Why Small Change Matters in Sports Marketing

Image by Alena Darmel from Pexels.

Throughout the development of Ayala Marketing Strategy, I find that sports marketing is a lot more than just big campaigns. Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference on how fans react. Topics like perception, brand loyalty, brand evolution and customer journey really helped me understand why.

In sports, fans are constantly reacting to what they see, hear and experience. Understanding is the process of finding, structuring and interpreting information from the outside world and it starts with the stimuli you see or feel through your senses. That is exactly what happens at a stadium or on social media platforms in the sports industry. A fan sees a new jersey design, watches a good quality hype video, sees a price change on a ticket and walks into a team store (or even a stadium) with different colors, lighting and music. None of those details are random or unprepared. Each one of these things affect how the fan feels about the brand.

The most impressive example is the suggestion of JND, or Just Noticeable Difference. It mentions JND is the least difference consumers can detect between two stimuli and that marketers use it when changing products. In sports, this is very relevant. Teams might want fans to notice a brands new team jersey because it feels exciting and new, hoping that it leads to a purchase. However, they would not want fans to notice a ticket price rise, a small giveaway item or a subtle change in membership benefits because this can cost the organization money. That is where perception is part of the strategy.

I see this all the time from sports brands. For a team like the Miami Dolphins, you can make visual changes, change content style or make a game-day presentation and still keep it the same with your fans. The Miami Marlins are no different. If the brand is changing too much, fans can feel out of touch. But if you do it slowly, and it doesn’t change too much, it’s fresh, but it’s still familiar. That difference matters because brand evolution is supposed to be continuous and gradual, while a rebrand is a much bigger shift all at once, as shown in this creativity lesson from Betty Crocker.

That is also related to brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is more than just repeat behavior, it is an emotional connection with the people. I believe that is particularly true in sports. Fans don’t stay loyal just for price or convenience, they stay because the team is part of their identity, part of their history and part of their routine. That’s why every part of the customer journey matters, from the first Instagram post a fan sees to the purchase of food, merchandise or tickets.

The reminder that positioning starts with what’s already in the customer’s mind, not what the brand wants to think about itself, is really important to understand. This plays a significant role in sports marketing. A team can´t force fans to see things a certain way. It needs to understand how it’s perceived today and then build from there, which is also discussed in the Wall Street Journal article on branding and perception.

For me, this weeks articles confirmed the point that in sports marketing, even little changes are never small. Brands don’t have the sense of how much the fans perceive, and even small decisions can change perception, loyalty and spending. Which is why the best sports marketers don’t just focus on promotion. They care about how it makes the fans feel.

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