Sports Management and Marketing
Management is tasks. Management is a discipline. But management is also people (Drucker, 1999) Management is a very broad term and has been given many different definitions. Smith and Stewart (1999) define it as ‘The system of planning, organising, actuating and controlling the co-ordination of resources for the efficient and effective delivery and exchange of products and services’ (p7). This definition incorporates 4 major principles that almost every definition will include. These 4 categories are compressed functions that G. R. Terry developed in 1960. They are planning, organising, actuating (leading) and controlling. This is a development of the 1916 description by Fayol who, instead of inserting actuating (leading), inserted command and coordinate. The Smith and Stewart (1999) definition includes the modern conception of human resource management. It considers people as individuals to lead instead of personnel management which identifies people as the collective to command. This type of management is implemented in many different organisations both sporting and in general business. Honda implements this notion and has an ethos where everyone in the organisation, from the cleaners to the CEO’s has a voice. They express this notion of individual importance in their slogan † ‘the power of dreams’. Leadership, therefore, is a very iconic part of management and is too vast an area to identify as a single behaviour. The term ‘leadership’ is often confused with ‘management’. Even within a work organisation you cannot identify a manager necessarily by a person’s job title (Mullins, 1999) but by the way they lead (Cole, 1999). A manager, therefore, is a title whereas leadership is a personality trait that a manager should possess. Leadership qualities can be broken down to sub categories or behaviours such as ‘communication’. Communication in the basic skill form is obviously invaluable to a manager’s success. Managers spend most of their time communicating by spoken, written or electronic means with their supervisors, peers, subordinates or customers (Mintzberg, 1973). The importance and differences in communication can be seen in most sporting contexts form football (where Jose Mourinho passed notes to his Chelsea players to communicate his instructions privately) to boxing (where the coach is ever present and vocal during the fight in their designated corner).Therefore it is clear that the continued development of this skill will ultimately underpin a successful manager (Boddy & Patton, 1998). This, however, is communication in its basic form.
Leadership is the ability to influence employees to voluntarily pursue organizational goals. Leadership is vision, enthusiasm, love, trust, passion and consistency. Management is to pursue organizational goals efficiently and effectively by integrating the work of people through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizations resources. Leadership and management are not the same. They are not interchangeable. Leadership is coping with change and management is coping with complexity (Williams 444).
NASSM stands for North American Society for Sport Management. According to its official website, this society was founded on October 4, in 1985 in order to support and assist professionals working in the fields of sport, leisure and recreation (NASSM, 2016).
The world of Sport Management encompasses many elements. Often the best way to figure out what element is the best fit is to try a little bit of everything. Enter Taylor Kielpinski-Rogers. In Taylor’s time at UConn, she pursued a variety of opportunities. She was a Sport Management major, taking classes such as Sport Law, Sport in Society, Sport Communication, and more. She was an administrative assistant for the men’s basketball program for three years, doing things such as coordinating travel arrangements, preparing necessary documents, giving campus tours to recruits, and more. She also was on the cheerleading team for all four years, cheering for football and basketball. She was named captain senior year, calling that “really exciting” and a “great honor.” And for the games she was not cheerleading, she
Sports marketing has made its way directly to the fans. In the past, only the extremely devoted fans would check on their teams online but now, the norm has changed. Now the devoted fans learn new information before anyone else, and even get rewarded for it. In the article “The Passion of the Fan”, by Stewart Feil, fans are being rewarded for posting about their favorite teams on social media. The reason this is possible is because mobile apps have greatly contributed to the way fans follow their teams. In “Sports marketing and technology with the New England Patriots”, by Michael Krigsman, it reveals that fans have the capabilities of sending their favorite teams their input about the team. The most amazing part is their voice is being heard. Tracy Keller reveals how deeply mobile apps have helped fans and teams interact in her article, “The Rise of Mobile in Sports Marketing.” She goes into detail on how fans are closer to their favorite teams through new mobile technology involved in sports. To go along with mobile apps, websites are bringing new life into sports and professional teams. In Greg Johnson’s article, “Big-time backers are trying to breathe new life into high-flying sport of Slamball”, it discusses how Youtube has allowed Slamball to keep its fame, and it is also reviving the sport at the same time. Sports and fans have always been together. Sports marketers have made the interactions between fans and teams closer through social media, websites, and mobile technology.
“Nothing happens until we sell something” no better phase is more prevalent if you want to work in sports management. People fail to realize that selling is not just a service, but an artistic endeavor and a scientific process that satisfies customers’ wants, needs, and desires. Meeting these needs means gearing towards the consumer, and knowing your selling audience.
Presently many of us have learned that managers are primarily administrators who have learned to write business plans, utilize their resources and keep track of progress. We must learn that we are not limited by job title, and that means we can utilize our management skills in any position that we are in. We must also know that we can use our leadership skills in the same situations. On the other hand we have also learned that leaders are people who have an impact on those that surround them. The main difference that separates these two roles is that management is a function that must be utilized in any type of business, and leadership is the relationship that the leader has with his followers, which in turn can motivate and energize the organization.
I have always had a passion for sports. That is why sports marketing is a perfect career for me. I have watched and participated in sports for all of my life. I continue to participate in them today because I find joy and relaxation in sports. I have also found other careers through research that I have conducted. The other careers that I have researched are very appealing. Although they are appealing, I am going to go with my passion and become a sports marketer. The other two careers that I researched were a lawyer and a physical education teacher. Both had good qualities, but neither equate to my love for sports.
In the field of marketing as with almost every major or career path people want to inform and teach others about their trade or what they have interest in. These sources in the field may come from magazines, books and reports as well as websites online. There are two types of sources when it comes to delivering that message to the attended audience, first there are authoritative sources which are done by someone that is actually in the selective field of work, these could be trade or a scholarly journal. The other type are popular sources which are done so by someone in that has interest in the field but is not quite in it but with knowledge about it to share with others. When it comes to sports marketing and player personnel
The business of sports is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. All over the world, many people participate as players and spectators in a variety of sporting activities, creating opportunities for the marketing of a company’s goods and services. An important part of the business of sports is sports marketing, which revolves around understanding consumer behavior and motivating target markets to purchase goods and services. Sports marketing at Clemson University has many different aspects ranging from sports and technology and sport law to sponsorship and sports economics.
I realized that I was going to school for the wrong reason -- to play ball. The
“Everyone get on your feet, it is time for a t-shirt toss!” or “Hot dogs! Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs here!” are typical phrases one might hear at a sporting event whether it be semi-professional or professional. It is likely that the person who organized the t-shirt toss or is in charge of the food vendors earned their degree in entertainment and sports management. There are many things that a sports manager does behind the scenes that make attending sporting events satisfying, fun, and entertaining for the fans who are attending. On game days, an entertainment and sports manager works hard to ensure that everyone at the event is fully engaged and pleased with their experience.
Choosing a career is one of the most important decisions a person will make in their life. Most people try to pick the career with the best financial gain and something they would like to do for the rest of their life. Foremost it is wise to see what the job entails. Sport Management is perfect for those who enjoy helping and working with people, especially when dealing with sports. The next part of the decision-making process is looking through the various schooling and training required. Lastly, take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages. Usually with great salaries comes a big responsibility with high stress. “The sports industry in the U.S. is a $200-billion-dollar-plus powerhouse, with superstar athletes, lucrative endorsement deals, and all the free press an ego can handle” (Lawyue 1). The profession of a sport management professional has a very specific work description, requires specific schooling and training, and comes with a variety of benefits and disadvantages.
The marketing mix is important to the sport industry because it allows a sport marketer to better understand the market they are selling in, and enables a sport marketer to generate an increase in revenue. The marketing mix contains the four p’s, which include: product, price, place and promotion. Each of the p’s in the marketing mix are all vitally important because they are what you are selling, why you are selling, where you sell it at, and how you promote what a sport marketer is selling. The marketing mix is essential to the sports industry because it enables a sport marketer to better understand their product, and improve sales.
The method of leadership is almost as similar as management, and a leader can be a manager. “Both management and leadership are seen as positions of responsibility or accountability in an organization” (Edwards, Schedlitzki, Turnbull, & Gill, 2015). Leadership and management can relate and overlap within the roles and functions and are similar within one another in meaning. Together leadership and management direct the actions of a group or individually.
Leadership and management are two fundamental concepts which are involved in the effective management of organizations. Leadership in my opinion is a complex concept, which includes association of human qualities and the result of their activities. To be a great leader means not only following own visions, but also work towards company’s goals.