Transcription
Hello, my friends, and welcome to the first lecture in RPTA 323, sport marketing in the fan experience. And uh, today we are going to talk about chapter one, the special nature of sport marketing, from your textbook. I want to be clear on a couple of different things before we get rolling.
Um, so I I I like like I said in the course orientation screencast, I've adopted this book. Um, and I feel pretty I feel pretty good about it. I wouldn't adopt a book if I didn't feel good about it. Um, in fact, this is the first time I have adopted a book for this uh for this sport marketing fan experience just because um I had not found one that I felt like uh gave you everything you need.
Um, that said, I'm not going to teach primarily from the book. There are going to be some lectures that uh stray from the book, and um I'll be clear on that with you. Um, but this first one um I feel like it does a pretty good job of um of getting us started with sport marketing. Um, and I just want to repeat what I said before. Remember that I have to teach this class as if no one has ever had any marketing. No one has ever ever had any experiential marketing. No one has really even had any sport management, right? I mean, I we can have students where this is the very first course in sport that they're taking. Okay?
And so um I don't want to cheat them. So I have to to start with some basics. Um, and I don't want to cheat you if you are if you have taken all those courses. And so we get pretty uh we get pretty uh far down the road pretty quickly. Okay, so it moves along.
Um, all right, let's let's get rolling. So the objectives, as you can see here, um, help to guide us. Um, and and these are taken directly from your book. And so you will see those in your book, and you can read those just as easily as I can read those to you. Okay.
So the then and now part, when we think about sport, I think it's really important to reflect on this that sport uh or or the concept of sport as a business endeavor is over a hundred years old. And you may say to yourself, wait a second, Greenwood, no, wasn't there um uh wasn't there sport well before? Yeah, absolutely right. But in terms of in in in terms of our capitalistic society in thinking about sport as a business, that's where we're where we're originating. And and and remember also sport management as an academic discipline did not even start until the 1970s, right? And so, you know, we're still talking an academic discipline that's only 50 years old, right? So, if you think about this concept of sport as a business, it's really not that um it's not that advanced. It's it's it's not um the the history is not um uh very far along. You know, those of you who have watched some of those like um documentaries like the Rexom documentary that that that talks about uh you know, the the the sport clubs um and soccer clubs in particular, obviously with Rexom, like you you see that it it really wasn't run as a business. It was run more as like a a community club. And so understanding that um I think is a really important aspect.
All right. Uh the modern sport marketing is um really uh Air Jordan did not start sport marketing, but Air Jordan, Michael Jordan and and Nike accelerated it, right? Accelerated sport marketing to what we see it today. All right. The the popularity, the eyeballs, like you'll hear me talk a lot about eyeballs, okay? Eyeballs and clicks are ultimately what uh drive sales. Eyeballs and clicks drive sales, drive interest, right? And so in our modern society, if we can get eyeballs on something, that is really important.
One of the things that's really really important for you to understand in in recognizing the difference uh between sport marketing and marketing in general, we're going to get into very very deep or not not very deeply, we're going to get into in this uh slide deck. And so um but it's important to realize that um marketers use interest in sport to sell products, right? And so that goes through athlete endorsements. It goes through in in venue advertising, media broadcast, and then also venue naming rights. And we're going to talk in depth about each of those as we move along.
It's important for you to realize, and those of you who have had me in classes before know that I've talked about this, um, the valuation of sport franchises has coming out of the pandemic. Um, and we're going to talk about the reasons why that is. Um, as we move through, I hope by the end of this slide deck, you'll get a really good understanding of why. But just look in the last um in the LA, you know, if you can if you can uh get get a little bit closer to the screen, right? And you see like when these uh when these organizations sold last, right? And that gives you an understanding for the type of money that we're dealing with here, right? So just think about like in 2020 the Utah Jazz sold for 1.7 billion, right? The Lakers were just valued at 10 billion 5 years later. Right? Now that's not to say that the Utah Jazz are are as valuable as the Lakers. No, not not at all. But if the Jazz were to sell right now, there would they would have I mean you could probably say that they've made four billion in five years. That's that's unreal, right? You look down below like you look at the Pacers like when they sold like they they were bought for 11 million. If the Pacers were to sell right now, they would go for at least 4 billion. Like think about that. That's insane. Okay. And so understanding that is really important. Now understanding the the these aspects the marketing of sport and the marketing through sport.
Okay. So in this picture, this is my uh World Cup innovation summit hackathon team. We were in Dallas for the World Cup innovation summit um this past spring, right? And so we're the uh these women are standing out on the replica field outside the Ford Center that is the practice home for the Dallas Cowboys at the Star. The Star is a complex that includes um the corporate headquarters of the Cowboys and includes um uh dining and um coffee shops and all kinds of like um all kinds of different things that you can do there, right? And so we see the marketing of sport in that v for that venue, right? The cowboys are everywhere. You can see the Cowboys logo there behind the girls um behind the women. Um, you can see if you if they were stepped aside, you could see the star for the Cowboys, their logo. That is marketing of sport, right? Marketing of football, marketing of the Dallas Cowboys. Okay? That video screen is showing them playing the Washington Commanders, right? And so that's the marketing of sport. Okay? And then you can see in the background there, the Ford Center. So Ford paid to have their name on the center. So that is marketing through sport. Ford as an automobile um manufacturer right has realized the value of sport marketing.
Okay. Now it's also important for you to understand the distinction between sport consumers and sport consumption. Right? Sport consumers are the people who could buy. Sport consumption is the actual buying, the actual engaging, the actual right. And so that's the distinction there. Now we get into this marketing myopia that the book defines. And and so the market myop marketing myopia is simply this this viewpoint that uh marketing or marketers have long lacked foresight. Okay? So they've lacked foresight in meeting the wants and demands of consumers, right? And they ultimately have sacrificed the quick short-term for the long-term strategy. And so our I our ultimate goal as sport marketers is to have that vision for the future is look towards the future and to think how can we continue to grow and develop.
Okay. Symptoms symptoms of marketing myopia. Now you can see here that the book has given you a number of different ones. I'm not going to read all of these to you. They're pretty self-explanatory. Okay? But ultimately it's important for you um as a student who is learning and growing in this realm to not fall into these traps to not get these symptoms. Okay.
Now let's get into the uniqueness of sport marketing. And I go by the book in some of these and I've added my own in in some as well. And so it's important for you to realize that I'm going to be doing that throughout this uh this this uh session that we're in. Right. So sport has a special place in consumers' experience, right? It's multifaceted; it intersects with so much, right? So we have Messi, a picture of Messi here, right, who is an icon, right? And he's an icon that has been able to sell um for and excel in in business and and cross lines with entertainment and fashion and community. And if we think about a lot of our sport um uh characters or uh not characters, that's not what I'm looking for. Um our our sport personalities, if we look at a lot of our sport personalities, uh the the big-time athletes, they have transcended sport and have been able to cross over into other realms.
All right, so let's continue to think about and look at this. Right? So the book defines a sport product as any bundle or combination of qualities, processes and capabilities, goods, services, ideas or and I have added experiences that a sport consumer expects will deliver want satisfaction. Want satisfaction means that that that that that's what the consumer is is desiring, right? Want satisfaction means that's what they're desiring. Okay? And ultimately sport marketers must understand why consumers make consumption decisions. Why did these people here in the stands at this baseball game? Why did they purchase the ticket? If they're wearing a jersey, why? If they're wearing a hat, why? If they if they bought concessions, why? Right? Like those are all the elements that we have to think about and factor in. And you know, if you let's just let's just take um base a baseball stadium as an example. It used to be in my era like when I was attending baseball games and and I was uh my my very first game was in 1980 at the old Veteran Stadium in Philadelphia. It was a crap hole, man. It was like, but you know, I mean, I didn't realize it. I mean, as an 8-year-old, I thought it was like insanely cool, right? But it like became known as like one of the worst venues in professional sports, but but you know, you you went to a game and sure there were some of the entertainment factors that are there that we have now. The Philly Fanatic was out there doing incredible amazing stuff, but when I went to the vet, I mean, you could basically get you could only get like a hot dog. You could get a hot dog and maybe some fries, right? And like cheap I mean not cheap beer. Um I shouldn't say cheap beer. You could get domestic beer and it was expensive. Domestic beer from for way more than you would pay anywhere else, right? There just wasn't there weren't weren't the options, right, that there are now. And that's because we have come to realize that we have to do more as sport marketers that people and sport consumers want more.
Now the bundle of characteristics of the sport product. This uh figure one shows um uh is a is a depiction of ultimately what all is included in the sport product. Right? And so on the outside we have the marketing mix that we're going to talk about more in the next lecture. Okay? I'm not going to go into this very deeply. Um, but the marketing mix as defined by the book is a little bit different than what you normally see. So normally see you see the four Ps, and I'm going to teach it as the four Ps: product, place, price, promotion, but the book adds public relations, and and we uh uh public relations in my mind is included in the promotional mix, and we'll I'll be teaching it as that element, but it's important for you to realize that the book includes public relations as a fifth P. Okay. And then we have the specific sport or uh sport form, right? Whether that be uh soccer or golf or volleyball or baseball or tennis or hockey. And those um obviously those are the only ones included there. But obviously we know that that is a huge huge list and not um there in in in in this figure. It's obviously not all incorpor uh not all-encompassing, right? And then you have the generic sport form, right? And that is um whether it's uh play or facilities or physical skill or equipment or rules or games. And then the core benefits associated with it are health, entertainment, social ability, and achievement. And all of those are included in this bundle of characteristics of the sport product.
So now we look at it a little deeper. Why is the sport product unique? And we see the great Kobe Bryant um hitting uh look at that point-four seconds on the clock and the the great uh Dwayne Wade right there trying to block his shot. He did not block his shot. He got it off. He sank the bucket. Right? That intangible, that ephemeral, that experiential, that subjective nature of sport, right? Where we don't know the outcome. The outcome is unknown to us is a huge element, right? There is that strong personal and emotional identification. We're going to get into fan identification as we move along. There's the simultaneous production and consumption, right? So, you're you're uh you're part of watching the production on the court, on the field, on the pitch, on the the the diamond, right? um on the ice, right? Wherever it might be. Um and then there's that dependence on social facilitation um as well in that um fan the the the the aspect of being able to convene with fans and to fight with rivals and all of that is really um is really a big part of it. And then like I said about the unknown, that inconsistency and unpredictability. We don't know what's going to happen, right? You might even be wondering like Greenwood, I'm not sure like uh this might have been I think Kobe missed that shot. Nah, he did not. He made it. Okay. And then ultimately the core product for sport is beyond our control. We can't say we can't we can't decide whether or not Kobe makes or misses this this shot, right? It's beyond our control.
Then why is the sport marketplace unique? Okay. Why the sport is the sport marketing place unique? For one, organizations are both competing and cooperating together, right? You think about the National Hockey League. um they want to grow ice hockey in the United States and in North America and around the world. Right. So, the Florida Panthers, the two-time defending n uh the defending uh Stanley Cup champions in Florida of all places, Florida. Right. And and but you know, they they hey um they they've grown the game in Florida because of that, right? Um the other aspect uh of uh this element that is really interesting and I think is funny is that consumers consider themselves experts. You've heard the term armchair quarterback. Oh, they're an armchair quarterback. They're sitting in their armchair, and they think they know better than everyone else. And that is absolutely characteristic here. Demand tends to fluctuate widely. Absolutely. So, let's think about March in the NBA. March in the NBA. Let's just think about this last season. And let's think about uh in Indianapolis and in um and in OKC, right? March and April as they were winding down the regular season. What do you think the demand was for tickets in those two places? Through the roof, right? Absolutely through the roof because they had what what people thought of as championship-winning teams, right? But what about in Atlanta that was struggling? What about in um Utah that was struggling, right? The demand was not there. Trying to get people in the door and trying to get them to consume very very difficult. Okay. And then finally, sport has an almost universal appeal and pervades all elements of life. And that is absolutely the case when you think about um the the socialization, when you think about how ingrained it is in our societies. Um it's just it's just uh it's it's ultimately omnipresent, right? And then, you know, I go back to to my days uh when I first started watching sport, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Um, and the uh that's a picture uh from uh the Olympics and the uh the the ski jump. And ultimately the ski jump um kind of characterized for me that uh thrill of victory and agony of defeat, and then ultimately it's about the experience, and I think this is a really key point to drive home.
Okay, we are in the uh digital information era where um getting live eyeballs on anything is incredibly difficult because people are streaming so much stuff, right? And so that live in-person um sport is seen as one of the last venues or one of the most pro not last but most prominent venues to get those live eyeballs combined with those clicks in one of the most powerful ways possible because so many people are fans, so many people are interested in it. It is so ingrained in our culture that the experience of wanting to see it, of wanting to be there at a Dodgers game for a fireworks show, of wanting to be there for Brazil at a World Cup game and wanting to be there if you see there and that that where where this where this person is doing an unbelievable trick like that, right? And seeing that live, the power of that is important. And so that live experiential aspect which is ingrained in sport marketing, a number of you of you all have taken experiential marketing. It's important for you to realize that the con very concept of experiential marketing ultimately grew out of sport marketing because sport marketing is live. It is in person. We are going to the games, right? And so uh the the term experiential marketing 10 years ago we were the first one of the first universities to offer an experiential marketing class, and people in our business school had never even heard of the term, and we had changed our name to the to to the department of experience industry management based on that experiential aspect. Of course, people have heard had heard of experiential. Experiential is at the root of kalpali and learn by doing. But in terms of experiential marketing, that was just starting to be coined as a phrase, and there were not very many classes at all. But ultimately, we've been teaching sport marketing for much longer than we've been teaching experiential marketing. And sport marketing is ultimately experiential marketing.
Okay. Now finally, why the financing of sport is unique, right? This the the first the pricing of the individual sport product um by traditional means is very very difficult, right? I mean, because what are people willing to pay uh a midweek game Utah versus uh the Memphis Grizzlies ah tough very tough Lakers versus Warriors on a on a on a Saturday night. Woo! Through the roof, right? The price of the sport product itself is small in comparison with the total cost paid by the consumer. Okay? And so that's an important differentiation to understand as well. And the book I want you to make sure you go and you read about that in the book. The book talks about goes into depth on that. And then ultimately indirect revenues are frequently greater than direct operating revenues, right? And so that is referring to media rights and sponsorship and all of that in comparison to gate revenues and and and and um concessions and that sort of thing. Okay. And then ultimately um uh why sport promotion is unique and that's what going to lead us right into this next lecture on the marketing and promotion basics that I want to make sure that you you um that that that you are uh engaging with. Widespread media exposure is a double-edged sword, right? And so you've heard of the term there's no such thing as bad publicity. uh yes and no, right? And so a yes and no in that it may create eyeballs um and clicks, but is the creation of those eyeballs and clicks going to ultimately turn people off? Right? And so that's why it is the double-edged sword. So if that is my last click when I click on it and I find out that a scandal is why uh with my team or with one of my athletes or with whatever that could as a sport consumer make me not click anymore. And so that's why it's a double-edged sword. Okay. Um, and you know, obviously media and sponsors emphasize celebrities, and and that's where that double-edged sword comes in as well, right? And so, you know, I include a bobblehead of a marathon runner here. But we just think about um the the runners, the Olympic runners in the past that have been sullied by um by scandal, by doping or by whatever it might be. You know, one of the most famous um female athletes of my time um was sullied and in and Marian Jones. Marian Jones was an incredible
Sprinter, and she was, um, oh man, she was a a Tarheel through and through, and I was so proud of having her as uh, um, as a Tarheel until she got sullied; until it was ultimately, um, she was uh, not only accused but was credibly determined to be cheating.
And so she went from the top, ol', one of the top Olympic athletes of all time to a sullied name that I doubt you, have any of you, have ever even heard of, um, because of the cheating scandal.
All right, I'll refer you, refer you to the marketing and promotions basic basics lecture. Make sure you're engaging with that. Hope you enjoyed this first lecture. See you.