The reality of the 1990's, is an organization doesn't incorporate marketing as an essential part of their business platform they suffer a competitive disadvantage. By focusing on the fundamentals of their marketing mix, the Seattle Mariners have proven themselves as an excellent consumer marketing organization. Segmenting our report into categories of product, place, price, and promotion, we will exhibit the construction of a successful marketing program.
Brief History
The successful marketing of the Mariners preceded their success on the field. Beginning with new ownership in 1991, the Mariners began to lay the foundation to situate the franchise as more than a sports team; rather, a complete entertainment venue by establishing the "Seattle Mariners" as a brand that represented "fun." The 1991 season coincidentally finished up being the Mariners first winning season on the field. In marketing they dominated by wimmimg the Gold Effie award for their excellent media ads.
Before 1991, the Mariners were an unsuccessful franchise that had no tradition, no fan loyalty, and had never drawn more than 1.3 million fans in a season. In 1991, the Mariners drew 2.1 million fans, outdrawing the New York Yankees, the NL champion Atlanta Braves and the World Series champion Minnesota Twins (OWS). After nineteen years of futility on and off the field, the Seattle Mariners found the key to marketing major league baseball in the Northwest.
In 1993, new ownership was in the Mariner front office yet again. The new Mariner organization made a commitment to building a better product and to making baseball work in the Northwest. By signing new ball players and keeping the new talent on long term contracts the Mariners started to build a winning product.
The continued efforts of the Mariners to establish the organization as a brand, and create a successful product began to yield tangible results in the '95 and '96 seasons. It was in the 1995 season when the Mariners concluded that to be a competitive Major League Baseball team they would require a new facility. The battle for a new stadium began. Eventually a stadium deal was completed with the city of Seattle, and the Mariners were poised to significantly strengthen their marketing mix.
Market Analysis
The Seattle Mariners are in a competitive entertainment market. In order to deal with competition, the marketing team has expanded their customer base to the entire northwest. There has also been a recent trend among sports venues to bombard the consumer with multiple entertainment activities along with the games themselves. Such activities include enhanced concessions, music, movie clips, animated mascots, fireworks, bands, and expanded retail scene.
Comparison with Other Markets
The Mariners are in a younger baseball market than the markets in other baseball cities. The team is only 20 years old and has only recently gained its brand awareness. Many teams including the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees have thrived with brand awareness for years. Win or lose their stadiums are filled with giant crowds of screaming fans. With the success of the past decade's marketing campaign the Seattle Mariners will most likely reap the benefits that these other two teams have.
Product
The Seattle Mariners are represented as a line of products. Currently, the primary products are the players. The essential product is the team that is put onto the field. Without a winning team, it is hard to market to consumers. The Mariners will have five all-stars on their team this year, and they were picked by Sports Illustrated to win the World Series. Companies like Nike help with promoting the Mariners by sponsoring players like Ken Griffey, Jr.. More consumers want to see the Mariners be more dominant in Major League Baseball, and that is why their attendance has risen from 9,000 season tickets in 1993, a losing season, to almost 18,000 season tickets sold in 1997 (Mariners, 193), a season after two consecutive winning seasons.
As long as the Mariners keep on winning, the season ticket sales will keep on rising. The young, exciting team that the Mariners are putting on the field is going to help the organization break their record of 2.7 million fans that went to see the Mariners last year (Mariners, 193). A Mariner executive said that ticket sales are what drives a team to increase their profits, so ticket sales are the marketing departments first priority. A major league spokesman said that last year the Mariners were one of four major league teams that had a large increase in profits, sponsorship, and ticket sales.
When analyzing the actual Mariners they use their players and their winning record to sell tickets. The relationship is unbelievable when comparing how hard it is to sell season tickets when you have a bad team compared to selling tickets during a winning season. With the young talent the Mariners are fielding, it is easy to see why fans want to come out and see Ken, Jay, Edgar, Alex, Dan, Joey, and Randy. This mix of talent and personality is a marketers' dream come true. In Seattle the Mariners ballgames are not only for the family, but it is now fashionable for younger people to attend a game.
The key to the Mariner's success in the past decade has been in the development of their team into a identifiable brand. John Costello, the vice president of marketing for Sears, preaches that a brand signifies a relationship with the customer. He also espouses that a brand is not only a company's most valuable asset, but it is the best defense against price competition which leads to customer loyalty. This is the strategy that the Mariners' marketing department has adopted for the last decade. The additions of the music, Mariner's Moose, fireworks, singles-night, and player personality commercials are many of the additions added to the Kingdome atmosphere to help brand the team.
The home attendance records are evidence for the success of the branding. The Mariners, with the help of a local ad agency, produced a phenomenal increase of 1.5 million fans to 2.1 million fans. For this, they received a Gold Effie in1992, which is a national award rewarding sporting and entertainment marketing . This number jump is too large to be explained by the team's first winning record that year. The Mariners branding strategy has indeed paid off for ticket sales have remained high even during poor play.
Place
Currently the Mariners play their games in Seattle in the Kingdome; which is not considered one of the better venues in Major League Baseball. The Mariners worked very hard for three years to overcome countless obstacles to secure a new stadium for professional baseball in Seattle. The new stadium is already being constructed, and is expected to be finished in 1999. The new stadium is a strategic element in the Mariners product mix.
Mariner baseball has come to represent more than just a game; it is an entire entertainment experience. A new stadium will add to the brand image of the Seattle Mariners, and provide the organization a first class facility that will serve as part of the product mix and distribution vehicle.
While it remains to be seen how the Mariner Organization uses the new facility to market the team; one can infer possibilities from other teams who have recently moved into new stadiums. Turner Field in Atlanta is proving to be highly successful at bringing fans to the game who would not have considered going before the new stadium; the Mariners expect a similar response to their un-named stadium. The marketing department views their new facility will open new markets of fans, and aid in marketing the team if they fall into a losing season.
Price
In the market place, the Mariners compete against any activity that a consumer would spend on entertainment; therefore, price is the most difficult part of the marketing mix the Mariners deal with. The discussion about the price of Mariners products must focus on the price of tickets.
The consumer who wishes to attend a Mariner game has many choices when purchasing a ticket; options range from $5 to $45 per game. Mariners ticket prices are competitive with all other major league professional sports in Seattle. Price competition with other entertainment attractions is being abated with the growing establishment of the Mariners as a brand name in the entertainment arena. The Mariners branding strategy has paid off in a reduction of pricing pressures and a continued record setting pace of higher value season ticket and luxury box sales.
The Mariners' marketing department is also successfully selling corporate sponsor- ship. Over the last year corporate sponsorship has risen 149%, 1997 is the first time in the Mariners twenty year history that all of the ad space in the Kingdome had been sold prior to the start of the season(Baker, 10A). A few corporate sponsors include Pepsi Co., Eddie Bauer, Boeing, Southwest, Eagle, Office Depot, Bravo Card, First USA Bank, BP, Sparklette, and Microsoft. These corporate sponsors pay to use the Mariner name in their advertising; thus, the Mariners get payed and get publicity.
Promotion
It has been the promotional efforts of a strategic marketing program that has made the branding and product line development process so overwhelmingly successful for the Mariners. In an effort to gauge the effects of Mariner advertising, our group conducted a survey and compiled the results.
In a random survey of 50 people, the results showed that the Mariners advertising brings awareness to the Mariners. The average age of the sample is twentyfive years old. 94 percent of the sample have seen the ads and can recall the content, and 78 percent think the ads are effective. 50 percent that have seen and recalled the ads, say that their awareness of the Mariners has increased since first viewing the ads. This is positive because the survey base already had a high level of awareness. 61 percent surveyed considered themselves as die-hard fans, and only 5 percent attend or watch the games because they are a winning team.
The most significant statistic in the survey was the low percentage of people that watch or attend the games only because the Mariners are a winning team. One can interpret that the Mariners have been successful at creating a loyalty to the team as a brand not just as a superior product. (See Appendix A)
Promotional events at the Mariner games have played a large role in the organization creating the "fun" factor they sell. Eagle's poster nights will revolve around the anniversary and the introduction of a retired player to the media and fans. You will be able to get a Mariner credit card at all home games through First USA Bank. Some 12,000 fans will receive a fishing pole and a chance to go on a fishing trip with Jay Buhner courtesy of Shimano. There will also be the classic Mariner promotional nights like cap night, bat night, T-shirt night, Buhner Buzz night, Ayala Goatee night, and umbrella night.
In addition to the many promotions the Mariners host, they have one of the best web sites in Major League Baseball.
The effectiveness of the Mariners promotional efforts cannot be understated; the creation of The Seattle Mariners as a brand in Major League Baseball has been very deliberate and very successful.
Marketing Criteria
Three points come to my mind when asked the question, "how do the Mariners market better than other companies?" First, during the recent history the Mariners have found a way to increase their customer base, which is a key marketing concept. Second, the Mariners have created brand loyalty in a market where it wasn't before. Third, the Mariners finally decided to put a quality product into the market. These three points are basic marketing concepts that could be used at any other company.
In increasing the customer base, the marketing department has increased the size of the market. Statistics have shown that previously 49 percent of all fans in attendance were from outside of King County (Baker, A4). Recent statistics have shown that 47 percent of all fans in attendance are from outside of King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. The Mariners have dedicated two full time positions to marketing in Oregon, Eastern Washington, and Vancouver. The Mariners have done an excellent job of expanding their customer base beyond Washington, not Seattle's team but the Northwest's team.
The Mariners have also done a nice job of creating a sense of brand loyalty. The Mariners now have a history that fans can share and remember. The Northwest now has a baseball culture and the "Refuse to Lose" mentality. The building of a new stadium will help the increase of brand loyalty. Since the Mariners first winning season in 1991 the Mariner attendance has not dropped below 1.5 million. Since the Mariners made the playoffs in 1995 their attendance has not dropped below 2.1 million, even though they did not make the playoffs in 1996 (Mariners, 193). So the marketing department has created a sense of baseball culture in the Northwest which has created brand loyalty.
The Mariners have also learned that you must find a quality product to give your consumer or else they won't purchase your product unless they are brand loyal. The fair weather fans in Seattle are a tough market to deal with. Now that the Mariners have made the playoffs and will soon have their own ballpark they will increase the base of loyal fans, but the really big crowds will not come unless you have a quality product. The Mariners have put together a quality product and they are feeling big returns.
Conclusion
It is very obvious that the Mariners' marketing is superior to most other sports teams. The Mariners' television ratings have risen 140% over the last year (Baker, A4). More fans will see the Mariners at the Kingdome than almost any other major league baseball team, three plus million to be exact. 49% of the Mariners fan base will come from outside of King County (Baker, A4).
The marketing the Mariners have done to build a fan base of 5,000 seven years ago to over 20,000 today (Baker, A2). The marketing efforts has increased over the last few years, but the real change was the product. The quality product that is now put on the field is ten times better than the one seven years ago. The marketing department told the organization that the people did not like the product that was out on the field. The organization built a winning product for their consumers and that was a major goal of their marketing department.
Critics would say it's easy to market a winning baseball team. There is some truth to that statement; however, the Mariners have successfully marketed a losing team that has only recently seen success. The strategy revolved around using the marketing mix to create a brand. This branding has successfully made a relationship with the Mariners and their fans. The Mariners have used all the elements of the marketing mix to carry them forward and to lay a firm foundation for the future.
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