Critical Marketing Success Factors for Professional Sports Teams
Date
2011-10-07
Authors
Kustelski, Daniel John
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study determined the critical marketing success factors for professional sports teams in South Africa. This was determined through research of international best practices and in-depth interviews. The focus was on team marketing critical success factors, how best to build the team brands and determining the major revenue streams and how to maximize them. The reason for extracting the branding from the critical marketing success factors was due to the emphasis teams need to place on brand building and the complexity of methods of brand building for teams.
In conducting the research, 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with team marketing managers and CEOs, experts in the field of marketing, sports or both, and sponsors who have sponsored sports in South Africa. These three populations were interviewed to gain a greater understanding of the same topic from different perspectives.
The findings concluded the most critical success factor for marketing teams is having a marketing strategy. Consequently, teams must understand their product, target market, and build a brand. Sports are entertainment and teams must understand this service and the challenges with marketing such a service. Brand building should be conducted like any other brand although the scope for teams‟ understanding basic brand building tools was diverse. Lastly, revenue streams from TV rights and sponsorship were the highest forms of revenue. Although TV rights are handled through the league, teams can influence sponsorship and the scope of understanding by the teams of corporate sponsorship objectives and measurements was diverse.
Very little research in South Africa concerning sports marketing exists especially with respect to team marketing. The relevance of such findings are teams in South Africa are behind the world with respect to marketing themselves to build their brands, increase their revenues, and ultimately conduct themselves like a small business. Understanding the challenges to market themselves enables teams to refocus marketing efforts and owners to generate higher profits.
Description
MBA thesis - WBS
Keywords
Marketing, Sports teams