factors for evaluating the web as a marketing tool in greek sport greek ...

Tsitskari et all.: Fastors for evaluating the web as a marketing tool in Greek sport

Serb J Sports Sci 4(3): 107-117

Serbian Journal of Sports Sciences

ISSN 1820-6301

Original article

2010, 4(3): 107-117

ID 177996300

Received: 05 Mar 2010 Accepted: 22 Jul 2010

UDC 004.738.5:658.8]:796(495) ; 005.52:796

FACTORS FOR EVALUATING THE WEB AS A MARKETING TOOL IN GREEK SPORT Tsitskari Efi1, Costa George1, Tzetzis George2, Quick Shayne3 & Kioumourtzoglou Efthimis1 Department of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, Democritus University of Thrace, GREECE. Department of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki, GREECE. 3Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, AUSTRALIA.

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Abstract Sport marketing managers worldwide are exploring and experimenting with the Web in an attempt to develop more effective communication and marketing tools. This is especially the case in Greece where in recent years there has been a desire to create team-based websites that are more fan friendly, relevant and accessible. This paper aimed to develop an instrument for evaluating the marketing variables (SIMEvI) that should appear on sport teams’ websites. 900 sport fans who declared themselves as internet users were surveyed at basketball and football games in Greece. Factor and reliability analyses were conducted which revealed a valid and reliable evaluation tool. The major elements of the sport marketing mix (product, price-place, promotion and public relations) were shown to be the ones that most affect the public when evaluating marketing through the Web, so it is obvious that the evaluation by the sport fans of the marketing variables that appear or should appear on Greek sport teams’ websites is a multidimensional concept. Moreover, the SIMEvI scale seems to be easily implemental and particularly appealing to web and sport managers, who are interested in evaluating their sport sites in terms of marketing in Greece, offering by doing so a competitive advantage that would possibly increase their fans’ satisfaction with the website.

Key words: Marketing mix, Greek teams’ websites, internet marketing evaluation tool

INTRODUCTION Information and communication technologies (ICT) is a domain undergoing an accelerated transformation and evolution since the time the personal computer became a key business accessory during the early 1980s. The ICT evolution and the increasing penetration of internet technology in all areas of human activity, combined with significant developments in the socio-economic, political and demographic landscape have been continuously transforming the market dynamics and the consumer behaviour over the last fifteen years [14]. Although the Internet enables companies in general and sport companies in particular to collect large amounts of data, the intangible nature of some aspects of e-business makes it difficult to measure the contribution of specific e-business initiatives to overall business performance [19]. Moreover, the Web stagnation of recent years [12] has led to the conclusion that the lack of strategy and clear objectives [31], old-fashioned product orientation, limited understanding of customer needs and poor commercial competencies are very frequently mentioned as issues having contributed to the Web’s continuing demise [12]. Since the beginning of the century, the popularity of the Internet with consumers and businesses has driven thousands of firms to promote their products and services using internet technology, and the websites have created a competitive arena that enables exposure to millions of consumers worldwide [38]. As a consequence, since the 1990s the Internet as a global communication and exchange medium has witnessed unprecedented growth. It has grown faster than all other forms of electronic technology and all other communication media [9]. Zakron at 2005 suggested that globally, the number of websites increased from 23,000 in 1995 to more than 55 million in 2005 with Forrester Research Inc. (2005), highlighting that 107



Europe-based internet marketers experienced a 44% increase of online sales in 2004 alone. Nowadays, the importance of the Internet to buyers, sellers, and intermediaries across all aspects of the relationship continuum, from prospective customers to customer retention, is unquestioned [32]. The Internet has been a key driver for corporate marketing during the past ten years [40]. It offers speed, reach and multimedia advantages, and has altered the way in which firms interact with their customers, suppliers, competitors and employees [7]. Businesses are increasingly investing substantial resources in online marketing and consumer use of the Internet is increasing correspondingly [28]. As more consumers use online technology, they have higher expectations of the nature and availability of the services that are provided [3]. As for the sport industry, not since the advent of commercial television has sport had such an opportunity to develop techniques for using a new communication medium. Through various means sport has created a symbiotic relationship with the Internet in much the same way that it did with television. Brunelli and Semprini [10] believed that sport is one of the most attractive ways by which one’s attention is attracted to a web page. This assertion is supported by a number of other scholars arguing that the websites are an ideal medium to target sport fans [20, 34]. Sport marketers worldwide and at all levels of the sport industry have intensively and extensively worked at incorporating emergent technologies into their marketing strategies [18]. Constantinides [13] argued that most academics and practitioners agree that demographic, social, economic, cultural, psychological and other personal factors are largely beyond the control and influence of the marketer and have a major effect on consumer behaviour. Although marketers have little or no influence on the above factors, they may have some bearing on the outcome of the buying process by engaging different marketing tools, the most prominent being the 4Ps – product, price, place, promotion – also known as the marketing mix [8]. While the value of the mix as a marketing tool is frequently disputed [12], marketing practitioners nonetheless widely deem the 4Ps as the tools that can influence the consumer’s behaviour and the final outcome of the buyer-seller interaction [36]. In sport, Brown [9] undertook an examination of the content of Major Baseball League (MLB) sites in the United States and found that all the established criteria for a successful website actually resided on MLB websites. The author determined that the content of these sites related directly to the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place and promotion). Turner [37] completed a similar survey of Australian Football League clubs and Beech et al. [6] focused on an initial survey of English Premier League football club sites. All the research concluded the importance of applying the marketing mix to sport clubs websites. Further work has explored the commercial implications of the Web and website development for sports clubs. There is a strong emphasis in the literature on the marketing effectiveness of the medium. Many commentators draw upon the “4Ps” (product, place, price, promotion) or “5Ps” (product, place, price, promotion and public relations) as a basis for their research. Johns [24] examined sports promotion on the Web; Turner [37] and Harverson [20] highlighted the product development opportunities emerging from the convergence of the Internet and television, while Tsitskari et al. [35] examined the use of the Web as a marketing and public relations tool in sport. Other authors, for example Pope and Forrest [30], investigated other factors of sport website marketing and agreed to six essential factors to be considered in sport marketing and website management: mission, calculating the margins, addressing the mechanics, planning the marketing, performing the maintenance and evaluating the metrics. Feather [17] stated that companies that successfully catch the Web’s digital advantage would incorporate 12 key marketing strategic elements into their websites: content, context, choice, communication, collection of customer database, connectivity of fans, convenience, customization, cost savings, community, cool experience and confidence. The primary goal of Feather’s “12 Cs of website marketing” for any e-retailer was to get their websites added to their customers’ favourites lists. Finally, Chang [11] used the above 12 key strategic elements of professional sport organization websites and classified them into four types of online information: webbased sport media information (content & context), convenience (choice & convenience), interactive communication (collection of customer database, communication, connectivity of fans) and value-added services (customization, cost saving, community, cool experience and confidence). Online marketers can influence the decision making process of the virtual customers by engaging traditional, physical marketing tools but mainly by creating and delivering the proper online experience by using both the 4Ps of the traditional marketing mix and more complex elements. While it is important for sport marketers to understand how to use Web technology as an effective marketing and communication tool, most of the research in the use of the Web has focused on describing the use of this medium by marketers and sport organizations [38]. Limited studies have focused on what the audience wants to see on those sites. It is true that the Web is becoming an indispensable tool for companies that emphasize a customer-service orientation [25]. Walace et al. [39] found that if customers have multiple channels (including the Internet) for interaction and purchase, they are much more likely to be satisfied and loyal. Since perceived value influences customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty, this is of significant strategic importance to most companies [40] and as a result to sport organizations as well. The understanding of the marketing factors that positively affect people when using a sport website may help in the establishment of customers loyal to sport organizations. 108



Tsitskari et al. [35] and Delpy and Bosetti [16] have all suggested that there are correlations between the average sports supporter and the average internet user in that there is a tendency for them to be educated young males. With much of the sport fans’ community engagement online, it is clear that online marketing using the Internet has significant relevance to today’s sport organizations. However, while many organizations have readily incorporated the new technology into their marketing plans, some have had serious reservations with regard to the time and cost required for the initial development and the ongoing maintenance of their websites. In addition, many such groups have also questioned the effectiveness of the Web as a marketing tool [36]. Marshall et al. [26] found that the dominant attitude among businesses when deciding to develop a Web presence appears to have been the need to be on the Internet – but without clear goals or research to substantiate the decision. Related to this assertion Beech et al. [6] comment that “some sectors have been rapid and enthusiastic adopters, while in other sectors companies have taken more of a ‘wait and see’ approach” (p.176). Greek sport organizations clearly fall into this latter category. Complex factors can be advanced as to the reason for the delay in embracing the new technology, ranging from concerns about the technical factors shaping the development and maintenance of internet communications to factors specific to the sector. Nonetheless given international experience and growth, the slowness of Greek sporting organizations to adopt and utilise the new technologies has been surprising even though many are the companies that are having a difficulty in predicting the likely effect of the Internet on their marketing and in deciding what they should do to establish a presence on the Internet [40]. Some analysts have contended that the rapid pace of technological change has made industry analysis less valuable. As the costs associated with developing, implementing and maintaining a web presence can be high, e-business projects need to be well thought, evaluated and monitored carefully to determine whether they are delivering what they are supposed to deliver. This means that they should first of all understand and decide which objectives they wish to achieve through their web pages. In Greece, where most internet presence efforts, especially in the sport sector, are still in their early steps, customers should not only evaluate the website performance but actually propose which marketing variables should be provided by the sport websites in order to satisfy or attempt to satisfy their interactive needs and wants. This is mainly the reason why the instrument developed included only marketing variables appearing on sport teams’ websites and not other variables dealing with the site’s speed, navigation style and design. By creating an instrument to provide greater rationality for website development and maintenance it is believed that Greek sports teams may attain a higher level of confidence in their decision making as it pertains to internet usage. Through a literature review, this paper wished to record the marketing variables that should exist in sport teams’ websites. It then aimed to create the SIMEvI – Sport Internet Marketing Evaluation Instrument, a valid and reliable tool with which Greek sport teams’ fans could evaluate the marketing variables appearing on the websites and not the variables dealing with the design, navigation or speed of the site). By satisfying the needs of their sport fans, the teams should at least feel confident about the marketing techniques that they develop through their websites. The research questions examined were as follows: • • •

RQ1: How many dimensions are there and in what respect is the Greek fans’ evaluation of the teams’ website marketing? RQ2: What are the most desirable aspects appearing on sport teams’ websites? RQ3: How gender affects the Greek fans’ evaluation of the marketing dimensions appearing on sport teams’ websites?

MATHERIALS AND METHODS METHODS SAMPLE – DATA COLLECTION Data were gathered during three basketball and three football games that took place in Thessaloniki (Greece) during April 2006. Games were selected from the Greek schedule of both basketball and football leagues. All three games for each sport were played at different stadiums in order to eliminate the possibility of asking the same fans. In order to select the subjects at each game randomly, the interviewers obtained a seating chart of each of the facilities and selected 150 seats from all sections of each venue prior to the games, using a random chart number. At Greek basketball and football stadiums, ticket prices are not a limiting factor as they do not really vary. With a possible exception of the VIP lounge that guests and sponsors occupy without paying, almost all Greek stadiums have a general admission charge. In cases when the chosen designated seats were empty, alternative seat numbers were selected. If those seats were also empty, the subjects were marked as “Non-Respondent”. The researchers believed that by using random procedures and a rather large sample size, the sample would be representative of the total professional basketball and football spectator population in Northern Greece. One hundred and fifty subjects were randomly selected among the spectators in each of the six games, 109



building a total sample size of 900 subjects. If a respondent declared himself/herself as a non-internet user, he/she was excluded from the sample. Only five fans answered that they had no internet experience and they were substituted by those who agreed to participate in the study and were sitting next to the seats selected on the seating chart. The sample was skewed towards well educated (49.8%) males (61.8%), within an age range of 19-30 (60%). Finally, 71.6% of the respondents declared that they used the Internet more than frequently, and 55% that they often visited their sport team’s website. Considered from a marketing perspective, it should be noted that all three teams whose facilities were used for the survey had quite organized websites.

INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT The basic purpose of this questionnaire was to evaluate the Greek fan’s perspective of the marketing variables that appear on the teams’ websites. In order to assemble these items, an extensive study of the existing bibliography on internet marketing in general and on sport internet marketing in particular was conducted and concluded to 41 variables. Moreover, a content analysis of 100 randomly chosen European and North American professional football and basketball team websites was undertaken. The list of all the first league basketball and football teams included all websites except for those that had no English version. As a result of the content analysis, nine more variables were added. The list finally included 50 items. The questionnaire consisted of 5 categories taking into consideration: Brown [9], and his segregation based on the 4Ps; Mullin et al. [27] and their segregation of the marketing mix based on the 5Ps; and the propositions of five sport marketing experts. The categories were "Product" (11 variables, which provided information about the team), "Price" (3 variables, which provided options of electronic sales of tickets and of the team’s merchandise), "Place" (3 variables that presented each team’s ground services), "Promotion" (16 variables with promotion options offered by the team’s website) and "Public Relations" (17 variables concerning the communication that the team develops with its fans) for a total of 50 marketing variables (see Table 1). The choice of all 50 items and their categorization was determined by the literature review, by the content analysis made of the teams’ websites, and by the experts’ propositions. Especially in the case of “Place”, defined in general as “distribution of the product to the right place at the right time to allow ease of purchase” (p. 262, [33]), the researchers included variables related to the distribution of the core product, that is the presentation of the stadium services through the team’s website. As mentioned above, the development of internet marketing by the sports teams in Greece is still in its infancy; out of all the professional basketball and football teams (a total of 30), only three offer the alternative of purchasing tickets online and just four sell the team’s products through their websites. Furthermore, it is revealed that Greeks have only recently discovered the potential of this new mass medium [22], both in terms of getting generally informed and dealing with their transactions. By using the marketing mix proposed by Mullin et al. [27], the researchers tried to fit the new standards of internet marketing to the Greek reality described above and tried to create an evaluation tool which may be used by all sport organizations worldwide which do not feel really confident about their developing a marketing presence on the Internet. Referring to the previously described Greek circumstances, and after a thorough literature review, the researchers concluded that the marketing mix should be the foundation for the creation of the internet marketing variables evaluation tool. Future research may build on it or may expand it to new models and theories concerning the evaluation of the sport website marketing efforts.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS The fans were provided with questionnaires which sought responses to questions related to the perceived importance of each variable, which allowed them to respond according to a 7-point Likert style scale (7: "very important" to 1: "not important at all"). A pilot test was conducted at two basketball facilities in Thessaloniki and 100 sport fans, aged 15-55 years old, completed the questionnaire. This first data collection showed no comprehension problems regarding the questionnaire variables. The evaluation tool was then complemented by 200 sport fans at five amateur games. These fans voluntarily offered their phone numbers so that a re-test could be conducted. The measure was purified through Exploratory Factor Analysis and Reliability Analysis (Cronbach Alpha test). Twenty eight (28) items had high factor loadings and belonged to four (4) variables. "Product" (with questions such as: “Which of the following do you think is most important to appear on a team’s website?: 1. The team’s history, 2. The results of the team’s games”, etc), "Price-Place" (e.g. “1. Online ordering of tickets, 2. Directions to the ground”, etc), "Promotion" (e.g. “1. Products that the team provides, 2. Free downloads”, etc) and "Public Relations" (e.g. “1. E-mailing the team, 2. Forum-chat room”, etc). The alpha for the whole scale was found to be 0.96, which is satisfactory, while the sub-scales reliabilities ranged from 0.75 to 0.90. The first part of the survey – as described above – was conducted on-site while the re-test was conducted two weeks later by phone. The results of this test – re-test analysis were more than satisfactory (ICC=0.880, p