Sports Marketing

A Practical Approach

Larry DeGaris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780415630474
• eBook ISBN: 9781136223457
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Any sports marketing student or prospective sports marketer has to understand in detail genuine industry trends and be able to recognise solutions to real-world scenarios. Sports Marketing: A Practical Approach is the first textbook to offer a comprehensive, engaging and practice-focused bridge between academic theory and real-life, industry-based research and practice. Defining the primary role of the sports marketer as revenue generation, the book is structured around the three main channels through which this can be achieved — ticket sales, media and sponsorship — and explores key topics such as:

• Sports markets and business markets (b2b)
• Fan development
• Brand management
• Media audiences, rights and revenue
• Live sports events
• Sponsorship
• Merchandise and retail

Integrating real industry-generated research into every chapter, the book also includes profiles of leading industry executives and guidance for developing and preparing for a career in sports marketing. It goes further than any other sports marketing textbook in surveying the international sports market, including international cases and detailed profiles of international consumer and business markets throughout. A companion website offers multiple choice questions for students, editable short answer and essay questions, and lecture slides for instructors.

No other textbook offers such a relevant, practice-focused overview of contemporary sports marketing. It is the ideal companion to any sports marketing course.

Part I

Strategy

Chapter 1

A practical approach to sports marketing

CHAPTER OUTLINE

1 Bridging theory and practice

2 A practical approach to sports marketing

a Goals

i Organizational goals

ii Marketing goals

b Strategies

c Tactics

3 Data and measurement

a Goals

i Marketing intelligence

ii Customer analytics

iii Market research

BRIDGING THEORY AND PRACTICE

The relationship between the academic study of sports business and sports business practitioners historically has not been close or productive, more often ranging from distant to downright adversarial. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) gave college sport management programs a “failing” grade in preparing students for work in the sports business.¹ The WSJ article recounted a speech to an association of academics by Andy Dolich in 2004, in which Dolich sharply criticized academic sports business programs for their lack of relevant course offerings.² The WSJ article recommends that students look for a program which offers “real-world experience” provided by faculty who are “real-life practitioners.”

The dilemma of the academic study pitted against practical relevance is not limited to the sports business but extends to the broader fields of marketing and business. The gap between academic marketers and the needs of marketing executives has been described as “alarming” and “growing.”³ The WSJ does not place the blame on the gap between academics and practitioners solely on academia, noting that the sports industry has not invested in or nurtured sport management programs.

One of practitioners’ main criticisms of the academic study of sports marketing is that it is “too theoretical.” But what does it mean to be “too theoretical” and what would it mean to have a “practical” approach to sports marketing? In the common use, the term “theoretical” is meant as something which is abstract, which may or may not be relevant to a real-world situation. Practical, on the other hand, means performing or doing something. In this sense, a theoretical approach to sports marketing means looking at abstract principles or processes which may or may not be actively practiced. A theoretical approach focuses on what sports marketing “is.” In contrast, a practical approach to sports marketing focuses on what sports marketers do.

In general, academic research and textbooks tend to take a more theoretical approach to sports marketing, focusing on marketing principles and providing examples from the sports business. Academics and practitioners even differ with respect to the name of the field: academics study “sport” marketing; practitioners do “sports” marketing. The terminologies represent different approaches: “sport” marketing as a field of academic study attempts to create a “general theory of sport marketing,” which can be applied across industry segments.⁴ One of the main criticisms of the academic approach to marketing is that it lacks context: what works in one research study might not work under different circumstances.⁵ Practitioners are more concerned with what works than finding a unifying theory of the field, and they are concerned that what might work in one situation might not work in another.

Understandably, sports marketing practitioners’ primary concern is with marketing problems which are “here and now,”⁶ but by focusing on relevant practical problems, sports marketers often fail to take a systematic, rigorous approach. The academic study of “sport” marketing is characterized by a rigorous, systematic approach. Rigor can be both conceptual, or well thought out, and methodological, systematically analyzing empirical data. Academic research tends to focus on rigor to the exclusion of relevance. In contrast, sports marketing practice tends to maintain a laser-like focus on relevance, often at the expense of rigor.

Critics of the “academic” or “theoretical” approach to sports marketing overlook the benefits of a more rigorous approach which is informed by data. Practice-oriented sports marketers also tend to overlook a big weakness in the sports industry relative to other industries: as an industry, sports lags woefully behind other industries in its use of research and data. According to a recent industry study,⁷ sponsors give properties (e.g., teams, leagues, and events) a failing grade for measurement and research. Table 1.1 provides some results from the study: nearly two-thirds (67%) of sponsors say properties are not meeting their expectations in delivering return-on-investment (ROI) measurement or research information; more than half (55%) do not have a standardized measurement process; nearly half (45%) spend 0% of their sponsorship budgets on pre-selection research; and about a third (32%) spend nothing on concurrent/post-event research. Sponsors are more likely to rely on their guts than hard data as “internal feedback” is considered to be a more important type of sponsorship analysis than “primary consumer research.” The numbers are not good to begin with and might be worse, as respondents might be prone to overestimating their use of research because that would be the more desirable response. Most marketing practitioners would not like to admit that they make decisions about million dollar deals without rigorous, fact-based support.

Table 1.1 Sponsors’ use of research

■ 67% of sponsors say properties are NOT meeting their expectations in delivering ROI measurement or research information

■ 55% of sponsors do not have a standardized process for measuring return from sponsorships

■ 45% of sponsors spend 0% of their sponsorship budgets on pre-selection research

■ 32% of sponsors spend NOTHING on concurrent/post-event research, despite 86% saying the need for validated results from sponsorship has increased during the past 1–2 years

■ “Internal feedback” is the most important type of sponsorship analysis (42% 9–10 on a 10-pt. scale), more than “primary consumer research” (29%)

Source: 12th Annual IEG/Performance Research Sponsorship Decision-Makers Survey.

It’s not surprising that sponsorship properties get a failing grade from sponsors on research and measurement. Sports marketers have long had a skeptical and somewhat dubious view of research. Jon Spoelstra, a highly influential figure in helping to professionalize sports marketing as a discipline, eschews research conducted by “big professional research firms” – the type often used by “megacorporations” – in favor of “free research,” or “going to your customers and talking to them one-to-one.”⁸ Along these lines, other sports marketers suggest executives “gather your own research,” “walk around the arena and observe what’s happening,” and “introduce yourself as a team executive and ask random fans to share their experiences with you.”⁹ But while research by walking around might add insight to more systematic, rigorous data, on its own it’s a terrible method of collecting information, prone to all sorts of individual biases and measurement errors. One of the main benefits of using rigorous methods to conduct research is to reduce biases of individuals and reduce risk in decisions.

There is, however, recognition of the importance of rigorous research, measurement, and data in the sports industry, although sports-related organizations tend to lag far behind their “megacorporation” counterparts. Table 1.2 provides some examples of research-related job responsibilities in job ads posted by sports organizations. The Special Olympics sees a Vice President who will build “off the data, research, and evaluation findings.” Churchill Downs Racetrack, home of the Kentucky Derby, seeks a Vice President who will develop a “comprehensive data driven marketing strategy.” The Chicago Fire, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team, seeks a Senior Director of Marketing who will oversee research initiatives, which will “heighten Fire’s awareness of current business activity and grow/develop future business opportunities.”

So, practitioners criticize academics for a lack of relevance and academics criticize practitioners for a lack of rigor. To a certain extent, they’re both right. The main goal of this book, therefore, is to provide a systematic and rigorous approach to the sports marketing practice, which is informed by data. This book adopts a practical approach to sports marketing and takes what sports marketers do and how you might learn how to do it as the starting points. That’s not to say that there are no theories or principles involved in the practice of sports marketing. Theory and practice are not mutually exclusive, nor are relevance and rigor. Sports marketing practitioners don’t make choices randomly; they operate from theoretical frameworks, though most practitioners would probably use the term “strategies.” While sports marketers use theoretical frameworks, they tend not to draw on academic research for their theories, developing “theories on the ground” based on experience or, less often, using market research.

Table 1.2 Research-related duties for sports marketers

Job description

Comments

VP, Special Olympics position summary^1 ■ “The Vice President, Global Youth Activation and Education Policy will lead the global expansion and implementation of youth activation in each of seven Special Olympics regions around the world, as a core component of the community building pillar of the Movement’s strategic plan. S/he will create an integrated overarching global blueprint for youth activation and school and education policy building off the data, research and evaluation findings, key characteristics and principles that ensure Project UNIFY remains a successful US youth activation program.” (emphasis added)

Many sports marketing job descriptions seek candidates who can develop evidence-based programs. The Special Olympics sought a candidate who wou...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Strategy
• Part II Gate revenue
• Part III Media
• Part IV Sponsorship
• Index