What is Sport Marketing?

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FACTS & NUMBERS

The sporting market has a sales value of approximately $180 billion, and this amount is growing annually by 20%.

The sporting market has a sales value of approximately $180 billion, and this amount is growing annually by 20%.The sport marketplace reaches a variety of demographic and psychographic groups but in particular the audience is often young, male and are involved in sports themselves.

What is Sport Marketing?

Sport marketing is a subdivision of marketing which focuses both on the promotion of sports events and teams as well as the promotion of other products and services through sporting events and sports teams. It is a service in which the element promoted can be a physical product or a brand name.

Heineken is an alcohol company that has partnerships with a range of sporting events globally. This shows that products entirely unrelated to sports are taking advantage of the sports marketplace to gain a wider customer base. The company is involved in the Rugby World Cup which was in the top ten New Zealand viewed series in 2015 (Pearson, 2016). This allowed the company's advertisements and product details to reach a big percentage of the country's population. This is an effective way to reach a wider customer base and gain a spot in the sport viewers niche. Heineken also have partnerships with the UEFA championship football league and the ATP Tennis open creating the company to be recognised with a wide range of sports ("The HEINEKEN Company - Age Gate", 2016).

1) Olympics

Sports marketing is divided into three sectors. The first is the advertising of sport and sports associations such as the Olympics, Spanish Football league and the NFL, as well as sport teams like Real Madrid and the New York Yankees. The second concerns the use of sporting events, sporting teams and individual athletes to promote various products. The third category is the promotion of sport to the public in order to increase participation.

2) Sport events

3) Promotion of sport

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Sports marketing is a means of advertising products and services either related or unrelated to sports through the use of sporting events, sponsorship and franchises

What is the Goal of Sport Marketing?

The goal is to provide the client with strategies to promote the sport or to promote something other than sport through sports. Sport marketing is also designed to meet the needs and wants of the consumer through exchange processes. These strategies follow the traditional four "P"'s of general marketing Product, Price, Promotion and Place, another four "P"’s are added to sport marketing, relating to the fact sports are considered to be a service. The additional 4 P’s are: Planning, Packaging, Positioning and Perception. The addition of the four extra elements is called the "sport marketing mix."

Another aspect of sports marketing is when a company that is unrelated to a sport advertises and promotes their company. They use the wide audience that is reached by the sporting industry as a way to target a greater range of consumers (Fullerton, S., & Merz, G. R, 2008). An example of this is Coca-Cola’s affiliation with the Olympic Games since the late 1920’s. This is a prime showing of how a product that is unrelated to sporting events within the Olympic Games uses the sports marketing platform to their advantage.

EXAMPLES

One aspect of sports marketing is when a company advertises a product that is related to the sporting industry Examples of this are things such as Nike advertising Air Jordans at Basketball games across America (Brown, M, 2012). This type of sports marketing is useful for viewers to better understand the products they should be purchasing, to perform at their highest capabilities in their chosen sports. Also this use of advertising, where products related to a sport are advertised during the event or activity creates a stigma around the product. This stigma suggests to audiences, that in order to perform like a top athlete, they must dress in the same brands as a top athlete. (Shank, M.D., & Lyberger, M.R, 2014).

Directly related to ethics in marketing, there was a time where such advertising techniques weren’t put in such a bad light. In 1934 there was a famous tennis star ‘Ellsworth Vines’ who featured within a ‘Camel’ tobacco advert (Popular Science, 1934). The ad shows Ellsworth Vines smoking a Camel cigarette after “5 hard sets” of tennis before stating that one would “get a lift” with camel.

SPORT MARKETING MIX

• Planning
• Packaging
• Positioning
• Perception

Examples of marketing of products through sport:

• Sponsorship of events
• Sponsorship of teams
• Sponsorship of athletes
• Sport marketing through social media

Benefits of sport marketing

The benefits of sports marketing are wide-ranging. Stakeholders involved in sports include leagues, teams, athletes, and fans as well as cities and countries hosting sporting events. The media and businesses who promote their products and services through sports also receive benefits.

Direct benefits to leagues, teams, and athletes include revenue from tickets, media rights, and sponsorships. Cities and countries also receive revenue from taxes, and all of the stakeholders gain from the exposure provided through sports.