J. Ian Norris, Daniel L. Wann and Ryan K. Zapalac
The purpose of these studies is to determine how maximizing sport fans seek optimal outcomes through team identification. Maximizers seek optimal outcomes but do not always obtain…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of these studies is to determine how maximizing sport fans seek optimal outcomes through team identification. Maximizers seek optimal outcomes but do not always obtain them. This may be particularly true of sport fans, who often identify with teams for reasons that run deeper than team success. Maximizing fans may be more concerned with being the best fans than following the best teams.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1, the authors measured maximizing tendency and identification with participants’ favorite National Football League (NFL) teams. The authors then used moderated regression to predict identification levels from the interaction of maximizing and the historical win–loss records of these teams. In Study 2, the authors manipulated team success by providing participants either an optimistic or pessimistic preview of their college basketball team’s upcoming season. The authors measured maximizing tendency as a moderator of this relationship and identification with the college basketball team as the dependent variable.
Findings
In Study 1, maximizers identified more strongly with their favorite NFL team when their favorite team was a historically unsuccessful team. In Study 2, maximizers identified more strongly with their college basketball team after reading a pessimistic preview of the team’s upcoming season than after reading an optimistic preview of that season.
Research limitations/implications
Study 1 required participants to self-report their favorite NFL teams, so the results were only correlational. However, the authors were able to address this limitation with an experimental Study 2.
Practical implications
There are a number of potential implications for sport marketing strategy. For one, sport marketers may want to appeal to fans’ desire to be the best by supporting their teams when they need it most, particularly for teams that are not performing well.
Originality/value
This is the first examination of team or fan identification in the context of maximizing tendency.
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Daniel C. Funk, Daniel F. Mahony, Makoto Nakazawa and Sumiko Hirakawa
A 30-item Sport Interest Inventory (SII) was developed and validated for measuring ten unique motives related to consumer interest at an international sporting event. Spectators…
Abstract
A 30-item Sport Interest Inventory (SII) was developed and validated for measuring ten unique motives related to consumer interest at an international sporting event. Spectators (N=1,321) attending five different US venues during the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup were administered the SII. Analysis revealed that sport and team interest, excitement, supporting women's opportunity in sport, aesthetics and vicarious achievement explained 35 per cent of the variance in spectators' interest in the event. Results provide sport marketers with consumer-based marketing strategies, particularly for women's sport.
James M. Gladden and Daniel C. Funk
This paper examines the relationship between brand associations (anything in the consumer's mind linked to a specific team brand) and brand loyalty in US professional sport. To…
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between brand associations (anything in the consumer's mind linked to a specific team brand) and brand loyalty in US professional sport. To study the relationship between 13 brand association dimensions and brand loyalty, a survey of professional sport consumers was completed (N = 929). Results of multiple regression analysis revealed positive relationships between fan identification, escape, nostalgia, and product delivery, and brand loyalty. Negative relationships were found between tradition, star players, and peer group acceptance, and brand loyalty.
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Jason P Doyle, Thilo Kunkel and Daniel C Funk
The results from this study extend previous research by empirically testing the involvement based Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) segmentation procedure on sports spectators…
Abstract
The results from this study extend previous research by empirically testing the involvement based Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) segmentation procedure on sports spectators. To date, the procedure has only been verified using sports participants, although the PCM was developed with a broader range of sports consumers in mind. The validity of the procedure is confirmed using two online surveys, which gather data from spectators at both the league (n=761) and team (n=623) level. A three-step segmentation procedure then places respondents into the PCM stages - awareness, attraction, attachment and allegiance. ANOVA tests indicate that the four groups significantly differ from one another on attitudinal and behavioural measures for both league and team spectators. Findings suggest that the PCM is an appropriate framework to investigate fan development at both league and team levels. Thus sports marketers are provided with a research segmentation tool capable of helping them to better understand their heterogeneous consumer bases and thus guide marketing decisions.
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The present data illustrate the effectiveness of utilizing theoretically guided models to develop consumer-based micro-segmentation strategies. The results provide marketers with…
Abstract
The present data illustrate the effectiveness of utilizing theoretically guided models to develop consumer-based micro-segmentation strategies. The results provide marketers with a powerful discriminant function calculated from six variables to profile consumers and make informed decisions regarding promotional content and channel delivery to stimulate processing of marketing communication. The function also enables marketers to carve out casual, moderate, and loyal market segments with 74.3 per cent accuracy utilizing only 18 survey questions.
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Kerry Daniels, Ian Frederick Wilkinson, Louise Young and Steven (Qiang) Lu
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of brand love by studying its intensity and the nature of extreme forms of it, rather than its presence or absence. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of brand love by studying its intensity and the nature of extreme forms of it, rather than its presence or absence. The love of a sports team is a type of brand love and is a valuable context to study of brand love intensity because the intensity of love can become more extreme than for products; it has two distinctive features that are theoretically, management and policy relevant; and it is an under-researched context in marketing that is socially and economically significant.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors empirically develop and test a multidimensional hierarchical higher-order measure of the intensity of team love and a model of its drivers and outcomes using a sample of supporter club members of a professional sports team who vary in their intensity of love for the team.
Findings
The results support our measurement model and its distinctive features, especially the importance of the perceived two-way bond fans have with their team. While overall intensity of team love is not related to social influence or on-field performance, as hypothesized, they are related to sub-dimensions of team love, reflecting its multidimensionality. As hypothesized, the intensity of team love and social influence are related to the intention to renew club membership even with increased costs and poor performance and social influence is directly related to word of mouth and game attendance.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to the club members of one sports team in a particular sport in one country and one cultural context. Future research opportunities include: extending it to other sports and brand contexts, refining the methodology and addressing other issues highlighted by the research.
Practical implications
The results indicate the limits of management control of team love intensity because it develops over time independently through social processes. However, firms can help facilitate these processes. The social dimensions indicate the need to develop socially, as well as individually-focussed relationship management strategies. Most devoted fans are valuable customers, but some hardcore elements can be dysfunctional and sabotage the brand.
Social implications
Sport is personally, social and economically significant in most cultures and love of a sports team love can be an important glue that binds people and communities. However, the existence of extreme hardcore fans and heated rivalries can also be divisive and pose challenges for social policy. Hence, the need to better understand the factors driving more extreme forms of team love to better inform the development of social policy.
Originality/value
The authors focus on the intensity of brand love rather than its presence and absence as in prior research. The authors develop and test a new hierarchical measure of sports team love intensity and a model of its drivers and outcomes. The sports context is under-researched in marketing but reveals the important role played by dimensions that are obscured in studies of product brand love – its social nature and the perceived reciprocal relation with devoted fans. The results contribute to developing extended theories of brand love, open up new research opportunities and have management and policy implications.
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Daniel C. Funk, Makoto Nakazawa, Daniel F. Mahony and Robert Thrasher
This paper examines the impact of the national sports lottery (toto) in 2001 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup for the Japan Professional Soccer League - J. League. In 2001 J. League…
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of the national sports lottery (toto) in 2001 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup for the Japan Professional Soccer League - J. League. In 2001 J. League attendances grew dramatically and were sustained in subsequent years, even though member clubs did not change many of their marketing strategies and chose to maintain a distance from toto. The evidence suggests that hosting the World Cup allowed the league to leverage the country's hosting of the event in order to generate long-term interest and attendance at J. League games. By contrast, toto appears to have had a short-term impact.
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James J Zhang, Daniel Connaughton and Carrianne E Vaughn
This paper assesses the quality of special programmes and services for season ticket holders and their predictability to game consumption. Participants were season ticket holders…
Abstract
This paper assesses the quality of special programmes and services for season ticket holders and their predictability to game consumption. Participants were season ticket holders of an NBA team, who responded to a questionnaire that included six demographic variables, eight consumption variables and 15 special programme and service variables in two versions: importance and perception. The findings further emphasise the importance of providing quality programmes and services to season ticket holders, and point out specific programme and service areas for improvement.
Kevin Gwinner and Scott R. Swanson
This study examines the impact of fan identification on four distinct sponsorship outcomes: sponsor recognition, attitude toward the sponsor, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction…
Abstract
This study examines the impact of fan identification on four distinct sponsorship outcomes: sponsor recognition, attitude toward the sponsor, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction with the sponsor. In addition, consistent with the identification literature we investigate the antecedents of prestige, domain involvement, and fan associations for predicting fan identification among sports spectators. Utilizing structural equation modeling the findings support the premise that highly identified fans are more likely to exhibit the investigated sponsorship outcomes. In addition, we found that the investigated antecedents may aid in predicting fan identification. Our findings are discussed, managerial implications presented, and future research directions provided.
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Dongyoo Han, Daniel F. Mahony and T. Christopher Greenwell
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural value orientations and sport fan motivations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural value orientations and sport fan motivations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from American and Korean college students. Three separate multivariate analysis of covariance revealed sport fan motivations differ across nationality and cultural value orientation.
Findings
The current study provided empirical support for the assumption that individualism-collectivism influences sport fan motivations and geographically different sport consumers. Also, the outcomes were consistent with the previous literature which found sport fan motivations differ across nationality (the USA and South Korea).
Originality/value
In combination with prior research, the findings of this study offer suggestions for how marketers could differentiate their marketing strategies for culturally diverse sport consumers.