Ratner Earns Another Victory; Ontario Sanctions Mixed Martial Arts

UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Marc Ratner (Sherdog.com)

Not enough has been written about the importance of Marc Ratner's role with the UFC.  He is a man with a mission - an ambassador for the sport worldwide.  The interesting thing about Ratner's efforts is that they do not exclusively benefit the UFC.  In fact, it is more common for the first event in a newly sanctioned city to be from a competing promotion.  But, the UFC shouldn't want it any other way.  I have heard many making the argument that the WEC should be repurposed as a "farm system" for the UFC.  I couldn't disagree more.  The UFC has farm systems all around them.  While some may view these promotions as the Competition, in a 5 Cs Marketing analysis, I would define them as Collaborators.  The Competition is all the other things that fans can do with their Saturday night besides buying a UFC pay per view.  Maybe I'll develop these ideas futher in a separate post...I'm getting off track.

My point about Ratner is that he fights a battle for Mixed Martial Arts, not just the Ultimate Fighting Championship.  The genius of this is the UFC's realization that they don't have to play within the constraints they've been given.  So much of strategy in business is about analyzing and disecting industries with tools like Porter's 5-Forces framework.  Afterwards, we step back and make judgments about the relative attractiveness of said industry.  In a similar way, we might size the market opportunity and decide whether an investment is warranted.  I'm not saying the UFC hasn't done a similar analysis of the industry and market potential, I'm sure that they have; they just view this information as a starting point from which to build.  If you don't like the size of the pie, just make it bigger.  Of course, as the opportunties get bigger, so too does the list of promotions eager to collect on the fruits of their labor.  But these promotions bring with them more opportunities for first time trial/viewing of the sport by new audiences, new practice grounds for the develpment of talent, and the want of something more from the fans in attendance...for the world class version: The UFC.        

Joe Myers with Sherdog.com explains the details of Ratners victory in Canada:

The sport of mixed martial arts has taken another step towards legitimacy, as the Canadian province of Ontario announced it will sanction MMA beginning in 2011. “We’re thrilled [MMA is being sanctioned],” said UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner. “Ontario and Toronto, in particular, are hotbeds for MMA and not to have it there didn’t make sense. In the past, it wasn’t that the government was against sanctioning MMA; it’s just that it wasn’t the right time for it. Now, it’s the right time, and we're excited about it.”

Ratner has said previously that Toronto is one of the UFC’s top markets in terms of pay-per-view buys and viewers on a per-capita basis. The UFC’s Canadian office, which opened about three months ago, is based in Toronto. At that time of the opening, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said Canada was the promotion’s second biggest market outside of the United States, accounting for 17 percent of its overall business.

Sophia Aggelonitis, the Minister of Consumer Affairs for Ontario, said the decision to sanction MMA in the province was one that has been a long time in coming.

Full article after the jump.

The UFC "Brand Molecule"

 

Case Western Reserve University includes an introductory Marketing course as part of its core curriculum in the full-time MBA program. The class is taught by Professor Gary Hunter who stresses the importance, as a Marketer, of understanding your brand in very high-level conceptual ways.  Its very easy to get caught up in the daily hustle, putting out fires, and swimming in details.  But, if you let these daily occurrences dictate your decisions around the brand, then you really have no strategy at all. One method of brand conceptualization which we examined in detail was the Brand Molecule.  The idea of this method is to create a graphical representation of the relationships your central brand has with its surrounding environment. Some of these relationships will influence the purchasing decision favorably and others negatively.  The trick is to understand the current situation and then make a conscious decision to shift these relationships in deliberate and strategic ways.  Below is my attempt at a UFC Brand Molecule:       



Learn more about the concept of Brand Molecules

MMA Rankings by Weightclass (August 2010)

While the main purpose of this blog is to explore business concepts as they relate to the MMA Industry, I'm still a hugely opinionated MMA fan who rarely agrees with published rankings.  One format that I do respect, is the US Today Consensus rankings.  Here is a quote from Bloodyelbow.com which further explains the Consensus methodology: 

"We collect and average the rankings of the top MMA websites to produce our consensus rankings. We compile the top MMA rankings from each of our sources and award 25 points for a first place ranking, 16 for a 10th place ranking, 1 for a 25th place ranking. A formula is used to “normalize” the data so all fighters are awarded points from those lists that do not include a full 25 fighters. This formula ensures that each ranking site awards the same number of total points regardless of how many fighters they choose to rank. Each fighter’s total is divided by the number of possible points to determine their standing in the Consensus Rankings."

I really like this method because it pulls from reputable sources and does a great job of smoothing out the results without too much reliance on any one person's opinion. Therefore, I've decided to use these rankings as a starting point each month with a few adjustments based on head-to-head match-ups, record against the top 25, and a little bit of common sense.  My stance regarding rankings is that, rather than awarding points for past achievements, they should capture a moment in time in which every fighter ranked above another would be favored to win in a match taking place on that very day.

I will update these rankings at least once per month and will always welcome a healthy debate.  Complete rankings by weight class after the jump.