Study Of Influencing Factors Over Chinese Fans And Marketing Entry Strategies For Chinese Owned European Football Clubs ——By Use Of Patriotic Appeal,Customer Relationship Management Systems And Social Media

This paper has set to examine the possible marketing approaches by the Chinese owned European football clubs with regards to entering the under-developed Chinese football market.Recent years have shown a remarkable increase of activity by Chinese businesses in the European football,especially acquisition of clubs.After presenting the most relevant previous findings on internationalization theories adjusted to sports,the crucial customer segmentation tactics,establishing and developing the club’s brand,Chinese promotion strategy abroad,the presence of clubs on social media and use of customer relationship management systems,the thesis tested Chinese customer/fan preferences by the way of an online questionnaire,answered by 145 Chinese citizens.The findings of the questionnaire were then analyzed and suitable marketing strategies were suggested,with concurrence to previous literature.The questionnaire results indicate overall low interest in football.They also yielded high level of support for a club that makes promotion of China abroad part of its strategy – similar for importance of the country’s image and businesses’ responsibility for its advancement.The correlation was further proven by statistical analysis.The assumption that success means the most for Chinese people was disproven by similar importance placed in attractive style of play and possession of top-players,in addition to continuous commitment to supporting an unsuccessful club.Similar loyalty was shown to successful club without an attractive style of play.While personal interaction and presence on social media weren’t deemed very important,the attention of the club to opinion of the fans was parallel for commitment to the club.Based on the questionnaire results and professional literature it was determined that Chinese owned European football clubs would do well to include patriotic appeals and use of CRM systems integrated with social media to promote themselves in China,while also investing into developing a suitable customer segmentation system,different to other markets.