Why do traditional sales promotions often fail to increase attendance at sporting events?

• What are the factors that contribute to the uniqueness of sports marketing from the marketing of most other non-sports related goods?

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  • Why are sales promotions important in sport event marketing?
  • Which of the following is a benefit of out of the box sales promotions?
  • Which of the following is an example of a sales promotion?

Sporting Goods Leagues Teams Events Experimental Products Athletes Sponsorships Merchandise Support Products Venues

What are the changes in sports marketing that the marketplace is experiencing today?

•      Improvements in sales training and methodology

•      Institutionalized sport marketing knowledge and training

•      Broadening diversity

• What is meant for “a sports product”?

• Any bundle or combination of qualities, processes, and capabilities (goods, services, or ideas) that a sport consumer expects will deliver want satisfaction.

• Sport marketers must understand why consumers make consumption decisions.

Why are sports products unique?

• An intangible, ephemeral, experiential, and subjective nature

• Strong personal and emotional identification

• Simultaneous production and consumption

• Dependence on social facilitation

• Inconsistency and unpredictability

• Core product beyond marketers’ control

• What is the sports marketplace unique?

• Many sport organizations simultaneously compete and cooperate.

• Demand tends to fluctuate widely.

• Sport has an almost universal appeal and pervades all elements of life.

• Why is sports finance unique?

• Pricing the individual sport product unit by traditional job costing is difficult.

• The price of the sport product itself is invariably quite small in comparison with the total cost paid by the consumer.

• Indirect revenues are frequently greater than direct operating revenues.

• Why is sports promotion unique?

• Widespread media exposure is a double-edged sword.

• Media and sponsors emphasize celebrities.

• Name four of the five key challenges with the marketing of sports today?

• Weathering Recessions

• Competitive marketplace

• Media challenges

• Grassroots Stress

• Marketing Myopia

What is the difference between direct and indirect competition? Provide an example.

• Direct

• Multiple businesses offering similar products and services create direct competition.

• Indirect

• Businesses that offer different products and services, but target the same group of customers with the goal of satisfying the same need.

What is meant by “grassroots stress”?

• Shifting economy and pressure on tax revenue spending have clearly affected high school sports.

• High school sport participation and spectator attendance play significant roles in sport popularity.

• Describe marketing myopia in sports.

• Focus on producing and selling goods and services rather than on identifying and satisfying the needs and wants of consumers and their markets

• Failure to adapt to industry, market, and consumer change

• Focus on producing and selling goods and services rather than on identifying and satisfying the needs and wants of consumers and their markets

Describe the symptoms of sports marketing myopia. Provide an example.

• Belief that winning absolves all other sins

• Confusion between promotions and marketing

• Ignorance of competition inside and outside sport

• Short-sighted focus on quick-return price hikes or investments such as sponsorships rather than long-term investments in research and in relationship marketing

• Poor-quality research/ Poor sales and service/ Arrogance and laziness

• Failure to adapt to industry, market, and consumer change

Why is the sports marketplace unique?

• Many sport organizations simultaneously compete and cooperate.

• Demand tends to fluctuate widely.

• Sport has an almost universal appeal and pervades all elements of life.

• Why is sports promotion unique?

• Media and sponsors emphasize celebrities.

• Widespread media exposure is a double-edge sword.

• Why is it difficult for sports marketers to get good people?

Everyone wants to work but not everyone qualified 

• Describe some sports that are attempting to enhance the entertainment value of their events through a) altering the rules of the sport or the way the sport is played and b) through marketing efforts that do not change the game.

MLB:games pace/NFL: women

• What is the impact of women as spectators of sport?

More consumption from women, teams and leagues spend time in game and with apparel tailored towards women. 

There are a number of factors that influence our decision to attend sporting events. Name these factors.

Finances, Game attractive, Competitive factors, sports cape, value to community, involvement vs. identificaiton

Fan motivation is one factor that affects our decision to attend sporting events. What is fan motivation to attend?

• Fan motivation factors are those underlying reasons or needs that are being met by attending a sporting event

• Name the factors or dimensions of fan motivation.

• Researchers believe that some of the primary reasons that fans attend sporting events are

• Enhance self-esteem

• Diversion from everyday life

• Entertainment values

• Eustress (feeling of excitement)

• Economic value (gambling on events

• Aesthetic values

• Need for affiliation and to be with family members

• Describe the factor “game attractiveness”.

• Game attractiveness refers to the perceived value and importance of the individual game based on:

• What teams or athletes are playing (e.g., is it the cross-town rival or is Ken Griffey Jr. in town?)

• The significance of the event to the league standings

• Whether the event is post-season versus regular season competition

• Whether the event is perceived to be of championship caliber (the four majors in golf, the NCAA final four, ect.)

• In general, the greater the perceived attractiveness of the game, the more likely we will want to attend.

What are the economic factors affecting our decision to attend sporting events?

• The economic factors that may impact game attendance can be at the microeconomic level (e.g., personal income) or macroeconomic level (e.g., state of the nation’s economy)

• While these are uncontrollable factors, the sports organization can attempt to control the rising cost of ticket prices to make it easier for fans to attend sporting events

• What are the micro and macro level economic factors influencing our decision to attend sporting events?

• Micro: personal income

• Macro: nation’s economy

• There are competitive factors influencing our decision to attend sporting events. Describe and provide an example of a direct and indirect competitor.

• Competition is another important factor that influences our decision to attend sporting events or observe them through another medium

• today, sports marketers must define the competition in broad terms as other entertainment choices such as movies, plays, and theater are competing with sporting events

• Interestingly sports organizations sometimes compete with themselves for fans

• For example one study found that televising home basketball games had a negative impact on game attendance.

• What are the dimensions of “sportscape”?

• Sportscape is the physical surroundings of the stadium that impact spectators desire to stay at the stadium and ultimately return to the stadium

• Dimensions:

• Stadium access

• Facility aesthetics

• Scoreboard quality

• Seating comfort

• Layout accessibility

How do each of the sportscape factors and how they influence spectator behavior.

Create pleasure and eventually gives you a desire to stay and come back again

• Consider the sportscape factors for a ND stadium. Try to identify areas that could be improved in the sportscape and examine the cost/benefits of suggested improvements.

• Describe the factor “Value to the community”.

• Another factor influencing game attendance and the likelihood of attending sporting events in the future is the perceived value of sports to the community

• A recent study found that the more value attributed to sport, the more likely people were to attend

• What are the value dimensions of sport to the community?

• Community solidarity: Sport enhances the image of the community, enhances community harmony, generates a sense of belonging, and helps make people feel proud

• Public behavior: Sport encourages sportsmanship, reinforces positive citizenship, encourages obedience to authority, and nurtures positive morality

• Pastime Ecstasy: Sport provides entertainment and brings excitement

• Excellence Pursuit: Sport encourages achievement and success, encourages hard work and encourages risk-taking

• Social Equity: Sport increases racial equality, promotes gender equity and increase class equality

• Health Awareness: Sport eliminates drug abuse, encourages exercise and urges an active lifestyle

• Individual Quality: Sport promotes character building and encourages competitive trait

• Business Opportunity: Spot increases community commercial activities, attracts tourists, and helps the community economic development

What is the difference between sports involvement and sports identification?

• Sports involvement referred to the consumer’s perceived interest in and importance of participating in sports

• Sports involvement has a related definition for those observing sporting events

• High involvement spectators are more likely to attend sporting events, read sports magazines and plan their entire day around attending a sporting event.

• Fan identification is the personal commitment and emotional involvement customers have with the sport organization.

• The characteristics of the team, the characteristics of the organization, the affiliation characteristics (sense of community) and the activity characteristics (exposures to the team) all interact to influence the level of fan identification.

• The higher the level of fan identification, the more likely they are to attend events.

• Name and describe four reasons the participation by kids in sports is decreasing?

Increased Costs Lack of Equity Decreased Casual Play Risk of Injuries

• Name and describe four benefits of kids participating in sports.

Intellectual achievement: help with school
Social: self esteem
Personal: reduce sex
Career Contribution

Name and describe four consequences of kids not participating in sports on the business of sports or society.

Weight gain Shorter lives Economic influences Lack of military opportunities

• Describe the market size and opportunity for sports business.

Develop a compelling case for sports leagues and professional teams marketing themselves better.

Negative aspects on forefront of social media marketing can help prevent downturn in face of a crisis

Describe the three characteristics that distinguish sports marketing from other industries and pose opportunities for sports organizations. Provide examples

Uncontrollable Sports are universal Many cooperate and compete

Describe the evolution and history of sports marketing. Provide examples and experiences.

• Monopoly Era 1900-1950 (The beginning of the sports industry):

• Professional sports leagues were just forming

• Other sports like boxing and horse racing were very popular

• Large following of minor league and collegiate level teams

• Team brands with national popularity were emerging

• Television Era 1950-1990 (The rise of the television):

• TV programming brought greater access to professional leagues

• New channels offered indirect consumption – ESPN, CNN

• The 1984 Olympics - Los Angeles

• Sponsorship & Branding

• Highlight Era 1990-2010 (The rapid pace format of sports):

• Specialized cable channels were created

• SportsCenter

• MLB extra innings

• Sports highlights popularity

• 1990: Internet

• Facebook communities

• Experience Era 2010-Present (The abundance of voices to be heard):

• Social Media:

• Blogs, Twitter,

• Snapchat – MLB Wednesdays

• Interactive Stadiums/Arenas

• Jumbotrons, park perks

• Wilmer Flores

Sports has evolved just as sports marketing has. Describe two sports that have changed greatly over the last number of decades in order to increase fan engagement, level of competition, and/or participation. Describe the changes.

• Tennis

• Improvement to venues

• Fitness

• Social media

• Baseball

• Change in the pace of the game

• Statistics

• Social Media

• Instant Replay

• Football - NFL 1930s vs. Today

• 52.2% of homes owned a radio in 1933

• By the mid-1930’s, NFL radio contracts

• First televised NFL in 1939: a live crowd of 13,050 and about 500 television viewers

• 2015 Super Bowl: 70,288 in attendance and 114.4 million television viewers

• 2014 NFL season: featured an average of 202.3 million unique viewers reached, representing 80% of all television homes and 68% of potential viewers in the country

• NFL did not have enough reach for marketers to market through the sport in the 1930s

• Nothing like the use of professional football players

• Explain the business-driven and customer-driven factors that have produced a growth in sports and sports marketing?Are there other factors or trends that are affecting the growth in sports?

Business

Local economic growth

-Increased revenues for surrounding business

Sponsorships

-35% of sports revenues

Global branding

Smarty Arenas

-Wi-fi stadiums

Media

Customers

Work-life balance

new sports

womens sports

personal fitness

increased spending

• What are some of the factors that may produce a decline in sports and sports marketing?

• Provide examples.

-Expensive youth programs

-involve more expenses

-household income $50,000

-Below:32% cannot afford

-Above:16% cannot afford

-Fading intramurals

-Only supporting competitive

-23% of middle schools do not offer

-40% of high schools do not offer

-Rising player costs

-NFL shares revenue

-Marketing influencing games

-popular matches given priorities

-2011 Rugby world cup

Related to the previous point, there are plenty of arguments against the consumption of sports both as participants and as spectators. What are some of the arguments against sports consumption?

-Injuries (3.5 million children are treated annually for sports related injuries

-Participants in collision sports are more likely to develop CTE

-Negative social impact

-Sports create distractions from real world problems

-encourage misguided perceptions of source of macro-issues

-increased publicity of negative role models

Describe the three segmentation factors used in the Chernov model of segmentation.

• Chernov Segmentation Model

• Profile:

  • observable consumer characteristics; geographic

• Value: value they might receive from the offer (want performance, reliability)

• Behavioral:captures consumers’ actions; volume purchase, loyalty program

• Describe the components of the marketing plan described by the acronym “GSTIC”.

• GSTIC: aspect of marketing planning; how to grow business

• Goals

• Strategies

• Tactics

• Implementation

• Control

• What characteristics should a sports brand name possess?

• Recognizability-easily associated with product it represents

• Fit-have significance or relationship to market

• Contrast-differentiate the product from other brands

• What is the broad purpose of brands?

• Is to differentiate your product from the competition

• Consumer will hopefully establish a pattern of repeat purchases for your brand

There are two special cases for brands in sports. Name and describe both.

• Brand makeovers

• No necessarily unique to sports

• To re-energize a brand or update/redefine it

• Poor performance on the field and a negative image of the previous owners can cause makeovers

• Franchise relocation

• Unique to sports

• Sports franchises have geographical references in their branding that is specific to a local market

What is a brand mark? Identify examples of brand marks.

• Brand marks include logo, colors and characters

• Logos are symbols used to represent a brand

• Colors are used to create an identity and influence brand personality

• Characters aid in building an identity and add to a brand’s personality

• In designing or evaluating a logo, what considerations should be considered?

• Four questions should be asked:

• Is it distinctive? Logo should help differentiate a brand

• Is it relevant? Logo should fit a brand’s identity

• Is it versatile? Logo should be usable across marketing platforms

• Is it enduring? Logo should have usability over a period of time

• Why is color important in designing a logo, brand name, or team uniforms?

Colors used in other brand identity elements can aid in creating brand awareness

• Why would a sports brand consider a brand makeover?

• Implemented in response to:

• Perceptions of poor quality or performance

• Brand needs a fresh start to overcome an unfavorable image

• Brand repositioning

• Identify some general rules that can be applied to the decision to keep or change brand identity when relocating a sports property to a new market.

• Brand identity can be kept when a sports franchise relocates when:

• brand has a high familiarity or strength in the marketplace

• Brand name is not market specific; the brand’s meaning transfers to the new market
• Brand identity should be changed in the following situations:
  
• Brand name does not fit with new geographic market
• Brand needs a fresh start to build goodwill in new market

• Describe 3 of the categories of things that sports franchise selling organizations have to sell.

Tickets Electronic Naming rights

• Sales training is important. Describe the four ways in which sales training should be evaluated.

• Reaction

• Learning

• Behavior

• Results

• Trial Close

• Sales person asks prospect’s opinion on benefits during and after presentation.

• Examples

• How does this sound to you?

• Does this make sense to you so far?

• Would this particular feature be useful to you in your current operation?

• What do you think?

• So this is something that would be valuable to you?

• Isn’t that great?

• Do you like this color?

• From your comment, I’m guessing that this is a feature benefit that you would like to have. Did I guess correctly?

• Does that answer your concern?

• Would this be an improvement over what you are doing right now?

• Is this what you had in mind?

Ascertains readiness to buy and prompts objections

Why is pre-approach important for a salesperson?

• Pre-call planning

• Review client information

• Most important

• Plan the objective for the call

• Not every call has the objective of closing business

• Get mentally ready for the call

• Reasons for planning the sales call

• Builds self-confidence

• 80% of the salespeople who fail do so because of call reluctance

• Develops an atmosphere of goodwill

• Creates professionalism

• Increases sales

• Directs energies better towards call objective

What is the importance of prospecting?

• Prospect – A qualified person or organization that has the potential to buy your product.

• Reasons for prospecting:

• To increase sales

• To replace customers that will be lost over time.

• Why is prospecting difficult?

• It is a process filled with rejection. First salespeople don’t like rejection. Second, since rejection is part of it, seems like an inefficient use of time.

• Describe the different types of sports consumption motives.

• Social

• Family: Sports consumption can be part of a family ritual, Whether it is direct consumption or indirect consumption such as watching games on TV

• Group Affiliation: has to do with belonging to a group who share the love for the game, team or player as much as you do

• Psychological

• Self Esteem: the ability to be a part of the team affects how fans feel around others, and their self-perception can be enhanced by sports consumption

• Escape: most people use sports as a mental get away from mundane routines of daily life in addition to relaxation and stress relief

• Personal

• Aesthetic: having to do with personal interests in the sport itself

• Entertainment: has to do with the entire experience associated with sports consumption

• Sensory Stimulation: goes along with the entertainment motivation; the view sports as a production with elements of live-action, music, video, and graphics

• Economic: associated with monetary gain from sports

What is the impact of women as spectators of sport? In particular describe trends in 'women as spectators of other women's sports' and 'women as spectators of men's sports.

• Impact: Females drive household decisions and influence spending on sports products

• Most popular sports watched by women: increase of watching olympics(56%), figure skating, tennis, and gymnastic

• Women’s sporting events will become more and more popular as the aesthetics motivator begins to play a larger role in the consumer’s consumption decisions

• Women spectators of men sports: 45% of NFL fan base, 46% of MLB fan base

Describe the various types of sponsorships.

1. Leagues

1. Bud Light and the NFL

2. Teams

1. Under Armour and Notre Dame

3. Events

1. Super Bowl Half-Time Show

4. Venues

1. AT&T Stadium

5. Individuals

1. Jordan Spieth and Under Armour

6. Causes

1. The First Tee and PGA/LPGA

• What are the distinguishing characteristics of sponsorship?

• Identify the three characteristics of sponsorship that have led to its growth.

• What is the difference between reach and targeted reach?

• Reach: Who the sponsorship actually reaches

• Targeted Reach: Who the sponsorship intends on reaching

• Identify the ways that value is created for sponsors by sponsorship.

• Targeted Reach

• Image Transfer

• Exclusivity

• Marketing Opportunities

• Protection of Investment

• Explain the concept of image transfer in terms of sponsorship.

Explain the concept of exclusivity in sponsorship and why exclusivity is important.

• Approximately 68% of all sponsorship dollars are spent on sports. Why do you think sports sponsorship is so much more attractive than the other categories?

Why are sales promotions important in sport event marketing?

Which of the following is a benefit of out of the box sales promotions?

Which of the following is an example of a sales promotion?