advanced theory and practice in sport marketing - Marshalls University

SPORT MARKETING AS PART OF THE
ENTERPRISE
Enterprise marketing management looks to systematically link sport marketing
efforts to all essential functions within an organization. This realignment
seeks to put sport marketing efforts and customer service at the center of the
efforts of the sport enterprise. Enterprise sport marketing allows the sport marketer
to develop deeper customer understanding while delivering more personal
and compelling sport marketing throughout the sport consumer life cycle. This
is accomplished by improving a sport organization’s ability to acquire, retain,
and grow customer value, establish the corporate value proposition and brand, as
well as efficiently manage the strategic planning process and marketing resources
including people, time, inventory, and content.
Owning the Brand Experience
A brand is a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible, symbolized in
a trademark, which, if managed properly, creates value and influence. In traditional
brand management, this involves managing the tangible and intangible
aspects of the brand. For product brands the tangibles are the product itself, the
packaging, the price, etc. For service brands, the tangibles have to do with the
customer experience – the retail environment, interface with salespeople, overall
satisfaction, etc. For product, service, and corporate brands, the intangibles
are the same and refer to the emotional connections derived as a result of experience,
identity, communication, and people. Intangibles are therefore managed
via the manipulation of identity, communication, and people skills.
In traditional marketing management, the sport product branding process
include such things as sport product extensions, merchandise, endorsements
through star players and coaches, distinct trademarks and patents, advertisements,
and sponsorships – to name a few. In enterprise marketing management,
branding the sport event itself instead of having associated branded products
has become the norm.
SPORT CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT
As the growth of Internet technologies continue, as well as the need for advanced
customer services, sport marketing has entered the 21st century through the use of
SCRM. SCRM is the use of various methodologies, information technologies, and
Internet capabilities that help sport entities organize and manage sport consumer
relationships. The goal of SCRM is to develop a system that all members of the
sport marketing effort (management, sport marketers, salespeople, service
providers, and consumers themselves) can utilize to access information about sport
products and strive toward meeting the needs and wants of sport consumers.
366 ADVANCED THEORY AND PRACTICE IN SPORT MARKETING