Marketing of Sports Supplements

Abstract

Drucker (1999) Suggests the key to marketing is knowing and understanding potential customers so well that products or services designed, fit him or her so well that they sell themselves. Thus with sports participation figures continuing to show significant growth opportunities for marketers to target those already consuming sport with sports related products have never been so high. Mintel (2013) indicating that specific sports supplement products aimed at Men have increased by 25%. The following project explores the effect of sports supplement marketing in relation to the Male target market and their expressed beliefs, motives and purchasing influences. In addition there was a specific focus placed on the young male demography, with age along with relocation or change in social surroundings also indicated as means that could affect marketing interpretation or influence. A questionnaire was sent out to 60 Cardiff metropolitan university students that matched the desired sampling requirements, providing foundation information that in turn helped identify significant respondents that could be used for follow up interviews but also as a means to inform the interview content. Findings Significantly findings indicated that the majority of participants agreed there were more people using sports supplements at university than they were used to, furthermore an association with supplement use and enhanced muscularity or athletic body image was observed. This was supported by insights provided by interview subjects who indicated they felt there was a clear social influence towards sport supplement use in university creating increased awareness of body image. In terms of the selection of sports supplement product the role of branding was explored with participants explaining familiar brands contributed to assumed product safety and quality.