How is your soccer tournament like Apple?

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This week, the Washington Post published an article on Apple, it’s new product line and how it is kicking butt all over the computer world despite being in a recession. In the article, it concedes that Apple’s success are not merely driven by Apple fanatics who will buy anything Apple makes, but by a sound, well-thought out value strategy.

Quite simply, Apple produces a quality product and makes no compromises on design and user interface. They set the price high enough to generate a profit to ensure research and development dollars for future products and don’t apologize for it nor do they adjust it based on whether or not we are in a recession. Their products don’t appeal to everyone, but the audience to which they appeal are loyal and expect quality; first time, every time.

And they are onto something. As the average PC maker continues to be squeezed by their customers who shop on price, they have fewer and fewer dollars left to innovate and improve. When a recession happens, many low-cost producers simply go out of business because they can’t afford to weather the storm. They did not prepare.

Is your soccer tournament an Apple or a PC? Is your fee/vendor/sponsorship agreements set high enough to claim value and ensure enough profitability to assure your guest teams that you will be around next year? Or in some cases, even this year? Do you take care of your guest teams enough to justify your fees?

Our advice: Set your team fees high enough to make sure there is enough profit to operate at a high-quality level. Don’t cave to arguments of teams not being able to afford your tournament. You are providing quality soccer competition and entertainment at a fair price that reflects your value. If some teams have problems affording you but have pegged your tournament as a “must attend” event, then perhaps they need to make cost-cuts elsewhere.

And don’t compromise your vendor relationships — including hotels and concessions — to make your tournament more affordable to guest teams. Don’t undervalue your volunteers and staff by cutting perks. Don’t buy cheaper awards. Don’t compromise your marketing.

And don’t cave to scheduling demands that compromises revenue. If that means shrinking the number of teams you accept in order to maintain your quality and profitability goals, then do it. If you are profitable, you can always grow in stronger economic years.

Your ultimate goal is to build a soccer tournament event that is sustainable and will benefit your soccer organization and your local community over a long period of time. Making price deals just to satisfy short-term team counts does not contribute to that goal.

Is price the only issue here?

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I was going to write a long, complicated blog post about price and value. But, then I ran across this video and it said it better than I ever could.

I especially like the comment the woman in the beauty shop says. “I can cover your hard costs…” Sounds suspiciously like, “I can cover the referee costs, but I can’t pay the entire entry fee.”

But I’m just a volunteer with a day job

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Sometimes coaches and team pound on tournament directors to do this, do that, tell me this, tell me that, etc, etc. It kinda comes with the territory running a soccer tournament. And every so often, especially when you come home from your day job after a particularly long day, and you are reading these emails, you are tempted to quip back something like:

“I’m just a volunteer with a day job and I can’t be expected to answer all your emails and phone calls 24/7 at your beck and call.”

And that’s when you should step back, NOT send the email and take a deep breath. It is not a good idea and will backfire because the coach or team rep who is asking you questions is probably also a volunteer and they are spending their lunch hours, evening, weekends and holidays to manage their team as well.

The only difference between your volunteer efforts and theirs is they are PAYING your organization to play in a tournament. They are the customer, regardless of whether you are volunteering your time or not. In this relationship, you don’t have the luxury of ignoring their needs simply because you are volunteering your time, energy and expertise organizing a tournament.

There are limits, like not being expected to take a phone call at 3:00am, but mostly managing a soccer organization is a night, weekend and holiday job. Plan for it.

Our Advice: Set support hours and communication channels and publish them clearly. If you can only be available by phone between 6:00pm-10pm M-F and 9:00am-11:am S/S, say so! Publish the hours on your home page, in your about section and in your FAQs. Make the hours part of your email footer. If you prefer email and can respond faster that way, say so!

Most communication issues can be solved by setting clear expectation from the start and following through with them. There will always be emergencies and these should be responded to appropriately, but make sure they are real emergencies. If they turn out to be routine issues that could have been handled through your published channels, don’t be afraid to remind the coach/team rep about this. Some coaches will always see their issues as emergencies. Be sure to not enable that by being firm.

But never fall back on the “I’m just a volunteer” excuse. It never works.

Compliments

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I love compliments. I can be having the crappiest day, have three dozen people all ticked off at me for something I probably didn’t do and then I get something like this and it all doesn’t matter.

Just wanted to tell you that your tournament website is great – one of the best I’ve seen. Everything I need as a parent of a player. Thanks.

The person who sent this (about 2 minutes ago) didn’t need to. We all know it is easier (and more fun?) to complain than to take a few minutes and drop someone a quick email letting them know they are doing something well. But, it makes such a huge difference! (Thank you parent of a Mead Cup player. If you are reading this, you already know who you are.)

Our Advice: Don’t let the people with bad attitude, axes to grind or complaints get you down. Most likely, they are in the minority and they are just louder. If you are doing a good job, nobody will probably tell you. If you are doing an exceptional job, maybe one person will tell you. Maybe. It only takes one to lift up your day.

The audience you are not getting because you are focused on your own niche

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Here is the ugly truth about American soccer. It is something kids DO, not who they are. Yet many soccer clubs and tournaments focus their marketing and message around the assumption that soccer is central to the players lives and that everything else is ancillary or inconsequential.

The ASAE (American Society of Association Executives) produced the video below for their annual meeting just this past weekend. (It runs a little long, the movie beats you up a little with the message, but pay attention to the subtitles. They are really small, but perhaps the most important part of the whole piece.)

I get it; trade associations connect people together and that was the obvious point. But, the not so obvious point is that all these people who are working at trade associations during the day are spending their nights and weekends with their true passion; music.

We have seen this kind of thing before, but usually the talent is mediocre. But, these folks are darn good! The ASAE not only had the criterion of involving their members, but that the member had to have a high level of skill, proficiency and passion. Brilliant!

What does a harmonica have to do with biodiesel? Nothing except for Joe Jobe. Or a guitar with concrete or paint? For Joe Vickers and Phil Bour, the combination make perfect sense. Railroads and drum kits? Michael Fore makes it work. He probably taps out routines on his desk, driving his co-workers crazy. And there is no hiding the rapture Mike Skiados (ASAE) feels when he plays his guitar.

The Disney movie High School Musical (HSM) was a similar deafening intervention cry from kids, yet few adults paid attention to the underlying message, mostly dismissing it as bubble-gum entertainment. But the kids got it and that is what made the movie “stick.”

Social Media like Facebook gets this concept by allowing members to establish a core identity and then add interests and groups to them. More specialized sites like Meet the Boss, various Ning sites and sites like WePlay.com don’t. Neither do “gardens of brands” like Skittles or Ford. In their world, there is no room for “other interests” and no way to connect the person with them. (As an aside, the WSJ had an interesting article on fans. Worth a read… after you are done with this post and have commented/tweeted, of course.)

Anyone who doesn’t know me is surprised that among my passionate interests are newspapers, old typewriters, literature, photography, coffee, typography, dogs and harmonicas. Computers and soccer come in almost last on the list. Internet is the way I make a living and it is imperative I am knowledgeable and skilled in it, but it is not my passion. In their world, I develop Web-based properties therefore I must be a geek and only care about the latest technology. Sorry. Technology is a tool; no more, no less.

For sports organizations, the random connections that social media reveals is like gold. How many times have you approached a large brand for a sponsorship and gotten, “What does our brand/product have to do with soccer?” If you dig deeper into the social media networks like Facebook, you may well have a stronger answer. Your model is HSM and the ASAE video.

Our advice: Find the connections. The more random and strange, the better. Watch the touchlines and the space between games more intently than the games themselves at your next tournament. What are the kids doing? What are their parents doing? How many questions do your get about a particular topic? Why? Ask questions, observe behaviors. Your next sponsor may be in the non-soccer parts of the game that your sponsor’s target audience is most passionate about.

Note: This post was originally intended for just TourneyCentral, but because the medium here is also the message, we posted this on almost every brand we own. Dogs and soccer? Coffee and soccer? Marketing and soccer? Yeah, it all fits when you start looking hard enough. And, thank you Cindy Butts for the inspiration.