Thursday, October 4, 2012

Advertising in Sport Marketing


          My dream job would be to work in sports marketing for a team in the Bay Area.  With the limited amount of positions available in a certain area, I should keep my options open.  Similar to Mark Burns, a marketing blogger, when I think about sports business professionals, not an athlete, the thought of becoming the General Manager of my favorite franchise comes to mind.  The world of sports goes much deeper than the teams’ front office personnel or top-tier sports agency firm. Burns listed some potential jobs as a sports marketer; vice president for marketing, director of marketing, director of special events and promotions, director of new business development, and tournament operations manager.  Not to mention all the other positions not in the marketing field.  For example the administration, media, facilities and events, finance, public relations, and travel are all aspects necessary to a franchise.  So there are more opportunities to get involved with sports than I previously imagined. 
            If I were to ever get a job with a sports franchise, I would treat that team like I would a brand.  A brand has an influence over its loyal customers.  In my own experience, when I see 49er logo on a can of Bud Light, I think of going to a football game and getting drunk.  The marketers find out how and why people are attached to the sport and exploit it for profit, I don’t view that as a bad thing in this case.  According to the Matthew Buchanan, this is winning customers through sponsorships to achieve short term, or even long term relationships.  A brand should be able to create layers of communication that trigger al the senses of the consumer.  I want to make people remember, and really want the product I sell.  Through ways such as sponsorships, franchises can appeal more directly to a target market.  This is similar to something I would like to do.  Come up with clever, funny ways to appeal to fans, and gain new fans, through advertising. 
            Another example of this advertising through sponsorships is the Chicago Fire, a soccer team, teaming up with Quaker Oats.  They put the best player on the box of cereal along with his stats and then put it in stores expecting sales to rise.  This also gives the team more publicity.  Also with the partnership between the Fire and Quaker Oats, now they both have an obligation to each other to maintain in good graces with the public.  If Quaker Oats gets bad publicity, then the Fire could get some of that backlash.  So there are some risks to undertaking sponsorships. 
            After writing this post, I came to a closer realization of what I want to be as marketer.  I want to be involved in the advertising department of a sports franchise.  Whether that is actually doing the think tank and focus groups work, or just crunching stats to get the best market research.  Advertising is the genre of marketing where I would like to take my career.

Links:

http://www.sportsnetworker.com/                



3 comments:

  1. I learned something new today (about the sports marketing). It sounds it requires a lot of strategies to do a good marketing campaign. Good luck to your career.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My friend just recently brought a Giant hat when he went to watch the giant game. Is it related to your field? I took marketing last semester, but it was too broad. From your reading, I know little more about marketing, but I still not deeply understand it. However, it is great if you love it. Keep it up! You will accomplish that in near future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you give everyone a good understanding of what it takes to be a sports marketer. Also, I thought you were very relatable throughout your blog, I especially liked, "when I see 49er logo on a can of Bud Light, I think of going to a football game and getting drunk." HAHA. I didn't see any quotes in there and I was wondering if you quoted the other blogs or not. I would just remind you to use quotes if you did!

    ReplyDelete