Strategic marketing planning process applied to the greek professional sport clubs

Abstract

ABSTRACT STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS APPLIED TO THE GREEK PROFESSIONAL SPORT CLUBS Christos Terzoudis B.A Physical Education, Aristotle University of Thessalonica, 1999 M.Sc in Sport Management, Northumbria University at Newcastle, UK, 2002 Ph.D Candidate, Sports Administration, University of Peloponnese, 2011 (Directed by Professor, Athanasios Kriemadis) The primary purposes of this study were: (1) to determine the extent to which the strategic marketing planning process is being used in the Greek professional sport sector (football and basketball clubs), (2) to identify the key factors that discourage the Greek professional sport clubs from engaging in strategic marketing planning activities, (3) to identify the main similarities and key differences between the two samples and (4) to examine the relationship between the three levels of marketing planning and selected variables: (a) business performance, (b) managers’ educational background and (c) managers’ work experience. The questionnaire instrument was developed by the researcher based on the reviewed literature on strategic marketing planning as well as on input and suggestions from reviews offered by a selected panel of experts. Twenty two professional sport clubs (football and basketball clubs), which had continuous attendance in the first division of Greek Championships (Super league and A1, respectively) during the last three years (from 2007 to 2010), were surveyed. Responses were received from twenty one professional sport clubs with a response rate of 95,5 percent. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. The strategic marketing planning process is applied to a little extent, as only the 23,8 percent of the Greek professional sport clubs were identified as strategic marketing planners. 2. Professional sport clubs need to invest more on marketing strategies that play important role on company’s success, such as service and product quality, new technology and the Internet, human resources, sport sponsorship. 3. Insufficient training and lack of knowledge in planning procedures, insufficient financial resources, lack of marketing planning policy and resistance to planning by club’s personnel, comprise the most important factors that discourage Greek professional sport clubs from engaging in strategic marketing planning. 4. There was no statistically significant difference in the implementation of the strategic marketing planning process between basketball and football clubs. 5. Professional sport cubs that were identified as strategic marketing planners had strong and positive relationship with the two general categories of business performance (satisfaction related to current year’s objectives and satisfaction related to competitors). In the third category (satisfaction related to the last financial year’s objectives), the relationship between business STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING IN SPORTS iv performance of sport clubs and the level of marketing planners was not statistically significant, however the mean of business performance of the strategic marketing planners was much higher than the mean of the other two groups of marketing planners (operational and intuitive marketing planners). 6. The level of marketing planning was related to managers’ educational background. 7. Finally, the level of marketing planning was not related to managers’ work experience. Keywords: Strategic marketing planning process, business performance, professional sport clubs.