Week 2 Forum

Sports is a very effective tool the company can use to marketing campaigns for its products .since the size of popularity of sports continue to grow with time, companies can take of advantage of  the emotions attached to sporting  activities by relating the products with that particular sport (Shilbury, Westerbeek, Quick, Funk, & Karg,). The extreme sports can be used by the companies to provide their brand with a creative backdrop which will help to market the product.

The biggest advantage of using sports is that they can be held or watched in various platforms which means that marketing of the company’s product can be done in different ways. Furthermore this marketing strategy allow the marketers to ride on the popularity and devotion that fans have towards the various extreme sports (Shilbury, Westerbeek, Quick, Funk, & Karg,). Such sports draws the attention of the fans and any marketer who associate with their preferred sporting activity is guaranteed to capture their attention. People like to get involved in daring activities or get the thrill of the sports men or women overcoming hurdles to win. This strategy is quite inexpensive especially where the sports is managed such that there are very minimal to no case of injuries or casualties. Different customers prefer different sports and thus when the marketer is able to understand the customers’ preferences, they can select different sports for various market segments. This will ensure that they remain relevant to the target market (Shilbury, Westerbeek, Quick, Funk, & Karg,). Thus the extreme sports and martial arts will have a fascinating effect on the potential customer even where they are not willing to participate in them. The products will inspire reaction of admiration when they are combined with aggressive sports in such a manner.

This strategy has its disadvantages especially when it comes to the cost involved especially in case of a small companies. The cost of hiring venues and any advertisements that would be needed to accompany the sporting activities can be prohibitive so much that the benefits arising from such activities may not vindicate the efforts (Shilbury, Westerbeek, Quick, Funk & Karg,). Moreover, it is difficult to get the potential customers to admire the products if the impact of such sports is short term. Another disadvantage is that the moral failings of the participants of those dangerous sports can dent the brand’s image if it turns out ugly.

For the purpose of promoting the products I will use these dangerous sports but with tight guidelines to be followed. I will endeavour to get a chance to create a deeper association of the brand by tapping into the emotions behind the adrenaline and danger.

 

Reference

Shilbury, D., Westerbeek, H., Quick, S., Funk, D. C., & Karg, A. (2014). Strategic sport marketing.16-25