April 18th, 2019

Chapter 8: Sport Marketing

“Sport marketing consists of all activities designed to meet the needs and wants of sports
consumers through exchange processes”

Consumers
- Wants and needs of consumers:
o Products
 Tangible (set of golf clubs)
 Intangible (attending a Miami Heat game)
o Services
 Personal training, golf lessons, hospitality at a sport event

Sport Marketing
- Two major components:
o Marketing of sport products/services to the consumer
o Marketing consumer/industrial products or services through the use of sport
promotions

Unique Aspects of Sport Marketing

- Sport organizations must compete and cooperate at the same time
- Sport consumers often consider themselves “experts”
- Consumer demand tends to fluctuate throughout the year
- Sport product is often intangible
- The basic sport product (event) is simultaneously produced and consumed
- Sport is generally publicly consumed, and satisfaction is often affected by social
interaction
- Sport product is inconsistent and unpredictable
- Sport marketer has little or no control over the core product

Sport Consumers
- Two characteristics:
o Involvement
 Behavioral
 Cognitive
 Affective
o Commitment
 Frequency
 Duration
1. How long are they staying at the games?
2. How long have they been a fan?
 Intensity
 Willingness to spend time, money, and energy
Target Market
- One goal of marketing is to connect a product/service with a target market
- Portion of the overall market that has certain desirable traits or characteristics
o Demographic
o Geographic
o Psychographic

Marketing Mix
- Product: what the sport organization is trying to sell
o Product can be goods, services, people, places and ideas
o Challenge is to produce to the right product for the consumer
o Products can be differentiated in order to appeal to a different part of the target
(segmentation)
- Price: the value of the product and the price the consumer must pay to obtain it
o Evaluation of costs v. benefits
o If the consumer feels the benefits exceed the costs, then the product is perceived
to have “value”
o A product that is underpriced may be perceived to have no “value”
- Place: (distribution) the channels available for getting the product to the consumer
o Evaluation of different distribution options, selection of methods that will provide
the best connection to consumers
- Promotion: the communication activities that inform, persuade, and motivate consumers
to purchase the product
o Process of creating interest among consumers
o Variety of promotional methods
 Print, Television, Radio, Internet, Cross-Promotions
o Choice is dependent upon target market and available resources
- Public Relations: communication process intended to convey the purposes and goals of
the organization
o Position the product in the mind of the consumer through image building and
relationships with other organizations
o PR (Public Relations) = MR (Media Relations) + CR (Community Relations)
o Goals = create a positive public image