Jay Stevens Case

Week 7 Case Study II: Springfield Nor'easter

Jay Stevens

Professor Milobsky

Due May 22, 2013

According to the Springfield Nor'easter case, Buckingham is the director of marketing for class A minor league baseball team called the Nor'easter's that are based out of Springfield. The main purpose of this organization just like most businesses is to sustain a viable business by making a profit and to have a break-even point by start of the opening of the season. The Nor'easters two main sources of revenue are the ticket sales and concession sales as well.

The organization uses marketing research to gain the knowledge that connects to its customers as well as the customer's willingness to be in attentions at the games depending on their pricing level. The results from the survey and other sources of information helped the director to develop a strategy for pricing for all of the Nor'easters' tickets and concession sales. This paper will provide two alternative strategies for pricing by giving the strengths and weaknesses of them, based off the marketing research that was obtained. Also, this paper will have some help recommendations about the pricing of Nor'easters.

Considering the data that was received from the survey, assumptions and some information that was gained by reading the case, in order to achieve break-even for the Nor'easters about half the population of Springfield be in attention at one game at least through out the whole season. Based off limited sample size about 39% of the people in Springfield have shown a willingness to attend the games, which most probably have season tickets or attend regularly. The Nor'easters have some work to do in due to increase this percent to about half of the population. They should consider some of the following actions of communication, marketing, and can evaluate themselves to other cities.

Buckingham has to consider the following things when looking for the right price to set for the Nor'easter minor league games. Since the average income level for households in this city is on the lower side than most and this city has most households as being in the working class. The survey provides information that about 94% of the residents that took this survey responded to a question that their household income is lower than $75,000 a year. So this should be taking into account that for a single ticket should not be a insanely high amount and giving the general pricing strategy discounts should be given to students and seniors that will give them the ability to have cheaper tickers at a lower price in order to get that age group of people attending the games.

The marketing plans objectives are to have the fans of baseball that live in Springfield to have a great experience and the entertainment that they will receive by going to the game will fulfill their need for excitement. This makes it very important that the atmosphere and entertaining around the game is taking very seriously. Most students and younger crowds will most likely come to the games if you have something that makes it exciting to go. It is important that this type of target group attends the games because if they have a good time they will most likely tell others resulting in more revenue for your organization. The team should also focus on getting families to go, as they will most likely spend money on the concession sales, as little kids always want snacks and things like that in order to have a good time.

I think that ticket prices should be no more than $10 a seat, which is very reasonable price. This price will be set for families would mostly have more than one source of income coming into the household in comparison to the seniors and students which at this price will not discourage the target groups from attending any games in the season. Students are not doubt able to give the best environment for any live baseball games, as they are excited and outgoing to the game, which makes them an attractive target group. Since most are in school or have limited means of making money they should have a student discount making their ticket price around $6 a seat. Of course children seats will be around $4 since a kid will not be attending the game by their selves which will result in parents coming to the game as well as increasing the sales to the concession as they will desire treats and fun items to play with a the game. They are also an attracted target group as they are expected to bring a lot of income to the organization.

In any business it is the owners or managers responsible for setting pricing. This is very stressful and not easy for any managers, as this will have a serious impact on the profit of the organization. To determine the price of the tickets there are 4 factors that have to be considered, as they will have an impact.

One important factor to consider when pricing tickets is the demand for the seats or item you are selling. Before you even think about setting a price for your tickets you had to establish some kind of demand curve for these tickets. With a lot of extensive research this can be done by asking how