1. Introduction

Today, basketball is played by a lot of boys and girls of all ages, both for leisure purposes and in organized competition. Basketball is played by 14.4 million US youth (6–14 years old), or 39% of this age group. Additionally, with over 11 million participants, basketball is the most popular team sport for kids aged 12 to 17. Around 430,000 girls and 550,000 boys play interscholastic basketball at the high school level [1]. Importantly, 74% of kids and teenagers said that having fun was their main motivation for playing basketball. Basketball can be adapted to be played impromptu in teams of one, two, or three players (i.e., one-on-one, two-on-two, or three-on-three). In fact, 50% of kids and teenagers say that playing basketball with any number of people is one of the reasons they first started doing so [2]. The fact that the game can be played recreationally into adulthood is another factor for its longevity. Additionally, wheelchair basketball is a team sport for people who have chronic illnesses that cause lower-limb disability, such as spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, musculoskeletal conditions, spina bifida, amputation, and poliomyelitis, as well as a reduced ability to play running basketball in the same way as players with normal mobility [3].

The Basketball Association of America has grown to become one of the most important sports leagues in the world since it was founded. Due to its innovative approach to brand promotion, the NBA has a significant impact on the world. David Stern, the NBA's fourth president, transmitted recordings of the 1985 NBA game to a number of nations, including China, in 1986. The NBA took a step forward in the world with this action. After more than three decades, it has been demonstrated in real time that David Stern's plan at the time produced outstanding results, with China emerging as the NBA's biggest and most important international market.

In China, about 300 million people make basketball hobby, and Chinese fans contribute one-third of the traffic to the official NBA website. More and more Chinese companies are choosing to collaborate with the NBA, such as Lenovo, Olympic Games, Red Bull, with the sole goal of promoting their brands worldwide through the NBA. While gaining tremendous influence, the NBA has also achieved remarkable economic benefits, serving as a model for the sports industry to learn from. In the NBA's brand philosophy and even in the hearts of fans, basketball is no longer just a sport, but a symbol of culture and spirit. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and other superstars created by NBA are the symbols of basketball spirit in the hearts of many fans. The meaning of NBA has gone beyond the connotation and meaning given by professional basketball league. So, the NBA's brand promotion strategy and brand philosophy are worth learning from.

On the other hand, although China has made remarkable achievements in the development of competitive sports, there is still a significant gap between the development of professional sports and the United States. The China Basketball Association (CBA) was founded in 1995, and 24 years have passed. CBA has failed to expand its overseas market and its domestic market has been divided by the NBA. From this perspective, in order for CBA to step out of the "safe zone", enhance its position in the hearts of consumers, and expand the market, it is necessary to create its own brand. A good brand allows enterprises to increase market share and means huge brand assets. The NBA and English Premier League have high market share in China, but the Chinese Professional Basketball League (CBA) is struggling [4]. NBA has achieved great success in large part because NBA has mastered the characteristics of each fan and can use it flexibly, using the right marketing methods to maximize profits.

The following will start from the three marketing methods of NBA and CBA, analyze the marketing strategies of CBA and NBA, and put forward suggestions for CBA that benefit their development, the research method is literature analysis.

2. The Type of Fans and Fans Motivation

Understanding the many types of fans and fans is required in order to nimbly grasp consumer demand for fans.

First, recognizing and analyzing fans is essential to the marketing of the two basketball teams. Temporary, local, and dedicated admirers are the three different categories of fans.

The transitory fan is first and foremost a fan for a particular, limited-time occasion. In contrast to the transitory fan, who was constrained by time, and the local fan, who was constrained by territory, the committed fan is not constrained in any way. Thirdly, unlike the transitory fan, who was restricted by time, and the local fan, who was constrained by territory, the committed fan is not subject to these restrictions. Initially, the devoted fan probably started as a temporary or local fan. Their motivation toward and attachment with the consumptive object (personality, team, league, or sport) increased, thus breaking the boundaries of time and place.

Knowing fans’ type, the following is the study and explanation of the fan motivation. In 1995, Wann first constructed the Sports Fan Motivation Scale (Sport Fan Motivation Scale, SFMS), which includes the following eight factors: benign stress, self-esteem, avoidance, entertainment, economics, aesthetics, group affiliation, and family needs. For Chinese CBA fans, Chen Zhibin pointed out that fans' live experience and star-chasing motivation are the key factors affecting motivation and motivation of the fans. Wang Zhongwei et al. summarized the motivation of fans as: staying away from daily life, pursuing entertainment value, improving self-esteem and seeking a home. Similarly, Wang Jingbo also summarized the motivation of fans as: improving self-esteem, staying away from daily life, pursuit of benign pressure, pursuit of entertainment value, pursuit of aesthetic value, and pursuit of sense of belonging.

It can be seen from the above studies that the research on fan motivation mainly uses the contents of fan motivation to explore the contents of fan motivation, which can be summarized into two aspects, and fan motivation is influenced by both internal and external motivation. Some scholars believe that the deep influence on the process of becoming individual fans mainly includes: the individual needs, personality, individual value and other factors belonging to internal motivation and the cognition of product, product interest and product evaluation belonging to external motivation. The research proves that after the combination of internal and external motivation factors, fans have the attitude towards players, teams and game products, and then the process of fan behavior. In addition, some scholars pointed out that fan organizations also play an important role in influencing the motivation of fans. Li Shengmin suggested that fans may also watch the game and live to clubs and fan organizations. The desire has an impact. Fan organizations are a local, non-camp voluntarily formed by basketball fans and supporters Proficial self-established organization is a sports social organization with independent legal personality, generally in the form of association [5].

3. NBA Important Marketing Methods

First of all, there are a lot of activities, such as shooting in the middle of the game (there will be a high cash reward if making a three-point shot) and giving blessings during the holiday season (including for non-local fans). NBA officials will also make a beautiful series of peripherals, customize a series of players' jerseys of the same style, produce NBA exclusive journals, and contact multiple sellers for multi-channel sales in order to get as much revenue as possible.

Second, NBA holds many offline activities. Offline activities mainly include a series of publicity in the community, such as promoting sports spirit and holding a series of community activities related to basketball. There are also offline meetings for fans and players, signing meetings, etc., to increase the intimacy between players and fans. In the event, after the game, 15 fans open the blind box, and the selected players will remove their jerseys on the spot and sign them to them. This activity has greatly enhanced the happiness of football fans.

Third, NBA also holds many online activities. Online activities mainly use social media to promote, high-energy videos of players are released on short videos. For example, the official account of NBA, as the fastest-growing official TikTok account, entered TikTok in 2018. According to the statistics so far, TikTok has more than 240 million, including potential NBA users. In the first season when NBA logged on to TikTok, during the 2019-20 season, the number of hits on related topics exceeded 58 billion, the number of interactions on NBA-related topics reached 906 million, and it topped the TikTok hot search list for more than 30 times. There are a total of 656 hot searches on TikTok on the list. So far, the number of NBA official TikTok fans has reached 14.478 million. NBA continues to expand its fan base in TikTok platform, and with the help of platform advantages, the cooperation between NBA and TikTok has gradually made further breakthroughs and success. TikTok has long been one of the most influential social platforms for NBA events in China [6]. In reality, there are numerous media outlets. NBA tangible products are the name given to these retail items. The NBA today represents the growth of numerous product types covering a wide range of factors. All facets of life are involved, but it mostly focuses on the food, clothing, sports equipment, souvenirs, and other industries. The NBA had 143 licensees in 1999, covering a wide range of items as venue wear, adult wear, women's wear, children's wear, hair accessories, home films, video games, music, toys, sports equipment, etc. The primary sales channels for these authorized products include NBA stores, NBA-Rock Cafe Alliance stores, franchised stores, clubs' own stores, and the official websites of clubs [7].

Over time, the NBA also gradually has its own brand. The brand asset is an important part of the survival and development of an organization or a company. "Brand equity" is an important concept in the field of marketing research and practice in the 1980s. Now, the brand equity has become the new "weapon" of the marketing strategy of western multinational companies.

Domestic and foreign scholars on the concept of brand assets definition is not the same, generally speaking, can be divided into two parts: the first One is to define the brand equity from the perspective of corporate finance, from the perspective of the enterprise, and the second is defined, based on the perspective of consumers, from the perspective of brand marketing. The representative definition of brand equity based on the perspective of enterprise include: Farquhar defines brand as the added value given by the brand name of a product; Chinese scholar Fan Xiucheng's understanding of brand equity is: the efforts of brand marketing give added value to its products. Scholar Keller will define brand equity from the perspective of consumers: the role of brand knowledge in consumers' response to brand marketing. American marketing science society for the of brand assets is: buy enterprise brand products of consumers, channel members and enterprise association and behavior, it makes the enterprise in competition with other enterprises, can easier to get the favour of consumers, to the other has not formed the scale brand effect of product competition to maintain dominance [4].

4. CBA Important Marketing Strategies

First, during the game, CBA had close interaction with the fans and carried out a few activities (such as offline meetings). The registered flagship store, there is a perimeter (basically only the players sell the same jersey and basketball), they also utilize Chinese culture to build their brand. It is also called culture soft power. Chen Xiaohong believes that cultural soft power can be defined as: cultural soft power reflects cohesion and creativity in the country or the nation, and externally it is manifested as cultural persuasion, influence and penetration [8]. Xu Yanxi put forward that cultural soft power can be regarded as a "cultural soft power", which is a "flexible power" distributed on the basis of a country's existing cultural resources and economic strength. This power is not imposed on the public, but an attraction for the masses to actively accept based on the magnetic force of this "soft power". Cultural soft power plays a subtle role in individual development and social progress [9].

Second, CBA holds some offline activities, CBA has promoted the spirit of basketball in the community, held some activities about basketball and customized the players' jerseys (officially made by CBA), in order to raise the local awareness of basketball, so as to make more people pay attention to CBA. The overall activity is not much.

Third, NBA also holds many online activities. In China, the benefits of policies, technological progress, the advent of the 5G era and people's demand for sports and cultural activities will provide a new development opportunity for the new media sports industry. According to the statistics of iiMedia Data Center, in the past decade, the scale of Internet sports users in China has been expanding, and the active users have exceeded 600 million in 2019 [10]. CBA has conducted online promotions to joint magazines, held some live meetings of online players and fans and issued holiday greetings during the holidays, and contacted a small number of self-media to promote and advertise CBA. But official dialects such as posting news or editing high-energy videos of games are generally only available on Weibo, a popular platform.

5. Comparison Analysis

First, CBA did not create an authoritative basketball brand, coupled with the low ratings caused by poor technology, it should have stepped up publicity to increase people's attention to CBA, but there are still not many community activities or offline meetings. NBA is different, they have their own authoritative brand, and the promotion is very good, have their own publicity system. NBA officials will analyze the preferences and characteristics of various types of fans very clearly, they pay great attention to offline activities, will run through the spirit of sports into people's spiritual field, and through a series of close interaction with players, imperceptibly make fans like this team, will support them more And spend money to buy surrounding goods, in order to achieve a certain income.

Second, the surrounding CBA is mostly limited to the production and sale of the same jersey and basketball, but NBA officials have also launched many iconic items of various players (such as key chains, signage, posters, stationery, etc.). Second, there are not many purchase channels for CBA, but there are many sales channels for NBA. This can encourage more fans to buy the perimeter, which can improve the revenue and increase the attention and stabilize the fans' love for the team.

Third, in terms of social media publicity, CBA is generally limited to Weibo publicity, advertising delivery is too miscellaneous, advertising ratings are low. But NBA carries on the promotion on many platforms, the advertisement content and the editing effect are very good, has obtained a lot of audience rating. And NBA also does periodicals, and the sales rate of periodicals is also very high.

In contrast, there are still many defects in CBA. The CBA league's products are not as well designed or run as the NBA's. The NBA league is managed and carried out by competition pros, ensuring the best use of resources, the most prominent exhibition of the league, and the continual movement of backup talent to maintain the league's vitality. CBA, however, has few avenues through which to access talent. In addition, the club has introduced foreign aid in recent years in an effort to achieve success while ignoring the expansion and development of local players. In order to boost the supply of reserve personnel, CBA should focus on developing professional operation and management talent.

Second, the development of CBA is now in the initial stage, CBA should attach great importance to the quality of products and market cultivation, and at the same time, attention should be paid to the standard formation and perfect development of CBA organizational culture. For instance, in the competition system structure, where there are two matches each day of play, the foreign help will enhance the playing time of local players, raise their skill level, and increase the competition's degree of intensity. Lack of highly identifiable brand building, brand depth and breadth, and the vitality of autonomous economic themes in the market are all problems in the CBA league. As a result, in terms of CBA brand strategy, it is essential to improve market development, boost publicity, and raise brand awareness. Additionally, CBA should collaborate through various channels, such as the stunning official website, the release of star cards, and the creation of sports goods with CBA logo.

Third, in the context of the development of market economy, the marketing strategy of CBA is also changing over time. Its primary characteristic is that as science and technology have advanced continuously, CBA promotion has risen steadily, realizing the initial shift from the development of traditional media to new media. Because the new media is connected to the Internet, it has also altered the situation with regard to earlier publicity via newspapers and television. Because the Internet and new media are already always connected, people can currently view the entire globe from the comfort of their own homes. The CBA should incorporate the fundamental national conditions of the nation, deal with the NBA league's significant influence, promote the CBA with Chinese components, and focus on the growth and promotion of the local and Asian markets.

6. Conclusion

From the above, the NBA's marketing strategy is better than the CBA. In terms of activities, the NBA organizes many activities. Offline, the NBA accurately grasps the types of fans and carries out a series of activities according to the characteristics of different fans. Various are held offline meetings and ways to interact with players on the field to enhance the relationship between players and the team. At the same time, the NBA also aims to promote the spirit of sports, popularize basketball knowledge in the community, and support the NBA. Online, the NBA has contacted a number of advertisers to expand the NBA's reach. At the same time, the NBA has also created its own brand, making many beautiful peripheral and everyday items to attract fans and others to buy them. The NBA also hosts some online events between players and fans, especially during the holidays, when the NBA lets players send blessings to the people and enhance the happiness of fans. NBA officials also regularly sign up with companies to get players to endorse products, shoot magazines, and produce a series of journals for fans to buy. High-energy videos will also be released on various video software to attract more flow of people to watch, so as to achieve the effect of publicity. This kind of marketing method can get a lot of revenue, which is a very good marketing model.

However, there are some activities in CBA, whether online or offline, the activities are not very sufficient. There are only a few offline activities, and the publicity in the community is not very well in place. Online, official announcements are basically limited to microblogs, limiting the number of people to watch. In terms of peripheral areas, CBA officials have failed to build their own brands, generally only selling clothes, shoes and basketballs, with no other attractive products. At the same time, CBA do not publish more magazines, resulting in the overall income is not high. This marketing method has no way to capture the new fans, this is not a good marketing model.

CBA wants to make progress and obtain higher profits, it needs to learn from the NBA marketing model, further strengthen the interaction with fans, hold more activities, and improve the happiness of fans. At the same time, they should promote sportsmanship in more communities and hold more basketball activities. Second, more money should be invest in contacting social media to help promote it. Third publicity channels should be expand more and register more accounts on other platforms to release first-hand information. Fourth, CBA should do more types of peripheral, build their own brand, so as to increase the sales of products. Fourth, CBA should contact advertisers to shoot magazines and endorse products. Finally, in the publicity, CBA also need to further improve the strength of the players to make the game more enjoyable. Finally, the significance of this research lies in the need to analyze different marketing strategies, put forward suggestions to CBA, and help CBA to move towards a better brand road. What is not studied in this study is the specific comparison of the ball skills of NBA and CBA. The future research can start from the ball skills, deeply analyze the differences between the ball skills of the two basketball organizations, and then give good suggestions.