Sports Marketing – The Sport Journal

Branding in women’s sports: A literature review

Authors: Isabell Mills

Corresponding Author:
Isabell Mills, PhD
1400 E Hanna Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46227
millsi@uindy.edu
219-805-3791

Isabell Mills is an assistant professor of sport management
at the University of Indianapolis. Her research areas are sport and fitness
branding.

Branding in women’s sports: A literature review

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the gaps in the branding literature as it pertains to women’s sports. The review included 11 articles from sport management and business journals, investigating personal branding, team branding, and media coverage. Additionally, the review explored the practical implications as well as avenues of future research (i.e., conceptual model).

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U.S. Sports Academy2020-06-02T12:04:47-05:00November 22nd, 2019|General, Sports Marketing, Women and Sports|Comments Off

The Migration of Business Strategies from the Hospitality Industry to Athletics Marketing

Authors: Mark Mitchell, Nicholas Clark, and Taylor Damonte

Corresponding Author:
Mark Mitchell, DBA
Professor of Marketing
Associate Dean, Wall College of Business
NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR)
Coastal Carolina University
P. O. Box 261954
Conway, SC 29528
mmitchel@coastal.edu
(843) 349-2392

Mark Mitchell, DBA is Professor of Marketing at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

Nicholas Clark is a Master’s Student in Sport Administration at Georgia State University. He is currently a member of the NCAA Division I Council. Nicholas is a former student-athlete at Coastal Carolina University.

Taylor Damonte, PhD is Professor of Hospitality & Resort Tourism Management at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

The Migration of Business Strategies from the Hospitality Industry to Athletics Marketing

ABSTRACT
Many strategies of the hospitality industry, including dynamic pricing, customer relationship management programs, and others have been successfully adopted by athletics marketers. The purpose of this manuscript is to examine a variety of practices in the hospitality industry that have been successfully adopted by athletics marketers. There are four broad categories that provide practices most fruitful for adoption: (1) Fan Experience; (2) Ticketing; (3) In-Stadium Food and Beverage; and (4) Tailgating. In some cases, a small number of teams (and venues) have implemented such practices. In others, these practices are intuitively a good strategic fit but no organization has been identified as yet to implement the strategy. This presentation may prompt other organizations to consider such practices for implementation. (more…)

U.S. Sports Academy2018-11-21T10:43:58-06:00December 20th, 2018|Research, Sports Management, Sports Marketing|Comments Off

Service Quality Perceptions’ Impact on Membership Renewal of Junior Executive Golf Memberships

Authors: Dr. Lorenda Prier

Corresponding Author:
Dr. Lorenda Prier
Consultant/Researcher, Prier Consulting
Online Sports Management Instructor, State University of New York at Canton
459 Juno Dunes Way
Juno Beach, FL 33408
Prierl@canton.edu

Dr. Lorenda Prier is a research consultant with sport industry, academic, and small business experience. Dr. Prier has conducted comprehensive research on age based marketing incentives and on the junior executive golf member segment.

Co-Author: Dr. Fred J. Cromartie

Fred J. Cromartie, Ed. D.
Director of Doctoral Studies
United States Sports Academy
One Academy Drive
Daphne, AL 36527
cromarti@ussa.edu

Dr. Fred J. Cromartie, is the Director of Doctoral Studies at the United States Sports Academy.

Co-Author: Dr. Stephen L. Butler

Stephen L. Butler, Ed. D.
Dean of Academic Affairs
United States Sports Academy
One Academy Drive
Daphne, AL 36527
sbutler@ussa.edu

Dr. Stephen L. Butler, is the Dean of Academic Affairs at the United States Sports Academy.

Service Quality Perceptions’ Impact on Membership Renewal of Junior Executive Golf Memberships

ABSTRACT
This research addresses age based price incentives in private golf courses in South Florida. These membership options are often termed junior executive memberships and provide initiation and annual membership dues discounting for members under a set age, often 45. The evaluation is a comparison of family and nonfamily subgroups within junior executive membership categories. Due to the newness of this marketing strategy, insight into member perceptions is desired for retention efforts.
A survey instrument developed by Prier (2016) was distributed to 25 golf courses with age based price incentives in the South Florida region. The components relating to service quality and behavior intentions are addressed in this research. The service quality components of the survey instrument were selected from the SERVQUAL scale for measuring customer perceptions of service quality (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988).

Survey respondents provided expectation levels and club evaluation levels on a 5 point Likert scale and a resultant gap was also utilized in analysis. Family respondents, those indicating a membership size of three or more, had higher expectations of service quality, lower club evaluations of service quality, and thus higher negative service quality gaps than nonfamily respondents (membership size of one or two).

Additionally, family respondents had a significantly lower proportion of likeliness to continue membership to the next membership tier, willingness to recommend, and intention to renew next year. The combination of more negative service quality evaluation and less favorable renewal intentions by family memberships provides an alert that managerial efforts to alleviate these perceptions is necessary. The significant differences between family and nonfamily membership perceptions supports the need for recognition of subgroups within the junior executive membership category. Service quality enhancement, specifically in employee behavior, provides an actionable strategy to enhance junior executive membership renewal.

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U.S. Sports Academy2017-03-15T09:44:29-05:00April 4th, 2017|Sports Marketing|Comments Off

Differences in Official Athletic Website Coverage and Social Media use Between Men’s and Women’s Basketball Teams

Authors: Steve Shih-Chia Chen, Terran Duncan, Eric Street*, and Brooklyn Hesterberg

*Corresponding Author:
Eric Street, MS
1048 Lemon Rue Way
Lexington, KY 40515
esflair@hotmail.com
859-797-1479

Steve Chen, D.S.M., is an associate professor at the Department of Management and Marketing in Morehead State University, Morehead, KY. He received his doctorate in Sport Management from United States Sports Academy in Daphne, AL. He currently serves as the chief editor of the KAHPERD (Kentucky Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance) Journal. (s.chen@moreheadstate.edu)

Terran Duncan, M.A., is an assistant coach of Lindsey Wilson College’s Women’s Basketball. She received her Master’s degree in Sport Management from Morehead State University, KY. (duncant@lindsey.edu)

Brooklyn Hesterberg is an undergraduate Sport Management student of Morehead State University. She is an assistant softball coach at Rowan County High School, KY. (blhesterberg@moreheadstate.edu)

Eric Street, M.S. is a doctorate student at the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, AL. He received a BA and MS in Sports Management from the University of Kentucky. He currently works as Director of Fitness and Training for LA Fitness in Lexington, KY. (esflair@hotmail.com)

ABSTRACT
Since the implementation of Title IX, there have been significant gains in the area of equity between men’s and women’s sports. Instituted in 1972, Title IX has leveled the playing field by offering the same amount of opportunity for women as men. Deficient media coverage in female sports is a less examined and recognized issue among various types of Title IX violations in collegiate sports. The study examined if there was equal coverage between men’s and women’s basketball programs on the athletic department’s webpages and social media websites. The collected data included traffics for the athletic website, Facebook, and Twitter pages of Southeastern Conference institutions. The findings indicated that there was slightly more men’s coverage than women’s (53% vs 47%). Among those 14 schools, eight schools had more content coverage for their men’s team. Only six women’s programs received more official website coverage than their male counterparts. The exact tendency also occurred regarding the number of total Twitter posts. The analysis of Facebook posts displayed an unexpected result, as 13 schools had more posts related to women’s teams than men’s teams. The results tended to support the vital promotional role that social media may play to increase the awareness and popularity of women’s sports. In general, the schools’ official website still maintained an accepted coverage proportion toward both genders without heavily gravitated toward men’s teams. Practical implications are addressed for better utilizing social media to promote women’s sports and maintain gender equity in media coverage.

Keywords: Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Title IX

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U.S. Sports Academy2016-07-08T11:00:33-05:00July 22nd, 2016|Commentary, Sports Marketing|Comments Off

The Multi-Sport Sampling Plan: A Price Bundling Option for Collegiate Athletics

Authors: Mark Mitchell*(1) and Dennis Rauch (2)

(1) Mark Mitchell (DBA, Mississippi State) is Professor of Marketing and Chair of the Department of Marketing and Hospitality at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

(2) Dennis Rauch (PhD, University of Iowa) is Professor of Marketing at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC.

*Corresponding Author:
Mark Mitchell, DBA
Chair, Dept. of Marketing and Hospitality
Professor of Marketing
NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR)
Coastal Carolina University
P. O. Box 261954
Conway, SC 29528
mmitchel@coastal.edu
(843) 349-2392

ABSTRACT
This manuscript examines the potential for a Multi-Sport Sampling Plan as a price bundling strategy for collegiate athletics. Here, fans would receive entry to one game per sport to be used at their discretion. Such a sampling plan could increase current revenue and fan attendance while concurrently developing future ticket sales opportunities to these new fans based on their positive game day experience. This manuscript examines: (1) current price bundling strategies in the hospitality industry applied to athletics; (2) local market conditions that could aid in the successful development of a Multi-Sport Sampling Plan, and (3) implementation issues for athletic ticketing professionals.

KEYWORDS: ticket mini plans, athletic ticketing, price bundling (more…)