Sports Marketing and the Law - Essay Example

Marketers choose to use sports for marketing because they find already developed markets. They take advantage of the devotion and popularity that fans have towards their sportsmen and teams. It is assumed that marketers gain instant credibility in the fan's minds if the marketer associates with the fans’ team or favorite sportsman (Marketing Schools). The marketer is considered a sponsor since the revenue goes to the team. Coca Cola Company, for example, is always associated with the Olympics (Fullerton & Merz p. 91). One disadvantage of sports marketing is that advertisements may be overlooked.

This is because the sports marketing industry is so large, and there are very many advertisements. To avoid this and ensure effective brand marketing, a comprehensive marketing plan has to be developed. The plan encompasses estimations of resources and budget needed, time frame for the campaign, marketing objective, and the target audience and how they can be reached. The marketer needs an analysis of the entire marketing landscape to identify the most promising opportunities. Based on research findings, creative professionals will put types of advertisements that are in line with what the company wants to achieve.

Brand marketing requires efficient market research. The professionals have to work hard to ensure the content of the adverts, connect the product and the sport. The adverts have to speak to the target population (Marketing Schools). This also helps in reducing ego buying. The company will have knowledge of its current status and avoid ego buying. This vice is a risk to the business and it makes a company buy TV airtime or advert spaces based on their ego. This is very risky considering that the company will not have facts on the population they are targeting, and if they will be reached and captured for the company’s products (Berger p. 43).Apart from thorough market research, sports marketing has legal issues associated with it that need to be considered.

There are issues of rights to privacy and publicity, ownership of sports properties, contracts, intellectual property rights, and the theory of unjust enrichment (Wall p. 112-170). Sports marketing is associated with various opportunities and threats. In the Olympics for example, companies enjoy worldwide market exposure, already build market segments, and easily obtained followers. Threats include high marketing prices because of the event’s popularity and too many competitors. Also, the risk of being overlooked by targeted consumers, and too many agents or middlemen within the line of marketing stands in as major threats.

In sports marketing, value- buying depends on the available events, and the company seeking to buy a marketing space, a TV advert airtime, and sponsorship of sports teams and/or persons. Different companies have different products, and different objectives based on different types of events that take place.