Sports marketing: an examination of academic marketing publication

Looks at the sports industry and addresses the current situation for authors seeking to publish in the area of sports marketing. Sports currently represents the eleventh largest industry in the USA. Despite this, there are few mainstream marketing journals willing to publish manuscripts on sports marketing. In an effort to circumvent this problem, some sports marketing authors have `̀ disguised'' their research under the guise of `̀ servicescapes'' or leisure services. Looks at the topical content of the leading outlet for sports marketing manuscripts, Sport Marketing Quarterly. The author classifies the articles into 18 categories. Sponsorship is the most frequent topic for sport marketing papers, followed by general research and research on fans, spectators, and participants. Provides an extensive bibliography of sport-marketing articles published in academic journals. While a few of these are in marketing journals, the vast majority are published `̀ out of field''. Introduction In 1993, Fisk et al. wrote about the history and development of the services marketing literature. In their article, they state that: Academia by its nature is conservative and hidebound. New ideas and concepts gain acceptance slowly. In this context, the early services marketing scholars were true risk takers. They found relatively few publication outlets enthusiastic about their work, and they confronted a discipline debating whether services marketing was significantly distinctive. Sports marketing authors face a similar situation today. This article will look at the sports industry and address the current situation for authors seeking to publish in the area of sports marketing. It will begin by providing a background look at sports marketing, looking at the development of the sports marketing industry, the size and impact of the industry, and a common method of classifying the sports marketing field. It will then look at the publication opportunities, including journals both in and out of the marketing area and academic books on sports marketing. It will continue by looking at the topical content of the leading outlet for sports marketing manuscripts, Sport Marketing Quarterly, as well as other selected sports marketing articles. The paper will conclude with recommendations and action plans for future growth. The paper also provides a comprehensive bibliography of sport marketing articles which have been published in academic journals. The sports industry Industry evolution The early beginnings of sports marketing date back to ancient Rome, when Roman patriarchs sponsored gladiatorial games for the same reason today's companies do ± to win public esteem (Ukman, 1984). The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com Publication opportunities JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 6 1999, pp. 517-534, # MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0887-6045 517 An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this issue Modern sports sponsorship can be traced to the 1950s when then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Mutual of Omaha and Union Oil to sponsor the first presidential physical fitness program (Lazarus, 1984). Sports marketing received a substantial boost in exposure in 1971, when the government banned cigarette advertising on US television and radio (Cornwell, 1989). Sports marketing, particularly sponsorship of auto racing (Winston cup and numerous car sponsorships) and tennis (Virginia Slims' women's tennis tour), offered a means of keeping cigarette brand names in front of spectators and television viewers through broadcast coverage of sponsored events. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics provided a big boost for sports marketing and is generally credited with starting the trend of sports marketing on a formal basis ± turning athletics into a sponsored business (Schlossberg, 1991). This was the first Olympics which depended entirely on private money, primarily major sponsorships, and not on public money. Whereas prior Olympic cities had experienced major financial losses, the Los Angeles Olympics actually generated a profit. Many sports purists have been highly critical of this practice of bringing corporate sponsorship to the Olympics, and even the Olympic committee reacted negatively to the level of commercialism. The growing interest in professional sports has continued this focus on sports as big business. With multi-million dollar payrolls, newer and more extravagant facilities, and the costs of sports franchises escalating into the hundreds of millions of dollars, there is no doubt that sports is, truly, a business venture. Television contracts for professional sports now run into billions of dollars. Industry size There is some question concerning the actual size of the sports industry today. Estimates of spending in this industry are varied and diverse. Much of this diversity is created by an unclear definition of just what all is included in the `̀ sports industry''. Some authors include just the marketing of sporting events and sporting goods in their definition of the sports industry. Others include marketing of non-sport products at sporting events. And still others include marketing which uses sports figures as product endorsers in their definition. Obviously, how one defines the `̀ sports industry'' will have a dramatic effect on the size of that industry. There is no question, however, that the sports industry is large and its impact substantial, both in spending on sports marketing and in the sales potential of products within the sports industry. Spending in the sports sponsorship area reached the $2.5 billion level in 1990, according to Schlossberg (1991). In 1987, for every dollar spent on sports event sponsorship, another five dollars was spent on other forms of sports marketing, including television, radio, print advertising, on-site booths, and event signage (Eisenhart, 1988). If Eisenhart's estimate still held true, in 1991 spending on sports marketing would have reached $15 billion. Advertising Age, however, estimated sports marketing expenditures in the USA alone to be $23.52 billion in 1990. By some estimates the sales value associated with the overall sports market, both participant and spectator, was more than $179 billion in 1990, with growth expected to continue at approximately 20 per cent annually (Schlossberg, 1990). Meek (1997), taking an admittedly conservative Boosts for sports marketing Defining `̀ sports industry'' 518 JOURNAL OF SERVICES MARKETING, VOL. 13 NO. 6 1999 definition of the sports industry, estimates the sports industry as a $152 billion industry in 1995, while it supported an additional $259 billion in economic activity. Even given this conservative estimate, sports still ranked as the eleventh largest industry in the USA in 1995. Industry classification The sports marketing industry can be categorized in a number of different ways, as was seen in the above discussion. In this article, the simplest classification will be used. This breaks sports marketing into two categories: the marketing of sports (marketing sporting events and equipment to spectators and participants) and marketing with sports (promotion of nonsport products at sporting events and using athletes to endorse non-sport products). Both of these categories are rich in opportunities for future research, growth, and employment opportunities. Academicians should be careful not to focus totally on either of these areas at the expense of the other. As relatively new areas of research and study, both areas will provide numerous opportunities for many years to come. Sports marketing publications Academic journals Sports journals. There are a limited number of academic outlets for sports marketing research, either theoretical or quantitative. Shank (1999) identifies six such academic journals. These are: (1) Cyber-Journal of Sports Marketing; (2) Sport Marketing Quarterly; (3) Journal of Sport Behavior; (4) Journal of Sport and Social Issues; (5) Journal of Sport Management; and (6) Journal of Services Marketing. Of these journals, only the Journal of Services Marketing would be considered to be a `̀ mainstream'' marketing journal. The Cyber-Journal of Sports Marketing is housed in the business area at Griffith University in Australia. However, it would not, at this time, be classified as a `̀ mainstream'' marketing journal. Each of the other journals is housed and edited in non-business academic disciplines, primarily kinesiology, physical education and recreation, or leisure studies. While this, in and of itself, does not necessarily minimize the contributions of these journals, it does lead to a focus in sports marketing research which is outside of the marketing discipline. We have seen similar situations lead to `̀ giving away'' other areas of marketing to other disciplines. These include health care marketing, hotel, restaurant, and tourism marketing, and, in some instances, retailing and advertising. The University of Connecticut's Laboratory for Leisure, Tourism, and Sport (College of Education) provides a number of free reference lists (www.playlab.uconn.edu/frl.htm). The reference list for `̀ sport marketing'' includes 526 references, as of April 1998. An examination of this list shows that 69 of the references are books, at least 15 of which could be considered to be textbooks, though not necessarily sports marketing texts. A total of 50 of the references are from Sport Marketing Quarterly, which would appear to Opportunities