Economic Impact of Sports Marketing

Who Is the Sports Consumer? A sports consumer is a person who may play, officiate, watch, listen to sports, or read, use, purchase, and/or collect items related to sports. The goal of planning sports marketing strategies is to encourage the consumer to purchase tickets and/ or merchandise.

Sports Market Segmentation Market segmentation is analyzing the market by looking at: Geographics Demographics Psychographics Product benefits Market segmentation of the sports consumer can change, so marketers must constantly check approval ratings. Ex.) Before Tiger Woods was a success, the market for golf was mainly men 30-60, with incomes between $50,000- $175,000. Now, there is a teenage market because of sponsors like Nike, Wheaties, PGA Tour Series video games, and Gatorade.

A Day At The Stadium… Every decision you make keeps people involved in the event employed; purchasing a ticket, parking your car, buying food and merchandise. As the economy grows, more infrastructure is needed to support athletic events; the physical development of an area, which includes all major public systems, services, and facilities of a country or region needed to make a location function. Ex.) Olympic Games, Super Bowl

“The Sunshine State” One of the top tourist destinations in the world. Welcomes over 30 million tourists every year. Opened in 1971, Walt Disney World has helped the economy continuously grow. Because of the growth, professional sports has become a part of Florida’s economy; Wide World of Sports complex was opened. A sports franchise in sports is an agreement or contract for a sports organization to sell a parent company’s good or service within a given area. Orlando Magic joined the NBA for the 1989-1990 season. But nearly 4 years before that, Jim Hewitt began promoting the idea; selling t-shirts, hats, and convincing residents to make $100 deposits on season tickets.

Is L.A. Getting a Football Team? Los Angeles Stadium

Sports Products Sports products are goods, services, ideas, or a combination of those things, provided to consumers. Besides sports products in the form of goods & services, they can also include athletes as well. There are 4 types of sports products: Sporting events: core product of sports- games, events, and competitions. Sports information: involves news, statistics, schedules, and stories. Sports training: provided through fitness centers, sports camps, and lessons. Sporting goods: products including equipment, licensed merchandise, collectibles, memorabilia, and apparel & accessories.

Product Extensions… Sports products differ from typical consumer products because they have the ability to generate a greater variety of related products; product extensions. Ex.) The Super Bowl is a core, main sports product. From that event, product extensions develop (programs, tickets that can be saved as collectibles, videos, statistics in the news, related television programs, and t-shirts, etc.

Team Promotions… Promotional Schedule | phillies.com: Schedule

Economic & Marketing Challenges! Sports marketing helps businesses make $ as consumers have fun, but marketers often face challenges & obstacles. Marketing activities and sponsors for events are different because there are different target markets for each sport. Ex..) The L.A. Sparks have won the WNBA national championship 2 seasons in a row. However, the media gave the announcement lower-profile exposure. So in order to gain support, the Sparks are heavily involved in grassroots marketing; marketing activities on a local community level. Charities, fund-raising, etc.

Activity Time!!! In order to get as many new fans out to see your new team, many marketing strategies must be utilized. So now…it is your job to create a promotional schedule for your “NEW” team for next season. Once you devise a promotional schedule, a magnet will be created to let fans know of the schedule. Therefore, the schedule MUST include: Specific dates announcing promotional goods (age requirements, etc.) At least 4 promotional dates Color Graphics