Segmenting and Targeting Markets

The NBA has numerous teams in different cities, sometimes two in one like the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers. Where they are located is usually where their target market will become in reference to geographic segmentation which segments markets by region the region of a country or the world, market size, market density, or climate. For the Chicago Bulls their segmented market will be in Illinois, Chicago to be exact. They use the city of Chicago as the center of their basketball operations and is their most profitable region in terms of ticket sales and merchandise. As stated in previous blog post, it doesn't hurt their cause that they're the only team in the state.

According to Scarborough Research, NBA fans are 60 percent male and 40 percent female. Thirteen percent of fans are ages 18-24, 19 percent 25-34, 20 percent 35-44, 19 percent 45-54, 14 percent 55-64 and 14 percent 65-plus. Ten percent of NBA fans have an average annual household income less than $25,000, with 18 percent between $25,000 and $39,999, 11 percent between $40,000 and $49,999, 18 percent between $50,000 and $74,999, 18 percent between $75,000 and $99,999, 14 percent between $100,000 and $149,999, and 10 percent at $150,000 or more. These numbers help to determine the demographic segmentation which is segmenting markets by age, gender, income, ethnic background, and family life cycle. As you can see, the NBA is very diverse in terms of gender with only a 20 percent discrepancy, in income with the highest discrepancy between two household incomes being 8 percent, and in age with only a 5 percent difference. Although these numbers seem close the Chicago Bulls target market is males 25-34 with an average income between 50,000 and 75,000.

Due to the lockout and its continuality, if the NBA season is canceled there will not only be huge losses in profit but also fans will grow weary and lose interest in the NBA causing less fans to watch and view games in the future. The is bad news considering the NBA had one of their highest t.v. and attendance ratings in recent years, actually since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls. Now with new superstars like Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, etc the NBa is losing fans and their demographics wont look the same next year without an NBA season.