The third edition represents a significant departure from the first and second editions.  While still addressing both the marketing of sports products and the marketing of non-sports products via a sport platform, a decision was made to reduce the emphasis on sponsorship.  Key sponsorship concepts will still be addressed, but issues specific to the creation of a sponsorship proposal and the assessment of the sponsorship’s effectiveness are addressed at a fundamental level.  

Every effort has been made to provide a sports-related example to illustrate how marketing concepts can be applied in the various sports marketing domains.  Sports, athletes, teams, and stadiums from around the globe are referenced.  Marketing is becoming more global as each day passes, and sports marketing is no different in this regard.  Technology is playing a huge role in the strategies devised by sports marketers.  Social media that did not exist just a few years ago play an essential role today.  Furthermore, there is an abundance of information available on the Internet if you just know where to find it.  Appendix B provides a listing of the URLs for many sports and many sports organizations around the world.  Students are encouraged to use this resource to broaden the knowledge.

Part 1 presents the fundamentals of sports marketing.  Chapter 1 provides an overview of the field of sports marketing.  It examines the basic underpinnings of the discipline.  This includes the types of sports events, an abbreviated look at the types of sports products that are marketed, the economic impact of the industry, and the types of jobs that are available to aspiring sports marketers.  Chapter 2 takes a detailed look at the four specific domains of the sports marketing environment.  It examines efforts to sell sports products as well as non-sports products.  Furthermore, it examines the two ways that sports platforms are developed – either through traditional marketing strategy or by virtue of a sports-sponsorship.  This chapter evolved from just a few pages in the first edition to an entire chapter in the second edition.  It then provided the basis for the award winning article in Sport Marketing Quarterly.  In this regard, it truly established a frame work for a better understanding of exactly what the field of sports marketing encompasses.  Adopters of the first two editions of this text will notice a change in the terminology, but not the concepts in Chapter 2.  These changes were made because of suggestions by the SMQ reviewers.  So now the textbook is consistent with the SMQ article; this only seems logical.

In Part 2, Chapters 3 through 5 represent the task of marketing non-sports products by creating a sports platform.  Chapter 3 examines the use of traditional strategy to sell non-sports products. Using the terminology from Chapter 2, strategies of this ilk are referred to as theme-based strategies.  Chapter 4 provides an overview of sponsorship.  It includes coverage of the types of sponsorship opportunities marketers have, the components of a sponsorship, ambush marketing, leveraging/activation, and the role that the rights fees have in contributing to the sports organization’s bottom line.  Chapter 5 examines three special forms of sponsorship.  In this regard, it addresses venue naming rights, endorsements, and licensing.

Chapters 6 through 10 comprise Part 3, namely the marketing of sports products.  It addresses target market decisions and the marketing mix.  As a gentle reminder, the marketing mix comprises the four controllable variables for which marketers have to make decisions.  Alternative known as the 4 Ps, these variables are the product, the place (distribution), pricing decisions, and promotion.  Chapter 6 looks at market segmentation and its role in the task of delineating target markets.  Chapter 7 addresses the broad array of sports products as delineated in the sports marketing environment matrix in Chapter 2.  Chapter 8 focuses on distribution decisions germane to the three categories of sports products.  Also included in this chapter is an overview of facilities management. Chapter 9 delves into the tough – and often criticized – pricing decisions that have to be made.  Part 3 concludes with Chapter 10 and an examination of the promotional tools and decisions with which the sports marketer is faced in the task of developing an effective Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) plan. It includes the traditional promotional mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations.  Added to the promotional mix are direct response marketing and sponsorship.  But in this chapter, it is how sports organizations use sponsorship to sell sports products.  Other tools such as social media, product placement, and viral marketing are addressed.

The text concludes with Part 4, an examination of emerging issues in the marketing of sports products.  Chapter 11 looks at Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and our emphasis on customer retention.  It also broaches the topic of recovery marketing, that is to say what do sports marketers do when there is a significant collapse in the relationship between the marketer and its customer base?  Chapter 12 addresses technology.  Marketers across the board have been confronted with obstacles and opportunities emanating from technological advances.  While using the Internet as a communications tool is commonplace today, other technology has emerged.  For example, tennis players can challenge line calls and technology such as Hawkeye can examine the call and make a determination as to whether or not a line judge’s call should be upheld or overturned.  The final chapter, 13, looks at controversial issues in sports marketing.  It breaks them down into six categories: target market, product, distribution, pricing, promotion, and broad-based controversies

This text takes a strong international focus.  Examples that cover a broad array of sports, athletes, and teams are used to make the book relevant to students across the globe.  This can be a positive learning experience as students find out a little more about sports not played in their home countries.  But in this age of globalization, we will witness geographic expansion of many of these sports.  And for those students working within the domains represented by the marketing of non-sports products through the creation of a sports platform, it is imperative that they recognize these global opportunities.