B3: Bikes, Blades & Boards Case
Presented By: Alessandra Caruana
Doron Grinberg
Erick Heikkila
Kevin Fong
Milana Dozortsev
Natasa Cvetkovic
B3: Bikes, Blades and Boards Case
Issue Account Executive of ESPN must create a target list of
potential sponsors and select the best fit match for the B3 Tour
event
•Potential sponsors include: Pepsi, Coke, Gatorade, Perrier and
Evian
•There must be a win/win strategy involved for both the sponsor
and the B3 Tour Event.
Alternatives
PEPSI
Pros
•Pepsi’s branding image matches well with the target market at the
B3 Tour.
• Pepsi has the financial backing to accept B3’s sponsor asking
price as the company’s annual global media spending is about $1.4
billion
Cons
•Already has the XGames and is doing well with what it needs to
do to position its brand against traditional Coke.
Alternatives:
COKE
Pros
•Coke is looking to expand into the bottled water market
•B3 would provide the perfect opportunity to test market on
certain demographics.
•Hosts many sports sponsorship events with major team sports
namely baseball, basketball, hockey, golf. Also involved in
NASCAR driving.
Cons
•Current market for extreme sports is not large enough and
therefore doesn’t validate spending billions of dollars battling
Pepsi
•Not a significant share in the Xtreme market
Alternatives
PERRIER
Pros
• Looking to promote Valvert as a national brand to go head to
head with Evian
•B3 would be a great way for Perrier to gain exposure of the
Valvert product.
•Currently controls 2% of the market (sparkling H20) and B3
would be an opportunity for growth
Cons
•Might have a slightly bad reputation because of their tainted
products in the early 90s
•Perrier is not substantially involved or associated in marketing
through sport although it has a strong presence at the French
Open.
GATORADE
Alternatives
Pros
•Gatorade is the original sports drink
•Opportunity to be seen as an official sports beverage of extreme or
aggressive sports.
•Xtreme sports seen as growing trend entering the mainstream sports
market
•Has done little in the past with extreme events. A very good
opportunity, for an effort in this area could yield growth.
•Lost sponsorship with NHL, could have extra capital to invest in
new avenues.
Cons
•Associated with traditional sports
•The risk with approaching Gatorade is that they may be unwilling or
unlikely to take a risk differentiating from their traditional base.
Alternatives
EVIAN
Pros
•Can afford to sponsor B3, thy spend $10 million a year in
advertising
•Wants to expand in the youth market, B3 Tour would be a great
starting point
Cons
•Fitted towards a Fitness driven market (Upper class, Yuppie
Target Market)
•Wants to portray itself as a high-end H20
Gatorade
Evaluation of
Alternatives
Segmentation: The active sports athlete
Target: Male Athletes
Positioning: Leader of sport drink market
Gatorade is looking to strengthen their position as a mainstream
youth brand
They have used Michael Jordan as a spokesperson and this has
further secured their positioning as a leader in the sport drink market.
Their current ‘Is it in You’ marketing campaign enforces both the
functional and emotional benefits of the product.
Gatorade has been involved in grassroots amateur sporting events
and is mostly involved in mainstream sporting activities.
Evaluation of
Alternatives
Pepsi
Segmentation: Youthful generation
Target: Universal market – young and young at heart
Positioning: Leading Cola beverage (2nd industry position)
 Pepsi has a strong presence in the beverage industry as Coke’s
number one competitor.
 However, Pepsi has taken a different stance in the market and
branded themselves as a youthful, ‘forever-young’ company,
positioning itself against traditional Coke.
 Pepsi is active in sport sponsorship and has invested heavily in
the X-Games.
Recommendation
• Gatorade should be chosen as the main sponsor for the B3 Tour.
• A mutual benefit will be experienced for both ESPN and Gatorade.
• The B3 Tour is targeted towards a young male market therefore,
Gatorade would have the opportunity to explore and further secure its
positioning as a leader of a Sports Drink directed to the active, young
athlete.
Recommendations Continued
Gatorade:
B3 Network Products in Networked Markets
USER NETWORK
Spectators (includes live, television
Etc…)
PRODUCER
NETWORK
ESPN
Advantage International
Athletes
Gatorade and other
non-competing sponsors
3
B
COMPLIMENTS
NETWORK
Restaurants
Hotels
Pro-Shops
Media
Sporting Retailers
Implementation
TIMELINE
• Creation
of Sponsorship proposal and presentation to Gatorade
•Continuous contact with the company must be maintained
•After one month, response should be given to ESPN whether or not
Gatorade will be sponsoring.
CONTINGENCY
•If Gatorade does not agree to sponsor the B3
Tour, Pepsi Co should be presented with the
opportunity for All-Sport to participate in the
event.
THE END!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION