MARKETING ORIENTEERING

MARKETING ORIENTEERING - A STRATEGY for the REBUILDING and REGENERATION of ORIENTEERING

Gary Aitken (co-founder of OAWA in Aug 1974)

Shrinking Assets

Recent articles in both the OAWA Split Times newsletter, and The Australian Orienteer highlight essentially the same situation whilst coming to it from different directions: viz • OAWA (Aug 2005, p10 and AO Sept 2005, p30) -

Orienteering in Norway. • AO (Dec 2005, p45; OAWA Dec 2005, p9) - re. animal picture controls. In a four page submissions I suggested using pictures of fruit and vegetables to tie-in with Health

Promotions (2F, 5V) at Festival events (such as Hyde Park and the Mandurah Crab-Fest). • AO (Dec 2005, p5, 46) Bob McCreddin on Sport versus

Recreation adherents, and Bob Mouatt on the ASC and the eight P’s.

Purists versus Pragmatists

Associations must reform the five P’s - PRODUCT, PRICE, PACKAGING, PROMOTION, POSITIONING - for the ASC (Aust Sports Commission) says.... PLAN for PARTICIPATION OR PERISH. In other words, create and maintain a PUBLIC PRESENCE and a PUBLIC PROFILE. The ASC has made it quite clear that future funding must not only reflect but be a measure of • Level of interest • Importance • Participation • Relevance Sport is, and always was, both a prisoner and function(ary) of the PYRAMID OF NUMBERS. Purists need the base. It’s as simple as that.

Attempts To Arrest Decline In Membership

Current promotion and development appears to be reliant upon a two-pronged approach: • Recruitment - whether by on-going passive methods or isolated, sporadic drives. • Expanding the activity program for the existing members.

The formula appears to be: new x = retained interest = retained loyalty/membership. This two-pronged strategy would be familiar to most associations throughout the world. However, each component of the strategy has inherent weaknesses which, in turn, create on-going problems for the associations. Recruitment is so often based on the tried and true of 10, 15, and 20 years past. Now that is normal human behaviour. Going with what worked. Past tense. Doing things the same way (over and over), and expecting different results. Secondly, change (“new x”) does not necessarily equate with progress. Adopting ideas and/or events from whatever the source without consideration of setting, life-cycle, culture that produced the concept; without asking hard questions; without clear analysis and assessment criteria, can also create problems, give rise to unintended consequences. Some proposed events (viz. IOF MICRO-O; AO Sept 2005, p7), and current events (Uni-based Sprint-O) bring to mind the fridge magnet: • Alert but not aspiring • Amused but not amoured. In common with other associations and countries (eg. NZ-AO March 2005, p3 & 7; Sept p22-23) the OAWA appears to be getting pulled in too many directions, dissipating resources, rather than establishing it’s (their) own cohesive program be it competition or marketing. It is necessary to be selective, to safeguard against the allure and siren song of the latest bright suggestion, as distinct from a genuine idea. Problems may be avoided by asking some basic questions: • Rationale (why are we considering this? How does it assist short term, long term? Does it complement? Should it replace? - if so, what?) • Outcomes (objectives, strategies, overall fit. Can we use meaningful performance criteria? Are we really measuring what we think we’re measuring?) • Resources (time, effort, finances).

The ASC Challenge

The Australian Sports Commission’s criteria for funding is a blessing, a timely opportunity, as it provides associations with a catalyst and impetus to: • Re-evaluate competitions and marketing programs • Review and assess where we are, and • Focus on where we need (not want) to be. In marketing terms, Orienteering is an old product, (WA 31-32 years). It needs to be: • REPACKAGED • REPOSITIONED The challenges keep multiplying. An old product must be transformed to demonstrate (renewed) interest, participation, importance and relevance. This means being innovative and creative, without dragging along some of the problems outlined above. For OAWA this means: • Different means and forms of communication (ie; selling and/or marketing “the story”) • Identifying ways to tie-in with other funded programs (eg;

WA Health Dept - “Fitter Feet” walk trails) • Identifying different target audiences (so called niche markets) • Different ways of presenting the Orienteering experience • Different ways of realising/experiencing Orienteering • Imaginative use of different venues and settings • Developing new ways of teaching Orienteering; developing new teaching aids, resource material • Identifying ways to provide continuity of the teaching/ learning experience. (One event, one school activity, is very often both the first and last experience, as there is no follow up. The singularity of the event is tantamount to a diversion or distraction). • That said, there is a need to identify what motivates children to want to continue, learn more. (viz; excitement at responding to, meeting and overcoming a challenge; the sense of satisfaction, achievement, accomplishment).

In other words, do we properly cater for children and teenagers? • Identifying ways of getting children and teenagers to bush events. (When and where parents are not interested in supporting their children). And yet there is one over-arching condition: neither losing nor compromising the sheer essence and real spirit of (bush) Orienteering.

Double for Tasmania at top of 2005 National Elite Rankings

HANNY Allston (TAS) was a clear leader at the top of the W21E with 6408 points (best 5 races over 12 months). Her World Championship Long-distance scores of 1398 (final) and 1316 (qualification) were the best ranking scores since Nicki Taws’ World Cup medal in 2000 at Honeysuckle Creek. Fellow WOC Relay team members, Jo Allison (ACT)(6079) and Tracy Bluett (NSW)(5741) complete the placings. Recent World Ranking Events in China provided David Brickhill-Jones (TAS) with the opportunity to climb to the top of the ranking list for the first time. With top placing in high quality international fields, his 1312 points in the Yunnan Orienteering Festival Sprint race and 1223 in the Middledistance enabled him to leapfrog Grant Bluett (ACT) and finish the season as Australia’s number one ranked M21E orienteer. With another consistent year including his first Australian Long-distance title, Bluett led the rankings until BrickhillJones’ late surge. Easter 3-Day winner, Troy de Haas (VIC) moved down to number 3. Full 2005 ranking details for M/W21, 20 and 18 are available at http://www.orienteering.asn.au/rankings/. 2006 Rankings continue will be updated as soon as possible after each ranking event.

Bruce Arthur, Elite Rankings Compiler

Hanny Allston David Brickhill-Jones W21 Name Total

1 TAS Hanny Allston 6408 2 ACT Jo Allison 6079 3 NSW Tracy Bluett 5741 4 VIC Natasha Key 5417 5 TAS Grace Elson 5305 6 ACT Allison Jones 5170 7 TAS Danielle Winslow 5106 8 TAS Clare Hawthorne 5059 9 ACT Anna Danielsson 5029 10 VIC Kathryn Ewels 4985 11 ACT Nicki Taws 4900 12 QLD Anna Sheldon 4870 13 SA Susanne Casanova 4784 14 NSW Orla Murray 4752 15 QLD Julia Davies 4703 16 VIC Jasmine Neve 4701 17 VIC Mace Neve 4679 18 ACT Rebecca Minty 4580 19 NSW Briohny Davey 4402 20 WA Rachel West 4375

M21 Name Total

1 TAS David Brickhill-Jones 6412 2 ACT Grant Bluett 6380 3 VIC Troy de Haas 6222 4 ACT David Shepherd 6192 5 NSW Julian Dent 5965 6 ACT Rob Walter 5699 7 NSW Eric Morris 5615 8 NSW Rob Preston 5606 9 ACT Tom Quayle 5433 10 ACT Ben Rattray 5283 11 VIC Rune Olsen 5279 12 ACT Gareth Candy 5117 13 VIC Bruce Arthur 5086 14 SA Kerrin Rattray 5061 15 WA Craig Dufty 5041 16 VIC Blair Trewin 5022 17 WA Andy Hogg 4827 18 VIC Warren Key 4808 19 VIC Adrian Jackson 4715 20 NSW Peter Preston 4710

W20 Name Total

1 TAS Hanny Allston 6408 2 VIC Jasmine Neve 4701 3 WA Erin Post 4262 4 ACT Sophie Barker 4011 5 WA Kellie Whitfield 4002 6 QLD Ainsley Cavanagh 3858 7 SA Zebedy Hallett 3814 8 TAS Emma Warren 2724 9 NSW Clare Murphy 1526 10 NSW Jayde Livingstone 1069

M20 Name Total 1 NSW Julian Dent 5965 2 NSW David Meyer 4689 3 VIC Christopher Naunton 4123 4 TAS Ryan Smyth 3768 5 TAS Conrad Elson 3661 6 NSW Matt Parton 3384 7 ACT Murray Scown 3283 8 TAS Lee Andrewartha 3200 9 WA Cody Whitfield 3150 10 TAS Matthew Hope 2786

W18 Name Total 1 SA Vanessa Round 4327 2 ACT Heather Harding 3951 3 SA Rebecca Hembrow 3728 4 WA Sarah Dunnage 3727 5 VIC Clare Brownridge 3561 6 VIC Bridie Kean 3258 7 WA Kendal Sutherland 3105 8 SA Mallory Hughes 2777 9 QLD Laurina Neumann 2772 10 VIC Melinda Jackson 2718

M18 Name Total 1 SA Simon Uppill 4488 2 TAS Louis Elson 3736 3 WA Rhys Challen 3546 4 QLD Daniel Stott 3166 5 VIC Rob Fell 3101 6 QLD Kieran Sullivan 2977 7 TAS Nick Andrewartha 2858 8 VIC Steven Cusworth 2856 9 VIC Morten Neve 2823 10 SA Sam McNally 2548

continued from page 17

and Finally

Too many associations appear to be their own worst enemy. The common characteristic is the attitude created by the Purists which permeates down through all functions. The perception is that of a cloistered, secretive order that has taken a vow of silence. Contact us via the internet. That silence carries across to event results. Detailed comprehensive results in State dailies such as “The West Australian” immediately after an event are an important marketing tool. It tells people we’re still active. Results provide interest and (public) talking points. Another perception is that associations are turning in on themselves. Less and less is in the public domain. More and more is in-house. All of which is incompatible with the ASC’s set of four criteria: • Level of interest • Participation • Importance • Relevance Which, in turn, leads back to the conundrum: PURISTS versus PRAGMATISTS. Where do all the State associations start? OVERCOMING ALL SORTS OF MIND-SETS to create and maintain a PUBLIC PRESENCE and a PUBLIC PROFILE.

Footnote

Further to Bob McCreddin’s “From the President” (AO Dec 2005, p5) re. Sport versus Recreation proponents, c.1978 the OAWA introduced event `White Cards’, for participants (not competitors) who wanted the full bush-experience and all that Orienteering entailed, but for whom time was irrelevant. (Plus other reasons: recovering from injuries, illness; mentoring; age and fragility). The participant’s time was not made public. On display boards, and in newsletters, they were listed as `White Card’ and placed ahead of DNS, DISQ, MP, DNF. Shortly after the idea was taken up by the ACTOA, and the QOA. The concept is still relevant and valid. Encouraging its use may prolong interest and membership. It is the best of both worlds.