TEAM IDENTIFICATION AND CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP

Sponsorship refers to “a cash and/or in-kind fee paid to a property (typically in sports, arts, entertainment or causes) in return for access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that property” (Ukman, 1996). Companies have increasingly turned to sponsorship in recent years due to the increased clutter and cost associated with advertising media, consumers’ changing habits relative to traditional media, and a need to target specific geographic and lifestyle segments. Expenditures on corporate sponsorship in the United States have grown from $850,000 in 1985 to over $9 billion in 2001, 67% of which was spent on sports properties (“IEG Projection,” 2002).

Sponsorship relies on an associative process whereby the positive feelings consumers have toward a particular property are transferred to or “rub off ” on a sponsor’s brand.An underlying expectation of this process is that only those who are most highly aligned with a particular property will reward a sponsor with their patronage (Crimmins & Horn, 1996). Anecdotal evidence of such an effect may be found in industry research on NASCAR fans. Data collected from a national probability sample of 1000 individuals describing themselves as NASCAR fans indicated that 71% of the respondents said that they “almost always” or “frequently” chose brands of NASCAR sponsors over competitors simply because of the sponsorship. In addition, 42% said that they switched brands after a manufacturer became a sponsor (“Performance research,” 1994).

A fan’s willingness to support a preferred team’s corporate sponsors is consistent with the argument outlined earlier regarding the effects of referent informational influence. In essence, fans view supporting their team’s sponsors favorably because by doing so they are acting in a way that is consistent with the goals and values of the team. Madrigal (2000) considered the influence of referent informational influence in a study of fans’ intentions to purchase products from corporate sponsors of a favorite team. Data were collected from 678 individuals attending a college football game. The majority of respondents were season ticket holders (65.8%) and male (62.5%).

The study’s findings indicated that the largest contributor to purchase intentions was group norms, followed by team identification. Interestingly, and in contrast to the predicted disordinal interaction, a significant ordinal interaction was found. Although significant for both, group norms had a greater effect on intentions at lower levels of identification than they did at higher levels of identification. Madrigal concluded that this unexpected effect was probably due to the composition of the sample. The majority of the sample was comprised of season ticket holders, and all study respondents were physically present at the football game. It is therefore logical to assume especially in light of the skewed distribution discovered for the team identification measure—that even low identifiers were at least moderately identified. Thus, the less significant effect of group norms on intentions found among high compared to low identifiers may simply have been due to a ceiling effect at higher levels of team identification. Regardless of the nature of the interaction, the results provide strong evidence of the normative pressure associated with referent information influence.

A second study by Madrigal (2001) also considered team identification effects on intentions to purchase products from corporate sponsors. However, rather than investigate effects associated with group norms, the article examined a belief–attitude–intention hierarchy related to the corporate sponsorship of the athletic teams of a large Midwestern university. Team identification was operationalized as the extent to which respondents felt a sense of connectedness to that university. In an attempt to minimize the likelihood of a skewed distribution on the team identification measure, a random-digit dialing methodology was used to collect data from 368 individuals.

The results suggested that certain beliefs about sponsorship (e.g., sponsorship lowers ticket prices for attendees, sponsorship improves a company’s image), the perceived importance of a company having a good image, and team identification were all favorably related to consumers’ attitudes toward buying sponsors’ products. A subsequent moderated regression was conducted in which purchase intentions were regressed against attitude, beliefs, the importance of those beliefs, team identification, and the interaction of team identification and attitude. As expected, a favorable attitude toward sponsorship was positively related to purchase intentions. The perceived importance of the beliefs that sponsorship makes some events possible that would not otherwise take place and improves the company’s image were also each favorably related to purchase intentions. The next variable entered into the model, team identification, was also positively related to purchase intentions.

Perhaps the most interesting finding of the study, however, was the significant Team Identification × Attitude Interaction. It revealed that attitude was more predictive of purchase intentions among those low in team identification than for those high in identification. Specifically, the analysis indicated that among those with an unfavorable attitude toward sponsorship, the purchase intentions of highly identified individuals were significantly greater than for those with lower levels of identification. It appears, therefore, that highly identified fans are more likely to form behavioral intentions that are congruent with the goals and objectives of the group than they are with personal factors such as an attitude toward the behavior. In effect, team identification influences the intended course of action for those who are most highly aligned because such behavior reinforces or strengthens their identity as members of the group.

Together, these studies demonstrate the direct and indirect effects of team identification on fans’ intentions to behave in a way that is supportive of a preferred team. As team identification increases, so too do intentions to purchase products from corporate sponsors. The studies also provided insights into how team identification influences the direct effects of group norms and attitudes on purchase intentions. For sports marketing practitioners, the results provide empirical evidence for the transfer of identification with a sports team to behavioral intentions to purchase products from a sponsor.

Two implications emerge regarding the role of team identification and corporate sponsorship. First, corporate sponsors would do well to emphasize their associations with sports properties in their advertising campaigns. As obvious as this proposition sounds, it is surprising just how poorly companies do at establishing this linkage in the minds of their consumers. Using DDB Needham’s Sponsor Watch Tracking data, Crimmins and Horn (1996) demonstrated that sponsors who spent more money communicating the sponsorship of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games were far more successful in developing an association with consumers than those sponsors who did not. “Brands fail because they do not seriously commit their own marketing dollars to communicate the link” (Crimmins & Horn, 1996, p. 15).

A second implication arising from the study is that sports marketers must guard the goodwill or equity engendered in their properties in order to be attractive to corporate sponsors. It is not inconceivable that fans may one day turn their backs on professional sports franchises and leagues. Player strikes, increased ticket prices, player violence, front office “extortion” to relocate their teams if tax dollars are not used to build new stadia are all recent trends that may eventually lead to diminishing fans’ interest in sport. Sports marketers must seek creative ways to strengthen fans’ identification with their favorite team. Fan outreach, community involvement, and special events aimed at allowing fans to meet players are only a few tactics that might be employed to meet this end.

In closing, identification with a sports team is a special form of social identity. A

fan that forms a close association with a team perceives it to be an extension of self. The fan processes information related to team outcomes as he or she would information about personal outcomes. In the realm of corporate sponsorship, the results of the research reported here support the notion that increased levels of team identification are positively associated with attitudes and intentions to purchase products from sponsors of the team. By supporting a team with which fans identify, sponsors are able to tap into a reservoir of goodwill that “rubs off ” on their products.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 807