Sports research helps improve Winter Olympics

UNC’s Sports Marketing Research Institute has completed its five-year study commissioned by the United States Olympic Committee.

David K. Stotlar, director of the School of Sports and Exercise Science, talked about some of the reasons for the study.

“The USOC asked SMRI to work with NGBs (national governing bodies) to put together customer databases for the overall plan, and then we would create individual marketing plans for each NGB,” Stotlar said.

He also said the NGBs represent individual amateur sports but are all under the umbrella of the USOC.

Cody Havard, a second-year sports and exercise science doctoral student and graduate assistant director/project director, said the idea behind the study was to obtain information on NGB members, such as demographic information and find ways to use that information to help this organizations get sponsorships and new members.

Terence Eddy, a second-year sports administration doctoral student and co-director of the project, talked about the kinds of information studied.

“There were demographic patterns studied, like the ethnicity, income, household and state that the members lived in,” Eddy said. “Finances were also looked at, with purchasing info, like money spent on activities or sponsor equipment being the main focus.”

Eddy also discussed the individual marketing questions posed in addition to the core study.

“One company wanted to create a video archive of old, unused footage, and they wanted member opinions on it,” he said.

Eddy said the study was accomplished using online surveys that SMRI created. The NGBs would ask members to take the surveys, and once the surveys were closed, SMRI would begin statistic analysis.

“There was a rotating team over the years, since there would be a different director each year,” Havard said. “The core group these last couple of years has had 10 people, but overall there have been 25 to 30 participants in this project.”

As directors, both Havard and Eddy said their duties were essentially quality control and transmission of data between SMRI and the USOC.

Stotlar said his role was generally overseer when it came to creating the databases, but during the market-planning phase, he delivered seminars on effective market planning.
In the end, the objective of this study was to help organizations run better, and Stotlar said he thinks that objective was met.

“We’ve created well-developed databases showing who the members of the NGBs are and what they want from their organizations,” he said. “We’ve also helped them create better marketing plans in the long run.”