Sport fans' defense of the tribal brand

Abstract

Viewing brand tribalism anthropologically, this paper’s goal is to examine emotive and cognitive determinants of defense of the tribal brand across two diverse cultural and sport settings. Pursuing cross-continent replication, collegiate football fans (N = 188) in the southwest U.S. (Study #1) and professional baseball fans (N = 313) in South Korea (Study #2) were queried. Path analysis was employed with the survey data collected. With between-group invariance confirmed, the effects between the independent variables (i.e., pleasure, arousal, dominance - PAD framework, personal expertise, and brand pride) and the dependent variable (i.e., defense of the tribal brand) are generally supported across both samples. Brand tribalism is an important, yet under researched area of study for brand scholars and brand managers. The path model tested helps to fill this research gap, providing direction for brand management and related research programs. Understanding defense of the tribal brand antecedents puts sport marketers in an opportune position to develop brand-bolstering and revenue-swelling strategies.