Abstract
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in the broader sense in the sports market encompasses all promotional techniques from the promotional mix spectrum, as well as all communication potentials of the point of sale of the sports product and the product itself, digital resources, and public relations. The lack of coordination in the use of communication potentials has led to the necessity of the IMC concept. The dilemmas and challenges arising from the sports market regarding the application of IMC stem from the issues of defining the sports segments that make up this market, the imprecision in distinguishing between marketing, promotion, and public relations, as well as the lack of synchronisation of communication aspects in the process of reaching customers and maintaining good long-term relationships with them. This paper will consider these dilemmas and challenges, aiming to highlight IMC’s full potential in the sports market. Given that the sports market has specific characteristics compared to others, the main research question in this paper is which communication potentials of this market can be considered part of IMC. The results indicate that the sports market possesses a broader spectrum of communication potentials that can be utilized in the application of IMC, as well as that public relations represent a significant resource.
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