Group 6                                                                                                   Final Paper: Prince Tennis      “Prince is committed to continually delivering top-quality tennis products in all categories – outfitting players with the very best in footwear, apparel, strings, balls, accessories, and more.” (Prince Tennis) This is the mission statement given by Prince Tennis on their website, www.princetennis.com.  Prince is a company that specializes in tennis racquets, balls, ball machines, footwear, and apparel. According to Prince’s website, “Prince has continually revolutionized the game” with the introduction of new racquets and equipment.

    The company started in 1977, when Bob McClure built Little Prince. Little Prince was the first ball machine for home court use and was developed in McClure's very own garage in Princeton, NJ. From this one homemade product came a whole new manufacturer, which would become one of the most popular brands in the tennis business worldwide. Today, Prince does not directly sell its products and as a result relies on the “trade sector” to promote its brand. These trade sectors are, but not limited to, coaches, traveling pros, tennis clubs and organizations, and retailers. Prince employs consumer Public Relations tactics through their event marketing, media relations, consumer outlets, broadcast, print, and online social media. One example of this is their traveling demonstrations. Prince goes on cross-country tours to promote their products so players can preview their newest products. A demo event locator can be found on Prince’s home website Prince. Prince relies on specific markets between the consumer and the trade sectors. 

             It is important to communicate effectively to the trade sector because the trade is part of our business success. The trade section in turn sells the products on the retail side, since Prince does not sell direct. We rely heavily on our retail outlets including small specialty shops, big chain sporting good stores, and newly emerging online retailers that are becoming more frequent (interview).  

               Prince Tennis sponsors many different famous tennis players including Gael Monfils. He is currently the third best French tennis player and the 13th best player in the world. Gael has been playing professional tennis since 2004. He has won many matches throughout his career and his popularity is still climbing.

              Since Gael had great success, now is the perfect time for Prince to start promoting new items. They have decided to release 3 new racquets in the EXO3 series. Monfils uses the EXO3 Rebel 95 racquet and is actually helping out with the promotion of the new additions to the line. It is beneficial for Prince to use him in their promotions right after he had such a great accomplishment. 

              The three new racquets coming out are the Ignite 95, Ignite Team 95, and Blue 110. Each has its own style and special features. For the weary consumer, one can find places nearby that allow consumers to sample the racquets out before purchase. Prince also has cross-country demo events that allow consumers to try out the latest products on the court.                Prince is also promoting the sales of the racquets by using the slogan, “More power.

More spin. More comfort. Exceptional feel. It’s all possible now.” This slogan highlights how these new racquets are customizable to different players’ styles. People like to know that they are receiving a good quality product that will be beneficial to their game play and this slogan highlights those aspects of the new racquets.

              The Prince philosophy states that building a team of players who want to be involved with the Prince brand who are active and contributing members of the Prince Team. Prince sponsored athletes at all levels perform an important role in the overall company strategy. 

              All of these athletes sponsored by Prince use their racquets, footwear, and apparel. Prince wants to get the point across to the players that they should be using their product to gain advantage on the court. Not only does Prince have sponsorship on a professional level but also for those who love the game of tennis. People can be sponsored as a junior player, a college coach or player, as well as an adult player.

        Prince Tennis is one of the top manufacturers of tennis equipment, but competition is always present. Two of Prince’s biggest competitors are Wilson Tennis and Head Tennis. Prince has had to do a lot of different promotions and come out with a lot of new merchandise to maintain their status as one of the big three.

    Despite this, Prince is keeping up with the competition. Prince combated their competition with “Gang Green”. At the US Open, a group of athletic males were hired to run around with the letters P-R-I-N-C-E- giving them extreme exposure in New York. They also handed out temporary tattoos and promotional literature on the subways to make people aware of Prince the brand. During a time when tennis fans are aware of what is going on within the "conservative" tennis community, Prince was out in the streets making their name known. 

              As another form of promotion, Prince came out with their own racquet attachment for Nintendo Wii controllers. The tennis racquet attachment is constructed with real strings. This racquet carries the authenticity of a Prince racquet one may use on the court.

              Prince's does not have an effective way of promoting their clothing because they do not  sell any of their products directly. Positively, a consumer can find a retailer in his or her area with a locator found on Prince’s page. Also there is no information on the type of clothing Prince sells including colors and prices.

              “Sport marketing is a competitive business involving as much front-office strategy, risk, discipline, and energy as that shown by the players and coaches”. (Mullin, Hardy, Sutton)

    Prince's web page is very uninviting and corporate. Their web page is supposed to represent an energetic competitive sport and instead it looks very dull and bland. They should use brighter colors so they can grab the viewers’ attention and also make better use of some of their other online sources such as Twitter. Prince does not utilize their Twitter as well as they should. Their Facebook is better used. It includes pictures, polls and lots of lots of feedback from the users of the Prince Tennis brand.

              As a brand in an exclusive and elite sport, Prince needs to work hard to keep their name and their brand out there. They have no TV commercials, although some can be found on YouTube and are seen in specialized tennis sport magazines. Prince needs to reach a wider demographic by keeping our attention, not only during tennis season but also during their off-season. A suggestion for marketing plan would be to create a Prince Tennis facility where people can go and play indoor tennis, buy their clothing, and test new products as can be seen in the press release.

              Prince Tennis prides itself in the international exposure it has gained through sponsoring some remarkable athletes, including Maria Sharapova. The company states that it “maintains a strong presence on the professional tennis circuit through ongoing sponsorships and event management”. (Prince Tennis)

              In addition to the strong presence of sponsorships and promotions surrounding Prince Tennis, partnerships are also apparent and beneficial. Partnerships are helpful in numerous ways, including financial and public relational aspects. Financially speaking, both responsibility and funding are shared by the partners, rather than solely by Prince Tennis. In terms of Public Relations, partnerships increase the credibility of the company. Furthermore, partnerships provide more resources and a broader audience.

              Prince currently has twelve partners, including Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy and the SAP Open. Both partnerships put Prince’s products in people’s possession, essentially for trial and possible future purchase. Prince also partners with other academic and vacation institutions to maintain their image. These places include Kaplan Preparatory School and Saddlebrook Resort.

              Prince Tennis successfully exhibits how beneficial partnerships are to a company. Through all of Prince’s twelve partnerships, the company is benefited financially and through public relations, irrelevant of the strength of the connection that the partners have to tennis. Through the partnerships that Prince Tennis has obtained they have an image of success and tradition that spans across the nation, and ultimately the world.

              Prince is also involved in the community. They have a program called Prince Plugged In (PPI). The program uniting high-level training centers around the United States These teaching centers provide world-class instruction to players of all abilities by attracting top-notch coaches and players within their respective sports.

Not only are Prince Plugged In Academies beneficial to the communities they serve; they also provide a positive company image for Prince Tennis. While these academies provide invaluable instruction to tennis players at all levels, they also benefit the company by highlighting their dedication to the sport. From a PR standpoint, this allows Prince Tennis to be showcased as a company who invests in its community and its youth.

              During this investigational research, our team went to Prince’s headquarters located in Bordentown, NJ. We were able to sit down face to face with Vice President of Communications,

Zach Perles in his office to conduct a formal interview. Although our personal reactions to the interview shall come later in this paper, we shall discuss Prince’s demographics, social media, and their public relations strategy and how Prince could potentially improve their strategies. 

              Group 6 concluded their research with a visit to the Prince headquarters in Bordentown, NJ. Our expectations were quite different than the reality of the daily grind at Prince. When we finally arrived, we found the atmosphere was much different than what we had anticipated. There wasn’t any receptionist to greet us when we entered the building. Rather any clients are greeted with a set of confusing instructions on the door of individual’s extensions. The reception area had a cold, uninviting feeling. Our appointment time had to be pushed back multiple times due to his busy schedule, so we sat in the reception area for close to an hour. During that time, several employees walked by us without even asking if we were being helped. 

              While we waited for our meeting, we had the opportunity to browse around the Headquarters. It was very impressive, although not as formal as we would have imagined. The company logo was prominently displayed throughout the building; they obviously take pride in their company. The employees appeared to enjoy working in the very casual work environment set by the leadership of the company. Employees were generally wearing jeans, boots and a polo shirt. 

              While our experience at Prince Tennis was a positive one, there is always room for companies to improve. When speaking with Perles, the VP of communications, he admitted that although the company does utilize sites such as twitter, increasing the use of social media could be beneficial to the company. These sites would allow Prince to obtain a better grasp on their target population as well as track the competition. According to Perles, many employees are not familiar with social media. Encouraging employees to become more familiar with the use of these social media, possibly through formal training, would only benefit the company in the long term.

              Though Prince does take advantage of social networking sites, there is always room for improvement. The key innovation of social media is the rapid immediate response between millions of consumers and the company’s response. Consumers can converse about any subject at any given time, which allows opportunity for companies to expand their products and services online through interactive tools such as Facebook and Twitter.  To the company’s advantage or disadvantage, what goes onto the internet stays there.

Millions of decisions are made every day based on data that might be a day old or several years old. Once it’s out there, it's out there, so you need to make sure that old stories are counteracted by new ones… It used to be that if you got back to an irate customer in a day or two, you would be considered responsive. In               social media time, that is simply unacceptable (Paine).

 Social media tools must constantly be updated to keep people informed about the product, handle crisis management (if necessary), and provide customer service. Customer service is completely

enhanced through social media since it allows for an instantaneous reaction and interaction to any participating viewer.

              The Prince brand covers a variety of people in different ways since the brand covers both tennis equipment and apparel to juniors and adults male and female alike.  Prince’s brand extends into a junior racquet line, an adult line, and customized racquets to suit different player types.

Prince is an all encompassing tennis brand, and is one of the few companies to  do so.  We try to appeal to the frequent tennis player. This can be anyone; to the 75 year old woman who plays 3-4 times a week, to the competitive 14 year old junior who is playing tournaments on the weekends and has private lessons. Prince tries to appeal to all frequent tennis players across the board (Perles)

 Prince faces many different challenges since their brand is so vast in different products. Prince contends with different competitors. In tennis apparel and shoes, they compete with Addias and Nike. In racquets, strings, balls, and other tennis equipment Prince has competes with companies such as Head, Dunlop, and Wilson. Despite all this, “At the end of the day, Prince is known as a full tennis brand” (Perles). Now that Prince’s demographics have been well established let’s examine how the company uses social media.

              The use of the internet has only just begun to influence businesses as it has impacted Prince with its use of social media. Our team began this study through Prince’s use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter Twitter.. Prince utilizes these websites to connect with the tennis community online. “Prince uses Facebook and a Twitter account to develop a strategy of what the consumer was saying to each other. If consumers are delivering misinformation about our brand, we can provide them with the correct information” (Perles). The tennis community is a niche oriented group that discusses players, products, and technique, the use of social media is a critical role in Prince. For example, Prince has used the outlets of social media to provide teasers for their next racquet line in 2010. Prince uses this teaser tactic to get consumers excited and discussing their newest products before they hit the shelves. On Prince’s Facebook page,facebook Maria Sharapova commented about her photo shoot to showcase Prince’s latest racquet line as part of a teaser. This adds to Prince’s facebook status, which enhances this teaser.                             

              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              Disclaimer: for educational purposes only

  Locals experience a ‘smash winner’ at Prince Advantage Stadium.  BORDENTOWN, NJ—December 4, 2009-- Prince Sports Inc. is proud to announce the public debut opening of its new state of the art indoor tennis facility The Prince Advantage Stadium.                 For a limited time, Prince Sports Inc., will be giving public tours of The Prince Advantage Stadium and will have a live demonstration of Prince’s racquets and other tennis products.               “The Prince Advantage Stadium incorporates several different styles of courts for all player levels,” said Prince spokesperson Cory Fakerton. “Our facility uses the latest tennis technology with our hard courts, clay courts, and grass courts. We hope that this will attract a larger demographic of people to tennis through our indoor stadium.”               The Prince Advantage Stadium contains seven hard courts, six clay courts, and five grass courts. The stadium also includes “The Sweetspot,” a small specialty tennis shop that allows trial demonstrations of Prince racquets, equipment, and apparel within the facility.                  Local parties are able to rent and reserve court time at the stadium for a comparative fee to other indoor tennis facilities during the tennis off-season.                    “Players are now able to play a match without worrying about nasty atmospheric conditions,” says Bordentown High School tennis coach, Justine Not-truthe. “It’s a very exciting opportunity.”   

-More-  About Prince SportsPrince Sports, Inc, based in New Jersey, is a company of racquet sports enthusiasts whose goal is to create cutting edge, functional and technically advanced products that deliver performance benefits for avid players. The Company's portfolio of brands includes Prince (tennis, squash and badminton),Ektelon (racquetball) and Viking (platform/paddle tennis). The Company has a history of innovation including inventing the first "oversize" and "longbody" racquets, the first "Natural Foot Shape" tennis shoe, the first "synthetic gut" string and the first electronic ball machine. Today, Prince markets leading technologies in racquets (O3), string (Recoil), footwear (Precision Tube Technology) and apparel (Aerotech). It has operations on three continents with distribution in over100 countries. For more information on players, products or programs please visit www.princesports.com. (Perles)  Contact: Stephanie Fake-release                   (609) FAKE-123                  fake_e-mail@princesports.com   *Disclaimer: This press release is used for educational purposes only and is not based on real people or events.     

       

Works Cited

"Our History." Head. Cool Earth. Web. 6 Dec. 2009. www.head.com Paine, Katie Delahaye. “New School of Thought.” Communication World (Nov.-Dec. 2009): 20-24. Communication             and Mass Media Complete. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ ehost/ pdf?vid=4&hid=106&sid=42a07485-ca15-4cdd-a6ca-d7a6a172888d%40sessionmgr112>.

Perles, Zach. “John Embree ‘Goes Green’ Becoming New President of Prince Americas.”  Paddlepro.com. paddlepro.com, 14 Apr. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. <http://www.paddlepro.com/ news2008/ John%20Embree%20Joins%20Prince%20as%20President%20of%20Prince%20Americas%20FINAL.pdf>.

- - -. Personal interview. 23 Nov. 2009.

"Prince History." Prince Tennis. Prince Tennis. Web. 7 Dec. 2009.  www.princetennis.com "Wilson Sporting Goods Company." Funding Universe. James Press. Web. 6 Dec. 2009.  <www.fundinguniverse.com>.