Sports Marketing

Definition and meaning of
Sports Marketing

Sport marketing is the
use of marketing principles for or within sports related environments. It is a
subdivision of marketing which focuses both on the promotion of sport events
and teams as well as the promotion of other products and services through
sporting events and sport teams.

Sport Marketing is a
service in which the element promoted can be a physical product or a brand
name. The goal is to provide the client with strategies to promote the sport or
to promote something other than sports through sports.

One element that sports marketing takes
advantage of is that athletes tend to be brand loyal and fans tend to be loyal
to their favourite athletes and teams. This can be recognized through the
contracts players and athletes sign with sports companies in which they get
paid to wear or use their products in each game or sporting event. By doing so,
the players and athletes and also their fans develop loyalty to the products
for a longer time.

There are three dimensions to
sports marketing and these are:

1.     
Marketing of Sports

This involves
designing or developing a “live” themed activity, occasion, and
display or exhibit sporting event to promote a product , a team, cause or
organization. It is a marketing strategy

This kind of marketing strategically aims at marketing the
pure sports goods to the target market. This involves the advertising of sports
events and sports teams or association such as the champions’ league, the
Olympics, the world cup, National Football League, through different media
channel. In this type of marketing, the promotion is related to sports.

2.    
Marketing through Sports

This concept has been in use since the
80s but has gained more popularity in the last two decades due to the growth
and expansion that the different types of sports have enjoyed

This kind of marketing and promotion
can be carried out through (i) the sport or (ii) through the sports club. When
the marketing is done through the sport, it is under the responsibility of the
different sporting associations and when it is done through the sports club,
the responsibility falls on the different sports clubs.

Marketing through sports involves the marketing of non-sports products or the promotion of various products through sports-related channels like sporting events, sporting teams and individual athletes, for
example, Master Card sponsorship and advertisements in the champions’ league
and the world cup is a well-known advertisement.

In marketing through sports, the promotion is not about the
sports; to promote their products or services, companies and associations use
different channels such as sponsorships of teams, or athletes, television or
radio advertisement during the different broadcast sports events and
celebrations and or advertisements on sporting venues.

3.    
Grassroots Sport Marketing

Grassroots Sports Marketing is a part of the field of
marketing known as Social Marketing. It involves the promotion of sports to the
public in order to increase participation. It is normally done with a much
smaller budget than marketing sports teams and events or marketing of
products through sports, as it does not bring any direct financial benefit.
Although this type of marketing normally drives people to clubs where they will
pay to play sport; however, it still needs to be subsidized in order to be run.

Street Marketing is an offshoot of grassroots marketing. It
involves promoting of sports through billboards on the street and also through
urban elements like street lights, sidewalks etc to gain publicity during
major worldwide sporting events such as football World Cup, Olympic Games etc.

Sports Products versus Non-sports products

In establishing a strategic environment for any dimension
of sports marketing, it is necessary to make clear distinctions between sports
and non-sports products.

A. Sports Products

There are three main
categories of sports products and these are:

i.                  
Spectator Sports

The main marketing objective
in this category is to increase the ticket sales or general y, to increase the
ratings of the broadcasting of sports events.

ii.                
Participation Sports

Unlike spectator sports, participation
sports lack the feeling of competition and involve the individuals in the
sports experiences, hence the term, “participation sports”.

iii.              
Sporting goods, Apparel, Athletic Shoes and
Sports-Related Products

Sporting goods are
tangible products created for specific sports activity.

Apparel is a type of sports-related
clothing. It may be either to facilitate participation, support or for fashion
reasons.

Athletic shoes form a distinguished
category due to its various designs, and being in everyone’s wardrobes.

Sports-Related Products may be referred to as souvenirs or
any type of good that may be
purchased during the participation in a sports activity for example
beer.

B. Non-sports Product

Marketers of non-sports products
benefit from the sports environment using different levels of sponsorship
strategies and these are:

i.                  
Traditional Sponsorship

Here, the aim is to be able to use the logos and the
trademarks of the sports property and to settle a relationship in the customers’
minds of the target market of that sports property.

ii.                
Venue Naming Rights

Though this may be similar to traditional
sponsorship, venue naming rights represent a special form of sponsorship
because it is claimed that the sponsors receive a remarkably high value from
naming values.

iii.              
Endorsement

This can be described as personal
sponsorship for example; Adidas is the personal sponsor of Lionel Messi while
Nike is the personal sponsor of Cristiano Ronaldo

iv.               
Licensing

In this type of
sponsorship, the licensor gets only the rights to use sport property’s logos
and trademarks during it’s on marketing efforts. Official supplier is one of
supplier is one of the most common categories of licensing. A popular example
in recent times is that of Turkish Airlines being the official supplier of FC
Barcelona.

Benefits of Sport Marketing

1. Sport marketing drives memberships, sales and recognition.
2. These are the major factors that are of immense benefit to the companies the athletes, the associations, the leagues and the sports event manager.
3. When properly planned, effective marketing helps to understand the customer and the marketplace.
4. Informed marketing decisions help increase the company’s, club’s or association’s performance.
5. Due to the status and importance in people’s lives, sport is considered a profitable and sustainable marketing source.