Marketing Case Study
Project Description:
The St. Louis Cardinals baseball organization is housed in Busch Stadium (the third incarnation of Busch Stadium since the 1950s). Despite being located in a relatively small market, the Cardinals have high attendance records because of great service, talented athletes, and a winning record. Effective services marketing at the ballpark makes attending games an enjoyable experience for fans, whether the Cardinals win or lose.
1. What part of your experience at a baseball game is primarily intangible? What are you paying for when you go to a ballgame?
2. Consumers have difficulty separating the producer (the Cardinals and Busch Stadium) from the consumption experience (which includes fan behavior, food vending, seats, or bleachers). Why would this be important for the management at Busch Stadium to understand? In other words, can you go see a winning team play but not enjoy the game, or vice-versa?
3. Busch Stadium holds around 47,000 fans. What difference does it make that services are highly perishable? How would this influence sales promotion activity?
4. What aspects of the baseball game experience are susceptible to heterogeneity? What does this say about the importance of employing high-quality personnel?