event marketing
TRANSCRIPT
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1.1 Conceptual Framework
Marketing
―Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade, and
remind consumers - directly or indirectly - about the products and brands that they sell." 1
Personal and non-personal communication channels can be used for marketing communications.
Within both of them there are many sub channels. The marketing communications mix is now
thought of as consisting six major modes or types of communication alternatives.
1. Advertising
2. Sales promotion
3. Events and experiences
4. Public relations and publicity
5. Direct marketing
6. Personal selling
Personal Communication Channels
Personal communication is communication between two or more persons with a specific person
communication with others. The message emanates from a specific person. It can be done face to
face, or by a person to audience, over telephone, or through post or couriers or through emails or
through mobile messages.
The personal communications in the case of marketing can also be categorized as
communications from advocate, expert and social contacts. The company salespersons‘
communication to customers is communication from advocates of the product.
An independent expert communicating to prospective buyers about the merits of the product is
classified as expert communication. A neighbor saying good things about a brand is social
channel of communication.
Companies take various steps to stimulate personal communications about their products and
brands.
1Kotler, Philip; Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong, John Saunders (2008). "Marketing defined". Principles of marketing (5th ed.). p. 17.Retrieved 2009-10-23.
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1. They identify influential individuals and devote extra effort on them.
2. Create opinion leaders by supplying possible opinion leaders with the product on attractive
terms.
3. Use influential or believable people in testimonial advertising.
4. Develop word of mouth publicity by requesting satisfied clients to promote their product
among their friends.
5. Establish online discussion groups and communities
Nonpersonal Communication Channels
They include media, atmospheres, and events.
Media channels include print media (newspaper, magazines, souvenirs, proceedings of
conferences), broadcast media (radio, television), display media (billboards, signs, posters) and
electronic media (audiotape, videotape, videodisk, CD-ROM).
Atmosphere is what firms create in their office environment. The office interiors and exteriors
have a meaning to the potential buyers.
Events are occurrences designed to communicate particular messages to target audiences.
Company arranged news conferences, opening ceremonies of various kinds, and sponsorships of
various events come under event communications channels. Communication through mass media
stimulates personal communication channels.
The Promotional Tools
The characteristics of various promotional tools are as follows:
Advertising
Advertising is a public mode of communication. Because it is communicated simultaneously to
large number of people and people know that the same communication is going to many people,
they feel their motives for buying are understood by the advertiser.
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Advertising is defined as any paid form of nonpersonal communication about an
organization,product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor.
Advertising messages can be repeated number of times. Buyers also can compare advertisements
of various companies selling the same product and will choose which product meets their
requirements. The media offers the facility to add color, sound etc. to the message and dramatize
the message. But advertising cannot have dialogue with the people. People may not see and pay
attention to the advertisement.
Advertising is an efficient way to reach geographically dispersed potential buyers at a low cost
per exposure.
Advertising has two recent variants. Advertorials are offer editorial content and while it is paid
for by the advertiser and it will be difficult for the reader to easily make out that it is an
advertisement. Similarly information driven mediums are TV programs that are meant for
promoting the products of the company. They discuss the working of the product, benefits of the
products, and user experience etc. and they may convey the message to buy the product and the
address to be contacted.
Sales promotion
Sales promotion, which is generally defined as those marketing activities that provide extra value
or incentives to the sales force, the distributors, or the ultimate consumer and can stimulate
immediate sales. Sales promotion is generally broken into two major categories: consumer-
oriented and trade-oriented activities.
Sales promotion tools like coupons, contests, premiums act as communication medium and also
promote sales.
They gain attention and provide information that may lead the consumer to the product. They
include a distinct invitation to the consumer to do the transaction in a short period of time.
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Public relations and publicity
Publicity is a nonpersonal communications regarding an organization, product, service, or idea
not directly paid for or run under identified sponsorship. It usually comes in the form of a news
story, editorial, or announcement about an organization and/or its products and services. Like
advertising, publicity involves nonpersonal communication to a mass audience, but unlike
advertising, publicity is not directly paid for by the company. The company or organization
attempts to get the media to cover or run a favorable story on a product, service, cause, or event
to affect awareness, knowledge, opinions, and/or behavior.
News stories and featured articles are more authentic and credible than advertisements to readers.
The articles act as testimonials. The message gets through to the potential buyers as news and
they may not turn away from it as they turn away from the advertisements.
Example: Magazines, newsletters etc.
Public relations are defined as ―the management function which evaluates public attitudes,
identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest,
and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.‖32 Public
relations generally has a broader objective than publicity, as its purpose is to establish and
maintain a positive image of the company among its various publics.
Personal selling
Personal selling involves direct contact between buyer and seller, either face-to-face or through
some form of telecommunications such as telephone sales. This interaction gives the marketer
communication flexibility; the seller can see or hear the potential buyer‘s reactions and modify
the message accordingly. The personal, individualized communication in personal selling allows
the seller to tailor the message to the customer‘s specific needs or situation.
Personal selling also involves more immediate and precise feedback because the impact of the
sales presentation can generally be assessed from the customer‘s reactions. If the feedback is
unfavorable, the salesperson can modify the message. Personal selling efforts can also be
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targeted to specific markets and customer types that are the best prospects for the company‘s
product or service.
Personal selling as a communicative channel which involves a live, immediate, and interactive
relationship between two people. Personal selling leads to relationships. The listener feels
obligated to respond to the salesman at least with a polite ―thank you.‖
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional
characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing.
The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of
intervening media. This involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, and
telemarketing) with consumers or businesses.
This is delivering the promotional message straight to the interested individual. The basis of
direct marketing is the establishment of a data bank and a strategy to best reach those
individuals. The mail out is the most common traditional method. The database can be created
from previous events through competitions, guest books, inquiries, and point of sale information
or just by asking the participants if they would like to receive information on other similar
events.
The second characteristic is that it is focused on driving a specific "call-to-action." This aspect of
direct marketing involves an emphasis on track able, measurable, positive responses from
consumers (known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.
If the advertisement asks the prospect to take a specific action, for instance call a free
phone number or visit a website, then the effort is considered to be direct response advertising.
Sponsorship
To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or
through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides
the support, similar to a benefactor.
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Sponsorship is a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically in sports, arts,
entertainment or causes) in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated
with that property. For example, a corporate entity may provide equipment for a famous athlete
or sports team in exchange for brand recognition. The sponsor earns popularity this way while
the sponsored can earn a lot of money. A particular form of specialized brand sponsorship where
a brand sponsors an unusual event or pastime that then becomes synonymous with that brand (to
the point where future brands may be excluded from participation) is known as 'about
sponsorship'. This provides a strong walled-garden sponsorship relationship between particular
events and the brand.
Other reasons for sponsorship include signage at sporting events, local or national media
coverage, promotional opportunities before and after the event, and the opportunity to entertain
clients and prospective customers by inviting them as VIPs to sponsored events. Other benefits
of sponsorship can include access to on-site hospitality tents or skyboxes; the opportunity to
meet athletes or teams in person, and possibly even the opportunity for sponsors and their VIP
guests to participate in a pro-am type event. Another benefit is the ability to reach a specific
demographic or target market.
Positioning & Branding
When a company has decided to use Event Marketing they need to understand how Event
Marketing can change the perception of the product in the customers mind, and the positioning
of the product. According to Kotler, it is extremely important to have a specific positioning in the
customer‘s mind, due to the fact that if a similar product has the same positioning there is no
need for the customer to buy your product. It is important to create an image and a correct
positioning for customers that create differentiation between products. The positioning
distinguishes brands from each other and creates a place on the market and in the consumer‘s
minds for a particular project. The idea behind positioning is to create brand awareness, which
ideally leads to long-term brand loyalty. The positioning is a two-stage process, indicating which
category the brand should be placed in and the differences between the brands in this category.
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Products are becoming more and more alike. A company needs to diversify its product from
competitors´ products. An organization has three main perspectives for differentiation. They are:
total perspective, more value for money, produces trustworthy products at a reasonable price,
product perspective, offer a better product that is newer, faster, cheaper, with unique selling
attributes, and customer perspective, to know the customer better, and thereby reply to their
needs faster. The last perspective, the customer perspective, involves the relationship between
the customer and the organization. An event is the physical meeting between customer and
organization, and thereby Event Marketing can be used as a tool to build relationships and create
differentiation. The idea behind positioning is to create brand awareness. Direct advantage of
using Event Marketing is that it creates high brand awareness around the product. The value of
the brand lies in the mind of the potential buyers, and not with the business itself. Branding is
part of the marketing strategy and product differentiation. The brand can communicate more
directly with the consumer than the product itself can; if the brand is seen as having a personality
and symbolizing certain values. This is due to the fact that the brand has an emotional appeal to
the consumers. A trend within Event Marketing is to involve more cultural aspects at events.
The cultural aspects of events are not used extensively today. He further argues that culture and
brand strategy go hand in hand. Over time, a relationship between the customer and the product
can be developed into brand loyalty. This loyalty is characterized by a positive attitude towards
the brand, and over time continued purchase of the same brand. A company seeks high brand
loyalty because it creates stability and provides an opportunity to gain high market share and
profit. The development of brand loyalty can be seen as a three-step model. The first step is to
create an interest for the product in the consumer. When time has passed, the consumers will
simplify their buying detour through the product and the connection between the brand and the
target audience is strengthened. The third step is where brand recognition is created, which is
important for creating the long-term brand loyalty.2
1.2 PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH TRADITIONAL MEDIA
The problems associated with traditional media that has been used for satisfying marketing needs
discussed in the previous section are listed below:
2Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. 2003.Principles of Marketing.Moscow. Vilyams.
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1. Too many advertisements have led to a cluttering on T.V, print and other media. This has
given rise to a need for avenues, which provide exclusivity to the sponsor while not
sacrificing the benefits of reach and impact.
2. The increasing number of TV channels and the greater number of programs have led to
fragmentation of the viewer-ship. Hence, the need for narrow-casting of campaigns to the
sharply defined target audience.
3. Proliferation of low intensity television viewers who view a little of each channel leads to the
need for capturing the full attention of the target audience.
4. Media cost inflation – Due to rising inflation which has been eroding the advertising budget,
advertisers are demanding the beat return from every ad-rupee spent. Media planning has
become more complex and therefore the need to increase the effectiveness in terms of
tangible impact which can be instantly evaluated has risen.
5. Proliferation of various media channels, therefore the requirement for intelligent media
buying.
1.3 RELATION BETWEEN EVENT MARKETING AND THE 5PS
The five Ps of marketing: product, place, people, price and promotion play an essential role
in Event Marketing. To successfully use Event Marketing the marketer must understand how
Event Marketing fits together with the other parts of the marketing strategy.
Kotler describes the organization‘s marketing mix as controllable variables that are mixed so
that the organization gets the response that they are asking for from the target market. Event
Marketing fits under promotion in the marketing mix. Other marketing tools that goes under this
section are advertising, sales promotion, personal sales, direct sales, public relations, and
sponsoring. Event Marketing is not a substitute for any of the other components- it is a
complement. It takes an imaginative mix of all the communication tools available to extend the
impact of the event.
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Fig 1.1: Marketing Mix vs. Event Marketing
If an organization uses Event Marketing, they still need to use the other parts of the promotion
mix before, during, and after the event. An example of this could be how a car producer can have
advertisements to inform about a new car launch, and then use events to get people to test drive
the new car, and then follow up with direct marketing with a discount coupon. One of the main
advantages with Event Marketing compared to the other channels is that the objective can both
be direct sales, and image building, depending on how it is used.
1.4 EVOLUTION OF EVENT MARKETING
From its origins in event planning, the event marketing industry has seen great growth in the last
five years and has consistently been one of the most effective tools that marketing professionals
have at their disposal in terms of making a tangible connection to current and potential
customers. The increasing competitive pressures brought on by globalization are forcing business
professionals to find new ways to engage customers. Not surprisingly, savvy event marketing
professionals are therefore focusing the majority of their efforts and budgetary spend on lead
generation tactics such as trade shows. While it is important to garner leads, marketing and
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specifically event marketing professionals cannot lose sight of the fact that the sales cycle only
begins at lead generation and that current and prospective customer must also be nurtured even
beyond purchase. Companies can benefit tremendously from the deeper event marketing touch
points that promote nurturing such as proprietary conferences that provide a controlled
environment for delivering messages and closing business. The nurturing process will allow the
customers to more effectively be funneled into the subsequent stages of the sales cycle thus
creating greater opportunities to develop into repeat customers.
EVENT MARKETING
The use of traditional or new media to promote, market, or advertise an event. Various forms of
marketing and advertising are used to entice people to attend an event. Event types could include
anything from not for profit fundraisers to sporting events, conventions, fundraisers, seminars,
festivals, workshops, air shows, and many more.3
An event is a live multimedia package with a preconceived concept, customized or modified to
achieve the client‘s objective of reaching out and suitably influencing the sharply defined,
specially gathered target audience by providing a complete sensual experience and an avenue for
two-way interaction.
Event marketing involves canvassing for clients and arranging feedback for the creative concepts
during and after the concept initiation so as to arrive at a customized package for the client,
keeping the brand values and target audience in mind. Marketing plays an important role in
pricing and negotiations as well as identifying opportunities to define and retain event properties
by gathering marketing intelligence with regard to pricing, timing etc.
In fact, ideally event marketing involves simultaneous canvassing and studying the brand prints;
understanding what the brand stands for, its positioning and values, identifying the target
audience and liaison with the creative conceptualizes to create an event for a prefect mesh with
the brand‘s personality.
3 Event marketing by Leonard H. Hoyle, CAE, CMP, Copyright © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-40179-X
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PUBLICITY AND PROMOTION
If one knows how to organize an event he should also know how to market it. If there is
something very peculiar or special about the event then that main point has to be highlighted. A
product launch for example requires a sales promotion campaign either before or after the
launch. In that case the product is advertised through banners and media and even door to door
canvassing. Effort is taken to ensure that people sit up and take notice of the event. Sometimes it
could be an event like an award ceremony, which is to be shown on television and different
companies make a beeline for sponsoring their respective products in the due course of the
program. This is the way publicity and promotions work.4
1.5 KEY ISSUES FOR EVENT MARKETING
The Human Dimension
A key issue for Event Marketing is having the right human resources communicating the brand
values. The importance of having people working that truly understand the brand was
emphasized by almost all the interviewees. The human dimension of Event Marketing is what
creates the uniqueness to the brand in an event, especially for high-involvement purchases.
In the capital goods industry, where high involvement decisions are taken and more reliable
information is needed, interaction serves as a great function. When buying a car, the consumer is
making one of his/her biggest investments, the consumer is more sensitive and might require
more than one-way communication to convert to another brand. What makes the 3D
advertisement more unique is adding a human dimension, by placing someone who is familiar
with and can communicate the company brand and product.
The Human Context
To add a human dimension might sound an easy solution in order to communicate the brand
identity. However, the human being is rather complex in her way of learning, interpreting and
understanding, since she, is characterized by her context. Everything the human being
4Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events, Festivals, Conventions, and Expositions by Leonard H. Hoyle, CAE, CMP
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experiences will affect the way she interprets situations. Unless she experiences a situation,
which requires new behavior and this behavior is positive, she will not change her way of acting.
However, if she is put in a situation in which she has to experience a new way of acting and if
the experience is interpreted as positive, it is most likely that she will repeat the behavior in a
similar situation.
Mental Models are deeply ingrained assumptions and generalizations that influence how we
understand the world and how we take action. The models keep us in the same pattern of both
thinking and acting. By questioning the Mental Models people see matters from a different
perspective and openness. But in order to be able to question the Mental Models we first must
realize that there has to be something to gain by questioning them.
Most managers today only see the brand as the company‘s logo and corporate identity program,
but in the future the company ―brand‖ will have to encapsulate and communicate what an
organization is and what it stands for. Therefore the manager must change the interpretation of
the brand. It is as important to win a distinguished and distinctive place in the perception of a
company‘s actual and perspective customers, as it is the same with the employees. Since it is the
human dimension that adds the value to a customer/prospect in an event, all members and
functions in the organization must not only be market orientated in general but also market
orientated in combination with the brand values. It is a common fact that people are different and
cannot adjust to all situations.
Several interviewees supported this when mentioning that there has to be a match between the
individual values and the company values. One crucial factor might be the individual‘s ability to
learn, since the individual must not only understand the added values in the brand identity but
also learn to interpret the different situations that might occur during an event, and combine the
behavior to the specific situation. It is the individual‘s perception of the current situation together
with how he/she translates the added values to fit to that specific situation that will help or not
help the company.
Integrated Organization
When working with Event Marketing it is important to have a well-integrated organization,
therefore we agree, ―That internal marketing builds service quality‖. Internal marketing can be
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defined as selling the firm to its employees, and Kotler and Armstrong (1993) view internal
marketing as the building of customer orientation among employees by training and motivating
both consumer contact and support staff as a team. These definitions might be too static, since
they are not teaching the employees; rather they are persuading how great the business idea of
the company is.
By learning how different components in a system interact will increase the understanding of
how the entire system works. Understanding just one component by itself that is isolated from
the others will not be enough. A company itself is a complex system that is connected by a series
of contacts and the components in this system are highly integrated. Since we are a part of this
network, we most often only see specific components and are puzzled by that we cannot find
good solutions to our greatest problems. System thinking is a term that contains knowledge and
different tools, which can help us, understand and influence the entire patterns in an
organization.
Match the Event to Your Market
Choose the kind of event that appeals to your target market suits your product‘s image and fits
your marketing objectives.
If, for example, you are looking for reach and you are selling a low cost product with wide
general appeal, sports sponsorship may be the avenue for you. If your product is an up market
one, artistic events could suit you better. If you have a technical product, science-type
sponsorships would be possibilities and if your main aim is to be seen as a good corporate
citizen, put your sponsorship money into good causes. The Children‘s Hospital, the Red Cross
or the environment, to name three, AIDS research is another one.
The meteoric history of event marketing is based in sports marketing. In fact, music and arts
represents a combined 35 percent of event spending as compared 45 percent for sports-related
events. Event marketing also continues to thrive as traditional advertising rate skyrocket and,
really, fail to provide any guarantee of reaching a targeted audience. Event marketing provides a
cost-effective approach to making a more hard-hitting, emotional, and tangible pitch to
consumers. It also gives companies the opportunity to cross-promote (promote with other
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companies that have related products or services), offer sample products (give-always), and build
strong relationship with various channels of distribution, such as retail outlets.5
Charities go out of their way to meet both their own fund-raising needs and the profit
requirements of the firms they team up with. It is a commercial relationship and the entire better
for it. Charities need funds, and the businesses need promotions, which show their worth in
extra profit.
1.6 WHY EVENTS
1. Brand Building
Creating awareness about the launch of new products/brand
Enormous number of brands/products is launched every month. Similarly innumerable new
music albums, films, etc. get released periodically. This tends to create clutter of product
launches. The large number of launches also leads to need to overcome the ―ooh-yet-another-
product‖ syndrome. The need to therefore catch the attention of the target audience at the time of
launch becomes very important. Meticulously planned events for the launch of a product/brand
seldom fail to catch the attention of the target audience.
Presentation of brand description to highlight the added features of product/services
Sometimes technological changes pave the way for manufactures or service providers to
augment their products. To convey this via traditional modes of communication to the existing
and potential customer base may sometimes be futile. Special service camps of exhibitions are
the perfect events that provide the opportunity for a two way interaction and error free
communication. For Example, IMTEX, the Industrial Machine Tools Exhibition, is an event used
by most machine tool manufactures to explain and highlight the new and improved features of
their product.
5Behrer, M & Larsson, Å. (1998).Event Marketing attanvända evenemang somstrategiskresurs i marknadsföringen.Göteborg: IHM Förlag AB.
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Helping in rejuvenating brands during the different stages of product life cycle
The massive amount of money that is spent during the introduction stage of products gets
drastically reduced over time. By the time the product reaches its maturity/decline stage, the need
for cutting down the budgets associated with the media campaigns, while at the same time
maintaining the customer base is felt. Events offer the best medium for such a focused approach.
It helps in generating feelings of brand loyalty in the products‘ end user by treating them as
royally as possible.
Helping in communicating the repositioning of brands/products
Events help in repositioning exercises to be carried out successfully. In other words, events can
be designed to assist in changing beliefs about firms/products/services.
Associating the brand personality of clients with the personality of target market
Citibank is an elite bank where people do banking with pride. Hence, other premium brands
would like to associate themselves with the same audience so as to benefit from the rub-off
effect. An exhibition-cum-sale event organized exclusively for Citibank credit card holders,
small merchandisers get to do business with the Citibank customers, as well as build and
maintain a premium image for them. Here Citibank acts as the event organizer and small
merchandiser‘s acts as participants so that they can associate the personality of their products
with the personality of Citibank customers.
Creating and maintaining brand identity
Australia-based Foster‘s Brewing Group‘s Asian subsidiary in its plan to launch its bear brand
Foster‘s Lager in India choose the game of cricket – in which the Aussies are known as the best
team in the world. By becoming the official sponsors of Australian cricket team on its India tour,
Foster‘s hoped to achieve its goal of brand identity building and positioning itself at the premium
end of the market.
Rennie Solomito, Marketing Manager for Coors Light (Beer Company) explains that in order to
increase awareness and personality of the brand, Coors Light tries to find the distinguishing
―look of the leader‖ in each market. Coors Light select events that are fast paced and young
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minded, for example, Coors Light Silver Bullet Concert Series featuring artists like Bryan
Adams and Celine Dion.
2. Image Building
Over and above the brand identity that a company encourages, events such as The Great Escape
conceived by Mahindra and Mahindra, exclusively for the owners of their four wheelers, the
Armada, are an attempt to build a specific image of not only the corporate, but also the product,
to let owners experience the thrill of four wheel driving, M&M charts out an offbeat route that
emphasizes the difference between normal and four wheel driving, and lets the participant
experience the high, one feels when steering and navigating an Armada.
Coke is associated with Olympics since 1928, the rationale behind this is similar values and
ideologies: International peace, brotherhood, standard of excellence and fun.
Fig 1.2: Constructing the Brand Value Chain
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3. Focusing on the Target Market
Helping in avoidance of clutter
Even though some events do get congested with too many advertisements, events still provide
and effective means of being spotted. For example, Title sponsorship of a major event provides
the sponsor immense benefit since the sponsor‘s name is mentioned along with the event. For
example: Hero cup, Idea film fare awards etc…
Enabling interactive mode of communication
Events generally provide an opportunity for buyers and sellers to interact. They also provide a
foundation for exchange and sharing of knowledge between professionals. Example: Bang! Auto
Expo.
Unparalleled footwear company NIKE ensures that it sponsors those events which will give it a
chance to create an emotional tie with the participants through onsite brand usage and product
presentation.
4. Implementation of Marketing Plan
Enabling authentic test marketing
Events bring the target audience together, thereby creating opportunity for test marketing of
products for authentic feedback. The seller can identify exactly the traits and other characteristics
that are desired. For example, marketing events that the Frito-Lay Company used before it
launched its WOW! Brand of potato chips.
Enabling focused sales and communication to a captive audience
In an event the audience is more or less bound to witnessing one particular event. In such a
situation it is very favorable for sellers to put forth their presentations without any diversions.
Such a situation is very valuable given the ineffectiveness of traditional modes of
communication in holding on to the attention of the audience.
For example, Burger King wanted to reach a young demographic in the New York area, EMG
(Event Marketing Company) helped them to create a 30-concert series at the New York
Palladium. Burger King received onsite signage and distribution of bounce back coupons.
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Increasing customer traffic in stores
Events can be conceptualized to increase customer traffic. They can be customized to make
available, concepts ranging from retail store specific events to mega events like one day
international cricket tournament. For example, Nescafe 3-in-1 treasure hunt, co-sponsored by
McDonald‘s is a combined effect in increasing the customer traffic as well as increasing the
awareness among the upper class of the existence of new McDonald‘s outlets.
Enabling sales promotion
Weekly events conducted by Crossword Bookstore helps in generating more revenue during the
weekends as compared to the revenue generated in the weekdays.
Help in relation building and PR activities
Practitioners of this marketing function believe that event marketing campaigns have the ability
to create long lasting relationships with closely targeted market segments. Relationship building
is not restricted to end user customers but also targeted at enhancing new distributors and sales
representative relations.
For example: Tech fest organized by IIT Bombay, is an annual technological festival held by IIT
Bombay has helped the sponsors in establishing their relationship with the Institute and ensuring
that an image of being interested is created and nurtured.
Coke is sponsoring the Olympic since 1928. As coke does business in over 200 countries, the
Olympics give the company the opportunity to identify its product with the foremost special
event in the world.
Motivating the sales team
The need for interaction is not restricted to external customers only and end consumers are not
always the focus of live media exercises. This is especially popular amongst pharmaceutical and
other FMCG companies. For Example, during the cricket world cup held in England HSBC
introduced a unique pattern of motivating the sales force by awarding them runs instead of the
traditional points system. This resulted in conversion of almost all of its employees into sales
person.
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Generate immediate sales
Most events let firms install and exclusive boot and give the permission to exploit the
opportunity to merchandise. Events such as the annual limited period discount sales from
Wrangler and Van Heusen are authentic stock clearance and seconds sales aimed at generating
immediate sales.
Generating instant publicity
An event can be designed to generate instant publicity upon the implementation of marketing
strategy. The e-commerce starts up Half.com, which wanted to sell products such as CDs, Books,
Movies and Games over the internet, was up against major and strong competition. The result of
this publicity stunt started the ball rolling towards getting this company purchased by eBay for
more than $300 million.
Enabling market database assimilation, maintenance and updating
By keeping track of the reach and its effectiveness as well as interacting with the audience that
actually turns up for the event, event sponsors can assimilate and authentic database. The
database can be used to track various marketing trends. Events can then help in maintaining and
updating the database.
1.7 SPONSORSHIP VS. EVENT MARKETING
However, there are many other marketing tools that can build brand-awareness and create image
and not confuse them with event marketing. The most common confusion will be explained here.
Authors seem to mix up the concept of Event Marketing and Sponsorship, although there is a
difference between the two.
When using Event Marketing, the organization works with the event as part of the marketing
strategy. ―Event Marketing covers business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C), and
business to Government (B2G) marketing. Differing from traditional marketing such as print,
radio and television, event marketing takes into consideration all of the aspects of a live
experience including, spatial design, graphic design, video, audio, web, interactive and live
talent to create a motivating and memorable experience.”
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When sponsoring an event, the organization buys exposure during the event at different levels of
the event itself. International Events Group (IEG) defines sponsorship this way:
―The relationship between a sponsor and a property in which the sponsor pays a cash or in-kind
fee in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with the property.‖ By
using the commercial right, the sponsor could associate the brand and have an effective selection
of the target group to market themselves to. The association makes the brand synonymous with
the sponsored happening, and thereby the sponsoring has been called association by event.
Today sponsorship is one of the world‘s fastest growing forms of marketing and together with
Event Marketing they begin to play a more dominant role in many companies´ marketing
budgets.
This model shows one way to look at where traditional sponsoring fits in compared to Event
Marketing.
When the organization is sponsoring an event, (upper left corner) there is always a business
agreement between at least two parties, which Event Marketing does not necessarily have.
Usually this is the case when there is a sport competition such as the Olympics or a World
Championship. This kind of sponsoring limits the possibilities for the organization to market
their products since they have no control over the happenings at the event, etc. There is a concept
called the double lever effect, which explains the relationship between different events. When
organizations move to EM (1), EM (2) and EM (3) the organizations increase their control and
also the risk is increased. When the control is increased, there is also a larger possibility for
organizations to use the event integrated with the other marketing strategies. This fig 1.3 shows
how it comes to be a double lever effect:
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Fig 1.3: Traditional Sponsoring vs. Event Marketing
As we can see, there is a risk in using Event Marketing. There is no possibility to test the event
for the target group, and everything has to work during the event. The risk associated with the
event could be one of the reasons why some organizations choose to use pre-existing events
instead of own events. Preexisting events are events that are created by someone else for another
purpose.6
1.8 SIZE OF EVENTS
In terms of size events may be categorized as follows:
1. Mega Events
The largest events are called mega events, which are generally targeted at international markets.
All such events have a specific yield in terms of increased tourism, media coverage and
economic impact.
Example: The Olympic Games, World Cup Soccer.
2. Regional Events
Regional events are designed to increase the appeal of a specific tourism destination or region.
6Behrer, M & Larsson, Å. (1998).Event Marketing attanvända evenemang somstrategiskresurs i marknadsföringen.Göteborg: IHM Förlag AB.
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Example: Marathon.
3. Major Events
These events attract significant local interest and large no of participants as well as generating
significant tourism revenue.
Example: Common Wealth Games
4. Minor Events
Most events fall into this category and it is here that most event managers gain their experience.
Annual events fall under this category. In addition to annual events, there are many onetime
events including historical, cultural, musical and dance performances. Meetings, parties,
celebrations, conventions, award ceremonies, exhibitions, sporting events and many other
community and social event fit into this category.
Example: Annual Trade Fair organized in Bangalore.
1.9 TYPES OF EVENTS
1. Sporting Events
Sporting events are held in all towns, cities, states and throughout the nation. They attract
international sports men & women at the highest levels.
2. Entertainment Arts and Culture
Entertainment events are well known for their ability to attract large audience. This includes
musical concerts, celebrity performances, movie release etc. Example: Ganesh Utsava,
Bangalore
3. Commercial Marketing and Promotional Event
Promotional events tend to have high budgets and high profiles. Most frequently they include
product launches, often for computer hardware and software, perfume, alcohol or motor cars.
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The aim of promotional events is generally to differentiate the product from its competitors and
to ensure that it is memorable. The audience for a promotional activity might be sales staff such
as travel agents, who would promote the tour of the clients or potential purchasers. The media is
usually invited to these events so that both the impact and the risk are high, Success is vital.
4. Meetings & Exhibitions
The meetings & convention industry is highly competitive. Many conventions attract thousands
of people, whereas some meetings include only a handful of high profile participants.
5. Festivals
Various forms of festivals are increasingly popular providing a particular region the opportunity
to showcase its product. Wine and food festivals are the most common events falling under this
category. Religious festivals fall into this category as well.
6. Family
Birthday Parties, weddings and anniversaries all provide opportunities for family get together.
Weddings are increasingly becoming big events and even entertaining. It is important for the
event manager to keep track of these changing social trends.
7. Fund Raising
Fairs, which are common in most communities, are frequently run by enthusiastic local
committees. The effort in the organization required for these events are often underestimated. As
their general aim is raising funds, it is important that such contracted activities contribute rather
than reduce revenue.
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1.10 KEY ELEMENTS OF EVENTS
Fig 1.4: Key Elements of Event Marketing
Event Venue
The two types of venue are as follows:
In-house Venue: Any event that is executed within the premises of the company or
institution or in the private homes or proprieties belonging to the client is called an in-house
venue. The use of such venue is reserved for the employees of the company or the residents
of the campus. Most in-house venues do not need to be paid or even if a payment is involved,
it may be open for favorable negotiation. The main advantage of in-house venue is the huge
saving in the costs incurred in hiring the venue.
External Venue: Any venue over which neither the client nor the professional organizer
have any ownership rights is called an external venue. These are venues open for the general
public. Example: Hotels, Stadium etc…
Importance of Event Venue
Events are venue driven. They help in increasing the customer traffic. Festivals such as
Valentine‘s Day or Holi see venue playing the clients‘ role for the event organizer. Venue has a
say in the very feasibility of an event concept.
Organizer Event
Infrastructure
Target
Audience
Media
Venue
Client
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2.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
With fast evolving trend of globalization the order of the day is newer, bigger and wider markets.
Hence the way in approaching the market has also changed from the old conventional style to the
modern day style. The challenge to the marketer of an event precisely is to find new ways and
means of marketing an event by using latest technology, innovative marketing techniques and
implementing the same tactically.
2.2 Objectives:
To identify emerging challenges and opportunities in event marketing.
To quantify challenges and opportunities in event marketing.
To analyze the opportunities in event marketing.
2.3 Hypothesis formulation
Well defined audience and concept of the event are not only the crucial factors leading to
a successful event.
2.4 Research Design
Sample Design
The study is limited to Bangalore city. Since it is not possible to study the whole population,
sampling technique is adopted. It will be made sure that sample is homogenous unbiased,
adequate, consistent and a true representative of the whole population
Definition of the population
The study is conducted in Bangalore city. The city encompasses good number of independent
event management companies.
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Sampling Technique Adopted
The sampling technique chosen for the study is ‗convenient sampling‘. Independent event
management companies are randomly selected from the population in such a way that each
element has the same probability of being chosen.
2.5 Collection of Data
Primary Data
The data will be collected by the way of conducting an interview or a survey with the
help of an appropriate questionnaire administering to the professionals of event
management companies.
The sample would be aimed towards the event management professionals dealing with
the event marketing/promotion in Bangalore.
Secondary Data
Secondary data will be gleaned from the existing sources like published/unpublished
research journals, books, websites and so on.
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3.1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Events are basically leisure activities and work possibilities for individuals. Events bring people
together and make them have good time at work. They enhance the quality of an individual‘s
life; they provide significant economic benefits and can also provide revenue for special projects.
Regardless of size, events require meticulous planning, a range of skills and a lot of energy.
While organizing events, companies get the possibility to have their own-right to the consumer
during the duration of the event. This means that if a company manages to get the consumer to
attend the event, the distortion from the competitors will be gone or at least decreased during the
duration of the event. Also, events contain tangible elements, such as food, beverages and other
products sold or given away, but are essentially a service in which they consist intangible
experiences of finite duration within a temporary managed atmosphere.
3.2SunLIVE07 CRM enables event marketing for Sun Microsystems
3.2.1 Introduction:
Sun Microsystems is operating in more than 100 countries. It develops the technologies that
power the global marketplace. Sun Microsystems drives network participation through shared
innovation, community development and open source leadership.
‗SunLIVE‘ an event that is being conducted by Sun Microsystems from past few years and has
been running very successfully. This particular event by Sun was delivered on a global scale, it
took place in multiple territories and UK being second largest of its kind in the world and mainly
that was the key event for Sun Microsystems UK calendar. ‗SunLIVE‘ being an annual
operational event brings along own set of challenges.
3.2.2 Key Challenges:
Event management of SunLIVE
Including: marketing, invitees registration,
Post-event follow-up, campaign tracking
And online reporting
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As the event grew in size and stature, accordingly the challenges also increased concerned to
delivering the event, managing the data and handling delegates.
The number of attendees for SunLIVE 2007 had reached up to 1400 and had become a difficult
task to handle so they decided to outsource the Management of that event so that they could
concentrate more closely on the strategic Issues related to communication like content
development and presentation.
―SunLIVE being a flagship event for Sun Microsystems and the way the event was supposed to
be delivered was as much as reflection of their quality as the event contents itself.
Sun‘s head of customer engagement and major events, Maxine Hedges expressed that they
needed to be very confident when they decided to outsource the Management of that event to an
organization which they could trust to deliver on their behalf.
From the previous SunLIVE events Sun Microsystems had understood that it was essential for
attendees to carry the highest possible impression of the company when they walked out of the
event. Critical points to create a positive impression for the delegates were, a smoothly run and
well-organised registration, attendee handling and the follow-up process.
3.2.3 Solution
An event management agency named CRM Technologies approached SunLIVE07 with a full
package of event management services, from the implementation and execution of a personalized
e-marketing campaign designed to complement existing direct marketing activity, right from
outbound email tracking, intelligent registration, post-event follow-up, campaign click-thru
tracking and online reporting facilities. All campaign data was drawn from and updated to Sun‘s
marketing database, accordingly it was delivered and managed as a hosted service.
Absence of registered attendees is a risk that has always been there, but CRM‘s aim was to
decrease this as much as possible with the provision of delegate packs - which added a sense of
‗value‘ to the registration process. Significantly, each pack contained a color and bar-coded
delegate badge so that preregistered attendees were ‗Fast-Tracked‘ into the exhibition.
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The bar codes themselves also tracked back into CRM‘s managed database and provided a full
record of attendee activity at the event, including details of any specific break-out sessions
attended. This information would also be extremely useful for post-event follow-up activities,
including a series of SunLIVE road shows.
3.2.4 Conclusion
By outsourcing the Management of that event to CRM Technologies the event grew and got
good feedback. Supporting data obtained through CRM‘s data management services helped Sun
Microsystems to take SunLIVE on the road. . In that sense, it has become much easier for Sun to
identify specific areas of the country where there is focused interest - in particular topic areas or
sector specializations.
The ability to analyze the customer information gleaned from the SunLIVE registration and
event attendance processes now makes the prospect of delivering a successful regional event
more or less assured, according to the company.
Sun Microsystems‘ reputation is now built around quality and reliability and these facets needed
to be reflected in the events it delivers to its customers and partners. The event management and
managed data services, delivered by CRM Technologies, ensured that Sun‘s customer
engagement processes enhanced its strong reputation and required minimal involvement from
Sun‘s resources.
3.3 Special event management and event marketing: A case study of TKBL all-star 2011 in
Turkey
3.3.1 Summary
The aim of the study is to show the dimensions applied while managing and marketing a
successful special sports event, Which made several contributions to the sports event managers
and sports marketing managers about how to use event management dimensions effectively and
shape strategies based on this perspective. Case study has been taken up to analyze a sports event
based on event management and event marketing perspectives. Data in the study was collected
from primary as well as secondary data sources. This study focuses on the dimensions of event
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management named ticketing, transportation, human resources (volunteers and trained staff),
budgeting, marketing and PR and risk management.
3.3.2 Introduction
The event industry is one of the world‘s largest employers and contributes major positive
economic growth. The event is all about individuals coming together to create, operate, and
participate in an experience. It is an activity that gathers the target group in a particular frame of
time and place, a meeting where a message is communicated and possibility is created.7 The term
event is used for describing different activities designed for different purposes. These activities
can be art, sports, tourism and social activities, and can also be activities organized by giant
organizers more professional and more formal. Events are ‗a unique moment in time‘ and very
much different from everyday occurrences. Public or private, commercial or charitable,
celebratory or commemorative events bring people together to share an experience and produce a
measurable outcome. Civic events, conventions, expositions, fairs and festivals, hallmark events,
hospitality, incentive travel, meetings and conferences, retail events, reunions, social life-cycle
events, sport events8, and tourism are the examples of subfields of events. Every event has an
organization behind it like, managing activities, organizing funding, administering staff and
voluntary personnel, undertaking marketing and public relations, organizing security, printing
leaflets and tickets, hiring performers, arranging decorations, sorting out parking and many other
activities. The way in which an organization deals with events is known as event management. It
may include the organization‘s objectives for managing events, assigning roles and
responsibilities, ownership of tools and processes, critical success factors, standards, and event-
handling procedures.9 The linkages between the various departments within the organization
need to be handling events and the flow of this information between them which is the focus of
event management. Event management and event marketing have emerged over the past decade
as a vibrant sector of the tourism and leisure industries. The number, diversity and popularity of
events have also been growing throughout this period. As the number of events has been
7AFL Publishing, Australia.Andersson, M. and Wesslau, A. (2000). ―Organizing for Event Marketing in Order to Change Brand Image and
Increase Sales‖
8Masterman, G. (2004). Strategic Sports Event Management, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
9AFL Club Management Program, (2004)
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increasing, there has been a growing realization about the continuing need to be developing
event management professionals who could be able to create, organize, and manage events.
Based on the above-mentioned dimensions and focusing on the event management and event
marketing literatures, this study aims to understand about how to manage and market the
events successfully and get a sense of satisfaction in the participants.
3.3.3 Ticketing
Ticketing an event is an highly complicated task, involving millions of tickets. Hence, ticketing
is one of the most significant programs of mega events like Olympic Games. The ticketing that is
in concern with customers becomes, directly or indirectly a critical factor for the success of the
event and, consequently it must be set up and obtained in more and more professional and
balanced way with the context of which it is to be situated. With regards to this, an evolved and
more advanced definition can be proposed for the meaning of ticketing: a whole of activities,
(programmed, organized and controlled) that start from the input of the strategy of the event
(objectives, targets, service concept) and come to being through price integration, distribution
and communication of tickets in order to obtain the attendance of individuals in amount and
quality, suitable to favor the attainment of its objects and goals, that the various stakeholders
wish to meet with the same event.
3.3.4 Transportation
Traffic management in a special event is any planned activity that is fully or partly conducted on
a road. It requires multiple agency involvement includes special traffic management
arrangements and may also involve large numbers of participants or spectators. The definition
also applies to events conducted in their own venue if the event requires special traffic
management arrangements and multiple agency support. From a traffic and transport perspective,
a special event needs to be ensuring the safe separation of event patrons, participants and
volunteers from traffic, and manage the limited capacity of the road system and control the
traffic impact on the non-event community and manage the emergency services and also work
on costs effectiveness at the same time.
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3.3.5 Human Resources
Human resource management is much more than recruitment and selection of staff and
volunteers. It is a wide-ranging activity, involving the long-term strategic development of the
event organization. The expected outcome of this is a positive culture of commitment and
cooperation developed in the process of managing the work force. Volunteers are representatives
from the community who selflessly choose to give their time and skills to support club activities
for no payment other than reimbursement of their pocket expenses. Volunteers come from all age
groups, educational backgrounds and genders. People generally volunteer to have fun, socialize,
learn new skills, help others, develop new friends, explore career opportunities etc. Working
with volunteers requires their special contribution to the success of the event that is to be
acknowledged and shared. Working with volunteers requires consideration, flexibility and
enthusiasm because volunteers often work for the fun or for charitable purposes. Volunteers
require just as much management and coordination as employees.
3.3.6 Budgeting
Budget represents an action plan that each successful event manager must carefully develop and
it is the most important tool to use the financial decisions within the event management business.
Since different events are designed for different purposes, they may be considered in three
different categories named, ―Profit-oriented events, Break-even events, lost leaders or hosted
events.‖
3.3.7 Marketing and PR
Being most popular in the present, event marketing is however not a new phenomenon. In the US
and in the whole world, event marketing has existed as long as traditional marketing has been
there. It is a natural part of the marketing mix, and now goes under the name special events.
Effective marketing can attract both ‗right‘ and ‗wrong‘ individuals to an event. However, it is
even more crucial to ensure that the event is supported by sufficient numbers of participants to
make it successful. When marketing something purely intangible like sporting a contest, there is
a large service component. In some respects it is far more difficult to market something that the
customer cannot take home or physically consume. Thus promotional efforts might suggest that
the audience will be entertained and can have fun at the event. In management of the events,
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public relations have two roles. On one hand it supports marketing activity in the form of
promotions; on the other hand it is also the tool that disseminates non-promotional information to
other target publics that are important to the organization. An event‘s leading aim is to achieve
positive coverage on the media for the event without paying for the space or air-time it occupies.
Strong relationships with the key media and a range of innovative techniques and tools in order
to evoke an attraction are important when trying to create the desired media exposure. Also,
media relations and publicity should be given a lot of attention. A well-planned publicity
campaign should run alongside any advertising campaign. Ideally this drive should be spread
over the period of months, building up to a peak shortly before the event. Early warning allows
potential participants and spectators to book the event in to their diaries and prevents potential
clashes with rival attractions.
3.3.8 Risk Management
The intention of risk management in events includes the protection of assets, to minimize legal
and financial liabilities, to control potential loss, properly manage growth, and to manage
responsibility. Risk management has been recognized in varying degrees as a key component of
the responsibilities associated with the planning and producing an event. It is often perceived as a
function that is carried out once an event has been conceived, designed, and organized. It should
be thoroughly embedded in the event design and throughout its development and production
process to ensure the risks associated with the event are managed effectively and cost
efficiently.
3.3.9 Method
The purpose of this study is to analyze a special event based on event marketing and event
management perspectives as a case study. The purpose is divided between two research
questions: What were the applications of All Star Basketball Event based on event marketing and
event management approaches? How these applications were implemented in the event. TKBL
All Star 2011 sport event was selected case study under investigation for the purpose of this
research.
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In this study, the research method adopted was the case study because this type of approach was
useful to investigate contemporary phenomena within a real life context, especially when the
boundaries between the phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident. Research by case
study was more suited to how and why questions which can be explanatory in nature. Case
research allowed the researcher the opportunity to tease out and disentangle a complex set of
factors and relationships, albeit in one or a small number of instances it defines a case study as
‗‗an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context
when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident and in which
multiple sources of evidence are used. It has been stated that a case method can sharpen existing
theory by identifying gaps and fill them in, and also provide theoretical contributions when
employed as illustrations. Research based cases have been used to investigate activities or
complex processes that are not easily separated from the social context within which they occur.
To select a sample to this study, researchers have chosen to use judgmental sample which is a
non-probably sampling method that allows us to select the case that seems most suitable to
answer our research questions. Based on this method, a special sport event in Turkey, All Stars,
was chosen as a case. Case research can employ many data collection methods, either
quantitative or qualitative, depending on the variables being studied. While some researchers
have used only one method, others have used multiple methods for the purpose of ―triangulation‖
of data from different sources. It was pointed out that employing multiple data sources elicits
increased reliability of data and stronger substantiation of constructs and propositions. Data in
the study was collected from primary as well as secondary data sources. The main data collection
techniques employed was personal semi-structured interviewing, and observations. The
researchers carried out five group interviews, with key informants in the special sport event. The
interviews were held with event director of Turkish Basketball Federation, director of School of
Physical Education and Sports, School Secretary, managers of public relations department of
Anadolu University, manager of a special security firm, and spectators. Other valuable
information to this study was collected through unstructured conversations with other employees
of the firms and through direct observation during the sport facility visits. Secondary data was
acquired through web sites of Turkish Basketball Federation, publications of local media,
newspapers, newsletter, and specialized journals. Using multi investigators is another form of
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triangulation. It has been suggested that the use of multiple investigators leads to a better ability
to handle the richness of the contextual data and more confidence in research findings.
3.3.10 FINDINGS AND RESULTS
Planning Before the Event
While planning the All Star 2011 Event, a professional team had decided what to do in only 1-2
hours. Planning for popular and mega events like Universiade 2011 Erzurum 1-2 years‘ work is
being conducted. Any problem could have aroused while the planning process of the event. In
addition to the staff of the organization company, a lot of people were assigned by the TBF and
also took part voluntarily. Painters and computer programmers have contributed while designs
were being done.
Determining Objectives
When assessing the objectives of the All Star 2011 from TBF‘s perspective, TBF had organized
the event for the target mass to endear basketball sport to people. For this purpose, TBF had
created a slogan ―Our burden is Basketball, our route is Eskisehir‖. Eskisehir Anadolu
University‘s objective, the house owner of the event, was to open the facility with such a
glorious event. The target audience was university students, families living in the city, audiences
like watching basketball aged five years or more. The number of the people who had planned to
watch the show went up to a capacity of 5.500 seats of the hall.
Facility Decision
When deciding the venue of the organization some important points come forward. Determining
a facility for reputation of the event, worthy of the subject and the purpose of the event is
important for the success of the event. After TBF‘s decision, All Star 2011 was going to be held
in Eskisehir, the important issues are as listed below:
-Suitable to the standards of the TBF
-Equipment‘s inputs and outputs to be easy
-An environment that emergency health care units can easily reach
-Venue and the rooms to be used relevant
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Transportation
On Saturday, January 15 at 9.15 am the basketball train had moved from Istanbul to Eskisehir
with 150 people including former and All Star 2011 players, representatives of the clubs and
managers of Turkish Basketball Federation. Team members from Ankara had moved to
Eskisehir at 12.00 with a high-speed train. All the team ate lunch together with Anadolu
University team at a famous restaurant called Stone Building and at the same evening a Women
All Star Cocktail was held at Anemon Hotel. On the event day all the teams were transported
from the hotel to the venue with special vehicles. After the event, people were transported to
Istanbul by plane, to Ankara by high-speed train at 18.00 pm.
Budgeting
The costs and expenses that had arisen while regulating the All Star 2011 budget were provided
by Turkish Basketball Federation. As being an event for social purposes ticket prices were
determined low. Biletix had the largest share of ticket sales. Tickets could be obtained online,
from the stands at the entrances of the shopping malls and event venue. In addition, a portion of
the tickets were sent to some special guests personally.
Event Staff as Volunteers
To successfully produce All Star 2011, there was a need for adequate, competent and well-
qualified human resources to achieve the goals of the event. In this sense, the staff employed in
the All Star Event consisted of Turkish Basketball Federation personnel, Anadolu University
personnel and organization company‘s staff. These people had responsibilities from the
beginning to the end of the event. Also, during the staging of the event the personnel in charge
were assigned to serve the participants and the audience.
In the All Star 2011 event, a total of 38 employees were assigned including 13 employees in
organization, 15 for stage setup and enter-exit controlling, 6 people in branding, 4 people in
promotional and advertising business. The personnel were trained people and were selected
according to the job requirements. Volunteers were 33 people and students from Anadolu
University School of Physical Education. The students were assigned to meet the needs of the
audiences and provide the necessary assistance in the hall during the event. In addition, to meet
the VIP audience, from Civil Aviation and Cabin Services Program students were assigned.
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Marketing and PR
To promote the All Star 2011 event, various activities were organized in the city centre, in
shopping malls and in university campus. In shopping malls 3 point shootout contests were done.
Brochures and leaflets were distributed in areas of heavy pedestrian traffic. In addition outdoor
advertisements were done. Some of the All Stars were determined by online voting by public
people from the official web site of Turkish Basketball Federation www.tbl.org.tr. By carrying
out e-mail based subscription system of voting basketball fans also achieved the chance to win
various gifts. In public voting; the 100th voter had won 2 tickets for 2 TKBL organizations,
2100th
voter had won a DVD player, 4100th voter had won 2 days accommodation in Eskisehir
and also had chance to sit on the bench with the players. In addition, it was announced some
surprise awards would be distributed to the lucky spectators by choosing during the event. Wide
coverage to reports on the subject were given in the local and national press, on web pages and
official web site of the Basketball team‘s within the scope of public relations.
Risk Management
To reduce the risks that may occur during staging of the event, ambulances and medical teams
were ready before the start of the event. In addition, to ensure the security of the event
professional security staffs were assigned.
The Preparations for Staging the Event
Under the scope of the program that was to be held during the event, opening speech, Face Team
show, dance shows, talent contests, All Star Basketball game, award ceremonies and concert
took place. Event duration was determined 5.5 hours between 13.30 to 17.00 pm. and then the
concert for 1.5 hours. In this sense, tasks like the preparation of the sports hall, hall decorating,
stage establishment, rehearsals and sound adjustment were carried out into two days.
Event Participants Meeting, Receptions and Hospitality
To welcome the participants in to the hall, controllers, routing attendants volunteers met the
people and guided them. Also, for the audience to be kept entertained, all time shows were done.
Giant screens placed throughout the event hall and national TV channel TRT 3 broadcasted. In
order to provide employee communication, intercom, wireless radio and mobiles were used.
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Staging the Event
Before the event time audiences were taken in by ticket controlling on a regular basis. Entries
were provided in to two different doors. Assigned people directed the audience to their seats by
checking the tickets. In the VIP entrance the audiences were taken into same way. Front part of
the VIP section was devoted to protocol. Private catering was treated for the guests in the VIP.
The event started at the scheduled time and magnificent show of Face Team was presented after
the opening speech. After the show, Lithuanian Dance Team presented the first one of the five
dance shows during the event. Talent competitions were done after the first dance show and then
the All Star Teams took to the stage with the concert of Gripin music group. Rewards were given
to the winners after the match and the event was ended with the concert of the Gripin.
Throughout the event time any problem or breakdown were taken care. The desired capacity was
provided with the seating layout and number of participants. Stands established at the entrance
met the needs of the audience. There was any problem with the transportation where the event
was held. Public transport services were provided directly to the hall. Adequate parking areas
were provided. Also no trouble happened at the ending time and the exit of the audience was
provided on a regular basis.
Assessing the Event
The majority of the audience was satisfied with both the demonstration and the facility after the
event. The audiences were especially pleased with the demonstration of Face Team and dance
shows. All Star show, however, played friendly and no contentious left the game behind the
shows. According to a spectators‘ view about the event, the event was reallyentertaining and
successful. They expressed saying this is the first event ever so well managed in this venue
becauseit had recently opened. It gave them great feeling after comparing with the other facilities
in Eskisehir. Thecrowd was also well. 3 point shootout, the talent competition and the concert
kept them entertained. The match was not so contentious but quite good.
But, by drawing in the audience knew the victorious team, a gift was given, and then the teams
formed their own fans. Red and White team's players were introduced at the beginning of the
match one by one and when every player in the field greeted the audience by sending them
basketball balls. In addition, distribution of the small balls between periods also excited the
audience. After the game the lucky participants were determined by drawing and present
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ceremony were celebrated by confetti‘s. Then the winner team‘s award was given. After all
Gripin was met with the audience by a concert. The interest of the media should be evaluated
when evaluating the event. After the event was performed within the next week (January 17-21)
news about All Star 2011 were published in the local, national and sports newspapers and also on
Internet pages.
Discussion and Conclusion
This study has presented the findings of a case study about dimensions of event management and
event marketing. While most of the literature focuses on the entire event management, this case
study focuses on the dimensions of event management named ticketing, transportation, human
resources (volunteers and trained staff), budgeting, marketing and PR and risk management.
The study illustrates that the event management dimensions in the literature had been applied in
to the All Star 2011 organization and the event was successfully managed and marketed. Any
problem or trouble that aroused during the event was taken care and the target audience was
managed satisfactorily. The organization owners and the house owners had reached their
objective and reached the number of people.
After evaluating some criteria like being suitable to the standards of the TBF and relevantly
using rooms TBF have chosen the facility of Anadolu University. It can be stated that all the
costs and expenses that had arisen had been provided by Turkish Basketball Federation. All the
human resources (adequate, competent and well-qualified) had been provided. For organizational
needs, stage setup, controlling, branding, promoting and advertising the event and for guiding
many people were assigned as employees and volunteers. As a marketing strategy in addition to
do outdoor advertisements and distributing brochures and leaflets, organizing competitions (e.g.
3 point shootout) about the event was a great idea for promoting a sports event. Overall, the most
important thing in an event was the risk management dimension. To reduce the risks that may
occur during an event, managers should do risk management well and it can be stated that in this
event; ambulances, medical teams and security staff were always ready. After applying the
dimensions of the event management everything went well, both organizers and participants
were pleased after the event. And through the research findings and informal interview with
audiences they found out that it indicated over of average satisfaction about performance of
whole event management and marketing. The study has made several contributions for the sport
Swiss Business School Page 43
event managers and sport marketing managers about how to use event management dimensions
effectively and shape strategies based on this perspective. It can be stated that the research results
were very useful for presenting the detailed information about managing and marketing an event.
3.4 IBM Global Business Services Marketing event optimization:
Improving the financial effectiveness of direct marketing campaigns
Introduction
Marketing event optimization observes a company‘s proposed direct marketing events over a
given time period — such as mailings, telemarketing campaigns, e-mail marketing — and builds
an optimal promotional stream that helps improve overall financial results, Mean while
reducing costs and avoiding customer saturation. Utilizing advanced analytics, the solution
develops a contact plan by customer based on marketer-defined resource constraints, which
include:
• Expected returns
• Individual customer budget
• Event cost
• Promotional interaction between events
• Minimum and maximum offers per event
• Overall marketing budget.
Purchase history, demographics and aggregate patterns of predicted behaviors are used to
calculate each customer‘s ―risk/return‖ relationship so that an optimal set of events can be
directed at the customer up until the point of diminishing returns. Risk is defined, for instance, as
the act of mailing a promotion to a customer given the return on that particular mailing may be
zero. Marketers can see the impact of various optimization scenarios, determine the ―best‖
investment strategy, and then capture results to continually refine and adjust their contact
strategy for each customer under consideration. Contacts with customers had increased to
unfathomable proportions, with some customers receiving as many as 60 catalog mailings per
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year. In addition, the amount of stored customer data was skyrocketing. Profits and customer
satisfaction were at risk, with saturation levels reaching as high as 60 percent.
As a result of marketing event optimization, the retailer reported an additional $3.5 million in
new profit while reducing its mailings by more than 7 percent. In fact, the solution paid for itself
during the first year of use
Turning analytics into action
Marketing event optimization has been part of the IBM Center for Business Optimization
solutions portfolio. The center deploys a team of consultants who combine their industry and
process expertise with IBM‘s capabilities and resources in advanced mathematical research,
business performance management, business intelligence systems, software and deep computing
to provide a significantly differentiated service to clients. In addition to marketing event
optimization, the center offers optimization solutions in the areas of risk management, pricing
and complex supply chains.
Faced with mounting pressure to deliver quantifiable results to the bottom line, chief marketing
officers (CMOs) were looking for solutions that can help them decide how best to invest their
direct marketing dollars. Even in today‘s advanced marketing management systems, streamlining
the campaign execution process provide limited help to executives when it comes to allocating
their budgets among customers. Contributing to quarterly earnings, however, It isn‘t the CMO‘s
only concern. Marketing must also manage its direct marketing activities in a way that
continually enhances the customer relationship — a daunting challenge in its own right. As the
average number of promotions received by each household continue to climb, capturing the
attention of customers grows increasingly difficult. To address these challenges, IBM has
developed a solution that can help marketers determine the most profitable and effective mix of
direct marketing spends among a set of campaign events across multiple channels.
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Approaching customers as an investment
Marketing event optimization is based on IBM‘s horizontal marketing methodology, which
views customers as a portfolio of financial instruments to be invested in over time, much the
same way financial advisors manage their clients‘ assets. Why spend all of your budget on your
best customers, if the same or less budget, when better directed, provides the opportunity to yield
more profitable results. Horizontal marketing shifts the focus from optimizing events to
optimizing customer relationships by advocating a more balanced spending approach — one
which does not:
• Over invest in the ―best‖ customers
• Under invest in ―underperforming‖ customers
• Ignore ―rising stars.‖
Conclusion
Marketing event optimization helps bring an entirely new level of sophistication to the way
marketing departments plan and manage their direct marketing activities. To add more, the
solution is designed to interface with a number of third-party tools and databases, allowing the
analysis and reporting of results to flow seamlessly into a client‘s existing environment. IBM has
always been ready to work with different organizations to integrate marketing event optimization
into their marketing process flow. For example, IBM consultants collaborated with a large
multichannel retailer that needed to improve the quality of its customer contacts by providing the
right offer at the right time.
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4.1 ANALYSIS& INTERPRETATION:
4.1.1 Emerging opportunities in event marketing.
Table: 1
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Enables direct contact with prospective customers 5 16.13
Enables up-close demonstration of products/ solutions 2 6.45
Enables one-on-one understanding of customer‘s
requirements 3 9.68
Enables better brand registration/ recognition by
customers 3 9.68
All the above 18 58.06
Others 0 0.00
Total 31 100.00
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been understood that, most of the respondents selected all the
options that have been provided. To be precise 58.06% respondents have opted ―all the above‖
option, 16.13% respondents feel it enables direct contact with prospective customers, 9.68%
respondents feel it enables one-on one understanding of customer‘s requirements, again 9.68%
respondents feel it enables better brand registration/ recognition by customers, and lastly 6.45%
respondents feel it enables up-close demonstration of products/ solutions. And the same is shown
in the below graph
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4.1.2Overflowing challenges in event marketing.
Table: 2
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Defining prospective target audience 1 3.23
Reaching out to them with desired communication 8 25.81
Getting the audience to events amidst their busy
schedules 9 29.03
Sustaining quality attention of audience throughout the
program 8 25.81
All the above 5 16.13
Others 0 0.00
Total 31 100.00
Enables direct contact with prospective customers
Enables up-close demonstration of products/ solutions
Enables one-on-one understanding of customer’s requirements
Enables better brand registration/ recognition bycustomers
All the above
Others
5
2
3
3
18
0
16.13
6.45
9.68
9.68
58.06
0.00
Number of respondents Percentage
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INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been learnt that, three of the options have majorly been opted by
most of the respondents out of all the options that have been provided. To be precise 29.03%
respondents have opted that getting the audience to events amidst their busy schedules is a
challenge, 25.81% respondents feel that sustaining quality attention of audience throughout the
program is also a challenge to an extent, 25.81% respondents feel reaching out to the target
audience with desired communication is even a challenge faced, 16.13% respondents feel All the
above points mentioned are the challenges faced, and lastly 3.23% respondents feel defining
prospective target audience is definitely one of the challenges faced in event marketing. And the
same has been shown below in the graph form.
1
8 9 8 5
0
3.23
25.81
29.03
25.81
16.13
0.00 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Definingprospective
target audience
Reaching out tothem with
desiredcommunication
Getting theaudience to
events amidsttheir busyschedules
Sustaining qualityattention of
audiencethroughout the
program
All the above others
Number of respondents Percentage
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4.1.3 Events those organizations conduct currently.
Table: 3
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Product launch and promotion 16 51.61
Conferences/summits/seminars/workshops/training 19 61.29
Product sampling 4 12.90
Publicity events 11 35.48
Road shows 6 19.35
Press conferences 9 29.03
Customer contest 4 12.90
Exhibitions or tradeshows 10 32.26
Corporate events 16 51.61
Employee engagement/internal events 14 45.16
Charity fundraisers 6 19.35
Other 3 9.68
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add upto more than 100%out of
31 respondents.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been observed that, the respondents selected multiple check boxes
depending on the events their organizations conduct. Most of the organizations conduct multiple
events depending on the requirement. Majority of the organizations conduct
conferences/summits/seminars/workshops/training events, 51.61% for product launch and
promotional events, 51.61% for corporate events, 45.16% for employee engagement/internal
events and 35.48% of respondents for publicity events more often. And the same is shown in the
below graph.
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4.1.4 Basis for earmarking budgets for different events.
Table: 4
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Cost of concept, design and development 2 6.45
Cost of planning and producing an event (logistics) 8 25.81
Cost of venue 2 6.45
Cost of F & B 1 3.23
All the above 18 58.06
Total 31 100.00
16
19
4
11
6
9
4
10
16
14
6
3
51.61
61.29
12.90
35.48
19.35
29.03
12.90
32.26
51.61
45.16
19.35
9.68
Product launch and promotion
Conferences/summits/seminars/workshops/training
Product sampling
Publicity events
Road shows
Press conferences
Customer contest
Exhibitions ot tradeshows
Corporate events
Employee engagement/internal events
Charity fundraisers
Other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Number of respondents
Percentage
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INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been observed that, most of the respondents have selected all the
options that have been provided. To elaborate, 58.06 % respondents have opted ―All the above‖
option, 25.81% respondents feel it is cost of planning and producing an event (logistics), 6.45%
respondents feel it is cost of concept, design and development, 6.45% respondents feel it iscost
of venue , and lastly 3.23% respondents feel it is cost of F & B. And the same has been shown
below in the graph form.
2
8
2
1
18
6.45
25.81
6.45
3.23
58.06
Cost of concept, design and development
Cost of planning and producing an event (logistics)
Cost of venue
Cost of F & B
All the above
Number of respondents Percentage
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4.1.5 Best concept and design are crucial for marketing an event.
Table: 5
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Very important 19 61.29
Important 10 32.26
Average 1 3.23
Less important 1 3.23
Not at all important 0 0.00
Total 31 100.00
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been inferred that, most of the respondents feel it‘s a very important
aspect in marketing an event. For any event to be successful, best concept and design is very
important. It brings audience to attend the event as well as make the event successful by
providing good feedback for the event.
To analyze the same closely, 61.29 % respondents have opted very important, 32.26%
respondents feel it is important and it should be taken care, 3.23% respondents feel it is an
average point to be kept in view, 3.23% respondents feel it is not so important, and lastly 0.00%
(none of the) respondents feel it is not all important, that means it does hold some importance
overall. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
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4.1.6 Communication plays a major role in marketing an event.
Table: 6
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Strongly disagree 5 16.13
Disagree 0 0.00
Neutral 0 0.00
Agree 10 32.26
Strongly agree 16 51.61
Total 31 100.00
19
10
1 1 0
61.29
32.26
3.23 3.23
0.00 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Very important Important Average Less important Not at allimportant
Number of respondents
Percentage
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INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been learnt that, most of the respondents strongly agree that
communication does play a major role in marketing an event. To be precise, 51.61%
respondents have stated they strongly agree, 32.26% respondents just agree to the point, 16.13%
respondents Strongly disagree, rest of the points have not been opted by any respondents. And
the same has been shown below in the graph form.
5
0 0
10
16
16.13
0.00 0.00
32.26
51.61
Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
Number of respondents Percentage
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4.1.7 The great media channels or options to market an event
Table: 7
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Advertisement 16 51.61
News release 10 32.26
Company website 14 45.16
Direct mailers 14 45.16
Telemarketing 3 9.68
Social media 17 54.84
All the above 6 19.35
Others 1 3.23
Total
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add upto more than 100%out of
31 respondents.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been understood that, most of the respondents feel advertisements,
social media, company website, direct mailers and news releases are most important media
channels to market an event and telemarketing has been given the least importance of all. To
analyze the same closely, 54.84% respondents have opted Social media, 51.61% respondents feel
it is advertisement, 45.16% respondents have stated it is Company website, 45.16% respondents
have expressed it is direct mailers, 32.26% respondents feel it is news releases, 19.35%
respondents feel it is all the above points, 9.68% respondents have opted Telemarketing and
lastly 3.23% respondents have said ―others‖ that means almost all the media channels have been
considered important in common. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
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4.1.8 The best way to encourage or ensure consumer feedback at an event
Table: 8
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
By repeated announcements during the event 2 6.45
Incentivizing audience with goodies 9 29.03
Through interactive Q & A quiz 6 19.35
Through one-on-one conversations and discussions 8 25.81
All the above 6 19.35
Total 31 100.00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Advertisement
News release
Company website
Direct mailers
Telemarketing
Social media
All the above
Others
Advertisement
Newsrelease
Companywebsite
Directmailers
Telemarketing
Socialmedia
All theabove
Others
Number of respondents 16 10 14 14 3 17 6 1
Percentage 51.61 32.26 45.16 45.16 9.68 54.84 19.35 3.23
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INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been observed that, the best way to ensure consumer feedback at an
event is by incentivizing audience with goodies, because this point has been opted by 29.03% of
respondents, next best opted is through one-on-one conversations and discussions which has
been opted by 25.81% of respondents, later opted is interactive Q & A quiz opted by 19.35% of
respondents, and lastly 19.35% of respondents feel it is all of the above point are important to
encourage or ensure consumer feedback at an event. Andthe same has been shown below in the
graph form.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
2 9
6 8 6
6.45
29.03
19.35
25.81
19.35
Number of respondents Percentage
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4.1.9 Challenges facing in getting the right target-audience for an event
Table: 9
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Lack of internal database 3 9.68
Lack of qualified internal database 10 32.26
Lack of verifiable external database 9 29.03
Lack of general interest in the target audience 8 25.81
Others 1 3.23
Total 31 100.00
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been learnt that, the challenge that is faced in getting the right target-
audience for an event is mostly lack of qualified internal database which has been stated by
32.26% respondents, 29.03% respondents feel it is lack of verifiable external database, 25.81%
respondents expressed that it is lack of general interest in the target audience, 9.68% respondents
suggested it is lack of internal database and lastly 3.23% respondents said it is ―others‖. And the
same has been shown below in the graph form.
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4.1.10 Demonstration of product or solution, impact the success of the event
Table: 10
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Never 2 6.45
Rarely 2 6.45
Sometimes 12 38.71
Often 9 29.03
Always 6 19.35
Total 31 100.00
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it‘s known that, it is only sometimes that demonstration of product or
solutionmatters for the success of an event and to justify that we have 38.71% respondents who
have opted ―Sometimes‖, 29.03% respondents have opted ―Often‖,19.35% respondents have
Lack of internal database
Lack of qualified internal database
Lack of verifiable external database
Lack of general interest in the targetaudience
Others
0 10 20 30 40 50
3
10
9
8
1
9.68
32.26
29.03
25.81
3.23
Number of respondents
Percentage
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opted ―Always‖, 6.45% respondents have opted ―Rarely‖ and 6.45% respondents have opted
―Never‖. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
4.1.11 Challenges faced in planning and developing a complete and successful event.
Table: 11
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Budgets 3 9.68
Right audience 9 29.03
Concept 9 29.03
Marketing message 10 32.26
Total 31 100.00
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been found out that, the message that is sent out to market an event
is the main challenge faced in planning and developing a complete and successful event. To
analyze this point precisely, 32.26% respondents have stated it is the Marketing message,
7% 6%
39% 29%
19%
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Always
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29.03% respondents have expressed it is the Concept, 29.03% respondents have opted Right
audience and lastly 9.68% respondents say it is Budgets.And the same has been shown below in
the graph form.
4.1.12 Measurement attributes of the success of an event.
Table: 12
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
No. of audience responses 4 12.90
No. of feedbacks 6 19.35
No. of qualified marketing leads 11 35.48
No. of qualified sales leads 8 25.81
No. of cost per order 2 6.45
Total 31 100.00
10%
29%
29%
32%
Budgets
Right audience
Concept
Marketing message
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INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been inferred that, number of marketing leads is the majority
attribute for the success of an event. Precisely to analyze the above mentioned point, 35.48%
respondents have opted No. of qualified marketing leads, 25.81% respondents have optedNo. of
qualified sales leads, 19.35% respondents have opted No. of feedbacks, 12.90% respondents
have opted No. of audience responses and lastly 6.45% respondents have opted No. of cost per
order. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
4.1.13 Expected time that customers purchase products after attending the event.
Table: 13
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Immediately 1 3.23
Within a week 18 58.06
Within a month 5 16.13
Within 3 months 7 22.58
Total 31 100.00
No. ofaudienceresponses
No. offeedbacks
No. ofqualified
marketingleads
No. ofqualified
sales leads
No. of costper order
Total
Percentage 12.90 19.35 35.48 25.81 6.45 100.00
Number of respondents 4 6 11 8 2 31
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Axi
s Ti
tle
Swiss Business School Page 64
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been observed that, mostly respondents expect their products to be
purchased within a week. Justifying the point,58.06% respondents feel Within a week, 22.58 %
respondents have opted Within 3 months, 16.13% respondents have stated Within a month,
3.23% respondents said Immediately. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
4.1.14 Importance of event marketing in this current era.
Table: 14
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 1 3.23
Rank 2 3 9.68
Rank 3 3 9.68
Rank 4 17 54.84
Rank 5 7 22.58
Total 31 100.00
Number of respondents
Percentage0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1
18
5 7
3.23
58.06
16.13 22.58
Number of respondents
Percentage
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Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been understood that, concept of event marketing is important but
not very important as most respondents have rated it at fourth place. Analyzing the point, 54.84%
of respondents rated four, 22.58% of respondents rated five, 9.68% of respondents rated three,
9.68% of respondents rated two and lastly 3.23% of respondents rated1. And the same has been
shown below in the graph form.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5
1 3 3 17 7
3.23 9.68 9.68 54.84 22.58
Number of respondents Percentage
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4.1.15Importance of timing for success of an event.
Table: 15
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 0 0.00
Rank 2 1 3.23
Rank 3 6 19.35
Rank 4 11 35.48
Rank 5 13 41.94
Total 31 100.00
Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been inferred that timing of an event is the most important part as
most respondents have rated 5; Success of an event completely depends on the same. To
elaborate the statement, 41.94% of respondents rated five, 35.48% of respondents rated four,
19.35% of respondents rated three, 3.23% of respondents rated two and 0.00% of respondents
rated one. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
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4.1.16 Importance of well-defined target audience for an event.
Table: 16
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 1 3.23
Rank 2 1 3.23
Rank 3 3 9.68
Rank 4 11 35.48
Rank 5 15 48.39
Total 31 100.00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5
Number of respondents 0 1 6 11 13
Percentage 0.00 3.23 19.35 35.48 41.94
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Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been a observed that a well-defined target audience is very important
for the success of an event, as majority of the respondents rated 5. To explain precisely, 48.39%
of respondents rated five, 35.48% of respondents rated four, 9.68% of respondents rated three,
3.23% of respondents rated two and 3.23% of respondents rated one. And the same has been
shown below in the graph form.
4.1.17 Importance of generating qualified leads at an event
Table: 17
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 0 0.00
Rank 2 2 6.45
Rank 3 2 6.45
Rank 4 15 48.39
Rank 5 12 38.71
Total 31 100.00
3% 3%
10%
36%
48%
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
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Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been viewed that generating qualified leads at an event is important.
Most of the respondents suggested that its important but not very important for the qualified
leads. To explain in detail, 38.71% of respondents rated five, 48.39% of respondents rated four,
6.45% of respondents rated three, 6.45% of respondents rated two and 0.00% of respondents
rated one. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5
Percentage 0.00 6.45 6.45 48.39 38.71
Number of respondents 0 2 2 15 12
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
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4.1.18 Importance of producing most exciting event for audience.
Table: 18
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 0 0.00
Rank 2 1 3.23
Rank 3 5 16.13
Rank 4 10 32.26
Rank 5 15 48.39
Total 31 100.00
Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been understood that creating very exciting event for the audience is
most important aspect as highest percentage of respondents have rated it five. To elaborate,
48.39% of respondents rated five, 32.26% of respondents rated four, 16.13% of respondents
rated three, 3.23% of respondents rated two and 0.00% of respondents rated one. And the same
has been shown below in the graph form.
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4.1.19 Importance of the speaker for the success of an event
Table: 19
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 1 3.23
Rank 2 1 3.23
Rank 3 5 16.13
Rank 4 13 41.94
Rank 5 11 35.48
Total 31 100.00
Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
0%
3%
16%
32%
49%
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
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INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been inferred that for the success of an event a speaker is not the
most important aspect but it is important as highest percentage of respondents have rated it four.
To justify the statement, 41.94% of respondents rated four, 35.48% of respondents rated five,
16.13% of respondents rated three, 3.23% of respondents rated two and 3.23% of respondents
rated one. And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
3% 3%
16%
42%
36%
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
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4.1.20 Rating the future of event marketing.
Table: 20
Particulars Number of respondents Percentage
Rank 1 0 0.00
Rank 2 2 6.45
Rank 3 3 9.68
Rank 4 13 41.94
Rank 5 13 41.94
Total 31 100.00
Questions answered on scale of 1-5 with 1 representing minimal influence and 5
representing Strong influence.
INTERPRETATION:
From the above table, it has been observed that event marketing does have great future going
forward as highest percentage of respondents have rated it four and five. To be precise in the
analysis, 41.94% of respondents rated five, 41.94% of respondents rated four, 9.68% of
respondents rated three, 6.45% of respondents rated two and 0.00% of respondents rated one.
And the same has been shown below in the graph form.
0%
6% 10%
42%
42% Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
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5.1 Hypothesis Statement:
Ho: Well defined audience and concept of the event are not the only crucial factors leading to a
successful event.
5.2 Chi-square test:
The Chi-square test is the most popular non-parametric test of significance in social science
research. It is used to make comparisons between two or more nominal variables. Unlike the
other tests of significance, the chi-square is used to make comparisons between frequencies
rather than between mean scores. This test evaluated whether the difference between the
observed frequencies and the expected frequencies under the null hypothesis can be attributed to
chance or actual population.
= ∑(fo-fe)/fe
Where fo= the observed frequency
fe= the expected frequency in terms of the null hypothesis.
Table 21:
Crucial factors for successful
event
Rankings by the organizations Total
Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5
Well defined audience 1 1 3 11 15 31.00
Generating qualified leads 0 2 2 15 12 31.00
Concept of event marketing 1 3 3 17 7 31.00
Timing impact 0 1 6 11 13 31.00
Most exciting event 0 1 5 10 15 31.00
Total 2 8 19 64 62 155.00
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Table 22:
Particulars Fo Fe Fo-Fe (Fo-Fe)2 (Fo-Fe)
2/Fe
Well defined audience
Rank
1 1 0.4 0.6 0.36 0.90
Rank
2 1 1.6 -0.6 0.36 0.23
Rank
3 3 3.8 -0.8 0.64 0.17
Rank
4 11 19.84 -8.84 78.15 3.94
Rank
5 15 12.4 2.6 6.76 0.55
Generating qualified leads
Rank
1 0 0.4 -0.4 0.16 0.40
Rank
2 2 1.6 0.4 0.16 0.10
Rank
3 2 3.8 -1.8 3.24 0.85
Rank
4 15 19.84 -4.84 23.43 1.18
Rank
5 12 12.4 -0.4 0.16 0.01
Concept of event marketing
Rank
1 1 0.4 0.6 0.36 0.90
Rank
2 3 1.6 1.4 1.96 1.23
Rank
3 3 3.8 -0.8 0.64 0.17
Rank
4 17 19.84 -2.84 8.07 0.41
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Rank
5 7 12.4 -5.4 29.16 2.35
Timing impact
Rank
1 0 0.4 -0.4 0.16 0.40
Rank
2 1 1.6 -0.6 0.36 0.23
Rank
3 6 3.8 2.2 4.84 1.27
Rank
4 11 19.84 -8.84 78.15 3.94
Rank
5 13 12.4 0.6 0.36 0.03
Most exciting event
Rank
1 0 0.4 -0.4 0.16 0.40
Rank
2 1 1.6 -0.6 0.36 0.23
Rank
3 5 3.8 1.2 1.44 0.38
Rank
4 10 19.84 -9.84 96.83 4.88
Rank
5 15 12.4 2.6 6.76 0.55
Value of Chi-Square (X2) 25.67
df 4*4 16
level of significance 0.005 26.296
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5.3: Conclusion
Chi-Square analysis is considered as test statistics
Chi-Square value is derived as 25.67
Chi-square table value at 5% level of significance with a degree of freedom of 16 are
26.296
Since the Chi-square table value > Chi-square calculated value, the Ho is accepted.
Hence it can be inferred that: ―Well defined audience and concept of the event are not the
only crucial factors leading to a successful event.‖
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6.1 Findings
1. The event marketing industry in India is highly unorganized.
2. Corporate are not fully aware of the concept, implementation process and effectiveness of
event marketing.
3. No post-event analysis is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of an event. As a result
of which a lot of money is wasted and nothing productive happens.
4. Commit large amounts of time and marketing expertise to it as well in order to bring
about a long-term product association with the event. It means monitoring the event
constantly, to ensure that your name, logo, product and so on are being featured, exactly
as agreed. It means developing reliable ways of measuring its results, if that‘s possible.
It means thinking about extensions-spin-off consumer and trade promotions, staff
motivation programs, hospitality functions and so on.
5. There is no consistency of operations and quality of events on the part of event
management firms. Event marketing firms in India are very unprofessional and lack
integrated marketing expertise.
6.2 Conclusion
1. Event marketing allows a company to break through the advertising clutter and target an
audience by enhancing or creating an image through an association to a particular event.
2. Event marketing also offers companies the flexibility to reach specific geographic and
demographic audiences. It is a benefit that allows depth of exposure, as opposed to the
breadth of exposure.
3. When considering the entire sales cycle, marketing professionals must think beyond
traditional methods and bring transparency and measurement to their activities in order to
demonstrate the fundamental value of their field. To answer this challenge, the event
marketing industry must redefine itself to recognize the power of the ―brand‖ to forge
deep connections, as well as also adapt events to contribute to branding in more
sophisticated ways.
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4. The perception of events as a form of media is quickly moving away from standalone
activities to integrated forms of communication. These forms of communication
synchronize with overall marketing goals through new applications of techniques rooted
in traditional event marketing that project the brand more powerfully. Defining what an
organization stands for, mapping out a clear brand strategy, and then formulating event
activities that align with overall marketing goals is the next great step in the evolution of
the industry.
6.3 Recommendations
To improve the condition of the event marketing industry and make it more professional and
profitable, the following recommendations have been listed:
1. Understand the corporate objectives, target audience, brand image and positioning
clearly.
2. Do not go overboard with your concept or preference for a certain event.
3. Conduct a situational analysis for appropriate event selection which synergies with the
company objective and brand personality.
4. Create extensive databases of the target consumers in order to conduct pre- and post-
event analysis and evaluation to check the success of the event and consumer perception,
also to assess the top of mind awareness and brand recall.
5. Conduct extensive market research to establish which parts of the program are working
and which ones are not. Those in the first category should be maintained and
strengthened. Those in the second should be relinquished.
6. In all sponsorship activities, it is important to protect the integrity of the activity being
supported. If it is cheapened or its identity threatened, the sponsorship could rebound on
the sponsor‘s head.
7. Event-marketing firms require a more qualified and professional workforce to prevent
them from losing business to their substitutes that is the advertising firms.
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6.4. Lessons learned/learning aspects
Thanks to the organizations that helped in providing their valuable suggestions and
recommendations on, challenges that the companies facing and the upcoming opportunities that
event marketing has in future.
The major problem that the event manager faces while conducting the event is while the time of
registration. People who are not registered also attend the event, which may cause lot of issues
for the event marketer to manage the whole event.
Events are held only to grasp the attention of the specific set of audience who can help in
promoting marketers brand and also giving them the leads.
6.5. Ethical implications
The research was in line with the ethical guidelines in that the participation was voluntary and
confidential. Participation was voluntary, the organizations were free to participate or not and
answer the questionnaire. The responses were kept confidential and are not disclosed the report
to keep the interest of the participants.
No company‘s rules or regulations were broken and permission‘s from the organizations were
taken prior to conducting the research.
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7. Bibliography
Books:
Event Management: Lynn Van Der Wagen & Brenda R. Carlos (2004), ISBN:
0131149385.
Principles of Marketing: Kotler & Amstrong (2010),Pearson education, ISBN:
0137006691, 9780137006694
Marketing Management: Philip Kotler 13th edition, Pearson education, ISBN:
9788131716830
Marketing is Business: Walter E. Vieira
The Fundamentals & Practice of Marketing: John Wilmshurst
Event Management: Tassiopoulos, D. (2005). A Professional and Developmental
Approach, 2nd Ed., Juta Academic, Lansdowne.
Websites:
www.indiatradepromotion.org
www.exhibitionsindia.com
www.supercommindia2004.com
www.branders.com
www.viewcentral.com
www.eventmarketer.com
www.marketersadvantage.net/articles.htm?k=Network%20Marketing
www.mobilemarketingjoblist.com
www.flugsimulatoren.de/strategic-marketing.htm
www.global-electronics.net
www.indianchild.com/marketing/india-marketing-scenario.htm
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www.fundsmanagementworld.com/india
www.hedgefundsworld.com
www.sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/g/promotion.htm
www.wilsonweb.com
www.TradeshowDisplayPRO.com
www.clk.about.com
www.inventors.about.com
www.marketingnpv.com
www.businessknowhow.com
www.3rdfloorup.com
www.exchange4media.com
www.exhibitmanagement.com
www.dmoz.org/Sports/Events
www.biztradeshows.com/india/
www.classifieds.sulekha.com
www.pib.nic.in
www.india.gov.in/business/growing_business.php
www.blonnet.com
www.belowtheline.org/
www.frost.com/prod/servlet/events-asia-pac.pag
www.indialine.com/events/automotive.html
www.hindustantimes.com/3g/
www.informatm.com
www.asia.advertising.msn.com
www.ibef.org
www.tradeshowplaza.com