Sample Literature Review

Title: Implicit side of the Olympic Games: The Past, Present and Future of Olympic Marketing. Summary: This dissertation is dedicated to the analysis of Olympic marketing as the implicit side of Olympic movement; evaluation of past, present and future profiles of Olympic marketing. Research literature review There’s a list of research papers dedicated to commercialization of sports in general. At the same time, there’s apparent deficit of studies, dedicated directly to the problem of Olympic marketing, due to the specificity and complexity of the field. Many of them, besides are out-of-date researches.
Different aspects of marketing in Olympics appear described in various sources. Though a problem of Olympic marketing is discussed in a list of books and articles, none of them provides ultimate analysis of the phenomenon. It could be explained by the rapid changes in Olympic marketing itself and probable deficit of research data. To exemplify the thesis, one could mention that many studies related to Olympic marketing appear outdated already before they are published. Most of the papers provide, hence, a pure theoretical analysis of the research field.
At the same time there is a certain deficit of quantitative researches. There are practically no research books and articles describing the structure of Olympic marketing, its financial revenues and their distribution, peculiarities of Games’ staging, profiles of major sponsors, etc. Monographs and multi-authors books Brenda Pitts and David Stotlar (Pitts et al, 1996) analyze sports marketing in their comprehensive research “Fundamentals of Sport Marketing”. The study is dedicated to the overall analysis of commerce in sports, its history and modern tendencies.

The authors analyze the reasons of sports and marketing’s rapprochement and assess according contributions of business and sports. The researches also define differences of sports marketing from the other forms of promotion in diverse spheres, define the most specific features of sports marketing. The authors focus on several most important aspects of sports marketing, i. e. : development of marketing strategy in sports; clarifying the needs and goals of sports organization and evaluation the ways how a sponsor could contribute it; implementation of comprehensive marketing plans through sponsorship, licensing, ticketing, advertising, etc.
The book provides both theoretical and practical data concerning sports marketing. The authors discuss historical aspects of sports marketing, as well as its presence and future, evaluate the general paradigm of sports marketing. Researchers also introduce the fundamentals of marketing inquiry including the basics of segmentation, targeting, and positioning in sport business, etc. Though the book itself is one of the most thorough and all-round analysis of the problem, the paradigm of Olympic marketing is less examined in the research.
As a result, a reader could only learn the fundamentals of sports marketing in general, while Olympic marketing has several significant differences. The research of Mulin et al, 2000, is believed to be a groundbreaking text in the field pf sport marketing and management. The primary asset of the book lies in presenting of a new perspective of sports marketing. The authors didn’t just apply the general theory of marketing to sports; instead, they developed a new study of sports marketing based on their own experience.
The research focuses on a special nature of sports marketing in a global perspective and the reasons of commercialization in sports environment (1); definition of consumers’ audience and marketing segmentation (2); licensing and pricing strategies of sports marketing (3); specificity of marketing sponsorship (4), etc. The real life examples, besides, make the study extremely valuable to a critical reader. Mulin et al, 2000, focuses on development and management of all-round marketing strategy in sports that includes advertising and promotion, licensing, branding, broadcasting etc.
Unfortunately, the study also defines the fundamentals of sports marketing in general, while the paradigm of Olympic marketing remains completely unexamined. Pelsmacker et al, 2001 examines the field of marketing communication. This comprehensive study covers establishment of marketing relationships between companies and corporate sponsors, development of PR and advertising program, provision of effective marketing management. Though the research doesn’t examine the field of sports marketing, the authors provide a fundamental theoretical framework applicable for the further analysis of Olympic marketing.
Brad Wise (Wise, 1997) gives an overview of Olympic marketing in his monograph “Sports marketing: rules of the game and strategies for success”. The author describes the main tendencies of commercialization in sports and analyzes general principles of sports marketing. Though the book is valuable to general apprehension of marketing in sports, its contribution in understanding of Olympic marketing is insufficient. Shank, 1999, defines future perspectives of marketing in sports, summarized in his recent book “Sports marketing: a strategic perspective”.
The author defines positive and negative impacts of marketing relationships in sports and discusses major tendencies of sports and commerce co-existence. Shank, 1999, also focuses on advertising, promotion and sponsorship in a global sports. The primary accent, however, is made rather on commercialization of sports in general, while the marketing profile of Olympic Games remains underexamined. McDonald, 1999 analyzes the recent case studies of sports marketing, also including the most peculiar specimens of Olympic marketing.
The author focuses on 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in the chapter “Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games – the prevention of ambush marketing”. Though the contribution of the author is sufficient, he didn’t analyze the implicit aspects of Olympic marketing providing, instead, the overview of its most explicit manifestations. Shilbury, 1998 devoted his research to the economic aspects of sports marketing, the Olympic marketing as well lacks its comprehensive analysis. Pemberton, 1997 analyzes fundamentals of sports marketing on his own experience.
The study incorporates the aspects of establishment and maintenance of cooperation between sports and sponsoring companies and their reciprocal revenues. Though the author provides easy-to-understand, step-by-step explanation of sports as a multibillion business, he focuses on the American sports events. Olympic marketing remains out of the field of author’s researches as well. There’s also a list of work dedicated directly to the Olympic Movement that uncover the fundamentals of Olympic marketing. R.
Mandell, 1976, critically analyzes the first Olympic Games of modernity in his book “The First Modern Olympics”. The author uncovers marketing aspects of the Games, discusses private and corporate sponsorship, sources of Games’ revenues, philatelic program, etc. This information is necessary to understand the making of modern Olympic marketing in historical perspective. F. Landry (Landry et al, 1996) summarizes the major achievements of the IOC (also including its financial achievements) in her study dedicated to the centenarian anniversary of the Olympic Games.
The study serves a comprehensive guide through the marketing history of the IOC, its major decisions and innovations. This research complicates the theoretical premises of sports marketing presented in the previous studies. J. Lucas, 1980, analyzed Olympic Games and related phenomena, also including marketing, in his research “The Modern Olympic Games”. Though the book contains valuable information concerning the problem, the analysis is much outdated. Nevertheless, suggested data is important for the analysis of Olympic marketing in historical perspective. D.
Wallechinsky, 1984 analyzes Olympic marketing in his “The Complete Book of the Olympics”. The primary drawback of the research is still out-of-date information. H. Preuss, 2000 provides a comprehensive analysis of Olympic Games’ economics. A longitudinal research covering almost thirty years of Olympic history since 1972 to 2000, remains obviously the most reliable and all-round analysis of Olympic marketing. The author analyzes all characteristics pertaining to Olympic marketing, defines peculiarities of marketing in Olympic sphere, suggests comprehensive statistical data.
At the same time, development of marketing relationships in pre-1972 era is underexamined in the study. Research articles There’s a number of articles examining the problem of sports marketing in general, and Olympic marketing in particular. Marshall et al, 1992 develops the idea of corporate sponsorship in sports. The author analyzes implicit relationships between the organizers and sponsors, as well as their profits, evaluates the assets of corporate sponsorship in sports. The article, however, doesn’t deal with the Olympic marketing directly, that reduces its value for the present research.
Sandler et al, 1989, describes Olympic marketing in his article “Olympic sponsorship vs. “ambush marketing”: who gets the gold? ”. This comprehensive analysis, however, is also much out-of-dated by now. Stotlar, 1993 develops the idea of marketing relationships in Winter Olympics. The author focuses on the idea of corporate sponsorship of the Games that is important for making overall conclusions regarding the role of marketing in staging and holding the Games. Several articles are dedicated to the particular aspects of Olympic marketing. Busby, 1997, analyzes media sponsorship of the sports.
The author focuses in broadcasting policies, rights fees and coverage of the sports events as well as the role of broadcasting in sports’ development. More broad definition of Olympic marketing in the aspect of licensing is provided in the Crabb and Ji article “The Olympic Movement: the Games and Olympic IPR”. The research suggests all-round information concerning the organizing and staging of the Games, main challenges of host cities, and importance of Intellectual Property to the Olympic Movement. The research of T. Atobelli (Atobelli, 1997) is dedicated to the analysis of Olympic marketing program in Sydney.
Though the article was written two years prior to the Games, the author has managed to define the main strategies of Sydney’s marketing policy in the aspect of financing and peculiarities of its implementation. As a result, he introduced the “nitty-gritty” of Olympic marketing to the readers Batcha, 1998, undertook a critical approach to Olympic marketing. The author developed the idea of multiple malversations in sports marketing. Batcha, 1998, believes, that sponsors have turned to be the real competitors of the Olympic events instead of sportsmen.
The author states that growing commercialization of the Games has made a serious influence of equity and impartiality of the Olympic Movement. Greek researcher Papandropoulos (Papandropoulos, 2004), instead, believes in a necessity of Olympic marketing in a global perspective. The author provides necessary statistical data concerning staging of 2004 Games in Athens and also defines most important historical landmarks of Olympic marketing and their influence on Games’ development. The author describes the roots of Olympism and sources of its financial supports changing throughout the times.
Papandropoulos, 2004 analyzes Olympic sponsorship as a serious source of Games’ funding. This information is vital for the general analysis of Athens 2004 marketing plan. On-line reports and researches Internet reports and documents also provide important information about Olympic marketing. One of the most comprehensive studies is a commemorative report of the International Olympic Committee dedicated to the history and presence of Olympic movement (The Olympic Movement, 1997). The research grants a reader with all-round evaluation of Olympic marketing, its development and future prospects.
The paper also provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Olympic marketing that, unfortunately, is now outdated in many aspects. Some principles of Olympic marketing are also described in the Olympic Charter – the official Constitution of the International Olympic Committee. Much information concerning fundamentals of Olympic marketing is accessible on the official site of the International Olympic Committee. The site provides an excurse into the past of Olympic marketing, mentions key dates of its making as well as most important innovations.
Forasmuch as the site is being permanently updated, it grants most recent and reliable information concerning the revenues, distributions and expenditures of Olympic Movement. The site also proposes a number of quantitative data concerning financial revenues of the Committee. Presented charts offer comparative analysis of marketing revenues’ growth. Unfortunately, most information is accessible only in a tabloid form that is enough to apprehend the overall idea of Olympic marketing; at the same time, the data is insufficient for a comprehensive analytical research.
The international Olympic Committee issues a bulletin dedicated to Olympic Marketing. “Marketing matters” bulletin is accessible on the official site of the Olympic Committee and could be regarded as a most complete and reliable source concerning past, present, and future of Olympic marketing. The bulletin, besides, provides the reports of IOC’s Marketing Commission and Organizing Committees of the Games’ functioning. The most recent qualitative-quantitative data covering marketing plans of 2004 Games in Athens and 2008 Games in Beijing is also available in the bulletin.