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Sports Products
The Consumer and Sports Products
The Sports Consumer
 A sports consumer is a person who may play, officiate, watch, or listen to sports, or read,
use, purchase, and/or collect items related to sports.
 Factors that affect the sports consumer’s decision to spend money on or participate in
sports are: environmental factors and individual factors.
 Environmental factors involve; family and friends, society’s attitudes and values, cultural
differences, race, gender, climate, and of course marketing influences.
 Individual factors involve; self-concept or self-image, physical characteristics related to
the ability play a sport, learning characteristics regarding developing athletic skills,
motivation, and attitude.
Sports Consumers and Market Segmentation
 Market segmentation is a way of analyzing a market by specific characteristics to create a
target market (characteristics; geographics, demographics, psychographics, and product
benefits)
 Market segmentations can shift depending on the interest and how well it’s marketed.
 Example: golf use to be targeted to men 30-60 years old, now there is a new market of
teenagers due to Tiger Woods and the marketing
 The purchases made by sports consumers show support for sports teams, athletes, and
sponsors.
Sports Products
 Sports products are goods, services, ideas, or combination of those things related to
sports that provide satisfaction to the consumer.
 The product of sports can also provide the consumer with basic needs, such as
entertainment, sociability, or even achievement.
 Many people share in the process of marketing sports products; owners, sponsors,
communication firms, city governments, taxpayers, and consumers.
Types of Sports Products
 Sporting events – the core product of sports (games, events, and competitions).
 Sports information – involves news, statistics, schedules, and stories (television, radio,
online, and print media).
 Sports training – usually a service such as instruction (fitness centers, sports camps, and
lessons).
 Sporting goods – include a wide range of goods (equipment, licensed merchandise,
collectibles, and memorabilia, as well as apparel and accessories).
 Sports goods such as skateboards, baseballs, exercise equipment, and bats are tangible
products (physical goods that offer benefits to the consumer).
 The consumer’s opinion or perception about the quality of the products is most important
to marketing professionals.
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Sports service is an intangible product (nonphysical service such as tennis lessons,
personal training, and sports camps)
Quality of service is evaluated by, reliability, assurance, empathy, responsiveness,
tangibles
Product classifications are; product line (a group of closely related products
manufactured and/or sold by a company, product mix (the total assortment of products
that a company makes and/or sells).
Economic Impact of Sports Marketing
Economic Effects
 Consider all the aspects of the economy that are affected by a sporting event (hotels,
transit, restaurants).
 Opportunity cost is the loss of the opportunity that is passed up in order to receive
something in exchange.
 Infrastructure is the physical development of an area, including the major public systems,
services, and facilities of a country or region needed to make a location function.
 Sports franchise is an agreement or contract for a sports organizations to sell a parent
company’s good or service within a given area.
Economic and Marketing Challenges
 Sports marketing helps businesses make money as consumers have fun, but they do face
challenges, obstacles, and limitations while pursuing success.
 Higher profile teams face more challenges then lower profile teams (LA Lakers’ vs LA
Sparks’)
 Both teams are professional basketball teams, both play in the same arena, but the target
market for each team is significantly different.
 Marketing activities and sponsors are different.
 Grassroots marketing refers to marketing activity on a local community level
 A community’s economic health can depend on local sporting events.