Sports Marketing And Social Media Analysis

People often view sports as a special experience or having a special place in their everyday lives, therefore marketers must approach sport marketing differently than they do traditional items, such as, cars, groceries, or a gym membership. There are other elements of sport products, the game or event, which makes it unusual: an intangible, ephemeral, experiential, and subjective nature, strong personal and emotional identification, simultaneous production and consumption, dependence on social media facilitation, and inconsistency and unpredictability.

The first element, an intangible, ephemeral, experiential, and subjective nature, means that sport fans often see the games or events as brief, practical, and personal experiences that many hold dear to them. “What each consumer sees in a sport is subjective, making it extremely difficult for a sport marketer to ensure a high probability of consumer satisfaction” (Mullen, Hardy, & Sutton, 2014). Marketing sports is not the same as selling traditional items, you are selling a memory or experience, and each fan creates a different illusion and impression on their overall feeling of that game, event, product, etc.

Many people have a strong personal and emotional identification when it comes to the sports world.

“Few products or services elicit passions and commitments as sport does” (Mullen, Hardy, & Sutton, 2014). People practically are not passionate when it comes to conventional items like soap or toothpaste; on the other hand, most consumers are enthusiastic about sporting matters and remember their first sporting

encounter.

Simultaneous production and consumption, “sport consumers are typically also producers; they help create the game or event that they simultaneously consume” (Mullen, Hardy, & Sutton, 2014). Marketers must keep in mind that sports are perishable goods, they normally are not items that can be sold for a long period of time, they have a minimum amount of time they can be sold to consumers, for example you cannot sell a ticket for yesterday’s game, and even day-of-game sales are not that favorable. Therefore, marketers in this department should focus strongly on preselling, particularly for season tickets and box suites, which assures some sort of revenue.

Dependence on social facilitation, sports marketers need to keep in mind the important role social facilitation plays in sports. The enjoyment of sports as a player or fan, almost always is joined with the interaction of other people. “Typically, less than 4 percent of those attending collegiate or professional sport events attend by themselves” (Mullen, Hardy, & Sutton, 2014).

With inconsistency and unpredictability in the sports world, sport marketers have to keep in mind that “the product changes every day and you’ve got to adapt quickly to the changes” (Mullen, Hardy, & Sutton, 2014). Every game played throughout a season will be different, no matter whether it is a home game, the line ups are completely the same, etc. There will always be many factors such as injuries, weather, playoff atmosphere, and so forth that will affect the outcome of the game. Unpredictability often is appealing to sports fans, and what keeps them attracted to the game, yet, it is one of the main factors that complicates a sport marketers’ job.