Certified Hockey Professional - Professional Education Program (HCKY) 642

Overview

More so than in other professional sports, the bulk of the revenues of a professional hockey franchise derive directly and indirectly from ticketing sales and ingress spending. Fans attending and following games and their geographical markets differ (a) in their ability to pay for tickets, (b) in the amount they will spend on concessions and other merchandise, and (c) in their capacity to attract advertisers and sponsors. Moreover, the appeal of other entertainment options – sports and otherwise – differs among various groups of fans and in different markets. For this reason, the focus of this course is on identifying, understanding, and targeting the fans, viewers, and spectators with the greatest potential to increase a franchise’s profitability and valuation.

Toward this end, the course begins with a discussion of consumer behaviour, fan psychology, market segmentation, and competitive/competitor analysis. It then moves on to strategic brand management and, more specifically, to the ways in which a franchise can define, build, and manage its core brand, brand extensions, and brand alliances so as to cull, cultivate and attract the most desirable fans, viewers, and spectators from a long term business perspective. This then leads to the development of an overall marketing strategy, which will guide a franchise’s marketing communications (HCKY 643), game day strategies (HCKY 644), and hockey operations (HCKY 645).

Objectives

• Apply core marketing concepts such as the marketing concept, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and branding.
• Understand and apply basic concepts of consumer psychology, specifically focused on sports and hockey consumers.
• Identify various variables that comprise the behaviour of hockey fans/consumers.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the ways in which consumers choose between competing market offerings.
• Draw upon the above knowledge to develop strategies and tactics to reach and influence hockey fans.
• Apply the concepts of brand and brand equity in the context of sports and in particular hockey clubs.
• Use branding concepts such as brand building and brand extensions in the hockey context.

Important links

• Graduate Diploma in Managment (GDM)
• Contact an Advisor
• Master of Business Administration
• MBA for Executives
• Accelerated MBA for Executives
• MBA for Accountants
• MBA for Health Leaders
• MBA for Supply Chain Management
• MBA in Hockey Management
• Certified Hockey Professional (CHP) Designation