Sports ProductSports Product

HSS 3000/5263

Sport Marketing

Brian Turner

What is the sport product?

• “… a good, a service, or any combination of the two that is designed to provide benefits to a sports spectator, participant, or sponsor”

What is the sport product?

• Goods

• Services

What is the sport product?

• Tangibility

• Standardization/consistency

• Perishability

• Separability

Branding

• “…name, design, symbol, or any combination that a sports organization uses to help differentiate its products from the competition”

Branding

• Brand names– Element of the brand that can be vocalized– Guidelines

• Positive, distinctive, generate positive feelings and associations, be easy to remember, and easy to pronounce

• Translatable to a dynamite attitude-oriented logo

• Imply the benefits the sports product delivers

• Consistent with the image of the rest of the product lines, organization, and/or city

• Legally and ethically permissible

Branding

• Brand mark or logo

Branding Process

• Brand awareness

• Brand image

• Brand equity

Branding Process

• Brand Loyalty

What is a licensed product?

• “… not manufactured by leagues, teams, or schools, but rather by independent companies under an agreement with a sport entity.”

• Licensing– “…a contractual method of developing and

exploiting intellectual property by transferring the rights of use to third parties without transfer of ownership.”

What is a licensed product?

• Trademark– “… any word, name, symbol, or device or

combination thereof adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others.”

What is a licensed product?

• Trademark infringement– “… the reproduction, counterfeiting, copying,

or imitation in commerce of a registered mark.” – Bars companies that do not pay for the right to

use these trademarks from manufacturing products bearing those marks.

What makes licensing work?

• Intangibility of sport

• Support/involvement with a team

• Brand awareness

What makes licensing work?

• Licensee advantages– Positive association with the sports entity

– Greater levels of brand awareness

– Save time/money in building brand equity

– Receive initial distribution with retailers

– Expanded and improved shelf space

– May be able to charge higher prices

• Licensee disadvantages– Athlete, league, or sport may fall into disfavor

– Success depends on success of team

– Styles change quickly

What makes licensing work?

• Licensor advantages– Expansion into new markets– Generate awareness of the sports entity– Increase its brand equity– Very little risk

• Licensee disadvantages– May lose some control over the elements of the

marketing mix

How does licensing work?

• Licensees pay an initial, one-time licensing fee

• They take on production issues and assume risk by manufacturing product

• They then pay a royalty for the use of specific trademarks on specific products

Licensed-Product Revenues

Retail Sales of Licensed

Sport Products in the US

• 1990 -

• 1995 -

• 1996 -

Approach of ProfessionalSport Leagues

• NFL

• MLB

• NHL

• NBA

Collegiate Licensing

• Up to the 1970s, manufacturers did not pay royalties

• Significant revenues began in the late 1980s

Quality

• Service quality– SERQUAL– TEAMQUAL

Quality

• Product quality– Performance– Features– Reliability– Conformance– Durability– Serviceability– Aesthetics– Perceived quality

New Sports Products

• New products from organizational perspective– New to the world– New product category entries– Product line extensions– Product improvements– Repositionings

New Sports Products

• New products from the consumer’s perspective– Discontinuous innovations– Dynamically continuous innovations– Continuous innovations

New Product Development

• Idea generation

• Idea screening

• Analysis of the concept or potential

• Development

• Test marketing

• Commercialization

New Product Success Factors

• Product considerations– Trialability– Observability– Perceived complexity– Relative advantage– Compatibility

New Product Success Factors

• Other marketing mix considerations– Pricing– Promotion– Distribution

• Marketing environment considerations– Competition– Consumer tastes– Demographics

Product Life Cycles

• Introduction

• Growth

• Maturity

• Decline

Product Life Cycles

• Fad

• Classic

• Seasonal