An Investigation of Marketing Problems and Possible Solutions in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)

Location

CSU North Ballroom

Start Date

25-4-2006 10:00 AM

End Date

25-4-2006 12:00 PM

Student's Major

Human Performance

Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Mentor's Name

Soonhwan Lee

Mentor's Department

Human Performance

Mentor's College

Allied Health and Nursing

Description

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) was formed in 1997 after a previous successful team at the 1996 Summer Olympics. It initially started with eight teams and has recently expanded to 14 reams. The National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners o\yn the WNBA teams that are in the same locations except two independent teams, such as Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky. The WNBA stresses three points: girl empowerment, family appropriate entertainment, and concern over available role models for children. There are currently 14 marketing partners that are teamed up with the WNBA. There are three targets segments that represent 41% of the population in the WNBA market segmentations. They are the WNBAers, Urban Women, and Kid-centrics. However, there are some marketing problems that could be holding the league back from reaching its potential peak success in the WNBA. A few of those problems include lack of media coverage, ownership structure, and the previously failed leagues. It has to compete with the NBA, college basketball, overseas leagues, and other job opportunities for the players. Possible solutions for the marketing problem are more name recognition, reasonable size of target markets with no NBA teams, smaller venues, more local media coverage, and change of ownership structure. The further discussion for possible marketing solutions was discussed.

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Apr 25th, 10:00 AM Apr 25th, 12:00 PM

An Investigation of Marketing Problems and Possible Solutions in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)

CSU North Ballroom

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) was formed in 1997 after a previous successful team at the 1996 Summer Olympics. It initially started with eight teams and has recently expanded to 14 reams. The National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners o\yn the WNBA teams that are in the same locations except two independent teams, such as Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky. The WNBA stresses three points: girl empowerment, family appropriate entertainment, and concern over available role models for children. There are currently 14 marketing partners that are teamed up with the WNBA. There are three targets segments that represent 41% of the population in the WNBA market segmentations. They are the WNBAers, Urban Women, and Kid-centrics. However, there are some marketing problems that could be holding the league back from reaching its potential peak success in the WNBA. A few of those problems include lack of media coverage, ownership structure, and the previously failed leagues. It has to compete with the NBA, college basketball, overseas leagues, and other job opportunities for the players. Possible solutions for the marketing problem are more name recognition, reasonable size of target markets with no NBA teams, smaller venues, more local media coverage, and change of ownership structure. The further discussion for possible marketing solutions was discussed.

Recommended Citation

Anderson, Amanda; Danielle Husby; and Jennifer Sellner. "An Investigation of Marketing Problems and Possible Solutions in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 25, 2006.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2006/poster-session-E/6