Antonio S. Williams

Team brand extension or licensed product? Examining consumer awareness of two distinct brand strategies

Purpose – While brand extensions and licensing are two distinct brand strategies, recent literature suggests that licensing be treated as an “external” brand extension. As both of these strategies have the ability to have positive and negative effects on the teams brand it is important to understand if consumers are aware if they are purchasing licensed products or extensions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine if consumers are aware when a brand extension or licensing situation is present. Design/methodology/approach – This research involved exposing participants to a total of 16 products (eight brand extensions and eight licensed products) and asking participants to indicate who developed the products they were exposed to. Findings – The results suggest that participants had a difficult time correctly identifying team licensed products, while in general they were able to successfully identify team brand extensions. Research limitations/implications – This study provides empirical eviden...

Brand associations in the fitness segment of the sports industry in the United States: extending spectator sports branding conceptualisations and dimensions to participatory sports

The study advances brand association research into participatory sports (i.e. fitness) by examining health club related dimensions and extending research into the United States (US). Data were collected from health club members (n=148) at a branded US fitness facility. Factor and regression analyses used specified brand association dimensions and revealed a predictive model of brand loyalty. Findings and discussions will assist fitness managers in brand-building, marketing strategies and member retention.

Managing celebrity via impression management on social network sites: An exploratory study of NBA celebrity athletes

Purpose Central to the celebrity creation process is mass media communication and impression management (IM) behaviors of social actors. The emergence of social network sites (SNSs) such as Twitter offers a platform for social actors to engage both of these means in efforts to manage their celebrity. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how celebrity athletes manage their celebrity status by investigating IM tactics employed by National Basketball Association (NBA) celebrities on Twitter. Design/methodology/approach A content analytic design was employed to examine the Twitter posts of the top ten most popular and influential NBA celebrity athletes (past and present) at the time of tweet acquisition. Findings The findings revealed the celebrity athletes used a variety of IM tactics to manage their celebrity. Defensive IM tactics (i.e. reactive measures taken) were used sparingly when compared to offensive IM tactics (i.e. proactive measures taken). Also, consistent with extant IM literature, the celebrity athletes utilized IM tactics in isolation as well as in combination. Practical implications The extant literature suggests that celebrities cultivate their relationships with the various media outlets with the potential to create (or even damage) one’s celebrity. This study offers celebrity athletes and their managers with useful insight on celebrity management. Originality/value This study is the first to examine IM in a sport business context, particularly the use of IM of athletes on SNSs.

Investigating the Role of Sports Commentary: An Analysis of Media-Consumption Behavior and Programmatic Quality and Satisfaction

While research has revealed the important role of television commentators in sports broadcasts, no model has been established that comprehensively examines the relationship between sports commentary, audience perceptions, and consumption behavior (e.g., re-viewing intentions). Thus, the current study tested a conceptual model to better explain commentary and its relationship with audience perceptions (i.e., perceived quality and satisfaction) and future intentions. This study included data from a convenience sample of 80 undergraduate students from physical activity courses at a large private university in Seoul, Korea. In order to test the model, two commentary experimental conditions (i.e., color commentary and objective commentary) were employed and analyzed through structural equation modeling (sem). The findings suggest that color commentary significantly increases audience enjoyment and re-viewing intentions. Also, the findings of the study imply that audiences who are satisfied with the quality of the broadcast showed greater likelihood of reconsuming the televised sports program. The results of this investigation add to the body of knowledge in sports communication as well as highlight the significant role of sports commentators and the relationships between commentary, perceived quality, satisfaction, and re-viewing intentions.

Communicating the Athlete as a Brand: An Examination of LPGA Star Suzann Pettersen

This article explored how a renowned LPGA golfer, Suzann Pettersen, has built and leveraged her personal brand. Using the athlete brand-equity model as the theoretical framework, a qualitative case study was built by means of interviews and document analyses. Specifically, this case detailed how Pettersen and her management team endeavored to build and manage her personal brand equity through organization-produced and -controlled brand-communications strategies. The findings of this case shed light on the challenges and opportunities that athletes and their constituents face when managing human brands. Moreover, the findings of this case support the use of previously proposed sport-branding conceptualizations in a real-world setting.

What a Team Brand Means to Youth: An Examination of Team Brand Associations Held by Youth Fans

Understanding team brand associations is important as they can contribute to the team’s awareness, image, ability to generate revenue, and a fan’s overall loyalty. While previous conceptualizations of team brand associations have added considerably to the study of brand associations in sport, they do not take into account the associations that may exist for varying target segments. One market segment that has grown in consumer sophistication and thus is important for teams to understand is that of youth consumers. It has also been suggested that we should not be assume that research on adult buying behavior and branding is applicable to this market segment. Therefore, this study utilized a free-thought listing technique with children ranging from 4 to 14 years of age in order to examine the specific team brand associations held by youth fans. The results suggest that brand associations that children hold for sport teams are not as well-developed as those of their adult counterparts and children tend to focus on product related attributes as the most common associations mentioned were the team’s star players, brand marks, the way the team plays, or simply that they mention the sport itself.