Abstract

Marketing of new products as an important part of the commercialization process, plays a critical role in the success of developer companies. Most new products fail, and in sequence cause the company not to reach the financial and marketing aims. The paper concentrates on cooperative marketing alliances as a successful approach to commercialization of new products, by studying the Iranian Football Premier League as a context for cooperative marketing alliances among football clubs and business enterprises. Popularity of football clubs has been mentioned as a business platform, for commercialization and marketing of new products, not just by sponsorship, but by involvement of the club in marketing and even some production processes. The paper concentrates on sponsorship status in Iran and measures the success of this practice in clubs that participated in the Iranian Premier League 2008 to 2009. For this purpose, the contract duration, validity and payment on promise have been measured. Results show that sponsorship is usually very short term and supports only a small bulk of club costs. The reliance on governmental aids and unprofessional managers offers, are the main reasons for this failure. Then the structure of marketing in some pioneering football clubs studied as a benchmark for success. In conclusion, researchers suggest the promotion to co-marketing as a strategic alliance between football clubs and sponsors, so that mutual benefit can help football clubs to cover a greater part of their costs and have better usage from their equities, and help the business enterprise to enjoy from popularity of football clubs to exploit the market potential. Study results show that cooperative marketing may offer an entrepreneurial approach to new product commercialization, and will promote the marketing abilities of football clubs.

Key words: New product commercialization, sport marketing, cooperative marketing, Iranian Premier League, alliance, football management.