The Use of a Multi-tiered Framework to Analyze Commercial, Cause and Social Marketing Strategies in Sport

Marketing can be described as commercial, cause-related or social depending on the locus of benefit, the objective / outcomes desired and the focus of exchange. Social marketing has been described as the application of marketing technologies designed to influence the voluntary behavior of a target audience to improve personal and societal welfare (Andreasen 1995). Increasingly sport organizations have been engaging in social marketing which has a unique set of objectives and outcomes. To date, few studies have appeared in which the use of social marketing strategies were examined in sport. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to identify the distinct differences between social marketing, cause-related marketing and commercial marketing Through development of a multi-tiered marketing framework, analysis of each approach will be undertaken to illuminate the use of each strategy in sport to achieve both economic and non-economic marketing related objectives.