39 ISSN 2231-3265 International Journal of Health, Physical Education and Computer Science in Sports Volume No.15, No.1.pp39-41 Journal Impact Factor 0.624 The Nature of Sports Marketing: A Conceptual Framework Anirban Sarkar Assistant Professor (senior)Department of Commerce & Management West Bengal State University Prabal Dasgupta Assistant Professor (senior)Department of Economics A.G.C.Bose College, University of Calcutta Abstract Sports’ marketing has established itself over the last three decades as a very special form of marketing. However, it is quite surprising that the nature of sports marketing is relatively unknown as different definitions of sports marketing indicate. Indeed, a generally accepted definition does not exist to date and opinions about the nature of sports marketing differ widely. This paper examines the nature of sports marketing and therefore seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion as to whether sports marketing are any different from principal marketing or just a modified version. It starts with a discussion of three different definitions of sports marketing. Then the unique characteristics of sports and sports marketing are described followed by implications for sporting organisation, companies involved in sports marketing and sports marketing academics. In this paper, four sports marketing domains are identified and they are theme-based, product-based, alignment-based and sports-based strategic domains. At the most fundamental level, theme-based strategies use the traditional components of a marketing strategy- target market and marketing mix decisions- to sell nonsports products. This can be differentiated from the product-based strategies that represent the use of traditional marketing mix and target marketing decisions in an effort to sell sports products. The sponsorship-based strategies are represented by the alignment-based and sports-based strategies. Alignment-based strategies use sponsorship in the efforts to sell nonsports products. Conversely, sports-based strategies involve some form of official sponsorship of a sports property in the task of marketing one of the many sports products that crowd the marketplace. This conceptual paper is exploratory in nature. It is based on the secondary sources which are mainly available from various reports, scholarly articles in this field and the relevant websites on the internet. Key Words: sports marketing, principal marketing, strategic domains. Introduction The concept of "sports marketing" is ambiguous in its meaning for both practitioners and academicians. Discussions about its application in the popular press and in many textbooks include categories ranging from tickets to spectator sports to sport-related wagers in legal gambling establishments (Shannon, 1999). Some tend to take a narrow view about what the discipline of sports marketing encompasses. To them, the primary task is one of selling tickets and putting fans in the seats at organized sports events (Sports Marketing Surveys, 2002), thereby equating the sports product to tickets for spectator sports. "In order to fully appreciate and understand the dynamics and differing perspectives of sports marketing, it is imperative that the task of marketing through sports also he accepted as an integral component of the industry." Definitions of sports marketing Sports marketing academics as well as organizations involved in sports marketing produced various definitions of sports marketing over the last couple of years. A generally accepted definition, however, does not exist. This might be because of the changing nature of sports marketing on the one hand, and different viewpoints on the other. This section discusses three different definitions exemplarily. One definition most recently published comes from Kaser and Oelkers who say that ‘sports’ marketing is using sports to market products.’