Market Analysis: Uconn Men's Hockey Team

Market Analysis In order to market a product to its full potential it is absolutely critical to understand the market you are working with. For example, with the UConn men’s hockey team, you must look at the market for college hockey. New England has a very passionate and extensive college hockey market as it is home to some of the top men’s college hockey teams in the United States. By analyzing the market we can determine the best way to promote the UConn men’s team and increase fan loyalty. The most important factor of marketing is understanding your target audience. You need to determine who you are selling your product to in order to select the most effective way to communicate with them. The target market our project

In the case of the UConn men’s hockey team there is internal competition and external competition. For example, if you were to ask any person in the United States what sport they would first think of when they hear the word UConn, the majority would quickly respond, basketball. It is hard to fault them as UConn’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are consistently nationally ranked and dominate year after year. Unfortunately for the hockey team, basketball and hockey are both winter season sports, which is tough internal competition for the team to garner attention and fan support. In addition to the internal competition from other UConn teams, the UConn men’s hockey team must compete with the other college hockey teams in Connecticut and all around the New England area. Other Connecticut college hockey teams such as Yale and Quinnipiac, both of which are nationally top ranked teams, draw large crowds for every game. There are several explanations for those college’s superior student fan support over UConn, including much less internal competition at their respective colleges from other sports and strong hockey tradition. People with low loyalty to UConn that just want to go to a hockey game have the option of choosing one of several local teams to support. Therefore it is our job to provide the best experience possible to convince these undecided fans to attend a UConn hockey game over any other college

For example, UConn hockey in itself is a brand. UConn hockey represents UConn athletics which in turn represents UConn as a whole. Then, the University of Connecticut represents the state of Connecticut in general. The UConn brand can be broken down into different segments and it starts with each athletic team at UConn including the men’s hockey team. As marketers, we must consider the sanctity and importance of the UConn brand throughout this process and work within the parameters and values of the university and all that is represents. Our recognition of our “company”, UConn, we understand that we are not only representing the men’s hockey team and but the brand of UConn in its entirety, which is an important responsibility and should be handled