Introduction to Sport Marketing

Now in a fully revised and updated third edition, Introduction to Sport Marketing is a clear, straightforward, and concise introduction to the theory and practice of sport marketing, and the only sport marketing textbook you will ever need.

Built around a step-by-step framework for developing effective sport marketing plans, and full of real-world, international cases, data, and examples, the text helps students to develop the essential skills and subject knowledge required to thrive in today’s fast-paced sport industry. It covers sport marketing at all levels, from grassroots and community sport to international mega-events, and across all sectors from professional sport to public and not-for-profit organisations. Leading the reader through the marketing process, from analysis and setting a strategy to planning the marketing mix, implementation, and evaluation, the text introduces the products, services, distribution channels, and stakeholders that generate value, including brands, merchandise and licensed products, players and athletes, leagues and franchises, and events. This new edition includes expanded coverage of cutting-edge topics, including social media, digital sport marketing, esports, the social impact of sport, ‘sportwashing’ and soft power, innovation and fast prototyping, consumer psychology, and diversity and equity. It includes useful features throughout, from review questions to guides to further resources.

This is an essential textbook for any sport marketing course taken as a part of a degree programme in sport management, sport marketing, sport business, sport development, or business, management, and marketing.

Aaron C.T. Smith is Professor and Director of the University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UC-RISE) in Australia, and Professor in the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University London, UK. Aaron works at the intersections of money and meaning, and brains and brands to explain sport performance, business innovation, fan psychology, and digital engagement.

Constantino Stavros is Professor of Marketing at RMIT University, Australia, and Deputy Dean (Learning & Teaching) in its School of Economics, Finance & Marketing. He possesses a global understanding of contemporary marketing practice, particularly in the application of strategic concepts in communication and the development and function of marketing both through, and of, sport.

James Skinner is Dean of Newcastle Business School in NSW, Australia. Prior to this appointment, he was the Director of the Institute for Sport Business, and Professor of Sport Business at Loughborough University London, UK. His research transverses both the commercial and socio-cultural contributions and challenges of sport. His current research centres on the global political economy of sport and role of sport in shaping and reshaping a nation’s identity and building its brand.

Andrea N. Geurin is Professor in Sport Business at Loughborough University London, UK, where she also serves as the Director of the Institute for Sport Business. Her research focuses primarily on athletes’ and sport organisations’ use of social and digital media as a marketing communication tool. In 2023, she was honoured with the North American Society for Sport Management’s (NASSM) inaugural Distinguished Research Award, recognising her outstanding contributions to the field of sport management. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for European Sport Management Quarterly and Managing Sport and Leisure.

Lauren M. Burch is Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University London, UK. She also serves as the Programme Director for MSc in Sport Analytics and Technologies. Her current research interests focus on the examination of discourse and sentiment within content on social media, specifically focusing on online abuse from a racial or gendered perspective in sport.