proportionality of published sport books to beneficiaries' expectations with an emphasis on sport marketing mix elements

the aim of this study was to assess the proportionality of sport books to beneficiaries' expectations and the role of marketing mix elements in marketing of these books. this research was a descriptive and field survey. three researcher-made questionnaires with confirmed validity and reliability were used to collect the data. the research hypotheses were examined by independent t test. the statistical population consisted of 15 publishers, 25 book sellers and an unlimited number of customers of sport books who visited sport book pavilion of the book exhibition. as the population of publishers and sellers of sport books was limited, all of them were considered as the sample while as the number of customers who visited the sport book pavilion in the book exhibition was not exact, their sample size was determined as 384 subjects according to morgan sampling table. the questionnaires were distributed among them and 274 questionnaires were returned to be used. results showed that publishers believed that sport books had high quality in contrast to customers and sellers. customers believed that the quality of these books were low. sellers mentioned that sport books had higher quality when compared to the customers. customers were not satisfied with the quality of the books. publishers believed that the design and specificity of the books were suitable in contrast to customers and book sellers. also, among five elements of marketing mix, the element of product, public relations and price were rated as the most important elements in sport book marketing from the viewpoints of beneficiaries.