Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making


How many professional baseball teams are there in the world? Well, a lot.
Then, you might be curious. Why NY yankees? What have led them to be the best? Why are they the most famous team in the world? Why do people follow the yankees?

There are several reasons why people choose the yankees among the numerous baseball teams in the world.

1. NY Yankees is the one of the MLB teams.
  We can assume or argue that only the MLB teams play the best game in the world.
  However, no one can deny MLB is the top of the world's baseball leagues. All of the
  MLB teams take advantages of just being the part of MLB. Likewise, The yankees, the
  biggest team of MLB, takes advantages like the others do.

2. Advantage of being located in NYC.
  NY Yankees is the baseball team of NYC. NYC, one of the most attractive and
  desirable city in the world, brings the yankees more opportunities to expand their
  business. So many people in NYC have different backgrounds. They come from
  different cities or countries. Not only people who are from NYC, but also people who
  are from another part of the world can love the yankees. They can make their people
  to become a fan of the yankees.

3. Name value as 'NY Yankees'
 This factor goes similar with the second one. Many people have sort of fantasies about
 NYC. NY has the name value as itself. Same things happen with the name
 'NY Yankees'. The yankees has brand power as itself. The city contributes to work it.
 People consume NY Yankees itself and also the name value of NYC.

4. The new Yankees stadium.
 The new stadium provides better environment to watch their game. It's good news for
 the fans. And also there are so many tourists out there in the city, and they eager to
 experience the new stadium. This can be led to the power of ticket selling and another
 opportunities to attract new fans.

WCh. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

WCh. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

 In this globalized world, the yankees is one of the most powerful sport team in the world like Manchester united. As fast as the world is globalized in any field of our lives, MLB fans get increased fast. Their nationalities are no problem to watch any MLB games, but most of players are white. It sounds strange a little bit.

 Many teams spend so much money to trade good players and to find good future players. Many scouters say talented players are limited. However, there are so many talented players out there who can't get opportunities to play in MLB.The good thing is that the yankees noticed the importances of the international player market and started paying attention to international players, and the yankees looks doing better than before.

 Of course, the yankees are already the best if we only consider their name value. But, they still have potential to perform better. For example, If they get a good international player, the yankees also can expect not only better results in a season, but also they can expect their international fans get increased without additional advertising. Some people who might fans of a player but not fans of the yankees can be the yankees' fan. Also, if the player is one of the top players in a country, the country can be friendly and opened to the yankees. It can lead to plenty of chances to expand their business. More sponsors, for example.

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment 


The yankees, they sell services. Their fans buy tickets for the services that the yankees provide. Most of companies who sell goods can appeal to their consumers much easier than some companies who sell services like the yankees. They can advertise exactly what things are better than another companies' products. However, companies who sell services have difficulties to get attention because it's difficult to prove how good they are. The most common and the easiest way are to appeal to their fans for their loyalties or impress to their potential fans. (Of course, they also need to provide better services)

So, how? what can they do in this globalized society?

As all we know, social networking has been developed and it's so popular now. Numerous people in the world have social networking accounts. As the most popular baseball team in the world, the yankees started using social networking to communicate with their loyal fans and potential fans.

By borrowing a sentence in the text book, one recent study found that 54 percent of Facebook users who "liked" a company's or brand's Facebook page were much more likely to purchase that brand.

Here is a captured picture of their official Facebook page. You can also see there are more sports teams' official pages.

Don't be surprised by the big numbers in this picture.

The yankees posted this picture 12 hours ago. 1,442 people shared this and 18,752 people liked this already. Although all of these people were their loyal fans, much more people who are friends of them but not the yankees' fans can see this picture too. They can be interested in the yankees and can become fans. The communication through social networking sites like Facebook is much faster and effective as we can see the big numbers in these pictures.

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

Ch. 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

A code of ethics of the yankees doesn't exist officially. However, some unwritten ethical behaviors exist. All of sports have unwritten ethical behaviors for a game, players, guests, coaches and even employees of a stadium.

Many ethical rules can be applied for them, but I assume the most important ethic for a baseball team is to play every game ethically. Don't cheat on another team or their fans. Cheating actually happens frequently in many games among players or between players and guests. Like many other baseball teams or any sports teams, the yankees follow the basic ethical rules. For example, hiding balls in a baseball game. It's not illegal, but sneaky and also it's not ethical behavior as a player.

The yankees have so many fans over the world. They want to visit the yankees' game and they actually do. In other words, so many people are at the yankees' stadium in the same time. This means so many problems can be happened and it can be any criminal or social issues. The yankees have responsibilities to prevent these problems before it happens in real and they have to take care of it.

The yankees don't have a official code of ethics, but they do have a guest code of conduct. They announce the code with this explanation.

"The Yankees' storied history and tradition are a reflection not only of the manager, players, coaches and front-office staff, but also of Guests visiting Yankees Stadium. The Yankees want all Guests to be able to enjoy the fun and excitement of Stadium events in a safe and comfortable environment. Guests will be treated in a consistent, professional and courteous manner by all Yankees Stadium Team Members, and the Yankees ask Guests for the same in return. To help maintain an enjoyable environment, the following guidelines have been established."
                                                   - Yankees Stadium Reference Guide


(You can find more information about their guest code of conduct here:
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/ballpark/information/index.jsp?content=conduct)

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage 

Do you know how many baseball teams are in the MLB? There are 15 teams in the American League and 15 teams in the National League for a total of 30. Do you know all of the teams? Can you list the teams without any hesitation? Although sport businesses make a lot of revenues, it is very competitive market. The 30 teams can't make revenues equally and can't be in same position. Their sponsors, players, majority owners or coaches have different capabilities. That means there should be ranks of them.

Baseball league is a sport business. The purpose of a business is making more profits. There are so many ranks are existing for comparing the teams. However, one of the most important aspect is how much popular they are. Because their popularities are related to their consumers. 

As you can see in the map, the most teams have their fans based on the team's regions. However, the most interesting result of this is the yankees have fans across the U.S. If we think about the population differences of each sates, it's really hard to compare the numbers of their fans using this map. Also, MLB is not only for americans. 

Unlike the map, this chart shows the yankees' popularity clearly. The numbers of the yankees' fans guarantee the yankees' business is running well. 

Secondly, we can compare how valuable the teams are. Almost every things of the business are considered to measure their values. 

This graph shows that the yankees are the most valuable team of the 30 teams. Also, the yankees won in team revenue, gate receipts, concessions, sponsorship, media rights of team rankings. 

This list proves the valuation of the yankees was not a coincidence. They've been doing well till now. It means their business is doing well, not the team wins many times. As many people know, the yankees don't play well this year. But their business is still the top of MLB as we can see in the list. As the most valuable team among the 30 teams, the yankees can get more opportunities to get financial supporting from others or their sponsors can invest more money for their business.   

Ch. 1 - Overview of Marketing (Brief History and Mission Statement)

Ch. 1 - Overview of Marketing  (Brief History and 

Mission Statement)



* Brief History of the New York Yankees *

The New York Yankees is the one of the worldwide famous baseball team now. According to the their information on their official website, this team was founded in 1901 in Maryland, Baltimore as the Baltimore Orioles. After 2 years, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the team and then move the team to Manhattan. The New York franchise is approved as a member of the American League and will be known as the "Highlanders" and their home field "Hilltop Park." In 1913, The Highlanders are officially renamed the "Yankees" after moving to the Polo Grounds, home of the National League's New York Giants.



* Mission Statement of the New York Yankees *

How do many people know about their mission? Not only winning every seasons, but also they do care about more things beyond the game. They informed their mission statement on their website as "The mission of the Foundation is to promote and sustain a cordial, cooperative relationship between the New York Yankees and its neighbors, and working together to enhance the life throughout the surrounding community."