Never Taken for Granted : Dual Status Model and Functional Location of Race and Ethnicity in Predicting Market Behavior in Sport Business

This paper attempts to construct a theoretical model identifying the functional locations of market segmentation variables including race and ethnicity using a psychoanalytic approach, and subsequently propose a Dual-Status model depicting how one can be considered as sport customers versus sport consumers. Freudian personality theory regarding the superego, the id, and the ego was used to explain how a need is derived and evolved into a want. Using race and ethnicity as an example, we propose that market segmentation criteria be also incorporated “vertically” with our Dual-Status model in addition to the traditional usage on its “horizontal” dimension such as other demographic, psychographic, behavioral segmentation. Race and ethnicity should not be taken for granted because both have been conclusively found in numerous studies that sport market of a given race and ethnicity, as compared to the main segment of white Caucasians in America, tends to react a promotional effort and strategy differently. Numerous variables that have been identified to function quite well on the market of white Caucasians don’t have similar effects on other ethnic groups of consumers. It is recommended that minority sport market never be taken for granted, and race and an ethnicity conscious marketing orientation be adopted