SPORTS SPONSORSHIP IN SPORTS MARKETING: CASES FROM GLOBAL BRANDS

Abstract

Marketing through sports flourished in the 1990s and continues to represent a key strategic domain for marketers today. From hosting a special event during the Super Bowl to officially sponsoring an Olymic team to underwriting a local tenis tournament, sports marketing has grown over in the past ten years to a crowded, billion-dollar global industry (DeVous, 1994). Sports marketing is the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products and to the marketing of non-sports products through association with sport (Shank, 2005:3). Sport marketing is a subdivision of marketing which focuses both on the promotion of sports events and teams as well as the promotion of other products and services through sporting events and sports teams. It is a service in which the element promoted can be a physical product or a brand name. The goal is to provide the client with strategies to promote the sport or to promote something other than sport through sports. Sport marketing is also designed to meet the needs and wants of the consumer through exchange processes (Lovelock, et all, 2004).