The effect of simultaneous sponsorship of rival football teams

International Journal of Market Research, 2011

This research attempts to investigate the determinants of a sports team sponsor's brand equity and whether the proposed structural relationships vary across countries. Field data are collected from sports team fans in two Asian economies/countries, i.e. Taiwan and Indonesia. According to the findings, in general, team identification and perceived congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored sports team affect the sponsor's credibility, which in turn has an impact on the sponsor's brand equity. ‘Country’ moderates the above structural relationships. However, the effects of team identification and perceived congruence on the sponsor's credibility do not receive supportive evidence in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively.

A review of sport brand equity literature published in the last three decades revealed that corporate sponsorship has emerged as one of the main sources of revenue and brand equity for professional sports teams. It also revealed that there is no conceptual framework which explicitly addresses sport brand equity in professional sports teams from a corporate sponsors’ perspective. The need to fill this knowledge void culminated in the development of the Conceptual Framework for Understanding Sponsor-Based Brand Equity in Professional Sports Teams. The framework shows sports sponsorship decisions are mainly influenced by the sports entity’s perceived brand equity. The proposed framework shows that dimensionally “Sponsor-Based Brand Equity” is an aggregate of brand knowledge and perceived brand associations. The combined effect of these variables can generate negative or positive sponsorship relationships in the marketplace.

This is a study concerning the result of sports sponsorship where the research focuses on how would a specific construct of Brand Equity would correlate with the sponsorship outcome. The study takes one of the forerunners of professional football (soccer) club as the object. Persib (Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Bandung), a football club which resides in Bandung. Persib has proven to be one of the most prominent football clubs in terms of business, fans, and professionalism. Each home game are watched by a minimum number of 40,000 spectators, and the company itself, PT. PBB (Persib Bandung Bermartabat, Inc.) has managed to generate a yearly income of approx. 12 Billion Rupiahs, income which is considered as the largest from a professional football club in Indonesia.The study is aimed to discover how the construct of BETS (Brand Equity of Team Sports) would influence the Sponsorship Outcome. Questionnaires were distributed to 403 fans of Persib Bandung, whom are ssociated with Viking community. The study modifies the concept of Bauer, et al. (2005) that applies the concept of Consumer Based Brand Equity from Keller (1993), and also the concept of Sponsorship Outcome (SO) from Gwinner and Swanson (2003). BETS is divided into four dimension; Awareness, Product-Related Attributes, Non Product-Related Attributes, and Brand Benefits. For the football context, each dimension is measured according to the characteristics of a football club. Product-related attributes consists of Athletic success, star player(s), coach, and management. Sponsorship Outcome is measured by; Sponsor recognition, attitude toward sponsor, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction with sponsor. The research would focus on observing SO on the context of general sponsorship of Persib, Honda, and PT. Daya Adira Mustika. The concepts are modified by researcher to fit research context. This study introduces a simpler construct to measure BETS from earlier model of Bauer, et al. And empirical test prove research hypothesis that BETS significantly affect SO using SEM, and dimensions of BETS correlates with SO. Simpler dimensions of BETS proposed by this study can accurately measure BETS, and the research also concluded Honda as the top of mind sponsor of Persib. Keywords: Sponsorship, Sports Marketing, Brand Equity, Structural Equation Modeling, Brand Equity of Team Sports, Sponsorship Outcome, Sport Sponsorship Marketing.

Sports Business Journal, 2023

Purpose: The study aimed to develop the brand equity model of football clubs in the Iranian premier football league. We emphasized the partial role of identity distinction, attractiveness, and fan-team identification. Methodology: The research method was quantitative, correlational, and practical. The participants consisted of football fans in the Pro League of Iran, and a sample of 450 fans was selected through random sampling in virtual pages attributed to chosen clubs. The research tool was a combination of standard questionnaires. Their content validity was verified using marketing experts' comments, and the structural validity was verified using confirmatory factor analysis. According to Cronbach's alpha equal 0/82, the questionnaire's reliability was confirmed. Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) by AMOS software has been applied to use the validity of the results. Finding: The results showed that identity distinction and attractiveness significantly and positively affected fan-team identification. Fan identification also had a substantial and positive impact on brand equity. The effect of identity distinction and identity attractiveness on fan-team identification and fan-team identification on brand equity demonstrated the importance of psychological and social elements in football club branding. Originality: Trying to make the identity of Iranian football clubs attractive and different can provide the necessary ground for the unity of the fans with the clubs and facilitate the branding by improving brand equity. This research can be one of the few studies conducted in the field of sports brands in Iran by combining identity distinction, identity attractiveness, fan-team identification, and brand equity as a comprehensive model.

Recently, traditional marketing communication elements are faced with challenges of reaching increasingly fragmented consumer markets. The companies are forced to find new communication ways due to the highly cluttered market environment. Consequently, corporate sponsorship of sports has become an increasingly popular and one of the fastest growing marketing communication tools which bypasses media clutter and provides the environment where a brand can differentiate itself from the others. Red Bull sponsors various kinds of sport and athletes and through the years became the representative brand of 'extreme sports culture' social identity. Therefore, the paper focuses on the Red Bull sport sponsorship and strives to investigate its possible effects and reveal its impact on different aspects of brand equity. Throughout the paper several theories within the fields of cognitive and behavioural learning are applied. First part of the analysis investigates sponsorship through the spectrum of cognitive learning mechanisms whereas second part explores Red Bull's sponsorship from the behavioural perspective. Achieved findings identify seven specific effects concerning company's sponsorship. Furthermore, several researches within the field of brand equity assist to relate sponsorship effects to the different elements of brand equity. During the analysis David A. Aaker's proposed brand equity model is used in order to underline different elements of brand equity. The obtained results indicate that Red Bull implemented sponsorship generates several positive outcomes which in turn influence all aspects of company's brand equity. Therefore, Red Bull's sponsorship could be seen as a proper marketing communication tool in order to achieve company's objectives.

BAR - Brazilian Administration Review

The present study investigates the influence the organizing body's reputation has on the image of a sports mega-event and on the mega-event sponsors' consumer-based brand equities. The study's main theoretical references are Associative Network Theory (Collins & Loftus, 1975) and Schema Theory (Axelrod, 1973), both about the functioning of the human memory. The research was carried out during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians and foreigners who attended the 2014 FIFA Fan Fest on Copacabana Beach were surveyed through a nonprobabilistic sampling, and 1,973 questionnaires were collected. Data analysis was performed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). We verified the reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of the constructs. In order to test the substantive hypotheses, we applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using an Asymptotic Distribution-Free (ADF) technique. The empirical results suggest that FIFA's reputation influences the image of the FIFA World Cup, but may not directly influence the sponsors' consumer-based brand equities. We also verified that the perception of fit between the mega-event and the sponsor plays a partial mediating effect on the relationship between the image of the mega-event and the sponsor's brand equity.

The purpose of this study was to assess brand equity in professional soccer teams. Through a preliminary analysis and further adaptation of the Spectator-Based Brand Equity (SBBE) scale, a refined model was tested among soccer fans. Results gathered from a confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable fit of the model to the data and confirmed the relationship between Internalization, a single first-order construct, and Brand Associations, a second-order construct with ten dimensions. Review of the psychometric properties indicated all constructs had good internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. A multi-group analysis showed the cross validity of the model, and a structural equation model revealed its predictive validity, indicating the proposed model as a valid tool for assessing brand equity in professional soccer teams. Managerial implications of these results are discussed, and some guidelines are suggested for future research.

Sport Marketing Quarterly, 2011

This paper examines how sponsors perceive the impact of different elements of a sponsorship package on brand equity. An empirical study using an online survey was conducted among key managers involved in sponsoring football clubs in the Netherlands. This study develops a formative measure of sponsorship, termed the Sport Sponsorship Index, and links this measure with brand equity. Results indicate that the various facets of a sport sponsorship package, such as exposure of the brand and coverage of the sport, are ...

Research in the area of brand-equity in sports has been limited to Europe or USA only with no study focusing on brand-equity of team sports in a country like India despite of knowing socio-cultural and perceptional difference between the people. In addition, previous studies also lack in terms of accounting for the perceptions of television viewers of European/ Asian countries. Academicians/Researchers should thus put their focus on developing models that could be used for measuring the brand-equity of sport teams in Indian context. Taking the above facts into consideration, the paper aims at validating the Spectator-based brand equity (SBBE) model of Ross, in context of the television viewers of Indian Premier League (IPL). The model was tested using structural equation modeling. The study came out with a finding that for television viewers the modified version of SBBE shall be applicable. Interestingly, the performance, unity and co-ordination between the players of the team and the determination and passion of the players for winning the matches for their teams can be suggested for enhancing the brand-equity of the sport teams in context of television viewers. The research provides a clear picture to sport managers about various antecedents to build the brand-equity of sport teams for efficiently utilizing their resources to better manage and build sport teams as strong brands building brand-equity of teams in the long-term.

Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports, 2018

The aim of this study is to provide the elements are redirected to football clubs on the basis of brand equity from the customer perspective (CBBE). This study applied a statistical correlation-survey population consisted of all mangers, the club staff, players and fans and customers four sports and cultural club Sepahan, ZobAhan, Gitipas and Reef. Cochran formula was applied to define the sample volume due to uncertainty of the number of individuals. Instrument components are based on customer-based brand equity Claire (2001) consists of 71 questions. The validity by two professors of sport management and reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.92 respectively. The findings for statistical analysis SPSS software and LISREL software was used to model. In this study, six of brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, judgments about brand, brand perceptions and brand conformity as presented in predicting brand equity from the customer perspective (p≥0/05). In general research indicate that among the six operating components are the building blocks of conformity with commitment has the greatest impact and the quality of imaging components are operating judge had minimal impact on brand equity from the customer perspective.