Application of marketing in sports in the example of the Croatian national football team

U ovom radu fokus je stavljen na pojam marketinga, njegov povijesni razvoj te glavne podjele u domeni sporta. Uz to što je objašnjen razvoj marketinga kroz povijest i posebno analizirani marketinško planiranje i marketinški miks, obrazloženo je zašto je to važan preduvjet za uspješno poslovanje poduzeća. Kako bi se opisala važnost i dalekosežnost marketinga i promocije u sportu, obzirom na specifičnost i popularnost nogometa, odabran je i analiziran primjer Hrvatske muške nogometne reprezentacije. Opisan je sport, razvoj hrvatskog nogometa, najveći postignuti uspjesi nacionalne vrste, ali i pojedinačnih, istaknutih nogometaša koji su svojim izvanrednim rezultatima promovirali Republiku Hrvatsku i hrvatski sport. Posebna pažnja posvećena je primjeni marketinga u sportu te tome na koji je način moguće ostvariti marketinške ciljeve kroz sport. Analiziraju se reprezentacija i igrači kao zasebni brendovi i pokazuje se na koji se način može voditi politika promocije na primjeru djelovanja Hrvatskog nogometnog saveza.In this paper, the focus is on the notion of marketing, its historical development and the main division. In addition to explaining the development of marketing throughout history and specifically analyzed marketing planning and marketing mix, it is explained why this is an important precondition for successful business operations. In order to describe the importance and reach of marketing and promotions in sport, given the specificity and popularity of football, the mens Croatian national football team was given as a good example and further analyzed. The football sport has been described, especially the development of Croatian football, the most accomplished successes of the national team have been listed, as well as the ones of the singular, prominent footballers, who with their extraordinary results promoted the Republic of Croatia and Croatian sport in general. Particular attention is paid to the application of marketing in sport and to how to achieve marketing goals through sport. Representatives and players are analyzed as separate brands and in the example oft he Croatian Football Federation it is shown how the promotion policy can be implemented