Development of marketing plans for intercollegiate athletics

The purpose of this study was to determine the marketing plans used by a select group of NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic administrators (n = 60). The marketing plans of the respondents consisted of important considerations any university must consider before developing a sport marketing plan for intercollegiate athletics. This study was divided into five subproblems; (a) athletic department staff, (b) the marketing goals, (c) target markets, (d) promotional tools, and (e) funding. The researcher developed the Athletic Director/Marketing Director Questionnaire (Appendix B) as a tool to be utilized. This questionnaire included twenty-one questions that addressed the development of the marketing program. In this questionnaire there were fifteen open-ended questions, five closed-ended questions, and one rating and ranking section. Questions related to the rating of promotional activities were answered using a 5-point Likert scale. The same analysis was used to obtain the results for every survey question, frequency of responses were reported in percentages. The participating subjects in this study were NCAA Division I athletic departments. Forty-one percent of the questionnaires were completed. More than half of the respondents in this study were either the marketing director or the assistant athletic director. Nearly all of the respondents indicated that they used students in their athletic department, and two-thirds indicated that they used graduate assistants in their athletic department. All of the undergraduate students indicated in this study were reported as interns. Finally, volunteers were used in almost all of the respondents athletic departments, but they were used only on a game-day basis. One fourth of the respondents indicated that their marketing goals were different from sport to sport. Almost half the respondents reported evaluating their marketing goals at least once a year, and a quarter of the respondents evaluated theirs at the end of each athletic season. In this study four main target markets for the respondents marketing programs were identified: (a) general public (b) students, (c) alumni, (d) current ticket holders, and (e) boosters. Two-thirds of the respondents stated that the target market for men's athletics was different from those for women's athletics. Two-thirds of the respondents stated that the target markets differed from sport to sport because each sport has its own target market. More than half of the respondents reported using multimedia marketing as their main promotional tool. The respondents in this study indicated that corporate sponsors, television, radio, and newspapers ads were the most effective means in relaying the message to the intended target markets. Also, the respondents indicated that contests and billboards were the most ineffective means in relaying the message to the intended target markets. Over half the respondents stated that their greatest constraint was the lack of finances, and to overcome this constraint they needed to prioritize their efforts. Over two- thirds of the respondents stated that their athletic departments placed a high emphasis on marketing intercollegiate athletics.