only two soccer schools, and now there are over 20, this is due to the popularity of football leagues such as; English Premier League, Spanish league, La Liga and the Italian league. This paper suggests that this may also be due to the high percentage of obesity in Kuwait, which according to Indexmundi.com (2018) reached 37.9% of the population, accordingly this has forced the government to start investing in building football fields in all the schools around the country to promote fitness in general. This in turn opened the door for JSS and many other football academy’s to use these facilities, after school. According to the United Nation Development Programme (2017) Kuwait government moved Public Authority of Sport (PAS), activities away from the Ministry of Sport, and created, The Public Authority of Youth and Sports (PAYS), to concentrate further on developing sports for youth, and subsequently increasing sports facilities around the country.

JSS intend to reshape football in Kuwait by changing the way young players perceive football, fight the obesity problem by keeping them active, offering professional and fun training for both boys and girls players after school and during weekends.

JSS is owned by the same company that owns Arsenal soccer school in Kuwait, JSS started to operate in Kuwait in 2017 due to these three main factors below:

High demand for youth footballA large number of fans who love to watch the Italian football league and Juve in particular. Below is a link to Juventus Fan Club, they have over 12,000 followers in Kuwait, https://www.instagram.com/jofc_kw/Arsenal soccer school not doing well. Compared to other competitors, therefore the owner of the company decided to invest in JSS, while keeping Arsenal soccer school running as a side project.

Location:

The company is located in the Mishref area of Kuwait. According to Citypopulation.info (2017) the population of Mishref reached 43,706 in 2017. It is a very rich, clean and well maintained area. JSS rent a football field in Mishref which is located within GUST University campus. The location is great for residents of Mishref, and for customers who live outside this area, however, it can be difficult sometimes to reach, due to traffic. The facility is one of the top facilities available in Kuwait, with security available 24 hours, a big car park, several restaurants, and the football field itself is also large.

The total income in the first year (Winter time) for JSS was around 256,000 GBP. This was calculated by the number of customers they had, multiplied by the course monthly fees over 9 courses annually. Players x course fees x 9 courses, 120 x 237 x 9 = 255,960 GBP. This number is good to start, however it is not enough to cover all expenses such as; yearly international fees partnership fees, staff fees, accommodations, equipment etc... JSS performance during the summer is very poor as most of their customers travel on holiday as a result to the weather being too hot.

Goals:

JSS is aiming to increase its customer’s number by 50% during the second year.

JSS is planning to open a second location.

Win the academy league in Kuwait

Offer specialized training for female players

JSS advertising channels:

Social media, Instagram and Facebook are mainly active, however the ads are poorly designed.

Newspaper advertisements active and effective

Flyers are active and effective

Magazines active but not too effective

Website, not online yet, here is a link to the website, http://www.juventus-kw.com

Customer: JSS main customers are students, who come from upper class families, age 4 to 16 years old.

Geographic segmentation: Mishref city top schools located nearby are listed below:

American united school

The English Playgroup

Kuwait English School

Demographic Segmentation: Customers will be divided below as per age group:

4 – 6 years

7 – 8 years

9 - 10 years

11-12 years

13 - 14 years

15 – 16 years

Gender: Boys and Girls, however due to some social factors, such as; religion and the country’s cultural traditions, it is difficult for girls age 10 – 16 years to participate in sports.

Religion: Mishref City residents are mainly Muslims, however the international schools students located nearby, have different religions as they come from different areas close by.

Population of Kuwait: Total number of people is 3,694,000. 1,403,000 Kuwaitis and 2,291,000 non Kuwaitis.

JSS main customers are the Kuwaitis and the upper class non Kuwaitis, who tend to spend more money on international brands. According to Stat.paci.gov.kw (2018) the number of Kuwaiti national residents age 14 and below is 484,000 and the number of non-Kuwaitis age 14 and below is 401,000.

Income Class

Monthly Family Income

Behavior

Poor

500 GBP below

Not applicable, they can’t afford it

Lower Class

1000 GBP

Parents who are looking for a career in football for their children.

Middle Class

2000 GBP

Parents who are looking for a career in football for their children

Upper Class

3000 GBP plus

Parents who are looking for a career in football for their children, want them to make friends, stay active and healthy.

Competitors: JSS direct competitor is PSA in affiliation with Everton and Celtic, located 15 minutes away from JSS.

Competition

Company

Location

Ages:

Price

Success

Strength

Weakness

Direct

PSA

Two locations,

1st is 15 minutes away

2nd 1 hour away

3-18

236 to 300GBP

Over 500 players, offering football and 3 other type of sports

Top class facility, two strong brand names, gym available on sight

Not doing well in tournaments.

Indirect

AC Milan

30 minutes away

4-18

236

Over 200 players, looking to open a new location soon.

Strong team, strong coaching staff. Strong marketing strategy, Girls football academy

AC Milan official club, not doing well in the Italian league and champion’s league. Customers in Kuwait follow top teams.

Indirect

Strikers

30 minutes

4-16

150

2 big locations

Support from the ministry of sports, academies league Top team

Local brand

PSA, who is the main competitor for JSS, has a strong marketing presence on the social media, strong website, advertise weekly in the national newspaper, strong sponsors such as Porsche and Sports Direct, official PSA yearly published magazine.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths

Weakness

1 International brand

2 Located inside Gust University in a very affluent area

3 It has a strong finanial support

4 Qualified Coaches

5 International Tours

1 Website is not available

2 Poor social media ads designs

3 JSS recruited the same Coaches that Arsenal soccer school hires, They are British and Kuwaitis, not Italian which is opposite to AC Milan school, all head coaches are Italian, it will cause a lot of confusion for current and new customers

4 Current teams are not well trained

5 Number of female customers is very low

6 service is not differentiated by the competitors

7 Lack of marketing Expertise

Opportunities

Threats

1 Target new market segmentation, ages 17 to 18 years

2 Offer affordable deals and a specially designed program to target female customers

3 Open a new location

4 Arsenal soccer school could close down, therefore the owner could focus his attention on JSS

5 Offer fitness training for Parents

6 Hire a public school soccer field, which is considered to be 10 times cheaper compared to a private field.

1 Direct and new competitors are gaining strong recognition and reputation and in the market

2 According to Arab news (2014) the low oil prices affecting the economy in Kuwait. Oil prices are decreasing, therefore it could put pressure on how people spend their money, which directly affect the upper class customers.

3 Government is consistently adding new laws which affect mainly the non-Kuwaitis customers

4 Competitors are introducing new business ideas, such as; Gym for fitness, and medical staff on sight.

5 Expansion of current competitors and their affordable subscription fees

Marketing objectives supporting the organizational goals:

JSS are planning to position themselves as a top quality brand in Kuwait by offering top training experience for players, and differentiate themselves from their competitors by being the best. JSS planning to reach its goals using these marketing objectives below:

Put one of the female coaches in charge of conducting training for the female players and offer affordable deals to attract more new female customers.Invest in an effective website to target new customers onlineOffer scholarships for talented players to build stronger teamsDevelop brand awarenessStrong social media presence, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TwitterHire a qualified Italian head coach to promote authenticity.

Marketing Activities covering the (4 P’s):

Product:

Objective:

Innovate new ways to build strong teams to compete in tournaments and league and look for new ideas to differentiate the service from the other competitors

Activities:

Players:

Offer special and affordable training program for the female customers, Offer special discounts and scholarship for the male customers.Plan an international trip to visit the official JUVE football club in Italy and trip to compete in an international tournament in Dubai.

Coaches: Hire an Italian football coach to promote Authenticity, and offer learning and development training programs for the coaches.

Time- bound:

Players: 1- Continuous

2- Annually

Coaches: Once per month

Price:

Objective: Price has been set to target upper class families in Mishref area for both Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis. These types of families they are willing to spend more money on international brands and can cover the costs of the international trips for their children. Activities:

1. One course subscription for male customers: 236GBP, offer discounts for siblings and group bookings

2. One course subscription for female customers: 165GBP

3. Three courses subscription for male customers: 638GBP

4. Offer cheap and affordable package for summer camp training.

Time-bound:

1, 2 and 3 continuous 4 promote it between April and June

Place:

Objective: International schools and social mediaActivities:

1. Offer free health and fitness training for students within the schools and place a table on sight for registrations

2. Place video ads promoting the academy on both Instagram and Facebook.

Time-bound:

1. Once Every month

2. September to October and April to June

Promotion:

Objective: Develop brand awarenessActivities: Paid ads on all social media platform, mainly Facebook and Instagram.Post photos and videos on JSS social media pagesDistribute flyers in schoolsDistribute flyers in malls Time-bound: September to October and April to JuneDailyOnce per monthOnce per year

Conclusion:

Conclusively, it is the opinion of this paper that implementing the marketing activities listed will result in many benefits for JSS such as; revived brand awareness and attracting new talented players, which in turn, play an essential role in building strong teams and gaining a strong brand position in the market. Taking JSS players to compete against other teams internationally, visiting the official club in Italy and offering affordable deals for female customers, could also provide JSS with a strong unique selling point and as a result, could support JSS goal to increase their customer numbers and result in opening a new location.

References:

Activehumber.co.uk. (2015). Benefits of Sport to Individuals, Society and The Economy. [online] Available at: https://www.activehumber.co.uk/benefits-of-sport-to-individuals [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Arab News. (2014). Falling oil price ‘hurting Kuwait economy’. [online] Available at: http://www.arabnews.com/economy/news/651696 [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Citypopulation.info. (2017). Mishref (District, Kuwait) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location. [online] Available at: http://citypopulation.info/php/kuwait-admin.php?adm2id=209 [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Dowley, C. (2016). 10 years later, match-fixing left Italy struggling. [online] SBNation.com. Available at: https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2016/7/15/12197194/calciopoli-scandal-anniversary-juventus-milan-fiorentina-napoli [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Footballhistory.org. (2018). Juventus FC history and facts. [online] Available at: http://www.footballhistory.org/club/juventus.html [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Indexmundi.com. (2018). Kuwait Demographics Profile 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.indexmundi.com/kuwait/demographics_profile.html [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].

Kw.undp.org. (2017). INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING AND STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR SPORT. [online] Available at: http://www.kw.undp.org/content/dam/kuwait/img/PAS/PAS%20Fact%20Sheet%20.pdf [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Stat.paci.gov.kw. (2018). Statistical Reports. [online] Available at: http://stat.paci.gov.kw/englishreports/ [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].

By Bilal Saddik January 2019