Are Fans and NBA Marketing Directors on the Same Page? A Comparison of Value of Marketing Techniques, pp. 140-146

Ronald J. Dick
Brian A. Turner

NBA teams use a variety of marketing techniques to try to increase game attendance. However, few research studies have compared their effectiveness. More importantly, no study to date has compared the perceptions of NBA marketing directors and ticket holders with regard to currently used marketing techniques. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the marketing techniques that NBA marketing directors viewed as valuable and useful were viewed in a similar fashion by attendees at NBA games. A questionnaire containing the 20 most used marketing techniques—based on items by Dick and Sack (2003)—was completed by all NBA directors of marketing (n = 29) and by randomly selected ticket holders (n = 200) at two separate NBA games. Results of the study showed that NBA marketing directors and ticket holders significantly disagreed on the effectiveness of 15 of the 20 marketing techniques examined, with the directors rating each of the 15 higher than the ticket holders.