Tapping New Markets: Women as Sport Consumers

Abstract

A growing trend in America has been the marked increase in the number of female sport participants, from Little League to professional sport. Another trend has been the increase in numbers of female sport spectators, from the primary spectator who attends sporting events to the secondary spectator who consumes sporting events via the media. Women as sport consumers are not a new phenomenon. However, the manner in which women are viewed by sport marketers and advertisers as a desirable target market is changing. Progressive and smart sport organizations no longer view women merely as appendages to their spouses or friends when attending or viewing sporting events. Instead, women are now being viewed as a unique and growing target market segment, a group to be recognized and duly considered when sport property-rights holders and marketers begin deliberating their product's “position” and “concept.” In short, responsible and responsive sport marketers are developing tailored marketing strategies to meet the unique and discriminating needs of women sport consumers.

To bolster these trends, many of today's traditional family setting have become “two-sport” families, due to the differences in how various sporting events are marketed to women and men. This paper is designed to provide an analysis of the increasingly important role women are playing in the marketing of sport. The manner in which sport is “softening” its core product—the game—as well as “humanizing” and “socializing” sporting events, is an example provided to demonstrate the growing impact of women as consumers of sport.

Sport marketers and advertisers must understand the women's sport spectator marketplace better than they have previously. Without addressing the unique needs of this target market, sport will continue to become fractured, with niche marketing replacing the ability of marketers to capture more of the total spectator audience, both male and female.