There are a lot of people thinking of joining Sports Marketing as this is one of the newest and rising industries followed by the continuously increasing awareness and pursuit of well-being and healthy lifestyle all over the world.
To answer the question, I’d like to first try dissect the term “Sports Marketing”. I believe that most people are very confident to claim that they know what Sports is and what Marketing is; when we put the two singular words together, does it simply mean “marketing of sports”?
Yes, on a high-level comprehension of the concept.
Then does it mean people who graduated from marketing or has been in the marketing industry can take up a role in Sports Marketing?
If you are good with 4Ps, promotion plan, event management, public relationship, social media and customer retention, likely you could be a decent sports marketer because most of the concepts would apply. But if you want to be a top sports marketer, you may need one more thing. It is not about whether you do sports as your pastime, like wearing sport brands or if you can write an excellent promotion proposal or not.
What’s needed in any top sports marketer is the understanding of why Sports are fascinating. Why people love sports? Why people love watching sports games? Why people love playing sports? It is because Sport itself is fascinating. It is a drama with a lot of unpredictable plots, a battlefield where everyone fights with heroism, and a fair game that rewards the hard workers only. These are the natures of sports, and why sports can tie to not only your body, but your emotion, nerve and soul. To be a top sports marketer, you need to know how to translate the fascination of sports into ideas and plans that literally put customers’ interest first, so as to create a real and strong bonding between the brand/product and the customers.
So yes, marketing people can do sports marketing, given that they see why sports capture people’s hearts.