Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

The strategic planning of the UFC when it comes to distributing and promoting fights has changed vastly throughout the years.  In its early days the only way to watch UFC fights was to order it through your cable provider as it was a "pay-per-view" show.  However as smart phones and media streaming start to become the norm, the UFC has decided to change certain aspects of its business model to cater a broader audience.  The UFC has definitely conducted a SWOT analysis throughout its life, and an an example of how it would look like is as follows:

Strength:  The UFC has a variety of strengths compared to its competition, one of which is their widely-known brand.  Whenever people talk about mixed-martial arts event, it is most likely a UFC event.  The UFC brand is such a widely known term that casual fan refer to mixed-martial arts in general as UFC, much in the way that people refer to permanent markers as a "Sharpie".

The Infamous UFC Logo

Weakness:  Although the UFC is by far the best and most well-known mixed-martial arts promotion on earth, it still has weaknesses.  One of these weaknesses would be the over-saturation of events.  As the UFC promotion grew, demand for more events followed.  In turn, the UFC signed more fighters into their promotions in order to build more events more frequently.  However, the quality of fights dwindled, as they are signing fighters that did not have time to develop.  The UFC is supposed to be the "NBA" or "NFL" of mixed-martial arts, and when fighters that are not world-class athletes are competing, the quality of the fight cards are diminished.

external Opportunities:  As smart phones and internet streaming became more accessible, the UFC saw an opportunity to sell their product in a different way than just providing fights through pay-per-view.  The UFC introduced a streaming service named "The UFC Fight Pass", which contains a library of past fights as well as live event offerings for $10 a month.  

UFC Fight Pass

Threats:  One hurdle the UFC might face in the future are fight promotions owned by large media organizations.  An example would be a fight promotion named Bellator FC, who is owned by the media organization Viacom.  Such promotions would be a threat to the UFC since they would have a wider audience through channels they own (SPIKE TV, MTV, Nickelodeon).