Purpose

The segmentation of customers into homogeneous groups is well researched, reflecting its importance to marketers. Specific to professional sports, published research on customer segmentation first occurred in the early 2000s, but no studies exist based on internal data from season ticket holders, an attractive and loyal customer group which is the most important customer for professional sports teams. Thus, the purpose of this research was to fill this gap in the literature through a sequential study of season ticket holders of a professional sports club.

Design/methodology/approach

Study 1 employed six focus groups (n = 56) to determine the constructs, understand the issues, and sequentially inform the survey instrument for the second study. Study 2 used an online survey (n = 1,007) to collect data on factors including socio-demographics, consumption, media engagement, fan satisfaction, future intentions and sports fan motivation.

Findings

The results identified the engagement factors and selection variables which drive season ticket holder purchase and allowed for the segmentation analysis, which identified fourteen unique fan segments for a professional sports club, generalizable to other clubs.

Originality/value

The identification of 14 segments of season ticket holders based on a sequential study framed by the sports relationship marketing model is a needed contribution for practice (i.e. a specific direction on how to efficiently allocate resources when marketing to season ticket holders) and advances our conceptual knowledge by applying the model to the context of the most loyal customers in professional sports season ticket holders.

中文翻译：

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职业体育季票持有者细分：体育关系营销模型的应用

目的

将客户细分为同质群体已经过充分研究，反映了其对营销人员的重要性。具体到职业运动，关于客户细分的研究最早出现在 2000 年代初期，但没有基于季票持有者的内部数据的研究，季票持有者是一个有吸引力且忠诚的客户群体，是职业运动队最重要的客户。因此，本研究的目的是通过对职业体育俱乐部季票持有者的连续研究来填补文献中的这一空白。

设计/方法/方法

研究 1 采用了六个焦点小组 ( n  = 56) 来确定结构、理解问题并按顺序通知第二项研究的调查工具。研究 2 使用在线调查 ( n  = 1,007) 收集有关社会人口、消费、媒体参与、球迷满意度、未来意图和体育迷动机等因素的数据。

发现

结果确定了推动季票持有者购买的参与因素和选择变量，并允许进行细分分析，该分析确定了职业体育俱乐部的 14 个独特的球迷细分，可推广到其他俱乐部。

原创性/价值

基于体育关系营销模型框架下的顺序研究确定 14 个季票持有者细分是实践所需的贡献（即，在向季票持有者营销时如何有效分配资源的具体方向）并提高我们的概念知识通过将该模型应用于职业体育季票持有者中最忠诚的客户的背景。