advanced theory and practice in sport marketing - Marshalls University

participating in, such as task accomplishment, interpersonal interaction, sensing
the organizational culture, trial-and-error experimentation, or even formal
learning. Technical learning is the combination of education and training. The
eventual goal is for the sport marketing professional to understand these cultural
differences, so marketing efforts such as advertising can be directed in
such a way that the sport consumers view the sport product as being socially
acceptable.
There are two qualitative measurements utilized to assess culture and cultural
learning: content analysis and consumer fieldwork. Content analysis is a method
for systematically analyzing the content of print, verbal and/or visual communication
to determine the current social values of a society. Consumer fieldwork
involves site observation within a normal environment, often without the knowledge
of the consumer, to observe behavior.
For the sport marketing professional, these two qualitative techniques
seek to draw conclusions based on the attitudes and motivations of sport consumers.
In sport marketing, these conclusions are used every day. When Ichiro
came to the Seattle Mariners from Japan and Hideki Matsui came to the New
York Yankees, new marketing opportunities arose immediately. Seattle’s
influence in the significant Japanese market in their city instantly increased. The
New York Yankees started putting advertisements in Japanese in the stadium.
Both resulted in more people from the Japanese culture going to games and
buying merchandise.
This is also true of Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, who has single handedly
brought a new Asian-American fan base to basketball. The presence of Dominican
Republic flags in the stands whenever Pedro Martinez pitches at Shea Stadium
is evident, to the point where the team now has Latin American Heritage night.
They have even expanded those cultural nights to a series of Theme, Community
and Heritage dates, including Greek Night, Korean Night, Meringue Night, Italian
Night, Pakistani Night, Irish Night, Hispanic Heritage Night, Jewish Heritage
Day, Oktoberfest, and Polish Heritage Day.
Subculture
A subculture is a distinct cultural group differentiated by an identifiable segment
within a larger population. Subcultures are usually identified based on their
demographic segment – gender, age, geographic region, race, nationality, ethnicity,
social class, occupation, and religion. Some would even argue that sport is
a subculture. Market segmentation recognizes that different consumer groups
have assorted wants and needs that justify the development and offering of different
products and services. Sport marketers have utilized a variety of approaches
to segment the sport, entertainment and leisure service and retail markets; however,
each of the traditional segmentation approaches has limitations.
Marketing methodologies, including segmentation strategies, need to mirror
and harmonize with the target subculture.
100 ADVANCED THEORY AND PRACTICE IN SPORT MARKETING