Executive Summary
The following includes a marketing plan intended for use for the 2011 Sidney Lowe
Basketball Camp, a collection of summer camps held annually for the last five years at North
Carolina State University, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Attracting nearly 1000 campers each
summer, it is widely considered as one of the great individual and team basketball camps in the
state and along the east coast.
Included in this plan is the organization mission statement and background for the camp
itself, which not only provides young basketball players with an exciting learning experience, but
also allows the NC State coaching staff an outlet to recruit, as well as help promote the game of
basketball alongside the idea of hard work and great sportsmanship. A competitive analysis
looks at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the camp, not only looking at the
local area, but also how the economy and other factors affect the future of the camp. A
competitive and customer analysis looks at the proposed target market, not only young male
basketball players ages 8-19, but their parents or guardians who will likely pay for the camp.
Key competitors such as other local basketball camps, summer camps and the AAU basketball
league are also examined to determine their affect in how attracting more campers might face
some speed bumps. The marketing goals, objectives and tactics used to successfully achieve this
plan are listed and established to help the basketball camp reach its future marketing goal.
Finally, the control and evaluation section will show how these same tactics will be measured to
ensure that the listed goals and objectives are met.
I. Introduction
A. Mission Statement
The Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp mission is to provide a complete, in-depth basketball
experience emphasizing fundamentals in order to allow young people to reach their full potential.
The camp is a great place to improve one’s basketball skills, compete against good players, and
live the college experience in a beautiful campus environment. Held every summer, the camp is
designed to provide the best possible basketball instruction for players from ages 8 through 19 of
all abilities. Emphasis at the camp is placed upon improving each individual’s skills and
knowledge of basketball. Each camper receives specific instruction on how to play the game and
how to improve himself both on and off the court. Skills and techniques will be improved
through individual and small group instruction, drills and game experience.
B. Background
The Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp was established on May 5, 2006 when Sidney Lowe
was named as the 18th men’s basketball coach at North Carolina State University.
The basketball camp consists of three separate, specialized camps. The skills camp is
held June 11-12 at the Dail Basketball Center for rising 9th to rising 12th grade young men. The
camp has a major emphasis on offensive skills and fundamentals including shooting, ball
handling, footwork and passing, with workouts conducted by the current NC State Basketball
staff. The team camp, held June 16-19 and June 23-26 allows for high school teams across the
country to practice and play against each other in an organized format. Finally, the overnight
camp is offered to young men between the ages of 8 and 19 on June 26-30 and July 24-28. This
camp places an emphasis on the fundamentals of the game of basketball, and allows for young
men to improve on certain aspects of the game, all while having fun and participating in games.
As shown below, the camp is in its 6th year of existence and has experienced a wide
fluctuation in the number of campers throughout the years.
YEAR
Total
Campers
979
Wake
County
Campers
170
Outside
Wake
County
620
Outside
North
Carolina
180
2006
2007
1534
332
995
207
2008
1207
416
601
190
2009
964
317
504
143
2010
1291
428
683
180
While the camp is associated with NC State, due to NCAA compliance and regulation’s,
it is in no way funded by the university, and operates under the company name L Squared 2,
named after Coach Lowe’s two twins, Lindsay and Lanzen Lowe.
II. Situational Analysis
A. Internal Analysis
There are many components necessary to run a successful basketball camp and the
Sidney Lowe camp meets those and beyond. The most important of these components are the
employees and organizational structure. The camp staff is headed by coaches and support
employees from the North Carolina State University Men’s Basketball Team. While the Camp is
named after Coach Sidney Lowe, it is directed by Levi Watkins, the Director of Operations for
the men’s basketball team. Together with assistant coaches Pete Strickland, Larry Harris, Monte
Towe, Video Coordinator Tony Bethel and Graduate Assistant Jordan Green, the staff brings
together nearly 100 combined years of basketball camp experience, a necessary component to
have when dealing with the organization and implementation of such a large contingent of
campers. During the summer, the staff is also composed of former NC State players, many of
whom have professional or collegiate coaching experience as well as current high school and
lower-level (Division 2 and 3) college coaches. Parents can be ensured that their child/children
will be in good hands while attending the camp.
While the camp isn’t operated by NC State Basketball itself, its affiliation with such a
storied program is a huge reason why it attracts such a large amount of campers each summer.
Being only one of 15 NCAA schools to win multiple NCAA titles, and having two coaches in
Sidney Lowe and Monte Towe as the point guards on those two teams (1974 and 1983) attracts a
huge fan base not only through the state of North Carolina, but nationwide. The basketball
program at NC State alongside the football team, is constantly on national TV, and continues to
produce NBA players such as Josh Powell, Julius Hodge and JJ Hickson. Young children, boys
especially, grow up as NC State basketball fans and idolize the players while attending games,
public practices and even attend incoming recruit’s high school games!
The facilities available are also a strong suit to the camp. The camp’s activities are
centralized historic Reynolds Coliseum, which has been in existence on the campus of NC State
since 1949. The home court for the men’s basketball team from 1950-1999, it holds five
basketball courts during the summer, a full-service concession stand, and is walking distance to
all other camp-related buildings. Many camp activities are also held in Carmichael Gymnasium,
built in 1961 to provide facilities for physical education as well as recreation for NC State
students and staff. This gymnasium houses 11 indoor, wooden basketball courts. Finally, the
Sidney Lowe Skills Camp, which is reserved for high school age campers, is held in the state-ofthe-art Curtis & Jacqueline Dail Basketball Complex. Built in 2005, it is a beautiful complex on
campus that contains practice courts, a luxurious locker room, coach’s offices, team meeting
rooms, a player’s lounge and is adjacent to the high tech strength training facility and sports
medicine complex.
No product is absolutely perfect, and the Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp has some
weaknesses that can be improved upon. As discussed in class, the central equation as it relates to
pricing is that: satisfaction = benefits – costs. With camp fees sometimes exceeding over $450,
consumers, especially low-income families with multiple children, might be unable to afford the
cost of the camps. Many parents might be skeptical to spend that amount of money on a camp
that won’t benefit their child to the extent that an academic or church camp would.
Being affiliated with such a prestigious basketball program, it is expected that the website
would be extensive and informative to not only campers interested in attending, but the parents
of those children (who are more likely to be researching the camps). Both Duke University’s
Coach K Camp (dukebasketballcamp.net) and the University of North Carolina’s Roy Williams
Camp (roywilliamsbasketballcamp.com) have professionally designed websites with pictures,
detailed camp information and other pertinent information. While a website is in place for the
Sidney Lowe Camp (http://www.eteamz.com/NCStateBasketball/), it was not professionally
developed. It lacks important information and pictures, and was poorly formatted. In a time
when accessibility and convenience are everything and registration for camps is done online, the
camp website should be carefully developed and constructed with the idea that it will be the first
piece of information that a potential consumer (camper or parent of camper) will see. As with
anything in life, first impressions are everything.
The current advertising and marketing scheme the camp has in place is also very weak.
While the staff has a lot on their plates outside of the camp (in-season, players’ needs,
academics, etc), more emphasis can be placed on how the camp is promoted. While the camp
website is in place and is always updated, outside of gopack.com, there are very few avenues in
which the camp information can been be seen outside of the website. If someone who recently
moved to the Raleigh area was not a fan of NC State Basketball, one might not even know there
was a Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp.
B. External Analysis
The location of the camp presents a huge opportunity in order to increase the amount of
campers. With a target market of boys ages 8-19, many different indicators, especially economic
can play a huge influence on the ability to successfully attract campers each summer.
The city of Raleigh is located in Wake County, with 143,289 students enrolled in 163
schools as of the 2010-2011 academic year, is the largest public school district in North Carolina
and the 17th largest district in the United States. The city of Raleigh, with a population of nearly
430,000 is the second largest city in the state of North Carolina, and when combined with the
town of Cary and city of Durham is one of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan areas. Over
50,000 of Raleigh’s residents fall in the ages of the camp target market of 8-19.
The camp is also unique in that it provides the coaching staff at NC State with the
opportunity to recruit young men as they participate in the program. The NCAA allows college
programs to invite potential high school recruits to their respective camps, as long as the recruit
pays their own way. The camps provide potential recruits to see for themselves how the
basketball program is, from the coaches, players, campus life and surrounding area. The coaches
also get an opportunity to instruct and continue to recruit the prospects.
Another opportunity for the camp is the growing popularity of the game of basketball,
especially the idea of playing for a division one basketball program. In the new age, players like
Lebron James and Kobe Bryant have been brought to the spotlight, having learned the game at a
young age and achieving stardom before they reached their high school graduation! Kids marvel
at the idea of becoming the next big superstar, and understand that it won’t come without hard
work and practice, a key principle that is demonstrated throughout the camps.
As with any organization or event, threats are always looming. While it can be strength,
at the same time, the location of the basketball camp poses a threat. Located within 20 miles of
both Duke University and the University of North Carolina, the camp must compete with the two
rival schools, both of whom have similar basketball camps. With both of these programs being
extremely successful within the last 5 years (UNC winning a national championship in 2009,
Duke in 2010), the program at NC State, and Sidney Lowe himself, have been under scrutiny in
their inability to attend the NCAA Tournament since 2005. The sporting industry has always
been competitive, but when it comes to college basketball fans, especially those on Tobacco
Road, where college basketball is life and winning is everything, a losing program and its
extensions can be affected.
Another key strength has to do with the consumers themselves. With any athletic team,
there are fans that will stick with you no matter what, through thick and thin. NC State is no
exception, as they have a large number of loyal fans. Whether the team didn’t win a game the
previous season, or the camp’s price rose 200%, NC State along with Sidney Lowe, has fans that
will always attend because they thoroughly love the school.
The economy itself is a huge threat to the basketball camp. While the camp tries to
attract children, the cost of the camp is ultimately the responsibility of the parents or guardians,
so it’s important to remember the economy is still working its way out of a recession. With costs
ranging from $200-$500 and many parents with more than one camper, the money that could be
used to pay to attend the camp can go a long way otherwise. This brings up the economic
concept of “opportunity cost,” as this could include food for family, money towards the
education of future or current children and other forms of summer entertainment or leisure. With
the economy being at a low point, money might be tight and could be a viable excuse for many
parents to elect not to send their child to a basketball camp. With the Raleigh-Durham area
being flooded with children activities, it is an extremely competitive market to participate in.
C. Competitive Analysis
As with any organization or product, it is important to look outside of the Sidney Lowe
Camp, towards the competitors of the camp itself. As previously stated as a threat, Duke
University and the University of North Carolina have camps that stretch through the summer
months as well. Below is a list of camp dates for each university:
Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp
Coach K Basketball Camp
Roy Williams Basketball Camp
June 11-12, June 16-19, June 23-25, June 2630, July 24-28
June 18-22, June 25-29, July 2-6
June 12-16, June 18-22
While not all of the dates for different camps overlap, in this economy, it’s highly unlikely that a
parent will allow their child/children to attend more than one basketball camp over the summer.
On a much wider scale, the camps, occurring in the summer, compete with other summer camps
outside of basketball, such as baseball, football and soccer. Outside of sports, activities such as
church programs, band camps and summer schools compete for children’s time when not in
school. Families for the most part schedule vacations during the summer, something else that
needs to be taken into consideration.
Another competitor of the summer camp is the ever-popular AAU summer circuit. If a
young basketball player is talented enough, he is more than likely a year-round player, finding
himself on an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball team during the off-season. These
teams travel from tournament to tournament (often sponsored) across the country for countless
weekends on end. Local teams such as the NC Elite (ncelitebasketball.com), CP3
(www.cp3aau.com), and Triangle Flight (triangleflightelite.com) have numerous teams in several
different age groups who practice, travel and play from when the off season begins in April until
the school year starts in September. As a result, they often prohibit players from attending
summer basketball camps.
D. Customer Analysis
The Sidney Lowe Basketball Camps serve a select target market, that being young men
ages 8-19. The unique aspect about activities such as this basketball camp is that while your
consumer is a young boy or teenager, very rarely are you going to find them to be the one who
finds out about the camp or pays for it on their own. In this aspect, the customer is really going
to be the parent or guardian who will be paying for the camp him or herself. With this
information, it’s likely that your true target market will be either be the stay-at-home mom, the
working mom or dad, or the guardian (e.g. grandparents) who is looking for a way to get their
son out of the house and stay active during a stretch of the summer.
As stated before, there are three separate camps over the summer. The day/over night
camp focuses on improving camper’s basketball knowledge and skill. The ages range from 8-19
years old, however a majority of the campers fall between 8-13. The team camp consists of high
school teams and allows the teams to compete against each other in an organized fashion. These
campers must be enrolled in high school. Finally, the skills camp focuses on providing middle or
high school students with a dose of how a college basketball program is run, with intense
workouts provided directly from the NC State coaches. These campers range in ages from 1318, with a majority of them being enrolled in high school.
The main marketing characteristic that separates these basketball camps from products
such as a collegiate or professional basketball game is that the camp is hard work! While the
camp is designed to let kids have fun, meet new friends and experience time away from home,
it’s also very hard work! From the time the kids wake up at 9am until they go to bed at 11pm,
they are learning and experiencing the game of basketball almost non-stop! Out of the 24.4
million males in the United States that participate in the game of basketball, 30% of them are
under the age of 17. Motivated young men who have the ambitions of turning themselves into a
college athlete or professional superstar become passionate about the game of basketball and will
do anything at any cost to help them get better at the game and get closer to reaching that dream.
Outlets such as the Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp allow young men that opportunity and
therefore are in a unique situation to market itself.
IV. Marketing Strategy
The Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp has two all-purpose marketing goals. As with any
sport organization, team or event, the main overall goal is to increase attendance to that
particular product. While the coaches, staff and counselors all receive money as a result of the
earnings of the camp, the camps also wishes to promote greater awareness and as a result, expect
that more awareness will result in increased attendance. The basketball camp doesn’t measure
success by how much money is made, but rather by how the camp is perceived, and how much
support through campers is garnered.
With this ultimate goal in mind, the main strategies are to first increase the overall
awareness of the camp through media and press exposure. As a result of the increased coverage
and publicity, the second strategy of increasing the amount of campers should be obtained as
well. In order to be considered a quality basketball camp, it’s necessary to make the camp itself
distinct and attractive not only in the children’s eyes, but also that of the parents (or whoever is
paying for the camp), as they will ultimately be leaving their children with the camp’s staff for a
week! As with any marketing scheme, the consumers’ behavior unquestionably will make or
break any sporting or tourism event, so it’s of critical importance that the Sidney Lowe
Basketball Camp does its absolute best to put itself above the rest in order to successfully
accomplish these two strategies.
Using these ideas, the plan will use a “professional sport” marketing design, which in
effect will position the camp with a strong impression in the eyes of the users. The plan will use
the idea of brand association, and will place the Sidney Lowe Camp in the top echelon of
basketball camps not only in the country, but worldwide. As the previous tables stated, the camp
has roughly seen 1000 campers enroll in the summer camps. Through these two strategies, there
is no reason why the amount of campers can’t double for these upcoming camps in 2011.
V. Marketing Tactics
For five years and counting, the Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp has been able to
successfully market itself to roughly 1000 basketball players, from the ages of 8-19. As stated
before, the camp receives no money from the NC State Basketball program, (the money to start
the camp is from Head Coach Sidney Lowe’s pocket), and so the way in which the camp can
market itself is limited from a budgetary standpoint. The camp does have the distinct advantage
of being affiliated with the program, so advantageous marketing and promotional opportunities
are bountiful.
Currently, camp brochures, featuring all pertinent information and registration
information are mailed to campers from the previous years and to those who inquire about it via
phone call or email. It would be extremely valuable to include these brochures (once created) at
every entrance in the RBC Center at home NC State Basketball games. With an average
attendance of over 13,000 for each game, and 17 home games, there are thousands of potential
campers, or parents of campers that will see the brochure and possibly take immediate interest in
the camp. A young fan of NC State Basketball, who would be interested in attending the camp,
is also very likely to be a multi-sport athlete and a fan of other NC State athletic teams. It would
be beneficial to use the same tactics at home football, soccer, baseball, and even women’s
basketball games.
Not only does the NC State Basketball team attract a large fan base, but also has a
tremendous amount of media and press attention year round. Currently, the basketball camp has
no advertisements or promotional outlets in place. The course of action would begin with radio
advertisements on 99.9 FM the Fan (ESPN Radio affiliate in the Raleigh-Durham area). If one
listens to sports radio, he or she is likely a true sports fan and old enough to drive, and therefore,
could possibly have a son or friend who might be interested in the camp. During the course of
the basketball season, Coach Lowe has a weekly radio show where he discusses games, answers
fan questions and provides listeners with insight on the basketball season. This would also be an
ideal opportunity for a radio ad, as the listeners are obviously NC State Basketball fans, and if
they have children, or know of children who would be interested in attending, this could likely
push them to take action and register for the camp. While radio advertisements won’t be the
most popular, the news paper ads that will be published on a weekly basis (in the sports section)
will be seen by nearly 176,000 readers the News and Observer reaches on a daily basis. This
advertisement will include the most pertinent information, including the dates and contact
information along with the camp website address. Other published opportunities include the NC
State student-ran Technician (daily) and the local VYPE student high school sport magazine
(monthly). The great thing about having an event centralized around a college product and
located on the campus of a university is the surrounding area. Shopping malls, restaurants and
bars are often popular places and have affiliations with the university. Brochures will be given
out to local hangouts such as Sammy’s Bar & Grill where advertisements will also be placed.
Families often attend these restaurants and they especially attract loyal fans of NC State athletic
teams, especially the basketball team.
With the amount of people and media attention the NC State athletic department receives,
the camp will place many advertisements and gateways (or links) within the official website of
NC State Athletics, GoPack.com. If someone, no matter their age, is surfing this website, they
must have a major interest in athletics, especially those at NC State, The basketball portal on the
website is updated daily with statistics, player information, photos and archives of past seasons.
Basketball fans will surely be attracted to ads for a basketball camp, especially that of their
favorite team, or a team that they follow closely.
The basketball staff does a great job in organizing and keeping up with a camp database,
with all previous campers’ information. Through this plan, the database will continue to be used
to send future camp information to all of those within the database. It will be improved upon by
the amount of emails/letters/brochures sent out, especially with major competitors just miles
down the road. It is very important to make sure information gets sent out as soon as possible, so
the consumers are aware of the program and to remind them how we enjoy bringing previous,
loyal customers back the following year. The database will also be improved upon by adding
more names through the basketballs recruiting database nationwide. Many young basketball
players have caught the eyes of the coaches at NC State and as stated before, the camp provides
the staff with another opportunity to recruit these players. All camp information (mostly
skills/team camp) will therefore be mailed out to every high school player nationwide that is
listed within the camp database. With thousands of recruits around the country, this will be sure
to acquire not only more awareness of the camp nationwide, but also will almost certainly help
increase attendance for select camps. Finally, the database will add all basketball season ticket
holders, current and past ball boys (8 for each home game = 136 for one season) as well as add
all members of the Wolfpack Club with children ages 8-19. It is safe to say that every person in
this database has either attended a basketball camp before, or has at least moderate interest in the
basketball program, and therefore are very likely to take an interest in the basketball camp. This
database tactic will certainly help add more awareness of the camp through promotional tools.
With more than 600 million active users, millions of local businesses with active pages
and growing, social network sites such as Facebook are taking over everyday lives of people
nationwide. As more and more children and adults alike are using these websites, the Sidney
Lowe Basketball Camp will also use Facebook and Twitter to promote itself. The use of this
marketing tactic will spread information about the camp to a wide variety of consumers,
including interested children or working adults following their Facebook or Twitter account at
work or on their cell phone. Both accounts will be frequently updated with information about
the camp, news about the current team and staff as well as trivia, free give-a-ways, photos and
videos of previous camps.
While the tables have shown that a majority of campers come from the state of North
Carolina, travel arrangements haven’t been a big deal to arrange. If the camp does wish however
to expand itself nationwide and internationally, attracting campers from all over the world, like
those of Duke and North Carolina, it’s important to realize that campers need a way to get to the
camp, and parents might want to make a vacation out of it as well. For that reason, the Sidney
Lowe Camp will join forces with a local travel agency such as Premier Sports Travel, located in
Cary. The two organizations will join forces to provide campers and their family with an all
included (Airfare, Hotel, Camp) package for a discounted rate. This promotional tactic will be
congruent with the idea of differentiating the camp from others around the country. Very few
basketball camps attract out-of-state teams or players, and by providing the campers and parents
the opportunity to easily arrange the logistics, it opens itself up to another market that otherwise
wouldn’t be accessible.
VI. Implementation and Control
To ensure that goals and objectives are met as it relates to the marketing approach for the
Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp, numerous measurements will be made. The camp staff, from
Coach Lowe to the support staff, will be throughout every gymnasium for each camp every day
to show campers and parents that the staff and personnel, along with the camp itself are
dedicated to fulfilling the campers every need. Each camper will have the ability to fill out
surveys that will later be analyzed to see if new marketing changes in the camp are working.
The communication between personnel to current and potential customers will build strong and
lasting relationships as well as help spread the awareness of the basketball camp.
In order to measure how effective the online, brochure and other promotional
advertisements were, support and sales will be viewed and tracked from the time the camp has
been announced, until registration for the final camp is over. This will allow the camp staff to
see the difference in awareness, support and attendance from past years along with the current
year. The media advertisements should increase the awareness of the basketball camp, as well as
generate more camp sales and attendance. The links and advertisements on select athletic
websites will attract potential and current customers and will lead to more camp attendance and
sales as well.
Timeline Plan (2010-2011)
October 2010: Camp Dates/Location/Cost Finalized/ Camp Website Created and Open
November 2010: Brochures/Advertisements Created
November 2010-March 2011: NC State Basketball Season
- Brochures handed out:
- Each of NC State’s home sporting events
- Local eateries (Sammys, Jax, etc.)
January-February 2011: Email/Mail-outs to Potential Recruits and Camp Database
February-May 2011: Ads Place in Local Press (Radio, N&O, Technician, VYPE, etc)
June-July 2011: Sidney Lowe Basketball Camp!