Knowing what to do... what not to do

I've always worked under the guiding principles that having a strategy is not (just) about defining the path forward with clarity and definitive outcomes, but importantly, about defining what not to do and why.

And so, one of my biggest points of focus and priorities since joining the Port Adelaide Football Club has been working to define a marketing strategy that addresses this with both one an eye on the future and one on the 'now', specifically focused around:

• Fan development growth;

• Season membership growth;

• Home-game attendance growth;

• Merchandise sales growth;

• Fan engagement evolution both in and out of season as well as in and out of stadium;

• Commercial partnership development.

Without being able to reveal the confidential detail of these our targets, the pursuit of these will be underpinned by a simple three-phased approach that I believe is core to the development of all marketing strategies, specifically in a bid to define and answer the following three questions:

• Who is our target audience/s?

• What are we trying to achieve with this target audience/s?

• How we will get this target audience/s to do what we need them to do?

A sequential three-phased approach

Part of delivering a strategy that is realistic and actionable, is to really understand exactly what it is that you're working within - the market. Phase 1 will therefore set the foundation for the development of my strategy through market research. Combined, this will not only reveal the dynamics and elements of the market we operate within, importantly, it will for the first time, allow me to segment our market to prioritise our targets and opportunities.

It's going to be a fascinating journey, one that will set out to bring a lot of sophistication and rigour to what we do and don't do as a Club. For benefit and perhaps interest, I look forward to sharing what I can from this journey.