Relationship Marketing: A look at Leicester Tigers Relationship strategies

by andydolby20

The aim of Leicester tigers Rugby football club is to build a brand community and an integral part of this focuses the value adding components of building a relationship with the consumer. As Leicester tigers are a non-tangible product they are selling entertainment and you cannot take the game home with you, so they focus on non-physical value adding as much as having as the sport itself as a standalone product. As their product isn’t a tangible resource and cannot be added to or changed and is based passion relationship. This is a way to keep the consumer interested and interacting with the business and building the brand community. Their aim is to build the social and entertainment value of the brand to create a community aspect to it. This is crucial as Leicester tigers are operating within a sporting niche of rugby union which is not a dominant brand within the UK market.

Value adding is “an activity that adds value in the eyes of the customer” (Robert S. Kaplan. 1998et-al, 158) which means Value must be added in different ways but must add value, tangible or intangible to the service using different methods and outlets such as the use of social media to keep in contact and keep consumers who associate and have an interest in Leicester tiger’s brand.
You can break down value adding processes into different component’s such as social media, community rules, advocacy, sharing stories and news and events. The aim is to build a brand on co- creation
Leicester tigers also utilise CRM (customer relationship management) with in their marketing programmes. This is so that they can efficiently use the data they collect through different aspects of their relationship marketing strategies in an efficient and effective manner. This is information can be gathered from individual customers preferences to their preferences as a whole brand community.
Co-creation and customization
Leicester tigers use customisation and co creation on many value adding products such as adding names to replica T-shirts and other merchandise and are always encouraged to enter their own ideas and feelings toward team performances as this will have an effect on how their performance in matches as this is Leicester tiger’s primary service.

According to grant Leboff co-creation is “one of the most effective ways for a business to supply a personalised experience and provide value is by co-creating with customers” (grant Leboff, 2011, 154) and Leicester tigers try to take advantage of this by building different contract points and ways of building a relationship with their consumer. Such involving the players in as much time with their fans as possible with meet and greets, meals and competitions. Leicester tigers also need to listen to suggestions posted by fans on their website fans forum where they have a dedicated section for fans to give feedback on the services they offer as well. The three stages of the Sand Cone Model (appendix 1) (An empirical model of the relationships between manufacturing capabilities
By Ferdows and de Meyer) help to explain co-creation, the bottom level and first point is the foundation of the service and is what is expected, such as fans requested bigger burgers at the concession stand, the next level is customer centred which is what differentiates this with other products, where the new product is made around the consumers requested specifications, this is then value added, this adds to the value of the match day experience as it gives the fans more choice and they feel more involved in the club.

Social media
Social networking has become a key way of building a relationship with their consumers and the creation of a brand community as this gives the fans a direct way of contacting the business and is a more effective and instantaneous if a fan has an inquiry or complaint. They need to use networking sites such as Facebook and twitter to more easily communicate not just directly with consumers but also keep the brand community in general up to date with latest news and information that is released by the club. Social networking helps create a sense of trust and belonging to the Leicester tiger’s brand, which in turn adds value to the consumer’s experience.
Social media also gives the brand community the ability to make comments and voice concerns on the business and how it performing. They use social media to share other forms of media as well such as videos, blogs, photos and news stories that might interest the brand community. Social media also gives a more up to date indication of the current opinions of your brand communities and general fans and allows you to monitor and make more accurate changes to their business model.

Community rules
communicating with a brand community as defined by Tamar Weinberg “each product and service is different, each online community is different, by communicating with the right group of people online and then revising your strategy as needed by feedback, you will likely see some incredibly valuable results that will help you sell your product” (Tamar Weinberg,2009,8) in which case Leicester tigers have their own place to do this on their message boards and their own set of social rules to go with their community so that this concept is universal for every potential consumer member. The creation of community rules not only creates a sense of safety and security but also gives people a code of conduct and what they need to be in order to fit in with the community. Leicester tigers do this not just online but they start at an early age from the Junior tigers club for young people all the way up to members clubs and season ticket holders.

Advocacy
Leicester tigers need to build and protect their brand image; this can be done by protecting their “family values” approach to business and making match day atmosphere a friendlier place for the family so they feel free to bring young people and potential future long-term consumers and brand community members to the Leicester tiger’s brand. This gives them a recognition that some other brands in the market won’t have because tigers have already advocated and built up a relationship with those consumers. And as sport is a passion based relationship this is harder to replace by any others.

Sharing stories
Leicester tigers have a specialised message boards for each area three different areas of the Leicester tigers brand, the fans forum which is for all things tigers brand related and for fans who want to make general comments for other brand consumers to read and also that the business can read to get a gauge of what the fans think of the entertainment service product and how that is performing and also all other areas of the business. The second is general chatting, which is everything non rugby related, and finally the technical forum which is feedback for the website and all other technology based tigers products such as phone apps. Not only can you share stories on the website but other social media outlets such as Facebook.

News and events
Leicester tigers use their main website and other news agencies such as the Leicester mercury to release latest information on news of the business and the upcoming events such as game results, competition results, charity fund raising and other news that would be of interest to the brand community. They also use social media to release official tigers news but also employees of the business such as players can release their own news through social media such as Facebook and particularly Twitter.