What tools should you use to identify sport marketing opportunities?

Before making sensible marketing decisions, it is primordial to conduct preliminary research and analysis. It is important, for example, to know what opportunities exist in the marketplace, what competitors are doing, what a sport organisation is good at doing, and what consumers actually want. The first stage of the sport marketing process is therefore to identify sport marketing opportunities.

The first step of identifying sport opportunities is to analyse internal and external environments. To do so, marketers can use a set of practical tools:

• You can use a SWOT analysis to examine the strategic position of an organisation. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This tool provides a clear look at the “big picture”.
• The macro-environment of an organisation can be visualized using a six factors model. These factors are: Political, Economic, Legal, Technological, Social and Physical. It is important to understand the demands, constraints and possibilities that each of these elements migh bring to the sport organisation.
• The next step is to conduct a competitor analysis including immediate competitors (similar products meeting similar needs in a similar way), Secondary competitors (substitute products meeting similar needs in a different way), and Indirect competitors (different products that satisfy similar needs, or encourage consumers to seek satisfaction of different needs instead).
• In addition to conducting a competitor analysis, it is advisable to conduct a Five Force Analysis (Michael Porter). These five forces are: Intensity of rivalry among industry competitors, Threat of new entrants, Bargaining power of buyers, Bargaining power of suppliers and the Threat of substitute products and services.

The next step will consist in analysing the organisation. We will review this next step shortly. Stay tunned!

Source:

“Introduction to Sport Marketing: A Practical Approach” , Aaron C.T. Smith

An overview of sport consumers motives

This post aims to identify the different kinds of sport consumers. In his book “Introduction to Sport Marketing: A Practical Approach” , Aaron C.T. Smith states that sport consumers are differentiated into four categories:

1. Sport good consumers: This category includes anyone who purchases a physical product that has a sport-related aspect or purpose.
2. Sport services consumers: These consumers utilise a sport-related service or experience excluding viewing or participating in sport directly.
3. Sport participants and volunteers: These consumers are actively engaged in sport as participants or in unpaid organisational and support roles.
4. Sport supporters, spectators and fans: The last category are made of consumers taking an interest in the performance of sport mainly, but not confined to, the elite or professional level.

Why does it matter to make this differentiation?

Sport Marketers need to appreciate the many reasons why consumers are motivated to buy sport-related products and services.The more that is understood about sport consumers, the easier it is to approach them with enticing marketing.

I tried to summarized these reasons here:

Psychological motives:

• Sport can be a stimulating, psychologically energising activity (For ex: 50cm powder + no one around + the last Burton Custom X board = adrenaline!!!)
• Sport can provide consumers with an escape from the ordinary routine of the life. Sport is a world of passion, spontaneity and uncertainty unlike often highly organised and regulated work environments.

Socio-cultural motives:

• Sport events and activites provide an opportunity for families and friends to spend time together (social interaction)
• Fans use sport as a form of cultural connection (for ex: sport can help fans connect to their national, racial, or ethnic culture).

Self-concept motives:

• Sport consumer may feel a need to belong to a group. (for ex: Fans want to feel part of a community that shares the same interest)
• Sport fans feel successful when their team is successful. It is called vicarious achievement (= sense of accomplishment through the success of someone else)

Today’s lesson: Remember that different sport fans will be motivated to consume sport for different reasons. It is our job to clearly segment the target market and adapt the message to them.

Sport Marketing: Simple definitions

To better understand what we are going to talk about in this blog, let’s have a look at this definition of Sport Marketing by Aaron C.T. Smith:

“Sport Marketing is focused on meeting the needs of sport customers or consumers, including people involved in playing sport, watching or listening to sport programes, buying merchandise, collecting memorabilia, buying sporting goods like clothing and shoes, or even surfing a sport-related website to find out the latest about their favorite team”.

Definition from Introduction to Sport Marketing: A Practical Approach by Aaron C.T. Smith.

Make sure you differentiate:

• A sport consumer is someone who generally uses sport products or services
• A sport customer is someone who pays for the use of a specific product or services

The two angles of Sport Marketing:

• Marketing of Sport (products and services directly to sport consumers.
• Marketing through Sport (non-sport products marketed through an association to sport – athlete endorsements, event sponsoring…)

The Sport Marketing Framework provides a detailed explanation of the four stages of the Sport Marketing process:

1. Identify sport marketing opportunities
2. Develop sport marketing strategy
3. Plan the marketing mix
4. Implement and control the strategy.

I will make reference to this framework regularly, as it’s the barebone of successful marketing campaigns.

I haven’t a chance to illustrate these theories yet, but don’t worry, relevant examples and case studies are coming soon!