Tržní diferenciace na českém trhu triatlonových závodů: platí přístup Kotlera, nebo Sharpa?

This master’s thesis empirically tests whether willingness to pay a higher entry fee on the Czech triathlon-race market is better explained by Kotler’s approach, based on perceived differentiation, or by Sharp’s approach, built on mental availability. It draws on a questionnaire survey of 133 Czech triathletes who rated five domestic races; the data are analysed with a linear mixed-effects model with willingness to pay as the dependent variable. Taken separately, both approaches are relevant: higher mental availability and higher perceived differentiation each go together with higher willingness to pay. Once both are placed in a single, more realistic model, however, mental availability loses its significance while perceived differentiation retains it. In this research context, differentiation rather than mental availability thus appears to be decisive. Across all models, the most robust behavioral predictor of willingness to pay is personal experience with the race. The thesis contributes to the Sharp–Kotler debate and suggests that high-involvement experiential sports products are not a commodity market driven solely by brand size and availability. A supplementary analysis shows that Sharp’s Duplication of Purchase law holds only partially here: the analysis identifies Winterman as the clearest example of a market niche that challenges this logic. The main limitations are the use of stated rather than actually paid willingness to pay and the self-selected nature of the sample.