The Design of a Sports Marketing Model for Iranian Women’s Professional Sport

Poster Presentation
Paper ID : 1221-SSRC
Authors
1دبیر رسمی آموزش و پروش استان هرمزگان
2استاد تمام دانشگاه تهران
3استاد پردیس بین الملل کیش
4استاد دانشگاه تهران
Abstract
With the importance of sport marketing to female professional sport development in Iran, this study aimed to explore the current contexts and status of marketing of Iranian female sports and factors affecting the practice of marketing. A comprehensive model is presented to provide possible practical solutions under the culture and conditions in this country, and design a model for Iranian women's professional sports.
Research in sport management have shown that sport marketing play pivotal roles for the survival and growth of professional sports, and the success of sport organizations has greatly affected by the effectiveness of marketing strategies. However, unlike male sport, a successful female sport marketing practice may require different approaches to not only promote the teams and league to identified target audiences, but also secure committed sponsors, from both public and private sectors, for long-term collaborations.
This study adopted a qualitative approach with the grounded theory for data collection and analysis. To collect data, a semi-structured interview was used. 14 sports managers and sport’s marketing experts were interviewed. MAXQDA pro 12.3 software was used for the three stages of open, axial, and selective coding. The research findings identified “marketing hegemony in Iranian women's professional sports” as a central phenomenon. It is necessary to note relevant causal, context, and intervening conditions when applying the proposed strategies of research, action and reaction between the mentioned factors. Additionally, the socio-cultural conditions of Iran and the existence of beliefs and ideas of the governments and religious leaders' thoughts should be taken into account when applying the proposed model. Additionally, in this model, cultural, religious, ethnic, political and economic factors of Iranian society, are the demand of applying scientific managerial and marketing approaches in Iranian women’s professional sports
Based on the proposed model of the research, the current development of Iranian female professional sport is impacted by several factors such as legal restrictions, social expectations, media interests, competition level, and marketing practice of national sport federations. The application of scientific managerial and marketing approaches can be critical to change the existing causal conditions and guide the development of Iranian female sport.
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