The Effect of Marketing Capabilities on Creating Competitive Advantage for Sport Clubs in the Days of the COVID_ 19 Pandemic

Abstract
The disease of Covid-19 had a great impact in the political, economic and socio-cultural fields (Kanupriya, 2021). In Iran, people started a new lifestyle in order to avoid contracting this disease. The closure of sports centers was one of the negative consequences of the spread of Covid-19 in the world and Iran, the centers that were built for people's health and entertainment were suddenly closed due to the spread of this virus. The closure of sports centers, in addition to the quarantine of the athletes, also led to the economic quarantine of the club owners and brought the economic situation of many of the owners of these centers to the verge of bankruptcy (Heydari et al., 2021). Therefore, sports organizations are obliged to provide solutions for the development of sports in the era of covid-19. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the marketing capabilities beyond a slogan and advice and take on an operational form and status. Marketing capabilities are an integrated process in which companies use tangible and intangible resources to understand the complexity of specific customer needs, achieve a relative differentiation in products for competitive advantage, and ultimately achieve appropriate brand quality  )Kachouie et al., 2018(.  In this regard, Fajardo et al. (2020) state that risk-taking and innovation are significantly higher in sports clubs after the emergence of Covid-19 (Escamilla-Fajardo, 2020(. The findings of Rodrigues (2020) show that sports business managers have been able to react by reducing costs and increasing the use of digital communication as marketing measures in the era of Covid-19 (Rodrigues, 2020).  The issue that is of concern here is that the disease of Kovid-19 has faced a great financial crisis in the sports community, and this financial crisis has included the unemployment of coaches, managers and employees of sports venues and competitions for several months, and compensating this financial loss from Another crisis is the spread of the corona virus. In the business sector related to the production and presentation of sports goods and equipment, due to the closure of places, spaces and sports clubs and the impossibility of doing sports, people feel less need to buy sports equipment and clothing than before. Considering the current situation, it is necessary for sports businesses, especially sports clubs, to adopt a suitable marketing system in order to reduce the damages caused by the recent crisis and to enable them to survive and gain a competitive advantage among their competitors.
Based on the results of the present research, it was determined that the effectiveness of promotion activities, customer service, differentiated service and marketing research are among the most important marketing capabilities of fitness clubs during the Covid-19 pandemic, and these results are in line with the findings of Fajardo et al. (2020). Rodrigues (2020) agrees. Also, the results of the path analysis in the present study showed that marketing research has a positive effect on gaining a competitive advantage of sports clubs in Tehran during the Covid-19 pandemic. The obtained result is in line with the results of Fajardo et al. (2021). Finally, based on the results obtained in the current research, it can be said that during the period of Covid-19; The diverse markets of sports services, the pressure from new competitors, the potential of new sports services and the presence of customers are strongly visible, and among them, successful clubs are those that can create more values for customers and provide more reasons to customers to buy services and encourage long-term relationship with the club. On the other hand, clubs need to rely on marketing capabilities appropriate to the current situation in order to gain a competitive advantage during the Covid-19 pandemic. These capabilities can create a relatively stable competitive advantage for clubs, and in this way, their market share will increase. Also, considering that the components of the effectiveness of marketing and customer service activities have the greatest impact on creating a competitive advantage of fitness sports clubs, especially a stable and consistent competitive advantage during the Covid-19 pandemic; If these components are not taken into account, it will lead to less participation of sports customers and the failure of sports clubs in gaining a competitive advantage.