Development of marketing communication complex in the promotion of sports events and organizations: principles of planning and the implementation technologies during 2018 Fifa World Cup Russia

Depending on the content of the program, sports events may be: complex (the Olympic Games, Universiade); specialized in different kind of sports; depending on tasks and conditions of identifying the winner: personal and team competitions. According to the character of the holding: official - competitions that are included in unified Calendar of Russian and International sports events in coordination with the Sports Federation and in the list of additional competitions determined by the European Comission [1]. Classificated - competitions that usually held at the end of the season on purpose of identifying the level of sportsmen. Rank competitions - competitions of sportsmen of different ranks, where small rank sportsmen can participate but high not [17]. And finally, traditional - it is held by regional federations.



Scheme 7. Sports events according to content of the program

Sport events are held separately for men and women (accept horseback riding and technical kind of sports), adults, youth, juniors and children. In some kind of sports are envisaged sports events of mixed couples, for instance, figure skating and ballroom dancing.

To sum up, sports events and organizations represent the both constituents without which sports would never exist. It is obligatory to develop these directions in every country day by day.

Though in modern conditions, when it has been a difficult process from adaptation in all spheres of life to inevitable operation of evolution in world society, continuous growth in the volume of information flows and new means of communication always appear. With all significance of objective factors, more and more impact is acquired by subject factors - the popularity of a definite kind of sports, image, emotional evolvement, adherence to a certain kind of sports and healthy lifestyle.

The tool that influences subjective factors is marketing communications which present the mix of means, methods and tools by the usage of which organizations spread the information about their own kind of sport, attract the society's attention and form a positive image of sports discipline among broad strata of population, contribute to the attracting youth by systematical visiting of classes in clubs and sections. Marketing communications are a collective concept, their purpose is not only to reach actual consumers of sports services, but also other segments of target audience, with which organizations support the contact. This target audience may consist of any referent groups: from coaches, sportsmen, clubs, sections and fans to employees of organization, representatives of high and low management federations (regional and international), other structures that develop sport, even authorities.

Sports marketing - is a special area of ??applying marketing principles and processes to sports products, as well as promoting non-sports products through associating them with sportsmen. Sports marketing can be used by a wide variety of organizations for the development of various activities. Let us consider the directions and participants of sports marketing on the example of the Spanish football club "Real Madrid».

As usual, subjects and participants are divided into direct and indirect.

Direct are: fans - people buying tickets at the box office of the stadium on the day of the game, individuals, teams, activities (the tour of the club "Real Madrid" in the US), trading partners, TV (Real Madrid TV), government bodies (Professional Football League). Indirect are: local marketing, local economic and social infrastructure (bars and cafes, located near the stadium "Santgo Bernabeu"), magazines and newspapers (Don Balon), sports betting, manufacturers of sports equipment (manufacturers of football boots).

A distinctive feature of sports marketing is that sports organizations depend on the product. Hence, the main role in life of sports organizations is played not only by fans and consumers, but also by sports players and teams, which, respectively, have a decisive influence on marketing. The functioning of sports marketing is most effective through advertising. It is high time to consider the main vectors of advertising that are used by sports clubs and organizations.

Advertising is the most powerful tool in attempts to attract the attention of consumers to the products and create a positive image of a company, to show its significance and use. Meanwhile, the term "sports advertising" contains in essence three different concepts, namely:

- advertising of goods and services, as well as firms and companies that directly are not related to sports, but thanks to the latter actively promoted in the consumer market;

- advertising of sports and physical culture;

- advertising of goods that have a mediated attitude to sports and indirectly contribute to the development of football and sports. For example, sports equipment, tourist equipment, sportswear and shoes, actively used by consumers not only during competitions, but also in everyday life.

And although all these three types of sports advertising are more or less aimed at increasing the number of sports consumers, nevertheless, they are commercial. Besides sports advertising, it is important to maintain two other types: commercial advertising in sports, and sports-commercial advertising.

Undoubtedly, all types and forms of advertising in sports are sufficiently related to each other and it is often difficult to separate them from each other. Identification of the type and nature of advertising can be facilitated by the definition of its goals. So, the purpose of commercial advertising is to profit and strengthen the position of firms and companies in the market of goods and services through sports. The task of sports-commercial advertising is the expansion of sales of dual-use goods with parallel popularization of the physical culture, health-improving movement and active lifestyle. Finally, the goal of sports advertising is to maximize the attractiveness of sports activities and organizations for consumers and potential investors in sports. The necessary condition for the existence of the sports is the preservation of its traditional values: unpredictability of results, honesty, uncompromising struggle.

According to the way of influence on the consumer, advertising, both commercial and sports, can be divided into direct, indirect and product placement. The latter is used in those cases where due to organizational, financial, ethical or other reasons it is impossible to resort direct advertising.

Scheme 8. Advertising according to the way of influence on consumer

From the point of view of the tasks that are performed, sports advertising can be divided into three large groups:

* advertising inside the firm;

* advertising in order to create prestige (image) of the enterprise: sports federation, a club, a team;

* advertising, which seeks to expand the marketing of sports.

The main usual types of sports advertising are ads in federation newspapers, participation in events that promote the sale of sponsor's products, advertisement on sports equipment, awarding the title of "official sponsor of the federation" to companies and firms magazines, through the national team and star-sportsmen. In sports industry along with these types specific objects for advertising are often used - sportswear and footwear, sports equipment (skis, rifles, tennis-racquets, balls, sports facilities, sites, ice arenas, stands). Placement of advertising carriers in these places is usually very beneficial for advertising moderators, as hundreds, tens, and sometimes even thousands of people (when a competition is broadcast on television the witnesses become millions), are the potential consumers of the advertised products.

The main frequently used form of sports advertising is the posters and billboards. The posters contain information about the time and place of the sports events, the price of tickets, the composition of participants, the procedure of competition. The most common carriers of posters include general transport, special advertising stands and posters. Billboards are installed in places of mass congestion of people, stadiums, sports complexes, swimming pools, on the routes of the competitions. Modern advertising billboards are used in order to save space and attract target groups to be mobile. They can turn around their axis or discretely update after a certain period. In addition, modern computer technologies are enable for TV companies to create during live broadcast "virtual" billboards, replacing real images of advertising on stadiums to images created by computer graphics specialists in special television studios.

Another very effective means of sports advertising is placing on the sports clothing and equipment. On sports clothes the most often there is advertising of three kinds: of the sports club (emblem, specific colors, trademark); of the company-advertiser and on the manufacturer of sportswear, footwear, inventory and other accessories.

On the sports equipment (protective helmets, sticks, tennis rackets and etc.) of the manufacturer advertising is most often posted, however there may be exceptions.

An important point is that most of sports advertising should be classified as a commercial type, although it is possible that these types of advertising may be of a sports or sports-commercial nature. Thus, for example, the advertising of a sponsor of the event that produces products or services of not a sports nature in print will refer to commercial advertising. At the same time, the announcement or reporting of a sports event or festival, placed in any media, should be classified as sports advertising.

A certain difficulty in determining the type of advertising in sports can arise in case the sponsor produces several types of products, including sports and "applied" goods or incompatible with the traditional values ??of sport: tobacco products and alcohol. In those cases when the sponsor provides for advertising goods of dual purpose, such as sports shoes, clothing, inventory, it is a sports-commercial, and, therefore, has the right to certain benefits. From here commercial in sports is advertising of: goods or services of non-sports destination that are compatible with the traditional values of sports; logo, trademark of sponsoring firms not related to the production of tobacco and alcohol products; movements that profess a way of life compatible with traditional values in sports.

In the 21^st century relatively new carriers of sports advertising have begun informational and commercial computer networks. They offer users daily information releases, digests, analytical reviews on a variety of subjects. Consumers of the offered information perform sports, educational, commercial, scientific organizations, government agencies around the world as computer networks cover many regions and states.

What is more, advertisement in telecommunication networks is also related to this sphere. It is implemented as follows: each firm or sports club that is registered in the network has its own website. Many modern sites contain so-called banner advertising, which has become widespread. Banner is called an advertising image of a fixed size, which also performs the role of hyperlinks to a particular Internet resource. For example, on the network of National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus - nocminsk.by, advertising of magazines is placed: "Pressball", "Sports Panorama", as well as the television company "STV".

It goes without saying, packaging of the goods has also become an important carrier of advertising. Manufacturers of sports goods are trying to give the packaging a unique design, using materials of new substances with improved properties at the package and applying to the package information of an advertising nature.

Thus, carriers of advertising in the sports industry can perform specific objects and advertising in sports has its own characteristics and peculiar character.

As far as it is known about sponsorship contribution (financial means, provided property, results of intellectual activity, services), it is an advertising fee, and the sponsor and sponsored, respectively, act as advertisers and advertiser-distributor. That means that sponsorship is not a gratuitous charity, but a paid-for communication with a unique hard-to-reach target audience.

It is important for the sponsored party that active participation in a particular event allows to send communication of the "message" to a clearly defined target audience and to influence its attitude to the promoted brand. In turn, the sponsored party receives money funds that enable it fully to realize the range of necessary costs of the event, as well as to prepare the material and technical base and hire a qualified service personnel. The main costs, as a rule, are:

· organization of the event (rent of premises, necessary equipment and inventory, accommodation and meals for participants, etc.);

· payment for the work of technical personnel (technicians, movers, security, cleaners);

· payment for the work of sports personnel (judges, secretariat, doctor, etc.);

· preparation and conduct of entertainment program (contests, drawings, support group, invited "stars", "special" matches, master classes, for-drivers, leading, etc.);

· a massive advertising campaign of sports competition (it is possible to include development of attributes, hymn, emblem, thematic site, operators, etc.);

· financial security of the corresponding prize fund;

· insurance of participants;

· payment for the work of management and marketing services in the competition [13].

As it can be seen from the list given, this is quite expensive both for sponsors and organizers. Firms expect to receive certain dividends on investment that are spent on sports events, which are rightly considered as the most "profitable" object of sponsorship. Sports competitions are traditionally interesting for the media and sports "stars" which are extremely popular and what allows with it help to fix in the minds of the consumers images that demonstrate a positive mood and right values. Today, a wide range of goods and services for the sports industry makes it possible to make a spectacular and aesthetically attractive any kind of competition. Among other things, the action itself usually takes place on the background of the emotional rise of a huge mass of spectators.

Opportunities for maximizing benefits are the most important moments that companies consider when making decisions about sponsorship. Most likely, today sponsors are increasingly supporting not sports as such, but most amazing events and sportsmen-lovers.

In such circumstances it is necessary to take into account that there are things that make sponsorship of sports competitions more attractive: presence of TV-broadcast; the rank of a sporting event; the presence of an advertising campaign for a sporting event; a high level of organization of the sporting event;

the popularity of the sport; the presence of players, "stars" (if there are none, you can always make "stars" from local amateur athletes or last year's winners) [15].

To crown it all, sponsorship allows you to convey a message to a wide range of consumer groups and to deliver a message to a precisely verified segment of a narrow target audience. This helps to optimize the communication with certain target audience in sports.

To make a fast conclusion, it is perfectly noticed that sports marketing communications differ from usual ones in modern society. The main important factor that attracts public in sports is the novelty in sports competitions. That is why football and its unpredictability makes people be fans for ages. As for sports advertising, the least used and weakest type is advertising in order to create their own image in the activities of sports organizations.



Chapter 2. Planning and implementation of marketing communications mix of a sport event (FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia taken as a sample)

2.1 Planning a marketing communication mix when sports events are promoted

Not every kind of sports is capable of gathering ten thousands of fans on one stadium every week, due to the number of fans they even cannot approach to it. There are some factors that support such involvement in football. To begin with it's an entertainment. Eleven persons of one team are also staying in movement, trying to pick up the ball from the rival and score at the rival's gates. The game is dynamic and what is more, does not require expensive equipment. But to watch this play is more interesting. Experts find out that football fans at the stadiums burn as many kilos as if they ran for the distance of 3 km [26]. Various speeches in support for favorite team, live waves let out by the audience - all this creates a unique ambience. The Olympic Committee expands a list of new kind of sports, but the popularity of football still remains at a high level.

But how did the development of football championships begin? It should be noted, the first World championship was held in 1930 in Uruguay as only Uruguay state authorities pledged to cover from their own budgets all the expenses of the tournament participants. All the games were held in the capital Montevideo but, most surprisingly, only 13 national teams arrived at the games as European teams literally boycotted the championship, but 4 of them still agreed to participate due to the personal request of FIFA president. The winner was the country-organizer and the second place took Argentina [27]. This was a kind of starting point with which the activity of FIFA began.

Nowadays football is popular not only in large capacious areas such as the U.S.A, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, etc., but also in still developing industrial countries of South Africa and America. It is exceedingly important to use all promotion tools for football development.

The first way which FIFA chooses itself as organization of football promotion is web-site. There you can find all the official information needed: from the history factors of foundation FIFA Congress and Council to Ranking, Home of FIFA, Marketing, TV, FIFA online-store and even promotion of women's football. For instance, in the sector of FIFA online-store it can be at once seen the advertising of FIFA official sponsors - Adidas and VISA. If you are a professional footballer or just an amateur, you can promptly buy Adidas national team outfit or souvenirs of your lovely football team where an official mascot of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - a wolf Zabivaka is depicted. There is a great variety of accessories: baseballs, trinkets, toys, cups, balls, rucksacks and magnets [24]. There is also full information of world leader in sphere of digital payments - VISA. There is a special package of proposals on the website -bonus cards and privileges in travelling of its holders, fast money transferring and development of VISA business. This global company even has the representative of its world marketing program on 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, who is Z. Ibragimovich - one of the best attacker in football history.

There are a lot of FIFA marketing programs that allow football fans to interact with FIFA events. From the website it can be seen that FIFA Fan Fest is a perfect place to watch all the matches of FIFA World Cup live out of the stadium, inspire the atmosphere and enjoy cultural entertainment program. It is held in 8 different countries, visited by 30 million of people, in addition every person can expect entrance free of charge, good quality of food, buy in official stores FIFA products and listen to exciting music. And FIFA Fan Fest will be held in Russia this summer in 11 host cities. [23]

It is important to have a press presence which ensures regular news dissemination with quality information, dedicated editorials and regular updates regarding various aspects of the competitions that FIFA organizes. For this purpose, FIFA contracts with print media companies which acquire rights to be Official Print Media Supporters for certain FIFA competitions in selected territories around the world. Titan media in China and Editora Abril S.A in Brazil are related to such companies. As for the first one, it has the top selling sports newspaper «Titan Newspaper» with circulation of 1.6 million. It is also the number 1 sports magazine weekly. The second one Editora Abril publishes some of the best-selling titles in Brazil, including «Veja» magazine and Brazil's popular football newspaper «Jornal Placar», which will both be valuable sources of news for these tournaments. [23]

With the philatelic program, postal administrations all over the world get the great opportunity to play a big part in the celebrations of the biggest sport event in the world. This global program enables national engagement of an event that brings together the world's best football fans.

In 2016 FIFA Football Development Program was created on purpose to support football across the globe so that it could reach its target audience in every nation. It is built on 3 principles: more investment, more impact, more oversight.

The first criterion means that financial support for member associations and football development is significantly increasing to 5 million USD per 4 year.

The second criterion is based on focusing more on undeveloped areas yet such as women's and youth's football, together with domestic competitions. It is also about the efficiency of investment in football development and achieving better results so that football could flourish in every region of our planet.

And the last one criterion is aimed to the right way of using these funds so that they have maximum impact for football on the ground [23].

As it is known, the main frequently used form of external advertising is the posters and billboards that install along the perimeter of football stadium. The advertising structures provide for placing banners of 5 or 6 meters long, both along the whole field and behind the gate.

The first advertising line is the most valuable type of outdoor advertising in the stadium, because at any record of a match, broadcasts and even photographing banners on the first advertising line get in a shot. The outer side of the first advertising line is the shields addressed to the spectators of the match. Advertising banners are also placed both along the entire field, and behind the gate.

Banners on the second advertising line are placed directly on the walls of the internal thicket of the stadium. They also get into the photo and are perfectly visible from the stands. On the second advertising line are placed both banners of 6 meters long and 12 meters long. Banners are placed along the entire platform C, which falls into the lens of all cameras. In addition, it is provided for the placement of such banners along the rostrum A, on the other side of the field.

Until the modern technologies have not been developed, static advertising in the form of billboards and banners was basically used. It standed at the edges of the field and behind the gates. Later, a classified advertising appeared which allowed almost any images to be on the shields. But even this was not the last step. The latest squeak of fashion in advertising during football broadcasts is targeted advertising, which varies on the country in which this or that football match is broadcasted. Modern technologies allow a picture be overlaid in real time. That means, right at the time of a football match is broadcasted companies can impose advertising on the boards that stand around the field, no matter what is actually depicted on these shields. It can be noticed only by a very attentive spectator and sometimes during slow repetitions.

Besides, FIFA organization has 18 special promotion events where offers promo and discounted packs, themed cards, special rewards, daily gifts and many other offers. communication sport fifa

As a result, FIFA World Cup represents an excellent possibility of global marketing programs offering sponsors unrivalled opportunities to connect with consumers. It should be noted that sponsorship is also one of the means of marketing communications.

Such a variety of marketing communication tools in supporting big sports events requires a special management approach for their planning and successful implementation.

Today, there is one of the modern and effective tools that is becoming increasingly popular - it is integrated marketing communications (IMC) approach, which is used by such large companies as Johnson&Johnson, trade organization METRO Cash&Carry, American airline "Southwest Airlines", American Bank Greyrock Capital, Procter & Gamble, MTS Russian company, JSC "Don tobacco" and "Tobacco United Company" etc. [25]

According to the American Association of advertising agencies, the IMC is the concept of planning marketing communications, based on the need of evaluation of the strategic role of different areas separately (advertising, sales promotion, PR, etc.) and optimal combination of them for clarity, sequence and to maximization of communication programs' impact through consistent integration of them.

Distinctive features of IMC from traditional marketing communication are the cohesion of messages; creating a holistic brand image; reaching wider audience with the best mix of multimedia channels; succession of communications; building long term relationships with the audience to increase loyalty. [25]

This approach is more modern and allows to solve problems, associated with traditional promotion:

1) it introduces a unified and integrated funding and eliminates budget conflicts in different areas of promotion;

2) there is a single "control center" of the marketing campaign for promotion.

3) the unified campaign planning is introduced. Thus, the effect of sending various and often contradictory "messages" is eliminated at all [20].

Anyway, planning of a marketing communication campaign begins with the analysis of the current situation in order to evaluate available resources and efficiency of the previous campaigns and to define target audience, consumers' preferences and behavior.

The following aspects are to be analyzed: competitive strategies of marketing communications and advertisings; consumer behavior; communication and advertising opportunities in the market; international experience (best practices from sports industries); available distribution channels; promoted products. [7]

To make such an analysis, the following tools can be used: marketing researches, sales department reports, SWOT (analysis of strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats) and PEST analyses (overview of the external factors: political, economic, social and technological), official statistic data analysis etc.

The next step of the planning of marketing communication campaign for a big sports event is setting targets and goals, which are to be fully correlated with the total marketing strategy of the organization.

Analysis will help to define the target groups (segments), which marketing communication will be focused on. And, having defined target audience, it is necessary to formulate key communication messages based on the total marketing strategy and the set objectives.

When the communication messages are created, it is important to choose the right tools for their delivering to the target groups. The choice of the tools usually depends on the specific features of the target audience, their behavior and habits, their motives and lifestyle in order to “catch” them in their daily life. Here an integrated marketing communication approach will help to develop a strategy and coordinate all the directions of the campaign: advertising, digital activities and the Internet, PR, promotion activities and others. Then the implementation stage comes and further results analysis is required once again.

Monitoring the effectiveness of the IMC and analysis of its current results are the most important part of the whole process of planning advertising of events. Before the launch of an integrated marketing communication campaign, a company does not have specific data of the future results, except for its own action plan, and the plan itself is just an assumption about how marketing campaign should work. The results could be estimated only through the analysis of a current IMC actions and after their ending. [14]

Thus, planning of a marketing communication campaign begins with the analysis and setting targets and finishes in the same way. That means that the whole planning process should be cyclical in order to deliver success. A whole cycle looks like this:

· analysis of the current situation and available resources;

· setting targets and objectives;

· defining the target audience, its segmentation;

· developing key marketing messages for the audience;

· choosing tools for delivering the messages;

· developing a strategy of the implementation of the campaign;

· implementation stage;

· analysis of the marketing communications efficiency, current situation and available resources;

· setting new targets and goals.

This planning approach helps to coordinate big marketing campaigns that are used for promoting such wide-scale sports events as FIFA World Cup, for example.

2.2 Segmentation of the target audience of the FIFA World Cup 2018

Market, from the point of view of a marketer, means a pool of consumers. Naturally, they are different as to their features, income, buying habits, consumer behavior, age, gender and so on. Using all the factors or characteristics one can divide the whole market into segments with homogenous customers. Such segments help a lot when you try to find out who is your target audience. Thus, as it can be seen from the name, target audience is just a segment or segments at which the company aims. [29]

Targeting and segmentation are parts of a larger process STP (segmentation, targeting, positioning) which the firm goes through. The fiercer is the competition, the more difficult the process of segmentation is. Segmentation is realized by a number of criterions that characterize the quality and volume of demand of a certain group of consumers on this or that product. In classification of individual consumer goods the following parameters are used: geographical, demographical, economic, socio-cultural and psychographic. Segmentation of markets of consumer goods as a rule is realized according to the following principles, every of the highlighted segments should be: clearly identified and provided with necessary, available information. Further, to be rather significant in order to gain a profit and also to have a common sense as little segments do not provide enough profit from investments. [3]

Half of the Earth's population is an army of football amateurs that includes fans and just persons sympathizing to this play. In absolute calculation it is about 2,9 billion inhabitants of the planet. This is the best indicator amongall kinds of sports. The second half of humanity refers to football either neutral or opponent. Football concedes in popularity only to cinema, music, art, fashion, but no so significantly. [26]

For the most part, sports fans are men, while women prefer fashion, dancing, theater. Common area is cinema and music. Men are more actively involved in the world of sports - they often wear attributes, actively get sick at stadiums, play sports video games and go in for sports. For women, sport is primarily a way of socialization and a topic for communication. [26]

The segmentation process is realized according to a definite procedure. The first step is the choice of the market. In the case of the research it is Russian football market. After, research reviews and preferences of fans in Russia are analyzed. The dynamics and statistics of segmentation development due to the past 5 years is also viewed. And finally, according to segmentation data the survey is making.

In the first criteria of segmentation, due to the relation to football, the inhabitants of Russia can be divided into the following segments (pic.1):

* Active and moderate fans (12%);

* Passive fans (10%);

* Sympathetic (20%);

* Neutral towards (19%);

* Negative attitude (39%) [19].

Pic.1. Respondents of Russian inhabitants due to the relation to football

Let us to consider every segment in detail. The segments of active and moderate fans are those who follow both the main international tournaments and other national championships relatively regularly, but with different frequency. At the same time, they periodically watch the relevant matches at stadiums, on TV (regardless of the place of viewing, the bulk of the audience), via the Internet or mobile phones.

The segment of passive fans is formed by football fans who, as a rule, observe only the main international championships or tournaments with participation of elite teams, including at their different stages. They have an interest only from time to time to internal football at the level of recognition of the results of games, the current tournament situation and very rarely (usually, the most important games of local teams) watch it on TV [19].

The inhabitants of Russia that sympathize to football, as a rule, look it only at the final tournaments of world and continental. As for negative attitude to football, number ones are those who do not like football at all, and many of them even annoy it. By the relative number of those annoyed by football, we are second after the North America. A high percentage of footballs' opponents is caused by the fact that in Russia very few women are really interested in this game. Especially that in Russia there is almost 1.2 times women more than men [19].

If to consider Russia in comparison with the football powers of the Western Europe, the picture will not be in favor of our country -- the relative number of all Russian football fans is by 2.3 times lower. The relative sizes of the audience of the national championships differ in the same way. [19]

There are a number of objective and subjective factors that determine this situation. Let us take a few closer look at just three reasons that largely explain the low level of popularity of the Russian engagement and the corresponding values.

1. Unlike the most Western European countries, Russian women have little interest in football. The percentage of women among the fans of the Russian championship, as well as the games of the national team in the qualifying rounds, is no more than 15%. In the Western Europe, it is around 40%. And, as another example, in Japan, Korea and China, it can exceed 60% of the total. [19]

2. Unlike the Western Europe, only a small part of the regions in the elite the Russian championship is represented.

3. There is no strategy in correlation with the dominant group of football fans -- TV fans. And taking into account both world trends and the peculiarities of our country.

According to the way of spare time people are segmented on those who watch TV regularly. The main number of Russian fans watching football matches is only on TV. And for most of them it is the only window into the world of big football. On the other hand, it should be not forgotten that television remains the most powerful PR-resource, which largely determines the attitude of the public to anything.

TV broadcasting is divided into 2 groups: free and not free broadcasts.

After 1990s, the matches began to be broadcasted regularly on the main Russian free federal channels, covering almost 100% of the population -- first on «RTR-Russia», and since 2005 on the «First channel». But the live matches on the channel "Russia" (2002-2004) guaranteed to be seen only in Moscow and Moscow region. As a rule, part or even the entire broadcast to many European regions was blocked by local TV channels, and in the Urals they were recorded at a night time.

Later, the «First channel» began to broadcast the matches of the tour to all regions of the Russian Federation. But the Far East can still observe them only in the recording and after midnight. In the Urals and Siberia, these games are shown live, then, mainly in the record. And this applies to a third of the country's population, which, incidentally, exceeds the population of Spain.

TV channel "Sport" only recently has reached the coverage of half of the Russian population. At the same time, having reached the maximum on live broadcasts in 2005-2006, the next two years two such broadcasts were limited in the tour, and in the current only one broadcast has left.

In addition, all the matches of Zenit in recent years have been broadcasted in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region by the «Fifth channel», "100 TV". But the rest of the regional channels in case of showing domestic games of their teams, they organize them only at a later time. [19]

A certain revolution in world football was the transition to the paid broadcast of its individual tournaments. But in the Western Europe this process was carried out at the peak of popularity of national championships and in the presence of the corresponding infrastructure and relative social well-being of the population, i.e. when this service was demanded and widely available.

In Russia such transformations began when interest in the national championship only-only began to be restored, but still had been so far from level of the Soviet period. The corresponding organizational and technical base was not prepared, as well as the necessary social conditions were not formed.

As a result, all the matches of the Russian championship "Our football" ("NTV-Plus"), which have been broadcasting since 2007, is now covering the fan audience, which is no more than 0.5% of the population. Less than 1% of the population actually enjoyed the opportunity to watch broadcasts of these games on the Internet or cable networks in the first half of 2009. At the same time, two-fifths of consumers of these services live in the capital region.

Nothing happens while watching matches in sport bars or smoke lounges. At least occasionally, less than 0.5% of Russians watch the domestic championship in them. On the one hand, traditions are not formed during first two years. On the other hand, the number of such points in Russia as a whole is by 100,000 inhabitants less than in England where they are within walking distance in almost all its corners.

In addition to this, the average attendance of stadiums in recent seasons does not reach even 12-13 million viewers, which is three times lower than in European countries (England and Germany) [19].

According to the factor of paid and not paid TV broadcasts, it is clear to highlight the next criteria of segmentation - due to income.

The first sector is until 300 $ per person. Second sector is from 300 to 500 $ per person. The third sector is 500-800 $ per person. And the last one is 800+$ per person ( pic.2). [19]

Pic.2. Russian inhabitants due to income

Another key point is segmentation due to the age of people. The first group is under 10 (which is not interested for marketing communications in sports), the second one is 10-24, the third one is 25-44, the next is 45-60 and the last is 60+ (pic.3) [22].

Pic.3. Russian inhabitants due to the age

To put it another way, there is segmentation due to gender. Here everything is clear. 90% are male that interested in for football and only 10 % are female (pic.4) [22].

Pic.4. Russian inhabitants due to gender



A target audience also must be segmented due to the attitude to going in for football. Here people are divided in active players and fans (pic.5) [26].

Pic.5. Russian inhabitants due to the attitude to going in for football

2.3 Marketing research of the active and passive target audience of the FIFA World Cup 2018

2.3.1 Methodology of the research

The research is quantitative, as we need to assess the quantitative values of the studied indicators and reveal marketing communications FIFA uses to promote itself as an organization. The data was obtained by means of online survey in Google forms (Appendix 1). This is the most common method of sociological research and gathering information as questions can be considered by the respondent without the help of the interviewer. It helps to easily cover data on people, which are from different cities and have different psychological and social characteristics, to make the results relevant. Based on data presented, it is composed online survey in order to confirm the hypothesis of segmentation: division FIFA fans on active and passive parts. It was decided to interrogate in the research active part of fans that have already bought FIFA tickets and will really go to the match, as by this reason there is more possibility to identify the exact statistics of active fans in comparison with passive ones who stay nearby TV and will watch FIFA football matches at home or bars.

The questionnaire consists of 15 questions: 13 closed and 2 opened questions. As the eyes' attention of every person during passing the survey is losing after approximately first 17 questions, it is deemed necessary to include only 15 questions. There is so little number of opened questions as to be ensure that surveys provide structured data. In its turn, closed questions are used mostly in online survey.

As the most available and relevant target audience is students it was decided to ask mainly them to pass the survey. Among students are a lot of volunteers, members of student community, as usual, they are active, want to know everything new that surround them, and what is more, many of them are the same age as the author of the research. But by the reason that FIFA tickets are not cheap, respondents that are elder than students were welcomed to pass the survey too.

First 2 questions identify the age and gender of respondent. The third question which sounds «How often do you travel abroad for holidays?» is to understand the approximate finance status of respondent and average month profit. As people do not have to answer about financial situation an as usual ignore this question, it was decided to identify their profit by asking two simple questions which show in one or another way whether respondent has enough money or not. The fourth question is aimed also to understand the average approximate profit of a respondent and it is clear that people whose earnings is no more than 300$ per month do not probably have own car. The question «Sport for you is …» to feel the relation of respondent to sport. There are many types of answers in this question: a person may be not interested in for sport at all, a respondent may just be an amateur and visit fitness centers or swimming pools, for instance, just to keep in fit, whether he or she could be a professional sportsman and sport is the main part of his or her life. The 6^th question is opened and aimed to identify any hobby that respondent has. Hobby cannot be connected even with sports sphere, it is expected to get all kinds of hobby that respondents have. It is decided to highlight exactly this question opened by the reason that all people have at least one preferable hobby in life. The next question is addressed to understand the motivation of going in for FIFA match 2018. The expected answers on this question are directly correlated with the hypothesis of the research «The active part of the target audience attends FIFA matches as a fashion and status event and not just as football fans». To confirm or refute the hypothesis it is obligatory to include this question in survey. The question «How often do you visit FIFA matches?» is to identify whether a respondent an active fan of all FIFA matches forever or it is a coincidence that a person will visit match as it will be the first time in Russia and why not to visit this interesting event. The next question is aimed to understand the character of fans and the atmosphere they feel during the match or how they imagine the visit of FIFA match at all. The next question is addressed to get a general attitude about visiting FIFA matches and what it brings to active fans. The last 4 questions are addressed to describe the main marketing promotion tools that organization FIFA uses in modern life and to identify the most known and used tools by respondents. And the last question is opened and directed to get the feedback of respondent and own recommendations in order to improve FIFA official website, which is undoubtedly the most important marketing communication tool.

2.3.2 The results of the research of the target audience of the FIFA World Cup 2018

As it has already been told, the main target audience of the research is a group of students from 18 to 22 years, as they represent the main line of communication with the author of the diploma work. But the online survey was also sent to people of other ages, mainly until 40 years, as their income and possibility to buy FIFA tickets is higher due to the fact that practically most students do not work all day long.

The target sample consists of 70 people. The respondents were characterized by age, gender, income, hobby.

All in all, it is high time to illuminate the results of FIFA research.

The first question was asked to understand the age of respondents (pic.6).

Pic 6. Respondents' distribution by age

As it can be seen, the largest proportion refers to people from 10 to 22(75,7%). They are considered as children and youth: students and recent graduates. Respondents of the age from 23 to 45 have 24,3%. In survey target audience 45+ was also highlighted, but there are no respondents. Probably, it is considered that this target audience is passive fans and will watch FIFA matches at home.

According to the gender, men and women passed the survey practically with equal results. They are represented on the pie chart (pic.7):

Pic 7. Respondents' distribution by gender



The next question was addressed to identify the financial status of the respondents. As usual, if to ask directly, no honor answers could be given on this question. That is why it was decided to ask through the frequency of travelling. The following results are given on the question: «How often do you travel abroad?» (pic.8)

Pic 8. Respondents' distribution by travelling abroad

As it can be seen from the pie chart, approximately equal proportion of respondents travel abroad: 2-3 times - 48,6% and once a year- 47,1%. From this graph we can conclude that there are only 4,3% of people who have never been abroad and the earnings of target audience is high.

The following results are got on the question: «How do you appreciate yourself as a driver?» (pic.9) This question was asked for the purpose of defining the active FIFA fans and made on the assumption that they prefer aggressive and adrenalin style of car driving.



Pic 9. Respondents' distribution by appreciating themselves as car drivers

As it can be seen, one third of target audience prefers driving car aggressively what absolutely correlated with the fact that active FIFA fans that visit matches from time to time has the same character. 14,4% do not have a car, another 14,3% are experienced drivers, 12,9% have just bought a car and 9% stopped driving long ago, but may allow themselves a personal driver.

Sport for you is… and 5 main variants were offered: interest, adrenalin, a possibility to cheer up for the lovely team, that what you are doing at least 3 times a week, healthy lifestyle. Multiple response was assumed (pic.10).

Pic 10. Respondents' participation in sports



This question was addressed to respondents to identify their relation to sports as those who are not interested in for sports, with more probability will not buy tickets for FIFA match and will stay at home. 28 respondents answered that they have an interest and entertainment to sports. 24 other people answered that sports for them is adrenalin what means that they relate to active fans and will go for FIFA match. To keep themselves in tonus and stay strong - this position is important for 21 respondent what also supports a positive relation to sports. 12 men and women appreciate sports as a possibility to cheer up for lovely team, what means that they usually visit matches and sports events. Only 7 respondents go in for sports 3 times a week. It should not be forgotten that that a respondent had a chance to choose both or even more preferable variants.

Respondents were asked to name their favorite hobby. As all people are different and there can be a lot of types of hobby, opened question was assumed. According to the results of this question, the leader is computer games, 19 respondents prefer playing computer games. The second place with 7 respondents is taken by fitness center and it is very pleasantly that people try to keep in fit. All in all, 30 respondents, which is 43% of the respondent sample, wrote different kinds of physical activities as their hobby: football, swimming, snowboard, skiing, dancing, yoga etc. This means that sports, active and healthy lifestyle are quite popular nowadays. At the same time, 27% of the respondents prefer computer games - digital activities.

The remained nine questions of the survey were directly connected with the FIFA event.

On the pie chart below the reasons of buying the FIFA tickets are represented (pic. 11). It is remarkable that 24,3% of the respondents bought the FIFA tickets because they consider the FIFA matches to be a fashion and status event. This percentage is even 1,5 times more than the amount of active FIFA fans - only 15,7%. This means that the FIFA World Cup Russia is perceived by people not just as a sports event but also as a prestigious one, and, as a consequence, it attracts a much wider audience than just football fans. 15,7% of the respondents got the FIFA tickets as a gift - the same percentage as the amount of active fans. 44,3% of the respondents had other motives for buying tickets. The results of this question give a direct proof in favor of the hypothesis of the research. Thus, on the one hand, there are active fans and sports conscious people who attend FIFA World Cup Russia, and on the other hand, there are even more people among the FIFA target audience who are susceptible to fashion trends and status events.

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