Brief Summary:
In John Whaley’s blog post, “Maple Leafs have sights set on expanding growth in China“, John argues that the Toronto Maple Leafs latest idea of expanding marketing into China is a bad idea. He believes that instead of trying to create new revenue streams, the Leafs should be trying to improve their value for “CURRENT” stakeholders opposed to ones that live millions of miles away. He also speaks on the subject that the Leafs also want to become a central figure attached to the NHL when it is looked at worldwide. John claims that for the Leafs to do this they must first be a dominant competitor in the NHL like the New York Yankees are in the MLB. He thinks that expanding globally is more of a long term goal opposed to a short term one.
My Opinions:
I agree that The Toronto Maple Leafs are not in the right position to alter their marketing strategy towards another segment in another part of the world. They are not known enough globally to market themselves in a place like China. Especially since China is not very familiar with the sport of hockey. As John said, they should be more focused on their “current” target market and improving their team in general. An example that is more unrealistic but similar would be if Apple wanted to expand into a place like Africa. Africa is not familiar nor ready for a company like Apple to expand into its continent and Apple is better of remaining in its current target market. I disagree with John’s point that expanding globally should be a long term goal. I believe that this idea is not very realistic and would not benefit the Maple Leafs organization much. My reasoning is because China is not a “hockey country” like Canada and expanding an organizations target segment is much more difficult thing to perform then one may think. In conclusion, I think the Maple Leafs should try to strengthen their product on the ice and continue to attack their original target markets.
This picture shows how China is surrounded by countries like Pakistan and Mongolia who have probably never even heard of hockey.
Source(s) Used:
Whaley, John. “Maple Leafs Have Sights Set on Expanding Growth in China.” John Whaley’s Blog. N.p., 8 Nov. 2014. Web. 8 Nov. 2014. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/jwhaley/2014/11/08/maple-leafs-have-sights-set-on-expanding-growth-in-china/>.
blogs.ubc.ca/jwhaley/2014/11/08/maple-leafs-have-sights-set-on-expanding-growth-in-china
Campbell, Morgan. “Maple Leafs Have Sights Set on Expanding Growth in China.” TheStar.com 7 Nov. 2014: n. pag. Print.