Zugl.: Göttingen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Zugl.: Rostock, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

In the sport industry, many stakeholders, including sport organizations, players, coaches, sports reporters, and fans, utilize Twitter. Twitter has become a practical marketing tool, in part, although Twitter users have not been studied in terms of sociodemographics, team identification, media consumption, team related Twitter consumption, or game consumption of their favorite team. Exploring the demographics and consumptive behavior of Twitter users can be valuable for sport organizations to create marketing plans and make managerial decisions. The purpose of this study was to determine the makeup of sport consumers on Twitter for market segmentation purposes and examine their sport media consumption levels, sport-related Twitter usage, team identification level, and team consumption. Differences between Generation X and Y consumers were also determined. An online survey was administered to Twitter users (N = 219). Descriptive statistics, chi-square analyses and MANOVAs revealed characteristics about the users.

The research examines and explores the differences and similarities between how the social media platform of Facebook is used in the context of the basketball industry. The research centers on the respective Finnish and Swedish basketball leagues. More precisely, the study scrutinizes nine basketball teams social media representatives – four Finnish and five Swedish – perceptions on how their respective sport clubs act on the medium of Facebook, through the use of relevant marketing theories. “How do Swedish and Finnish basketball clubs manage their brands and fan clubs on Facebook?” In the recent years sport marketing has been researched extensively, however the research on sport marketing has focused solely on more established sport leagues (e.g. National Basketball Association, Premier League among other bigger leagues). The major emphasis in sport marketing has been on bigger leagues; this research focuses on the smaller and less established leagues of Finland and Sweden. There is a limited or no literature to be found of sport marketing, which specifically focuses on smaller national leagues. Additionally, the study adds knowledge to a relatively new and evolved way of marketing. Social media marketing research is at its infantry stage, at least when considering research done in more traditional marketing, thus the research could add knowledge to this young marketing sphere. The study is based on a social constructivist approach, where the social actor creates reality. The teams’ social media representatives had their own unique interpretations of team’s actions on the social media platform of Facebook. Moreover, the primarily reason for the study was to create understanding of the perceptional Facebook practices used by two countries basketball teams. The main research question was divided into three research objectives to get more accurate results. Relevant theories of branding and customer relationship management, where emphasis is on relationship marketing, were used to answer the three more specific research objectives. More specifically the theory of relationship marketing is used to identify the teams’ relationship management practices on the social media platform of Facebook and the theory of brand equity was used to understand how the teams’ build their brand image on the medium. Additionally, appropriate organizational definitions are used to recognize the underlying reasons why the sample teams are motivated to use the platform of Facebook. The results indicated that there were both similarities inside the examined country’s teams’ perceptions of Facebook activities and differences between these perceptional practices. However, the differences were of a lessening degree than similarities. Similarly, the country comparison showed that there were only minor differences between Facebook practices used by two countries’ club practices. The study gives a sound general view of smaller and less established sport league teams, thus the study could give a good foundation for further studies on other smaller and less established countries sport league clubs. Furthermore, it could also be used as a building block for a more extensive study, where perceptions of multiple club key stakeholders could be compared with each other to find similarities and differences between their perceptions gaps.

Title: Research of football popularity in the Czech republic Objectives: The aim is to determine the public attitude to football, and public opinion on the football competitions. I own contribution will be recommendations for the Football Asocciation of the Czech republic, clubs and media, that could help increase interest in football. Methods: For questioning the Czech public a method of the German marketing agency UFA Sports Hamburg was used and adjusted for Czech conditions. A method of electronic questioning was used in order to obtain the data from respondents. By evaluating the research results the methods data analysis and measuring of dependence were used. Results: Upon the research a relationship between the public and the Czech and world football was discovered as well as the public opinions relativ to football competitions. On the base of the obtained information, some recommendation or problematic questions werw specifik, that the Football associations of the Czech republic, clubs and media should have been focused on in an effort to increase the popularity of football. Keywords: marketing research, popularity of sport, football

<p>Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet</p><p>Institutionen för Företagsekonomi</p><p>Umeå universitet</p><p>90187 Umeå</p><p>Datum: 2007-04-10</p><p>Författare: Görel Eriksson</p><p>Nivå/utbildning: Master thesis, Företagsekonomi</p><p>Handledare: Kifle Hamde</p><p>Titel: Sportmarknadsföring & damfotboll - Vad klubblag i damallsvenskan kan göra för att marknadsföra sin produkt</p><p>Problem: "Vad kan klubblag i damallsvenskan göra för att attrahera publik till sina matcher, göra dem nöjda och se till att de kommer tillbaka?</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och beskriva det arbete som bedrivs för att marknadsföra de damallsvenska klubbmatcherna i damfotboll.</p><p>Metod: Jag har utgått från en kvalitativ metod då mitt syfte är att undersöka och beskriva det arbete som bedrivs. Mitt angreppssätt är abduktivt och min omfattande förförståelse i ämnet ligger som bas för min hermeneutiska kunskapssyn. Jag har i studien genomfört 7 stycken intervjuer med totalt sex olika damallsvenska klubblag. Jag har haft ett marknadsföringsperspektiv och analyserat mitt empiriska resultat genom en diskursanalys då jag har en kritisk inställning till självklar kunskap.</p><p>Resultat/slutsatser: I min slutsats kommer jag fram till att det finns behov och möjligheter av att professionalisera och utveckla de damallsvenska klubbarnas marknadsföringsarbete. Avslutningsvis så ger jag de damallsvenska klubbarna rekommendationer för hur de skulle kunna utveckla sitt marknadsföringsarbete samt ger förslag till vidare forskning.</p><p>Sökord: sport marketing, sport marketing mix, sportmarknadsföring, customer satisfaction, kundtillfredsställelse, kundnöjdhet, relationship marketing, relationsmarknadsföring, women, kvinnor, soccer och fotboll.</p><p>Omfång, sidor: 157 sidor</p><p>Antal ref/källor: 15 vetenskapliga artiklar, 46 litteraturkällor, 7 muntliga källor</p>

Handelshögskolan vid Umeå universitet Institutionen för Företagsekonomi Umeå universitet 90187 Umeå Datum: 2007-04-10 Författare: Görel Eriksson Nivå/utbildning: Master thesis, Företagsekonomi Handledare: Kifle Hamde Titel: Sportmarknadsföring &amp; damfotboll - Vad klubblag i damallsvenskan kan göra för att marknadsföra sin produkt Problem: "Vad kan klubblag i damallsvenskan göra för att attrahera publik till sina matcher, göra dem nöjda och se till att de kommer tillbaka? Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och beskriva det arbete som bedrivs för att marknadsföra de damallsvenska klubbmatcherna i damfotboll. Metod: Jag har utgått från en kvalitativ metod då mitt syfte är att undersöka och beskriva det arbete som bedrivs. Mitt angreppssätt är abduktivt och min omfattande förförståelse i ämnet ligger som bas för min hermeneutiska kunskapssyn. Jag har i studien genomfört 7 stycken intervjuer med totalt sex olika damallsvenska klubblag. Jag har haft ett marknadsföringsperspektiv och analyserat mitt empiriska resultat genom en diskursanalys då jag har en kritisk inställning till självklar kunskap. Resultat/slutsatser: I min slutsats kommer jag fram till att det finns behov och möjligheter av att professionalisera och utveckla de damallsvenska klubbarnas marknadsföringsarbete. Avslutningsvis så ger jag de damallsvenska klubbarna rekommendationer för hur de skulle kunna utveckla sitt marknadsföringsarbete samt ger förslag till vidare forskning. Sökord: sport marketing, sport marketing mix, sportmarknadsföring, customer satisfaction, kundtillfredsställelse, kundnöjdhet, relationship marketing, relationsmarknadsföring, women, kvinnor, soccer och fotboll. Omfång, sidor: 157 sidor Antal ref/källor: 15 vetenskapliga artiklar, 46 litteraturkällor, 7 muntliga källor

The African American consumer represents a valuable market segment in the United States. This target market possesses both substantial purchasing power and future growth potential. Yet, baseball marketers have failed to secure the African American target market as a viable consumer base. As such, marketers should understand what factors encourage African Americans to consume sport, and what factors deter African Americans from consuming baseball. Thus, the purpose of my study was to advance the literature by investigating the factors influencing African American baseball consumption. African American participants were surveyed in order to ascertain the motivational aspects they perceived to be present (or absent) in both a favorite sport and baseball. Results suggest that African American participants believed baseball failed to contain the following motivational factors: skill, drama, aesthetic value, group entertainment, family value, escape, and cultural affiliation. Still, of the factors measured, results suggest that the factors, ‘skill’ and ‘drama’ were the two most influential factors motivating participants to consume sport. The current study utilized a set of focus group interviews to identify what factors, if any, deterred baseball consumption amongst African Americans. Results suggest two broad categories best represent the reasoning for a lack of baseball consumption: perception of baseball and socio-cultural dynamics. Within these two categories, six general dimensions were found that best characterized the reasons for not consuming baseball: A perceived lack of excitement in baseball, a perceived lack of skill in baseball, a distaste towards baseball’s structure, a lack of access for young African Americans, African American player representation, and African American players in pop-culture. The current study examined African American attitudes towards baseball consumption by investigating the role of perceived fit and its association with the theory of reasoned action. The study utilized an experimental design to investigate if racial identification and identifiable motivational factors would influence perceived fit. Results from the study indicate that advertisement setting (i.e., advertisements containing identifiable motivational factors) was not influential upon perceived fit; yet, endorser race did moderate the relationship between advertisement setting and perceived fit. Subsequently, perceived fit was found to be influential upon attitudes and subjective norms. Furthermore, these factors – attitudes and subjective norms – were significantly related to intentions to consume baseball.

The goal of this master thesis is to create a 6-month marketing plan and recommendations for 2016 for a company called FitBucket. The theoretical portion of the thesis serves as the base for the practical part of the thesis. It begins with the introduction of FitBucket, a situational analysis, and a self-produced qualitative research conducted in the form of structured surveys and interviews. The research served as a framework for an initial version in Connect, a co-working space. Included is a marketing strategy, that was transformed into a marketing mix. A large portion is comprised of marketing communication and a form of personal branding. A detailed plan of action provides an overview of all of the activities that already took place and those planned for the upcoming year as well. The last part of the thesis focuses on a budget for the activities performed and a review of the plan itself.

Social media, even though a new phenomenon, has gained much interest in the last decade and has been a frequent topic of researchers. Sport marketing has also been a popular topic in academia, especially in North America. This thesis will address the use of social media in Nordic ice hockey clubs, including the exploration of their social media strategies and effectiveness. Previous research has not concentrated on ice hockey in Europe, nor has it examined their social media strategies. The study is seen to be necessary, especially given the large differences in the European and North American sport cultures and business models. The research was conducted through a qualitative multiple-case study by gathering data from both secondary sources as well as through semi-structured face-to-face interviews carried out with ten ice hockey clubs from both Sweden and Finland. The questions of the interviews were formed by the concepts derived from previous literature and the authors’ own experience. The results indicate that Nordic ice hockey clubs are still partly struggling with their social media strategies and that with the implementation of a clear strategy, including segmentation, the clubs would be able to take advantage of the relationship marketing and branding possibilities offered by social media. In line with this, the authors argue that the social media strategies of ice hockey clubs are not as effective as they could be and suggest further actions for managers to achieve higher social media effectiveness.