Understanding the Sport Consumer

A Gold Coast Suns Case Study

The Gold Coast Suns have been arguably one of the most successful new sport establishments in recent history. Here is some possible theory as to why:

Imagine you are the marketing manager of the Gold Coast Suns. What strategies would you develop to engage fans using psychological, personal and environmental factors?

Due to being a marginalised sport, it is important for the Gold Coast Suns to target the NRL focused Gold Coast market in as many ways as possible to encourage fan engagement, particularly during the early stages of their existence. It would be important to develop strategies which cover all of the following:
Psychological
Psychological inputs come internally from the sport consumer and are their beliefs and feelings about the apparent outcome of a sport experience. Many different ways of initiating psychological reactions to a sporting experience have been developed by sports marketers and include provoking consumers by highlighting the entertainment, socialisation, vicarious achievement and physical skills of players which could all be gained by attending an AFL match. In the case of the Gold Coast Suns, providing these would mean to market their game as a more exciting and social option as opposed to attending other sports matches on at the same time. One way in which this could be achieved would be to introduce a pre-match or half-time entertainment program involving showcasing local musical talents or established musicians. This would help encourage those who were otherwise inclined to attend another sporting match or not engage in the sport experience at all.
Personal
Personal inputs refer to the individual characteristics of the population, these can be defined by their demographics. One strategy which may target the personal inputs of individuals in the market is to promote the game and/or club as a highly diverse game which can be enjoyed by all, whether their ethnicity, gender, age or other factor.
Environmental
Environmental factors, unlike personal and psychological, are external to the sport consumer and create the ‘pull’ towards a particular sporting activity. As the marketing manager at the Suns, one way to encourage a greater environmental pull would be to create family memberships to promote whole family attendance. Or perhaps a ‘Bring a Friend’ campaign whereby people who often come to the AFL can get a second ticket half price for a friend who rarely attends or has never attended a Gold Coast Suns match before.

Apart from being more competitive on the field, how can the Gold Coast Suns improve their crowd and member numbers?

The Gold Coast Suns can improve their crowd and member numbers perhaps by introducing membership and ticketing packages whereby units become cheaper the more are purchased. An example of this could be buy 1 adult membership and get a children’s membership half price, or perhaps buy 2 adult ticket and a child can come for free. This would help to increase ticket sales and hopefully encourage further support for the team.

Are the psychological, personal and environmental factors the same in choosing to attend a Gold Coast Suns game instead of attending a Gold Coast Titans game? If not, what are the key differences?

I believe that the psychological and personal factors for attending a Titans game as opposed to a Suns game are very similar. Both outline that the sport consumer is attending the match for the enjoyment of the sport and/or to fulfil their own desires in attending, such as feeling part of something. However both teams have different environmental ‘pulls’ in Australia’s multicultural society, for example the Titans would attract a higher crowd of Maori’s, New Zealander’s and Pacific Islander ethnicities. Whereas alternatively, the Suns would attract a higher percentage of Australian Indigenous people. This could be largely due to the environment in which each relative audiences have been brought up, and due to their historically traditional interests.