ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several areas essential to understanding the marketing environment. The external marketing environment is the term used to describe characteristics, developments, and trends occurring outside an organization that could potentially impact it. The external factors are: competition, economy, technology, political, legal, and regulatory climate, and socio-demographic trends. Competition for a sports brand can be classified as brand competition, category competition, or generic competition. Technology can impact customer value by adding to the benefits consumers receive from a product or reducing the sacrifices required to obtain and consume the product. A legal issue that has impacted professional sports in the United States is the antitrust exemption status granted by the federal government. Self-regulation of an industry or group is generally considered preferable to being subject to government regulation. Just as the United States population is experiencing changes in its racial and ethnic composition, geographic regions are undergoing changes in population counts that will impact the sports industry.
