Determination of sports consumer profiles of university students in Turkey

The purpose of this research is to determine the profiles of sports consumers and to examine the characteristics of sports consumer, to develop strategies for persons and organizations such as sports managers who serve in sport marketing practices, sports experts, sports clubs, sports communication experts and to examine sports consumer behaviors. Within this scope, a scale was applied to the students and interviews were conducted with the academicians The population of the study consists of students studying at Dicle University, Ege University, Firat University, Gazi University, Kocaeli University, Mustafa Kemal University, and Ondokuz Mayis University in the 2018-2019 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 654 students studying in these universities. Subsequently, interviews were conducted with 10 academicians for the qualitative part of the research. The data were collected with "Personal Information Form" and "Sport Consumer Scale" from university students and with "Sport Consumer Academician Interview Form" from academicians. A mixed research method was used. Survey research method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the quantitative part of the research, and the case study method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the qualitative part. The data were obtained by content analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). According to the opinions of students and academicians, it was found that the sports consumption of men was higher than the sports consumption of women. It was determined that the sports consumption of the students with higher family and personal income was high. It has been determined that the consumption of sports products is higher for students doing sports than students who don't. It was determined that age, place of residence, and the number of households did not affect students' sports consumption. The sports consumption of students was found similar at water sports, racket sports, and winter sports variables. As a result of the research, it was determined that the consumption of shoes, daily sports clothes and fashion, and brand based sports products was high, but the consumption of special products for branches was low. In the study, it was found that the opinions of students and academicians were similar in sports consumption of the students, and the factors affecting the sports consumption of the students were also supported by academicians. Keywords: Sport, consumer profile, consumption, sport product, university students.