Idea Generation
Idea
Generation is the first stage in the eight stage New Product Development
process. This process is vital within the sporting industry because of its ever
changing nature and consumers are always demanding a new experience. Consumers may
want a new innovation of an already established sport or just a completely new
sport for them to enjoy. Established sports may have to create new interest due
to declining numbers watching and participating, therefore sports governing
bodies invest huge amounts of time and money into coming up with new bright
ideas to reinvigorate the sport. The use of areas such as research and
development can help show what the consumer wants most and how sports can
provide this. Beech and Chadwick (2013) state that the idea ‘stage may well be
the most critical stage’; this justifies the time and effort put into
researching and coming up with new variations to attract attention within the
sport.
Examples of
where the idea generation stage has been a success is in T20 cricket. The
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had to come up with a new idea to
reinvigorate the game due to reduced spectators and a lack of sponsorship. The
idea was create a shorter and fast-moving new format to encourage younger
people to come and watch the cricket again after being put off by the prolonged
formats of the game. This made the game much more attractive for people and
families to come and watch, therefore appealing to a wider audience. The first
T20 game took place in 2003 and has since become a worldwide revelation.
Leagues have been founded throughout the world from cricket-mad India to
Canada. To see the success of this new format you only have to look at the
Indian Premier League (IPL) and The Big Bash in Australia which both attract
huge crowds and sponsorship from multi-national corporations such as KFC who
sponsor the Big Bash. This new format has been very successful and has brought
a huge amount of interest back to cricket.
Other sports
are also investigating new ideas. A new format of golf is being thought of to
get a larger interest in the game away from the four majors and the Ryder Cup.
This new format will create a number of franchises around the world and auction
off the world’s best players and then they will play in a league format. This
will create interest in golf throughout the year and will give spectators a
team to support and watch throughout the season in which the league would run.
Another idea
is an F1 relay format where you could have different makes of car such as F1,
GP 2 and other forms of racing cars all together in one event. Teams would have
a choice of which car went at certain parts of the race and what driver raced
when so it would be exciting new format.
Reference List
·
Beech,
J. and Chadwick, S. (2013) The Business
of Sport Management. 2nd Edition. Harlow: Pearson
