Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Well I think you said it best when you mentioned Sponsorship. Try to cultivate some sponsorship partnerships by creating some sponsor packages for each area that you are seeking sponsorship. Package it up and price it in different categories (small sponsor, medium sponsor and enterprise) -- so that you can reach sponsors of all budgets. Create a presentation stating the facts and benefits of sponsoring your team and then start contacting the decision makers.

You have to begin by addressing the question that will be foremost on the minds of your sponsors: "What's in it for us?"

They don't much care about your equipment and other costs. They don't care whether you're league champions. They don't care that you are great drinking buddies. They care about how sponsoring your team will benefit them.

Will you endear them to the community? Will you send some business their way? Will they be able to use their sponsorship to advertise their own businesses? Will they get free tickets to next year's final game?

Step inside their shoes and develop the presentation that would get YOU to invest in a sponsorship.

P.S. Some of them may sponsor the team just because they like you, but you shouldn't count on that. Approach the task as a business/marketing project, with an eye on the unique benefit you offer your customer. (They probably have other sponsorship opportunities; what makes you more deserving?)

Michael is correct in his approach.

Your sponsors need to know the benefit they will recieve by sponsoring. How many people will know that they are sponsors? What kind of image can you present? What kind of exposure will they get? What kind of advertising will you provide them, on jersey's, in the program, on the calendar, in the newsletter, on a banner at events, on the website, etc.

Spend some time to think about all of the sponsorship opportunities and how much each will cost. You do want a variety of price points so that many can be involved. You will need to give the larger sponsors more coverage than the smaller ones.

I hope this helps,
Mike

Rugby might not be a popular sport but in my opinion sponsors do sponsor because it gives them the opportunity to meet other people in a nice setting.

In Holland basketball is a kind of obscure sport that you play in high school. There is a competition and we do have a couple of clubs that compete. I live close to a town with a basketball arena. A friend of me bought, being a sponsor, 2 seats for the season and access to the bar and restaurant.

You don't have to be a big fan of basketball to have a good time. It is just plain fun and it is the way to meet business relations in a friendly setting, drinking a beer or a wine, shake hands and meet interesting people. This is a successful sponsor concept: you gave us money and we provide you with a setting you can meet people and having a good time and see your name on the wall.

The basketball club is just facilitating this meaningful gatherings, it is a lot of fun but I'm sure that 90 % of the visitors are not big basketball fans, they like the atmosphere, the rituals around the games and chatting with the players after the game.

I tell you this story because I think there is hope for your sponsoring program:

- be realistic
- offer sponsors a nice, interesting, daily routine breaking setting for meeting other people within the constrains you have to live with.
- offer different kind of sponsorships
- accept that sponsors don't sponsor the club because they love rugby but because the whole program (rugby, the people they meet, the foot and the drinks, the "funny" rugby rituals)
- use the networks of the players, the members of the board and others involved in the club to find your first sponsors. Go for sponsors that will attracted others to become sponsor.
- live your brand and don't accept that the positive image of the club is compromised by players or others involved with the club.
- make sure that the members of the board fully support your efforts to make this a success.


I hope my contribution helps to setup a successful sponsorship program for the rugby club.

*erik

In response to some of the comments on here that soccer has "...little on-going interest". This is a popular misconception, well at least in the U.S. The truth is that it is growing and growing steadily fast when other sports are already saturated. Check out this article if you don't believe me:

https://www.forbes.com/2008/09/09/mls-soccer-beckham-biz-sports-cz_kb_0909m...

You can learn a lot by studying what the MLS is doing in the U.S. from a marketing and sponsorship standpoint -- from selective expansion to bringing in the stars to re-branding many of the teams. What they are doing is working and working well. Even the sponsors like Dick's Sporting Goods really works and it makes me think of Dick Smith's in Australia where Rugby is really popular.

Rugby has a huge following in Australia and Rugby Union although lives in the shadow of AFL and Aussie Rules - has that grassroots and "my neighbor plays from next door" feel about it which can really be used for marketing purposes.

My advise is learn from what other sports have done when faced with adversity.