Overview
Sports play a very important role in society as a whole. It is against this background that trends in sports are of great significance to the state of the society. Apart from recreation sports play other important roles. For instance sports are a business industry on its own generating huge revenues. As a result sports offer opportunities for investment and entrepreneurship. Sports are of great essence to the field of marketing (Baurakis, 2004). As a result the discipline of marketing has a lot of relation to sport. The use of sport as a tool of marketing cannot be underestimated. Sporting events are carefully selected for the purposes of marketing. In fact contemporary marketing environments make good use of sports and its corresponding events to market products and services. Soccer plays a central role in society both as a form of recreation, entertainment of business. Under business soccer is of relevance in two different ways. First and foremost is the Marketing aspect where soccer is used in advertising and promotional campaigns by companies. This involves the teams and players as well as the events of soccer. Soccer team sponsorships, is very common in the world today. Football stadiums are decorated with adverts and promotional labels that promote certain products. At the same time soccer is considered an investment bearing in mind that soccer teams are owned by businessmen and the generate revenues. Soccer jus like any other form of sport has been experiencing changing trends in the recent past. There are changes are have been taking place in the whole field that affect the way in which soccer is conducted and all the other relevant aspects. The aim of this paper is to take an analytical look at the whole aspect of trends in sport. Special reference will be given to soccer. The paper will also discuss the changes in trend of soccer and their implications.
Trends Analysis
Soccer is influenced by the change of events that affect the whole sport. Contemporary marketing environments therefore are competitive in nature and as such are prone to sudden change in trends and focus. It is normal therefore for marketers to learn to adapt to the changes (Bearden & Ingram, 2001). An example of adaptation is the designing of marketing schemes after due considerations of the changes taking place in the sports industry. The shifting of trends in the contemporary marketing environment is brought about by various factors that have a lot of implication to the nature and functioning of the marketing practice. As a result marketing of today requires an understanding of the dynamics so as to make it in a highly competitive environment (Baurakis 2004). Due to the innovation and creativity the number of products and services being introduced in the market each and every day keeps increasing. As a result the older products soon lose the flavour and the consumers go for new products. At the same time due to the concept of customization most products and services are being customized to meet the needs and requirements of the customers. Therefore the traditional concepts of production and marketing find no place in today’s marketing environment. It is against this background that the marketing environment has become so competitive and dynamic that marketers must adapt to the changing scenario. Another major cause of the shift in trends is technology.
Trends in Soccer
Trends in marketing environment are brought about by the changing factors that have an influence on the same. The role played by soccer in marketing is huge. As a result the changes in trends associated with soccer have a lot of implication to the marketing field as a whole. The marketing environment is subject to the shifting parameters that determine the functioning of businesses. In fact marketing decisions are made in consideration of the ever changing trends in the marketing environment. As it was defined earlier microenvironment aspects refer to the internal influences of the company that will ultimately affected its trading capabilities. This is usually facilitated by the departments in the organization such us finance, human resource, sales and the rest. Even though the departments are managed differently, they have an impact on the entire company. Any simple decision that is made in the sales department will ultimately affect the marketing of the company (Eberlin & Libey, 1993). When making budgets for the year, the company needs to make overall decisions for the company that must be implement in every department. Every department is important in ensuring that the company achieves the set goals. The managers may tend to neglect certain department or give priority to the departments that they feel are more important in the organization. Before they know or realize it, they find the company not running into the direction that it was meant to. It is therefore important for the company to ensure that every department has strong codes that they are operating on and that the personnel there in are working equally hard.
The marketing strategy may also be hindered by the distribution of the product. The company may do all that they can to ensure that their products are known all over. Such efforts may however be hindered by the fact that the consumers are not access to the products that they have been told about. As a company launches into extensive marketing strategy, it should also have in place a strong distribution channel that will ensure that their products go as far as their marketing strategy. With the expansion of e-marketing, local products are gaining a lot of popularity on the international market. The customers that may be curious to have a taste of the products may however be disappointed as they realize that the company cannot supply them with the products (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2007). This is usually caused by companies that are still experimenting on the capability of their advertisements reaching far. This may however be dangerous as it may cause complete lack of trust among their clients that were anxiously waiting for the products. As companies invest into modern means of advertising, they should realize that their products may be demand further and therefore make arrangements on how to reach their customers on time.
The economic environment has a lot of impacts on soccer as a sport. There are seasons when almost everybody is going through an economic crunch. The economic situation may also positively impact on the company where the purchasing power of the customers is high (Adriana, 1999). These are the seasons that the company needs to take advantage of the boom and invest into large scale production. Some companies may be slow in understanding such future changes and sticking to their normal marketing methods. For instance when they don’t recognize the changes taking place in sports they stand to lose out in the marketing environment. They later on come to realize the harm they have caused to themselves. Economic changes can not be avoided and thus requires the company to be alert and take the necessary precautions to avoid losses.
Politics may also affect the market environment especially when a country experiences transitions in its political leaders. A new leader may decide to come in with new economic policies that may have an impact on companies and other business organizations. Economic policies may also be amended by an act of parliament which may either work for the good or bad of the company (Bijoor, 2001). Whatever the case, the company requires to be ready for a change as the political environment of the country also goes through changes. Such changes may also be done considering the international and national challenges that they may be facing. A perfect example is the changing standards of international football. These call for a dynamic approach towards marketing. The companies may have nothing to do with them but to adjust to them and ensure that their marketing activities are not tampered with. The political situation of other countries may also affect the marketing environment of the country especially if they are involved in international trade. A country may impose some trade barriers on foreign companies and thus affecting their trading activities.
This is a research that has to be done by the company before it launches its production. It is usually advisable that the company engages in production of products that are readily acceptable by the people within such location (Botha, 2005). This will minimize on the issues that may arise due to misunderstandings. They can also establish a marketing strategy within their locality before going further. A company also needs to know the different cultural settings of the communities around so as to know the sales promotion strategies that it will employ. The company will also know the different adjustments that they will have to make so as to continually satisfy their people. The cultural inclination of the people usually change with time, the company will hence have to make the adjustments so as to accommodate the changes that may arise.
The market environment may also be affected by the changes in technology that requires it to make adjustments. With advances in the fields being experienced day by day, it has become costly for many business establishments that are forced to sell or damp off their previous machineries for them to acquire new ones. The move is usually irresistible as it becomes the best alternative that will make them fit in the competitive market. Some of their technological advances are however very economical when they are looked at in terms of the production expenses that they will minimize. Modern machines being invented have the ability to multitask and thus ensuring that the company spends less in having to recruit more personnel (Kreuz & Forster, 2006). The company may however need some technical advice concerning the same so that they don’t spend money on machineries that will not have a long impact on them. When it comes to establishing plants and machineries, the company needs to ensure that they are assets that will be able to use for many years to come.
Conclusion
The changes in trends of soccer have a lot of implications on the marketing field as a whole. The marketing environment is usually affected by different factors that may change from time to time. Up to now since the time when soccer was invented a lot of changes have taken place. These changes reflect the changes of time and are necessitated by the innovation and creation of new ideas. Throughout the time soccer has played a vital role in the marketing of goods and also as an industry on its own. The changing trends in soccer are in line with the changes in time. Most of them derive significance from the advances in technology and innovation which necessitate the alteration in the way things are done. The trends are of great impact to the marketing which has a lot of relationship with the sport. Soccer just like any other sport occupies a central position in the marketing and advertisements of products. The contemporary marketing environment therefore has a lot of reliance on sporting especially soccer. The paper has taken an analytical look at the whole aspect of trends in sports. The paper has therefore discussed the relevance of the various trends in sports to other aspects of life. It has been deduced that sports have a lot of impact on marketing. As a result the trends in sports have affected contemporary marketing environments to a great extend. The paper primarily focussed on the sport of soccer. The various trends of soccer have been discussed and their implications reviewed.
References
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