Sport Marketing

Bernard J. Mullin, PhD, is chairman and CEO of the Aspire Group, a leading global management and marketing consulting business focusing on the sport and entertainment industry. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of Atlanta Spirit, LLC, where he was responsible for overseeing all team and business operations for the NBA's Hawks and NHL's Thrashers and management of the world-class Philips Arena. Mullin has more than 30 years of experience in the sport management industry involving executive positions with professional teams and leagues, where he specializes in start-ups and turnarounds, breaking numerous all-time league ticket sales and attendance records. In addition to his position in Atlanta, Mullin served as the NBA’s senior vice president of marketing and team business operations, president and general manager of the IHL’s Denver Grizzlies, senior vice president of business operations for the Colorado Rockies, and senior vice president of business for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has also acted as the owner’s representative on major design and construction projects, including Coors Field and University of Denver’s award-winning athletic facilities. Before and during his career in professional sports, Mullin spent several years in intercollegiate athletics and higher education. He served as vice chancellor of athletics for the University of Denver and as professor of sport management at the University of Massachusetts. Mullin holds a PhD in business, an MBA, and an MS in marketing from the University of Kansas, where he coached the varsity soccer program. He holds a BA in business studies from Coventry University in England, where he played soccer semiprofessionally for the Oxford City Football Club. Stephen Hardy, PhD, was a professor of kinesiology and affiliate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire until his retirement in 2014. In 2003-2004, he served as interim vice provost for undergraduate studies. Hardy has also taught at the University of Massachusetts (where he earned his PhD), the University of Washington, Robert Morris College, and Carnegie Mellon University. Over three decades, he taught courses in sport marketing, athletic administration, and sport history as well as a popular introduction to the sport industry. Besides Sport Marketing, his publications include How Boston Played (1982, 2003) and numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews in academic presses. He is completing a coauthored history of ice hockey. His reviews and opinions have appeared in popular outlets such as the Boston Globe, New York Times, and Sports Business Journal. From 1995 to 1999, he was coeditor of Sport Marketing Quarterly. In 1997, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He has won college and university awards for excellence in research and teaching. Hardy has extensive experience in college athletics. He played hockey for Bowdoin College in the late 1960s and cocaptained the 1969-70 team with his twin brother, Earl. After coaching stints at Vermont Academy and Amherst College, he joined the Eastern College Athletic Conference in 1976, where he served as assistant commissioner and hockey supervisor until 1979. During that time, he supervised collegiate championships in venues such as the Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden, and he worked closely with the NCAA Ice Hockeey Committee and its affiliated championships. He served on the board of directors of the America East Athletic Conference from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, he was selected by the Hockey East Association as one of 20 special friends to celebrate the league’s 20th anniversary. At UNH he served as faculty representative to the NCAA and chaired the president’s Athletics Advisory Committee from 1996 to 2011. He is a founder of the Charles E. Holt Archives of American Hockey, which are located at UNH’s Dimond Library. He lives with his wife, Donna, in Durham, New Hampshire. William A. Sutton, EdD, is the founding director and professor at the sport and entertainment business management graduate program in the management department at the University of South Florida. He is the founder and principal of Bill Sutton & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in strategic marketing and revenue enhancement. Sutton has gained national recognition for his ability to meld practical experience in professional sports with academic analysis and interpretation. His consulting clients cover a who’s who of professional athletics: the NBA, WNBA, NHL, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, MSG Sports, and New York Mets. Sutton frequently serves as an expert on the sport business industry. His insights and commentary have appeared in USA Today, New York Times, CNBC.com, Washington Times, Fox Business, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Advertising Age, and Brand Week. On the international front, Sutton is a contributor to the Italian publications Basketball Gigante and FIBA Assist. Sutton served as vice president of team marketing and business operations for the National Basketball Association. In addition to working at the NBA, Sutton was past president of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM), a founding member and past president of the Sport Marketing Association (SMA), president of the Southern Sport Management Association, a special events coordinator for the City of Pittsburgh, a YMCA director, vice president of information services for an international sport marketing firm, and commissioner of the Mid-Ohio Conference. He was inducted into the College of Education Hall of Fame at Oklahoma State University (2003) and as an inaugural member of the Robert Morris University Sport Management Hall of Fame (2006), and received lifetime achievement awards from the Southern Sport Management Association (2012) and the Sport Entertainment & Venues Tomorrow conference at the University of South Carolina. He lives with his wife, Shana, in Tampa and Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Chapter 1. The Special Nature of Sport Marketing

The NBA and Global Marketing Strategy

Weathering Recessions

The Competitive Marketplace

Sport Marketing Defined

Marketing Myopia in Sport

Change in the Profession

Uniqueness of Sport Marketing

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 2. Strategic Marketing Management

Sport Strategy Is More Than Locker Room Talk

Marketing Planning Process

Strategic Step 1: Develop Vision, Position, and Purpose

Strategic Step 2: Develop Strategic Goals and Objectives

Strategic Step 3: Develop a Ticket Marketing Sales and Service Plan

Strategic Step 4: Integrate the Marketing Plan Into a Broader, Strategic Resource Allocation

Strategic Step 5: Control and Evaluate Implementation of the Plan

Eight-Point Ticket Marketing, Sales, and Service Plan Model

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 3. Understanding the Sport Consumer

Socialization, Involvement, and Commitment

Environmental Factors

Individual Factors

Decision Making

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 4. Market Research in the Sports Industry

Sources of Information

Users of Market Research in Sport and Entertainment

Application of Market Research in the Sport Industry

Performing the Right Research

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 5. Market Segmentation

What Is Market Segmentation?

Four Bases of Segmentation

Integrated Segmentation Strategies and Tactics

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 6. The Sport Product

What Is the Sport Product?

The Sport Product: Its Core and Extensions

Grassroots Ideas

Key Issues in Sport Product Strategy

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 7. Managing Sport Brands

What Is Branding?

Importance of Brand Equity

Benefits of Brand Equity

How Brand Equity Is Developed

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 8. Sales and Service

Relationship Between Media, Sponsors, and Fans and the Sales Process

What Is Sales?

Direct Data-Based Sport Marketing and Sales

Typical Sales Approaches Used in Sport

Pricing Basics

Secondary Ticket Market

Aftermarketing, Lifetime Value, and the Importance of Retaining Customers

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 9. Sponsorship, Corporate Partnerships, and the Role of Activation

What Is Sponsorship?

Sponsorship in the Marketing Mix

Growth of Sponsorship

What Does Sport Sponsorship Have to Offer?

Corporate Objectives

Sponsor Activation

Selling Sponsorships

Ethical Issues in Sponsorship

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 10. Promotion and Paid Media

The Catchall P: Promotion

Advertising

Advertising Media for Sport

Promotional Concepts and Practices

Promotional Components

Ultimate Goal: Keeping Consumers on the Escalator and Moving Them Up

Putting It All Together: An Integrated Promotional Model

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 11. Public Relations

What Is Public Relations?

Public Relations in the Sport Marketing Mix

Sport Public Relations in the Digital Age

Public Relations Functions

Sport, Television, and Entertainment Influence on Sport Public Relations

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 12. Social Media in Sports

What Is Social Media?

Building an Audience

Engaging Fans

Driving Behavior

Social Media Platforms

Avoiding Pitfalls

Leveraging Players and Talent

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 13. Delivering and Distributing Core Products and Extensions

Placing Core Products and Their Extensions

Theory of Sport and Place

Facility

Marketing Channels

Product-Place Matrix

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 14. Legal Aspects of Sport Marketing

Intellectual Property

Trademark Infringement

Copyright Law and Sport Marketing

Patents

Sport Marketing Communications Issues

Ambush Marketing

Right of Publicity and Invasion of Privacy

Contractual Issues Involving Consumers

Promotion Law Issues

Emerging Issues

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 15. Putting It All Together

Cross Effects Among the Five Ps

Controlling the Marketing Function

Wrap-Up

Activities

Your Marketing Plan

Endnotes

Chapter 16. The Shape of Things to Come

From Our Crystal Ball

From Our Crystal Ball Redux: By the Year 2020

Wrap-Up

Endnotes