An Analysis of Cause-Related and Social Marketing Strategies in the South African Sport Management Industry

Abstract

There is a dearth of sport marketing research investigating the strategic potential of socially responsible sport marketing practices for organizations in the sport management industry. Despite the more recent focus on this the emergent topic within marketing literature, there is a lack of application of cause-related marketing (CRM) and social marketing (SM) strategies in the sport marketing context. Furthermore, these strategies are often confused with corporate social responsibility (CSR). The main purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the adoption of CRM and SM marketing strategies by professional sport organizations (PSOs) in South Africa. An interpretivist philosophy and qualitative approach was adopted for the study, which centered on in-depth interviews conducted with key individuals from six South African PSOs. The findings revealed encouraging evidence of South African PSOs engagement in CRM and SM activities. However, it also revealed that the strategic potential of these elements were not leveraged, mainly due to a lack of understanding of these concepts. The differences and similarities between CRM and SM are identified, according to practitioner understandings. The study contributes to sport marketing literature and practice by proposing a conceptual framework to guide the effective planning and execution of strategic CRM and SM campaigns by PSOs. This framework can assist PSOs to engage in social responsible marketing approaches to improve their marketing performance while maintaining socially responsible business practices.

Communication as a Key Performance Indicator in Employer Branding in the Context of the Social Economy—A Quantitative Study

“…Consequently, investment in marketing is crucial, and it is imperative for companies to consistently deliver unique experiences to their customers. Integrating social awareness into marketing techniques is crucial, especially for SEOs [20]. Through communication initiatives to build social awareness and deepen the relationship between the employer brand and desired social attributes, organizations plan and manage their job offerings with consistent application of marketing principles [8,21].…”

Medición de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa en organizaciones deportivas: desarrollo y valida-ción de escala, estudio piloto (Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility in sport organizations: scale development and validation, pilot study)

“…Un desafío es que las organizaciones incorporen un enfoque social que haga parte las políticas, con procesos y prácticas concretas (Jamali et al, 2015). Estas buenas prácticas empresariales son esenciales en la gestión de la industria deportiva (Cobourn & Frawley, 2017;Moyo et al, 2022) porque representan un carácter distintivo y autentico que conecta con los grupos de interés (Jamali et al, 2015;Mamo et al, 2022). Principios como la transparencia, la democracia, la rendición de cuentas, la participación de empleados y la implementación en diferentes niveles de la organización hacen parte de la promulgación de la gobernanza.…”

“…Además, la RS surge como estrategia dinámica y espontánea al interior de una organización, minimizando daños a la sociedad y al medio donde se desenvuelve (Sánchez-Sáez, 2017;Lafit,2018). Se genera un compromiso para garantizar la sana convivencia en cualquier contexto, incentivando que se implementen valores que permitan la integración dentro de una comunidad (Fonseca et al, 2022a;Moyo et al, 2022).…”

“…Es así como, las empresas del sector deporte deben implementar acciones de sostenibilidad para mejorar sus resultados comerciales (Mamo et al, 2022) y trabajar de la mano con entidades de desarrollo comunitario para lograr cambios con acciones éticas y filantrópicas (Trendafiova et al, 2017;Babiak & Yang, 2022). Se espera que los esfuerzos se hagan con base en un enfoque y gestión estratégica (Jamali et al, 2015;McCullough et al, 2016) porque la industria se ha comercializado debido a la falta de recursos de los gobiernos nacionales y locales y se ha especializado en áreas como marketing, entretenimiento y gestión deportiva (Moyo et al, 2022). Cuando la RSC hace parte de la estrategia organizacional (Inoue et al, 2017) se tiene en cuenta a las partes interesadas, sus necesidades y opiniones, la capacidad de conexión e identificación del deporte y la pasión que genera, así como la transparencia en los informes que se presentan (Babiak & Wolfe, 2009).…”

Management of the Sports Industry for Ensuring the Public Health: Prospect of Implementing the Innovations

“…So, in particular, the role of branding of sports organizations is increasing, affecting both the financial indicators of companies and the popularity of sports among the population (Sinha et al, 2022). On the other hand, Moyo et al (2022) proved that the modern system of sports marketing also adapts to general trends in marketing and management of companies, particularly regarding implementing the concept of corporate social responsibility. It changes the very paradigm of sports management.…”