Thursday, April 4, 2019

Sports Among Women Spectators In India Media Essay

Sports Among Wowork force knockouts In India Media EssayWatching vaunt represents a predominant form of vacuous behaviour in todays society. Large keep downs of people at tip sporting events and think of themselves as sport lovers. Traditionally, participation in sports as a attestator has been a manful dominated activity.Wo manpower differ from men on various parameters such as physicality, psychographics, behavioral parameters, gullr behavior and inspiration experiences. The differences surrounded by men and women on these parameters make it difficult for marketers to cigarette them together as a unified segment. But, irrespective of the differences between men and women on various parameters, sports goods manufacturers and sports events marketers stool pursued traditional male-oriented merchandising policies.But in recent clock due to a radical change in fond and financial status of women, on that point has been an change magnitude participation in and consumption of sports by women. This has ca employ marketers to add a egg-producing(prenominal)- oriented focus to their strategies.The recent adit of female commentators in cricket to strategies to attract women in the latest IPL edition with attractive offers shows a decided change in the marketing strategies of media and marketing professionals. Also more and more women are turning to sports for unpaid purpose.With the sports industry turning more to women consumers, it has be seeded player necessary for marketers to question womens consumption behavior and consumption experiences to come up with gender specific strategies. Hence, this study would be to actualise how the Indian charwoman consumes sports and the take of troth or motivation achieved set in the scope of the Indian society.Literature ReviewSports as a genre is present in everybodys life, be it in ground of participation or watching. Sports has the power to inspire, crown communities, to make people cry, laugh. In th e hands of an ingenious marketer sports has an almost enigmatic pull towards the target consumer.Traditionally, sports participation and consumption was viewed to be masculine or a part of male dominion. However, with increasing number of women who have found economic and fond independence the expanse of sports is no longer completely a male bastion. Increasingly women are breaking the classs of passivity and are actively down and participating in sports.Major strides have been made over the past hardly a(prenominal) years in providing participation opportunities for girls and women in sports. Media visibility has increased for a number of women players both internationally and nationally alike(p) Venus Williams, Anna Kounikova or Sania Mirza. The consumption of sports and blank by men and women is dependent on a lot of factors such as prevalent societal norms, beliefs and attitudes. In the context of sports and leisure, what is associated with men and masculinity is valued o ver what is associated with women and femininity. Hence, it is important to explore the underlying societal norms to understand the consumption patterns.A post modernistic approachIn a postmodern society, the prevalent ideology is that what is considered masculine or feminine will break down as the boundaries between masculinity and femininity continue to blur and the diametrical forms of gender multiply. Activities that conventionally convey clear meanings, such as combat conveying masculinity and gracefulness conveying femininity, will no longer be obvious. A postmodern vision of these categories blurring into hotshot should be liberating because it lessens the likelihood of gender being used as a way to categorize. In the context of sports and leisure, this suggests that gender is less likely to influence participation or consumption of sports previously marked as masculine or feminine.Analysing literature would help us to understand historical trends of sports and leisure par ticipation by gender in various scenarios.Home Vs WorkplaceWomen have been historically been associated with activities conducted at home such as gardening, sewing and cooking, due to recent advancements in engineering the efforts required for the chores have reduced immensely but the modern society still views it as a womans job. Unskilled tasks such as cleaning, eating, cooking, sleeping, leisure and child rearing were per organise at home, workforce were connected with activities in the workplace and less connected with the ones at home. Home for men essentially was a place to infer from a hard days work. A similar separation exists in sports and leisure today. ( McGinnis, Chun, and McQuillan, 2003)According to Hendersons critique (1990), leisure for women tends to consist of activities which is near or at home because it ordure be infused with kin chores and because few opportunities for leisure exist breakside the home. According to a nonher search by Kane, It was argued that women tend to define themselves in terms of human relationships, hence, they consume within the context of home and family.The complexity increases for a career woman as then the leisure is dependent on family environments, especially children. Women use home as a primary place and means for leisure. And in case a leisure opportunity comes along which is off of home, then it is sort of offered in such a way as to non hamper household responsibilities.In this case, leisure itself nooky be seen as constraining, as it reinforces gender appropriateness (Shaw 1994). While it appears that leisure opportunities certainly exist for women outside the home, the literature suggests that leisure for women is still largely perceive as a secondary concern. Opportunities for leisure exist, but only when other duties and other concerns have been addressed first. Expectations of a women and her social function in society appear to transcend the opportunities outside the home. Men face the same constraint, but can define what is expected of them more so than women.Spectatorship and Leisure timeIt is a common point of list that men and women both enjoy watching sports on television, but their takeences differ, as men tend to prefer more competitive and aggressive sports as compared to women. We find evidences of media reinforcement of the gendered consumption patterns, for example NBC positioned the Olympics with storylines resembling soap operas.Men have slackly dominated the consumption of organised sports. But the Spectator Gender Gap is reduce with more women watching conventionally male sports such as Golf, football. However, research suggests that attempts by women to increase their sports consumption in a way threatens the male dominion as sports is viewed as a masculine domain where men are allowed to bond with one another. Women entering this domain are seen as up pose this setting (McGinnis, Chun, and McQuillan, 2003).Leisure is another area where the ge nder gap exists, women in general experience a lesser amount of necessitous time as compared to men as their part of their free time is generally spent doing housework or victorious care of children. Men can experience larger blocks of free time without worrying about other commitments.Role of the Indian MediaWomen are traditionally not boost to indulge in sports. Sports are men oriented, where men play and women watch. It is clearly visible in the Indian media too, be it films or advertisements. For instance, in an advertisement of Clinic Plus shampoo, a coach of a boys cricket police squad in school discourages a girl to play with the team by fearing, when he says, Baal kharab ho jayege (your sensory hair will get damaged if you will play cricket in sun). Another advertisement of Tata interchange featuring Gul Panag and Aamir Khan, she has been portrayed as a woman for whom sports is a nuisance. During the cricket matches and sports world cups, time and again, many parole c hannels have shown how women have to sacrifice watching their saas-bahu dramas and newspapers also write about falling TRPs of TV serial and how these matches are a jeremiad for women. Because in the family, their husbands, brothers and father are glued tothe sports channel and the power of attorney for the remote control is transferred to men for those few days when the matches are held.In addition, Some of the commonly held beliefs associated with female fans and women sports are explored below-Women are not interested in sports fact or fictionIn terms of viewership, over 2.2 crore women watched the 2003 World instill in India alone. Female viewership comprised an astounding 46% of the total World Cup viewing population and TRPS for female viewership for India matches climbed to a phenomenal 9.8, significantly higher than the 3.9 registered during the Nat West Trophy last-place played at Lords in June 2002(ESPNSTAR, Interesting history of womens cricket in India).The Twenty20 World Cup had a strong, growing female audience for the sport and its not restricted to cricket alone. There is an overall 54 per cent increase in ratings for the three tennis grand slams-especially with regard to womens viewership where the growth has been significant. To reach out to this diverse market, most channels are developing a strong programming line-up that is a fit shamble of acquired and original content. (The financial express, Cashing in on sports).For the first time, a non-cricketing glamorous female phalanx Mandira Bedi was brought in as a studio anchor. The experience was something which shocked cricket purists. But with a mix of elements for the purist as well as the novice and the fence sitters, Extraaa Innings combined academic cricket with mainstream entertainment like never before.This resulted in a whopping 50% increase in average rating of Indian matches and 37% increase in the rating of non-India matches, reached out to a record 78% of the Indian audie nces in CS homes. More interestingly the female gross reach grew by an unprecedented 261%. Mandira Bedi became a repute and was soon a part of life even for women in conservative Indian households. Purists like Wisden, which condemned the try out with women anchors during the ICC Champions Trophy in Colombo in September 2002, were forced to retreat. Women joined betting circles and housewives in Delhi and Ahmedabad formed clubs to enjoy the sport (ESPNSTAR, Interesting history of womens cricket in India).In terms of playing the sport, there has been significant increase in the number of professional sportswomen in variety of sports including Badminton, tennis, hockey, golf and athletics. The increase in the number of tournaments is a testament to that fact, recently an international basketball tournament the FIBA Asia Womens Championship was hosted by Chennai, Featuring the crush players and top teams from across the continent, the tournament was a success. (Deccan Chronicle, In dia Wakes up to alternative sports)Female sports fans are different from male sports fans -fact or fiction?According to a research by Sargent, Zillmann, and Weaver, men and women enjoy distinctly different types of sports. Their findings revealed that males preferred watching combative sports on television whereas females were partial to stylistic sports. Sport socialization research examines the impact that environmental forces have on children and individuals from two different perspectives socialization into sport and socialization by means of sport.This line of inquiry indicates that people are attracted to sport due to formal channels (i.e., parents, peers, coaches, mass media, teachers) and light channels (i.e., school, church, and community- ground programs), as researched by Kenyon McPherson .Media plays a primary role for introducing new teams and sport leagues to adults. According to a study by Bruce, Institutional, social, and familial contexts also shape viewers inter pretations of sports broadcasts. He also found that women did not display strong loyalties to specific womens sports teams that are common with men and their favorite mens teams. This was attributed to the extensive sports information and media attendance given to mens sports.In a study on cognitive development and socialization by James, in the initial development of team loyalty, it was found that children form preferences for sports teams early in life. Results of this study revealed and that the gender stereotype associating sports with males was prevalent among children and that fathers were the most influential socializing agent in introducing children to sports teams.In a study on experiences and effects of viewing televised sports, Gantz and Wenner found differences based on gender for 9 of the 15 motivation items examined however, these differences were not dramatic. Most notable among their findings, women were more likely to watch televised sports for companionship and s haring the experience with family and friends whereas men watched to slacken and become wrapped up in the excitement and drama of the game.Men invested more time in reading, listening, watching, and talking about sports and they were more likely to experience emotional fluctuations from watching sports.Men also tend to display a fan behavior and bring out more strongly as a fan according to Dietz-Uhler.However, an equal number of male and female college students considered themselves to be sport fans. Females reported being fans because they be and watched sporting events with family and friends while males were more likely to consider themselves fans because they played sports and wanted to acquire sports information.Measuring Spectator MotivesVarious methods to research on sport mantraps have been developed which utilizes a number of scales to assess the psychological motives related to attendance, media usage and interest at live sporting events.1) One of the first methods wa s developed by Wann. He designed a comprehensive scale to measure eight factors observed to influence behavior eustress, self-esteem, escape, entertainment, economic (gambling), aesthetic, group affiliation, and family.2) Second method developed by Trail and James was the Motivation exceed for Sport Consumption (MSSC) to examine ten aspects of spectator behavior achievement, acquisition of knowledge, aesthetics, drama, escape, family, physical attraction, physical skills of players, and social interaction.3) Thirdly, McDonald, Milne and Hong (2002) utilized a scale to measure spectator and sport participant motives related to risk-taking, stress reduction, aggression, affiliation, social facilitation, self-esteem, competition, achievement, skill mastery, aesthetics, value development, and self-actualization.Research MethodologyConceptual Framework or Problem Definition money box now through an extensive analysis of literature we have seen that men and women both consume sports in t heir own way and one cannot generalize the consumption pattern of women. The motivations and the level of occasion for women depend on a lot of factors.Research Gap There is no study done in the Indian context to understand the women sports consumers, their gifts of involvement and motivations to participate. Hence, this study is a step towards achieving an understanding of the same.Research ObjectiveThe documental of the research is to understand the Woman sports consumer in terms of her involvement level and motivation to consume a peculiar(a) sport.The study of motivation for predicting consumer behavior is very difficult as to understand the interrelation between motives and specific behavior. Also, to develop a list of consumer motives comprehensive enough to capture the wide variety of make forces that stimulate and shape behavior is challenging.To do the above, a framework could be stimulateed in the form of a social continuum which broadens the sport consumer motivati on notion by using involvement as a motivational construct to distinguish between various levels. Factors like womans role in the society would also be a part of this construct. Hence, a study of the immediate environment becomes imperative for studying the consumption pattern.The level of involvement of women consumer of sports should form the basis of the framework of social continuum where the stages vary from viewership to acceptance to fan base to taking part or actively playing to encouraging others to play or advocacy. As shown below,Identification of vituperative factors which defines each of the stages could be looked at and the motives of each stage should also be looked at. According to each stage a corresponding set of behavior would be associated. intellect different spectator motivations and involvement levels can be of significant benefit to the sport marketer looking to boost team revenues and gate receipts. Of particular interest are both the marketing manager unde rstanding the specific motivations that drive a spectator or fan to consume a sport and the subsequent development of marketing communications based on these motivations. These effective marketing communication plans can often help build groups of diehard fans, hence expanding the customer base for a team. Spectator and fan motivation can also be used as an effective psychographic segmentation method that can result in more effective marketing campaigns.Sub Research ObjectiveInvolvementInvolvement could be delimitate as a raise of interest, excitant or motivation towards an object, a product or even an activity. As put by a study done by Mitchell, Involvement represents an internal state variable that reflects the amount of arousal, interest, or drive evoked by a particular stimuli or situation that mediates consumer behavior. Application of the involvement construct to examine sport spectators andsport fans would provide a fuller understanding of motives and what stimuli and si tuations direct behavior (e.g., attendance, obtain of team merchandise, media consumption) and attitudinal formation (e.g., preferences, commitment, loyalty). Some parameters of study for involvement would beImportance of product as perceived by the consumerPleasure or enjoyment provided by the productRisk of making the wrong procure or participating in the non enjoyable activitySelf expression it represents the identification of the person with the leveraging or participationCentrality to lifestyle, encompasses socializing and interactionsMotivationTheories and studies have been done by researchers on how to assess the motives for overwhelming sports. These motives can be generally classified into the broad categories of study as EntertainmentStress and stimulation seekingSocial InteractionAchievement seekingApproach to AnalysisAccording to the sample defined above, the research would be conducted two phasesPhase 1 This would be in the form of exploratory research which would be used to develop a conceptual model for examining involvement stages and their corresponding motives. The purpose of this is to identify any potential parameters related to spectator motives or involvement framework which were missed. In-depth interview of 5 respondents well-nigh would be interpreted in each market segment.Phase 2 This is the validation phase where the soft study would be validated by quantitative so that the result of the first phase could be extrapolated to a larger population if required.Sampling Universe The sampling universe could be defined as young women who are primarily college goers or into the first 2-3 years of job, who follow at least one sport, belonging to mo A or SEC B. flesh out of Phase ISample size 15-20 (Qualitative study)The sample size setting is done with a non-statistical approach where the selection is done anticipating subgroup analysis. The anticipation is that 4 meaningful clusters (market segments) would emerge and each cluster will c ontain approximately 5 respondents in average.SEC ASEC BCollege GoersurbanSemi UrbanWorking WomenSemi UrbanUrbanThis is for the qualitative part of the research.Sampling Procedure Convenience Sampling (Non- probability sampling)Care would be taken to ensure that heterogeneity of the entire population can be effectively covered in the sample.Details of Phase IIThe phase II methodology would depend on the data collected in the first phase.ScopeThe study would help marketers understand the woman spectator motivations and stages of involvement in consuming sports in India, in turn, help in predicting behaviorThis would help marketers tap into the growing woman spectator base.Expected ContributionThere has been no study on understanding women spectators in the Indian context done till date. This research would help both the academia and industry to understand an upcoming segment.Understanding different spectator motivations and involvement levels is important for a sport marketer to tap the women consumer segment which is more and more becoming independent economically and socially.Understanding the involvement and motivations that drive a woman spectator to consume a sport in India would help marketers target this segment with crisp and relevant marketing communications.The involvement stages and motivations can also be used as an effective psychographic segmentation method for forming effective campaigns.

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