In the past, sports marketers would typically speak “at” their target audience using various methods. With a lot of research, we learned that marketers today focus more on building relationships between their organizations and consumers. This type of marketing strategy is obviously different than previous marketing efforts in which you might focus only on, for example, putting up a billboard to speak at people.
Global Sports Marketing
A billboard doesn’t speak to a particular audience demographic. The message displayed on it speaks to everyone, which means that it’s a large sign that talks at you.
If we’re going to compare a marketing campaign with a relationship, and building and maintaining a relationship for years to come, then it’s important to remember that you can’t use one-way communication to preserve your relationship with a consumer. You can’t be one person speaking at the other. That’s not a good, healthy relationship.
As with any relationship, there needs to be some type of back and forth for effective communication. In terms of speaking to consumers, we don’t want to speak at them. We must engage them so that we can learn what they want, value and need from us as Sports Management marketers.
Online Sports Management Education
A Sports Management education is crucial for many reasons. In relation to marketing, it can help you learn, as outlined in this post, the important differences between traditional and modern marketing strategies. As a reminder: Traditional marketing was a one-way street. It was me speaking at you rather than learning and understanding your wants, needs, goals and preferences. It wasn’t two-way communication. What we’re seeing today is that marketing has evolved to include back-and-forth conversations that help sports marketers better understand members of their target audience.
