Title: Identify and prioritise factors affecting sports consumer behaviour in Iran

Authors: Hossein Abdolmaleki; Zahra Sadat Mirzazadeh; Ebrahim Alidoust Ghahfarokhhi

Addresses: Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran ' Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran ' University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: One of the common features of all people, regardless of education level, income level and living location and so on, is that all of them are consumers. The key to a successful marketing strategy, both in terms of local and global aspects is to understand consumer behaviour. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify and prioritise factors affecting sports consumer behaviour in Iran. The study was quantitative-qualitative research. Fuzzy Delphi method was used in this study. In this study, it was found that the marketing mix (product, price, distribution channels, promotion and advertising, service quality and brand personality), psychological factors (attitude, motivation, emotion, perception, past experience and consumer personality), individual factors (income, age, gender and education level), social factors (family, reference groups, social class and opinion leaders) and cultural factors (culture and religion) are factors influencing consumer behaviour. Also, AHP results show marketing mix is the most important influencing factor with 0.323 relative weights, then psychological factors (0.245), individual factors (0.185), social factors (0.141) and cultural factors (0.1077). This study determined companies have to highly pay attention to consumer and covering their demands (better than competitors) to obtain a high competitive advantage. On the other hand, the consumer has different approaches to buy products that are most noticed in programming marketing strategies.

Keywords: sports marketing; consumer behaviour; marketing mix; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2018.091331

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2018 Vol.18 No.1/2, pp.42 - 62

Received: 16 Aug 2016
Accepted: 25 Mar 2017
Published online: 25 Apr 2018 *

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