Abstract
The present study investigated the impact of team identification and team-sponsor fit on the sponsor's brand equity. The study's main theoretical references are (a) the Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979); (b) the Schema Theory (Singer, 1968) and (c) the Associative Network Theories (Collins & Loftus, 1975), both about the functioning of the human memory; and (d) customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993). Research was conducted in Porto Alegre, RS, a Brazilian city where rival football (soccer) teams Gremio and Internacional share their main sponsors, Banrisul and Unimed, since 2001 and 2002, respectively, a rare context that was previously studied only once before (Davies, Veloutsou, & Costa, 2006). The valid sample comprised 2,000 fans of both teams. The sample was non-probabilistic with equal gender and team quotas. Data analysis was performed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA); and the reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity of the constructs were verified. To test the substantive hypotheses, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using the ADF technique was applied. The empirical results suggest that, in the studied context, the sponsor's brand equity is more influenced by team-sponsor fit than by team identification, which is different from a non-rivalry sponsorship context.
Highlights
In the last decades, corporate sponsorship evolved from a merely philanthropic activity to a popular marketing tool (Cornwell, 2008)
There is substantial evidence in the literature that fans with high levels of identification tend to show more positive reactions regarding the sponsors (Gwinner & Swanson, 2003; Sutton et al, 1997; Wang et al, 2011)
The analyses performed of Banrisul and Unimed revealed a statistically significant influence of team identification on sponsors’ brand equity and team-sponsor fit, team identification showed no relevant direct effect on either of the constructs, suggesting that in the context of simultaneous sponsorship of rivals, team identification plays a different role on fans’ perceptions
Summary
Corporate sponsorship evolved from a merely philanthropic activity to a popular marketing tool (Cornwell, 2008). In Brazil, because of the recent happening of the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the imminent holding of the Olympic Games in 2016, the amount spent in sport sponsorship, that reached a level of R$ 3 billion in 2013 (approximately US$ 6.75 billion at the 2013 average exchange rate of 2.25 Brazilian reais to 1 US dollar), should grow around 10% a year until 2016, with football (soccer) accounting for the lion’s share (Lordello, 2013). It is a well-known fact that most of the country’s top 20 football (soccer) clubs lose money every year as well as being highly indebted. This situation reinforces the importance of funds derived from sports sponsorship, which have increased substantially in recent years and have become the clubs’ third most important source of revenue after broadcasting rights and sale of athletes (Somoggi, 2014)
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