Advertising Strategy: Segmentation & Fan Group Analysis of the Waste Management Phoenix Open

My thesis is designed to provide information about the spending habits and return on investment of
certain fan segmentations of Phoenix valley residents, at the WM Open. In 2012, Professor Michael
Mokwa, Professor John Eaton, and Professor Bradley Fay of the Department of Marketing at Arizona
State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, conducted an Economic Impact Study and a Study
regarding Attendance at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. It was a joint research study with the
ASU W.P. Carey School of Business and the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research, and
the studies were designed to 1) demonstrate the overall economic impact of the tournament on the
Phoenix area, and 2) identify the specific market segments and audience of the Waste Management
Phoenix Open. I used this study as base research to conduct further analysis of the fan segmentation of the
Waste Management Open. I completed two projects: an ‘Initial Project’, and a ‘Secondary Project’, which
analyzed different aspects of fan groups and average fan spending figures.

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The goal of this report is to draw upon the fan clusters (outlined in the initial report) to further
characterize the six unique groups of Phoenix valley residents, calculate out how much revenue each fan
group is responsible for generating, and link the potential return on the investment of WM Open
advertising. This study added the average spending figures (collected by the ASU 2012 Economic impact
study (Mokwa, Eaton, Fay 2012)) and habits to the established market segments. With further analysis, it
was possible to link the advertisement efforts and determine if the current advertising and marketing
strategy fits the different fan segments that attended the tournament. The analysis includes the average
spending of each fan segmentation, critique of the current marketing and advertising efforts, and an
overall study of the WMPO marketing model using the 2016 Advertising and Marketing report along with
sales figures from Communication Links.