"Fan-centered" Woori Card's marketing is also used as a university textbook! Korea's first casebook of the Korean Marketing Association in professional sports is published.

*This content was translated by AI.

The fan-centered marketing of the professional volleyball men's team, Seoul Woori Card Woori WON Volleyball Team, has also attracted attention from academia. Woori Card is the first Korean professional sports club to be featured in the casebook of the Korea Marketing Association with 41 years of history and tradition.

On the 4th, the Korean Marketing Association (KMA) held a ceremony to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1st floor of Ewha Womans University's Ewha and Shinsegye Hall, to present the Korean Marketing Association Award and thesis awards and to commemorate the publication of the "Marketing Casebook." The event was attended by not only professors majoring in marketing, but also many up-and-coming researchers who are currently in the Ph.D. program or are about to obtain a degree within the next year or two.

Lee In-bok, head of the Woori Card Volleyball Team, attended the event with a public relations official, drawing attention. This is because Woori Card was selected as one of the 10 companies that showed excellent marketing.

The Korean Marketing Association, which has about 800 members, is considered to have played a major role in the academic development and advancement of marketing by leading the development of Korean marketing over the past 41 years since its foundation in March 1985. This marketing casebook is expected to be used as a textbook for university marketing classes, so Woori Card can reach younger fans.

The development of marketing cases for Woori Card's volleyball team was conducted for about two months from November last year to January this year by Kim Joon-hoe, a professor of global human management at Seoul Christian University, and Lee Moon-hee, a manager in charge of public relations for Woori Card's volleyball team.

In this casebook, Woori Card was introduced as an example of the possibility of marketing synergy through financial and sports convergence. In addition, fan-centered management promotes the formation of emotional bonds with fans and was considered an execution case consistent with brand loyalty theory.

Professor Kim Joon-hoe explained the background through Woori Card's club, saying, "I thought Woori Card's Woori WON volleyball team, which represents winter sports among professional sports with high public interest, was a very appropriate case."

What was specifically differentiated. In the casebook, differentiated prices based on Woori Card's various seat configurations were evaluated as a revenue management strategy based on fans' willingness to pay. It also analyzed that cross-marketing promotions such as membership discounts and Woori Card payment discounts will simultaneously create the effect of securing fans and inducing credit card companies to join.

He also paid attention to star marketing, which is not limited to specific players. Cheerleaders and cheerleaders and photo time were programs to enhance the level of immersion in the field experience. The proportion of fans entering early before the start of the game has increased, which has a positive effect on intuition motivation.

Seat rebranding was an example of redefining asset values and turning the deficit into a surplus. Woori Card rebranded the home sub-seats as Kim Ji-han and Han Tae-joon box seats, which had less than 60% of the seats due to limited field of view in the past. The fans in the seats were given practical benefits such as providing photo cards and participating in photo time after the game.

In the case of photo cards, if a total of 17 types are collected, it is linked to an event where you can receive an authentic uniform marked with the name and number of your preferred player. As a result, it has exceeded 100% of the seat occupancy in 2024 and has become a must-book seat in advance.

These marketing effects have created explosive synergy with regional advantages located in the center of Seoul. According to the analysis of the 2025 professional volleyball fan propensity survey, Woori Card ranked top among the seven men's volleyball teams with a recognition of 93.2%, followed by 95.1% by Korean Air and 94% by Hyundai Capital.

Professor Kim Jun-hoe said, "Most of all, in the process of visiting the stadium in person, I was impressed with various activities and programs for fans in the stadium from the perspective of 'field marketing'," adding, "Woori Card's volleyball team is a team that performs better than history, even though its founding history is relatively short."

Lee In-bok, general manager of Woori Card, who attended the publication ceremony, said, "I feel very rewarded and grateful that various promotional and marketing activities of Woori Card Volleyball Team have been organized as an example."

"Woori Card's volleyball team has been striving to go beyond just being a 'playing team', to become a club that grows with fans, and to convey positive experiences and values through sports. It was also a great learning opportunity for our club to learn that various marketing activities connecting players and fans, including the 'Fan First' marketing that we tried in the process, were developed and analyzed from an academic perspective," he added.

In the casebook, the structural challenges of the Korean professional volleyball industry, the need for strategic transformation, and the strategic balance between fan-based growth and financial sustainability were given as challenges that marketing majors can think of. Woori Card's volleyball team's challenge is also ongoing.

"The biggest goal of our volleyball team's promotion and marketing is to create a place where fans can directly participate and empathize, beyond just watching games," said Lee In-bok, general manager. "The long-term goal is not just short-term issues or achievements, but also a club that grows with the hometown and contributes to the expansion of the base of Korean professional volleyball." We will continue to strive for marketing activities that create positive social values through volleyball," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.