Organized Intersets and Lobbying Organized

Organized Intersets and Lobbying

Organized interests and lobbying

The Sports Fan Coalition is in dire need of a strategic approach to reposition itself within the market in such a manner that it attracts more members. It is also necessary for it to grow. In these endeavors, a specific need arises in that of mitigating the free rider problem. Ultimately, consideration should be granted to the possibility of turning the Sports Fan Coalition into a lobbying organization.

a) Organizational growth

The objective of organizational growth ought to be approached from two distinct angles. On the one hand, there is the growth in terms of the products and services offered, which would serve as a primary mechanisms of attracting new members. On the other hand, there is the growth through expansion into new markets -- this would also constitute mechanism for gaining new customers.

At an initial level, it would be necessary to develop new products and services which serve the sports entertainment needs of a wider audience base. In this order of ideas, the new products would have to meet several requirements, such as increased diversity, easy accessibility as well as affordability.

At the level of growth through market expansion, it would be necessary to conduct research and identify the regions which generate demand for the services provided by the Sports Fan Coalition. Specifically, the company would launch operations in regions where sports are cherished, but where the field of sports entertainment services is underdeveloped or underserved.

b) the attraction of new members

As it has been mentioned throughout the previous section, the main means of attracting new members are those of creating new services and launching the company's operations onto new markets. These strategies however only represent starting points and bases for the attraction of new members, but the actual attraction is the result of intense marketing efforts. In other words, it would be necessary to develop and implement a complex marketing strategy by which the company is repositioned in a means that best appeals to the prospective customers.

The sports entertainment products and services offered by the Sports Fan Coalition would be presented in a means in which they promote and represent the fun associated with sports, as well as the thrill of the competition and team spirit. These features are the ones most likely to attract sports fans (Berger, 2008).

c) Mitigating the free rider problem

The free rider problem is economically understood as a situation in which a group or an individual use a certain product -- generally a public one -- but do not sufficiently contribute to the financial support of the respective product or service. In order to address this issue, the Sports Fan Coalition ought to consider the following solutions:

The monitoring of the activities of all members and the capping of their free access services. This implies the need to identify each member and keep a track of his access to the company services.

The complete elimination of free rider possibilities by not creating any free services. This solution nevertheless is not sustainable from a marketing standpoint as it does not provide the prospective customers with the ability to test the company's services, and it as such does not raise consumer familiarity or interest.

The partial elimination of the free services with the division of a single service into an initial free part, and a paid continuation.

Based on the characteristics of each of the three alternative solutions, the final recommendation is that of providing demonstrative free services, which introduce the customer to the company's services and generate interest and demand. In other words, the third alternative should be selected.

d) Lobbying organization

By becoming a lobbying organization, the Sports Fan Coalition would gain an increased ability to influence the decisions of policy makers (Wright, 1989). In other words, it would reveal a real ability to influence legislations in favor of the sports entertainment industry. Today however, the company's ability to become an effective lobbying organization is rather restricted and this is because of the company's restricted size and importance within the field.

However, once it implements its growth strategies and becomes a stronger economic agent, it stands increased chances of enhancing its capabilities as an efficient lobbying organization. This virtually means that it would reemerge as a reliable organization, able to gain the support of other players in the industry, and also able to attract the attention of political parties.