Chapter 4
Sports Products
The Consumer and Sports
Products
A Sports Consumer- is a person who
may play, officiate, watch, or listen to
sports, or read, use, purchase, and or
collect items related to sports.
 The goal of planning marketing strategies
is to encourage the consumer to act as a
customer and purchase tickets or
merchandise– and this is the job of sports
marketing personnel.
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Consumer Decisions
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Many factors come to play that affect a
consumer’s decision to spend money or to
participate in sports. These factors fall into two
categories; Environmental and Individual.
Environmental Factors- that influence a
consumer’s involvement in sports can include
family and friends; society’s attitudes and
values; cultural differences related to class, race
and gender; climate and region; and of course,
marketing influences such as commercials.
Consumer Decisions
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Individual Factors- that affect a
consumer’s involvement in sports include:
1.Self concept or self image. If a person
see themselves as an athlete, they will
likely be involved in sports.
2.Another factor relates to selfdevelopment or stage of life. The average
age of a person when he or she becomes
a fan is at the age of 11.
Consumer Decisions
3.The physical characteristics related to
the ability to play a sport is another
individual factor
4. The fourth individual factor is learned
characteristics regarding the ability to
learn athletic skills, and motivation and
attitude.
Consumer Decisions
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With all of these factors that influence the
sports consumer, sports marketers must
consider a combination of these factors to
make a effective decisions about
marketing plans.
Sports Consumers and
Market Segmentation

Market Segmentation- is a way of
analyzing a market by specific
characteristics to create a target market.
These characteristics include geographics,
demographics, pyschographics, and
product benefits.
1. Geographics- Is studying where people
live.
Sports Consumers and
Market Segmentation
2.Demographics- are statistics that
describe a population in terms of personal
characteristics such as gender, race,
religion, and earnings.
3.Pyschographics- include
characteristics that are easier to change,
such as attitudes, or opinions the
consumer has toward recreational
activities.
Sports Consumers and
Market Segmentation
4. Sports marketers also study consumers’
behaviors, needs and wants regarding
specific product benefits to consumers.
 The market segmentation of the sports
consumer market is constantly changing.
Sports marketers must constantly check
current consumer approval ratings.
Sports Consumers and
Market Segmentation

Several years ago the golf market included
mostly men, ages 30-60, with incomes of
$50,000 to $175,000 per year. But with the
emergence of Tiger Woods and how he was
marketed, a new consumer market of teenagers
developed for golf. Thus the marketing segment
shifted for golf, and the PGA gained new
sponsors who sell to this market.

Nike, Wheaties, Upper Deck, Accenture, Buick
and Coca-Cola are all sponsors for Tiger
Woods.
Sports Products
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Sports products are goods, services, ideas, or a
combination of those things related to sports that
provide satisfaction to the consumer.
The product of sports give consumers
entertainment, social outlets, or even
achievement. For example, the product of a
monster truck race can include music, and
celebrity appearances to entertain spectators.
Sports Products

Besides sports products in the form of
goods and services, sports products can
also be athletes. The athlete who
demonstrates more than one skill, is
considered a valuable “product” by the
team that contracts the athlete.
Sports Products
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Many people are involved in marketing a sports
product: Owners, sponsors, communication
firms, city governments, taxpayers, and
consumers.
NASCAR needs owners for the cars, sponsors
on the car, promotion on TV and radio, permits
from city governments to run the race, owners
must also convince taxpayers that the race will
benefit the local economy, and fans in the
stands to create revenue from the race.
Types of Sports Products

Sport products can be actual goods or
services.
1. Sporting Events- Games, events and
competitions on all levels make up this
segment.
2. Sports Information- Involves the news,
statistics, schedules, and stories. TV,
radio, online, and print media provide
sports information
Types of Sports Products
3. Sports Training- This product is
usually a service such as instruction that is
provided through fitness centers, sport
camps, and lessons.
4. Sporting Goods- These products
usually include a wide range of goods,
such as equipment, licensed merchandise,
collectibles, and memorabilia, as well as
apparel and accessories.
Types of Sports Products
Sports Goods- are defined as actual
tangible products such as a skateboard,
basketball and baseball bats. These are
available at local sporting good stores
around the country.
5. There are other sports products that can
also include services such as buying a
hot dog at your seat in the stadium.
Vendors are the service for the product.
Types of Sports Products
Quality Of Goods- is an important aspect
of sporting goods.
 Two basic questions have to be answered
when judging the quality of manufactured
products.
1. Does the product conform to design
specifications in the manufacturing
process?
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Types of Sports Products
2. How well does the product perform its function
in the opinion of the consumers, or end users, of
the goods.
For example, if a sports franchise raises the price
of a season ticket, it may lose the loyalty of the
average fan. However, the franchise might find
another target market that is willing to spend
more money for higher-quality goods such as
luxury box seats. (See page 80 for
characteristics of quality goods).
Sports Services
A sports service is an intangible product
that can’t be held or touched.
 Tennis Lessons
 Golf Lessons
 Personal Training
 Sports Camps
 The experience of attending a game in
terms of parking, seating, and well
designed interior of the stadium.

Quality of Service
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Reliability- The ability to perform promised
services dependably and accurately
Assurance- Knowledge and courtesy of
employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence.
Empathy- The caring, individualized attention
provided by the sports franchise for its
customers.
Responsiveness- Willingness to help
customers and provide prompt service.
Tangibles- Appearance of equipment,
personnel materials, and the venue or stadium.
Sports Product Classifications
Sports businesses organize their products
by product line and product mix.
 A product line- is defined as a group of
closely related products manufactured and
or sold by a company. These products
satisfy a class of needs and may be used
together, sold to the same customer
group, sold through the same type of
outlets, or have the same price range.
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Sports Product Classifications
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A Product Mix- is the total assortment of
products that a company makes and or
sells. Take Wilson Sporting Goods for
example, they sell balls, rackets, gloves,
bats, shoes, visors, uniforms, etc, etc.
Another example is North Penn’s lunches.
Everything they sell on a daily basis is
their product mix.
Sports Product Classifications
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Many companies may specialize in a few
product keeping their product mix small in
nature, while other companies such as
Nike is large and extensive.
Sports Product and Extensions

Sports businesses and organizations, like
any other business, want to offer whatever
products will sell. However, sports
products differ from typical consumer
products because sports products have
the ability to generate a greater variety of
related products or product extensions.
See page 83 for an example.
Sports Product and Extensions
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The Super Bowl is the main or core
product while the tickets, programs,
videos, statistics in the news, related TV
programs, and T-shirts are all product
extensions.
Section 4-2
Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
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Economic EffectsBuying tickets, employing ticket takers,
parking attendants, concession stands,
security, players on the team, public
transportation, souvenir stands, customer
service, Radio and TV announcers,
commercials, etc , etc.
 The money spent at the sporting event gets
distributed around the local economy.
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Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
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Tax dollars generated by all of the people
involved around the sporting event goes to
local governments to improve the
infrastructure of the roads and public
transportation.
Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
Each decision a consumer makes involves
an opportunity cost, which is the loss of
the opportunity that is passed up in order
to receive something in exchange.
 Opportunity-cost decisions affect sports
marketing because the consumer decides
to spend his or her discretionary income to
have an enjoyable experience.
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Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
As mentioned earlier, monies coming in to
support a sports team goes a long way to
help the infrastructure.
 Infrastructure is the physical development
of an area, including the major public
systems, services, and facilities of a
country or region needed to make a
location function.
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Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
Six of the functions include: power and
water supplies, public transportation,
telecommunications, roads, and schoolsall which support the residents and tourists
alike.
 This entire process from beginning to end,
contributes to the economy.
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Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
All the previous mentioned are called
Franchises.
 A sports franchise is an agreement or
contract for a sports organization to sell a
parent’s company (i.e. a national sports
league), good or service within a given
area.
 Promoters start years in advance to
advertise a new team coming to a city.
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Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
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Florida is known as the sunshine state and it is
the world’s number one tourist destination. Over
thirty million people visit the state each year.
The sports economy in Florida has been
growing over the past few years with the start of
the Tampa Bay Bucs, Football, The Marlins,
Baseball, the Orlando Magic, Basketball, The
Lightning, and Panthers, Hockey.
Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
Case study- The Orlando Magic
 Started in 1989
 Four years of promoting before the 1989
season
 Sold season tickets
 Shaquille O’Neil started in 1992 and the
team became very competitive that year.
 The team continues to bring in big revenue
to the area.
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Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
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Lesser known professional teams in sports
which are not the top tier sports have a
tough time getting media exposure. This
dampens their ability to draw big crowds
and increase their revenue. Some
examples include the WNBA, and
professional Soccer.
Economic Impact of Sports
Marketing
To gain support, these teams need to start
at the community level and build
promotion from there.
 The term grassroots marketing refers to
marketing activity on a local community
level. For example, a team may help a
community with charity and fund-raising
events.
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