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Sport marketing, sponsorship, marketing strategy, event management.

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Business and Management.

This case discusses sport marketing within an emerging market business environment. PromoSeven Sports Marketing is the focus company. PromoSeven name is synonymous with major events particularly Emirates Airline Rugby 7s and the Olympic Council of Asia. The case highlights the challenges facing sponsorship, event management, sport marketing and PromoSeven's own business strategy after the 2009 economic downturn drew attention to Dubai's financial situation.

This case can be used to teach sport marketing, sponsorship, event management, and marketing strategy. It can also be used to identify target market segments for sports and the positioning that may appeal to those segments.

A teaching note is available on request.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the four strategy tools of positions and positioning: leader, challenger, follower and niche. It suggests that it is important for managers to understand where their business fits in the market, vis‐à‐vis the competition. Without this knowledge, it is difficult to identify a differential advantage that will give the necessary competitive edge to attract the target customer.

This paper reviews positioning using a back to basics explanation. A simply constructed matrix – represented by variables: company‐focused or competition‐focused and pushes the boundaries or stays within boundaries – illustrates business philosophy in the marketplace.

Airlines positioned in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aviation industry exemplify a market environment with companies holding distinctive positions. Emirates Airline is the leader, Etihad Airways is the challenger, Gulf Air is the follower and Air Arabia is successfully established in the niche position. A summary explanation of business operations for each airline supports the discussion.

Marketing practice aligned with textbook theory is identified in the growth‐oriented UAE aviation industry. In real‐world terms, four airlines distinctively hold each of the four positions while a fifth airline is making inroads into the regional market and appears to be challenging the current challenger.

The strategy simply stated in this paper suggests that the market environment is dynamic and constant assessment is necessary. Managers seeking to maximize differential advantage vis‐à‐vis the competition should consider using more than one strategy tool particularly if it contributes to a manager's ability to understand the market environment.

This research aims to present observations of the listening actions displayed by service providers when interacting with customers in retail establishments. A composite of kinetic actions, verbal discourse, and behavior is observed and assessed as “listening actions”.

Service providers in 50 retail stores (personal apparel and specialty) in Dubai were engaged in mystery shopper interactions, each involving two fieldworkers – one of whom acted as a mystery shopper and the other as a secret observer. The typical norms of engagement in an interaction were quantified according to: whether the action took place (verbal actions and behavioral actions); and the frequency of the occurrence (kinetic actions).

The paper finds that listening behavior did take place; however, the frequency of occurrence of various actions was inconsistent across encounters. In addition, results differed according to the gender of the service provider and that of the customer, and service providers of retail clothing outlets which carried medium‐priced merchandise exhibited better listening behaviors than those in establishments that sold high‐priced goods.

Future research could include an examination of actual dialogue between the provider and customer.

This study contributes to knowledge about non‐verbal communication within service encounters. Implications for management include: determining the optimum frequency and occurrence of listening activities; and training service providers accordingly.

This paper aims to discuss partitioning an air travel service encounter into touchpoints according to elements and phases, which are depth and breadth, respectively, using the conceptual framework of Le Bel. The empirical findings further the dialogue about the service encounter construct.

A total of 12 distinctive touchpoints within the joining and intensive phases of any air travel service encounter are reviewed for importance using travel purpose and nationality as segmentation variables. Respondents participated through an online questionnaire and face‐to‐face approach from a fieldworker; they were not engaged in an air travel service encounter at the time of the study. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics, independent sample t‐tests and paired sample t‐tests where the latter considered a named airline from the region.

The findings indicate touchpoints to be sufficiently distinctive that partitioning a service encounter provides opportunities for quality improvements directed at customer satisfaction outcomes. Notably, greater importance is typically given to the intensive phase touchpoints than those in the joining phases thus placing more emphasis on activities within service encounters' simultaneous production/consumption. Touchpoint preference is evident for travel purpose and passenger nationality segmentation criteria. When an airline is named, respondents appear more discriminating about touchpoint quality compared to those in generic service encounters.

Academically, partitioning strengthens the links between the service encounter construct and service quality and provides additional information beyond expectations‐perceptions results. Industry value is derived for practitioner marketers when distinctive touchpoints are taken from a partitioned service encounter providing opportunities for segmenting and targeting consumers accordingly.

This article discusses optimizing customer retention using customer relationship management (CRM) linked with social cause‐related marketing (SCRM). Establishing a socially responsible synergy between company and customer is targeted to managers seeking creative and innovative approaches that strengthen the value equation.

The discussion focuses on the progression of CRM from early links to basic database information to its current complex form whereby customers may be outsourced if they do not meet loyalty and mutual value parameters. A ten‐question test for testing CRM strategy is included, along with the steps required for adding SCRM to the company‐customer relationship.

CRM maximizes customer satisfaction while SCRM maximizes customer loyalty. Together, CRM and SCRM can optimize customer retention by sharing socially responsible activities. Tremendous goodwill with customers and in the marketplace can be generated from the synergy of CRM and SCRM.

Increasingly, it is the customer that is “setting the pace” in the company‐customer relationship. Implementing a SCRM strategy strengthens the business bond while facilitating the transition from the company being dominant to the customer driving the relationship process. The successful integration strategy includes: identify; integrate; switch; shift; choose; and measure.

The purpose of this research is to question whether increased interest in exercise has truly generated a market for home fitness equipment in which women are a viable consumer segment. It is guided by two objectives: to what extent are female consumers a viable target market segment for home fitness equipment; and to what extent do women believe/disbelieve the advertising claims that are made about such products.

Data collection included in‐depth interviews with salespeople at two retail sporting goods establishments. Following questionnaire development, 400 self‐administered surveys were distributed to women, only, at various locations including malls and standalone locations such as coffee shops. Respondents were qualified with a question about frequency of exercise.

Results identify that women are a viable market. Cross tabulations and chi square significance note the associations between respondents' age, occupation, nationality and religion and the various equipment purchased including treadmills, workout equipment, stationary cycles and abdominal machines. Belief in advertising claims was higher for cardio equipment and least for abdominal machines. Post purchase satisfaction was greater for products that favoured noticeable physical changes and by businesswomen who arguably, may be more discerning shoppers.

Undertaking this research in a country known for its extensive expatriate population enabled an international cross‐sectional view of women's consumer behavior using the various demographics information collected. Academically, it considers constraint theory while practically, it provides a gender specific profile for the home‐use sport and fitness equipment market. Limitations include the narrow scope of four demographic variables and four product groups.