MARKETING PLAN FOR FC ZELJEZNICAR

INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

Course: Marketing Management

Mentor: prof. VesnaBabi-Hodovi, PhD
Students:

DizdarMuhamed

Index #: 69461

Kahrimanovi Amar

Index #: 69578

MeiAzra

Index #: 69573

Pidro Adnan

Index #: 67837

Sarajevo, December 2012

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Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................... 3
Overview................................................................................................................... 4
History.................................................................................................................. 5
Current marketing activities............................................................................................ 6
Public Relations....................................................................................................... 6
Web page............................................................................................................... 7
Fan shop................................................................................................................ 8
Other activities......................................................................................................... 8
SWOT analysis........................................................................................................... 8
Strenghts................................................................................................................ 8
Weaknesses............................................................................................................. 9
Opportunities........................................................................................................... 9
Threats.................................................................................................................. 9
PESTLE analysis......................................................................................................... 9
Political factors........................................................................................................ 9
Economic factors.................................................................................................... 10
Social factors......................................................................................................... 10
Technological factors............................................................................................... 10
Legislative factors................................................................................................... 10
Analysis of the competition.......................................................................................... 10
Domestic competition.............................................................................................. 10
International competition.......................................................................................... 12
Marketing objectives.................................................................................................. 15
MARKETING MIX 7P............................................................................................... 16
Proactive service/product.......................................................................................... 17
Place................................................................................................................... 17
Price................................................................................................................... 17
Promotion............................................................................................................. 17
People................................................................................................................. 17
Physical evidence................................................................................................... 18
Process................................................................................................................ 18
NEW MARKETING MIX........................................................................................... 18
Proactive Service.................................................................................................... 18
Place................................................................................................................... 19
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Price................................................................................................................... 19
Promotion/Service communication.............................................................................. 19
People................................................................................................................. 19
Physical evidence................................................................................................... 19
IMPLEMENTATION................................................................................................. 19
Creating database of supporters - members....................................................................19
Marketing communication mix................................................................................... 20
Conclusion............................................................................................................... 23
Literature................................................................................................................. 24

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Introduction
Why are stadiums empty? Why do fans keep away from a stadium and spend even more
money in say bars and restaurants while watching the same match on TV? Is it possible to fill
that stadium all the time through the season? How do fans think? What should come first,
playing good football or filling the stadium? Is bad football and an empty stadium related?
Why do some teams that play very good football play on empty stadiums and opposite is also
true?
Football without fans is nothing, it can't exist. They create atmosphere, spectacle at the game.
They improve the quality of service (watching football game). It is not the same to watch a
football match with and without fans. Sometimes, when the game on the pitch is weak, good
atmosphere, full stands can motivate players to play better and to win. A lot of football clubs
are almost unbeatable at home matches because of the atmosphere created by their fans. If
club has no supporters, every match will be away match for it.
With a full stadium, you have an assured sustainable source of resources to run the club. Fans
pay to watch the game. Full stadium attract more sponsors, more media. All of this brings funs
to the club, and club can easily buy better players.
So, football fans are the most important thing in football. They bring money to the club, they
improve service with the atmosphere they create. And club should treat fans like family
because they are so important.

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Overview
Football club eljezniar Sarajevo is most prominent, most popular and most
successfulprofessional football club in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The club was founded in
1921 by railway workers. It has 7 Championship trophies, 5 Cup titles and it won Super cup
three times. According to the IFFHS list of the Top 200 European clubs of the 20th century,
an organization recognized by FIFA, eljezniar is the highest ranked Bosnian club, sharing
the 110th position on the list with AZ Alkmaar and Vitria F.C.1The club plays its matches on
stadium Grbavica (owned by club) in the same-named part of the Sarajevo. Current President
is Mr.Sabahudinujo, and current head coach is Amar Osim. eljezniar has its own football
school in all categories.

History
Football clubeljezniar was established in September 1921, by railway workers. In that time
there were several football clubs in Sarajevo, mostly based on ethnical principles (Serbs,
Bosnian Croats, Bosnian Jews). eljezniar was different. It was a club for common people,
people interested in football, not politics. The founders and first players were ordinary people,
workers from almost all ethnic groups in Sarajevo. In the beginning, eljezniar was a poor
club, mostly because of his multiethnic and nonpolitical attitude. Despite all of that, the club
survived and beat stronger and wealthier clubs.
In 1941, because of WWII, football in Sarajevo stopped. After 5 years, in 1946, eljezniar
won its first trophy, the Bosnian Championship. Soon after, citizens and Government of
Sarajevo founded Football club Torpedo (todays FC Sarajevo), as a club that will represent
and promote the city and the regime (communism). That was devastating for eljezniar,
because the Government ordered that the best players have to transfer to Sarajevo. One of
them, JokoDomorocki, refused that, and finished in jail.

Europe's Club of the Century retrieved from www.iffhs.de, 13 September 2009,

http://www.iffhs.de/?
a413f0e03790c443e0f40390b41be8b01905fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aeedb883ccb05ff1d

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For the most of time, eljezniar played in the top level. The biggest success came in the
season 1971/72 when it won the championship title. The biggest European success was in the
season 1984/85, when eljezniar played UEFA Cup semi-finals against Videoton.
After the collapse of Yugoslavia, eljezniar survived another war. The stadium Grbavica was
destroyed. The club had to start again from the beginning. There was no infrastructure,
nothing. There was new competition, new championship. eljezniar won the title 5 times in
seasons 1997/98, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2009/10, 2011/12, and Cup in 1999/00, 2000/01,
2002/03, 2010/11, 2011/12. Biggest European success in this period came in 2002 when
eljezniar reached the third qualifying round of UEFA Champions League. Newcastle
United was too strong, so the group stage will have to wait for some other time.

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Current marketing activities

Public Relations
Public relations are really important thing in every organization, every company today. The
same is with sport clubs. Having person which has a task to represent club in situations when
fast and good answer to public is needed, is an essential issue for today's professional sport
clubs. President of the club, Sports Director, or Head Coach shouldnt be the only persons in
club who answer questions and give information about the club. Our opinion is that every
professional sport club should have PR person if it wants to be successful.
Football Club eljezniar have recently employed staff in this marketing area. Until that, PR
function didn't exist in club. That job mostly was done by Sports Director or President. And
that was hardly functioned. Sometimes the President and Sports Director gave different,
opposite information about situation in club. That was annoying for supporters, journalists
and

people who care about eljezniar. After an interview with President of the club,

supporter organization proposed a person that will do the PR job for the club. President
agreed, and after few weeks, eljezniar got his first PR ever. Some real measures of the
successfulness of employing the PR can't be yet clearly defined, because club has PR only for
two months. We can recognize some shifts in availability and reliability of club information,
but still it is to early to discuss about real impacts of PR.

Web page
When we talk about online presentation of the club, eljezniar, as all clubs in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, didn't have official web page for years. There were only few unofficial blogs. In
2009, when President, mr.Sabahudinujo was elected, thing about online presentation
changed. The group of IT professionals made web page for eljezniar and in very short
period of time, it has become the best official web page of some sport club in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Firstly it was positioned on the domain .com, but after three years, the club
decided to change that. In November 2012, new web page has been created on domain .ba.
The reason why they changed the domain is that they wanted that people around the World

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immediately know that eljezniarcomes from Bosnia and Herzegovina when they type in
their browser: FK eljezniar.
The new web page fkzeljeznicar.ba, continued the tradition of the previous one. It is timely
updated with all important informations about the club. You can easily find when and where is
the next match, information about players and coaches. There is also a good history part,
where every phase from the founding the club till today is descripted. Web page has video and
picture gallery, and of course basic contact information and there are links to official
Facebook, twitter and YouTube channel.

Fan shop
The club opened fan shop in cooperation with the company GONG Sarajevo last year. The
shop is located in the north stand of Grbavica stadium. It is mostly good equipped through the
whole year with over 200 products like different souvenirs, T- shirts, scarves, actual jerseys,
old school jerseys etc. The online fan shop is still in construction phase. There is official fan
shopFacebook page, where you can see pictures and some information about products in the
shop.

Other activities
FC eljezniar constantly takes part in humanitarian actions. One of the last was My heart is
blue (Plavo je srce u meni), when head coach Amar Osim with few players visited several
small towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina and hand out donations and gifts. In Konjic, they
deliver donation to the local Red cross after devastating fire. 2In Srebrenik, delegation of the
club visited local primary school and hand out gifts for children and school.3
When eljezniar won the double title last season, management decided to make a contract
with city transport company GRAS to brand a tram with club colors and signs. 4 It was a

Humanitarnaakcija FK eljezniara Plavo je srce u meni, source.ba,

14.9.2012.http://www.source.ba/clanak/3669373/vijesti/Humanitarna-akcija-FK%C5%BDeljeznicara-%E2%80%9EPlavo-je-srce-u-meni%E2%80%9C/?ref=ostali
3
Humanitarnaakcijanastavljena u Srebreniku, sutra.ba
19.10.2012.http://www.sutra.ba/novost/72719/Humanitarna-akcija-Plavo-je-srce-u-meninastavljena-u-Srebreniku ,
4
Tramvajzvanieljo, 12.7.2012.http://sportsport.ba/bh_fudbal/tramvaj-zvani-zeljo/83936

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campaign of promoting the club and inviting fans to the Champions League Qualification
matches.

SWOT analysis
Strenghts

Tradition and history

Most popular club in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Great number of fans
Football school in all categories
Coaches are former players

Weaknesses

Infrastructure (pitch quality low; stadium doesnt have proper toilets for fans, proper
VIP and media parts; small capacity)
Financial situation (lack of funds)

Opportunities

Attracting fans from small towns which have no local football clubs

Threats

New competition (FC Olimpic)

Premier League less watched from season to season
Players transfer to foreign clubs for smaller amount of money than their real value is

eljezniar should concentrate on promotion of his strengths like 90 years old tradition and
history. The club has its own football school in all categories, so a good database of talented
future players can be established. The most important issue is infrastructure, and the club
should as soon as possible find funds to reconstruct the stadium. The club should be also
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aware of new competition and unpopularity of Premier League (fans rather watch popular
European clubs than go to stadiums in B&H).

PESTLE analysis
Political factors
Political environment, unfortunately, is important in Bosnian football. Different political
parties and leaders influence almost every citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For eljezniar
is important which political party reign the local community and Ministry of Sports because
government of the city, municipal and local Ministry of Sports decide how much funds will
the club get. Also, club have to manage with tax rules given by Government.

Economic factors
Economic environment have also great influence on the club. If companies are doing well,
make profit, they will easier decide to sponsor the club, giving more money. Also existing
sponsors will extend contracts if the economic situation is good. Higher employment, regular
salaries will influence on people's free time and they will easier decide to spend their money
and time on watching football match or buying club's products. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a
country in transition, so it was, and is still today, almost impossible to invest in infrastructure
and in sport as a whole.

Social factors
Working people were always a good supporter/fans base. Social problems impact on the
attendance and atmosphere. When social environment is turbulent there is more chance for
violence on stands because supporters perceive stadiums as places where they can get rid of
negative energy. Also, the society has recently came out of war and the ethnic tensions are still
high and have great impact on sport, specially football. The change from one social system to
another (communism>capitalism) had great impact on social behavior. Like in other former
communist countries, in B&H there is higher rate of violence and political messages on
stadiums than in Western Europe.

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Technological factors
Technological changes have a certain influence on club. It is important to have website and
online selling ticket service up to date with last technological changes. HD live broadcasting
is still just a dream for eljezniar because of economic situation.

Legislative factors
The most important factors here are the Law on Sports, which hasn't been yet defined,
Employment Law and rules of the National Football Association.

Analysis of the competition

Domestic competition
eljezniar's domestic competitors are all clubs in Premier League, but definitely the most
important are city rival FC Sarajevo, FC BoracBanja Luka and FC irokiBrijeg. All other can
be treated like small competitors.
FC Sarajevo (founded in 1946, firstly named Torpedo) is the biggest, direct competitor of
eljezniar. It comes from the same city, it is almost popular as the club from Grbavica. It is
known that FC Sarajevo has larger number of fans in the city, especially in the old town. But,
when we observe the whole country, eljezniar has fans in almost every part of Bosnia and
Herzegovina. That is not a case when we talk about younger club in the capital city.
eljezniar is more popular in the region than FC Sarajevo, because eljezniar is known as a
worker club and Sarajevo as a regime, city club. In a sitcom from '80s called Top
listanadrealista is mentioned that being a fan of Sarajevo is a thing of geography, while
being a fan of eljezniar is a philosophy.
Other important thing why FC Sarajevo is serious competitor is that it is the second most
successful football club in the country. It plays constantly in Europa League Qualifications or
Champions League Qualifications. That means, that every season FC Sarajevo attract new
fans.

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FC Sarajevo, unlike eljezniar, don't have his own stadium, in his own property. It plays its
matches on Olimpic Stadium which is in the property of the city and Olimpic Association of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. So, it is obliged to pay to play and to have training.
This younger capital city football club has fan shops on several location what is not the case
with eljezniar. It has also well designed web page, PR Officer which was employed earlier
than in eljezniar, management with young marketing professionals, actions like Bordo
day when fans can meet players and buy products at lower prices. Fans and supporters of FC
Sarajevo can became member of the club5and buy LoyalityBordo Card6 with which they can
get season tickets, free pass to some matches and other benefits.

Table 1. Comparison of social networks

Sarajevo
eljezniar

Facebook
33400
23300

Twitter
1000
1400

YouTube
41100
34000

Note: Facebook number of likes, Twitter number of followers, YouTube number of video views; Numbers
are rounded; Last updated on 23.12.2012.

BoracBanja Luka and irokiBrijeg can be considered as most important smaller competitors.
Borac is the most successful football club from the entity of Republic of Srpska and has a
large number of fans in that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It constantly competes for places
which lead to European competitions. It has played Qualifications for European League few
times. It has better infrastructure (has License for European competitions) and it has better
support from local community than eljezniar. Borac has a web page (Cyrillic, Latinic and
English version) with solid informations, no PR, no Fanshops.
irokiBrijeg can be considered as one of the important domestic competitors because of
constantly playing at good level, and every year playing in European competitions. It has, like
Borac, better infrastructure than eljezniar, and it is one of a few clubs in Bosnia and
Herzegovina which have no old liabilities (taxes) towards state. It has a great support from
5

Jasam Sarajevo!, fcsarajevo.ba , November 2012, http://www.fcsarajevo.ba/ja-samsarajevo

6
LoyalityBordo Card, fcsarajevo.ba, November 2012, http://www.fcsarajevo.ba/loyaltybordo-card

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companies in Herzegovina, and never had financial problems. But, iroki has a constant
problem with small number of fans, irokiBrijeg is a small town with low population so there
is really small number of people on stadium Pecara. Their website is up to date with all
information about the club, players, football school etc. iroki has no PR, no fan shops.

International competition
GNK Dinamo Zagreb, commonly referred to as Dinamo Zagreb, or by their nickname
Modri("The Blues") are a Croatian football club based in Zagreb. They play their home
matches at StadionMaksimir. They are the most successful club in Croatian football, having
won thirteen Croatian championship titles, ten Croatian Cups and four Croatian Supercups.
The club has spent its entire existence in top flight, having been members of the Yugoslav
First League from 1946 to 1991, and then the Prva HNL since its foundation in 1992.
Dinamo Zagreb engages various marketing activities, both online and offline. Dinamo Zagreb
has exceptional quality online activities, which includes website, social networks integration
as well as services such as web shop and online ticket service. Website provides wide
spectrum of club information, as well as rich multimedia content. Social networks integration
includes most popular social network websites, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter as well
as RSS integration. Website also provides web shop service and online ticket service. Both of
these services provide different means of payment, as well as two-language option (Croatian
and English). Web shop provides various merchandises, and also provides free shipping in
Croatia. Online ticket service enables online ticket booking. Website also provides options for
online membership registration and newsletter subscription.
Table 2. Comparison of social networks
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Dinamo Zagreb
Zeljeznicar

Facebook
95000
23300

Twitter
2250
1400

YouTube
17000
34000

Note: Facebook number of likes, Twitter number of followers, YouTube number of video views; Numbers
are rounded; Last updated on 23.12.2012.

Dinamo Zagreb website is also voted for 8th best website in online analysis of the websites of
the teams participating in the UEFA Champions League7.
Dinamo Zagreb is engaged in various offline activities, and club's players and staff are often
engaged. Players often take part in humanitarian actions, such as visit to home for orphaned
children; they also collaborate with other clubs, such as with Medvescak hockey club in
fundraising activities. Dinamo Zagreb occasionalyorganises events for supporters, where
players and staff interact with supporters; most recent one is "Navija od milijunkuna"
campaign (One million kuna's fan), where supporters could compete for one million kuna's
reward. Dinamo Zagreb recenty introduced club mascot pLAVko (blue lion), which will be
present on matches and events, and interact with people.
It is also important to notice that, despite positive activities which are undertaken, Dinamo
Zagreb has issues regarding negative publicity. Executive director of the Dinamo Zagreb
ZdravkoMamic is well known for his hostile b

ehavior

towards

(some)

journalists,

threatening with violence and/or making vulgar comments about them and their profession.
While in function as the chairman of Dinamo, Mami has been detained by police.Since his
reign at Dinamo Zagreb began in 2003, 15 different head coaches have been in charge.

Fuball-Club Bayern Mnchene.V., commonly known as FC Bayern Mnchen or FC Bayern

Munich, is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its
professional football team, which plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football
league system, and is the most successful football club in Germany, having won 22 national
titles and 15 cups. The club had its period of greatest success in the middle of the 1970s when,
under the leadership of Franz Beckenbauer, it won the European Cup three times in a row
(197476). In recent years Bayern Munich has been the most successful club in German
football, winning five of the last ten Bundesliga titles. The club's last international title was
the Intercontinental Cup in 2001, after they won their fourth European Cup the same year.
7

http://www.championsleaguewebsites.com/ last visited in December 2012

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Bayern is a membership-based club with more than 185,000 members. There are also 2,764
officially-registered fan clubs with 192,160 members. The club has other departments for
chess, handball, basketball, gymnastics, bowling, table tennis, referees, and senior football
with more than 1,100 active members.
Professional football at Bayern is run by the spin-off organization FC Bayern Mnchen AG.
Bayern is run like a joint stock company, a company whose stock are not listed on the public
stock exchange, but is privately owned. Bayern's main advertising partner and current holder
of the jersey rights is Deutsche Telekom. The main supplier of the club is Adidas. The
premium partners include Paulaner Brewery, Audi, Coca-Cola, Lufthansa, Samsung and
Yingli Solar. Classic sponsors include Siemens, Burger King, Ebel, Fitness First, The LEGO
Group, Schaeffler Group, s.Oliver, Continental, Viagogo, Trentino, Thomas Sabo and
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts.
Bayern has been known to be involved with charitable ventures for a long time, helping other
football clubs in financial disarray as well as ordinary people in misery. In the wake of the
2004 Tsunami the "FC Bayern Hilfee.V." was founded, a foundation that aims to concentrate
the social engagements of the club. At its inception this venture was funded with 600,000,
raised by officials and players of the club. The money was amongst other things used to build
a school in Marathenkerny, Sri Lanka and to rebuild the area of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. In
April 2007 it was decided that the focus of the foundation would shift towards supporting
people in need locally. The club has also time and again shown to have a soft spot for clubs in
financial disarray. Repeatedly the club has supported its local rival 1860 Munich with
gratuitous friendlies, transfers at favorable rates, and direct money transfers. Also when St.
Pauli threatened to lose its license for professional football due to financial problems, Bayern
met the club for a friendly game free of any charge, giving all revenues to St. Pauli. In 2003,
Bayern provided a 2 Million Euro loan without collateral to the nearly bankrupt Borussia
Dortmund which has since been repaid.
Bayern is engaged in other various activities, and most of those are aimed towards two market
- domestic and Asian. Bayern has well established fan-base in Germany, and in recent years
they focused on Asian market, especially after China's rapid economic growth. Bayern also
has high fan-friendly reputation, thus helping them in expansion. Besides standard services,
Bayern also provides unique services - myFCB, which is fan/member service and provides
exclusive information and multimedia; mobile application which includes various multimedia
content - extension of this service is SMART TV, which is mobile tv, created in collaboration
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with Samsung; FCB Banking - special banking service created in collaboration with
HypoVereinsbank; FCB Tours - special touristic offer which includes sports travel, leisure
travel and business travel.

Marketing objectives
-

Increase of membership for 1500 members in 3 years

By forming database, tracking number of members is easy, as well as measuring. Fact
is, most of match attendees are not actually clubs members formal membership will
provide benefits for both fans and club.

Raise brand awareness

It is important for club that has national and international recognition. Despite being
hard to measure, we could examine certain trends for example, comparing number of
kids who joined in youth academy. Taking in consideration that social network
involvement is increasing, increasing social network members could prove essential
for increasing brand awareness. Various social networks have global reach and large
membership base, which helps raising global brand awareness.

Increase sales for 15% in 2 years

Most successful clubs, besides sports success, enjoy also financial success. Also,
trends show that merchandise revenue has considerable percentage in total club
revenues. Based on reports, this can be easily tracked and measured.

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MARKETING MIX 7P
Based on interview with President of the club, Sabahudinujo, management of the club
considered only 4P marketing approach. By them, product is eljezniar, place/distribution is
stadium Grbavica, price is price of tickets (5 KM, 8 KM, 10 KM, 15KM), and promotion was
based mostly on advertising. So, we can conclude that management of the club didn't know
almost nothing about marketing approach.
We will discuss bellow 7P marketing mix.

Proactive service/product
Football club, firstly, offers service of watching football match. That is the core service for
every football club.
Second service is football school for all categories.
Products are tangible things. Those are all products in fan shop, from souvenirs, supporter's
clothes to team jerseys.

Place
Place was maybe the only thing that was well defined previously. It is the stadium Grbavica.
Stadium is the place of providing core service watching football game, and also the place
where fan shop is located.

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Price
-

Regular tickets: 5 KM south stand, 8 KM north stand, 15 KM west stand

Half-season tickets: 35 KM south, 65 KM north
Season tickets: 50 KM south, 80 KM north, 200 KM west

Promotion
Advertising, sales promotion, PR, Blue Days/Nights, social networks

People
People are the most important thing for the club. Players, coaches, even supporters can
improve the quality of service. Players are the front line, they are the distributors of the
service (game). Employees in fan shop are also the front line. Players should be well trained
and prepared for matches to deliver better service. They also should live sportsman life to
impact on consumer perception of a professional football club.

Physical evidence
Tribunes, pitch, fan shop interior, jerseys

Process
Process is an element of service that sees the customer experiencing an organizations
offering. In a football club point of view, it is the participation and presence of supporter on
the stadium, from the beginning of a match to the end. The basic service in process is
watching the two half game, but there should be also considered services in half-time and
before start of the game, like using toilets, buying drinks and snacks or even visiting fan shop
which is on stadium. There is also a free Wi-Fi internet on north stand, so supporters can use
this service while watching football match.

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NEW MARKETING MIX

Proactive Service
Core service, watching a football game could and should be improved by playing every match
in the best squad with best players. Sometimes, when the club have enough points and plays
against some unpopular weaker club, the club doesnt play on top level. So, the service is not
on quality level as it should be, and fans sometimes left stadium with disappointment.
Good core service should be supported with secondary service. In case of eljezniar different
services can be upgraded to improve the core service. Things like reconstruction of toilets,
faster and more professional raid on entranceand opening bars with snacks and drinks can
significantly impact on experience of watching football game.

Place
Stadium Grbavica is probably the most important issue of eljezniar. From entrances to VIP
area, nothing is in accordance with standards of UEFA and FIFA. The mentioned football
associations have funds that are intended for reconstruction of stadiums. Grbavica can be
reconstructed with help of Football Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina (in cooperation
with UEFA) and local community. For the beginning, west tribune should be built. There will
be positioned club premises, changing rooms for players, VIP and media part. All of this
should be done in accordance with UEFA and FIFA standards.

Price
Most of price levels should stay the same for a while, because club has increased some prices
couple years ago, so further increasing is not desirable. Half season ticket for south stand
should be decreased to 30 KM, and for north to 60 KM. Season tickets (50 KM, 80 KM, 200
KM) should remain at this level but with including cup matches.

Promotion/Service communication
New Advertising campaign, sales promotion, gifts for loyal fans, eljo TV, promotional
events (Blue Days/Nights), social network, PR, English version of web page, development of
better internal communication
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People
Main players should come from club own football school. Coaches in all categories including
the first team should be all with professional license. Head coach on matches will wear suit
designed in club colors and emblem of the club.

Physical evidence
As already discussed, reconstruction of stadium and pitch to improve physical ambience.

IMPLEMENTATION
Creating database of supporters - members
This activity is very important. It will provide base for all further activities database will
contain demographic data, as well as specific data regarding club date when they joined,
which type of tickets do they prefer, etc. Every member of club will pay club membership fee
(5 KM) and get membership card. With that card, member of club could get different benefits
like discounts in fan shop and discounts when buying season ticket.
The club would reward 10 members, randomly chosen from database every month, with gifts
from fan shop. The club should also send birthday cards to its members, so building
relationship.

Marketing communication mix

Advertising campaign
Advertising campaign will impact broad audience using mass media. TV advertisement will
include two kinds of commercials:
First one will be commercial that will promote club and give information about next match. It
should last approximately 15 to 20 seconds. First 5 seconds will be a short video of full south
stand (fans singing, great atmosphere). Second part will show a slogan Be part of the
atmosphere (Budi dioatmosfere). Then there will be a short clip with players in action,
after that slogan Be eljo (Budi eljo. The last part will provide information about next
match (opponent, time, price of tickets). At the end Be eljo Be the first one. The
commercial will be emitted on FTV and BHT, Fridays in the end of sports part of Dnevnik
2.
Second scenario will promote season tickets. It will also include clip with great atmosphere at
stadium with slogan Be part of the atmosphere and clip with players in action with slogan
Be eljo. After that: Buy season ticket. Be the first one- Be eljo.
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TV as media will be used for project eljoTV. It will be 20 to 30 minutes program which will
include videos from press conferences, match reports, information about next match, players
as guests and other content. It will be made in cooperation with TVSA.
Radio commercials will provide basic information about next match (opponent, match day
and hour, price of tickets). In the end will be fans shouting with slogan Be eljo or
Mismoeljini - eljo je na. Radio Stari Grad and Radio Sarajevo will be used for this
commercial.
Online advertising is of high importance today, so this kind of advertising should also be used
for advertising campaign of eljezniar. Banners will be made for web portal Klix.ba and
sportsport.ba with link to official web page of the club.
Examples of newspaper advertising can be seen in the next page.
Example of newspaper ad for season tickets

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Example of newspaper ad for next match

Sales promotion
Sales promotion should be used to attract more fans and to reward loyal fans. Here are some
examples of sales promotion tools that should be used:

Price bundling can be used to attract families to stadium. If, for example father and
son come together to buy season tickets, they will get 10% discount.
Discounts of 10% on season tickets for members of club
Discounts for students and retired people- all they have to do is to bring index or
pension check and they get 10% discount on season ticket
Loyal fans (members of club longer than 5 years) should get special discounts (5
years, 10% + 2% discount, 6 years, 10% + 4% discount and so on)

Blue Days/Nights

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Blue Day of Football club eljezniar will be an promotional event that will include
meeting players, visiting of clubs facilities, taking photos with trophies, etc. It is intended for
fans to create special relationship with the club and it will be organized once in two months.
Blue Night is an event for sponsors and partners. The main purpose of this event is
attracting new sponsors and generating fund for the club.

Creating promotional video about stadium

As we have already concluded, the stadium is important issue for the club. Our idea is to
make promotional video that will be sent to UEFA with proper letter signed by legends of the
club as Ivica Osim, Mehmed Badarevi, Hariskoro, Enver Hadiabdi, Refik abanadovi,
Mio Smajlovi. The video will show some historical matches at Grbavica stadium (UEFA
Cup Semi-finals against Videoton). Then it will be a story about how the stadium was at the
frontline with tanks and mines in the war with scenes of Grbavica in flame. After that,
narrator and legends of the club speaking of how the Sarajevo as a capital city needs modern
stadium where FC eljezniar (and FC Sarajevo) could play European matches and where
National team could play its Qualifications for World and European Cup. The same video
should be shown to local authorities and foreign investitors to attract them to give funds for
reconstruction.

Conclusion
Football in Bosnia and Herzegovina is struggling. Football club eljezniar, as all clubs in the
country has problems with infrastructure, financial situation, exodus of every good player to
foreign clubs for smaller amount money than players real value is and the perception of
Premier League is very bad. Most of people think that there is no quality even if they didnt
watch any match.
eljezniar should focus on promotion of his key values like history and tradition, and to
create database of loyal fans. Promoting its matches as events for whole family and so making
special relationship with fans should increase the number of club members. It is important for
a club to build that relationship and to make unity with fans.
Club should often organize events for potential sponsors and partners if it wants to survive. It
should also award fans for their loyalty, but in a profitable way. Today, unfortunately, money
plays football.
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Literature

Babi-HodoviVesna, Marketing usluga: concept, strategije i implementacija,

Ekonomskifakultet Sarajevo, (2010)
Fullerton Sam and Merz Russell. The Four Domains of Sports Marketing: A
Conceptual Framework. Sport Marketing Quarterly.No.17 (2008), pp. 90-108.
Goldman Michael. Post-Crisis Sports Marketing - Business Model Shifts. Managing
Global Transitions: International Research Journal.Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer 2011)
Larson Brian, Jensen Ric, Bowman Nicolas. Developing international sports markets:
professional sports - Selling to new segments with new promotions. Journal of
International Business Disciplines. Vol. 6, No. 2 (November 2011), pp. 9-24.
FC eljezniar official website, http://fkzeljeznicar.ba/
FC Sarajevo official website, http://www.fcsarajevo.ba/
FC irokiBrijegofficieal website, http://www.nk-sirokibrijeg.com/
GNK Dinamo Zagreb official website, http://gnkdinamo.hr/
FC Bayern Munchen official website, http://www.fcbayern.telekom.de

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