Sports Marketing

A Strategic Perspective

Matthew D. Shank, Mark R. Lyberger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429638169
• Edition: 6
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Sports Marketing: A Strategic Perspective is the most authoritative, comprehensive, and engaging introduction to sports marketing currently available. It is the only introductory textbook on this subject to adopt a strategic approach, explaining clearly how every element of the marketing process should be designed and managed, from goal-setting and planning to implementation and control.

Covering all the key topics in the sports marketing curriculum, including consumer behavior, market research, promotions, products, pricing, sponsorship, business ethics, technology, and e-marketing, the book introduces core theory and concepts, explains best practice, and surveys the rapidly changing international sports business environment. Chapters contain extensive real-world case studies and biographies of key industry figures, and challenging review exercises encourage the reader to reflect critically on their own knowledge and professional practice.

Now in a fully revised and updated sixth edition, Sports Marketing: A Strategic Perspective includes expanded coverage of social and digital media, analytics, and ethical issues, as well as a greater number of international articles and examples. In a new feature, successful sports marketers reflect on their careers and how they progressed in the sports marketing industry.

It is an essential foundation for any sports marketing or sports business course, and an invaluable reference for any sports marketing practitioner looking to improve their professional practice.

A companion website offers additional resources for instructors and students, including an instructor's guide, test questions, presentation slides, and useful weblinks.

PART I

Contingency framework for strategic sports marketing

1

Emergence of sports marketing

DOI: 10.4324/9780429030673-2

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define sports marketing and discuss how the sports industry is related to the entertainment industry.
• Describe a marketing orientation and its relationship to the sports industry.
• Examine the growth of the sports industry.
• Discuss the simplified model of the consumer–supplier relationship in the sports industry.
• Explain the different types of sports consumers.
• Identify historical trends and significant impacts of sport marketing practices.
• Define sports products and discuss the various types of sports products.
• Understand the different producers and intermediaries in the simplified model of the consumer–supplier relationship in the sports industry.
• Discuss the elements in the sports marketing mix.
• Explain the exchange process and why it is important to sports marketers.
• Outline the elements of the strategic sports marketing process.

Mary is a typical “soccer mom.” At the moment, she is trying to determine how to persuade the local dry cleaner to provide uniforms for her daughter’s Catholic Youth Organization soccer team.

George is the president of the regional Chamber of Commerce. The ten-year plan for the metropolitan area calls for developing four new sporting events that will draw local support while providing national visibility for this growing metropolitan area.

Sam is an events coordinator for a 10K road race, which is an annual fundraiser for fighting lung disease. He is faced with the difficult task of trying to determine how much to charge for the event to maximize participation and proceeds for charity.

Ramiz is the athletic director for State University. In recent years, the men’s basketball team has done well in postseason play; therefore, ESPN has offered to broadcast several games this season. Unfortunately, three of the games will have to be played at 10 p.m. local time to accommodate the broadcaster’s schedule. Ramiz is concerned about the effect this will have on season ticket holders because two of the games are on weeknights. He knows that the last athletic director was fired because the local fans and boosters believed that he was not sensitive to their concerns.

Susie works for a sports marketing agency that is representing a professional sport franchise. The franchise is planning to expand its international market presence. She is challenged with establishing relationships in a new environment that hosts a unique set of cultural values and customs.

What is sports marketing?

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”¹ Sport and entertainment have been defined in a variety of ways; however, most definitions include terms such as indulgent, divergence, and/or engagement for valued outcomes of enjoyment, pleasure, or amusement. Although sport may often consist of a more competitive nature, both sport and entertainment are inclusive of retaining diverse exchange platforms. These diverse platforms provide a variety of engagement opportunities and yet, uniquely, are composed of an array of outcomes that are distinctly similar.

Sports marketing is the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products and to the marketing of non-sports products through association with sport. The sports industry is experiencing tremendous growth, and sports marketing plays an important role in this dynamic industry. Many people mistakenly think of sports marketing as promotions or sports agents saying, “Show me the money.” As the opening examples illustrate, sports marketing is more complex and dynamic, yet interesting because of the unique nature of the sports industry.

Mary, the soccer mom, is trying to secure a sponsorship; that is, she needs to convince the local dry cleaner that they will enjoy a benefit by associating their service (dry cleaning) with a kids’ soccer team.

As president of the Chamber of Commerce, George needs to determine which sports products will best satisfy his local consumers’ needs for sports entertainment while marketing the city to a larger and remote audience.

In marketing terms, Sam is trying to decide on the best pricing strategy for his sporting event; Ramiz is faced with the challenge of balancing the needs of two market segments for his team’s products; and Susie, the sport marketer, is seeking to persuade international populations of the relevance of diversifying their sport culture. As you can see, each marketing challenge is complex and requires careful planning.

To succeed in sports marketing one needs to understand both the sports industry and the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sports contexts. In the next section, we introduce you to the sports industry. Throughout this book, we continue to elaborate on ways in which the unique characteristics of this industry complicate and call for unique strategic marketing decisions. After discussing the sports industry, we review basic marketing principles and processes with an emphasis on how these principles and processes must be adapted to the sports context.

Understanding the sports industry

Historical development of sports marketing in (North) America

The evolution of sports marketing strategies to meet the needs and wants of the consumer continues to be a priority of practitioners worldwide. Today’s realm of sports marketing and sponsorship, though a more dramatically effective and a much more diverse platform, is vaguely similar to what many identify as its origin, 776 BCE, when the ancient Olympic Games began. Marketers for the ancient Olympic Games were no amateurs; these perceptive businessmen realized early on that an affiliation with a popular athlete could produce a potentially lucrative relationship.² Throughout history, sport in some form has existed and, though the common-day term of sports marketing had not yet emerged, the process of utilizing marketing and promotion strategies to enhance delivery and production has been evident.

The roots of sports marketing in North America can be traced back to the 1850s and 1860s when many businesses, recognizing the popularity of sport, attempted to create linkages to enhance commercial opportunities by marketing through sport. Two events of this era in particular, one collegiate and one professional, illustrate the use of marketing through sport and helped lay a foundation for utilization of sport as a service medium in North America.

In 1852, a railroad official, together with a group of local businessmen, believed that they could garner enough interest in the marketing and staging of the event to produce economic and commercial profits. The end result was the first intercollegiate match between Harvard University and Yale University – a two-mile rowing contest. This event took place at a quiet summer resort called Center Harbor on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. The result demonstrated that the entrepreneurs were able to create a positive economic impact on the region, enhancing rail traffic, hotel occupancy, and revenue for the host city.

The second event is tied to the late 1850s and early 1860s and the commercialization of the new sport of baseball. Tobacco companies partnered with professional baseball leagues and began using photographs of the teams to help sell their products and services. These companies made baseball cards with pictures of the teams and players and then inserted them into cigarette packets to boost and enhance brand loyalties. Though the strategies of distribution have been altered over the years – that is, transition from the use of cigarettes, to bubblegum, to today’s independent packages – these strategies laid the foundation for a new industry: the memorabilia and card collecting/trading market that exists today.

North American sport experienced a variety of popularity struggles in the late 1800s and early 1900s. A demand for reform arose and threatened sport at a variety of levels. In 1906, with the assistance of President Theodore Roosevelt, efforts were made to transform the image of sport. Strategies and regulations were implemented to enhance the safety and appeal of the game. Rules, regulations, and the control of lurking controversies, such as the controversy distinguishing the amateur and professional status of athletes, became a primary emphasis of sport organizations.

Although the early 1920s were a period of relative calm in American society, the country was intrigued by the newest technology of the day, the radio. Marketers, sports administrators, and broadcasters alike sought to integrate sports utilizing this medium, a medium at the time that many believed symbolized a coming age of enlightenment. No other medium has changed the everyday lives of Americans as quickly and irrevocably as radio.³ In 1921, the first American baseball broadcast occurred from Forbes Field. Though this broadcast was deemed a success, marketers of the era struggled to transcend executives’ opinions, because some believed that the broadcasts would have a negative impact upon attendance and demand.

In the 1930s and 1940s sports organizations utilized radio to enhance team revenue streams. Innovative marketers began relying on the radio to get their message across to the common man. In 1936, this same forum was used as a marketing and public relations campaign to pronounce the success of Jessie Owens and his Olympic debut.

Radio provided the impetus to solidify the era of patronage; however, the invention that soon followed remains to this day the most significant communication medium that has influenced and aided the development of sports. Who knew what sportscaster Bill Stern questioned and introduced in 1939 would enhance the growth and development of sports marketing practices for decades? The display platform, the television, though airing two mediocre baseball teams battling for fourth place, provided an incredibly formidable and profitable union between sport and the American public. The television provided a means for sports organizations to expand their market presence and presented a unique opportunity for marketers to engage their publics. The notion of a “picture being worth a thousand words” became a reality with the invention and its intervention and presentation of sports.

Executives such as Bill Veeck became innovators of sports marketing, utilizing radio and in-game promotional strategies to further market their teams. Owners, players, broadcasters, and fans recognized the variety of impacts television would have on the presentation of sports. In fact, television giant CBS dropped its Sunday afternoon public service emphasis to provide for a 12-week professional football broadcast.

American consumers in the 1950s loved and demanded sports. Participation trends and fan demand steadily increased. Sports became a symbol of changing times in the United St...