Introduction to Sports Marketing: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Understand what drives fans, audiences, and sports brands in the current market

Why do some sports brands build loyal communities while others struggle to connect with fans? And how do organisations decide exactly who they’re trying to reach?

Successful sports marketing is about more than promotion. Behind every campaign, sponsorship, and brand decision sits a strategy built around understanding audiences and creating meaningful connections.

On this two-week online course, you’ll explore the foundations of market segmentation, targeting strategies, and brand positioning, discovering how sports organisations identify audiences and shape marketing decisions.

Unpack how audiences are grouped and understood

Begin by exploring the foundations of market segmentation and why organisations divide audiences into different groups.

You’ll investigate approaches including demographics analysis, psychographic profiling, and audience segmentation, examining how consumer needs, behaviours, and motivations influence marketing decisions.

Shape targeting strategies and positioning decisions

Attention then turns to how organisations select and prioritise audiences.

You’ll explore targeting strategies, consumer behaviour, and approaches used to identify the most relevant segments for products, campaigns, and experiences.

The course also introduces brand positioning and competitive strategy, helping you understand how sports organisations create distinct identities within crowded markets.

Explore perception and fan engagement in practice

Finally, you’ll investigate how audiences perceive brands and how positioning can influence engagement.

By the end of the course, you’ll have developed a stronger understanding of how strategic marketing decisions shape audience experiences in sport.

This course is ideal for marketing beginners, sports professionals, business students, and learners interested in careers in sports business, audience strategy, or marketing.

This course is ideal for marketing beginners, sports professionals, business students, and learners interested in careers in sports business, audience strategy, or marketing.

• Define and explain the concept of market segmentation.
• Identify and describe at least four bases of market segmentation (e.g., demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral).
• Explain and apply the criteria used to evaluate effective market segmentation.
• Differentiate among the major types of market segmentation strategies using relevant examples.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of an adopted positioning strategy based on market and customer analysis.