The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace

Sports are a multibillion-dollar global business that will continue to grow by leaps and bounds into the foreseeable future. The bad news is: It's never been harder to attract, engage, and retain the sports fan.

Today's sports fans are bombarded by choices. Traditional sports, such as baseball, football, and basketball, compete for fans' dollars with snowboarding, lacrosse, poker…even paintball. The old business formulas, developed in the age of three TV networks and creaky stadiums, no longer apply.

World-renowned communication expert Irving Rein, international marketing guru Philip Kotler, and communication specialist Ben Shields deliver an innovative new business model centered squarely on fan satisfaction and retention. They give you the tools to transform your sports product into an enduring brand-immune to the vagaries of winning and losing-that quickly adapts to changing market conditions. Along the way they illustrate their points with fascinating case studies, including

• Manchester United's transformation from a plucky home team to a billion-dollar international franchise
• Professional golf phenomenon Michelle Wie's quest to maximize her talents and marketability
• Southlake Carroll High School football team's benchmarking of professional and college football programs to build its own brand
• Daytona International Speedway's reinvention of fan intimacy

Combining expert analysis with field-tested strategies for winning hearts and minds, The Elusive Fan is your guide to surviving and thriving in today's ever-widening world of sports.

Table of ContentsPART ONE: Reaching the Elusive Fan1. The Fan Challenge 2. Sports in Trouble 3. How Fans Connect PART TWO: Connecting to the Elusive Fan 4. Reinventing the Sports Brand 5. Generating the Sports Brand Transformation6. Implementing the Sports Brand Transformation 7. Communicating the Sports BrandPART THREE: Surviving in the Sports Fan Marketplace 8. Sustaining the Fan Connection9. Successful Cases in Sports Branding 10. The Future of Fan ConnectionIndex

Irving J. Rein is a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University's School of Communication and a member of Major League Baseball's Commissioner's Initiative for the 21st Century.

Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and the author of Marketing Management.

Ben Ryan Shields has extensive experience in strategic sports management planning and development.