Features of Marketing Activities of the Football Club “Nizhny Novgorod”

The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that marketing in sports is an effective component of sports management, just as it is in other areas of management. Sports marketing has its own specific features based on the characteristics of a particular sport, and this article deals with football marketing. The purpose of this article is to reflect the results of the study of a sports club’s marketing activities. The object of the study is the regional football club “Nizhny Novgorod”(Russia). The main objectives of the study are to identify the factors that attract the fans’ interest to the football club, to attending matches and purchasing club merchandise. Based on a survey of Nizhny Novgorod residents, a study of football fans’ needs in the region was carried out and the target audience of the FC “Nizhny Novgorod” was determined. The results of the survey show that the fans are poorly motivated to attend football matches with the participation of this club. The potential of modern promotion methods such as social media marketing (SMM) is used insufficiently. There is a need to make a more active impact on football consumers in the region, to intensify the work with the fans of the club, to improve the quality and design of the club’s merchandise. As a result of our research, a series of measures have been developed aiming to involve fans in the club’s life, both on match days and between matches. These measures include: promoting season ticket sales, more effective use of the home stadium on match days, active work to attract families with children, organising family leisure at the stadium, stadium tours, activities outside the stadium – weekend events in the city’s parks. The value of the research findings presented in the article lies in identifying the need to create the conditions for a football feast based on football marketing methods, aiming to attract fans to the club.