1.

Analyze
● Customers - those who use the company’s production. Customers are often treated as
the most important element of the marketing micro-environment.
○ The main subject in the customers' area in the football business is the football
match’s audience – those who are interested in watching the football match in the
stadium or on TV.
○ Those customers may be divided into two groups (Rapp, 2004):
■ Football game watchers, who treat football watching as alternate leisure
time spending, but are not highly got into the football world,
■ Fans, who consider football to be a part of their life and who tend to take
part in as many as possible football events.
○ Customers in the football business are not only football game watchers, but also
football game players and learners (who like football and consider it to be
appropriate for leisure time spending and money earning) and advertisers (who
consider football games to be a suitable way to spread advertising messages).
● Suppliers – those who support the company with various resources.
○ Players may also be treated as suppliers for the football business and one of the
internal interest groups, which highly impact the quality of the football business’s
product – football matches.
○ The main suppliers in the football business are those who supply the most
needed resource for a football game – football players. From this point of view,
one of the main subjects in the football business supply performance become
football schools, which prepare football players for football clubs and leagues.
● Distributors (sales agents and sales contributors) – who help to deliver the company’s
products to customers (final users of the production).
○ Services to ensure football match performance (the rent of the stadium,
distribution of match tickets, etc).
○ Additional services create add-value for customers in a football match (souvenir
trading, catering services, etc).
● Competitors – companies, which offer similar production, compete for the same
customers and communicate with the same distributors, suppliers, and interest groups.
○ At the level of individual club competitors are other clubs, which perform in the
same league. There is permanent competition between those clubs for fans,
which impacts the distribution of total league revenue between clubs. The
competition between clubs in the same league is closely connected to the club’s
sports results so it may be stated that competition in the football business
determines the interest in competition in sports results.
○ At the level of a football league or association, there is competition between
different sports and even between different forms of leisure time spending
(football matches may be treated as the alternative to cinema, travel, etc).
● Interest groups – those who are interested in the company’s performance and results:
associations, various public organizations, etc.
○ The interest groups element in football business’s marketing micro-environment
is quite similar to traditional business. The main difference in the football
 business is the importance of football associations/federations, which are treated
as the basic element of the football business structure. As it was mentioned
above, football clubs cannot perform individually, without integration into the
football business system.
The marketing micro-environment in marketing literature is traditionally characterized by several
common environment subjects: customers, suppliers, competitors, distributors, other business
partners, and interest groups. In the football business, all those subjects assume a new specific
role. The main elements of the football marketing micro-environment are as follows: fans,
players and football schools, competitors (other sports, other football clubs, or other football
leagues – depending on the analysis level), football game infrastructure, which consists of
playing area (stadium), tickets sale system and additional services.

2. The final product of football sport is game or a group of games (i.e. championship)

3. The main suppliers in football business are those who supply the mostly needed resource for
football game :football schools, which prepare football players for football clubs and leagues.
Specific factor that impacts the performance of football business : wish to play football – the
number of professional or amateur football players depends on the popularity of football in the
region, which mainly depends on the wish of society to play football
Differently from traditional business, in case of football business supply performance there
exists strong psychological factor (wish to play) that may have a very high impact on further
football business performance.

4. Football games watchers, players, learners, advertisers, and fans

5. The main suppliers in football business are those who supply the mostly needed resource for
football game – football players

6. In the analysis of football business’s marketing decisions it is important firstly to evaluate its
marketing micro-environment, because the specific football business, which is based on system
theory, conditions essential peculiarities in marketing environment. For this reason marketing
micro-environment in football business should be discussed in the context of traditional
marketing micro-environment elements analysis.

7. Marketing micro-environment in marketing literature is traditionally characterized by several

common environment subjects: customers, suppliers, competitors, distributors, other business
partners and interest groups. In football business al those subjects assume the new specific
role.
The main elements of football marketing micro-environment are as follows: fans, players and
football schools, competitors (other sports, other football clubs or other football leagues –
depending on the analysis level), football game infrastructure, which consists of playing area
(stadium), tickets sale system and additional services.
8. Customers in football business are not only football game watchers, but also football game
players and learners (who like football and consider it to be an appropriate for leisure time
spending and money earning) and advertisers (who consider football game to be a suitable way
to spread advertising messages).
Players may also be treated as suppliers for football business and one of internal interest
groups, which highly impact the quality of football business’s product – football match. The main
suppliers in football business are those who supply the mostly needed resource for football
game – football players.