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Segmentation in Sports - Analyzing the Behavior of the Sport's Consumer

Mihaela Constantinescu Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Marketing Faculty

Abstract: Sport is a multifarious domain that can range from 100% involvement as a player to buying sports equipment for everyday life activities, therefore the sport's consumer can have an active involvement (practicing a sport) or a passive one (taking part in sports as a spectator or watching sport on TV), fact that brings the necessity of a segmentation process in order to better target the individual with the right marketing tools. This paper presents the results of a marketing research on the Romanian market that analyses the behavior of the spbrt's consumer, his involvement in the sports industry and the way sports influences his life decisions.

Keywords: sports marketing, sport consumer, sport events, segmentation

1. Introduction

Sport is a multifarious do- main that can range from 100% involvement as a player to buy- ing sports equipment for every- day life activities, therefore the sport's consumer can have an active involvement (praetieing a sport) or a passive one (taking part in sports as a speetator or watehing sport on TV), faet that brings the neeessity of a seg- mentation proeess in order to better target the individual with the right marketing tools

To highlight the importance of eonsumer behavior analysis, espeeially for the marketing strategy, it is sufficient to pres- ent the reasons identified by Ch. Miehon (2010), depending on the time period eovered: short term (to explain the behavior and eonsumer attitudes towards a produet or brand), long term (to identify trends, design new produets and to find suitable message to target the audienee).

Before taking any deeision about the market or consumers, marketers must get familiar with their needs and expecta- tions, and how the individual re- acts to various external stimuli, as well as the process of reaching

a deeision on aetion taken and purchase made, whether ratio- nal or emotional.

In the process of buying and eonsumption, the individual may have multiple roles, all equally important for market- ers, in their attempt to make the offer more attractive, the ulti- mate goal being the purehase of products offered. In some cases, these roles are overlapping for the same person, but usually the marketing strategy must take into account several target audiences, all with influential role in the purehase decision.

Once we have identified the categories of population with impact on consumer be- havior, we carr~give a defini- tion of the concept. According

_to the authors I. Cätoiu and N. Teodorescu (1997), consumer behavior is represented by all acts, attitudes and decisions on the use of his revenues for pur- chases of goods, services and for savings. M.Solomon (2005) defines eonsumer behavior as represented by the proeesses involved in the seleetion, pur- chase, use or abandonment of goods, services, ideas or experi- enees by individuals or groups to satisfy their needs or wants.

The definition emphasizes that consumer behavior should be seen as a eontinuous proeess, not limited to speeifie time ex- change that takes place between the customer and manufacturer.

Starting from these general definitions given to eonsumer behavior, we ean define sports consumer as that person or enti- ty that benefits from the offer of produets and serviees from the sports market, as a praetitioner, spectator, viewer or sponsor.

2. Segmentation of the sports market

Segmentation is a phase in the marketing management proeess (KotlerV 2008) and it re- fers to dividing the market and identifjang eonsumei^-segment&- with similar behavior or needs.

On the sports market, the segmentation proeess is based on a series of soeio-demograph- ic and behavioral criteria with high relevance for the offer of sports produet and services. There is no universally accepted opinion regarding the identifica- tion of these criteria, primarily due to the diversity that charac- terizes the sport domain and the

38 Mihaela Constantinescu

motives for which an individual or organization is involving it- self in sports.

In his book "Sports Marketing. A Strategic Perspective ", M.D. Shank (2005) identifies the fol- lowing categories of criteria for segmentation: demographic (gender, age, ethnicity or fam- ily life cycle), socioeconomic (income, education, occupa- tion), psychographics (lifestyle, personality, interests and opin- ions), geographical (continent and country of origin, city of residence, chmate), behavioral (purchase frequency, size pur- chase loyalty) and criteria relat- ed to the expected benefit (con- sumer needs, desired features of sports products or services).

Thierry Lardinoit and Emmanuelle Le Nagard-Assayag (2004) have developed a segmen- tation according to the sport's values, with emphasis on moder- nity and creativity.

Tapp and Glowes (2002) pro- pose two major criteria for this process: the expected benefits by the client (victory vs. enter- tainment) and its hehavioral commitment.

As can be seen, the authors mentioned above only apply market segmentation within the business to consumer (B2C) sec- tor, forgetting a very important sports market segment - the or- ganizations. Thus, the segmen- tation process should start with the legal status of the consum- er, leading to the identification of two categories: individual consumers and organizational consumers (Constantinescu, 2009). The second category of consumers is mainly represent- ed through sponsorships, but there are situations where the demand for products and ser- vices is based on the sport needs of an organization (such as the need to organize sports competi- tions between employees or the

need for easier access to services offered by a gym for employees).

The segmentation process deepens within the first catego- ry - individual consumers, which can be categorized in three cat- egories according to the way they are involving themselves in sports: practitioner, spectator and viewer.

Another criterion for seg- mentation is based on reasons that determine the sport behav- ior of an individual, identify- ing the following categories: 1) those who like moving, not hav- ing a favorite sport; 2) those who are fans of a particular sport; 3) those who are fans of a team; 4) those who are fans of a athlete. One can ohserve a relation of in- clusion between these four cat- egories. Thus, those who admire a particular athlete automati- cally hecome fans of the team for which that athlete is playing, also developing a special attach- ment to the sport in which acti- vates the respective team. And those who develop a sense of ad- miration for a sports team have an inclination towards sports and movement.

The literature provides many methods of segmentation, but their generality leads to a de- crease in the degree of applica- bihty in the market, if they are not linked to a series of direct researches through which the particularities of the sport con- sumer behavior can be identified for each country or region. This paper highlights" the results^ of such a research, conducted within the urban population of Romania.

3. Research methodology

To collect the necessary in- formation, a nationwide survey has been organized which aimed to analyze the sport consumer behavior, detailed in the follow- ing objectives:

a) The percentage of popula- tion that practices sport;

h) What sports are practiced; c) The percentage of popula-

tion that are participating in sports events as specta- tors;

d) What type of sports events are they participating in;

e) The percentage of popula- tion that watches sports events on TV;

f) What type of sports events are they watching.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 385 people, within the Romanian urban popula- tion, the probability of guaran- teeing the research results is 95% (for which the t coefficient is 1.96), with a margin of error of ± 5%. The sampling process used a stratified method, tak- ing into account gender, age and income criteria that ensured a sample structure corresponding to the Romanian population.

4. Research results

In order to highlight the par- ticularities of the sports mar- ket segmentation process in Romania, research results will be presented both in a univari- ate analysis and bivariatej3ne__ for each research objective.

4.1. The percentage of population that practices sport

While in Europe the percent- _age of those who practice sport is 2/3, the results of the present study show a share of only 41.7% for Romania, which explains to some extent the social problems that our country is fighting - physical inactivity and ohesity.

But this lack of sport in Romania should not be gener- alized, given that the decision to practice sport is infiuenced hy a number of socio-demo- graphic characteristics, leading to differences between certain

RRM-4/2013 39

segments of the population. For example, the proportion of men who play sports is 47.8%, while for women is only 34%. The dif- ferences are more visible in re- gard to age categories, as can be seen from Figure 1, where the variation is from 64.8% for those aged between 18 and 25 years to 12.3% for those over 55. Although it seems large, the percentage recorded for young people should not surprise us, actually we expect it to be high- er, given that they are in that period of their life when sport is part of the school curriculum. Unfortunately, more and more young people opt for exemp- tion from these activities within the education system, which can only lead to a worsening of the social problems mentioned above (physical inactivity and obesity), along with social inte- gration and education problems.

The education level also has a major influence on the deci- sion to carry out sports activi- ties, higher education leading to greater number for those

practicing sports (from 11.1% for those who have just gradu- ated from middle school up to 61.5% for postgraduates).

4.2. Types of sports practiced by Romanian population

As can be seen from Table 1, the most commonly practiced sport in Romania is football (46.4% of respondents mention- ing it). Somewhat odd is posi- tioning tennis second, but the explanation may be related to the period of data collection - summer, when the number of places to practice this sport is much higher. In the next two places we find a category of sports that are related to the individual needs of body main- tenance (aerobics, fitness, body- building - 28.6% and running, jogging - 23.6%). A sport that is gaining more and more follow- ers is basketball, and principal- ly because of street competitions for amateur players in formula 3 on 3 (a variant of the classic sport that FIBA wishes to pro- pose even as an Olympic sport).

Tahle 1. Types of sports practiced hy Romanian

population (%)

Sport soccer tennis

aerobic, fitness, bodybuilding

running, jogging swimming basketball volleyball

table tennis others

Percentage 46,4 37,9

28,6

23,6 22,1 21,4 20,0 17,1 41,4

The choice of sport is influ- enced by a number of socio-de- mographic characteristics of the individual or the family they come from, among which the most important are gender, age and level of education.

The correlation with gender highlights major differences be- tween men and women, the most practiced sports by men being football (70.6%), tennis (43.5%), basketball (28.2%), swimming (21.2 %) and table tennis (21.2%), while women most often sports practice body care sports, such as

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

: 20%

i 10%

I 0%

Figure 1. Percentage of population that practices sports, hased on the age categories (%)

35,2%

18-25 years

26-35 years

36-45 years

46-55 years

Over 55 years

Total

Practicing sports a Not practicing sports

40 Mihaela Constantinescu

aerobics, fitness or bodybuilding (52.8%), running/jogging (34%), followed by tennis (28.3%), vol- leyball (28.3%) and swimming (22.6%).

The sports market segmenta- tion process must take into ac- count the age of practitioners, given that bivariate analysis between these two variables showed that young (18-35 years old) choose team sports, through which they satisfy the need for so- cialization, as well as the compet- itive one (most frequently men- tioned sports being football and basketball), while adults (36-55 years) and elderly (over 55 years) are oriented towards body care sports, such as running or fitness.

Regardless of education level, soccer remains first in the prefer- ences of individuals, but decreas- es as a percentage from 52.9% for those with secondary education to 29.2% for those with graduate studies. The influence of educa- tion level is felt when choosing body care sports (aérobies, fit- ness, jogging), whieh is much more present in the lives of those with higher education.

The choice of football as the most practiced sport by Romanian is not influenced ei- ther by income. The difference between income categories are although accounted for sports that require investment such as fitness, aerobics and tennis, which are more often practiced by those with high incomes (over 2000 RON / month). This finan- cial barrier can~ be overcome through public policies that fa- cilitate the access of population to gyms or places in public areas equipped with appliances and sports equipment.

4.3. The percentage of population that are participating in sports events as spectators

The number of passive par- ticipants to sporting events

(viewers) does not differ much from that of active participants (practitioners/athletes), re- search results showing a per- centage of 44.7% of the urban adult population participating in sports events as spectator. This low percentage is a nation- al issue with major impact on the sports industry in the first place, but also on the popula- tion's quality of life. The nega- tive influence on sport industry is highlighted by several indica- tors with disastrous results in recent years in our country:

- the income of clubs and sports arenas is dimin- ished by the lack of inter- est from the public to par- ticipate directly in sport- ing events

- the attractiveness of the event for potential sponsors decreases because there isn't a target audience as- sociated with that event

- the revenues from the sales of promotional prod- ucts with team logos are at the borderline of sur- vival on the Romanian market, not to mention the sales for products sold in association with sport- ing events whieh individu- als can purchase when arriving to the stadium/ arena (refreshments and snaeks); in the U.S. mar- ket, this range of produets assoeiated with participa- tion in a sporting event determines the American consumer to spend an av- erage of $ 115, according to the index "Fan Cost Ex- perience" conducted annu- ally by Team Marketing Report (http://fancostex- perience.com/pages/fcx/ blog_pdfs/entry0000025_ pdf002.pdf).

Regarding the negative im- pact on quality of life, this is re- lated to the need for socialization

of the individual and to the vari- ety of ways in terms of leisure, dimensions of quality of life that on the Romanian sports market are not related in any way to at- tending sporting events.

The deeision to attend sport- ing events is influeneed by indi- vidual eharaeteristics, the big- gest difference being noticed be- tween men and women (56.8% of men compared with 30.1% of women that said they partici- pate in sporting events).

Another influenee on this de- eision is related to the sport na- ture of the individual; there is a tendeney for those who praetice sport to participate in a larg- er number at sporting events (61.9%) compared to those who do not play sport (32.3 %). Market segmentation based on this correlation helps to identify the message that will be sent to persuade the target audience to attend sporting events, for those non-sporting types is not indi- cated the association with move- ment, because it isn't an impor- tant motivating factor for them.

4.4. Types of sports events Romanian are participating in as spectators

The sports market segmen- tation in Romania must take account the attractiveness of the events from this mar- ket. Figure 2 shows that most Romanians are participating in domestie ehampionships events (81.3%), the pereentage being eut in half when it eomes to the partieipation in European or international ehampion- ships (40.3%). This differenee ean be explained primarily by lower frequency of international events in sports in general, but also by low purehasing power that characterizes our country (knowing that the price of tick- ets to such events is mueh high- er than for national ehampion- ship matches).

RRM-4/2013 41

Figure 2. Types of sports events tbat Romanian people are participating in as spectators (%)

100,0 1

80,0 -

60,0

40,0

20,0

0,0

81,3

Domestic championship

40,3

^1 European/World championship

9,7

Local events

Local events have the lowest degree of attractiveness - 9.7%, which indicates a lack of cohe- sion in the local community re- garding the sports dimension. Although these events are prob- ably the most affordable, it does not enjoy a proper promotion, hence the very low presence of spectators. Their accessibility makes the percentage of women among the spectators to be high- er (18.6%) than men (6.06%). Another explanation for the pre- ponderance of women is the fact that local events are usually or- ganized for junior athletes who come with their parents.

Segmentation by age brings again a difference in terms of participation in local events "where we have a higher pro- portion of adolescents and el-

_derljL. One explanation for this result may lie in the much less available for these categories of people to travel to other areas for national or international events, correlated with their lower income.

Correlation with marital sta- tus shows that participation as spectator to events within the domestic championship is most common in the case of unmar- ried (88.9%), while the mar- ried participates, mainly, to

Romania's representative team matches (45.2%)), local events being preferred by divorced/wid- owed, in correlation with their older age (28.6%).

Regarding the sports cor- responding to events involv- ing Romanians as spectators, whether national or interna- tional, the flrst two are soccer and handball. The difference be- tween attending national sport- ing events or international ones is represented by gymnastics, a sport for which our country has a long and notable performance worldwide, hence the greater share of the audience when it comes to international competi- tions for this sport.

4.5. The percentage of population that watches sports events on TV

Although does not imply di- rect participation in sporting events, the consumer of sport- ing events represent a very im- portant market, for which me- dia trusts invest millions in TV broadcast and firms turn into sponsors. This category of sport consumers represent the major- ity of fans, taking into account that traveling to sports events is not always possible, hence

the desire to watch the event through media.

Precisely because it does not require an equally big effort as for practitioners and specta- tors, the percentage of those who said they are watching sporting events on television is quite high - 76%. We must how- ever make a distinction between the types of viewers, first of all based on their involvement in sport, because the decision to watch sporting events on televi- sion is influenced by the sport behavior of the individual. The research results showed that- 87.9% of those who play sports also watch sporting events on television, while the percentage for those that do not practice sport is 67.4%. This influence can be continued with the corre-

lat ion with the spectator status_ - 96.6% of those participating in sporting events as spectators are also watching these events on television, while the percent- age for non-spectators is 60.2 %.

The segmentation process can continue using the socio-de- mographic characteristics such as gender or education level. It is expected to have a difference be- tween men and women in terms of watching sporting events on television, as can be seen from

42 Mihaela Constantinescu

Figure 3. Percentage of population watching sports events on TV, based on the gender categories (%)

1 "

120,0

100,0

80,0

60,0

40,0

20,0

n n

87,1

62,7

Men Women Total

I Viewer B Non-\̂ ewer

Eigure 3, the percentage of men being 87.1% compared to 62.7% for women.

The correlation with educa- tion shows that with increasing level of education increases also the percentage of those who fol- low sports events on television, ranging from 50% for those who have completed only middle school to 92.3% for those with graduate studies.

4.6. Types of sports events watching on TV

Viewers should be segmented not only by soeio-demographie charaeteristics, but also by ex- pectations and preferences in terms sports watched on TV. Although most often Romanians attends the domestic champi- onship matches, on television they are watehing at a higher frequeney European and world ehampionships, as ean be seen

from Eigure 4. The explanation for this inversion is in the much higher attraetiveness of sueh international events, whieh inereases the number of view- ers, to those who usually follow sports events on television add- ing the oeeasional ones. The lat- ter represents a large pereent- age in the ease of the Olympies, an event watehed by 66.8% of Romanian population.

Figure 4. Type of sport event watched on TV (%)

European and world championship 75,1

Domestic championship

Olympic Games

Chompionships from other countries

Other e\«nts I

67,6

66,8

43,9

0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 60,0 70,0 80,0

RRM-4/2013 43

Figure 5. Type of sport event watched on TV, based on the gender categories (%)

Domestic Chompionships European and Olympic Games championship from other world

countries championship

Other e\«nts

I Men I Women

The correlation between the status of spectator and the viewer comes to uphold the idea that people who participate in sporting events as spectators have a higher tendency to watch these events also on TV, espe- cially when it comes to domestic championship matches.

Another possibility for view- ers segmentation is based on gender, observing from Figure 5 that both domestic champi- onships and those from other countries are pursued mostly by men, the percentages balancing in terms of European and world championships, for Olympic Games women's share being even higher than men's (77, 1% compared to 60.6%).

^Regarding the sports- watched on TV, the present re- search has shown that there are no differences hetween the do- mestic championships and those from other countries, football dominating all the time (as can be seen from Table 2). The same sport is refiected in first place for European or world champi- onships, but here also appears a sport for which Romania is still well represented - gymnastics.

For the Olympic Games, Romanians don't have very clearly defined preferences, watching any broadcast of the event, but there are certain seg- ments of the population with a predisposition towards gym- nastics (38.7%) and athletics (22.6%).

Table 2. Type of sport event watched on TV, based on

competition type (%)

- Sport Percentage Domestic championship

soccer handball

basketball

91,8 20,5 5,8

Championship from other countries

soccer handball

basketball

83,5 9,6 4,3

European and world championship

soccer haiidball

gymnastics

73,9 16,5 14,9

Olympics Games an3rthing

gymnastics athletics

45,2 38,7 22,6

5. Conclusions

The sports market segmenta- tion can lead to identifying the sports consumer categories on every level, their characteris- tics can be used to better match the marketing strategy with the needs and desires of individuals. Thus we can make a portrait of the consumer in the three steps of his involvement in sports activities:

Procesul de segmentare al pie^ei sportive poate conduce la identificarea consumatorului de sport pe fiecare nivel, car- acteristicile acestuia putând fi folosite pentru o mai buna corelare a strategiei de market- ing cu nevoile §i dorin^ele indi- vizilor. Astfel cä putem realiz^a_ un portret al consumatorului pe cele trei trepte de implicare în activitä^ile sportive:

- Practitioner - the main segment is the singles men aged 18 to 35 years, who have postgraduate studies and most often play football, this segment can be used as a factor promoter for the segments with a lower frequency of practicing sports activi-

44 Mihaela Constantinescu

ties such as women or the elderly, but we must keep in mind that each seg- ment can be motivated by another factor in the decision to do sports, so is not recommended a single message for all segments identified; Spectator - this type of sport consumer includes the one above, taking into account that most specta- tors are men and there is a direct correlation between sport and attending events in this area; this segment of fans attend more often domestic championship events, while women and older people prefer local events; Viewer - this segment is represented by both wom- en and men, the differ- ence standing in the type of sporting event watched: men are oriented towards national championships (either from us or from another country), while women are more receptive to large events such as the

World Championships or Olympic Games.

The segmentation must be followed by an adaptation of the supply from the sports market to the needs and preferences that result from sport consumer be- havior analysis, whether prac- titioner, spectator or viewer. At the microeconomic level, this translates into a market offer better adapted, individualized when possible (especially for sports services). At the macro- economic level, arises the need to implement a national strate- gy that promotes the positive ef- fects of practicing sport on qual- ity of life (especially for dimen- sions such as health and educa- tion), together with the social effects that attending sporting events has even as a spectator.

References

1. Cätoiu, L, Teodorescu, N. (1997), Consumer Behaviour. Teory and practice. Económica Publishing House, Bucharest

2. Constantinescu, M. (2009), Sports marketing. From a transaction- al approach to a relationship

perspective, ASE Publishing House, Bucharest

3. Kotier, Ph., Keller, K.L. (2008), Marketing Management, 5*'' Edi- tion, Teora Publishing House, Bucharest

4. Lardinoit, T., Le Nagard-Assay- ag, E. (2004), Comment le mar- keting sportif peut-il contribuer au succès des nouveaux produ- its?. Decisions Marketing, nr. 35, p. 61-74

5. Michon, Ch. (2010), Le Marke- teur, 3" Edition, Pearson Educa- tion France, Paris

6. Shank, M.D. (2005), Sports Mar- keting. A Strategic Perspective, 3rd edition, Pearson Education International, New Jersey

7. Solomon, M., Tissier-Desbordes, E., Heilbrunn, B. (2005), Com- portement du consommateur, 6e Edition, Pearson Education France, Paris

8. Tapp, A., Clowes, J. (2002), From carefree casuals to football anor- aks: Segmentation possibilities for football supporters, Europe- an Journal of Marketing, vol 36, nr. 11, p. 1248-1270

9.http://fancostexperience.coiTi/pag- es/fcx/blog_pdfs/entry0000025_ pdf002.pdf

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