...1. Introduction Today, the commercialisation of sports is developing gradually in a way that not only is importance given to manage sportsmen, but the preferences of consumers are being closely looked into before any decisions are made as well. Organisations, as a whole, face implications when it comes to fulfilling both of their needs evenly in order to be certain that the respective sports industry will continue to be stable and sustainable. Therefore, it is crucial for these organisations to explore the characteristics of their target market and acquire a deeper knowledge of their interests and preferences. As such, this report will explore and highlight the unique characteristics of sports fans as consumers, discuss the implications of sports marketing that may be faced by organisations and lastly be finished off with a personal reflection. 2. Sports fans as consumers People are known to be fans when they are seen to develop a diehard interest in a particular subject. It could involve sports, authors, musicians, celebrities and so on. According to Reysen and Branscombe (2010), a person can be considered a fan when they become passionate and enthusiastic about their particular interest and show loyalty to it. Both sports fans and normal spectators may share similar characteristics however, there are various factors which would clearly differentiate fans from spectators. For example, their degree of loyalty, commitment, emotional significance and value to the supporting...
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...marketing strategies for expanding the market for American professional sports into China” (Kaplan & Langdon 2012). Marketing strategies are reviewed as one of the main topics. “One strategy of the NBA was to partner with established Chinese brands” (Kaplan & Langdon, 2012). This allowed the NBA to have an easy avenue for expansion as the market had already been developed. Take Nike for instance from the example. In Kaplan and Langdon’s article it is stated “China’s biggest seller of athletic shoes, Li Ning, recently surrendered its top position to Nike, even though Nike’s shoes – upwards of $100 a pair – cost twice as much. The new middle class ‘seeks Western culture’, says Zhang Wanli, a social scientist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ‘Nike was smart because it didn’t enter China selling usefulness, but selling status” (Kaplan, Langdon 2012). Basically when Nike came in, they did not say that they had the best product. They did not say they had the cheapest product. They said they had their product. Because of the interest by these Chinese consumers that was created by their interest or “Fandom” associated with the sport of basketball where consumers were familiar with the specific brands because of their favorite athletes or teams, they were able to establish themselves as a reputable brand with little to no opposition. Technology Technology has played a major role in consumer behavior in sports fandom. If it wasn’t for the advancements made...
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...Media Influence On Sport When communication is spread not just between two individuals but rather between tens of millions of people it is known as mass media. Mass media is known as the central nervous system of society. "Mass media has many different purposes, such as providing information, entertaining, persuading and also by carrying a vague general function of culture to millions of people."(Frederick 18). In order for mass media to exist, there must be an audience. Today's society is very selective; each receiver reacts differently through his or her own experience and orientation according to mass media. Therefore, mass media exists in many different forms such as magazines, television, newspapers, internet, motion pictures, and even plays. Some examples of these forms of mass media are cosmopolitan magazine for young modern women and TSN television network for sports fans. With such extreme varieties of mass media existing in today's societies there are three major constraints that seem to have an impressionable impact. These constraints can keep mass media very restricted. The major constraint of mass media is competition. Each form of mass media wants to be the one to target the audience, so therefore competition between mass media is very strong, because capturing the inside of the sports world is critical. Apart from the competition among the various forms of media there is also competition among each form of the media example Fox network competes...
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...The Money or The Passion: Is Money in Professional Sport Ruining the Ethos of the Game? Ross Schreuder Supervisor: Mr. Werth English Teacher: Mrs. Schroeder Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. History and Evolution of Sport 3 3. What is the Ethos of Sport? 4 4. Positive and Negative Influences of Money in Sport and an Evaluation of their Impact on its Ethos 5 4.1 Doping: 5 4.2 Throwing Matches/ Match Fixing: 6 4.3 Other Factors Contributing to Unethical Behaviour in Sport 7 4.4 Sportsmanship vs. Gamesmanship 8 4.5 The Money in Barclays Premier League 9 4.5.1 Stadium naming rights 10 4.5.2 Transfers and Individual Sponsorships 10 4.6 Philanthropy 11 5. Conclusion 11 Bibliography 12 1. Introduction Money is, undoubtedly, evident in every aspect of professional sport. Player sponsorships and contracts, team ownership, stadia, media - its everywhere. If sport was not about the game, then arguably, sport would be about the money. Each and every week, transfers of players are made, ticket offices receive income, and money is handed from one profiteering person to the next. Where sport is widely thought to be about fair play, professional sport is, in fact, like war. There can only be one winner and what one team or individual gains, the other loses. Many sportsmen and women around the world are caught up with winning, not just because of the prowess of a title but, also because professionalism is now about money and...
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...Football in America by Jeannie Ray SPM/210 - SOCIO-CULTURAL ELMNTS OF SPORT: PLAYING WELL W/OTHERS DR DION DALY August 6, 2011 Football In America American football has a long legacy in American History. It can be traced back centuries to early European cutures, influenced through the years by multiple people, changed the rules and has become a National phenomenon for Americans. American football is over 100 years old and still going strong. It has inspired songs, movies and motivated individuals to great heights in their careers and lives. American football originated with its earlier form of play that derived from a variation of the sport Rugby in 1892. There are mentions of Native Americans playing ball games but, modern American football originates in traditional ball games played at villages and schools in Europe dating many centuries before America was settled by Europeans. Reports of early settlers at Jamestown, Virginia playing games with inflated balls in the early 17th century have been noted in history also. American football is the result of several major divergences from its earlier form of rugby. The introduction of the line of scrimmage and down-and- distance are among the first major changes of the game Rugby to its conversion to American football by Walter Camp. Walter Camp is considered as the father of football. The changes that he incorporated into collegiate football became dominant in the United...
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...how to reach movie consumers. Nearly 180 students participated through undergraduate student survey in Carnegie Mellon Univ. and 81 moviegoers in target age group answered questionnaire through online survey – ‘Mechanical Turk Survey’ between Oct 5 and Oct 7. These survey questionnaires shed light on the behaviors and habits that drive moviegoer awareness and decision-making and also ask the interest on sports and ESPN to figure out the relation between heavy sports fans and moviegoers in terms of their movie going behavior. • Changing TV watching trend We acknowledge that there is change on media consumption habits among our target age group. For moviegoers, digital technologies have gone main stream and TV is losing ground among the target audience. Moviegoers spend more time online than watching TV. • Target age-group’s behavior on online media For moviegoers within target age group, the Internet is a source of information, entertainment, and socialization. Moviegoers go online to gather knowledge. Most of them use the internet to check news and sports information. Without any doubt, social activities are also dominant, as moviegoers connect via chat, instant messaging, online forums, or social networks. Majority of the moviegoers have created their own social networking profile and half of them indicate they spend a lot of time socializing with friends over the internet. In particular, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’ have dominant position in online service...
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...[pic] |Course Design Guide College of Humanities SOC/105 Version 5 Introduction to Popular American Culture | |Copyright © 2011, 2010, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This is an introductory course on modern American culture. The course focuses on the interactions between social forces such as advertising, media, and lifestyle and cultural trends in modern American society. Students are asked to cast a critical eye on current trends and changes in our culture. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Course Materials Petracca, M., & Sorapure, M. (2007). Common culture: Reading and writing about American popular culture (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. All electronic materials are available on the student website. |Week One: Overview of Culture ...
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...positioning(itself(by(keeping(strong(bond!with!its!community.!!Its!community!consists!of! sponsors,! fans,! drivers! and! media.! ! The! community! interlinked! with! one! another:! NASCAR! and! its! fans,! sponsors! and! fans,! fans! and! drivers,! fans! with! one! another.! ! ! Below! details! its! branding! strategies.! 1)&CoCbranding&and&strategic&alliances!–!NASCAR’s!branding!success!lies!on!its!strong!relationship!of! its!coIbranding,!started!by!partnering!with!the!Big!Three!automakers!–!Ford,!General!Motors!(GM)! and!Chrysler!in!the!late!1950s.!!In!1971,!NASCAR!was!primarily!sponsored!by!R.J.!Reynolds!Tobacco! Company’s!Winston.!!Gradually,!a!wide!range!of!Fortune!500!companies!including!Sunoco,!CocaICola,! Allstate,! DuPont,! Gillette! and! UPS! became! its! sponsors.! ! Toyota! also! participated! in! sponsoring! NASCAR’s!three!series.!! 2)&Merchandized&and&licensed&products&offerings!–!The!wellIknown!and!recognized!brands!from!its! sponsors! enable! NASCAR! to! take! the! opportunity! to! offer! licensed! and! merchandise! products! like! watches,! clothes,! chairs,! tables,! grills,! hats,! clocks,! flags,! doormats,! blankets,! auto! accessories,! sunglasses! and! even! food! products.! ! These! product! offerings! build! strong! bond! between! sponsors! and!fans.! 3)& Emotional& bonding! –! NASCAR! connects! fans! by! creating! high! level! of! emotional! bonding! to! the! brand.! ! The! fans! connect! with! the! drivers! and! feel! the!...
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...show their sportsmanship when they are role models to people, especially children. Almost every child wants to become an athlete when they grow up, choices are basketball, football, baseball, etc. When begin in the public eye as one of the fastest and strongest athlete, encourage children to become better athletes. People expect athletes to be professionals throughout his or her career, but fail to realize that athletes are still humans. Mistakes have been made, just like the rest of society. Athletes are in public eyes at all times because of their career. It is best for athletes to show positive leadership for the upcoming generation. Some athlete’s society never hear negative news about, but there are many that is in public eye of social media. Randy Roberts wrote a book called “A Team for America, The Army-Navy Game That Rallied a Nation” (Roberts, 2012). In the book he discusses how a few good men from the Army-Navy stopped fighting during World War II in 1944 just to play a rivalry game of football. People from over the world tuned in as the Navy, ranked number two battled it out on the field against the Army for the number one spot. War was raging around the world in places like Africa, Europe, and the Pacific, people at home had just had Thanksgiving with no turkey, not to mention the lives lost just a day before because of the Great War raging around the world. For just a moment, everyone, everywhere could forget everything and was right with the world. In the eyes of children...
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...Athletes as Role Models Learning Team A SOC/105 August 26, 2013 Michelle Gardner Athletes as Role Models The effect of professional athletes has always played a big role in society. Talented, young, charming, women and men smashing world records on the field or court seem to be natural role models for our youth. These athletes and their behaviors and actions are so closely observed and mimicked by the youth it makes you ask the question should they really be considered role models? Athletes throughout history have always been considered role models for young children with a gift for sports. There have been many misdeeds that have occurred that makes us question whether athletes deserve to be considered role models. Conversely, athletes make good role models for several reasons such as promoting physical fitness, educational success, self-confidence, and a strong work ethic. The role of being an athlete is a good goal to reach in itself especially with the obesity epidemic that we are currently having in America. Athletes must have a strong work ethic and devote a large portion of their personal time to training in order to become a professional. Athletes also need to display a high degree of self confidence in order to be successful. With the exception of a very small few most athletes do go to college, and are expected to be successful, which promotes children to seek further education (Williams, 2011 ). A current...
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...Popular American Culture Popular American Culture Culture can be defined as set of traditions past on for generations. Popular culture can be defined anything items or forms of media influencing society in its entirety. American popular culture can influence other nation’s popular cultures in the same manner. These influences include public attitudes, perceptions, and preferences. For instance, the rest of the world recognizes the word “football” as what American’s call soccer. American football is the most popular sport in the United States and fans of football teams have his or her own cultures. Major trends in American culture I follow daily are social media, sports, and music. I am a Beachbody coach. I use social media to get my message of fitness out. I am on Facebook every day attempting to motivate my friends to get off their butts’ and prepare for their future health. Instagram, allows people to motivate me by liking or commenting my fitness pictures or videos. I am a huge sports fan. From the first time I watched an NFL game when I was 11 years old, I was addicted. I played football, basketball and ran track all through middle and high school. I listen to sports radio all day. Football is the one sport that I will ignore the world for. Music is a huge part of my life. While writing this paper, I am listening to Pandora. I have a mix of high culture with my Tchaikovsky and subculture/popular culture with my Dirtyphonic Dubstep channels. As a Beachbody coach,...
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...Constructing the Public Perception of Sports Mass media has become a dominant factor on sports culture in today’s society. “Mass media serve as a dominant hegemonic force in American culture, resulting in the construction and reinforcement of narratives, particularly in professional sports” (Berg & Harthcock). The media can be held responsible for creating the majority of the public’s perception of sports to this day. The heavy dosage of sports communication, in every aspect thinkable, has altered and constructed the influence of sports on millions of people. The sports communication field has become a vast entity and proved to be a profitable market. However, the communicative process regarding sports information has lately cannibalized the true essentials of sports coverage. Sports in general have grown dramatically along with the growth of media. Growth is normally good, but the growth of sports communication in general is so massive that it has become over saturated with inadequate information. The focus of what the media communicates with audiences today is hardly ever statistical information like how many runs Kansas City pitcher, Yordano Ventura, allowed but more on his instigating attitude and why he throws 100mph fuzz balls at guys’ heads so often. After all, Major League Baseball is known as “the show” for a reason. It is easier for the media to narrate exaggerated, unexpected events. These narrations often exclude the true sports coverage essentials. However, they...
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...the premier sports athletes like LeBron James, Aaron Rodgers, Andy Roddick, Michael Phelps to all of the big-time sports anchors and newscasts like Chris Berman or Dick Vitale. Social Media has changed the dynamics of how people watch and follow sports on a daily basis. Social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook are two big networks that allow people to stay up to date with their favorite team and/or athlete. Social networking began to boom around seven or eight years ago and is continuing to grow rapidly all around the world. I use both Twitter and Facebook on a day-to-day basis. I am checking on the news in the sports world by “following” my favorite athletes via Twitter and I check my favorite teams fan page on Facebook. Twitter is used more by the athletes and sports anchors due to its constant status updates (tweets) and ability to follow only a certain number of people of whom they choose. I entered in the “Twitter world” in 2011 and began to see how it was growing into the phenomenon it is today. It seems like in 2011 that every league, team, player, and even commissioners have their own Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. The real concerning point is the fact that college and pro sports players have been on twitter and have been known to let their emotions take control of their better judgment. A question I bring to your attention is how social networking has affected the sports industry? This is a question that matters because people who watch sports can see what...
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...contemplating which of the two players is better to draft for his fantasy baseball team. If you have ever fanaticized about what it would be like to manage your own team of professional players and compete with your peers, fantasy sports is the hobby for you. Fantasy sports is a social epidemic that has been on the rise for many years and will continue to inflate for a long period of time. According to encyclopedian.com, a fantasy sport “is a game where fantasy owners build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by individual players or teams of a professional sport” (Truesdale). There is also the ability to trade, cut, and sign players, just like a real sports team owner. Some players who are very knowledgeable of the sport play for money, whereas some players like me play for fun on websites that host the game for free. Being part of the fantasy sports league motivated me to closely follow and watch how my drafted players perform. My knowledge of sports now is far greater than when I didn’t participate in fantasy sports. Watching sports news channels and discussing the latest updates with my brothers helped me to be able to manage my fantasy team well. During my free time, I would search for latest gossip on sports on a website called RealGM.com. It told me all the players who were performing well and those who were not. This exciting experience would not have happened if it weren’t for a man named Daniel Okrent...
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...* DAY1 * What is Sports Marketing? It depends! (IV League Schools say!) * We need to influence and Persuade! * Sponsorship “getting the bat in the hands of the right player” * IMGbiggest sports marketing agency in the world, Mark McCormick, said “it is putting a celebrity/athlete with a product/company”….and that is it. * Louis Shefield* wanted NBA basketball team in Miami (Miami Heat). He said “its easy to fill a stadium once, but each time its hard”. He saw that basketball would get bigger than it was and it needed to go to Miami. He said sports marketing is just about “Sagacity.” * Sagacity A vision for the future. Example by Louis, Nike taking swoosh off bottom of shirt and putting it on the chest. And, the only reason we know about Ted Turner is because of exposure. Active and innovate an idea. Dictionary Definition: foresight, discernment, or keen perception; ability to make good judgments. Seeing a trend and executing it! Execute your idea and fulfill what you start! * Tommy Karam Wanted to turn LSU scoreboard into a marketing opportunity by putting ads on it using triplicates (3 rotations: purple, purple and tiger stadium, then purple, tiger stadium and a company’s name). He thought this would be sagacity! He spoke with a man at Exxon and he liked Karam’s idea and Karam sold the sponsorship to Exxon for $250,000 per scoreboard (when they were going for around $300,000). Karam later found out that corporate signage is against University procedures...
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