Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

What is business marketing?  The key characteristic distinguishing business products from consumer products is intended use, not physical form.  Seeing how ESPN is a sports broadcaster program, the heart of ESPN i intended for consumers, primarily males 18 to 49.  Going back to ESPN's mission statement, shown below.

This clearly displays ESPN's intent for marketing.  However, looking from the outside in, business's such as professional sports leagues, NFL, MLB, NBA, etc will use ESPN for its use of business marketing.  This is because, ESPN's key characteristics for its business use regarding serving sports fans serves for a business market such as professional sporting leagues.  In reference to Marketing, 5th edition by Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, one key definition when discussing business marketing is, reintermediation.  Reintermediation is defined as the reintroduction of a intermediary between products and users.  Using ESPN as the example for reintermediation, ESPN is the source for reintroduction of a intermediary (professional sports) between its products (highlights of professional sports) and its user or consumers (sports fans).  In a nut shell, ESPN is trusted by professional sports to play the highlights to their shared target markets, sports fans all around the world.

This brings us to the next use of ESPN's business marketing.  Relationship commitment.  Relationship commitment is a firm's belief that an ongoing relationship with another firm is so important that the relationship warrants maximum efforts maintaining it indefinitely.  Simply put, the relationship between ESPN and all professional sports requires maximum efforts to sustain ESPN's identity.  Without ESPN's business agreement with professional sports, professional sports would not get their message to their target market and without professional sports, ESPN wouldn't have anything for sustain its company indefinitely.

Discussing business marketing and ESPN has proven to be extremely difficult because ESPN's main mission is to their consumer.  However, ESPN is indeed a business company, therefore, must acquire and maintain business marketing to survive.  Which is why, joint demand plays another vital characteristic for ESPN and business marketing.  Joint demand is simply the demand for two or more items (NFL,MLB and NBA) used together for a final product (ESPN). 

In conclusion, ESPN looking from the outside in, looks as if it was self sustaining and has no need for business marketing because their intended use is for us, the consumer of sports.  However, without ESPN's proper use of business marketing and all its characteristics, the media giant known as ESPN would not be.  Therefore, business marketing plays a pivotal role and the success and survival of ESPN.

In summary, its who you know as well as what you know.  And never burn bridges because you never know when these bridges will come into play with business marketing.

Ch. 8 - Segmenting & Targeting Markets

For the first time all semester I believe ESPN is a great example of whats being discussed this week.  Through my examination of ESPN's empire, it seems as if they're a "typical" business when it comes to segmenting and targeting their markets.

So far I've discussed most of ESPN's products that make up their product lines.  Just like a good company who dominated its market, ESPN covers almost all market segments.  What is market segments?  Market segment is a subgroup of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product needs.  ESPN is a sports broadcaster who serves sports fans wherever sports are watched, listened to, or debated.  This is why ESPN's product line covers all subgroups that share the sports characteristics in their products.

As shown above, ESPN's product line.  This illustrates ESPN's ability to position themselves in the sports news market, and extremely thorough I might add.  Probably, one of the reasons ESPN's media awareness remains at 97%.

ESPN's use of marketing segments brings us to a second reason why ESPN is a typical business who is extremely successful in segmenting and targeting their markets.  Concentrated targeting strategy.  ESPN thoroughly takes one segment of the sports news market and targets their marketing efforts in that direction to ultimately control the market as a whole.  Once again, examine the picture above.  Take ESPN mobile as a example.  ESPN mobile provides an accurate and convenient way to stay up to date on all your sports needs, especially for those business oriented males who are always on the run and have very few time to stay in touch with their favorite team.  Or try ESPN radio, ESPN radio is broadcasted locally in your geographic region which allows a "home team" bias to take place.  This ensures your reaching your target sports fan market in that region rather than talk about the Champion New York Giants in the slums of New England. 

Lastly, another prime example of ESPN's used of segmenting and targeting their markets is their use of geodemographic segmentation.  I believe this is what ESPN does best and one of the reason they're an empire.  It goes more into detail about ESPN radio, however, ESPN takes this strategy with their business as a whole.  If you go to ESPN's website, you'll see right on the top you can pick a city.  Either, New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas or Los Angeles.  In order to remain a top competitor in the sports broadcasting realm, ESPN can't just broadcast generic sports news nation wide, even globally.  You have to cover that areas sport team niche.  Furthermore, ESPN is a global empire and serves sports fans in Latin America as well as Europe.  In these continents, soccer or futbol to their native tongue, is their primary sport of choose.  Therefore, it wouldn't make sense for ESPN to play baseball (MLB) to their sports fan.

In a nut shell, ESPN has perfected the art of segmenting and targeting their markets, which allows great success and potential for growth of the empire known as ESPN!

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

For starters, ESPN, nor any other companies have produced a new product.  In the world we live in, everything is just a "mine is" better complex.  Which is why my next statement is the keys to success when dealing with development and managing products.  Ready?  When everybody zigs, you zag.

Confused?  You shouldn't be.  Now a days, everyone sees a company produce a "innovative" products in response to a market opportunity, these are the questions asked to develop their next product.  Can we make a cheaper version, can we make it smaller, or can we it simpler?  This standard operation procedures that every company takes leads to market clutter and product confusion.

ESPN is no different in this regard with development and managerial decisions towards new products.  However, is on a mission to become dominant in a smaller niche market known as sports mobile products designed to give the sports fan a simplex platform to get all their sports needs thru their mobile device.  Because it is such a small niche, and one ESPN dominates already, they can ease their way to being the powerhouse by answering simple questions such as can we make it simpler?

If you look at this ESPN mobile product list, you see they have many products to manage yet they cover almost every sports fans needs via mobile devices.  Whether its fantasy sports, or sports discussion to watching sports live through your phone, ESPN manages and covers it all.

Again, the best strategy when dealing with developing and managing products is to zag when everybody zigs, this allows you to be radically different thus making you a powerful contender to the market your after, however, if your big enough like ESPN, and your after a small niche such as sports mobile products, you could just always flood the market with everything needed and just watch as your brand name separates you from all the competition.

LONG LIVE ESPN!

Ch. 16 - Integrated Marketing Communications

When discussing integrated marketing communications, we must examine ESPN's promotional advertising.  However, before we look into ESPN's publicity and advertising, the best way to measure success is to adapt the AIDA concept.  AIDA stands for, A - Attention, I - Interest, D - Desire, A - Action.

ESPN's has great success in achieving their promotional goals while getting their message across to their target market, watch ESPN!

ESPN's strategy is closely followed by AIDA.  Shown here, ESPN grabs attention and interest instantaneously while using predominate figures in multiple sporting worlds.  And once ESPN has grabbed your attention and interest by their use of "wacky" commercials they sustain your desire by humiliating or over board tactics of your favorite sports players.  End state?  You take action by watching ESPN.

Again, ESPN is a sports broadcaster, therefore for success of their empire, their media awareness must stay sharp so their ratings prove worth.  This is vital because other companies will use ESPN as a channel to advertise and promote their sales.  Publicity is key!  If you clink this link, you'll see some testimonies from other corporate giants who have found success while using ESPN to mass communicate to their target market.

Few goods or services will survive in a market place without effective promotion.  This is why integrated marketing communications is a must for success of your company.  In a whole, ESPN has a competitive advantage from their competition which allows ESPN to remain superior!

Ch. 17 - Advertising & Public Relations

ESPN is one of those companies who spends a great deal of time worrying about their media awareness, and with proper justification.  Therefore, advertising and public relations is always a constant concern for a company who tops the charts at a 97 percent media awareness.  Media awareness becomes advertising in a simplex world.  In order to achieve media awareness, you advertise to create awareness of your brand.  In this case, ESPN stands alone in the sports broadcasting realm.  Take a look at ESPN's commercials that never fails to be current and up to date advertisements.

Public relations are essential for success as well.  Don't burn bridges is what comes to mind when we discuss public relations.  When I picture ESPN, I picture a giant elephant sitting quietly in the corner.  Not having pour relations with other companies especially in sister markets, ESPN with NFL or ESPN with NBA is quit a feat in itself.  However, having a positive relationship is the boost most giant brands are looking for.  Synergy is a good way to sum this up.  When ESPN and NFL, arguably two top 5 names when talking about American sports, work together, it only boost advertising and sales to have a good working relationship.

Going back to the giant elephant in the corner, ESPN, other than the required relationships with professional leagues and teams, ESPN hadn't paired up or advertised much due to the fact they were in such command of the sports broadcasting market.  Which made them the quiet giant elephant who sits in the corner never talking but everyone knows is there.  However, recently ESPN starts to find their voice in the world.  ESPN and Time Warner Cable has recently paired together on an advertising campaign which should boost sales as well as their public relations with companies ESPN would normally never associate with.  This duo should be seen as a good example of product placement and sponsorship because while advertising ESPN Live with Time Warner Cable it helps improve ESPN's brand(media) awareness.  I believe this is the reason behind ESPN's sudden pairings with companies such as Time Warner Cable and Nokia to help advertise their new mobile markets, both domestically and internationally.

Without, marketing/advertising and innovation, there would be NO success in the current world for companies.

Ch. 10 - Product Concept

Once again we're to discuss products, and knowing full well ESPN doesn't have many product concepts seeing how their more of a broadcasting company who cares mostly about media awareness and ratings.  However, with that being said, ESPN is still an company and the number one rule still applies, make a profit!  Therefore, ESPN has some products for a retail sense which I will discuss but I want to prove the point that ESPN is a example of persuasive labeling because all of ESPN's products focus on the promotional theme and ESPN logo that has 97% media awareness.

Going off of ESPN's products being marketed mostly as persuasive labeling, it leads to a sense of brand loyalty.  Maybe I'm being bias but whenever I think anything sports, my mind goes immediately to ESPN.  And from the general census I believe most guys feel the same way.  This is another reason for the great success of ESPN.

Examples of ESPN's products are; ESPN radio, ESPN Magazine, ESPN live(mobile TV), ESPN mobile(apps to keep you updated on sports).  ESPN actually teamed up with Time Warner Cable which can be read here.

ESPN's apps they've started to via for mobile platforms across the world are an example of convenience products, as most apps for cell phones are invented for the "convenience" of the user.  However, this doesn't stop ESPN from getting their piece of the pie!

Ch. 18 - Sales Promotion and Personal Sales

In order to discuss ESPN and Sales Promotion and Personal Sales we must "read between the lines" as they used to say in fourth grade.  We've all gotten the point that ESPN is a sports broadcasting network, and while yes ESPN is a brand name to be marketed, it falls short on sales.  So between the lines we go.

As discussed in the global marketing chapter, ESPN's prime product is their mobile product line.  A little refresher, ESPN had launched apps to keep every sports fan up to date on their favorite team / sport up to the very last second.  As well as being a top of the line "fantasy sports" provider.  How does this all tie into Sales Promotion and Personal Sales?!?  Well the biggest thing for ESPN is media awareness seeing how they're ratings are the main source of income because they get to charge more for advertisements on their network.  What also helps is if their mobile apps are widely used, retailers will pay to advertise there as well.

With all that being said, ESPN doesn't promote sales much because its more of a close door deal with retailers to promote via ESPN.  However, in order to have 97% media awareness they must promote a little.  I'm sure any sports fan watching professional games or even just ESPN for highlights has seen examples of ESPN's use of consumer sales promotion targeting their ultimate consumer for their mobile apps.  Which in turn works as a double winner for the brand known as ESPN!

As far as Personal Sales, ESPN plays the opposite roll as they do for Sales Promotion.  If you go here you can see ESPN's shop.  They do offer regular sporting goods and ESPN gear but their primary products sold are player and league attire from all major US professional sport leagues.  They even go as far as having a "Hot Zone" for players who seem to be the hottest at the moment.  Coming back to my point, ESPN itself does NOT have the rights to privately sell these items.  However, they obtain the right to personal sell them.  Upon researching I couldn't figure out if ESPN receives any push money or if they just personally sale these leagues products as a trade allowance.

Tricky huh?  ESPN isn't much of a retailer therefore there isn't any need for Sales Promotion or Personal Sales; however, they are indeed a business and a brand name therefore they will follow the number one rule, make money!

Ch. 15 - Retailing

Ok, so retailing.  To better discuss retailing we must first explain what retailing entails.  By the book, retailing is all the activities directly related to the sale of services and goods to the ultimate consumer for personal, nonbusiness use.  Basically, retailing is the art of hustling!  My company for this blog is ESPN, being that ESPN is a sports news broadcaster, I didn't have the option to visit and ESPN retailer.  So I went with option B, which was to go to any retailer and write about my experience.  Luckily for me, I was in the market for a new computer.  Allowing me to share with you my experience of shopping at an Apple retail outlet!  Arguably, one of the best retailers out there.  With that being said, this was a destination store because I, the consumer, purposely planned to visit Apple.

APPLE!  Where to begin.  First, I'd like to share a moment of silence for the mastermind Steve Jobs, may you rest in peace and watch from above as your company slowly takes over the world...

Ok, were back.  As soon as you walk in, you are blown away by the technology that Apple has to offer.  So blown away, you don't even recognize the little cute girl in a blue employee t-shirt greeting you and asking if she can help you.  The atmosphere screamed come in and play with my toys!  A prime example of product offering, because the variety of products Apple has to offer for the consumer.

Moving on, after the atmosphere took me away, the cute girl in the blue shirt brought me back.  I told her I was here with the intentions of purchasing a MacBook Air.  She brought me over to one of their iPads and had me type my name in and told me to wait while an assistant would come get me.

Not 30 seconds later, Sabastian from Poland, rocking the Apple blue employee shirt came and shook my hand.  A brief FYI, when I shop, I've already done my research and I'm on my mission to get in and get out.  I'm a firm believer in getting in and getting out!

Back to the experience.  Now I have my own personal Apple assistant in my quest for a laptop.  I immediately inform Sabastian I'm in the market for an Apple MacBook Air, 13 inches.  He puts a request in his little iPhone the Apple employees carry to have the MacBook Air brought out to us.  While waiting the full 2 minutes for my laptop to come from the back I asked Sabastian what the difference was between the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air.  For the most part, its just the size, the Air is slimmer and has a slightly better battery life says Sabastian.  While the Pro is your more typical laptop but has more power for more programs.  I'm still dead set on the Air.

The MacBook Air arrives.  I asked Sabastian about programs and he filled me in without hesitation.  At this point I'm interested if I can stump him with something he doesn't know the answer for.  I got him!  I asked him why I couldn't switch my Apple ID from one email to the next.  So he walks over to another Apple employee and he shoves the answer out like it was nothing.  I was completely impressed with the knowledge Apple's employees obtain about their products.

Now, I'm almost ready to checkout, when Sabastian say's, "Mr. Keller, would you be interested in buying an external CD player because the MacBook Air doesn't have one internally due to the size of the device."  WOW, hang on a second, you mean theres no internal CD player?  This is an immediate turn off and he says this is why we at Apple sit the customer down and explain EVERYTHING to insure all customers have the best product to suit their needs.  I've been hustled!

Now, I've changed my mind and go with the MacBook Pro.  Surprisingly, I was calm and not irritated at all.  At this point in more stores, I'm fed up and just walk out.  Once again, the atmosphere was remarkable.

To sum, it all up, I purchased the MacBook Pro, which was another awesome experience.  Remember the iPhone I talked about earlier that the Apple employees have?  Well he takes my credit card, swipes the card under the iPhone and, BAM, I've paid for my purchase.  No lines, no hassle, no receipt(receipt was emailed to me!!!!).  So quick and painless I hardly even realized I had just spent nearly 1,500 bucks!

Lastly, after I had completed my purchase, Sabastian walked me over to another table where we opened my laptop and set it up.  This was extremely awesome because all the required stuff you must do prior to playing with your new laptop was done, and done properly by an Apple expert, who I know completely trust.  So as I get home, I bust out the laptop and fire away.

All in all, my experience with Apple's retailer in Menlo Park Mall in New Jersey was hands down remarkable.  Their employees where knowledgeable, their atmosphere was modern yet inviting.  Evaluating Apple through the Retailing Mix with the six P's goes as following.

Product - Apple's products cover all needs and wants a consumer requires.  Not to mention the innovative products that completely redefined technology, which makes people believe they need these products.

Place - Apple is good at putting their stores where their huge target market resides, however, I had to drive 30 miles to get to the closest Apple store.  My assessment, more stores couldn't hurt.

Promotion - It's Apple.  Enough said.

Price - Yes, their prices are fairly high.  However, the durability and reliability allows the fairly high price to go unnoticed.

Presentation - Excellent.  Apple's layout, modern with sense of organization of products.  The atmosphere, welcome and inviting.  And soothing, where in the past I would have gotten irritated and walked away, I was come and decided to stay.

Personnel - Excellent.  Apple's employee's swarmed the store with their bright blue shirts, yet weren't invasive or rude.  While, everyone of the Apple employees I spoke with, had knowledge beyond belief of their products that Apple had to offer.


If you haven't experienced shopping at an Apple retailer yet, it is one shopping experience you won't get any where else other than Apple.

Ch. 6 - Consumer Decision Making

For marketers to even exist in a world where they don't know all the information on or about their market is like a blind man shopping for contacts.  Absolutely useless.  Even more so, it is critical to understand the consumer and the consumer behavior.  If you can predict how the consumer makes their decisions, game over, YOU WON!  For a company such as ESPN, consumer behavior isn't about purchasing decisions.  Its more about how the consumer uses their services.  ESPN being one of the primary sports broadcasting networks, their service would be to report sports news.

With that being said, the consumer decision making process is a useful tool.  Some parts of the process can be applied to ESPN and their consumers decision making process; yet given the type of service ESPN, the decision making process doesn't apply as it would for most consumer behavior.

The consumer decision making process starts with; need recognition.  Need recognition hands down is the most applicable part of the decision making process for ESPN to understand consumer behavior.  The consumer might not NEED to watch ESPN to catch up on their sports but a majority of ESPN's consumers desire or WANT to.  This behavior is triggered for most consumers by an external stimuli.(Best example of an external stimuli for those of you who don't read the marketing chapters is; someone saying "Did you see Lebron's dunk last night?" and it urges the other to go watch his dunk, via ESPN).

As far as the next couple parts for the consumer decision making process; information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and purchase evaluate, they could apply in minor and randoms ways.  However, for the most part, ESPN's consumers display, routine response behavior.  They frequently get their sports news from ESPN, especially because ESPN has a media awareness of 97%.  While most watch ESPN for the dependability and ease of making the decision of  "where to get my sports fix!" 

Ch. 5 - Developing a Global Vision

ESPN is establishing a global vision through many means.  ESPN's newest service they're trying to push hard to their target market is "watch ESPN app".  Of course, ESPN's primary market is domestic in America; however, ESPN is pushing for global recognition via a Nokia app.  ESPN's mission statement is to serve sports fans wherever they are consuming sports.  Therefore, in order to successfully fulfill their statement they must extend their service worldwide.  Their new Nokia App which is supposed to launch in 2012, will be available in 190 countries.  With the ESPN Hub, sport fans can access sports news, scores and stats from their mobile devices.  Also the app will include ESPN analysis and video clips for select sports and uses the device's GPS to find local sports information and can be personalized for users to set their favorite sports and teams.  For ESPN, growing their business, especially their mobile business is a priority, and will allow ESPN to create a bigger global market.
This is a video from Lauren Johnson, ESPN's editorial assistant on Mobile Marketing about the launch of their Nokia app.


Lauren Johnson on ESPN's Nokia app


More about ESPN's international mobile market is:

• Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Japanese on every major mobile operating system. 
• ESPN Mobile offers content via: mobile web, mobile messaging, mobile operator deck and applications on smart phones including iPhone, iPad, RIM, Android and Nokia.

ESPN's global business in a nutshell:

• TV: 46 networks in over 200 countries with 16 languages available(Cantonese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Malay, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish).
• Radio: Broadcasting in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Bahamas.  ESPN radio offers live events, sports news, information and sports talk.
• Online:  ESPNsoccernet.com, ESPNCricinfo.com, ESPNScrum.com (English /Spanish),ESPNF1.com (English, French, Japanese), ESPNdeportes.com (Spanish), ESPN.co.uk,ESPN.com.br (Portuguese), ESPNSTAR.com (27 ESPN STAR Sports territories in Asia),ESPNSTAR.com.cn (China), ESPNSTAR.com.hk (Hong Kong), ESPNSTAR.com.tw (Taiwan),ESPN.com.au (Australia), TSN.ca (English / Canada), and RDS.ca (French / Canada).

Since 1998, ESPN's global vision has grown to:

• (12) HD services, from 0
• (1) 3D network, from 0
• (48) international television networks, from 20
• (13) international SportsCenter editions, from 0
• (18) websites, from 1
• (7,000) employees worldwide, from 1,900

In a whole, ESPN in my opinion has a good grasp on their global vision.  However, that's never enough.  ESPN continues to be innovative and push the envelope for their global market, with such ideas as their new Nokia app, ESPN seems to be fulfilling their mission statement, worldwide!

Market Environment - LIN, LIN, LIN no matter what!

All we do is Lin, Lin, Lin no matter what...
ESPN is currently selling the LIN-SANITY hard.  The Asian-American demographic is growing more and more with anticipation of Lin's next game.  ESPN's target audience being young males ages 18-49.  While ESPN has incredible success reaching their targeted market, specifically in the New York region due to the New York Giants winning Superbowl 46 in a remarkable 6 game winning streak in the playoffs.  However, now theres Jeremy Lin with the New York Knicks leading the Knicks on a winning streak, first in forever.  Jeremy Lin of the Asian-American demographic is the spark the Knicks have been missing in the point guard position.  ESPN is cover the Lin-Sanity hard in a effort to reach a new target market before now, wasn't a popular or easily reached demographic.  While playing ever update about Jeremy Lin, more and more Asian-Americans, male and female, continue to watch the Lin-Sanity hype.  This is a great example of ESPN's smart use of the market environment by adapting and reacting to positive change in the market, especially with a hard to reach demographic as Asian-Americans, in sports.

You best believe I'm all about LIN-SANITY.  I'll be tuning in to follow the Knicks and the LINANTOR!  Before this, I wouldn't even watch the Knicks.  Even more proof that this new Jeremy Lin hype is reaching ESPN's target market with a fury.  Who knows, the Knicks might win a championship, to top off a great year for New York City!

Ch. 4 - The Market Environment

ESPN's best market environment currently is ESPN New York. The target market for ESPN is to zero in on young men, primarily men from 18 to 49. ESPN has been growing considerably fast among all it's viewers especially young men. The demographics of young men (18-49) is the toughest demographic to reach but it's what makes ESPN's sweet spot. ESPN does so well with their targeted market that other companies such as, Rolling Rock, Audi and Nextel are just a few of the consistent advertisers using ESPN for newer forms of rich media which allows them to effectively deliver their brands message to their core audience. Like I've stated before, ESPN's media awareness is 97% thus making ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN.com an extremely effective platform for other struggling companies to reach the tough 18-49 year old men demographic. ESPN's ability to promote to sport affiliations has been exceptional which allows ESPN to provide extensive reach to the male demographic.

A look at ESPN:

• Number of subscribers = 89.5 million homes
• Median viewer age = 38.2 years old
• Average primetime viewers = 1,550,000 people
• Average total-day viewers = 760,000 people
• Average primetime 18-49(age demographic) = 680,000 people
• Average total-day viewers 18-49(age demographic) = 419,000 people
• Target audience = MEN 18-49

The picture below shows ESPN's 2012 Planning Guide which illustrates all the sports events/seasons ESPN will be covering.  This ties into ESPN's market environment because durning all these events, their target audience will surely be tuning in.  Therefore, you should be able to grasp how well ESPN covers any and all sports that any 18-49 year old male might be into.  Once again, a premier platform for other companies to use to reach the male 18-49 year old demographic.



I will also attach the URL to ESPN's entire 2012 planning guide, on this link you can see ESPN's 2012 planning guide for all their networks.  A full view of all the sport medians ESPN will be covering which allows them to impact their targeted market.
ESPN's 2012 Planning Guide

Ch. 3 - Ethics and Social Responsibility

Ethics are the moral principles or values that generally govern the conduct of an individual or group.  In ESPN's case ethics is a huge issue for the fact that ESPN's sole job is to report sport news.  It's difficult for ESPN because the sport broadcasters rely on humor while analyzing a play or game.  Because ESPN has such a huge variety of followers it becomes difficult to abide by everyone's moral principles or values.  Many annoucers have been critized due to some of their comments, in some cases, ESPN's hand was forced to fire some annoucers because their comment "crossed the line" and violated people's morals.  Worse off for ESPN, prior to June 2011, the company had no Code of Ethics or Code of Conduct for their employees to follow.  This stranded their employees in a trial and error "danger zone" where they're forced to discover by error.  One such incident, in June 2008, and ESPN employee, Jemele Hill, publically made a comment about the NBA finals saying "Rooting for the Celtics is like calling Hitler a victim"  You can see the ethical dilemma there. 

It is common knowledge that a written Code of Ethics establishes a guidelines or set of rules to follow, which seems to be necassary to establish boundries for comments that can or can not be said over a global broadcasting network.  Guidelines suggested to ESPN after that specific incident were the following;

• Do not presume that what is ancient history to you is ancient history to the next person; the wound of World War II may be as fresh to others as 9/11 is to you.
• A good generalization is hard to find, especially when applied to cultures, races, genders and nations.
• Analogies are likely to be imperfect; extreme analogies are likely to be extremely imperfect.

To date, after countless hours of research, I still couldn't find any written Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics.  For a global empire such as ESPN to not have written guidelines is absurd!  Get with the program already ESPN!

Social responsibility is a businessman's concern for society's welfare.  Furthermore, the newest theory in social responsibility is sustainability, which is the idea that a social responsibile company will out perform their peers by focusing on the world's problems and viewing them as opportunities to build profits and help the world at the same time.  ESPN takes social responsibility to heart.  I don't need to state that ESPN makes their profit, and makes it well.  Because of their highly profitable success, it allows the company to focus more on the world's problem or current rave.  I believe we all can agree todays social ill is, Going Green!  ESPN as a company takes many steps to being green.  I'm going to paste from their website their position on sustainability and going green.

"It’s our fishing sanctuary, our local soccer pitch, our makeshift dirt bike track – but in the end, the Earth needs just as much attention as the things we enjoy in life. ESPN is proud to do its part to promote and resurrect a greener world. From our virtually waste-free, carbon neutral 2009 ESPY ceremony to our eco-friendly corporate offices, we put heart and soul into being environmentally responsible.
Here are just a few of our environmental initiatives:

• Compostable to-go containers, cutlery & napkins in cafeteria
• LEED compliance for all new construction & renovations
• Recycling of light bulbs, batteries, construction debris, and used cooking oil
• Donation or recycling of old office furniture   
• Reduced environmental impact & energy conservation at events
• Virtually waste-free 2008 ESPY Awards ceremony
• Virtually waste-free & carbon-neutral 2009 ESPY Awards ceremony
• Disney (parent company of ABC/ESPN) ranks #34 in Newsweek's Green Rankings of the S&P 500"

Here is a link to ESPN's social responsibility position:
Social Responsibility Outreach
and
Corporate Sustainability

Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for a Competitive Advantage

ESPN is the superstar of the sports broadcasting world.  Among being the leading cable channel for sports broadcasting, it reaches over 97 million US homes with their abundance of channels.  Including, ESPN, ESPN2(sports events and news) and ESPN Classic(historical sports footage).  ESPN also creates original programming for TV and radio and lends content for ESPN.com(which is operated by Disney Online), arguably one of the most popular sports websites on the internet.  ESPN's international operations extend the ESPN brand to another 190 countries world wide. Due to these reasons ESPN popularity makes them a force to be reckoned with, establishing celebrity status!

To reach this status, ESPN had worked tirelessly to extend its power and influence the sports and entertainment network.  It holds broadcasting contracts with Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), NASCAR, Major League Soccer (MLS), Major League Lacrosse, Arena Football League and many college sports conferences.

ESPN took over Monday Night Football, other than the playoffs and Superbowl, the NFL's most prestigious event from ABC in 2006.  ABC lost roughly $150 million dollars a year on the venerable program.  ESPN pays the NFL $1.1 billion dollars a year(for eight years) to the NFL to broadcast Monday Night Football.  ABC also turned over its sports programming network(ABC Sports) to ESPN, which now airs all its games under the ESPN banner.  These are just the "tip of the ice berg" to ESPN's strategic planning to keep a competitive advantage over their industry of sports programming.

All of ESPN's products and operations consist of;

• ESPN (sporting events and news channel)
• ESPN Classic (archival sports footabe channel)
• ESPN Deportes (Spanish-language sports network)
• ESPN Enterprises (new business venture development)
• ESPN HD (high-definition channel)
• ESPN International
• ESPN On Demand (video on demand programming)
• ESPN Radio
• ESPN The Magazine (print magazine)
• ESPN2 (sporting events and news channel)
• ESPN2HD (high-definition channel)
• ESPNEWS (24-hour sports news channel)
• ESPNU (college sports)
• ESPYs (annual award show)

This covers the brand of ESPN, take notice of how the company completely covers all aspects of sports and all medians used to reach any and all sport fans.  They leave no stone unturned, a vital component for ESPN's competitive advantage.  

To go a little further into detail, ESPN's top competitors in the sports programming network are, CBS, Fox Entertainment and NBC.  Quite frankly, none of these competitors even remotely come close to covering all the medians that ESPN covers for the sports world.  Again, a huge reason for ESPN's competitive's edge.

In conclusion, the monopoly known as ESPN, strategic planning for competitive advantage is to simply to cover ALL medians possible in the sporting world.  A hostile take over my eyes!  Try to compete with that CBS, Fox and NBC.

I'd like to give a special thanks to Hoovers who provided a detailed company profile report on ESPN, which can be found here;
Hoover's ESPN profile report

The Birth of a Powerhouse

ESPN as whole basically redefined the sports industry or rather the market.  Prior to ESPN there wasn't a major sports network which relayed the sporting world the updates.  ESPN's mission statement is as follows; "To serve sports fans wherever sports are watched, listened to, discussed, debated, read about or played."

 The reason ESPN completely revamped the sports fan market was because prior to ESPN, there really wasn't a sports network that did discuss, debate or replay epic events in sports.  This is crucial because you might have missed your sports because you couldn't get to the radio or TV, at that time period.  Furthermore, there was other sports networks such as NBC, ABC, CBS sports, however, all the sports networks were so bland and distasteful, ESPN itself.  This is why almost every sports fan I know doesn't even think about watching another sports network, due to the fact of ESPN's innovative aspect in sports programming.  ESPN for more than 30 plus years has been, as we say, "pushing the envelop".  Thus, one of the main reasons ESPN is the power house, almost even monopoly for, as I call it the sports fan market.  Few numbers to be aware of; Awareness of ESPN(97%), #1 media brand in sports, Fourth leading name in sports(behind NFL, Nike and the NBA, no othe sports market is in the top 10).  I'd say monopoly fits, but whose complaining?!

For those of you interested, I'll supply you with a little brief history of ESPN, maybe you'll learn something new about our most beloved favorite sports network.  Interesting little fact, ESPN used to go by ESP, the name that was used to incorporate the company, however, changed to ESPN prior to the companies launch.  ESPN, standing for Entertaining and Sports Programming Network was incorporated in June 14, 1978 for only a fee of $91 dollars!  So unreal compared to the fact ESPN profits over $600 million and last evaluation their net worth was around 7 billion dollars!  The creators, Bill and Scott Rasmussen with help from Ed Eagan came up with the idea of creating a monthly cable show that covers Connecticut's sports.  They founders still hadn't found a source to broadcast their network on, but went to Radio Corporation of America, which made ESPN one of the first programs launched via SATCOM(satellite communication) in America.  Broadcasting via SATCOM was a huge accomplishment back then because it allowed them to broadcast ESPN to the whole country! The beginning of their innovative lead in the industry.  Finally, ESPN going through a ton of diversity, finally launched their 24/7 sports broadcasting network September 7, 1979.