Written Assignment 1: Incentive Plan

Running Head: MIAMI DOLPHINS INCENTIVE PLAN 1

MIAMI DOLPHINS INCENTIVE PLAN 2

Miami Dolphins Incentive Plan

Marquail Johnson

Liberty University

08/23/2019

Miami Dolphins Incentive Plan

All organizations use incentives in an attempt to accomplish their goals or as a way of encouraging and motivating their employees. In the same case, sports clubs have also been using incentives in driving their players and creating a fan base. Miami Dolphins is one of the clubs that have applied incentives in reaching all their fans (Hubbard, 1997). Typically, Miami Dolphins is based in the Miami metropolitan area and competes in the national league. The paper will look at the incentive plan of the Miami Dolphins and its application. The Miami Dolphins, a member of the National Football League (NFL) located in Miami, Florida, are one club that has utilized incentives to reach their fan base through activities such as … (Author, date). Comment by Julie Powell: Please turn off full justification as this is not in alignment with APA formatting. Comment by Julie Powell: True - How did you come to know this statement to be true? What academic evidence can be provided that supports this idea and allows the reader to believe the statement is factual? Comment by Julie Powell: 10 Years – If you’re writing a paper in an APA discipline, you should try not to include sources that are more than 10 years old. For this reason, journal articles and recent reports are more important than books. Since the focus is on expanding and exploring previous research, APA Style focuses on the research rather than the researcher, which is why the References page includes only surnames and initials instead of authors’ first names. Comment by Julie Powell: If you mention that they are already using incentives, you must share what some of those are.

The Miami dolphins have devised ways that will increase their incentives to their supporters. One of the methods has been to advocate for mobile wallet usage. In mobile wallet usage, the fans have been allowed to book their ticket using a mobile application. Typically, the app has been reserved for buying tickets on events that involve the Miami Dolphins. In this sense, it would be prudent to get an accurate representation of the number of people that are supporting the club. Fundamentally, the app has been powered Venuetize, which has been giving robust experience to the fans at any place they may be. The advantage of the app is that the fans o the team can follow a game live from the Hard Rock Stadium (Evans, Lock & Kovalchik, 2016). In 2019, the app has been modified to increase mobile wallet usage as it expands on fan engagement. It means that the tailgate supplies can be orders directly from the stadium without going to the offices of the team. There is an excellent customer service that readily offers help to any stuck fan. At the same time, the club has provided a 10% reduction for every purchase that will be done through the app. Now, it means that more fans would need to get the app for its convenience and the incentives that it offers. In the end, all the fan using the app will feel connected to the team because they can follow live updates from the app. The incentives mean that the club also cares about them in a significant way. Comment by Julie Powell: Compound – This section is a great place to combine sentences for a compound sentence which provide better flow to the writing. This combination can also assist with utilizing proper citations. Consider combining sentences and varying the sentence structure to allow the reader to track easily with the concepts being presented. Comment by Julie Powell: Citation Needed - Include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. In addition, any information that can be verified needs a citation included. For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list. APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). Each time an author’s idea is used, that sentence must have a citation. Comment by Julie Powell: True - How did you come to know this statement to be true? What academic evidence can be provided that supports this idea and allows the reader to believe the statement is factual? Comment by Julie Powell: Expert – According to what experts? Was this information provided by the authors of the text for the course or some other academic reference? Who in your research has stated this as factual which led you to make this a part of your paper? How do you know this statement is true?

The other way of creating incentives would be through loyalty card solutions. For the fans that are not using the mobile wallet app, the club has designed and a card payment program as a way of rewarding the fans. The reason for this kind of incentive is that the firm intended to reward both the season ticket holders and the non-season ticket holders. In the card, the club has offered exclusive promotions to the fans, which includes the ability to rebate and redeemed points in a game. In another platform, the clubs award points to the fans that have purchased tickets for an extended period consecutively and then allow them to redeem those points into a voucher (Bruning & Chen, 2016). The cards also allow for customization, which will enable fans to invite their friends. For the fans that are non-seasonal, the sign-up procedure will give those offers on reduced prices on tickets or foodstuffs within the stadium. The move will be essential to the Miami Dolphins in different ways. One of the methods is that the popularity of the club will increase. More fans would want to be associated with clubs that give them offers for watching a game and earning points that would be used to their advantage. On the same note, the loyalty card is essential as it provides the clubs with valuable demographics of the fan base. Mostly, this will help the club in planning areas that they would want to rally for more support. Comment by Julie Powell: Where does this idea come from? Add a citation. Support Needed - Supporting information from academic research is needed to justify these concepts. Consider that you are presenting to the sport organization identified here and must prove to them why this particular strategic plan is advantageous for them to implement. The ideas must be proven to be successful. More evidence is needed from research about WHY these selections are advantageous for the sport organization. Review this site for a better explanation: https://www.coursehero.com/file/8941740/APA-Manual-Chapters-6-7/

The other part of the incentives is to increase fan benefits. A team is made up of players, but without the support of the fans, it would not be possible to thrive. In the fan benefits, the club has launched an electronic loyalty card program that is different fan cards. The card will be useful in engaging with the fans and attract new ones to the game. Aside from the usual loyal fans, the card is awarded to everybody who watches the NFL games (Dreisbach et al., 2018). The experience they get with the card will then transfer them from ordinal fans to the loyal ones. One of the benefits that come with the loyalty cards is that the fans will have discounts and other privileges for supporting the team. Such privileges would include attending training sessions of the team. In addition, they can also be allowed to meet-and-greet their favorite players. The experience will have a significant impact on the fans, which makes them loyal. When the team is performing well, the fans will be there to cheer, and when the firm is performing below expectations, the loyal fans will also be there to raise the spirits of the team. Comment by Julie Powell: Citation needed.

The other incentive has been focused on raising the salary of the players and the coaching staff. The raise has helped the club in retaining their best players as they attract few other good players from other teams. The rise in salary has also shown the commitments of the players and the management to the club (Bruning & Chen, 2016). Aside from an increase in salary, the clubs have also introduced some benefits to both the players and the fans. The players will be offered, and a bonus in every match that they win. Substantially, this will increase motivation and the desire to win, which is the ultimate goal of the club. When it comes to the fan, they will be refunded 30% of their ticket price for every match that the club loses. The move has shown that the club cares about the satisfaction of the fans, which will further increase loyalty.

In closing, it's essential to state that an incentive plan is useful for every sports club or management. In the Miami Dolphins, there is a likelihood of increasing the number of loyal fans through an incentive program. Fans can use mobile wallets while inside and outside the field on services such as following live updates. It shows that people will want the app. As mentioned earlier, the fan cards and the electronic ones will play different roles, but the end goal would be to satisfy the fans. As the club has adopted such strategies, the performance will be raised, and the brand grows bigger. Comment by Julie Powell: Length – What can be eliminated or added from the content in order to fall within the length parameters provided for the assignment?

References

Bruning, J. K., & Chen, S. (2016). Trends in Funding Renovations and New Facilities for National Football League Team Venues. Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 45.

Dreisbach, J., Woisetschläger, D. M., Backhaus, C., & Cornwell, T. B. (2018). The role of fan benefits in shaping responses to sponsorship activation. Journal of Business Research.

Evans, S., Lock, D., & Kovalchik, S. (2016). Careers in sports analytics—Highlights of an ASA webinar. Chance, 29(4), 34-46.

Hubbard, S. A. (1997). Shark Among Dolphins: Inside Jimmy Johnson's Transformation of the Miami Dolphins. Ballantine Books.