Henry Deery-Schmitt
April 15, 2013
Sports Marketing
Marketing Plan: St. Louis Cardinals
Step One, Organization:
St. Louis Cardinals, Major League Baseball.
Step Two, Internal and External Resources:
Internal Resources: Sales records, inquiries, accounting records, wages, management
organization.
External Resources: Facility upkeep, concessions, merchandise, ticket sales.
Step Three, Marketing Trends:
1. Games: Having your team in a video game (For example, MLB The Show 13)
can do many things for your team. It will raise awareness of the team, and allow
your fans to play with their favorite team, enhancing their attachment to you even
more.
2. Social Networking: So many people use social networks, whether it is twitter,
Facebook, or instagram. Having an official St. Louis Cardinals twitter or
Facebook account can help your fans keep up to date with everything that is going
on inside and outside the organization. It also reminds people when games are,
and you can remind people of almost anything else on there; promotions, game
times, statistics, play-by-play of the games. There is such a huge advantage to
using social media to make people more aware of your team, which is why every
single team in professional sports has a twitter or Facebook page.
3. iPhone/Android applications: With the large amount of people that have
smartphones, it makes sense to make an application that people can download for
the team. If somebody had a St. Louis Cardinals application where they could
look at the schedule, game highlights and results, and behind the scenes
information, they could stay up to date with their team just by opening one
application. The easier it is for your fans to access information, the more involved
they are going to be with the team.
Step Four, Business and Product:
The business is the baseball team, The St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals are a
very successful club, winning two World Series in the last ten years. The product that we
are ‘selling’ to our consumers is the game of baseball, along with other merchandise and
vending that takes place in the stadium. The product is the whole game experience,
whether somebody watches the game on TV or actually goes to it, or even just plays
baseball because of watching it.
Step Five, Mission Statement:
We, the St. Louis Cardinals, are committed to winning and excellence on
and off the field. Everybody bearing the Cardinal red is held to a high
standard to show that being a Cardinal means more than just winning.
Step 6, SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:

Successful baseball team in a popular baseball town.

Strong partnership with Busch (Busch stadium) that make selling beer at the
stadium that much easier.

Been a successful and popular baseball team for over 100 years.
Weaknesses:

St. Louis is not a media hotbed like California or New York is. ESPN puts a lot of
focus into west coast (Dodgers, Angels) and east coast (Red Sox, Yankees) teams.

A lot of the tradition of the Cardinals could be over used. Young fans may not be
attracted to tons of references to players that they were not even alive to see.
Opportunities

Tons of star players on the team, could have a bobble head night or souvenir bat
night for one of many players on the team.

Baseball is in a very competitive era, can use this to advertise for tickets even
more.
Threats

Other organizations in the National League and in the Cardinals’ division are very
good.
o A fan may not want to come back as badly if he sees a Cardinals loss
o Losses in general are terrible for marketing

Other sports are becoming more popular amongst younger fans
o Football, basketball said to be more “exciting”
o Need to find ways to make going to the baseball game about more than
just the game itself.
Step Seven, Objectives:

Sell out at least 30 games

Put a team out that competes and goes far in the playoffs

Hold team to an integrity, earning respect from other organizations and fans

Provide a family friendly experience at the ballpark

Make fans want to continue supporting the Cardinals, not just by watching games
but also by following them when they do not go to the games.
Step Eight, Consumers:
There are many ways to gain loyalty amongst your consumers, especially in a
sports organization. All of these can be achieved through the five P’s of marketing:
Product, Place, Price, Promotion, and Public Relations.

Product: Our product, St. Louis Cardinals baseball, allows the fans to connect
with a rich tradition in a sport where that is almost the most important thing an
organization can have. By attending a Cardinals game, fans have the feeling that
they are a part of the history, as the Cardinals continue to be successful.

Price: To keep fans happy, we will try to keep our tickets available to everybody
and not let them get bought out by people trying to exploit fans. Tickets to any
sporting event can be pricy, as well as the food in the ball park and souvenirs, but
it can never hurt to try and accommodate the fans as much as possible while still
making a profit.

Place: We believe that the St. Louis Cardinals are a product that can be ‘sold’
anywhere in the country. Partnerships with ESPN and MLB networks across the
country allow the games to be viewed from anywhere, and the Internet allows
fans to purchase merchandise from us as well from anywhere in the country.

Promotion: There are many ways that we will allow our fans to see what is going
on with the Cardinals, and one of the biggest is going to be simple promotions and
promotional giveaways. We will have billboards and advertisements all over the
city, just letting the people see the Cardinals logo, as well as local advertisements
on TV so that our local channels can also keep people up to date. These
advertisements can show the players, exciting moments that have happened the
season, and remind people when important home games are and how to get
tickets. If we are planning a giveaway, we will try to get this across in every
advertisement possible, because we want as many people to know about the
giveaway as possible so it will be effective.

Public Relations: The people are the most important in marketing. Keeping the
fans happy is vital to having a successful sports organization. This can be
achieved in many ways, from keeping players they like to having things like fan
appreciation night.
Step Nine, Marketing Surveys:
1. On the first survey, which I will put on the website of the Cardinals, my target
audience will be people that are looking to buy tickets or have already bought
tickets. When they go to buy tickets, I will ask them if they would take a survey to
help improve their experience. The questions would be:
a. How many games do you attend a year.
b. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being poor and 10 being good, how satisfied were
you with the price of your tickets?
c. Would you be a season ticket holder if you could? If no, why?
This survey would help our organization figure out whether or not people are
satisfied with the price of their tickets, and whether or not that has a direct
correlation with how many games they attend.
2. I am going to have the second survey available in the cup holders of every seat
before a game. It will say that they should fill it out before they leave, and the
questions will be as follows:
a. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being poor and 10 being great, how would you rate
your experience?
b. If we could have done anything to improve your experience, what would it
have been? __________________________________________
c. Will you want to attend another game in the future based on your
experience today?
This survey will be extremely helpful, even if it is only three questions. This will
see whether people are having a good time at the ballpark or not, as well as what
the fans believe that we could improve. This will let them know that their voice
actually matters, because we will actually read through every survey and find the
important details that could help the organization.
Step Ten, Benefits of Product:
1. Excitement: Baseball games can be very exciting.
2. High performance: The Cardinals are a world-class organization where winning is
the only answer.
3. Entertainment: A winning team is very entertaining.
4. Affiliation: The Cardinals are a MLB team, the highest quality a team can be in
the world. When you go to a Major League Baseball game, you are guaranteed to
see some of the best baseball on the planet.
5. Socialization: A baseball game is a great thing to go to with your family,
girlfriend, co-worker, boss, etc. There is something about going to a baseball
game that cannot be replicated, and that experience is even better when with
people that you know and you can talk with.
Step Eleven, Competitive Forces:
In St. Louis, not much is as important as Cardinals baseball is to the city. There
just is not much competition; it is a baseball city that loves its team. The only competition
that could potentially harm the Cardinals is the other professional sports teams in the
areas, like the St. Louis Rams (Football) and the St. Louis Blues (Hockey). The Rams are
another team with tons of past success, and football season overlaps with baseball season
near the end of the baseball season and the beginning of the football season. This could
potentially harm Sunday games, but because that (and sometimes Monday, Thursday, or
Saturday) only happens once a week, it would not be much harm. The Cardinals are by
far the most important sports team in St. Louis and the other teams there really would not
harm them that much.
Step Twelve, Partnerships:
1. The first partnership is going to be with Gatorade. We could sell Gatorade at the
park, and have advertisements with Gatorade and St. Louis Cardinals, because
Gatorade is an extremely popular brand. We could even have Cardinals' players
on the Gatorade bottles so that when people buy Gatorade in St. Louis they can
see some of their favorite players on the bottles themselves.
a. Strengths:
i. Gatorade is very popular
ii. Players on bottles remind people who drink Gatorade about the
Cardinals just by drinking it.
iii. Gatorade is also very useful to the players, as they enjoy it during
the games
b. Weaknesses:
i. Gatorade can only do so much to help
ii. Can’t actually bring people to games, just remind them
iii. Cannot reach people who do not drink Gatorade
2. The second partnership we are going to have is with a car company, BMW. Every
game we will give people the option to take a survey and be entered in to win the
BMW, and draw a winner at the end of the year. BMW will have advertisements
in the stadium as well.
a. Strengths:
i. BMW is a car that many people aspire to have
ii. People may come to the game to try and win the BMW
iii. Can gain information from people form the survey if they decide to
enter.
b. Weaknesses:
i. Some people don’t like surveys
ii. Distraction from the Cardinals
iii. Cars have nothing to do with baseball
Step Thirteen, Associations:
The ultimate goal is to develop strong and favorable associations. This, however,
is not always possible. Four associations I think that the team will be linked to are:
1. Player associations. These can be good or bad. Players can be great on and off the
field and connect with the fans, or they can be the opposite and not be the role
model that many people look up to. To keep this in check, we will make sure our
management keeps the players in line and disciplined, and try to avoid having
head cases in the locker room.
2. Nostalgic Associations. This can be the magical feeling that sports give you. A
fan should want to bring his kid to a game, so that when he is older he remembers
that feeling of going to the ballpark with his dad. Sports give people those types
of feelings, and it is nearly perfected in baseball parks.
3. Coach associations. You want your players to think of your coach as well when
thinking of the team. Having a stable successful coach that the fans can count on
creates a great connection with the fans. Nothing is worse than when your team is
going through coaching changes, you never know what to expect.
4. City associations. You want the team to bring the city together. When they go to a
Cardinals game, they need to know that they are laying it on the line for St. Louis,
the city that they represent. It can bring people of the same city together, even if
rough things are happening to the city, like when the Saints won the Super Bowl
after Hurricane Katrina had taken place.
Step 14, Promotions:
1. The first promotion that I want to do is a giveaway promotion. I want it to be a
bobble head of a fan favorite player, on the Cardinals it could be Adam
Wainwright or Yadier Molina. We could have this be on opening day, a day that
is already exciting. This could bring a packed house to start off an exciting
season. We would run advertisements on billboards and on TV stating that the
bobble heads will be given to the first 1,500 fans, so people will attempt to be at
the game early as well.
2. The second promotion is a signing event before the season starts where you can
purchase tickets and merchandise as well. We will have star players sign
memorabilia that the fans bring, and they can take pictures with the players as
well. Fans would love this because they could meet their favorite players and get
excited for the season. This will also draw them to buy merchandise and maybe
even tickets for the upcoming season.
3. A third promotion will be a summer camp over a certain weekend, which the
Cardinals players and coaches will be coaching. This will help because kids can
improve their skills from actual MLB players and coaches, who can help the game
grow as well. Tons of people would attend this camp because they would love to
learn from the greatest there is. This will also make people identify with the
Cardinals, which is a big part of making somebody a fan.
Step Fifteen, Main Sponsor:
My main sponsor is Busch, the beer company. The St. Louis Cardinals stadium is
called Busch stadium because of this. This is a main sponsor because beer is as much a
part of watching baseball to some people as peanuts and cracker-jacks. People love
having a beer, sometimes more than just a beer, at the ballpark. Having a beer company
as a sponsor, especially a St. Louis local beer like Busch, will allow us to offer beer at
games at a premium rate, maybe even have deals like a free beer if the Cardinals score
ten runs, or something of that nature.
Step Sixteen, Television Advertising Campaign:
This ad will air on TV on local channels in St. Louis about a month before the
season starts. The goal of this ad will be to try and get people to watch more games, and
maybe even buy season tickets.
It will start with some sort of epic sports music playing while memorable
Cardinals highlights from the past few years are being played, as well as the celebrations
and fans in the stands high-fiving. Memorable highlights would include but are not
limited to:

David Freese walk-off home run in game 6 of 2011 World Series

Cardinals comeback in 2012 game 5 of NLDS

Matt Holliday 469 foot home run 2012 (Longest home run in Busch)
After showing these highlights, we will show the Cardinals rushing the field after
their World Series victory in 2007, fans going ballistic cause it was a home game, and
then text will come up that says “Be a part of history.” Then we will have a things saying
what game occurs first and when, as well as a phone number and website provided for
where you can get tickets. The last thing that will be said on the commercial will be that
all games are shown on your local Fox Sports Midwest channel.
This advertisement can do many things for the organization. It can get fans that
already have tickets even more pumped for the season, it can get fans to buy tickets, it
can get fans to watch the games, and most importantly it can get people who normally
would not watch the games maybe want to tune in to a couple. I would plan on releasing
more than one of these types of commercials based on the response from the public.
Step Seventeen, How I will evaluate the Marketing Plan:
There are many ways that I plan on evaluating this marketing plan. First is going
to be a basic way, by looking at the attendance over the last five years, then the
attendance in the year after this marketing plan took place, and see how they compare.
Fairly simple, if attendance changed for the better or worse we would know whether or
not it was successful. Another way is similar with the first one, but with TV ratings on
Fox Sports Midwest (the local St. Louis channel that plays most Cardinals games). We
will look at the ratings over the last five years, see the response after the marketing plan,
and assess based on the result. Another way will be with the surveys that I mentioned
earlier. Positive responses from the surveys will ensure that the marketing plan is
working.