FC Barcelona is a football club based in Barcelona Catalonia, Spain. The team plays La-Liga, a top tier league in the Spanish football league. The club has never seen relegation due to its capable and professional players. Barcelona is one of the finest teams in the country with an exceptional record in football across the world. According to Wagner (2016), the objective of the club is to be more than a team by building soccer to higher levels. They fight for league titles to amuse their fans. The club works round the clock to improve and strengthen its squad. Without a good marketing strategy, it will be almost impossible to get sponsorship and fan. This paper seeks to explore the goals of the club, to analyze the situation of the club, their fan development strategy, and their brand management and marketing strategy.
The sports industry is one of the most growing and competitive industry in the world. Many people participate in sports as players or fan creating opportunities for marketing a club’s goods and services. The most interesting part in sports is sports marketing, which gyrates around comprehending the behavior of consumers and to motivating the target markets to buy the goods and services (King, 2014). Soccer, for instance, is a sport that has many followers and fans all over the world. FC Barcelona has a goal, and the goal is to be more than a football team. Having an objective is what drives a team to be among the greatest clubs in the world. Lack of a goal will imply that the team has no intention of growing or moving soccer to another level.
Situation analysis aims mainly at disclosing the capacity and the competitiveness of a firm and the current market position. Assessing the situation of a business involves gathering information about their products and the target market. Situational analysis is indispensable for determining the position that the club takes in the industry. Weighing the growth of the club requires a greater understanding of its position the market. The marketing strategies employed by a company will influence performance in the market significantly. An extensive fan base is a clear indication of a club that is well-placed in the market (Shank & Leyberger 2014).
A club can reach out to the target market through several techniques. The way team markets itself will influence their fan base. (Wagner, 2016) points out that there are two components in sports marketing. One is marketing of sport and marketing through sport. Marketing of sport involves marketing the actual sport, for example, marketing soccer and in this case, FC Barcelona marketing its football. In this case, the club develops its fan base by marketing its football through print media, billboards, broadcast media, and news media. The Media can reach out to many people at the same time. It is through the media that people get to know about the club. Otherwise, it could have been more complicated that it seems. Remember, reaching the target market through the right medium is one of their fan development strategies.
Barcelona’s brand management strategy involves marketing through sport. Marketing through sports involves the use of celebrities to market a product. Incredible jugglers like Lionel Messi are among the finest players that the club has ever had. By the celebrity, wearing club’s shirt is a way of marketing the club. Using the stars helps to keep the brand relevant and competitive in the football industry (Wagner, 2016). King (2014) asserts that marketing through sports is one of the ways that a company can boost its brand and sales. For example, Mike Jordan the Basketball star, wearing Nike’s shoes. Strategies that a firm employs in marketing will influence the level of sales and revenue.
- Shank, M. D., & Lyberger, M. R. (2014). Sports marketing: A strategic perspective. Routledge.
- King, Bill. (2014). Soccer’s growing reach. Sports Business Journal. Retrieved from http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/02/In-Depth/Main.aspx
- Wagner, Van. (2016). Van Wagner looks to make history with an FC Barcelona deal. Sports Business Journal. Retrieved from http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/05/02/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/The-Lefton-Report.aspx
