Arizona - Littlest Big Regional

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

To shed a little light on it, after some calculations it could be that the 2005 Arizona Regional has teams traveling an average of 419 miles, or 7 hours, to visit the regional.

After a bit of further research, if you look at it from a Porter's Five Forces perspective (a tool used to define competition within an industry so that it can be tackled easier), you're running into the huge issues of "Power of the Buyer" and "Threat of Substitutes".

I enjoyed Jessica's marketing analysis quite a bit. Nice work.

Let me throw in a few more suggestions if you are looking at increasing the attendance at your regional. Let's use Marketing 101 and the four Ps: The ancient standards of marketing say that your strategy needs to include four items: price, distribution/place, product and promotion.

Price: The tournament entry fee is fixed, so what can you do with other costs? Is there a way you could package great accomodations at a reasonable cost? Would America West offer a special FIRST discount? Let's face it -- once you make the decision to get on an airplane, there isn't much real difference where you go within the contiguous US. I can fly from Seattle to Miami for around $225 round trip. Flying round trip to Salt Lake City is only $60 cheaper. Interestingly, flying round trip from Seattle to Portland, OR is around $185, while I can fly to Portland, Maine, for $365. You should be able to effectively market to any team that has to fly to get to their regional. You will have a hard time competing on travel cost with teams that have a short drive to a regional. We can drive from here to Portland in less than 3 hours.

Place: This normally covers product or service distribution, but in this case it is more about location. Why would someone prefer to visit Arizona in early spring (or late winter) instead of some cold, damp place? If you can't figure this one out, you should just move to Minnesota. Could you package some outdoor activities or benefits? Golf? Hotels with big pool complexes? Horseback riding? Sell sunshine -- it's worked for Florida, Southern California, and Arizona for decades. (On second thought, do any of us really want to see folks from New Hampshire, Illinois, or Washington in bathing suits with their winter "tans?" It's pretty scary to contemplate.)

Product: What does your tournament offer that others cannot? You mention that it is a smaller event. Does this increase the chance for rookie or poorly-financed teams to compete in the absence of teams with $50,000 budgets? Maybe you can sell it as, "Arizona Regionals -- The Best Start Here!" or something similar. Could you even structure it as "FIRST Choice for Rookie Teams!"? Since you have disadvantages in natural (driving distance) market size, you need some competitive advantage. Think of what yours is, or could be.

Promotions: PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE! Send (e)mailings to teams worldwide inviting them to Arizona. Subtly promote it on these boards. Does your .sig on this bbs promote your event? Have a drawing for a door prize for everyone on this board who promotes your regional in their .sig. Hire blimps, have dancing geckos, put your tournament on coffee cups, whatever. If teams haven't heard of the amazing benefits of your event, they sure aren't going to attend. Remember -- six features, three benefits, two reasons to buy today.

This was kind of a supersonic 10,000-foot view. Hope it helps.

- Rick Tyler
Mentor, Team 1294
MBA '83, Professional Marketing Guy

[Don Knight]

Latest Arizona Weather Report
Make sure to bring your sunscreen

Thursday
Sunny
High: 86°
Low: 60°

Friday
Sunny
High: 86°
Low: 58°

Saturday
Sunny
High: 83°
Low: 57°

[Dested]

Ill be sure and see you there thursday, Don.

[team222badbrad]

If you can afford to travel from the East Coast to Arizona; I say DO IT!

This is a really good trip especially if you are not going to Nationals on a given year.

In 2003 when Arizona was a first year regional our team, 222 The TIGERTRONS, went to this regional simply because we were not eligible to attend Nationals that year. We planned this trip because we figured we would not be going to Nationals and wanted a trip to somewhere off the East Coast. We also like going to first year regionals! Instead of going to Nationals we wanted to try our best to become eligible, so that year we only planned on attending Arizona, Philadelphia, and NJ Regionals that year.

We ended up becoming eligible and went to Nationals that year anyway because of our accomplishments. However, due to our last minute travel plans we were not there to receive our Team Spirit award. Good thing we did not compete in the final matches.

If in doubt which regional to attend next year pick Arizona!
There are many things there to see and do. While we were there in 2003 we took a long bus trip to the Grand Canyon and saw fog, but we got to see many cool sights anyway! Arizona is really just a cool place to go!
If you get the chance go, go there as an educational trip as well as a sight seeing trip, you will not regret it!

GO!

[preussrobotics]

The Arizona regional is one of the favorites of both my students and myself. Unfortunately, time and money did not allow us to attend this year. I love the sense of community that you get at the smaller regional and the way that it is run! Best of luck Don!!! Hopefully, we'll be there next year.

Rob

[Daniel Brim]

Man, I am really regretting not going with my team this year. But in years past, there have been some "long commuters to AZ" including Canada (was it 388?), Indiana (234), Massachusetts (190), and PA (222). Last year AZ was the first 3-nation regional, as well. BTW, I thought the social was cool last year, and I really enjoyed the mini-golf as well.

Hoping to be in AZ in '06,
Daniel

[SteveO]

We've been to Phoenix before, Los Angeles and I think Sacramento, not sure, but Phoenix has been our favorite, and that's why we plan to go again this year. I hope Vegas is as good as Phoenix.

[Mark Pettit]

Arizona is the best planned and executed regional that I've been to. There is still a video feed for teams to tap into, the pit areas are well organized and nobody infringes on space/aisles, and there will never be a better team social than the one thrown at the Arizona Science Center. They really take care of us.
Thanks to Don Knight, Carol Popovich, and the entire planning committee for doing it right. Those of us who live here are very lucky, and those who don't should give AZ a try next year.

[Airforce1000]

This was an awesome regional. Action packed nonetheless... Great competition there.

Don, there's nothing at all wrong with the Arizona regionals. Just not so many people see the talent there like we do. Maybe there will be more teams there next year.