ITFC were formed as an amateur club in 1878, but became professional in 1936. After winning the Southern League and finishing third the following season, they were elected to the Football League on May 30th 1938.

I will also look at what other previously relegated teams have done in the past to help their profits stabilise and if they got back into division one that would also help team morale, supporters morale and would boost profits overall.

Before making my questionnaire I will have to consider what I want to be asking and how this information could actually help ITFC, so some of my questions will have top have qualitative data and some will need quantitative answers. The quantitative answers will be easy to add up and hopefully get an overall view for and the qualitative questions will allow people to diversify their answers without pushing them in one direction or another.

After receiving data back form the questionnaires I will have to consider how to make that data into a marketing mix. By considering the 4 P's so I have decided form this data by using the following heading to work out where most effort should be placed once I have the research back. The qualitative research will also tell me what else I could do whereas the quantitative data will also help me to ensure how much effort should be placed where.

Product

- Entertainment - games - tickets - price change before and after

- Replica kits sold

- Food and drink - corporate entertainment

- Merchandising

- Programs

- Academy - coaching over summer holidays for good publicity EG U12 and U14

Price

- Shares

- Sponsorship

- Special deals - promotions

- Ticket prices

- Price change overall

Promotion

- Fathers day promotions and similar

- Internet promotions - save money

- One free ticket over SGR radio and EADT

- County shows

- Sell tickets through PE teachers in schools

Place

- Stadium

- Internet selling - save on money

- Shops where merchandising is sold

Secondary Research

Having done some primary research in the form of a questionnaire as it is easy to use and you can customise it to suit your needs. I have come up with some conclusions from this data. I must however consider that this research only reflects 20 people's views and not the entirety of ITFC supporters, merely the ones I could stop to ask questions.

That most people come up with their ITFC special deals via SGR radio or the internet so in the future if I was to remarket ITFC I would use these as ways of getting word out about an special deals I might have. Yet the problem with this is that the ITFC website is not really good for gathering information

I have also done some research on how much ITFC supporters earn per annum as this could reflect how much they might spend at matches on extras and after the match on merchandise.

Having now done a basic analysis I have decided to do a SWOT analysis, which will help me determine any strengths or weaknesses within the club, and any exteriors opportunities or threats there may be. This shows that most ITFC supporters earn between £20,000 - £29,000, with some others earning above this figure.

I have also recorded how much people spend on merchandise and on extras during the match.

This graph shows most people spend between £20 - £29 per match on extras.

The one below shows how much people spend on merchandise before and after the match.

I can use this information in order to achieve maximum profits for the marketing mix I will have to design for ITFC.

SWOT Analysis

Interior

Strengths

- Have been in division one before

- Have had good previous marketing strategies

- Have a well established team

- Have a good fan base

- They have good facilities as Portman Rd.

Weaknesses

- Recently relegated from division one and replaced by Norwich FC

- Bad website hosting

- Few promotional offers

- The players contracts maybe invalid through lowering wages

- We may need loans to renovate the existing facilities

Opportunities

- They could use their team to regain a position in the first division.

- The internet allows for a lot of profit to be made quickly if utilised

- They have a new manager able to prove his worth by also trying to turn the team around

Threats

- Government are threatening with a tax on football

- Increasing footballers wage

- ITV digital collapsed - major football sponsor.

- Hooliganism from football vandals means constant repairs or more stringent safety checks

Exterior

After this I will use PEST analysis to get a greater understanding of any exterior problems or strengths there may be, as this will help me even more to come up with a marketing plan.

PEST Analysis

Political

- New government policies affecting how much footballers get paid

- Health and Safety aspects are getting tougher as there is more and more football hooliganism

- Previous health and safety toughness have resulted in entire stadiums being redesigned.

- How much the club pays may be changed under the new laws

Economic

- New Health and Safety laws could influence the club greatly at a time when they need as much money as possible

- Footballers wage laws could mean trading for cheaper players or players going on strike.

- Football sells well at the moment with record sales for club memorabilia and merchandise over the country as well as England's performance in the last world cup

Social Change

- Football is very popular at the moment and this is backed up by the increase in media attention to it and the record sales of merchandise.

- This indicated very little is likely to change quickly, probably the opposite as it will increase creating greater pressure on ITFC

Technology

- The collapse of ITV digital has affected football as a whole and will continue to do so as they had strong links with the football world.

- The media attention to football will cause a greater strain on ITFC.

- The rise in Sky and digital entertainment will help football by providing more interactive things.

The PEST analysis outlines any problems I MIGHT have in the future when I produce a marketing mix plan therefore I have to watch these influences when I plan for the future.

In the future I will have to reinvent ITFC marketing mix yet this can be very risky so in order to reduce the risk taken I will have to use Ansoff's matrix in order to reduce the risk for reinventing ITFC. I have considered these as when I reinvent ITFC I will have to diversify a bit in order to gain profits in other markets until the team becomes better. Usually diversification can be very risky and cost a lot of money. An example of a company that diversifies a lot in Virgin LTD.

Existing ProductsNew Products

Existing Markets

New Markets

Market Penetration

- I will aim to get profit from all ages and both genders yet with focus a bit more on males as they do have more involvement with football as a general. My research has shown me that Males are more likely to buy more merchandise.

- I will also aim for people of all incomes as even those with a low family income buy merchandise.

Product Development

- I don't feel football as a product can be developed. Only made more entertaining by providing more creature comforts at a greater price.

Market Development

- I will aim into women and families a little more when I reinvent ITFC as my secondary research has shown me that spectators like the atmosphere more if there are women as there is less rioting and families allow for a higher profit to be made and for more people to get involved

Diversification

-New markets to be going into would be computing or telephones industry, yet what we could do is offer our logo to a company and ask for a phone cover to be built. Many other football teams have had it done and it seems to have worked, something like this whereby we diversify but not too much.

Increasing Risk

Report of findings

My findings from the PEST, SWOT and Ansoff's Matrix have shown me that I need to diversify a bit but not too much as profits are low at the moment so what we really want is a stable amount of income in order to support the club. A small diversification will allow this to happen, as it will provide a stable income which is what the club needs at the moment.

The SWOT analysis helps me to know where my strengths and weaknesses lie generally so give me a good example of what to do when I diversify and where to place my money.

The PEST analysis has allowed me to see where my weaknesses lie in greater detail and from what I can tell I should do this now, as there will not be a better chance. Football is a good social event at the moment and if I start now the result will really be showing soon with good media cover if we advertise in the Bury Free Press and other local newspapers.

Ansoff's Matrix has shown me that I need to diversify but not to the extent whereby I am placing my money in bad situations. ITFC have had a 40% loss within the last year. We cannot afford to lose more of this so we need things that we can be sure will provide profit in small amounts.

I can now use these findings to my advantage to create a final report of the 4P's and how I would apply them to ITFC in order to try and regain some of their profits back into the club. It of course cannot happen overnight no matter how good the marketing mix may be it will take time to turn the club around. I will also try not to try and diversify too much into markets ITFC doesn't know and markets it cannot deal with. Over 50% of new businesses fail within the first 6 months because they do not know how to handle the market or the competition. If we diversify too much we will lose a lot of our current support and will end up failing in these markets as well.

I will now begin to create a new marketing plan for ITFC I will have to rely on all of my research gained in phase 2. I will also have to use Ansoff's Matrix as well as the SWOT and PEST analysis's to help me produce a 4P's plan that will be beneficial for ITFC and help them the most effectively.

Product

As there is nothing I can do in order to make football the game anymore successful on the pitchI can add extras to it in order to make it more enjoyable. With this idea I can refer back to my research and find out what people spend their money on and if it's worth adding in any extra features or perhaps taking things out as they might be irritating people. When I look at my research I can see that people don't find food merchants or the merchandise shops annoying so it is okay to continue selling to people within the ITFc stadium at Portman Rd. as my research has shown.

Another way I can continue to gain support for ITFC is to extend upon the corporate entertainment aspect of Portman Rd. as I know it has good facilities in order to do so. I definitely think that these facilities should be used the best way is where to advertise to gain more profit than usual, if we are fully booked we are using the facilities to maximum potential. At that point we could then increase our profit margin and begin to make more and more profit. However we need to advertise somewhere and I have decided from my research the best place to advertise this particular product aspect would be on the internet and allow the local newspapers and radio stations to advertise for free during their news broadcasts about our new features and marketing plan.

In order to gain more publicity in the local papers I will advertise the academy within the local papers and local radio's and allow for some word of mouth advertising as that allows for a high percentage of my marketing mix as it is substantial in my research. This will let people know of our new marketing mix and may convince those who have had bad experiences before to gain better one's this time.

Promotion

With Christmas Holidays just finishing we have missed out on a very big possible promotion. But at the end of January there is a tax placed on the accounts so we need to gain customers quickly in order to try and gain some money before the accounts and after so as to start the new tax year with some capital behind us. The beginning months are always quiet for almost any industry so I thought about doing a £2 off deal within the local newspapers (of course placing a limit of one ticket per ticket so as not to lose too much potential profit,)this will draw people back towards ITFC.

The Easter holidays are also coming up allowing for another promotion for the children and the parents perhaps by offering reduced price on family tickets, or 1 free (non-alcoholic) drinks for every family ticket brought.

The same can be applied to fathers day with similar deals and the summer holidays with discounts for academy students.

Internet promotions are always a good idea and allow for more people to book over the website making it faster booking all the time.

One extra way is to continue selling tickets through PE teachers in schools but aim for an older audience. An older audience spends more and doesn't need to be watched constantly for trouble and allows for good publicity.

Place

I can continue to use Portman Rd. for now as there is nothing wrong with it at the moment and it can quite easily accommodate everything that is needed within my marketing plan. The one big change I will make it to advertise a discount for everything sold over the website. 10% is a reasonable discount and makes it seems worthwhile shopping over the internet. If people shop over the internet then we save money but cutting out a middleman and allowing for reduced costs for them whilst still allowing for a greater profit to be made. The research to support this idea lies in the basis that e-commerce is usually cheaper for everyone. It's cheaper for the company as they can cut out a middleman as a computer doesn't need paying. It also means you can therefore lower the sale price yet still make a larger profit even if you are selling it for cheaper.

Prices

This is one of the bigger issues and I have to make a decision at this point to go for either an "Easyjet" type option, allow for lots of luxuries or allow for a mix in the middle. I will probably go for a middle option allowing people to choose luxuries if they want them but also allowing those who want cheap matches to get them without putting the price of the food into their overall ticket price.

Shares are a market we can do particularly well in I feel as this marketing mix like any other is going to require money and one way of achieving this is to sell shares. Talk to people who like high like high-risk ventures as all football is high risk, it has taken Manchester United a matter of weeks to go from a firm favourite to a bottom of premiership club. If we can remind people that we didn't struggle to get into the premiership and that we have merely slipped momentarily then they could be persuaded into buying shares in ITFC.

Sponsorship is one very quick and easy way to get money fast, ITFC could apply for a local sponsor like Greene King again, they are a local based company and could be persuaded round to sponsorship again the same way the shareholders could be.

A decrease in ticket prices isn't going to help at the moment if we already have offers on, I suggest leaving them as they are for now and then when we are re-established maybe raising them a bit.

I also don't think there is any need for an overall price change or to lower players wages, at the moment the last thing we want is players giving us bad publicity about low wages.

Evaluation

I have found this project to be helpful as a means of understanding the marketing mix and how to apply it the problem remains that in the real world the football sector moves to fast to create an effective marketing mix for as it is constantly on the move. By the time you have created a plan it has been stopped by the fact that something has happened changing it turning it upside down. Even during this project a relatively small club like ITFC has managed to make even great changes during the duration of the project. The sacking of a manager and many other media publicised events. It seems the football market is not good to try and to a marketing mix for as things change over a matter of days, something like this marketing mix would need to be produced every few days