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Although the needs and desires of customers are different, obtaining positive and negative experiences is an inevitable consequence of consuming products and services purchased by the consumer. The nature of these experiences is very important for the retail industry and in particular sports stores, as the intangible experience includes the main essence of the products and services provided by businesses; in other words, sports products are mostly experience-oriented and can be classified as an overall experience. Despite the importance of the consumer experience as a dominant and effective paradigm in consumer behaviour, the design of sports customer experience has received less attention from researchers. Therefore, the present study seeks to answer the question of what aspects of creating and developing the customer experience in sports and recreational complexes are. To answer this question, this chapter attempts to identify the areas of creating customer experiences in sports and recreational environments by examining the case of the Enghelab sports and recreational club (in Tehran, Iran) using qualitative research methods and interviewing experts in this field and using the content analysis technique. The findings indicate that cognitive, functional, comprehensive, human, physical, functional, aesthetic, sensory, social, emotional and communal components are the most important components of creating and enhancing customer experience in sports and entertainment complexes.

Therefore, the owners, managers and marketing unit of these collections should invest in the creation and development of these components in the design of their strategic marketing plans in order to provide a memorable experience for the customer during their journey and finally be able to benefit from the subsequent positive consequences such as customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth advertising, loyalty and return intention.

This study explores the relationship between brand image and brand equity in the context of sports sponsorship. Keller's (1993, 2003) customer-based brand equity models are the conceptual inspiration for the research, with Faircloth, Capella, and Alford's (2001) conceptual model – adapted from the work of Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993) – the primary conceptual model. The study focuses on the sponsorship relationship between the New Zealand All Blacks and their major sponsor and co-branding partner, adidas. The sporting context for the study was the 2003 Rugby World Cup held in Australia. Data were collected from two independent samples of 200 respondents, utilizing simple random sampling procedures. A bivariate correlation analysis was undertaken to test whether there was any correlation between changes in adidas' brand image and adidas' brand equity as a result of the All Blacks' performance in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. Results support the view that Keller (1993, 2003) proposes that brand image is antecedent to the brand equity construct. Results are also consistent with the findings of Faircloth et al. (2001) that brand image directly impacts brand equity.

Currently, attention to customer experience management is one of the most important management approaches in the business field. Focussing on improving customer experience and having a customer experience management strategy is one of the actions that service providers can take to improve their marketing performance by providing superior experiences to customers. The nature of customer experience is very important for the retail industry, especially for sportswear stores, because sports products are mostly experience-oriented and can be classified as a general experience. Despite the importance of consumption experience in consumer behaviour studies, the design of sports customer experiences has received less attention from researchers. Therefore, this chapter seeks to answer the question of what aspects of creating and developing customer experience in sportswear retail stores are. To answer this question, this chapter attempts to identify the areas of creating customer experiences in sports stores by using the views of sports marketing experts through qualitative research and using content analysis techniques. The findings indicate that sports stores try to provide the best experience for their customers by considering six aspects of human resources and employees, products, interior design, exterior space, technology and interaction and communication in their strategic marketing plans and investing in creating and developing these aspects. They create a distinct experience for customers and provide a basis for purchasing, satisfaction, loyalty and other positive marketing consequences for customers.

The role of creativity in marketing has great importance. In this chapter, the authors discuss the role of creativity in the sports context. The authors discuss creativity and then move onto the various contexts in sports that could be covered. This looks at the worlds of traditional and extreme sports along with a brief exploration of the burgeoning area of esports. The authors then draw from some creative principles that are worth keeping in mind before moving onto future areas that could be covered. The authors hope that this will be useful for practitioners and researchers who are interested in not just creativity, but also the exciting opportunities in sports. In short, the authors hope this provides inspiration for those wishing to explore these areas further. Creativity is a powerful thing, and sport is an area full of potential. As such, the authors believe that these two are a pairing worth exploring more.

It is observed that many destinations are implementing sport tourism offerings to enhance their ability to attract visitors through satisfying their desires of new experiences. This has led to a highly competitive sport tourism market and as a result destinations engage in various marketing techniques and promotional tools to gain an advantage. For that reason this research was undertaken to acquire a greater understanding of the importance of promotional tools to successfully and efficiently market sport tourism experiences.

The construct of this study comprises of two stages. The aim of the first stage is to evaluate the specific tools used to promote sport tourism and sport tourism experiences in Barbados by examining the responses of various sporting and tourism bodies. The second stage of this research was conducted to present and analyze how marketing/promotional tools could contribute to better market sport tourism experiences.

The research found that many of the promotional tools implemented in Barbados during their marketing process correspond with those used internationally. However, problems of poor and insufficient sporting facilities as well as little collaboration between tourism and sporting entities, hamper the success of Barbados as a sport tourism destination. This further minimized Barbados’ ability to market favorable tourism experiences. This therefore shows that while promotional tools are essential in attracting tourists, other elements must also be taken into consideration to ensure sport tourists have positive experiences which would lead to a successful sport tourism destination.

Few studies in this area have been undertaken in the Caribbean. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the implementation of sport tourism offerings to attract visitors to Barbados.

Sport is an international activity due to its cultural, economic and social significance in the global economy. This chapter focuses on the international aspect of sport in terms of international sports organizations and the internationalization of sports firms. To do this, this chapter highlights the role of branding, social media and marketing in international sports activities. This includes a discussion of how the Olympics and World Cup have influenced internationalization and the impact of athletes increasingly becoming global celebrities. The impact of new technological innovations is also stressed that shows the increased international relevance of sport.