Sports and Women: Reaching This Critical ‘Casual Fan’.

Sports sponsorship strategies have typically focused on the male consumer. Now, the fast-evolving sports and entertainment landscape is convincing sponsors to consider female consumers more seriously as they seek to improve their ROI.

With sports and entertainment options increasing, so are the ways in which audiences participate in and follow their interests. Following sports and teams, for example, has become more simple and less time consuming than ever. This has promoted greater interest in sports among women — the casual fans who enjoy actively participating in leisure activities outside the home. And, surprisingly, women are more likely than men to buy licensed merchandise.

The Power of Sponsorships in the Female Sports Market

Women experience sports and entertainment differently than men, and to effectively capitalize on female purchase power, sponsors must first understand these differences. The most successful sponsorship last year, according to Harris Interactive’s Consumer Impact Index(SM) was the LPGA and Allsport with a CII of ten. This is a high score when compared to that of such partnerships as Sprite and the NBA, or Wendy’s sponsorship of the NHL, both of which yielded a CII of eight. Among the lower CII scores were the Master Card/ PGA partnership with a CII of five and the Labatt’s Blue/NHL CII
score of four.

Most companies have not yet figured out how the female market fully relates to their sponsorship strategies, although some have experienced the benefits of tapping into this market. Pepsi’s MLB sponsorship yielded an additional 35 million bottles/cans consumed among women in August 2001, and Gatorade’s NFL sponsorship, even in the off season, yielded an additional eight million units consumed among women.

Other sponsorships also showed strength, such as the relationship between Coke and NASCAR, which yielded an additional 31 million bottles/cans of Coke consumed by women, as noted in a recent Harris Interactive sports survey conducted in August 2001 among more than 10,000 U.S. adult online panelists. The implementation of such strategies across leagues and sponsorships could produce similar successes.

How much do you know about the female fan?

Since many women have limited time to watch games in their entirety, they have a tendency to follow teams in the news and on highlight shows. Sixty percent of women watch highlight shows, while 80% of women (including more than those who simply track sports in the news) follow sports through their regular TV newscasts. This compares to men (73%) who have a tendency to watch highlights shows.

Data shows that women are buying licensed products for others.

This past summer, women were four percent more likely to buy licensed merchandise, with 51% of females purchasing licensed products in August 2001. Men and women purchase very different team and league products, but where they make the purchases, and for whom they buy differs as well.

Of the female fans who purchased licensed merchandise in August 2001, over 50% bought products for children and/or teenagers, while 82% of the men who bought licensed merchandise bought it for themselves. This summer, for example, there was evidence that women preferred such products with Jeff Gordon or the Chicago Bulls when buying for themselves.

Understanding these preferences, buying habits and motives enables companies to develop product and retail strategies to get the attention of this important potential market.

But what happens during the “off season”?

Cultivating interest during the off season is critical as women’s interest has a tendency to fade as competitive stories leave the headlines. This is where a profile of the female consumer becomes important for marketers and sponsors. Attracting the female consumer’s attention gives sponsors the opportunity to talk to her, and build her loyalty.

Using sports to market to women — but which sports?

Women, as noted through our research, are not more likely than men to be fans of women’s sports. For instance, the Olympic Games, WNBA, MLB and NASCAR lead other leagues in having the largest percentage of female fans; but, the
Olympic Games, NFL, MLB and NBA lead in having the largest percentage of females (overall) who consider themselves to be fans.

Developing loyal fans, especially for start up leagues, requires promoting team loyalty and team rivalries.

People are generally more loyal to teams, and they will follow teams’ rivalries and successes. The NFL clearly has the most diehard and avid fansof both men and women, and 98% of them have a favorite team. Compare this to the WNBA numbers and the MLS numbers, where only 80% and 62% respectively, of diehard and avid fans even have a favorite team.

Building team loyalty is definitely a challenge, and understanding how to market to the various segments of the fan base is critical. With an increased fan-base, leagues can greatly assist sponsors in accomplishing this.

However, it is important for sponsors to remember that women — the “casual fans” who prefer quick updates rather than long stories or actually attending games — will be receptive to sponsorship messages sent through their preferred channels (i.e., the Web, TV, radio, and even through the licensed products of the teams they support).

For charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.

For more information at http://www.harrisinteractive.com