ABSTRACT
Sport consumers are driven by a range of aspirations, incentives, and benefits to join clubs, compete in tournaments, attend games, buy merchandise, and watch sport on television. This chapter explains the factors that motivate sports participants and fans, and provides advice on how to best communicate with consumers through marketing processes. Consumption has gone beyond the purchase of goods and services to meet our daily needs. The collisions, body contact and action offered by many sports can attract fans who want to escape from their highly organised and regulated work environments into a world of passion, spontaneity and uncertainty. The scale of many sporting venues, the sight of thousands of fans in club colours, and the use of lively half-time entertainment all enhance sport's dramatic qualities. It is useful to differentiate between psychological and self-concept motives, as the former describes attraction, and latter strength of sport identification.
