Relationship Marketing in Sport: An Exploratory Study in the UK Context

Abstract

A sports organisation is a particular case of a service-provider whose survival is heavily dependent on the loyalty of its fan-base, and key concepts and practices of relationship marketing intuitively lend themselves to this context. This exploratory study is to understand the prevalence of relationship marketing practices in sports organisations in a professional sport set-up in an evolved market for sports management. The study finds that sports organisations are aware of the need for relationship marketing practices, and also finds that sport organisations are making a conscious attempt towards implementing relationship marketing practices in managing the connection with their consumers by allocating resources to this effort.