Business Commons^™

Implementing The Customer Relationship Paradigm In Sports Marketing, Lynn W. Mcgee

Association of Marketing Theory and Practice Proceedings 2010

With the increasing attention to services marketing, the paradigms that guide marketing practitioners are shifting. An emerging approach useful to sports marketing is the study of customer relationships and their role in marketing mix design. This qualitative study examines the process, benefits and costs of implementing the customer relationship paradigm in brand identity development. A new baccalaureate university introduced athletics—and needed a mascot, colors and visual identity. Gronroos’ model of external, internal and interactive marketing guided the process. The results demonstrated the benefits of the approach and identified the need for stronger concepts and measures in this emerging research.