The Market Environment

The New York Mets is one of the most lucrative franchises in the MLB. It has an established fan base that generates substantial revenue for the team each year. Financial success across for the team is dependent on successful marketing campaigns directed toward key target audiences: people of specific ages, genders, ethnicities, income levels and household compositions.

1. Age

   • The Mets directs marketing and promotional efforts toward the 18- to 49-year-old age range. According to Scarborough Sports Marketing, this age range accounts for approximately 59 percent of the entire Mets target market fan base. Within this age range, Scarborough Sports Marketing finds that 63 percent report holding a very high interest in baseball. A person with this degree of interest is classified as an avid fan.

   Gender

   • One of the most impressive features of the Mets target market audience is that gender representation is almost equal. Few professional sports organizations can make that claim about their fan base. Among those who rate themselves as avid fans, Scarborough Sports Marketing finds that 65 percent are male and 35 percent are female. When looking at the big-picture fan base representation for the Mets, the research outfit finds that 57 percent of fans are male and 43 percent are female. With the percentage of female fan base interest steadily increasing, the Mets is expanding its marketing efforts to appeal to females in the hopes of closing the percentage gap between the two fan base gender groups.

   

   Mets GM talks about teams' future.

   Ethnicity

   • Baseball has long been considered America's pastime. For much of its existence, major league baseball has focused on white people as its target market audience, and people who identify as white or Caucasian account for 86 percent of the total baseball fan base, according to Scarborough. The presence of African American and Hispanic players has begun to steadily increase across the league.

     According to Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for diversity and ethics in sports, Hispanic player representation stands at 29.4 percent and African American representation stands at 8.4 percent. Given that these numbers are likely to increase, we can expect to see the Mets reaching out to these two racial fan groups with marketing and promotional campaigns.

   Income Level

   • Adding up the dollars spent on average for team apparel, game day tickets, snacks and drinks at the stadium and other fan souvenirs makes it easy to see that MLB team loyalty is an expensive venture. For that reason, Scarborough Sports Marketing reports the major league baseball fan base is predominantly made up of people from households with income levels of $50,000 to $75,000. According to the research group, approximately 59 percent of the MLB fan base reports household income levels at $75,000 or higher. Lower income levels are certainly not excluded by the MLB's marketing. The higher income levels are the target market focus due in large part to the income potential that can be found there.

   Household Composition

   • Household composition is a relatively new target market concern for major league baseball. Avid baseball fans are rapidly expressing an interest in making team loyalty a family affair. According to Sports Media Inc., 61 percent of MLB fan base households have at least one child in the home. The Mets also target households containing at least one college graduate, as this accounts for 81 percent of the overall MLB fan base, according to Sports Media Inc.