Rose Bowl Twitter SWOT

Rose Bowl

A SWOT analysis is an effective way to look at an organization, and understand its position in the marketplace. The Rose Bowl has a very strong brand on which to draw, built up over 100 years of tradition. The game is instantly recognizable even to casual sports fans. The game itself occupies prime television real estate, further enhancing brand visibility. The Rose Parade is an ancillary event that is also quite famous, again serving to build the brand. Further, the game is contested between the top team in the Pac-12 and the top team in the Big Ten, which means that the game is usually going to be entertaining, with very good teams involved.

There are a few weaknesses, however, for the Rose Bowl. The first issue is that with the institution of the national championship game, the Rose Bowl will not have a conference champion should that team be involved in the national championship game. This means that, in contrast to its glory years, the Rose Bowl game is not of national-level importance. The Rose Bowl is also new to Twitter and to social media in general, which means it has fewer followers than other college sports properties. The Twitter account also is used mostly around the game, being relatively dormant for much of the year. This also leads to poor social media usage -- people will talk about the Rose Bowl game but will not tag the Rose Bowl account. This reduces the effectiveness and reach of the account.

The major opportunity right now is that the Rose Bowl remains a popular game with a high level of exposure. The Twitter account is underutilized by the audience, and as a result there is opportunity to grow Twitter exposure for the Rose Bowl. The television audience in particular is very large, and because of the tight demographic that college football has, there are tremendous marketing opportunities associated with the Twitter account. That said, there are threats as well. The major threat is that there is a lack of control on Twitter, and people could convey negative messages on the Twitter account. This lack of control is not necessarily healthy for the Rose Bowl brand.

Target Audience

The target audience for the Rose Bowl is a slightly expanded version of the college football audience. Statistics compiled by ESPN show that the target market for college football is 94% male, with 63% between the ages of 18-34, and a median age of 34. A total of 45% of this market is single. Most attended at least some college, 87%, and most have full-time employment as well. The average household income of this target market is $69,200. What this shows is that the market for college football consists on young, educated males, many of whom are well-employed and earning good paychecks. So this is a desirable target market, because marketers can reach this audience during young adulthood, before their purchasing patterns are established. Once their purchasing patterns are more well-established, they are also less likely to follow college football closely. These are also fans of the sport in general, as their second-favorite sport is NFL football. It should be noted that different sources report different things about the college football demo -- one source has it 40% 55+ in age, and 80%+ white (Thompson, 2014). The ESPN survey was conducted online, which probably explains why it skews younger than the other survey. The Rose Bowl's audience might be a little broader because of its profile, and it will also be concentrated in Southern California. There will be large audiences from the fans of the schools playing, so if the University of Washington is playing the Seattle audience will be much larger than year, for example.