advanced theory and practice in sport marketing - Marshalls University

Viral Marketing
However, specifically from the viewpoint of the sport marketer, opinion leadership
seeks to pass marketing messages about the sport marketer to as many
people as possible, creating the potential for exponential growth with the influence
the sport marketer has, as well as exposure of the sport product. This type
of marketing is commonly called viral marketing, however, has also been
referred to as buzz marketing or avalanche marketing.
There are six elements involved with viral marketing. While an effective strategy
does not have to involve all six elements, the more elements it embraces, the more
powerful the results are likely to be.
The first is to give away valuable products or services. People in general are
naturally attracted to the word “FREE.” This powerful word in all aspects of
marketing will attract the attention of consumers. The goal of this first element
is once you have the sport consumer hooked, you can then try to sell them additional
sport products. This is very similar to the concept of “to make money you
need to spend money.” In this aspect of viral sport marketing, the sport product
is given away with the goal of selling additional products in the future, and hopefully
on a permanent basis.
The second element is to provide for an effortless transfer of the marketing
message to others. This is accomplished by sport marketers by keeping the
message short, hence making it easy to communicate to the potential sport
consumers. In this day of the digital revolution, it has become increasingly easier
to send and replicate these sport marketing messages through mediums
such as websites, emails, digital television, digitized scoreboards, and on-site
advertisements.
The next element is the case in which one can scale the marketing efforts from
small to very large. As the marketing messages spread exponentially, more and
more opinion seekers and opinion receivers will hear the message and potentially
answer the message. The sport marketing strategy must be able to have the ability
to answer potential questions about the sport product in response to the message,
or in a best-case scenario, produce the sport product at an optimal level to deal
with the response.
Fourth is to exploit common motivations and behaviors. As discussed earlier
in this chapter, understanding the cognitive processes that are utilized to problem
solve and make decision is crucial to success in sport marketing. The fifth element
is to utilize existing communication networks. Many people may limit this
element to media-based networking such as print, radio, television, or Internet.
However, human networking still is the most powerful tool the sport marketer
has to communicate sport products to potential consumers. Human networking
is viral sport marketing opportunity for significant and valid exponential growth.
Individuals have a broad network that consists of innumerable contacts including
family, friends, peers, and colleagues. In addition, people have minor influences
with people in society who they do not know, often based on an individual’s
position in society.
SPORT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR 121