Real Madrid Football Club: Applying a Relationship-Management Model to a Sport Organization in Spain

Abstract

Real Madrid Football Club is today the richest sport team in the world and the third most valuable sport brand, according to the latest rankings (e.g., Deloitte, 2010; Forbes 2009). This scholarly commentary proposes the application of a relationship management model of building long-lasting relationships with fans as the main key of Real Madrid’s success. Results of this study highlight that, under the presidency of Florentino Pérez, a public relations approach has been integrated into every strategic decision including the recruitment of players with media appeal; the use of event planning, Internet, social media, promotional tours, and publications; and the display of Real Madrid’s own audiovisual media. The adoption of this model has proven successful despite poor sports results.

Sport and social media research: A review

“…Relationship marketing refers to the efforts of brands to build and maintain bonds with customers and other stakeholders through mutual exchange and interactivity (Grönroos, 2004). An array of research on social media and sport has been framed and conducted from a relationship marketing perspective, illustrating its relevance to the topic (e.g., Abreza et al, 2013;Garcia, 2011;Pronschinske, Groza, & Walker, 2012;Williams & Chinn, 2010;Witkemper, Lim, & Waldburger, 2012). This acknowledges the pertinent strategic and operational role that social media platforms provide for building relationships with consumers.…”

“…Questionnaires were used in five articles (e.g., Eagleman, 2013;Hopkins, 2013;McCarthy, 2014;Walsh, Clavio, Lovell & Blaszka, 2013), qualitative data were collected in six articles (e.g., Abreza et al, 2013;Gibbs & Haynes, 2013;Hopkins, 2013;Kian & Zimmerman, 2012;McEnnis, 2013;O'Shea & Alonso, 2011), and content analyses were conducted in eight articles (e.g., Antunovic & Hardin, 2012;Clavio & Eagleman, 2011;Hambrick, Frederick, & Sanderson, 2013;Pronschinske et al, 2012;Sanderson, 2011;Sanderson & Hambrick, 2012;Waters, Burke, Jackson, & Buning, 2011). Other studies conducted social network analysis (e.g., Hambrick, 2012), or were developed as conceptual/reflective pieces (e.g., Billings, 2014;Butler & Sagas, 2008;Gantz, 2013;Garcia, 2011;Hardin, 2014;Hutchins, 2014;Pedersen, 2013Pedersen, , 2014Pegoraro, 2014;Rowe, 2014;Sanderson, 2014;Williams & Chinn, 2010) or case studies (e.g., Pfahl, Kreutzer, Maleski, Lillibridge, & Ryznar, 2012;McCarthy, Rowley, Ashworth, & Pioch, 2014;Schoenstedt & Reau, 2010).…”

Luces y sombras de la comunicación del Real Madrid CF. Reflexiones desde el periodismo deportivo

“…Por ello, el Club ha basado su estrategia de comunicación en establecer una conexión emocional con estos públicos objetivos a través de la creación de contenidos específicos y del control de las informaciones que genera el Club (García, 2011). También se ha valido de una estrategia de marketing para incrementar el valor de la marca (Zapater, Cuervo, Meza, Vargas, Velásquez y Zúñiga, 2011), apoyándose en sus soportes informativos como Real Madrid TV, el sitio web realmadrid.com y el uso de redes sociales que, al igual que la web, están traducidas a distintos idiomas.…”

Explaining the Number of Social Media Fans for North American and European Professional Sports Clubs with Determinants of Their Financial Value

“…Some were identified specifically for Facebook: to cultivate relationships with fans using stewardship strategies (Waters et al 2011); to test content, gain feedback, and understand things from fans' perspective (García 2011). Other reasons were identified specifically for Twitter: platform for broadcasting large volumes of short content and information (Hopkins 2013); direct narrations of games and the follow-up of fans' "retweets" to deliver the messages created in the communication department (García 2011); building professional, personal, and community relationships (Wang and Zhou 2015). Some were identified both for Facebook and Twitter: resending traffic to website (García 2011;Hopkins 2013); use on mobile apps to share information about the teams and their performance (Watkins and Lewis 2014).…”

“…In the literature, several articles deal with the relationship between Facebook and/or Twitter and professional sports teams, focusing mainly on three aspects: the reasons for Facebook and Twitter use by professional sports teams (García 2011;Hopkins 2013;Wang and Zhou 2015;Waters et al 2011;Watkins and Lewis 2014); fans' expectations when using Facebook and Twitter (Gibbs et al 2014;Stavros et al 2014); and the drivers of changes in the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers (Hopkins 2013;Pérez 2013;Watanabe et al 2015) 1 . These articles show that Facebook and Twitter are important for fans and thus demonstrate their importance for the relationship marketing strategy adopted by professional sports teams.…”