Saturday, October 29, 2011

17th Kepong Juniors Chess Tournament Marketing Problem?

This year edition is one of the toughest ever contested in recent years for categories like Under-10 and Under-16. The school has stopped receiving any new entries as of 25th Oct (Tuesday) when the entries stopped at 256 pax.

Over the last 4 days, many people (no less than 15 calls with an average of 2 children) are still enquiring about the event and try to get their children into the tournament but were rejected. The most common reason cited was they get to know about this event only early this week.

First and foremost, the marketing for this event via online started 3 months ago. Secondly, the organiser of this event has been marketing aggresively in many major tournaments within Klang Valley namely MBSSKL Open, Swensen Age-Group Rapid, KL Scholastics, etc. Thirdly, reminder via various websites e.g. gilachess.com, fireyrook.blogspot.com and malaysianchess.blogspot.com on this event was done about a month ago.

It is a real wonder on why the same reason "Get to know abt this event only in the last few days" was given every year. It makes one wonder whether 3 months marketing on event is insufficient in term of timeframe? OR Target audience are not spread wide enough? OR 3 months marketing on event is too long until it loses its urgency to register? OR Is it a Malaysian way on doing things? OR I also don't know why I can miss the event in the first place despite the fact it is always organised annually after UPSR / PMR exam?