Week 8 Blog Post

College Football Programs: do our players view us as something more?

In chapter 11 of Drucker on Marketing: Lessons from the World's Most Influential Business Thinker, Drucker stated that it is the consumer who ultimately determines marketing decisions and what a business is because they are the ones who pay for the goods/services.  Is this true?  Lets look at it from the eyes of a college football coach.  What do we provide to our customers (remember, we are considering our players as our customers in this scenario, especially when they are paying $40,000+ to attend Western New England University)?  We provide a service, to mold and develop football players.  Simply, we provide the opportunity to play college football.  Some would argue that we provide the foundation for preparing athletes for the real world.  I would combat that by saying that the elements of football, such as teamwork, work ethic, honesty, integrity, and dedication, prepare athletes for life after college.  So, from the eyes of a coach, we provide the opportunity for student athletes to participate in college football.

Now, lets look at the same scenario from the eyes of the players.  Drucker stated that it is the customer that ultimately determines what a business is.  So, what do players view the opportunity to play college football?

Some may view as the coach's point of view, its an opportunity to play college football.  Others may view it as a way to stay in shape, some may view it as an opportunity to hurt people, and many view it as a means of scratching a competitive itch.  Some players view it as an opportunity to improve their social status, while others may view it as an opportunity to make their families proud.  Some players may view college football as a means to a career, either playing as a professional or coaching later on down the road.  Some may view college football as a way to keep them out of trouble, or help build a resume.  Clearly, the opportunity to play college football is more to a player than just that.  The opportunity to play college football may be a combination of those listed above, or even another reason that hasn't been touched upon.

To summarize, college football programs provide the opportunity to play college football, there's no denying that.  But they also offer other opportunities as well, and we as coaches and administrators must be aware of that.  The same holds true of any business.  While you may provide a specific product or service, your customers may view it as something more than that, which is why Drucker was correct in saying that the consumer ultimately determines marketing decisions and what a business is, since they are the ones paying for it and getting what they want out of it.

PHARMASIM

This week we were asked to look at the performance metrics available within the program, and determine which metrics should be used to evaluate team performance against each other, as part of a balanced scorecard.  Obviously, sales revenue, market share position, and profitability are metrics that cannot be denied and should ultimately be incorporated in the evaluation.  I think marketing efficiency index, return on marketing, and capacity utilization should be incorporated into the scorecard as well.  All of these metrics look at the efficiency of the company, and ultimately, we should be evaluating the return on marketing as that is the main focus of the course.  I feel as though we should be evaluated on how efficient we are in managing the different marketing areas in Pharmasim, as each team has put themselves in different scenarios up to this point, so we should see how efficient we are from this point forward in working together as a team.

Looking Elsewhere

Earlier in the week, we were asked to look at the blogs of 3 of our colleagues, none of which can be a member of our Pharmasim team.  This week I decided to look at Alexis', Abhishek's, and Kristin's blogs.

Alexis' blog is a very easy read, and she does a nice job of setting up a conversational style to it.  She does a good job addressing the issues presented in class, incorporating real life experiences, and elaborating on her thoughts and ideas.  I also really like how she touches upon Pharmasim every week and gives her insight and opinions as to what happened during a particular week and why they happened.

I really like how Abhi's blog is set up, and is very user friendly.  He does a good job at addressing all of the prompts given for the week and I like how he answers his own questions that he gave earlier in the week for the class discussions.  He touches upon a lot of different areas in his blogs, and personally I would like to see him stick to fewer ideas and elaborate more on them.

Kristin's blog is a very enjoyable read as well.  I like how she incorporates pictures and comics into her blog, as it gives it a nice change of pace and an informal feel to it.  I like how she recaps on her findings of Pharmasim and expresses her interest in hearing more about other people's findings.  She seems to be using the blogs as a way to gain insight into Pharmasim, which is a very smart technique.  

Week 7 Blog Post

Are we Pushing or Pulling recruits to Western New England?

As discussed in class and outlined in our "Try This!" for this week's Marketing Management exercise, we looked at the methods in which manufacturers can move their products through a channel of distribution specifically by using a "push" or "pull" strategy, or a combination of the two.   A push strategy is when the manufacturer uses incentives to get channel intermediaries, such as wholesalers or retailers, to buy and stock their products, and subsequently sell them to consumers.  The imagery is that the product is being "pushed" through the channel, since intermediaries will not buy the product unless they are given incentives.  On the other hand, a pull strategy is when the manufacturer stimulates consumer demand, so that consumers go to the retailer and demand the product.  The retailer, not wanting to lose a sale, then goes and demands the product from the wholesaler; who, in turn, then goes to the manufacturer and purchases the product. This strategy is based on consumer demand "pulling" the product through the distribution channel.

When executing our recruiting strategy at Western New England University, we use a combination of a push strategy and a pull strategy when trying to land recruits.  The reason for this is because each recruit is unique and different from another, so each strategy for landing a recruit must be customized or tailored in some sort of way.  Therefore, there are cases in which we pull for recruits and push for recruits.

For this example, we will look view Western New England University as the manufacturer and the Varsity Football Team as the product.  The recruits will serve as the consumers, and their high school coaches will serve as the channel intermediaries.

At the end of the high school football season, which is usually right after Thanksgiving weekend, college coaches begin going out and visiting high school seniors in school to inform them of their institutions and football programs, and establish a relationship with them to help motivate the rest of the recruiting process for the future.  Because of our budget and resources, we as coaches have to carefully plan our schedule and routes when visiting recruits in school.  This requires us to set up appointments through the school ahead of time, so we do not show up unannounced, which can generate a negative impression from teachers and administrators.  The way in which we usually do this is through contacting high school coaches as to what prospects could be a good fit for us, and when would be a good time to come in and meet with them.  This is a prime example of a push strategy.  We are pushing the high school coaches (the intermediaries) to allow us to come in and have them sell us to the potential consumers, or have us as coaches sit down and meet with their players.  Most of the time, many of the high school athletes, especially those out of the general vicinity, have never heard of Western New England University, so they are not demanding us until we come in and get a chance to meet with them, or expose them to our product.

There are cases in which we utilize a pull strategy as well.  Although most of the time we utilize a push strategy, the are times in which recruits demand that we come in and visit with them.  We spend a great deal of time building a database of potential recruits, and a wide-spread advertising plan to reach out to them via email, letters, post cards, phone calls, text messages, and social media techniques.  Sometimes, this generates enough interest amongst recruits that they mention us to their college coaches about potential schools in which they want to continue their academic and athletic careers.  From there, we will receive emails from high school coaches expressing interest for us to come in and visit their particular players because their is a demand for our product.  This is an example of a pull strategy because the manufacturer (WNE) stimulates consumer demand, so that consumers (high school recruits) go to the retailer (high school coaches) and demand the product.  The retailer, not wanting to lose a sale, then goes and demands the product (WNE Football).

Week 6 Blog Post

Last week, I stepped away from my traditional form of incorporating football into my blog post, mostly because last weeks prompts were difficult to tie into the subject, but also an attempt to mix it up.  This resulted in my first week ever not reaching the Blog of Fame, and being the competitor I am, it's time to get back on top.  To go along with what Drucker believes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it...improve it!

Pricing and Distribution Strategies in College Football

In this week's lecture, Professor Spotts touched upon the pricing strategies of college students, and how scholarships at the Division I level, academic scholarships, financial aid, and possible in-state tuition prices affect decisions when students decide on the school of their choice.  This is a similar issue when coaches go out recruiting athletes for the next year's class.

The luxury of being a Division 1-A (FBS) coach is that you have the most full-ride scholarships of any NCAA sport at any level (mostly because of the number of players on a football roster).  FBS Schools are allowed 25 full scholarships per year (no more than 85 players on a roster at one time with scholarships).  Obviously, as you decrease in division, the less athletic scholarships available, but schools are allowed to divide up their scholarships.  For example, if a school has 2 scholarships left, but 4 players they want to sign, they can essentially give each player a half-ride, or divide them up however they see fit.  FCS Schools (1-AA) are allowed 63 scholarships on a roster, and up to 30 can be awarded per year, Division II schools are allowed 36 scholarships to be distributed, and as we well know, Division III is not permitted to give out any athletic scholarships.     

Obviously, the ideal pricing strategy is to be an FBS School and have the ability to sign an entire recruiting class using full-ride scholarship offers.  It becomes more of a numbers game at the FCS and Div. II levels because you have the ability to divide up your money amongst your players.  Obviously, the higher up in division a team is, the more appealing their pricing strategy can be to their customers: high school recruits and their families.  At the Division III level, we do not have the ability to offer an EDLP strategy through full athletic scholarships, but a student can qualify for academic scholarships and financial aid, which affects us when we compete for a player who is also getting attention from schools at the FCS and Div. II level, especially since we are a private institution.  

This past year we actually were forced to change our pricing and distribution strategy in terms of recruiting.  The issue arose because we were told by the school that the more students we were able to recruit and bring in, the more funding we would get from the school.  So, since we did not have the ability to set prices for our players with the use of scholarships, we went out and attempted to utilize a Sales Oriented strategy to try to maximize the amount of customers (recruits) we could earn.  With the use of technology, these did not affect us when emailing or messaging recruits, since we have the ability to do that in mass amounts.  The problems laid in making phone calls, hosting visits, but mostly when scheduling high school visits.  Every year around the end of November through December, college coaches go out and visits recruits in school.  Since we have a limited budget in terms of the number of vehicles we can use and the amount we can spend on hotels and gas, we have to devise a plan to hit as many schools as possible.  Our head coach, who is in charge of recruiting Connecticut, which is where we get most of our team from, will literally visit every single school in the state during that time frame.  I on the other hand, had 10 days to visit as many schools in Long Island and New Jersey, and not being familiar with the area, it posed quite the challenge.  It was important to plan my visits around players that had shown a lot of interest in WNE, and that we were interested in, as well as visiting as many of the surrounding schools of these players so we could give our "sales pitch" to as many high school players in a face-to-face manner, and establish a relationship with them in 30 minutes of time.  

During the second week of December, we were informed that the school was no longer going to give us extra funding based on the number of students we brought in, so we had to change our distribution plan on the fly to a more Customer Oriented strategy.  We had to change our focus, not towards recruiting as many players as possible, but recruiting more quality players.  Again, since we had no scholarships to give, this created quite the challenge.  The new strategy was easier in the sense that we did not have to manage as many prospects and recruits, but difficult in terms of finding finding the players, evaluating them through film study and interviews with players and coaches that have worked with them and against them, and trying to land them.  

Some of the time, when recruiting players, we have to implement a Competitor Oriented Strategy as well.  We compete against Slave Regina University and Endicott College for a lot of our players, as we are very similar in what we have to offer academically and have been at the top of the conference the past few years.  I am curious as to whether or not other organizations go through the amount of changes we have to make in terms of pricing and distributing strategies when it comes to our recruiting plan.  Just 2 weeks ago, we finally decided on our roster for next season's preseason camp, and we will find out how effective our strategy was in terms of the number of wins and losses we will compile.

Nike Football Advertising Campaign

When looking at different advertising campaigns, Nike is definitely at the top when it comes to marketing, as they always seem to be the innovators of their industry and one step ahead of the competition.  For instance, check out the link below:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid390534381001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAEN5stVk~,ClMjWCb9_K5TNwUlFmPqOHtxZRnEI9ww&bctid=2325128950001

Nike produces a buzz about their products, even before they are available to the consumer.  The Calvin Johnson line was not made available until this weekend, but has been running campaigns for the product line well before its introduction, and well before football season.

Nike is so far ahead, that it forces its competitors to try to keep up, even if the are not ready to, as seen in this ad by under armor.  UA claims to be innovating, but hasn't produced yet.

Week 5 Blog Post

Target & Neiman Marcus: A for effort, F for...failure.

As seen in our reading, "The Slippery Slope of Brand Extension," there are cases when high priced, luxury brands, team up with non-luxury, inexpensive brands in an attempt at brand extension.  In any case, the larger risk lies on the luxury brand, as thee is a fine line between the company extending its brand into the affordability market, and losing the luxury-ness of the brand.      

"Collaborations between luxury and non-luxury brands are risky for the luxury partner. They can attract nega- tive attention, disappoint existing customers, damage the luxury brand’s image and lower the Luxury Brand Status Index, thus diluting the luxury brand if that brand’s customers perceive the collaboration’s results as inappropri- ate for the brand. When the product of such collaboration is finally introduced to the market, the resulting product’s luxury status depends on whether or not the product has kept the luxury facets, such as outstanding quality, unique- ness, scarcity, exclusive distribution, carefully selected points of sale, high price, history and heritage" (Stankeviciute, 2011).

The purpose of downward luxury brand extensions is to help attract customers that are currently not considering a specific luxury brand.  There have successful cases in which collaborations between luxury and non-luxury brands: Jimmy Choo and Hunter, Rolls-Royce's introduction of it's Ghost model, and Armani's "lifestyle brands".  Obviously, the purpose of Neiman Marcus collaborating with Target was an attempt at tapping into a new market and providing more affordable luxury products through Target.  Also, Target was looking to set themselves apart in their market, by providing luxury products at more affordable prices to its consumers.  While it was a valid effort, it was an epic fail, as detailed in the article below.  The quality of the products was not near the standards of what Neiman Marcus was traditionally known for, and the pricing of the product line was too high, both for the target market and the quality of the product produced.     

Epic Retail Fail: Where Did the Target + Neiman Marcus Collection Go Wrong?

Deadly Sin #1: Seeking High Profit Margins and Premium Pricing

This week in class, we looked at whether or not it is beneficial to charge a premium for products.  Drucker lists premium pricing as his first of The Five Deadliest Marketing Sins.  But what about luxury brands such as Apple, Rolls Royce, and Gucci?  How can they charge such a high premium for their products and still be successful in their markets?

Premium pricing is defined as the "practice in which a product is sold at a higher price than that of competing brands to give it snob appeal through an aura of 'exclusivity'".  Drucker's two prime examples are of Xerox and the entire American automobile industry, both of which were the innovators of their specific markets, but ended up losing the market share to Japanese companies.  Based on Drucker's examples, his definition of premium pricing did not refer to high pricing as a result of a better product, but instead the addition of add-ons or an increase in size to allow increased profits.

So, when we look at luxury brands and their premium pricing strategies, we should realize that the pricing is not based on all the bells and whistles in which the product might possess, but the actual quality of the product.  For example, when looking at the market for laptops, Apple charges a premium price for its MacBook line of products, which is considerably higher than their competitors.  The reason for the higher price is not because it has different capabilities than its competitors (as most laptops now offer similar products with similar services), but because of the quality of the product.  Apple is known for their high quality products that last, and a high level of customer service.  This is what the customer is paying for, not for add-ons or bells and whistles.

Remembers, total profit is margin multiplied by sales, so successful marketers should be seeking optimal profit margins that combine with sales over time to equal maximum profits.  When understanding Drucker's first sin, we must realize that not only would the quest for high profit margins ultimately fail, but that it could result in the loss of the entire market to a competitor.

PHARMASIM

Classifying each line extension for Allround

Once we reach Period #4 in Pharmasim, we have the option of introducing a line extension to Allround+.  Our options for the brand extension include a 4 hour children's cold liquid, 12 hour multi. capsule, and 4 hour cough liquid.  Before we can classify each line extension, we must define our current market.  Allround is an over-the-counter cold medicine produced by Allstar Brands.  Now we can classify each line extension according to the chart above.  

4 hour Children's Cold Liquid: Choosing to introduce a children's cold liquid would be an example of Market Development.  Because we already define ourselves as an OTC cold medicine, a children's cold medicine would be essential an existing product, but would allow us to enter into a new market, therefor creating a niche product.  This product does have the potential to create cannibalization, as we are already defined as an OTC cold medicine, and introducing another cold medicine could interfere with our existing sales.  

12 hour Multi. Capsule: Choosing to introduce a 12 hour multi. capsule would be an example of Market Penetration.  Since we already define Allround as an OTC cold medicine, a 12 hour multi. capsule would essentially be the same product, just in a different form (capsule instead of liquid).  This would be an example of an existing product entering into an existing market, and would have the highest potential for cannibalization because, as mentioned before, it is essentially the same product as Allround, just in capsule form.

4 hour Cough Liquid: Choosing to introduce a 4 hour cough liquid would be an example of Product Development.  Because we classify ourselves as an OTC cold medicine, a cough liquid would be an example of a new product, but in an existing market.  Allround is already being used as a cough remedy by our consumers (as seen in the Brands Purchased Report), even though its specific intention is for cold relief.  Because of this, a cough liquid has the potential for cannibalization as well, since Allround is already being utilized for cough relief.  

Market Demand

Next, it is important to look at the market demand for each of the line extensions offered for Allround+. In order to do so, we should consult the Brands Purchased Report and Decision Criteria Report.

Brands Purchased Report

Above is the Brands Purchased Report for Allround.  It shows the Total Market Units Purchased (541.4 mil.) and Allround Units Purchased (116.1).  Below this information, there is "Pct. of Market", "Brand Share", and "Pct. of Brand".  Each is categorized by Cold, Cough, and Allergy.  So, out of the entire 541.4 mil. units purchased in the market, 73.9% was for cold relief, 14.9% was for cough relief, and 11.2% for for allergy relief.  Next, we can see that out of the 541.4 units purchased in the market, Allround accounted for 21.7% of cold purchases, 35.3% of cough purchases, and 1.4% of allergy purchases.  Lastly, of the 116.1 mil. units of Allround purchased, 78.4% was for cold remedy, 24.4% for cough remedy, and 0.7% for allergy remedy.

When looking at the decision criteria reports, the above shows a cross section of young families seeking cold relief, which would help determine the effectiveness of a 4 hour children's cold liquid, since young families are the dominant market for purchasing such a product.  When researching information for introducing a 4 hour cough liquid, we would take a cross section of consumers seeking cough remedies, which is pictured below.

Week 4 Blog Post

Evaluating WNE Football's Marketing Strategy to Recruits

The task of evaluating our marketing strategy to our recruits is similar to the scenario briefly touched upon by Professor Spotts in his lecture, regarding the process of high school students deciding on a future school and depositing.  Obviously, the scenario is the same for us, but a lot more factors are involved.

What is unique about our marketing process is that we have direct contact and feedback with our potential customers.  While we do receive a handful of customers (players) that we have had no previous contact with, the majority of next-season's incoming freshmen were recruited by our staff, which entailed numerous emails, letters, post cards, phone calls, text messages, and personal visits to their school and at WNE.  During the recruiting process, we make sure to receive direct feedback from the recruits regarding our process and the processes of our competitors.  For example, we will ask which means of communication each recruit prefers and, usually towards the end of the process, which tactics worked best for them, and which had a negative effect on them.  We will even go as far to survey them as to what other schools are doing to successfully recruit.  For example, at the Division III level, it is impossible to really offer a student anything extra in terms of scholarship money.  Students have to make their decision based on a school's scholastic programs, football program, proximity to home, appearance, financial package, etc.  In surveying our recruits, we found that other schools were offering guaranteed roster spots for camp to those recruits who decided to commit early on in the process.  We decided to experiment with it, and found it to be less useful than we hoped for.

The only critique I can make with our marketing process to recruits is that we do not stay ahead of the curve in terms of what techniques our competitors are utilizing.  Much like the example above, we spend a lot of time surveying recruits as to what others are doing, and try to emulate the successful techniques.  I think it would be more beneficial to research more into what is appealing to the high school demographic now-a-days, and come up with a technique on our own that has not been utilized.  I believe we would benefit in our recruiting classes if we stayed ahead of our competitors in terms of our innovativeness when it comes to recruiting, instead of copying what is already being implemented.

I would be interested to investigate whether or not we could utilize hard numbers in some sort of regression analysis, cluster analysis, tabular analysis, etc.  I think it would be interesting to see a market report in terms of recruiting college football players, and to get specific demographics on where the best athletes come from and what types of characteristics they possess.  This could be an interesting new field of research to look into, because as far as I know it is not easily accessible.    

PHARMASIM

The two prices I selected to test the market were $4.89 and $5.38.  The baseline price in which it was compared to was $5.29.  My results were as follows:

$4.89 -  Awareness stayed the same (78.6%), unit market share rose (22% to 23.7%) and share of manufacturer's sales rose (22.4% to 22.7%).  Net contribution impact: -13.4 mil

$5.38 - Awareness stayed the same (78.6%), unit market share dropped (22% to 21.7%) and share of manufacturer's sales stayed the same (22.4%).  Net contribution impact: 3.4 mil

For the next test, I analyzed Bundle #4 ($4.89, drop alcohol) and Bundle #12 ($5.38, Allround original).  My results were as follows:

Bundle #4 ($4.89 drop alcohol) - Stock price rose to $49.39, sales 112.1 mil, market share 22.4% (36.3% for cold remedy market)

Bundle #12 ($5.38 Allround original) - Stock price dropped to $37.20, sales 115.2 mil, market share 21.4% (35% for cold remedy market)

In terms of testing just for price, I expected the market share and manufacturer's share to rise, but was not expecting the net contribution to drop, especially as much as it did when testing the unit price of $4.89.  Conversely,  when testing the price of $5.38, I expected the market share and manufacturer's sale to decrease, but only the market share did.  Due to these results, I did not expect the net contribution impact to be positive.

When analyzing the test for the Bundles, I expected #4's results to be better than #12's results, which they were in every category except sales.  This is interesting to see that when you raise the price, which is less favorable to customers, that sales rose higher than that of the lesser price, but then see a less favorable stock price due to this.  This surprises me.

Dilbert and the Mar.ke.tin.g Blog

This week I chose to look at David and Marty's blogs.  I like how David uses the Dilbert Comics to bring a sense of humor towards the subject of marketing, and does an impressive job of relating it to the current topic as well.  I definitely do not possess the humor he displays in his writing, so it is entertaining for me when viewing his blog.  All jokes, or comics, aside, he does a great job of engaging the reader and getting them to think deeper into his topics.  He does a thorough job explaining his findings, especially with the Pharmasim tasks and explaining his reasoning behind his findings, which is great to see another perspective into the assignments.   Marty is also very thorough with his explanations as well.  I also like how he develops all of his ideas, first by giving his initial impressions on a topic, and then proceeds to talk through how he learned more about a given subject, and then describes his new impressions with evidence to back it up.  Both are very engaged in the class discussions, and do a great job of carrying it into their blogs, as it makes them easy to read and very insightful.

My Process of Purchasing Cold Remedies

Unfortunately, I no longer live at home and have the luxury of rummaging through Mom's medicine cabinet whenever a cold takes over my body.  Being a starving graduate assistant coach, I usually consult whatever the school store has on display, since part of my stipend is points/meals, just as the students utilize.  In this case, I will usually choose whatever works best, since it is essentially free for me.  The selection at the WNE convenience store does not always have what you need though, so my process changes when searching for cold remedies at your traditional CVS, Walgreens, etc.  I usually search for a name brand remedy, and if the price is reasonable, I try and get  a reputable brand name item, such as Advil or Tylenol.  Depending on how steep the price is, or how light my wallet is at the moment, I then search for the generic brand, as they are essentially the same product, just without the brand name.  Finally, I'll look for a sale on any of the items.  To be honest, and fortunate, I do not take much medication or consult a doctor very often, and usually try to battle through whatever sickness I endure.  In the rare case where I am deathly ill, or feel the need to consume medicine, I'll call home to consult with Dr. Mom or Dr. Grandma first, then search for the strongest thing I can find.

K-Mart Advertisement

This advertisement has created quite a stir on the internet, and will be released for cable television soon (after 9 pm to protect it from younger audiences).  It is an interesting (and funny) play on words, and very intriguing that a company like K-Mart would utilize it.  Very effective in my opinion.  

Week 3 Post

This week we will look into how college football programs utilize competitive analysis in their everyday operations.  Before we jump into this, we must define two different scenarios in which college football programs operate.  The first scenario is performance, which refers to the on-field output of a team (ex. wins and losses).  The second scenario is recruiting.  Each scenario has its own specific customers.  In the performance scenario, the customers are the current players, while in the recruiting scenario, high school prospects are the customers.

Direct vs. Indirect Competitors

When considering performance operations for the Western New England University Football Team, our direct competitors are those teams on our schedule for a particular season.  Usually, our schedule consists of 7 conference games, and 3 out-of-conference games.  Therefore, all of the teams competing within our conference (which are pictured in the above image) are direct competitors of WNE Football.

Our indirect competitors regarding performance consists of all of the other NCAA Division III teams throughout the country (with the exception of the 3 on our current schedule).  These teams are defined as our indirect competitors because while we do not have to face them during the regular season, they factor into our regional and national rankings throughout the season, and considering we reach the NCAA Div. III Playoffs, we would have to face a team that we had not previously accounted for during the regular season.  In terms of performance, we limit our indirect competitors to Div. III teams because under no scenario would we ever have to face a team in a higher division.

When it comes to recruiting, our direct and indirect competitors differ.  Our direct competitors are all schools, with football programs, located within and around the Northeast section of the United States, with similar programs of study, with the exception of Football Bowl Subdivision schools (formally known as Div. 1A).  With the exception of FBS schools due to the fact that their budgets are higher and they have the ability to recruit nationally and offer the most full-academic scholarships, the division or conference of the schools does not matter because we all compete for the same type of prospects within the same area.  To put it simply, most schools located within the region recruit athletes in the same region.  We consider schools with similar programs of study as our direct competitors because we target high school prospects interested in the degrees of study we provide.

For recruiting purposes, we consider all FBS schools and schools that do not have our programs of study as our indirect competitors.  As mentioned before, we do not have the budgeting and scholarship capabilities as the FBS schools, as they usually recruit out of area, or go after the athletes that are too talented to play at the Div. III level.  We consider all local schools with different programs of study to be indirect competitors.  For example, WNE is known for its Business and Engineering programs of study, while Springfield College (which is very close in location) is known for its Physical Education and Exercise Science programs.  While the two schools are located very close to each other, if a prospect is interested in Exercise Science, WNE does not consider this prospect to be a targeted consumer because WNE does not offer Exercise Science.  Conversely, if a student is interested in Business, Springfield College does not consider the prospect because they do not offer the program.

Managing a Competitive Strategy in College Football

After reviewing "The Hypnotic Danger of Competitive Analysis", I realized that there is a fine line between an organization focusing too much on its competitors, and not enough on its customers.  The author of  suggests that a competitive analysis is not the basis or "cornerstone" for competitive strategy. When analyzing college football programs (specifically in terms of performance, where there is more of an emphasis on competitive analysis), I believe that there needs to be a balance between competitive analysis and focus on your consumer needs.

A typical weekly schedule for our coaching staff is as follows:
Sunday: Review the game film from the previous week of our own team, present the findings to our players, and introduce our opponent for the current week.
Monday: Compile all data from our competitor analysis and create a scouting report and game plan for the current opponent.
Tuesday: Present the scouting report/game plan to our players, introduce new schemes and depth chart adjustments for the week; Plan practice; Practice.
Wednesday: Review practice film from the night before, correct mistakes, present to players; Adjust game plan accordingly; Review opponent film with players; Plan practice; Practice.
Thursday: Review practice film from the night before, correct mistakes, present to players; Review opponent film with players; Plan practice; Practice; Begin breakdown of the opponent for the following week.
Friday: Review practice film from the night before, correct mistakes, present to players; Review opponent film with players; Plan practice; Practice; Continue breakdown of the opponent for the following week.
Saturday: Gameday; Review game film; begin correcting mistakes; Finish breakdown of next opponent.
Sunday: See above...
(Also factored into the in-seaon schedule is recruiting, but it is omitted above since we are just looking at performance operations)

As you can see from the above schedule, there is a strong emphasis on competitor analysis.  Sometimes I feel like there can be an over-emphasis on it at times.  There are times in which the players need more attention and it is more important to develop them instead of focusing on analyzing the upcoming competition.  If there is not a balance of the two, your team will falter because of it.  If you put too much emphasis on breaking down the opponent, your players will not as ready as they should be to play the game.  Consequently, if you focus too much on developing your players, you will be caught off guard on game day because your team will not know what to expect from the opponent, and will not be put in the best positions to succeed.  It is difficult, especially at the Div. II level, to have that balance between competition and consumers.  If we had ideal conditions and a larger budget, I would recommend that specific teams be incorporated to handle each specific task, meaning develop a team for the competitor analysis, and a team for developing players.  Obviously, the two teams must work together and be a cohesive, interdependent unit, but this would allow for the players and the competitive analysis to get the required attention.  Since most programs, other than the FBS schools, do not have this budget, I would recommend that a daily schedule be put in place for coaches, in which half of the day they focus on competitive analysis, and the other half focused towards player development.  This schedule can be flexible depending on the progress of your players and the opponent you are facing, but for the most part the scheduled time towards each task should remain equal.

Ethics when Considering Competitive Analysis in College Football 

Like with any organization, I believe you should obtain your information for your competitive analysis in an ethical way.  Any information that can be found publicly is acceptable.  With the advancement in technology, teams can exchange films with a clock of a button and share information with one-another very easily.  It is considered acceptable in the football world to even obtain film from another team that has played an opponent of yours, some tradeoff is usually utilized in this case.

Ethics come into play regarding private information about another team, or any other organization in general.  Any information that is not intended for your eyes should not be sought out.  Also, especially in the sport of football and the fast that opposing players know each other, it is important to be able to sort through all of the information and rumors that can be swirling around. Personally, I like to live by the saying: "Believe half of what you see, and nothing that you hear."  Players will tell us information that they hear opposing players they know.  We have to realize that all of this information could be false and just an attempt to throw us off, so it is safer to utilize the information you can ethically obtain and prepare your team accordingly.

Pharmasim Observations

"263.9 million people live in Pharmasim World"

It is important for any organization to create a market definition.  In this case, Allstar competes within the cold and allergy relief market.  In my personal opinion, I am finding it difficult to sort through all of the information on the Pharmasim Simulation, and being the perfectionist that I am, I keep progressing throughout the periods and restarting them because I don't like where my stock price is at.  I guess I have to learn that all markets and companies are not perfect, and they go through their ups and downs, whether I like it or not. That being said, I am not certain as to where to find the information regarding market potential.

To help control the ups and downs, it is important to consult and understand the various research reports available to you.  The one I decided to look at this week was "Sales Force $", since I personally feel like I do not put enough attention towards this when making decisions.  I like the fact that it compares Allstar to its direct competitors, so you can directly compare yourself and see how you stack up against the competition in terms of how much they are allocating to each specific sales force.  Also, the graphs make it easier to see your progress and the trends of your own company, as well as your competitors.  This information could help me in the future so I can start to model my company around those who are already encountering success within their ales force.  I understand that I can not automatically adapt their philosophies, and that I still have to tailor my plan towards the current and future status of the market, but it will help me know where to start allocating funds little by little to help aid in the effectiveness of Allstar's sales force.