Stakeholder Relationships And Communications: A Report For AELTC

Part A: Stakeholder analysis

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship is internationally famous tennis championship that takes place in London of Wimbledon. This particular tennis event generally holds on last week of June or July first. In this specific year, this particular event will take place from 3^rd July to 16^th July of 2017. Around 500,000 spectators directly view this tournament from the gallery. On the other hand, millions of television viewers all over the World tend to enjoy this championship every year (wimbledon.com 2017).

All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Limited is the prime organizer of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship tournament. Every year this particular association organizes this even in order to gain huge amount of revenue as well as business image and reputation (croquet.org.uk 2017). People from different geographical market are the target customers based on which AELTC tends to make their marketing strategy and policy to grab customers’ attention. Before promoting the event in the international market AELTC intends to conduct an effective stakeholder analysis. Based on the selected stakeholders the marketing plans and policies are evaluated.

The overarching term stakeholder defines the individual or group of individuals who are internally or externally involved within the business process of an organization (Chevalier 2016). AELTC in order to evaluate the stakeholders have divided the category of stakeholders into two groups. The tennis players, the organizers, the managers are considered as internal stakeholder. On the other hand, external stakeholder includes spectators of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship, sponsors of this events, owner of the stadiums, transport facilitators and so on.  In order to make a championship successful in the international market, the importance of both internal and external stakeholders is undeniable. Marketing executives and the organizers of AELTC have to play a major role in order to promote the entire event so that global viewers show their interest to view the event directly from the gallery (Lienert, Schnetzer and Ingold 2013). The players of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship have to take a major responsibility in entertaining the spectators. As a result, the television channels would spread their hand to broadcast the event in their channels. Therefore, before promoting the entire events the organizers of AELTC have to make an effective stakeholder analysis in order to prepare the event plan and policies.

Stakeholders of Wimbledon championships can be classified into two primary groups that include direct and indirect stakeholders.

• Direct stakeholders:

The players of Wimbledon championships, the organizers of AELTC, marketing managers, operational managers of AELTC can be considered under the category of direct stakeholder. The success of an entire championship event is highly dependent on the payers who entertain the millions of viewers by showing their talents (Maguire, Potts and Fletcher 2012).  At the same time, the entire event would become fail if the organizers cannot arrange the stadium, location and entire decoration from the spectators. In order to reach the event in the global market the role of marketing and operation managers of AELTC is undeniable (Elgin and Weible 2013). Especially the marketing managers have to make the business plan in such a way that people from various geographical corners tend to show their interest in purchasing tickets for Wimbledon championships.

• Indirect stakeholder:

Part B: Relationship marketing

On the other hand, consumers are the indirect stakeholders for Wimbledon championships event. It is undeniable that consumers do not have to directly participate within the entertainment event. At the same time, without the participation of viewers the entire purpose of organizing the sports event becomes failure (Gilson et al.2012). Therefore, consumers are the most significant participants for making Wimbledon championships successful. Besides, in order to maintain an effective promotional activity, AELTC has to invest large amount of money. Sponsors thus are the most significant stakeholders without the help of whom the association like AELTC fails to promote their brands in different geographical corners.

Project matrix is the systematic tool in order to categorize the stakeholders as per their power and level of interest. The power matrix is primarily classified into four quadrants that include:

• Quadrant A: Keep Informed (Low power high interest stakeholder)

The organizers of AELTC who are working under a management can be considered under keep informed stakeholders. Those specific organizers have to follow the instruction of business authority (Missonier and Loufrani-Fedida 2014). Therefore, their power is low. At the same time, it is undeniable that with the strong efforts of those organizers the entire effort of business event would fail to be successful. Therefore, the level of interest of those stakeholders would be high.

• Quadrant B: Monitor (Low power low interest stakeholder)

Business development managers can be categorized under monitor. After establishing the entire business association the business development managers have no function in organizing the entire event (Yang 2014). Therefore, the development manager of AELTC is considered as Quadrant B who is having low power along with low interest in making the entire business event successful. The group of stakeholders tends to change as per the business purpose. In order to organize an event all over the World, the business development manager does not have enough function to promote the entire business process in the global market. From this perspective the business development managers can be considered in Quadrant B.

• Quadrant C: Keep Satisfied (High power low interest stakeholder)

In order to reach a particular brand in the international market a large number of indirect stakeholders have to be involved who have not any direct relation with the event. AELTC while promoting their sports events gets the help of several trusties who have contributed certain amount of money for progressing the financial resource of AELTC. Those kinds of stakeholders while contributing certain amount of money do not focus on their business promotion like professional sponsors (Hernández-Jover et al. 2014). As a result, these stakeholders can be considered under “keep satisfied group”. By providing sufficient amount of money the trusties show their high power. At the same time, it is undeniable that if AELTC fail to gain viewers’ popularity the role of those trusties is very limited. They tend to show minimum level of interest in gaining the organizational image and reputation of AELTC.  

• Quadrant D: Manage Closely (High power high interest stakeholder)

Brief background of AELTC and Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship events

The entire management can be considered under the category of “manage closely”. While dealing with the different kinds of stakeholders, be it internal or external the managers of AELTC has to keep the entire situation under control by using different types of business strategies and policies (Borisova, Racevskis and Kipp 2012). The concerned managers are the responsible for any kind of sudden crisis happening at the playground of Wimbledon. Therefore, the power of management always becomes high as well as high level of interest.

The power matrix tools work while segregating the stakeholders from different perspectives. In order to run an entire business process the stakeholder analysis is highly important based on which the business managers tend to form strategy and policy in order to grab the attention of customers (Elias 2012).  The power matrix is the systematic procedure with the help of which stakeholders can be divided in several categories as per the level of importance. Based on the category of the stakeholders the business experts tend to fulfill the needs and demands of stakeholders.

In the previous part, it has already been highlighted that power matrix place is the most effective tools to categorize the level of stakeholders as per power and interest. Fidelman et al. (2014) stated that in order to organize Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship the internal stakeholders who are primarily associated for business progress include AELTC organizers, marketing managers, business developers and so on. On one hand, it has been analyzed that marketing managers are primarily responsible for promoting the entire sports events of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship. Their primary aim of this sports event is to promote the entire news all over the world by using the popularity of social media platform. As a result, the power of market managers for the organization like AELTC is very high. On the other hand, the business development managers do not have much contribution towards the success of AELTC. The only primary role of business development manager of AELTC is to establish the association by providing an effective infrastructure (Johnston et al.2014). In is undeniable that without the assistance of marketing managers the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship can never gain international image and reputation. Therefore, it is clear and evident that the power and interest of the stakeholders can be categorized as per the industry.    

From quadrant C the stakeholders whom can be selected within the business process include trusties who have left a contribution in the promoting the business process of AELTC. The primary aim of trusties is not to promote their business but to spread their hands in gaining international image and reputation for AELTC. Therefore, the business experts intend to maintain an effective relation with those trusties so that they can gather sponsors from promoting events (Maxwell and Parker 2012). Behind maintaining an effective relation with quadrant C the reasons of AELTC are as follows:

Identify the stakeholders of the Wimbledon championships and categorize them into groups

Trusties are different from sponsors:

The primary aim of a trusty and a sponsor is completely different from each other. Sponsors aim to gain brand identity and image by contributing large number of amount to the business organization. As a result, both the business organizations and the sponsors get equal benefits and facilities (Axelsson, Melin and Lindgren 2013). On the other hand, most of the non-profit organizations become trusties in order to spread their hands to those organizers like AELTC without any expectation of gaining organizational image and reputation.  Therefore, the business managers of AELTC intend to maintain an effective relation with those trusties so that they get monitory help for business promotion. Markmann et al. (2013) opined that the primary intention of the sponsors is to gain the brand identity by utilizing the popularity of media PR agency and so many. In order to cover the event of   Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship, a large number of media personnel visit to London. Therefore, sponsors would get the scope to have the limelight after contributing money in Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship. On the other hand, the vision of trusties is completely different. Trusties like the sponsors do not aim to gain international reputation (Brown et al. 2016). Therefore, media coverage is not the primary purpose of this quadrant C stakeholder.    

To enhance the financial strength:

Behind maintaining an effective relation with the trusties the managers of AELTC aims to enhance the financial strength that would enable the association to expand their entire business process. In order to reach the event to the international market AELTC should have sufficient number of capital with the help of which people from different geographical boundaries can be aware of the sports event. AELTC is successful to draw the attention of 500,000 viewers. Without the contribution of sponsors and trusties the organization could never draw the attention of millions of viewers (Hardy, Wickham and Gretzel 2013). Therefore, trusties are very much effective in enhancing the financial strength of AELTC. Maintaining strong communication with quadrant C stakeholder is the kind of business strategy that enables the service providers of trusties to spread their hand for business expansion of AELTC.

• Develop strategy:

In order to make the relationship between AELTC and quadrant C the business managers of AELTC have to develop effective strategy. The organizers of this particular association have highlighted on how Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship has a major impact in earning the image and reputation of London as well as AELTC. At the same time, the sponsors or the trusties who will contribute towards the business promotion would get special recognition in the mind of international consumers (Sánchez 2015). As a result, the stakeholders of quadrant C automatically show their interest in contributing large amount of money for expanding the entire process of event.

• Map stakeholders:

The importance of power and matrix

In order to build the relationship in between AELTC and quadrant C the organizers of AELTC tends to use specific tools to make strong relationship. The tools include social media, face-to-face meeting, group communication, public forum, ongoing stakeholder panel and so on.  

• Prepare for the engagement:

Prepare for engagement indicates that two types of goals including short-term goals and long-term goals. Convincing the stakeholder for sponsorship is the kind of short-term goals (Wüstemeyer, Madlener and Bunn 2015). On the other hand in order to maintain a strong relationship in between AELTC and quadrant C, the event organizers tend to maintain group conference, meeting by using interpersonal communication or social media platform.

• Engage stakeholders:

AELTC in order to engage the stakeholder of quadrant C tends to focus on providing a significant position to the stakeholders on the sport event (Karppinen and Oinas-Kukkonen 2013). As a result, the stakeholders tend to show their enthusiastic attitude in directly participating for the business growth of AELTC. Automatically, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship gets the scope to expand their wings in the international market.  

• Establish action plans:

In order to maintain a strong relation between AELTC and quadrant C the business managers of AELTC tends to make an effective action plan for developing their business strategy and policy. The primary purpose of making an effective action plan is to reform business strategy with the help of which the sponsors tend to show their interest for contributing their amount for promotional activities of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship (Luyet et al. 2012). At the same time, it is undeniable that action plan is highly effective based on which the business experts can make better marketing plan to grab the attention of multinational customers.

AELTC is the association that primarily aims to organize Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship in order to gain organizational image and reputation. Over the last few years, this particular association with the help of effective services has drawn the attention of large number of customers both from regional market as well as from outsides (Luyet et al. 2012). Therefore, the customers have showed their interest in using the service process of AELTC after receiving a positive feedback from the AELTC service providers. Within few years around 500,000 viewers intend to watch Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship directly from the gallery.

In addition, the service providers are very much flexible to maintain a cordial relationship with the customers. The customers can book Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship tickets from their home with the help of online service delivery process. As a result, the customers do not have to jump here and there for collecting the ticket of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship. However, the service providers are flexible enough in communicating with both the international customers as well as regional customers. By maintaining both verbal and non-verbal communication, the customer service executives have made a rapport with every individual service users (Wagner Mainardes, Alves and Raposo 2012). Therefore, the team members have made a bonding with the customers so that they do not hesitate while using the services of AELTC. For those specific reasons with AELTC has already built a trust in the mind of common viewers. Apart from direct viewers, AELTC is having millions of customers who love to watch Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship through television.

In order to identify the different level of stakeholders the event organizers of AELTC tends to follow three types of communication plan primarily. The three types of communications plan include interpersonal communication, group communication and mass communication.

Interpersonal communication:

By maintaining interpersonal communication the service providers of AELTC maintains face-to-face communication in order to collect direct feedback from the stakeholders. Viewers from different geographical boundaries intend to provide direct feedback to the service providers about the sitting arrangement and other facilities (Phillipson et al. 2012). Based on the feedback of stakeholders the service providers tend to plan their business strategy and policy. On the other hand, with the help of interpersonal communication both the sender and the receiver get the scope to communicate directly with each other. As a result, the feedback is immediate. Based on the feedback from individual viewers the organization like AELTC tends to reform business strategy and policy to meet the customers’ needs and demands.

Group communication:

While taking any major decision regarding the promotional strategy or policy of AELTC, the sports organizers tend to make a discussion by involving all the internal stakeholders who are associated with AELTC. The internal stakeholder includes tennis players, organizers, managers, transport operators, owner of stadium and so on. Group communication can be divided into two major types that include small group and big group communication. Whenever the entire discussion is restricted within few members of people the conversation is called small group communication (Sánchez 2015). AELTC while communicating with the players regarding their residential arrangement dresses and foods and so on the event managers tend to follow small group communication. Only limited number of players is involved within the small group. On the other hand, the organizers before changing the entire business strategy tends to involve all the internal stakeholders such as players, organizers, managers, transport operators, owner of stadium. While conducting a big group communication the entire members of group may not know each other. As a result, the organizers have to face difficulties in order to communicate with every individual group member.

Mass communication:

Mass communication on the other hand is the form of communication that can multiply the message beyond going regional market. The primary aim of AELTC was to draw the attention millions of viewers for Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship. Not only the people of London but also the viewers of multinational countries should be involved. As a result, mass communication is the only way based on which the event managers would be able to reach the viewers of different geographical boundaries.

In order to multiply the messages of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship, the event organizers have decided to use some of the major tools for transmitting their messages. Among the tools, the name of social media, television media, newspaper are most prominent. Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship has become very much famous all over the World, the event organizers have decided to use the platform of social media most effectively in order to spread the entire process of business all over the World. (Axelsson, Melin and Lindgren (2013) commented that by using social media, the service providers could get the scope to collect direct feedback from the customers. As a result, the organizers get the scope to form new business strategy and policy.

Maintaining long lasting customer relationship:

The role of an efficient account manager is to maintain an effective relationship with the customers who intend to maintain long-term relationship with the business organization. Account manager is primarily responsible to keep a constant database on overall performance of business organization, their sales volume and the net profit in comparison to the last year. Based on the sales growth the success of a business organization is highly dependent (Elias 2012). AELTC is not exceptional to that. While dealing with the customers AELTC tends to show their business progress in comparison to its other organization. Therefore, account manager helps to gain the customers trust indirectly. Without showing any kind of profit margin or sales growth, the customers would never intend to show their rate of interest in using the service process of AELTC.  

Negotiating account management contracts and agreements to maximize profit:

Account managers play the major role to keep a data record of profit and loss balance. Based on the profit and loss of the organization the internal stakeholders are treated. If AELTC fails to reach the margin of profit in one year the employees, players get affected in getting sufficient amount of money from the organizers (Maxwell and Parker 2012). In this kind of situation, the association fails to maintain a good relation with the stakeholders. Therefore, the entire responsibility of account manager is to maintain a healthy relation with the internal as well as external stakeholders.  

Conclusion: 

The entire study has provided in-depth overview about the importance of stakeholder analysis before making marketing strategy and policy. AELTC is the primary initiator of holding Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship every year in London. AELTC is successful to draw the attention of large number of viewers by promoting their sports event in different geographical markets. As a result, the entire sports events of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship have drawn the attention of global viewers. The organizers of AELTC by promoting their events in the international markets have enhanced the range of target market. Most of the sports lovers are the target customers of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship. By conducting an effective stakeholder analysis and segregating the target market the organization has made business expansion strategy and policy. Power matrix place have been used in this specific study in order to categorize the stakeholders as per several groups.

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