An Analysis of Impact of Sports Marketing on Buying Decisions of Management

Students of Pune.
By
Asst.Prof. Amey Joshi,
MITCOE’s CMSR,Pune.
(email id:amey.joshi@mitcoe.edu.in)

A. Abstract: processes. [1] These strategies follow the traditional

There is much prestige already in Indian culture, and
these days the rising popularity of the sports culture is
adding to the prestige of India. The most popular sport
in India is cricket. With the success of cricket and other
sports not only in India, but also the surrounding
countries there has been an up rise of different sports
marketing firms. Sports marketing refers to the
marketing of sports products or the marketing of non-
sport products through associations with sports. Many
companies use sports marketing to attach certain
attributes -- like success, performance, passion -- with
their brands. The researcher desires to present an
analytical study of impact of Sport Marketing on
buying decisions of Management Students of Pune.
This analysis will provide useful information to
Companies using Sports Marketing tool, create
awareness amongst researchers, faculties, students.
This paper will attract focus of all towards this
tremendous marketing tool called “Sports Marketing”
B. Key words
Sports Marketing,Non-Sport Products,Sports
marketing firms
C. Introduction:
1, Concept of Sports Marketing:
Sports marketing refers to the marketing of sports
products or the marketing of non-sport products
through associations with sports. Many companies use
sports marketing to attach certain attributes -- like
success, performance, passion -- with their brands.
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
four "P"'s of general marketing Product, Price,
Promotion and Place, another four "P"’s are added to
sport marketing, relating to the fact sports are
considered to be a service. The additional 4 P’s are:
Planning, Packaging, Positioning and Perception. The
addition of the four extra elements is called the "sport
marketing mix."[2]
One element that sport marketing takes advantage of is
that athletes tend to be brand loyal and fans tend to be
loyal to their favorite athletes and teams. This can be
recognized through the contracts players and athletes
sign with sports companies in which they get paid to
wear or use their products in each game or sporting
event. By doing so, the players and athletes and also
their fans develop a loyalty to the products for a longer
time
Benefits of Sports Marketing:
Sport marketing impulses memberships, sales, and
recognition. These factors represent the biggest
benefits for the companies, the athletes, the
associations, the leagues, and sport event managers.
Well planned, effective marketing helps to understand
the customer and the marketplace. Also, informed
marketing decisions help increase the company's,
club's, or association's performance. Due to the status
and importance in people's lives, sport is considered a
profitable and sustainable marketing source
The Marketing of Sports teams & events:
According to different authors and organizations the
marketing of sports events and teams is defined as
“Designing or developing a 'live' themed activity,
occasion, display, or exhibit a sporting event to
promote a product, a team, cause, or organization.
Which in other words it can be defined as follows: The
marketing of sports events and teams is the marketing
strategy which is designed or developed a “live”
activity, which has a specific theme. Mostly this kind
of strategy is used as a way to promote, display or
exhibit different things, such as a sports team, a sport
association among others. There are different events
that can clearly exemplify this concept, such as
the Super Bowl, the Olympic Games, theUEFA
Champions League and the FIFA World Cup.[4]
The Marketing of products through sports:
'Marketing through sport' is a concept that that has
been used since the 1980s but that also has increased
in importance in the last two decades due to the
growth and expansion that the different types of
sports have enjoyed since then. “Marketing through
sports” it is a marketing strategy that can be used in
sports in two different ways. In first order, the use of
marketing and promotion can be carried out through
the sport or through the sports club. In the first case,
the use of marketing is under responsibility of the
different sporting associations, while in the second
case, the responsibility falls on the different sports
clubs. In this manner, marketing and promotion
through the sport and through the club involve
sponsorship, corporate events and boxes, licensed
merchandise, names and images also known as
“endorsement”, advertising through broadcaster,
advertising such as advertising as ground
signage/clothing/equipment advertising, promoting
games, promoting using players/club/league or
developing ‘business opportunities’. The peculiarity
of sports is the issue that “sport is the only
entertainment where, no matter how many times you
go back, you never know the ending.”This singular
fact is used by marketing companies as an advantage
because in this way every time the audience attempts
to an event several times it will perceived the
advertisements again and again, therefore the
marketing of sports reflects different than in other
usual areas or common industries, a wide field of
opportunities and diversities for the different
companies which operate on this field.[2]
Another example of sports marketing through
sponsorships, is the renovation of the contract
between Adidas and the Mexican Football Federation
(FMF). In August of this year the CEO of Adidas
Herbert Hainer in companion of the president of the
FMF, Justino Compeán announced the renewal of the
contract in order to permit Adidas to continue
producing and designing the uniform of the Mexican
teams until 2018. In this case Adidas, which is
completely related to sports, is the company that is
using sports marketing as a strategy, by designing the
uniforms of the football team and as a consequence
its trademark is being promoted every time there is a
game.
TV advertising during broadcast sports events
Finally another example of marketing through sports
is the strategy used by Gillette Match to promote its
personal hygiene products through representative
figures of each sport on television during broadcast
sports events. Gillette uses for this issue characters
from football soccer such as Thierry Henry, from
tennis Roger Federer and from golf Tiger Woods. In
the commercial these celebrities appear using the
products of the company showing the results in order
to demonstrate that if successful people use the
products you should use them to.
Grassroots sport marketing is part of the field of
marketing known as social marketing. This refers to
marketing something that is of benefit to the public,
and is normally done by government or charities
rather than private sector organisations. It is normally
done with a much smaller budget than marketing of
sports teams and event or marketing of products
through sports as it does not bring any direct
financial benefit.
Sport marketing is divided into three sectors. The first
is the advertising of sport and sports associations such
as the Olympics, Spanish Football league and the NFL.
The second concerns the use of sporting events,
sporting teams and individual athletes to promote
various products. The third is the promotion of sport to
the public in order to increase participation.
In the first case, the promotion is directly related to
sports. In the second case, the products can but do not
have to be directly related to sports. When the
promotion is about sports in general, the use of this
kind of strategy is called “Marketing of Sports”. When
the promotion is not about the sports but sports events,
athletes, teams or leagues are used to promote different
products, the marketing strategy is denominated
“Marketing through sports”. When the promotion is
about increasing participation amongst the public it is
called "Grassroots Sports Marketing”
Sports marketing agencies are specialty firms that
service the promotional and sponsorship needs of
sporting events, teams, and individual athletes. An
agent at this type of firm usually acts as a liaison
between his client and potential sponsors. He may
secure a valuable footwear endorsement for a
basketball player, for instance, or he may arrange for a
candy company to sponsor a sporting venue’s halftime
show.
2. History of sports Marketing:
Sports marketing is a relatively new field and
dimension within the broad concept of marketing. It is
constantly evolving and changing today as society
battles the free market to decide the legal & ethical
boundaries of business today.
As early as 1870’s , tobacco companies made cards of
baseball players and inserted them with packs of
cigarettes in order to try and boost sales or develop
brand loyalties. These cards were probably the first
promotion of sport for another industry’s benefit.
Jesse Owens received free shoes in the 1936 Berlin
Olympics from Adidas, which was one of the first
known examples of an amateur athlete used for a
public relations or advertising means. His four gold
medals won in Nazi Germany were important social i
ncidents.
In 1957 when Jackie Robinson first integrated baseball,
sports became a symbol of changing social times in the
United States. By including blacks in sports the market
for sports in general grew. Culture started to become
less segregated, and a sports marketer could reach both
blacks and whites by sponsoring or advertising in i
ntegrated sporting events.
About the same time, television became the means by
which sports personalities evolved. People could see
their sports hero’s and soon would want to emulate not
only their great athletic feats, but their styles of
clothing and equipment as well. When Muhammad Ali
fought, people recogn ized he wore Adidas shoes, and
the Everlast or Champion Belt boxers worn were
prominent then. The Converse Chuck Taylor and
Adidas gazelle shoes were noticed as well. In the
decade for Birkenstocks, these shoes with laces became
important sporting items the consumer had to have.
The 1970s included several important evolutionary
events in sports marketing. Sponsorships of products
by athletes emerged as a trend. By the end of the
decade the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle "Mean"
Joe Green starred in one of the most acclaimed
advertisements ever for Coke.
The shoe wars began as Adidas, Puma, Nike, and
others fought to snatch up athletes for endorsements
(Strasser & Becklund). Players began to market
themselves and used their personality as well as
performances to land more money through sponsorship
deals.
India’s first brush with sports marketing was perhaps
when Mark Mascarenhas and WorldTel signed Sachin
Tendulkar for a whooping $1 billion in 1996. First time
India experienced sports marketing of this magnitude.
The sports marketing activities were restricted to
organizing events, selling sponsorship and ads. IPL
(Indian Premier League) was perhaps the first of its
kind to provide a proper platform to market sports.
Suddenly, India finds itself with a wide horizon
opening up for sports marketing.Sports marketing has
seeped into activities other than ads or events.
Sports marketing is building a highly identified,
passionate fan base such that fans, sponsors, media
and government pay to promote and support the
organization for the benefits of social exchange and
personal, group and community identity within a
cooperative competitive environment. Effective
sports marketing is primarily premised upon building
fan identification.
Customers can identify with a branded good or
service, as when customers wear a particular clothing
brand prominently displayed on their clothing. As
such, it can be argued that identification is merely a
deeper level of loyalty. However, the best examples
of fanatical followings are within the realm of sports
marketing.
3. Some views on Sports Marketing:
 If the product is being communicated by any
celebrity some kind related to that product line than it
increase the faith and loyalty of consumer for that
product.
 If we look in today's era the people still gets
attracted towards all those promotions and advertises
that is supported by our popularised and well known
celebrities.
 The world has now changed we are living in
the modern era where people do not uses or
purchases the product only because it is endorsed by
the celebrities. People now looks for the quality,
design and worthwhile etc of the product and not its
brand ambassador.
 celebrity brand endorsement should be
avoided. This shows the lack of confidence of the
company towards their product. The quality of the
product must make the people to buy the product not
the celebrity.
 Apart from television stars, sportspersons are
also among the brand ambassadors for various
commercial products. This deviates them from their
careers sometimes leads to poor performance in their
respective sports and also causes a sense of hatred
among the sport lovers.
 most of these celebrities do not have any
idea of how much impact they can stress upon their
fans by simply endorsing any particular brand or
item.
 Celebrity has the duty to endorse the product
but ultimately it is upto the people to accept it. If the
product is not good then no one can spend the money
into the product.
4. Some Sports Marketing Agencies:
I. Professional Management Group
(PMG) is India’s first sports marketing agency.
Realizing the growing popularity of cricket and other
sports in the country and understanding the potential
for brands in it, PMG came into inception in
1985.Started by the legendary cricketer Sunil
Gavaskar and advertising professional Sumedh Shah,
PMG has over the years developed and innovated in
diverse field in the industry successfully using the
world of sports to promote corporate and marketing
objectives.
II. Percept Sport: Percept Sport, the Strategic
Business Unit of Percept Sports & Entertainment, is
India’s primary Sports Marketing and Management
agency. Founded in 1995, Percept Sport has managed
a wide array of sports events & properties across the
globe including Cricket, Football, Soccer, Tennis,
Boxing, Wrestling, Baseball, Cycling and Golf to
emerge as India’s leading Sports Marketing &
Management agency.
Key services offered by Percept Sport encompass
sponsorship management, athlete management,
licensing & merchandising, sports consultancy, and
the management & execution of sports based events.
Over the past 16 years Percept Sport has created and
marketed a multitude of innovative 360-degree
sporting events and experiences to brands and
consumers alike.
Some of the successful and momentous sports
concepts, events and properties conceptualized and
executed by Percept Sport include:
 Sahara sponsorship of the Indian Cricket
Team
 ‘Good Luck India’ Cricket match – ’83
World Cup winning team led by Kapil Dev v/s ‘99
World Cup team led by Mohammad Azharuddin
 ‘Kargil Benefit Soccer Match’ – Aamir
Khan’s team v/s Sachin Tendulkar’s team
 ‘Toronto Sahara Cup Cricket Tournament’ –
held between India and Pakistan in Canada
III. Tiger Sports Marketing – A One-Stop Solution
Company
Tiger Sports Marketing came
into existence in 1997 and we quickly established
ourselves as the pioneers of professional
management of golf in India.One of the early
successes of TSM was our winning bid of the
commercial rights to the Indian professional golf
tour. We managed the PGAI Tour from 1999-2006
during which the game saw manifold increase in the
quality and quantity.
Services Offered by TSM
Pre-event:Conceptualizing,Budget
Assistance,Club/Venue Liaison
Collaterals:Creating & Designing,Printing and
production
All venue décor requirements:Coordination of
design and production of all material Inspections
Media Management:TSM has over the years built
up a very harmonious and effective relationship with
the sports media within the country. This ensures that
all important golf events receive good coverage
throughout the country.
5. Sports Marketing News:
 MS Dhoni, the India captain, has proved to
be just as successful off the field as he has been on
the field. Forbes magazine has ranked him as the
highest-paid cricketer, as well as the highest-paid
athlete in India for the period from June 2011 to June
2012.
According to the magazine, Dhoni made a total of
US$ 26.5 million, of which $23 million was earned
from endorsements and $3.5 million from salary and
prize money. That puts him 31st on the list while
Tendulkar was 78th, with total earnings of $18.6
million, of which $16.5 were from endorsements.
 Adidas signs Suresh Raina as brand
ambassador
German sportswear giant Adidas has roped in Indian
cricketer Suresh Raina as its brand ambassador and
the player will be sporting the company's cricket gear
in the forthcoming T20 World Cup.
 Mahesh Bhupathi named brand ambassador
of Candor International School
Ace Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi has been
appointed as the brand ambassador of Can-dor
International School, projected to be the coun-try's
first Green School.
tification, the school's ar-chitect said. The school has
rain harvesting facili-ties and has been de-signed in a
way where there would be hardly any need for
switching on lights or fans. Solar power has been
utilized for any light-ing needs. The building
materials were those that were environmentally
friendly. The swimming pool would be clean using
modern technology, sans
 Yuvraj Singh’s comeback becomes
marketing gimmick
Indian star cricketer Yuvraj Singh is set to make a
comeback to international cricket after winning battle
with cancer.Many news channels are abuzz with
Yuvraj’s comeback story with some of them running
special features on it.
D.Research Objective:
Many companies are spending huge amounts on sports
celebrities to promote their brands.From the history of
sports marketing as well as from whatever is
happening around us regarding sports marketing, it is
evident that sports personalities are earning heavy
amounts through endorsements.
These facts interested the researcher to find out
whether companies, through spending so heavily on
promotion through sports personalities are actually
able to impact the buying behavior of the target
customers.
Thus the objective of this research is to “Analyse the
impact of Sports Marketing on buying decisions of
Management Students of Pune”.
E.Hypothesis:
Null Hypothesis: Sports Marketing impacts the buying
behavior of customers.
F. Scope of the study:The study is restricted to
management students in Pune.The scope of the study
is restricted to find out impact of sports marketing on
management students as a general group.It will not
consider their gender , economic condition,social
status etc.
G.Research Methodology:
The type of research: Causal Research.
Population:Population for the research includes
anybody in India having basic buying capacity.
Sample:The sample decided for this research is
“management students in Pune.”
Sample Size: The sample size for this research is 500.
Data Collection:Sources of Data :
Primary Data:Primary data is collected through
questionnaire.(Questionnaire presented in Annexture)
Secondary Data: Secondary data is collected through
websites.
Tools used for Data analysis: Bar Charts , precetages.
H.Data Analysis & Interpretation : The data shows that 87% of sample buy a sports
shoes brand based on quality.
Q1.Which brand of Sports shoes do you Only 6% buy the brand because of sports
wear? personality endorsing the brand.

Q2.Do you know which famous sports Q4.Which brand of soft drink do you
personality endorses this brand? prefer?
Yes/No ____________ If Yes, name of Q5.Do you know which famous sports
personality ________________ personality advertises this brand?

Yes/No ____________ If Yes, name of

personality ________________
70 62.89
60
50
37.11
Awarene 40 70 61.86
ss 30 60
20 50
10 38.14
40
0 %Awaren
30
Know Don't know ess
20
Sports Presonality - Sports Shoes
10
0
This shows that 37% of the sample know Know Don't know
about the sports celebrity endorsing the sports Sports Celebrity - Soft Drink
shoes brand.

Q.No.3. Why do you prefer this brand of The data shows that 62% of the sample does
sports shoes ? not know about the sports personality endorsing
the soft drink brand.
a.Price b. Product Quality c. Brand
Name d. The celebrity endorsing the Q6.Why do you prefer this soft drink brand?
brand
a.Taste b. Price c. Brand Name d.The
100 celebrity endorsing the brand
86.60
90
80 100 90.72
70
% 60 80
Respond 50 % 60
36.08
ents 40 Respond
30 ents 40
18.56 18.56
20 20 13.40
6.19 5.15
10
0 0

Criteria for selecting product Selection Criterion

The Data shows that 91% of sample select a 80
soft drink brand based on taste. 68.04
Mere 5% select it based on celebrity endorsing 60
the brand. %
Responde 40 31.96
nts
Q7.What do you do when an advertise is 20
being played on TV in between the
overs/between the innings in a Cricket 0
Match? Correct Wrong
Correctness of Answers
a.Watch the advertise b.Mute the advertise
c.Switch the channel
The graph shows that 68% of sample do not
know the water purifier brand endorsed by
60 Sachin Tendulkar
49.48
50 Q.No.9 Match the Sports personality with
42.27 the Brand(s)endorsed by him/her
40
%
Respond 30
ents 20 19 19
20 15
8.25 15 13
10 11
% 10
0 Respond 10
7
Watch Mute Switch ents
Response to Advertise between cricket 5 3
match 1 1
0 0
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
The data shows that 49% of sample watch the No. of correct matches
advertises shown in between a cricket.

Almost equal percentage of sample (51.52 %)
either switch the channel or mute the
advertisement.
Q8.Which brand is being endorsed by
Sachin Tendulkar recently?
The data shows that 88% of the sample could
correctly match only 5 or less than 5 sports
celebrities out of 11 with the brands endorsed
by them.

a.Aquaguard b. Pure it c. Livpure d. RO

I.Proving the Hypothesis:
Summary of the analysed data:
 37% of the sample know about the
sports celebrity endorsing the sports shoes
brand.
 87% of sample buy a sports shoes
brand based on quality.Only 6% buy the brand
because of sports personality endorsing the
brand.
 62% of the sample does not know
about the sports personality endorsing the soft
drink brand.
 91% of sample select a soft drink brand
based on taste.Mere 5% select it based on
celebrity endorsing the brand.
 The data shows that 49% of sample
watch the advertises shown in between a
cricket.Almost equal percentage of sample
(51.52 %) either switch the channel or mute the
advertisement.
 68% of sample do not know the water
purifier brand endorsed by Sachin Tendulkar
 88% of the sample could correctly
match only 5 or less than 5 sports celebrities
out of 11 with the brands endorsed by them.
The summary of figures mentioned above
shows that sports marketing is not able to create
the desired impact on buying behavior of
customers.
Thus, the null hypothesis “Sports Marketing
impacts the buying behavior of customers”
proves to be incorrect.
J.Findings:
The overall findings of the research can be
summarized as:
 Sports marketing refers to the
marketing of sports products or the marketing of
non-sport products through associations with
sports
 Sport marketing is broadly divided into
three sectors.1.Advertising of sport and sports
associations such as the Olympics, Spanish
Football league2.The use of sporting events,
sporting teams and individual athletes to
promote various products.3.The promotion of
sport to the public in order to increase
participation.
 Sports Marketing has grown big world
wide. It has also gained momentum in India in
recent years.
 Companies use sports celebrities to
promote their brands and spend handsome
amount for the same.
 The consistency of performance of
players reflect in peoples’ acceptance of them as
brand ambassador.
 The survey conducted amongst 500
management students in Pune suggest the
companies that they should review their
strategies of using sports personality to promote
their brand.The survey shows that sports
marketing is not impacting the buying behavior
of customers towards brands.
K. Future Scope for the research:
The current research was conducted amongst
management students in Pune.
The findings of the current research shows the
wide scope for further research in the selected
topic.The research has scope across
India,across more categories like business
people,professionals, etc.
A detailed research on this topic will surely
give some very critical inputs to different
companies regarding spending on sports
celebrities for endorsing their brands.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_marketing
http://tigersportsmarketing.com/
http://www.youth24x7.com/entertainment/item/
121-growth-of-sports-marketing-in-india
http://www.pmgsports.org/
http://www.perceptindia.in/services/percept_sp
ort.htm
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/ke
yword/sports-marketing
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/history-of-
sports-marketing
http://smedio.com/2012/07/31/the-history-of-
sports-and-marketing/
Bush, A. J., Martin, C. A., Bush, V. D., (2004)
Sports celebrity influence on the behavioral
intentions of generation Y. Journal of
Advertising Research 44 (1).

Gladden, J.M. & Funk, D.C. (2002) Developing

an understanding of brand associations in team
sport: empirical evidence from consumers of
professional sport, Journal of Sport
Management 16, 54-81.

Cuneen, J. and Hannan, M.J. (1993),

``Intermediate measures and recognition testing
ofsponsorship advertising at an LPGA
tournament'', Sport Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 2
No. 1,pp. 47-56.

McCarville, R.E., Flood, C. and Froats, T.A.

(1998), ``The effectiveness of selected
promotions on spectators' assessments of a
nonprofit sporting event sponsor'', Journal of
Sport Management, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 51-62.