Strategic marketing's contribution to Australasian golf club performance

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which strategic marketing planning is carried out by Australasian golf clubs and the impact such planing has upon their business performance.

Design/methodology/approach – A research methodology borrowed from the “for profit” sector is applied. In total, ten basic strategic marketing practices, each with its own hypothesis, are investigated through a web-based survey of secretaries/managers of 180 Australian and New Zealand golf clubs. Findings – Analysis shows that while strategic marketing is being adopted by most clubs, compared with their lower-performing counterparts (on measures of competitive business performance), the higher-performing clubs place a far greater emphasis upon each of the ten basic strategic marketing practices. Research limitations/implications – While the survey had a 24 per cent response rate, a small follow-up survey of non-respondents showed no significant difference in answers to four crucial questions. Self-reported, relative performance measures, widely used in the “for profit” sector, have been utilised. The ten basic strategic marketing practices are assumed to be antecedents of success rather than a consequence of such success. Originality/value – In addition to providing initial understanding of the extent of strategic marketing planning practice in a sport management context in Australasia, this paper identifies those practices which differentiate higher competitive business performance from lower performance.