Applying the sport marketing framework

Applying the sport marketing framework

After understanding what is sports marketing and the sports marketing framework, we can now apply our knowledge to real life examples and assess the effectiveness of their sport marketing strategy. Let’s use sporting goods stores in Singapore. There are namely these few sporting goods stores in Singapore; The Royal Sporting House, World of Sports, Weston, Decathlon and our neighbourhood stores. For this blog post, I will be using Decathlon as the prime example and the basis of comparison.

 Decathlon is a newly emerged sporting goods shop that I feel have a good sport marketing strategy and concept that will allow Decathlon to survive in the long run.

Let us firstly identify the sport marketing opportunities for Decathlon. When analysing Decathlon’s internal environment, we can see that:

Strengths	Weaknesses
Variety of products ie. Horse-riding, skiing, hiking, skating	Number of outlets- 2
Online services ie. Online shopping, self-collection of online items in store	Location of outlets Bedok outlet less accessible by car, no outlets available in the west and central area
In shop services provided by workshop technician; ie. Repairs, personalization

Note: We are assessing their capabilities and resources.

Moving on, when analysing their external environment, here are the findings:

Opportunities:	Threats:
Singaporean’s rising interests in keeping active	Other sports good shops- ie. Royal sporting house, world of sports, sportslink, Weston
Rise in middle-income consumers
Rising interest in online shopping

Now let’s analyse the competitors of decathlon. It is especially important to assess the competitors as they definitely have a large impact on Decathlon’s strategy. This allows Decathlon to exploit the weaknesses of the competitors and also learn from their strengths. In this case, we are looking at direct competitors of Decathlon.

Despite Decathlon being a fairly new player in the sports goods market, it seems that is has been doing relatively quite well. I believe this is due to good analysis of their competitors and acknowledging its strengths and weaknesses.

Firstly, it has a few advantages over its competitors. Decathlon provides online shopping which is a good strategic move as it can be seen that there is a rising trend in online shopping in Singapore. On top of that, Decathlon variety of products under one roof. This provides Decathlon an edge over its competitors and definitely improves its sports marketing position. Decathlon carries all the type of goods of its 3 competitors. Hence, Decathlon can target more segments of consumers as compared to its competitors. Lastly, its pricing and services strategies also allow Decathlon to have an effective marketing strategy. The pricing of products in Decathlon are relatively way cheaper as compared to its competitors. On top of that, Decathlon provides on the spot services by their technicians. Decathlon provides repairs and personalisation in all their shops. Both online shopping and repair services on the spot cannot be seen in Royal Sporting house, World of sports and Weston.

Furthermore, as seen in the image above, Decathlon strives to increase participation in sport and easier access to sport. In my opinion, I believe Decathlon is on the right track in achieving its intended aims. Beginners can try new sports without worrying about the high cost of gears. Hence, it might increase participation in sport. On top of that, Decathlon makes access to some sports easier. For example, Decathlon provides Horse-riding, snow-boarding and skating products under one roof. Not much retailers carry products for these sports in Singapore. Hence, these examples suggest that Decathlon’s sport marketing strategy is on the right track as their plans and actions are focusing towards their intended aims and objectives.

Source:http://www.decathlon.sg/img/cms/About%20Us/about.jpg

However, it should be taken into consideration that sport consumers are unique. Sports consumers’ brand loyalty and passion for sporting teams might make them less attracted to Decathlon. Decathlon do not carry major brands like Nike, Adidas and Salomon like its 3 competitors. These major brands had already established good brand loyalty and have a large pool of loyal consumers. The brands in Decathlon are relatively unknown in Singapore. On top of that, Decathlon doeso not carry sport products of any major sports team as compared to Weston or Royal Sporting House. Loyal fans will still turn to Weston or Royal Sporting House to purchase products of their favourite sports team. 

However, despite these loopholes, I believe Decathlon still has a firm marketing strategy and a good marketing position. It has advantages over its competitors due to its pricing, product and service strategies. On top of that, Decathlon manages to create a sport mix that can target numerous segments of consumers. And Lastly, its marketing strategy seems to be in line with its aims and objectives.