Sport marketing on Fortune Global 500 websites

This research investigates how the world’s leading companies, the Fortune Global 500, use sportsrelated terms and phrases on their Web site. An automated process mirrored leading transnational corporations’ Web presence and then searched their sites. Analysis of about four gigabytes of Webbased text revealed regional and industry differences in how the world’s largest corporations use sports terms on their sites.

Sportway toward sport event consumption

Research has lead to a proliferation of multi-attribute scales to understand the motives for sport event attendance. The large number of potential motives, coupled with the long questionnaires needed to measure them, creates challenges for sport marketing research in natural populations. This research brings parsimony to the study of sport consumer behaviour by developing and testing a core set of five SportWay facets of motivation. Results provide guidance to sport marketing professionals and academics in survey development decisions related to selecting the most appropriate motives and items.

Membership retention within the sporting industry : factors affecting relationship dissolution

Relationship dissolution has been somewhat ignored in the study of relationship marketing paradigm. While there has been an abundance of literature giving broad conceptualizations on how to master the intricacies of relationships, very little has discussed the concept of relationship dissolution. This is especially true of the sporting industry, which does not yet understand the factors that contribute to members relinquishing their membership and severing relationship ties with the club. Team performance was found to be the most powerful predictor of relationship dissolution; however, both satisfaction with the sportscape and emotional bonds had a significant influence on the decision for a member not to renew their membership. Although team performance is mostly out of the hands of sport marketers, greater focus should be given to implementing strategies that enhance the emotional aspects of the club-member relationship while also improving aspects of the service facility.

The fan ritual scale and sports attendance

Rituals are an important part of society, and are a frequent topic of investigation among sociologists and anthropologists. Marketing applications of ritual, however, are rare. This study investigates the relationships between sports fan rituals, team identification and attendance using the Fan Ritual Scale. Data were collected at a professional football game in Australia. The results reveal a significant and positive relationship between social rituals, identification and attendance. There was no relationship however, between identification, attendance and personal rituals.

Australian consumers' attitudes about sports sponsorship during an economic downturn

This paper provides an overview of the prevailing attitudes held by Australian residents as they relate to sports sponsorship during a global financial downturn. A survey of 1,158 Australians assessed changes in attitudes from 2008 to 2009; then it addressed issues specific to the economic conditions of 2009. In general, Australians view sports sponsorship favourably.

Fan motivation and loyalty : extending the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) to the Australian Football League

This study used the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) to examine the motivation of fans attending a game in the Australian Football League. This is the first study to use the SII for professional men’s team sport outside the United States. Confirmatory factor analysis showed the model provided a good fit for the data collected in Australia, and regression analysis revealed that team interest, vicarious achievement, excitement and player interest were the significant factors in predicting and explaining the level of attitudinal loyalty of fans toward their favourite team.

Corporate social responsibility and sport event sponsorship

Demonstrating socially responsible behaviour has become increasingly important for corporations. Using the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) as its theoretical framework, this paper examines the meditational role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the relationship between sport participation motivation, event attachment and purchase intent of a sport event’s sponsors’ products. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of sport event participants (N=689) to measure sport participation motivation (recreation and charity), attachment to the event, CSR, and purchase intent of sponsors’ products. Results reveal that CSR fully mediates the link between purchase intent and sport participation motivation and partially mediates the influence of attachment on purchase intent. The authors propose that corporations strategically align with sport events in which participants are attached to allow for CSR and the meaning elicited by the event to work jointly.

The thrill of victory: Women and sport shopping

This study explores a new shopper type, ‘Sport Shoppers’, who are unique in their actions, attitudes and behaviors. We present evidence that these shoppers exhibit behavior similar to that of competitive athletes in that they view bargain shopping as an achievement domain. Data were collected through open-ended surveys, in-depth interviews and closet inventories. Thematic analysis of transcripts was undertaken based on three achievement goal categories; task-oriented, ego-oriented and social approval-oriented. Achievement goal theory is employed to offer an explanation of the Sport Shoppers’ behaviors and motivations. We argue the Sport Shopper is an economically viable and important shopper for fashion retailers to target.

Ready, steady, shop: shopping as sport

Do you approach shopping as if it is a competitive, sport-like activity? Or perhaps you attach social or emotional value in being recognised by your friends and peers as a great shopper, a proficient or efficient shopper? If so, you could be a “sport shopper”, according to an academic paper presented at an international conference earlier this year. This shopper can recount in detail where and when they purchased items - and most importantly, how much they saved. For this shopper, it is not about spending the least, but saving the most. This new “type” should not be confused with the economic shopper; constrained financially and forced to seek out low prices and generic products. And they are definitely not the recreational shopper, who enjoys shopping as a fun activity, engaging in the task to reduce stress and seek pleasure.

Sport scandal and sponsorship decisions: Team identification matters

We conducted an experiment to investigate the impact of sport scandal on consumer attitudes toward a range of sport stakeholders. We examined the effects of fans’ social identity (fan of scandalized team vs. fan of rival team), scandal severity (single perpetrator vs. multiple perpetrators) and the sponsor brand’s response to the scandal (sponsorship retention vs. termination) on consumers’ attitudes toward the implicated team, the scandal perpetrators, the sport, and sponsor brand. We find evidence of differential reactions to scandal reflecting social identity, such that fans support their own team despite increased scandal severity but negatively judge a rival team’s transgressions. Results suggest that where fans are concerned, sponsors may be better served to continue with a sponsorship following scandal than to terminate, even for some forms of severe scandal. However, termination may receive more positive evaluation from rival team fans; hence continuation of sponsorship needs to accompany a tempered approach.

Visitor Relationship Management (VRM) - Repeat Visitation Opportunities for Destination Marketing Organisations

In competitive tourism markets the consumer-traveller is spoilt by choice of available destinations. Successfully differentiating a destination and getting noticed at decision time is arguably the focus of activities by destination marketing organisations (DMOs). In pursuit of differentiation, three emergent themes in the marketing literature during the past decade have been branding, integrated marketing communications (IMC), and customer relationship management (CRM) a fundamental goal of each being stimulating customer loyalty. However there has been little attention given to destination loyalty in the tourism literature. The purpose of this paper is to report an exploratory investigation of visitor relationship management (VRM) by DMOs. Based on interviews with the management of 11 regional tourism organisations (RTO) in Queensland, Australia, the opportunities for, and immediate challenges of, VRM are discussed. While each RTO recognised the potential for VRM, none had yet been able to develop a formal approach to engage in meaningful dialogue with previous visitors from their largest market.