Business Events in Global Contexts

This essay compares and contrasts FIFA World Cup and Olympics Games, analyzing their marketing strategies, destination image, and impact on host countries.

Running Head: BUSINESS EVENT 1
Business Events in Global Contexts

One of the biggest challenges for countries/cities hosting global/mega events like Olympics and
FIFA World Cup is to get new ways to enhance their performance not only in social and
economic context but also in environmental terms. FIFA World Cup and Olympics are two
international sports events, which attract wide population in different countries. The number of
visitors’ arrival depends on the attractiveness of event destination and interest of people towards
sports and events. There are various similarities in both events such as these events occur every
four years in different countries (Alexandris, & Kaplanidou, 2014). Each sports event is held by
a private firm that is accountable for selecting the location by analyzing its image. The below
section of this essay compares and contrasts both mega events, i.e. FIFA World Cup and
Olympics.
FIFA World Cup is generally known as World Cup that is an international football competition.
It is contested by the national teams of senior men, who are the members of Federation
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), i.e. global regulating body of sports. This sports
event is conducted every four years since its inauguration in the year 1930. The current winner of
FIFA is Germany that won at last tournament of 2014 in Brazil. Another chosen event is
Olympics, which is a popular international sport event (American Arbitration Association, 2018).
It is featured as winter and summer competitions, in which several athletes from all over the
world. These athletes participate in different competitions, held under this event. The Olympic
event is considered as a leading competition, where over 200 countries have been participating.
Same as FIFA event, these games are also conducted every four years in winter and summer
alternatively. Last Olympics games held in Rio was dominated by United States, United
Kingdom and China that between them claimed 99 gold medal and total 258 medals during the
games (Horne, & Whannel, 2016).
Last time, both of the above events were held in same country, i.e. Brazil, so this is the
destination that is chosen for comparing the events. For these events, the organizers are targeting
the worldwide population by using different segmentation characteristics, i.e. demographic,
geographic, psychographic etc. FIFA World Cup, target market is determined on the basis of
geographic and psychographic. It is targeting Brazilian and worldwide population, who have
interest in watching football and soccers. The country has attracted the visitors from 180
countries to Brazil. In addition to this, organizers have tried to make its visibility among the

people, who are not able to travel to Rio (Brazil) for this event. For Olympic Games, the
marketers always segment the visitors under two categories such as General Olympics sport fan
and targeted Olympic sports fan (Foley, Edwards, &.Hergesell, 2015). General Olympic fans are
the people, who like to watch ordinary sports like tracking, gymnastics and swimming. On the
other side, Targeted Olympics audiences are the people, who have interest in little-known sports
such as rugby sevens. During last Olympic Games, Rio attracted 1.2 million people, whereas
FIFA World Cup received 886 thousand visitors.
Destination image is one of the most important factors, which needs to be considered while
making decision on location for a particular sport event. It affects the behavior and purchasing
decisions of tourists and visitors. Before conducting events, the organizers need to analyze the
destination image of that country or city. In the context of last FIFA and Olympics Games, Brazil
is considered as the best location. For Brazil, it can be stated that Brazil is recognized for its
significant sporting culture due to its moderate conditions. The economy of Brazil has been
growing at exceptional rate. The country has enough infrastructures that are needed for holding
international sports events (Awuah, & Reinert, 2018). It has made a large investment in highway
expansion and road construction. Government of company has provided a financial support to
FIFA World Cup and Olympics Games were funded by Olympic committee of Brazil. Thus,
destination image of country can be determined by considering different facts such as
infrastructure, tourist arrival, country’s economy, social and cultural factors, support from
government and other authorities.
To promote these events, organizers have used various marketing platforms such as social media
sites, TV ads, commercial ads, print media, sponsorships and other modes of promotion.
Approximately, 3.6 billion of the population watches FIFA world cup on internet, TV, mobile
phones and by other means (Kim, Kang & Kim, 2014). For FIFA, TV rights are the biggest
marketing platform and business. ESPN and ABC are the major channels, which broadcast the
Football matches in English and other languages. It has given the advertisements in the breaks of
news and other episodes. In addition to this, FIFA World Cup has three types of official sponsors
such as World Cup Sponsors, FIFA Partners and National Supporters. There are some specific
companies, which sponsor this event such as Adidas and Nike. For marketing Olympics Games,
the organizers are primarily using sponsorships (Fyall, & Shipway, 2013). They have various

sponsors, who are spending extra marketing amount to make putting their names to different
games of Olympics tournament. Moreover, the organizers are using social media platforms for
promoting country’s image among population worldwide. For example, before the beginning of
summer Olympics, Brazil has already made the headlines for its safety and environmental
concerns (Getz, 2008). These facts, combined with the sports events produced over 53 million
mentions of Rio Olympics on social media platforms such a Facebook, Twitter etc.
There may be three types of products, which are associated with a particular product or services.
These types of products are such as core product, tangible product and augmented product. For
both FIFA World Cup and Olympics Games, the core product is the experience of event that is
created of four elements, i.e. players, tournament venue, type of game and equipment. To
conduct FIFA, there must always be availability of soccers, stadium and football. These events
are not tangible products, but they are services. For FIFA, football and stadium are the tangible
products. In case of Basketball game, basketballs, gymnasiums and basketball hoops are tangible
products for Olympic Games. Furthermore, augmented products include additional ancillary
services and benefits. For these sport events, augmented products are the major components of
the marketing and promotion process (Liu, Gomez, Lago-Peñas, & Sampaio, 2015). It includes
stay at hotels in the country, food services, and hospitality services, location of stadium, social
interaction and transportation facilities. These products of FIFA and Olympics events add
various additional benefits for the visitors, who are arriving to enjoy the tournaments.
As an organizer of the above events, I would use effective marketing strategies, so that we can
retain the repeated attendees and attract new people to visit the events. FIFA World Cup and
Olympics events are the two international events, so their marketing should be very creative and
engaging. To retain existing customers, I would provide various facilities to the regular visitors
such as they should have the facility of ticket booking through mobile applications. Mobile
marketing is one of the best strategies to approach the people. As an organizer, one can engage
the new generation of sports followers by giving mobile friendly data (Preuss, 2013). For the
retention of attendees, I will provide discounts and other offers to regular visitors. To attract new
people, Facebook is one of the biggest social media sites, where most of the population is
available. There are various ideas, which can be shared with the sports fans such as results of
games, videos and images from FIFA and Olympics, updates, messages from players and

athletes etc. It will assist to attract the people towards these events. In addition to this, I will be
offering a complete package that includes ticket charges and hotel facilities. It would be
economic for the visitors and it will increase the repeat intention of attendees towards these
events. For the event organizers, it is significant to provide sports fans with a better and
exclusive experience while attending the sports events (Rogers, 2013). As an organizer, I will
provide them the opportunities to make new memories with their friends and families, so that
they can develop a connection with the event and team players. By the use of innovative
technology, tourists can make creative moments. It will lead the organizers towards greater
retention of attendees towards two major global events, i.e. FIFA World Cup and Olympics
Games. In this way, I can retain the existing attendees and attract new audiences towards these
events.
In the limelight of the above essay, it can be concluded that FIFA World Cup and Olympics
Games are two international sporting events, which are held every four years in different
countries. The host country needs to make various arrangements and preparations for holding
these events. Infrastructure and economy of country plays an important role in developing a
destination image of the country (Supovitz, 2013). To attract more visitors, event organizers use
different marketing platforms and strategies. From the analysis, it can be stated that FIFA World
Cup is more competitive than Olympics. These events assist the host countries to make
development in terms of social and economic manner. In addition to this, there is an
environmental impact on the country. The marketers and organizers should adopt effective
marketing strategies to enhance the promotion and marketing of FIFA and Olympic Events.

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