Blog Poster

Stage 8 - Commercialisation

Stage 8

Commercialisation

The final stage of the new product development process is the commercialisation stage. It is defined in the Dictionary of Sports Studies (2014) as when ‘financial profit, becomes the underlying economic basis of sports organization’, therefore this shows that the commercialisation stage is about creating a plan for bringing your product/format to market to gain financial profit. The way the product is marketed is vital and there the ‘four p’s’ in the marketing mix (appendix A) are very important. They are price, product, place and promotion and it is crucial to consider all four of these if your product/format will be successful. The commercialisation stage has the potential to be very expensive, however, if done efficiently the organisation will see the benefits after this stage when the product is successful.

An example of where commercialisation has taken place and has been successful to an extent is the NatWest T20 Blast in the UK. With the introduction of this new competition format the ECB were trying to get more people watching their competition both at home and in the crowd. Firstly, they changed the name of the competition from the Friends Life T20 to the NatWest T20 Blast to attract more people. They also changed when the games were played and the majority of games were played on a Friday which was an attempt to encourage more families to watch. As Dobell (2014) states, ‘overall attendance will pass 700,000 for the first time in its 12-year history’ therefore showing that this commercialisation of the new competition was successful. Another technique they used was to create a fantasy team competition similar to that of fantasy football. This meant that people could not only go to watch the matches, they could also be a virtual manager of a team, and this would create interest throughout the competition highlighted in the attendance figures.

To commercialise R1 Racing the ‘four P’s’ in the marketing mix (Appendix A) will be used, which are: price, product, place and promotion. The product is the R1 Racing season that will be held. The aim of the early years of the competition is to run along the F1 season therefore an extra ten pounds will be added to the ticket price for the day the event is held. The place will be at the various F1 events held in Europe for the first year and then expand season on season. The promotion stage will be the most of the four areas for R1 Racing, because if it is going to grow into massive spectator sport a fan base needs to be established straight away. The aim is to negotiate a deal with a broadcasting channel such as Sky or BT to televise the format, from this a commercial will be made which will broadcast from around four weeks before the event to create anticipation and excitement for the first race.

Appendix A – The Marketing Mix

 

Reference List

• Dobell, G. (2014) T20 attendances tell two tales. Available at: http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2014/content/story/773321.html (Accessed: 3^rd February 2015).
• Tomlinson, A. (2014) A Dictionary of Sports Studies. Available at: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199213818.001.0001/acref-9780199213818-e-262 (Accessed: 3^rd February 2015).