MLB New Premium Categories

Major League Baseball is a professional baseball association that comprises both the American League and the National League. Currently, there are 30 teams within the MLB, 29 of which are United States based and one that is based in Canada. The MLB is perhaps the most known professional sports league in the United States and Canada, providing exceptional baseball playing for consumers. Throughout the years, Major League Baseball has performed many different marketing techniques to appeal to fans. Currently, Major League Baseball has started a new target marketing concept to appeal to fans in both countries. 

The concept will be to collect more data about consumers who visit their websites, both fans in both countries in an effort to create new premium categories for online advertisers and increase the profits that currently are being made from media properties (Roberts). Since social media is a primary consumer trend as of late, analysis of this concept should prove to be wise. Consumer opinions and trends indicate that much of consumer purchases are online. It will be important for MLB to monitor the social media dynamics that are taking place as analysis has shown that consumers use platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to provide immediate reaction to certain new marketing products and services. Companies are having to continually "shift their emphasis to technologies and platforms that make listening more important" (Dan) in order to fine tune their online marketing.

With the concept of planning to create new premium categories for online advertisers, MLB will be able to "identify affluent audiences based on a range of demographic, behavioral and purchasing attributes and target them across all MLB properties. The ad initiative reflects MLB's role as the most tech-savy sports league" (Roberts). Internet implications of this will be vast because MLB can now begin targeting consumers who are on all social networks and not limit themselves solely to Facebook and Twitter, which are the two most well-known. It's important to note that Twitter is effective because of its effectiveness model (eWOM). With other social networks such as LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram, MLB will be able to capitalize their new services in a better capacity.

One area needing examination is the information that is collected from consumers. While it is important for MLB to market their new services, there are legal issues in social media that companies need to factor into their marketing technique in order to avoid any problems. The legal issues in social media are: “disclosure of confidential information. The best protection is to update policies and procedures so that [consumers] are aware of information that is being disclosed to advertisers; privacy, where companies must ensure that no regulations are being violated on social media sites [with their new concept] as well as endorsement issues, which require bloggers and other users of social media to disclose any paid endorsements” ("Top 10 Legal Issues In Social Media"). By incorporating these particular issues regarding social media into their marketing analysis of the premium categories, it will allow MLB to avoid potential problems down the road.

Since advertising will be done on the Internet, MLB will have an immeasurable reach. Internet advertising allows for more targeting than the traditional advertising route does. This will ensure that what they intend to do: create premium categories can be executed successfully. MLB understands that the more people their business serves, the more cost-efficient their advertising efforts will be in appealing to consumer economics. The sole reason for this new marketing concept, as all marketing concepts, is to generate more revenue. MLB is positioning themselves to be a technology giant with this new proposed marketing strategy by targeting their Internet consumers, as well as consumers who do not currently use their media properties.

Works Cited

Dan, Avi. "When It Comes To Social Media, Consumers Tell Brands To Speak Only When Spoken To." Forbes 31 Mar. 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidan/2013/03/31/when-it-comes-to-social-media-consumers-tell-brands-to-speak-only-when-spoken-to/. Accessed14 Apr. 2013. 

Roberts, Jeff J. "MLB plans ad exchanges to target premium baseball fans."paidContent. Gigaom, 11 Apr. 2013, http://paidcontent.org/2013/04/11/mlb-plans-ad-exchanges-to-target-premium-baseball-fans/. Accessed14 Apr. 2013

"Top 10 Legal Issues In Social Media." Neal & McDevitt, LLC, 2010, http://www.bartonchicago.com/pdf/socialmedia.pdf. Accessed14 Apr. 2013.