Post-Crisis Sports Marketing Business Model Shifts

The impact of economic recessions on business strategy and marketing has recently received increased research attention. However, these contributions are limited, especially with respect to sports marketing businesses and those operating in emerging markets. The main aim of this study was to examine the impact of the global recession on the business models of sports marketing businesses. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews with executives at market-leading sports marketing businesses in South Africa. Grounded theory data analysis was conducted to understand the common patterns within the data. The results of the research point to four significant business model shifts, influencing the customer value proposition, agency relationships, revenue models and staffing approaches of sports marketing firms. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed including the suggestion to revisit the business model upon which sports marketing businesses compete in a post-crisis world

A Process Model of Sport Fan Detachment

Within the field of sport marketing, scholarship to date has predominantly focused on the drivers of fan loyalty and allegiance, and the motivational aspects of fan behavior, at the expense of understanding the deterioration of the relationship between the sport consumer and sport team. Previous customer-brand relationship literature was integrated to propose and test a model of sport fan detachment. A qualitative study of lapsed season ticket holders was conducted to gain a deep understanding of the fan’s individual lived experience. The findings contribute a four-part sequential process of a breakdown trigger, iterative decline, disengagement incident, and exit phase, to explain how a sport fan detaches from their chosen team. This process has significant managerial implications for team administrators since an understanding of each phase of the process provides opportunities to intervene, including tailored team communication and ticket packages

Sportainment: Changing the Pace of Limited-overs Cricket in South Africa

This study addresses the need to deepen the understanding of sports marketing in an emerging market context. The in-depth case study of Standard Bank Pro20 Cricket explores the strategy, execution and results of the successful launch of a new cricket format in South Africa. As such, it contributes to the theory and practice of sport marketing, especially sport event sponsorship. Schwartz and Hunter (2008) highlight the “lucrative” (p. 251) nature of tournaments and championships sponsorships, given the opportunity for media and advertising exposure related to the event. This study documents the effective use of a partnership approach to sponsorship (Meenaghan, 2002) and the creative use of multiple sponsorship activations to achieve the sponsorship’s objectives

Tracking the Dollars: How Economic Impact Studies Can Actually Benefit Managerial Decision Making

Almost every month brings another attention-grabbing headline about a city or country considering a bid for a major sporting or entertainment event. Politicians, business executives, and excited fans weigh in about the possible costs and benefits, with limited numbers provided about the possible economic impact, and even less said about how these numbers were calculated. Most recently, LeBron James’ return to Cleveland was estimated by Bloomberg to boost the city’s economy by $215 million annually, while Cuyahoga County’s projections were more than double this number. A concert of Jay-Z and Beyonce in Baltimore in 2013 was estimated by the local newspapers to have an economic impact of between$20 million and $40 million. In these cases (as with so many others), these numbers were highly debated and many of our management colleagues were quick to dismiss the estimated size of the impact. Yet, as we get distracted by the discussion of how high the impact of a particular sport or entertainment event might be, we lose track of the more important question: What lessons can sport and entertainment executives learn from these studies? The first author of this article has been involved with over 50 sport industry economic impact studies, including analyses of the NBA All-Star game, the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium, the NCAA Men’s Final Four basketball tournament, Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 race, and the India Premier League, to name a few

Rebooting Content: Broadcasting Sport and Esports to Homes During COVID-19

Beginning in early March 2020, sport in the United States entered an unprecedented period of hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The postponement, suspension, and cancellation of live sporting events impacted every professional and amateur sport organization, from the National Basketball Association to the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, high school sports to college football, and even esports leagues. Although the abrupt cancellation of live sporting events was disruptive, it did create opportunities for the production of new media and consumption opportunities for sport leagues, teams, and their fans through different types of sport media broadcasts. This commentary examines how the U.S. sport industry developed media content strategies using new, mixed, and rebroadcasted content, across multiple broadcast and streaming platforms, to provide sport consumption opportunities to fans who were largely quarantined at home. This research contributes to the existing scholarship on live and rebroadcasted mediated content, while providing guidance to content owners and rights holders facing uncertainty in the marketplace

The Impact of New, Renewal and Termination Sponsorship Announcements on Share Price Returns

What impact do sport sponsorship announcements have on the share price returns of the sponsoring firms? The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of new, renewal and termination sponsorship announcements on share price returns. The research employed the widely acceptable event study methodology to analyse 118 announcements made by 19 firms over a period of more than 11 years. The mixed findings across all three announcement types point to the lack of consideration given to the sponsorship investment by investors. The findings suggest that, although some firms may position their sponsorships as a contributor towards competitive advantage, the announcements of sport sponsorships are not always taken into account by the market. The discussion of findings also highlights two alternate explanations for our findings, including that investors evaluated sponsorship contracts as achieving market clearing prices, and that the size or importance of sponsorship contracts relative to other investments made by the sponsoring firms was not significant enough to result in investors buying or selling shares. The study concludes with recommendations for managers, as well as suggestions for further research

What They Really Think: Resolving Methodological Issues in Supply Chain Ethics Research

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to further the theory and strengthen methodological approaches to the role of ethics in buyer-seller relationships. The paper explores opportunities to enhance response rates, validity and reliability in the research context of organisations seeking to understand the ethical beliefs their suppliers hold of their buying organisations. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research universe is a select business group, all of which are technologically literate and online. Innovative research sampling methods were selected to great effect. The method selected was saturation surveying, a process whereby all identifiable target respondents are surveyed. Instead of selecting between sampling techniques, the option of saturation surveying, cheaply available electronically, removes the focus from the decision to either sample probabilistically or not. Instead, as the entire universe can be contacted in a cost effective manner, the sampling frame becomes of paramount importance. Thus, the focus then shifts from accurately selecting respondents from the sampling frame towards enhancing the sampling frame itself. The sampling frame was improved through guidance from the literature. Findings: The paper demonstrates that this research approach was successful in that it generated a high response rate, suggesting great involvement amongst the supplier population in the topic at hand. It also indicates a lessening of non-response bias, as the response rate is more than double that of previous research into the area. Implications: This paper presents a comprehensive approach to researching ethics in buyer-seller relations. It further promotes the effective use of new sampling methods enabled by the Internet when directed towards selective populations. Originality/Value: The novel approach of sampling frame enhancement twined with saturation surveying has exciting implications for business research. The expansion of the sampling frame to a wider audience of suppliers has long been noted as necessary although not actioned. Furthermore, in terms of the little-studied nature of buyer-seller relations, the verification of the scale developed by Bendixon and Abratt (2007) affirms the robustness of this measure for ethics research

Building the Brightrock Brand through Change

Subject area This case allows students to engage with classical marketing tenets of branding, media and communications decisions and content marketing within a management framework. Study level/applicability This case is appropriate for an undergraduate or graduate-level programme in marketing management. Case overview Suzanne Stevens was part of a group of four former senior employees of a large life insurance firm that decided to establish a new and innovative South African insurance company, BrightRock. They identified a gap in a large and highly competitive (albeit generic and opaque) insurance market and developed a distinctive positioning within the market. There was low consumer understanding of the technical aspects of life insurance products, and no existing life insurance product provided an individualized offering. Stevens developed the company’s brand and marketing strategy by drawing on reputation drivers, traditional advertising and a content marketing approach. BrightRock focused on change moments in consumers’ lives, including getting married, having children or getting a new job, and changed the standard insurance product model by launching an individualized flexible product that could adapt with the consumer through their various life stages. The case study documents the first three years of BrightRock’s operations, with a strong focus on brand and product development, distribution and communication. The case dilemma involves choices Stevens faced at the beginning of 2015 about marketing investments across paid, earned and owned media. Expected learning outcomes This study enables to critique the development of a services brand; integrate paid, owned and earned media to increase communication effectiveness and efficiency; and critique a content marketing strategy. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 8: Marketing. </jats:sec