Adaptive Sports

at
The University of Michigan

Together We Play, Together We Unite

Christopher Baunoch, ​baunoch@umich.edu
Sam DeVecchi, ​samdevec@umich.edu
Vanessa Krause, ​vakrause@umich.edu
Isaiah Paige, ​ivpaige@umich.edu
Patrick Schaeffer, ​pdschaef@umich.edu
Luke Wilson, ​lukewils@umich.edu
SM 246 Sec 001: Marketing Plan
December 12th, 2018
Executive Summary

Adaptive sports are competitive or recreational sports for people with various types of

disabilities, physical or mental. In collaboration with the University of Michigan Recreational

Sports department, we hope to bring adaptive sports to campus as soon as possible, while also

marketing the product effectively in order to raise awareness and participation in this program.

Our goal is to involve as many people as possible, regardless of their ability or impairment, while

trying to achieve at the highest level during physical activity. In hopes of first building this

aforementioned public awareness, rather than prematurely rolling out the program in its entirety,

we suggest initially presenting two sports, wheelchair football and wheelchair basketball, with

the sport of goalball following soon thereafter. We feel that this will allow popularity for the

program to increase at a steady rate instead of risking the possibility of stretching our resources

too thin.

In order to build a network of willing and eager student volunteers to take part in this

club, we have created a number of marketing plans to better reach out to the student body. One

piece of our plan includes setting up a booth at Festifall in close proximity to other sports clubs.

This will not only draw more attention to the club, but it will also help increase legitimacy as a

mainstream club at the university. At Festifall, we hope to collect interested student’s email

addresses, so that they can be added onto the official Adaptive Sports Club emailing list. Those

who sign up will also be given a wristband, akin to the Livestrong bracelets of the early 2000’s.

By handing out these wristbands, our members and those who signed up at Festifall essentially

market the product for us by word of mouth. To quote founder and general manager of Nike

Livestrong Scott MacEachern, “The nice thing about a wristband is that it lives on. The bike ride

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doesn’t. There’ll be pictures of the bike ride and people will talk about the bike ride, but unless

it goes on every year, even if it does go on every year, it doesn’t live on as a reminder every day

of this sort of stuff. But this wristband does.” We hope to capture this same sentiment in our

wristband idea. Hopefully, students will proudly wear their wristbands around campus in

support of making the University of Michigan a more inclusive campus for those with

disabilities. This will inevitably lead to curious students and friends asking each other what their

wristband is for, leading to an open discussion about the club, therein boosting the Adaptive

Sports Club’s campus presence.

Another piece of our plan requires us to work closely with the Michigan Athletic

Department with the potential opportunity of showcasing the program to a degree at certain

Michigan athletics games as part of the halftime entertainment. While it could be difficult to

convince Michigan football, given the band’s historical presence as the halftime entertainment,

to take part in this it is still worth mentioning nonetheless. Having a brief five-minute long

wheelchair football game played at the Big House during halftime would be massive for the

organization, as we could potentially reach out to over 100,000 people at once. Alternatively,

this could also be done at smaller Michigan sporting events, like volleyball and other sports in

which you could quickly and seamlessly transform the court or field to something suitable for

wheelchair football. This plan also works especially well for wheelchair basketball as one could

easily set up a short game during halftime of any men’s or women’s Michigan basketball game,

similar to how professional hockey teams often have brief games between local kid’s teams at

intermission. This would be another excellent way to get the program’s name out there to a large

audience in a very short period of time. Additionally, having the participants as part of a local

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wheelchair basketball team for veterans or other disabled persons in the Detroit-Ann Arbor area

could be a great way to show off the benefits of this organization, while also showcasing

extremely talented players. Overall, we feel that utilizing these resources offered to us at the

University of Michigan, whether that be through the Athletic Department or through the sheer

number of students on campus, is a great way to grow awareness and membership in the

Adaptive Sports Club in relatively short order.

S.W.O.T. Analysis

As with any new product or service to be provided, there are things to be considered to

determine how viable that product or service will be. The first set of things to analyze are the

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Here is the S.W.O.T. analysis for the new

Adaptive Sports program at the University of Michigan:

Strengths

With a completely new product being implemented into club sports at a big university

like Michigan, there are many strengths that come with the addition. One key strength that is

conspicuously evident is the inclusion factor of adaptive sports that is extremely important to

many students on campus. The main purpose of adaptive sports is to include anyone, regardless

of physical capabilities, to be able to perform in sports at a high level and compete. Which plays

right into the ideals of students. College is a time that many people are attempting to figure out

their lives and be around people with similar interests as them. Adaptive sports allows anybody

from any type of background to partake in a sports atmosphere with people who think the same

way with more than likely several similar interests. To go along with that, adaptive sports is a

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relatively new trend in the world and universities so there is room for errors and adjustments to

be made. The inclusion of people interested in sports and physical activity, combined with the

newness of the events allows adaptive sports to have numerous strengths that will help them

prevail.

Weaknesses

Due to the newness and inability to test any tangible results, there are no true weaknesses

for adaptive sports. The topic is new and until tested, no weaknesses can be identified.

Opportunities

Opportunities with adaptive sports are a big factor because improvements will need to be

made fast as the program gets underway. The ability to add a new program at university that is so

diverse and so large allows an incredibly large audience to be reached. Adaptive sports is given

the opportunity to build a lasting legacy at the University of Michigan and affect countless lives

in and outside the Ann Arbor community. Alongside that, adaptive sports allows the “feel good”

factor to come into play when able-bodied students volunteer their time to compete with those

who aren’t as fortunate as themselves. Humans do have the natural tendency to want to perform

good deeds, and adaptive sports allows people to redefine themselves and begin their journey on

the right track of who they want to be.

Threats

With everything, threats are always an issue that needs to be considered. Being in a

college community with a top tier medical hospital means that there will be similar events held

between them that are similar to adaptive sports. Mott’s Children hospital will have easy access

to players that we would want to see in our league and have the distinguished presence as one of

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the leading hospitals in the world. In order to gain any traction, working with them will have to

be of the utmost concern. In our research, we also found other small leagues who provide

adaptive spotts to local kids in the area, so we must also keep even those leagues in consideration

due to the easiness of location and relationship built with their athletes already. Adaptive sports

is a new playing field, but others have caught onto the trend and requires us to make calculated

moves to acquire customers.

P.E.S.T.L.E. Analysis

The next set of analysis that needs to be considered is a set of factors called a

P.E.S.T.L.E. Analysis. These elements include political, economic, social, technological, legal,

and environmental. Here are the aspects of this analysis that apply to the Adaptive Sports

program at the University of Michigan:

Political

One of the biggest political elements is that the University of Michigan students are

mainly liberal. Liberal people tend to think of helping others and lean more towards volunteer

work. This works hand in hand and would help with getting people to participate in adaptive

sports. This could also give the University of Michigan an upper hand in terms of breaking

boundaries and being innovative in this line of sports. There has also been a movement

politically towards a more inclusive environment in the political world as a whole which would

directly affect our adaptive sports as well.

Social

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 T​​he biggest social element is the idea that people would get a “feel good” mentality

regardless if they are an able-bodied participant or a disabled participant. The idea that you are

contributing to making someone's day makes this idea of adaptive sports worth while. The

simple idea that you can make someone else smile and help a good cause ultimately is the

biggest social factor. Other social aspects could include the idea that it creates a more inclusive

environment for everyone who is participating and creates the environment to make new friends

and hangout with peers.

Legal

There would be a lot of legal loops we would have to jump through in order to maintain

legality for the adaptive sports teams. One of our main priorities would be to make sure that all

of the disabled participants had complete security and to make sure that there would be no legal

liabilities for faulty equipment or legal suits for people who get even more injured. We would

have to make sure that there has not been any legal liabilities in the past for adaptive sports

activities either.

Marketing Mix

Product

Adaptive Sports at the University of Michigan will be marketed as an experience rather

than traditionally as a product. The “product” that we are to be marketing is the experience of

participation in the Adaptive Sports for both able-bodied and people with some form of

disability, whether it is physical or mental.

Place

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 The adaptive sports that we will seek to market in this marketing plan will be wheelchair

flag football, wheelchair basketball, and goalball. The place that wheelchair flag football will

take place are Glick Fieldhouse, the Big House, the Indoor Track Center, and Mitchell Field.

The smaller venues like the ITC, and Mitchell Field will be used for small tournaments, league

games, and other qualifying events. These smaller fields call for smaller venues. The larger

venues like Glick Fieldhouse and the Big House will be used for the larger, more

championship-like games and matches. There will also be different venues for which season the

competition is taking place in. The Big House and Mitchell Field will be used in the spring, fall,

and summer, or at least while the weather is still warm enough. The ITC and Glick Fieldhouse

will be used when the weather turns to cold weather or if field conditions are too poor.

Wheelchair basketball and Goalball, on the other hand, will take place in the Intramural

Sports Building and the Crisler Center. Similar to the wheelchair flag football, there will be

different venues based on the tier of the event. The small, qualifying type of events will be held

in the Intramural Sport Building for both the Goalball events and Wheelchair basketball events.

Then once the larger, higher-level events come around, they can be held in the Crisler Center at

the University of Michigan.

Price

Another important thing to take note of when it comes to adaptive sports is that if one

were to take part in adaptive sports, it would be a free service. Individuals would not be charged

to participate and we believe this will do nothing but help the unity at the University of Michigan

as it will be more accessible and easier for any student to take action. This would increase the

chances of involvement from the whole student body which would help enhance our sense of

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community in Ann Arbor. We do expect that necessary equipment would be paid for and

provided by Michigan Rec Sports as not all people may be able to provide it for themselves.

Promotion

Promotion for these sports would be done first through social media and email blasts to

people registered with intramural sports. Once that has been done then the shift goes to

marketing at sporting events around campus through announcements and half-time

demonstrations of the games. Once all of those have been done, the marketing should move to

flyering on boards around campus and at the recreation buildings and through word of mouth.

Goals

In any new program or change in marketing, it is important to establish a set of

quantitative goals. These goals should be differentiated between a short term and a long term.

Our goals for the Adaptive Sports program at the University of Michigan will be shown as short

term, within six months, and long term, anything longer than six months.

Short Term Goals

Our first goal to achieve within the first six months of the Adaptive Sport program at U

of M is to find a club, or clubs, to partner with to stretch our reach of participants in the program.

Without a group of charter participants, this program will be unlikely to get off the ground if

there are not a group of people to start off in selling this experience for us. If Rec Sports can

partner with 3 clubs or organizations on campus, in addition to getting the word out through our

social media platform and with our awareness wristbands. The best organizations to partner with

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could be fraternities and sororities, due to their philanthropic efforts and potential desire for

community outreach types of events.

Our second goal is to develop an Adaptive Sports Club under the Student Life and

Recreational Sports umbrella. This club could help keep funding for the programs all in one

place and allow for better expansion of the sports that could be offered. The establishment of this

club could also help keep track of participants of the Adaptive Sports program. If there were a

specific club for the adaptive sports that the university will be offering then it can be better

tracked who is coming most often and who is participating in these programs and we can get

feedback on how to continue to better the programs offered.

Long Term Goals

The main long term goal of the Adaptive Sports Program at the University of Michigan is

to increase membership and participation in the sports. One way that this could be achieved

would simply be to grow membership of the Adaptive Sports Club to over 100 members. With a

group of members and a club this size, there is room for a lot of reach throughout campus. Once

membership in the club gets this large, it will be easy to widen the range of sports offered to

things outside of Goalball, Wheelchair Flag Football, and Wheelchair Basketball.

Another long term goal for the Adaptive Sports Program is to gain partnership and

recognition from Best Buddie. A partnership with Best Buddies could lead to a greater outreach

with the larger Ann Arbor community outside of just the University of Michigan. Having a hand

in the Ann Arbor community will help show the greater purpose of why adaptive sports are

important. It will help give all types of people in the City of Ann Arbor a way to connect through

the power of sports and sport participation.

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 The last major long term goal for this program on our radar is to petition to the NCAA

and gain a connection with the Special Olympics and Paralympics. There a very few colleges and

universities around the United States that offer an adaptive sports program. Once the

participation of the U of M Adaptive Sports Program grows, we would like to petition the NCAA

to recognize it as an official team that could allow for members of this club to compete with

other schools’ adaptive sports teams. It is every person’s right to have an opportunity to live their

dreams and that shouldn’t be taken away by any form of disability. Intercollegiate adaptive sport

competition would give many people the opportunity to live their dreams of being a collegiate

athlete. Once there is intercollegiate competition, this will provide an outlet into the Paralympics

and Special Olympics, the next level of competition.

In conclusion, we see the best plan of attack to get an adaptive sports program at the

University of Michigan is to market wheelchair basketball, wheelchair flag football, and

goalball. These sports would be the easiest to get up and running given the facilities that we have

the closest access to. Our idea for the marketing and promotion of these sports would be first

through social media and email blasts to people registered with intramural sports. Once that has

been done then the shift goes to marketing at sporting events around campus through

announcements and half-time demonstrations of the games. Once all of those have been done,

the marketing should move to flyering on boards around campus and at the recreation buildings

and through word of mouth. These will be the key ways to get the adaptive sports program at the

University of Michigan off and running.

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