The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace

The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace | Irving Rein, Philip Kotler, ... | How to prosper in a "competitive and fragmented marketplace"

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The Elusive Fan: R...

	The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace Irving Rein, Philip Kotler, ... McGraw-Hill, 2006 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Sports are a multibillion-dollar global business that will continue to grow by leaps and bounds into the foreseeable future. The bad news is: It's never been harder to attract, engage, and retain the sports fan.

Today's sports fans are bombarded by choices. Traditional sports, such as baseball, football, and basketball, compete for fans' dollars with snowboarding, lacrosse, poker?even paintball. The old business formulas, developed in the age of three TV networks and creaky stadiums, no longer apply.

World-renowned communication expert Irving Rein, international marketing guru Philip Kotler, and communication specialist Ben Shields deliver an innovative new business model centered squarely on fan satisfaction and retention. They give you the tools to transform your sports product into an enduring brand-immune to the vagaries of winning and losing-that quickly adapts to changing market conditions. Along the way they illustrate their points with fascinating case studies, including

Manchester United's transformation from a plucky home team to a billion-dollar international franchise Professional golf phenomenon Michelle Wie's quest to maximize her talents and marketability Southlake Carroll High School football team's benchmarking of professional and college football programs to build its own brand Daytona International Speedway's reinvention of fan intimacy

Combining expert analysis with field-tested strategies for winning hearts and minds, The Elusive Fan is your guide to surviving and thriving in today's ever-widening world of sports.

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informative, entertaining, timely

The Elusive Fan is an enjoyable read with a good blend of facts and analysis. It is entertaining yet serious. As new forms of entertainment emerge rapidly and businesses of all types hire consultants to compete for our attention and dollars, The Elusive Fan articulates the changes we are witnessing and describes how sports fit in to our evolving economy and culture.

How to prosper in a "competitive and fragmented marketplace"

Competition for disposal income spent on recreation and entertainment is probably more intense now than it has ever been before. On any given day, we have so many choices and all of them have direct or indirect costs. This is especially true of sporting events, many of which are televised. The title of this book refers to someone whose financial support is increasingly more difficult to attract and then sustain. According to Rein, Kotler, and Shields, "All sports need to be constantly adapting and if necessary changing to accommodate a competitive and fragmented marketplace." Their book suggests how to achieve that objective by adopting and implementing a "strategic approach that emphasizes fan connection, innovative segmentation, brand-building, and sustaining market share."

In essence, marketing either creates or increases demand for whatever is offered. With regard to the sports industry (at all levels from local youth and school teams to professional leagues and international competition such as the Olympics), the authors assert that those responsible for marketing must reinvent their thinking in terms of athletes, teams, leagues , and events in order to differentiate them from competition which, yes, includes the option to commit no hours and dollars whatsoever. Instead of buying a ticket to a baseball game, for example, and probably purchase food, beverages, and merchandise while attending it, why not stay home and watch the same game on television? Or instead watch another television program or DVD? Or read a book such as The Elusive Fan? Or go for a walk in the woods?

In this volume, Rein, Kotler, and Shields address questions such as these:

1. How to connect with "the elusive fan"?
2. How to reinvent a sports brand?
3. How to generate the transformation of that brand?
4. How to implement the brand's transformation?
5. How to communicate the brand effectively?
6. How to sustain the fan connection with the brand?
7. Which sports branding initiatives have been most successful?
8. What lessons can be learned from them?
9. What is the future of "fan connection"?
10. How to respond effectively to "the most elusive fans who are just now being born"?

This brilliant book will be of substantial value to decision-makers in the sports industry who must decide how to market what they offer to an increasingly more crowded marketplace but I presume to suggest that it will also be of great interest and value to others who also struggle to understand -- and then respond effectively to -- the increasingly more "elusive" consumers within those decision-makers' marketplace.

I especially appreciate the fact that Rein, Kotler, and Shields devote relatively little attention to theories, hypotheses, etc. and spend most of their time rigorously examining real-world examples of those organizations which have achieved marketing success by initiating and then sustaining the aforementioned "strategic approach that emphasizes fan connection, innovative segmentation, brand-building, and sustaining market share." They are a commendably diverse selection of effectively marketed sports brands (both individuals and organizations) and include the Kentucky Derby, Maria Sharapova, owner Mark Cuban the Dallas Mavericks, the University of Vermont men's basketball team, general manager Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics , South Lake Carroll (Texas) High School's football program, the Professional Bowlers Association, NASCAR's Daytona 500 (the "Great American Race"), and the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team. However different they are in almost every respect, all are successful sports brands because each "has transformed into a strong, identifiable, and differentiated brand and is an example of how to execute two critical brand differentiation tools - [begin italics] benchmarking and innovation. [end italics]"

In the final chapter, Rein, Kotler, and Shields identify and then discuss six successful "drivers" of successful sports brands (please see pages 295-306) and as I absorbed and digested this material, it struck me that the same "drivers" (after appropriate modification) could achieve the same marketing objectives for almost any other category of brand, especially as most products and services have by now become commodities in their respective marketplaces which are also "crowded" in ways and to an extent which are unprecedented.

Trace the etymology of the word "fan" and you will learn that it is an abbreviation of the word "fanatic" and probably first appeared in England in 1525, referring to an "insane person," from the Latin word fanaticus. Winston Churchill once explained that a fanatic "is someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Although Rein, Kotler, and Shields limit their attention to the sports world, I again suggest that their probing and illuminating insights also have direct, indeed compelling relevance to most (if not all other) market segments and categories. Moreover, that relevance seems certain to become even greater in years to come.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Michael Mandelbaum's The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football, and Basketball and What They See When They Do; also D. Stanley Eitzen`s Sport in Contemporary Society: An Anthology.

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"The Elusive Fan" Won't Have Any Trouble Captivating a Wide Audience

Rein, Shields and Kotler manage to score effortlessly in this fascinating look behind the scenes of sports marketing. In the electronic age, consumers are bombarded by so many choices, retaining fans is an immense and expensive challenge. The ultimate arena, in which sports and teams compete for market share, advertising dollars, ticket revenue and television proceeds is a diffcult place to compete with old business models and antiquated ideas.

The dynamic answer to the daunting challenges posed by today's marketplace is provided by communications scholars Irving Rein and Ben Shields and renowned marketing guru Philip Kotler. This book provides a new understanding how the sports marketing world works, how teams can capture a larger share that market by adhering to new fan-based management philosophies.

This book is the rare subject to transcend the boundries between the worlds of sports and marketing. Any serious sports fan will be enthralled by the fascinating case studies and behind-the-scenes look at professional athletics. Industry insiders, marketers, advertisers and communications specialists will be equally glad to have read this ground-breaking book. Well regarded markerting and communications experts, Rein and Kotler bring experience and flare to the "Elusive Fan" and are matched perfectly as writing partners with the young and rising-star communications specialist Ben Shields.

Buy this book and peek behind the curtain at what makes the most exciting industry in the world as thrilling as it is and how the all-important fan fits into it all.

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The concepts span beyond sports

The Elusive Fan may be about sports, but the principles and strategies the authors discuss can be applied to any sector in the world of business. I am in the film and entertainment industry and have benefited greatly from the innovative concepts The Elusive Fan develops. I particularly liked chapter three on how fans connect, which details the critical connection points that encourage fans to choose one product over another. The book's branding focus has also helped me refine my segmentation strategies and develop a marketing plan. I wouldn't call myself a sports fan, but reading how competitive the sports industry has become -- and what the authors recommend to attract and engage fans -- gave me insight into how to market my own products and brand. Whether it's sports, film, or insurance, we're all searching for our Elusive Fans, and Rein, Kotler, and Shields have the definitive guide on how to capture them.

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Not Just for Sports

Although the Elusive Fan is written for sports marketing and managers in mind, the concepts are equally applicable to other entities which depend upon their members for loyalty and financial support. Like sports, the arts are facing new competition and are also a marketplace for people with only a limited amount of time and money. My husband works for a non profit art foundation and the marketing ideas presented in the book apply to that type of entity just the same as to the sports groups. One of his responsibilities is increasing interest in art among different community groups. He found the marketing information very useful and has implemented some of the suggestions. For example, he has applied the author's recommendations for engaging the youth market and expanded the youth art camp at the foundation, hopefully developing loyalty and a lifelong interest in art for students (and their parents). The book offers lots of ideas for attracting fans/members and developing a thorough brand-building framework, often using real world case studies. I definitely recommend this book to anyone in an industry which needs to attract and keep their fans/members.

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