How to blend in while hunting for hooligans : a study about sponsor-event fit amongst Dutch football supporters

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How to blend in while hunting for

hooligans

A study about sponsor-‐event fit amongst Dutch football supporters

Master thesis

Msc. in Business Studies – Marketing

Student : Jeffin J. Adel

Number : 10013504

Date : 6-‐8-‐2014

Supervisor : Drs. Ing. A.C.J. Meulemans 2nd Supervisor : prof. dr. J.H.J.P Tettero

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1. Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of sponsor-‐event fit and fan loyalty on brand awareness and brand image in the context of sport sponsorship. Data was collected through an online survey of which 152 respondents were included in the sample. The respondents are fans of a Dutch football club AFC AJAX. The survey measured the levels of brand awareness, sponsor-‐event fit and perceived brand image of the ten official sponsors of the Dutch football club. The results revealed that fans with higher levels of sponsor-‐event fit also had higher levels of brand awareness and a more positive perceived brand image. In addition there was only one sponsor for which levels of fan loyalty had a significant influence on perceived brand image. Fan loyalty did not have any influence on the other nine sponsors for brand image, nor had it any influence on levels of awareness for any of the sponsors. These results have implications for both the Dutch sport market industry as well as the research to apply the efficacy of consumers’ perception of sponsor-‐event fit, brand awareness and brand image in accomplishing sponsorship goals.

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2. Introduction

Sponsorships are popular methods of advertising, used to influence consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions (Cornwell, Weeks & Roy, 2005). Sponsorships are a field of advertising where companies are investing millions of dollars yearly. Global spending on sponsorships for the year 2014 is projected at 55.5 billion dollars, which indicates the popularity of sponsorships (IEG Press release, 2014). One example of a multimillion-‐dollar sponsorship is the sports sponsorship of Emirates airline with Arsenal Football Club. The sport sponsorship of Emirates airline is the biggest football sponsorship contract in history. The sponsorship is worth 150 million pounds and gives the airline company promotion rights for the upcoming five years with Arsenal Football Club. One of these promotion rights for the airline company is the naming rights of the home stadium for the English football club, which is called the ‘Emirates Stadium’ (“Arsenal sign up…”, 2013). The naming of the Arsenal Football Club stadium ‘Emirates Stadium’ in conjunction with the shirt sponsorship has created an enormous boost in awareness for the airline company. More than 80% of UK sport attendees are aware of the naming rights the airline company entails with the English football club (“Emirates soar as…,” 2014) . Creating awareness is very important for organizations and one of the main reasons why organizations enter into a sponsorship agreement (Meenaghan, 2001). Another reason for entering into a sponsorship agreement is the enhancement of brand image. According to Keller (1993) organizations should have strong, unique and favorable associations in order to build customer-‐based

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brand equity. One way of establishing and reinforcing this is by pairing up a company with a sports club. Organizations who enter into a sports sponsorship hope that the image of the sports club will be transferred to its own image, hereby enhancing its brand equity (Meenaghan, 2001; Grohs & Reisinger, 2013).

Even though a sponsorship increases brand awareness and enhances brand

image, it doesn’t mean that organizations can pair itself up with just any sports club or event and expect to increase its level of awareness and perceived brand image. Studies show that there are factors that influence sponsorship outcomes. For instance there is evidence that indicates that the sponsoring of an event can have different outcomes depending on how well a company and sports club fit together. A higher sponsor-‐event fit will lead to more brand awareness and a more positive brand image (Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; Meenaghan, 2001; Grohs, Wagner & Vsetecka, 2004).

Another factor that can influence sponsorship outcomes are the consumers

of sport events itself, the sports fans. There is a lot of variety in sports fans regarding their loyalty to the sport. For example, there are sports fans that highly identify themselves with a sports team, Gwinner and Swanson (2003) believe that highly identified fans will have more favorable sponsorship outcomes than fans with low team identification. There are also fans that express their loyalty not only on an attitudinal level such as team identification but also on a behavioral level. These are the fans that will not miss a single game of their favorite sport, even if this mean they have to travel to another country to watch the game. They not only buy tickets to game matches but also express their loyalty by buying sports team paraphernalia

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such as clothing and accesoires (Funk & James, 2001). The different levels of sponsor-‐event fit and the differences in the loyalty of sports fans have led to the following central research question:

How does sponsor-‐event fit and fan loyalty influence brand awareness and brand image in sport sponsorships?

Reading up on the literature in sport sponsorships and sponsorship

outcomes it becomes clear that most of the studies have been done in experimental settings and made use of fictive brands. This study will aim to contribute to the scientific literature by using real brands and by questioning actual fans of an actual sports club. The results from this study can also be used on a managerial level. Managers can use the results from this study in order to prepare a better analysis before entering into a sponsorship agreement with a sports club, preferably one that has the best fit for their organization. By using the results, managers can stop wasting money on sponsorships that are not making sense in the minds of their target group and hereby not making the most out of the sponsorship responses. In order to answer the central research question this study will follow a certain order of conduct and will start off with a theoretical framework that will explain the important constructs that are being covered within this study. After the theoretical framework a section covering the research design and methodology will follow. After the methodology chapter, there will be a chapter covering the results of the empirical research that has been gathered through an online survey amongst fans. This study will discuss the results in the discussion section where it will explain the implications of the results and summing up with an answer to the

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central research question in the following chapter. This study will finalize with an overall conclusion, managerial implications, limitations of this study and suggestions for further research. In order to find relevant literature for the theoretical framework, the author made use of the following online databases Google Scholar, Web of Science and Picarta. The total number of articles that the author used for this study is 56. The articles have been found using the following keywords: Sponsorship, consumer behavior, sponsor-‐event fit, fan loyalty, team

involvement, fan involvement, brand awareness, brand image, behavior loyalty, attitudinal loyalty, social identification, team identification, purchase intention, sponsorship effects, sponsorship outcomes, fan identification, sports spectators, sports consumers, psychological commitment, fan attendance, image transfer, brand equity, congruity in sponsorship, perceive fit and brand attitude. In order to find more

relevant literature the snowball method was also used, which means that the reference lists within the articles that have been found were used as a database to find more relevant articles for this study. All the relevant articles that have been used within this paper can be found in the reference list on page 55.

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3. Theoretical framework

In this chapter the main theoretical constructs that are being used in this study will be explained through a discussion of the current literature about these constructs. This chapter will start with explaining the constructs of what a sponsorship exactly entails. It will start with a widely accepted definition of sponsorship followed by sponsorship objectives. The explanation of the sponsorship construct will be finalized by explaining the different sectors where it is common to find sponsorships. The next theoretical construct that will be discussed is sponsor-‐event fit. This section will start of by explaining what sponsor-‐event fit exactly is and will follow by explaining the two forms of fit that can occur in terms of sponsor-‐event fit. The section will then try to explain sponsor-‐event fit through schema theory by Anderson (1983) and it will finalize the section with the outcomes of having a high sponsor-‐event fit followed by stating the first two hypotheses. The following chapter will discuss the constructs of brand knowledge explained through the customer based brand equity model (hereafter CBBE-‐model) by Keller (1993). The chapter will then move on to the construct of fan loyalty and will start of by discussing what the determinants are for the attendance at sport events in general. After this it will discuss what the determinants are that make football leagues attractive from the perspective of fans. This chapter will then finalize by discussing the two dimensions of the loyalty construct before explaining the construct of fan loyalty itself.

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3.1. Sponsorship

A sponsorship is defined by Meenaghan (1983) one of the key authors within this field, as “The provision of assistance either financial or in kind to an activity by a commercial organization for the purpose of achieving commercial objectives”.

This definition shows the two most important factors that a sponsorship entails. The first factor is the agreement between an organization and an event. This agreement is about exchanging funds from the sponsor organization to the sponsored event in order to achieve commercial objectives, which is the second important factor. There are many sorts of commercial objectives that organizations wish to achieve through sponsorship. The two most common commercial objectives that are pursued are brand awareness and the enhancement of brand image. Brand awareness is created through the exposure that the sponsor brand creates by sponsoring an event. Everybody who will partake in the event in some sort of manner will most likely be exposed to the sponsor brand. It is therefore fairly easy to create brand awareness by sponsoring an event because it will automatically create exposure and thus create brand awareness (Cornwell, 1995; D’Astous & Bitz, 1995; Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; Becker-‐Olsen & Hill, 2006; Alexandris, Tsaousi & James, 2007). The enhancement of brand image is somewhat more complicated, Meenaghan and Shipley (1999) explain that the enhancement of brand image is strongly linked to the perception of the sponsor and the event of consumers. In order to achieve enhancement of brand image by sponsoring an event, there first must be a perceived fit between the event and the sponsor. Solely the sponsoring of an event will not automatically lead to the enhancement of brand image. The importance of

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this sponsor-‐event fit will be discussed in the next chapter. Another objective that organizations pursue through sponsorship is explained by Keller (1993) and is related to the enhancement of brand image, and that is image transfer. When an organization enters into a sponsorship with an event it indirectly links the image of the event to their brand image. Organizations hope that through this indirect linkage the image of the event will eventually permanently transfer to their own brand image in the mind of consumers, when such a linkage is established it strengthens and enhances the organizations brand image, this is also confirmed by other scholars (Jalleh, Donovan, Giles-‐Corti & Holman, 2002). Cornwell and Maignan (1998) add some more sponsorship objectives to the sponsorship objectives list and that is the improvement of goodwill, the improvement of internal and external relationships, the improvement of profitability and the recruitment of new employees.

Sponsorships occur in five different industries: culture, entertainment,

media, society and sports (van Maaren, 2001, p.35). Cultural sponsoring is the sponsoring of museums and cultural events. The entertainment industry is mostly related to the sponsoring of concerts and shows. Media sponsoring is the sponsoring of television shows or radio programs, whereas society sponsoring is mostly related to the sponsorship of non-‐profit organizations that are active with environmental or human rights issues. And the last industry and certainly not the least is the sports industry. This thesis will have its focus in the sports industry.

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3.2 Sponsor-‐event fit

As discussed in the previous section the enhancement of brand image is strongly related to the perceived fit that consumers have of the pairing between the sponsor and an event. Sponsor-‐event fit is the fit or logic that exists between the pairing of an organization and an event through sponsoring (Gwinner, 1997; Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; Gwinner & Bennet, 2008). Studies have shown that there are two forms of fit possible between an event and an organization regarding sponsorship (Keller, 1993; McDaniel, 1999; Rifon, Choi, Trimble & Lee, 2004; Koo, Quartermann & Flynn, 2006). The first form of fit is ‘functional fit’ and occurs when the product of the sponsor is related towards the event on a functional level. Functional fit occurs for example when a shoe retailer sponsors a running event. There is a very logical connection between shoes and a running event, which cannot be performed without proper shoe wear. The second form of fit that exists is ‘image based fit’, which occurs when the image of an event and the image of a sponsor are congruent. An example of an image based fit sponsoring would be an art gallery event that is sponsored by a prestigious brand such as an expensive watch or car brand. The art gallery and the prestigious brand have congruity or fit based on their image of being ‘sophisticated’. (Aaker, 1997; Gwinner , 1997).

The logic of sponsor-‐event fit can be explained through schema theory of Anderson (1983) Schema theory explains that the level of similarity affects the accessibility into memories that people have stored in their minds. This is why people more easily understand the logic behind a running event that is sponsored

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by a sports apparel brand that produces running shoes than the same running event sponsored by a brand that produces glue. There is a similarity between the sports apparel brand sponsor and the running event, therefore memories are more easily accessible, whereas glue and a running event have no obvious connection. This is the same for an event that has a fit on an image-‐based level. An art gallery that is sponsored by a prestigious brand is more logical and therefore more easily accessible in the memory, instead of the same generic glue company sponsoring the art gallery. There is no logical connection between the art gallery and the glue company on either a functional level or image-‐based level, therefore the level of similarity is low and the memory is more difficult to access in order to understand the fit.

Having a high sponsor-‐event fit can result in several advantages when it comes to sponsorship outcomes (Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; Rifon et al., 2004; Alexandris et al., 2007). One of the possible outcomes of sponsorship would be raising the level of brand awareness for the sponsor brand (Speed & Thompson, 2000; Meenaghan, 2001; Jalleh et al., 2002). Scholars have found that a sponsorship with a high perceived sponsor-‐event fit will lead to higher levels of brand awareness than sponsorships with lower perceived levels of sponsor-‐event fit. This can be explained due to the fact that when there is a low perceived sponsor-‐event fit consumers experience cognitive inconsistency, this negatively influences the responses towards brand awareness (Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; Rifon et al., 2004; Becker-‐Olsen & Hill, 2006; Koo et al., 2006). These findings have led to the creation of the following hypothesis:

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H1. Sponsors with a high level of perceived sponsor-‐event fit will have higher levels of awareness than sponsors with a low level of sponsor-‐event fit.

Another possible outcome of sponsorship is the effect it could have on brand image (Speed & Thompson, 2000, Meenaghan, 2001). This effect occurs when the image of the sponsored event is transferred to the image of the sponsor, and it is called image transfer. Image transfer is most favorable when the positive images of a sponsored event becomes linked to the image of the sponsoring brand (Keller, 1993). Evidence in the study of Koo et al. (2006) suggests that a high sponsor-‐event fit will not only lead to an enhancement of image transfer but it will also influence a more positive brand image, therefore strengthening brand identity (Speed & Thompson, 2000; Rifon et al. 2004; Becker-‐Olsen & Hill, 2006). As such, this has led to the creation of the second hypothesis:

H2. Sponsors with a high level of perceived sponsor-‐event fit will have a more positive perceived brand image than sponsors with a low level of perceived sponsor-‐event fit

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3.3 Brand knowledge

In order to understand the whole concept of brand knowledge it is important to state a definition of what a brand actually is. A commonly used definition is the definition by Kotler (1991, p. 442) “a brand is a "name, term, sign, symbol or design,

or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.” This definition

clearly makes the distinction that a brand most important purpose is to differentiate itself from competitors.

In order to explain how to create a strong, favorable and unique brand this section will now discuss the CBBE-‐model by Keller (1993). To understand what happens in the mind of the consumer when it is exposed to marketing activities, it is important to understand the structure of the CBBE-‐model of Keller (1993). The first dimension of this CBBE-‐model is ‘brand awareness’. One of the main raisons for organizations to enter into a sponsorship agreement with an event is to create brand awareness (Meenaghan, 1983; Crowley, 1991; Gwinner, 1997; Cornwell & Maignan, 1998). Brand awareness is defined by Rossiter and Percy (1987) as “the strength of brand node or the trace of memory as reflected by consumers ability to identify the brand under different conditions’’. Keller (1993) explains that brand awareness consists of two elements. The first element is brand recognition and refers to the ease at which consumers can identify a brand when one is asked to name a brand within a certain category. Brand recognition also refers to recognizing a brand when the brands’ product or logo is shown. The second element Keller

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(1993) discusses is brand recall. Brand recall refers to the ease at which consumers are able to recall a brand after it has been exposed with advertising of such a brand. These two elements ‘brand recognition’ and ‘brand recall’ thus forms the construct of ‘brand awareness’. In the context of this paper, brand awareness will be empirically tested in means of recognizing the sponsor brands of a sports team and is the first independent variable in this thesis.

The second dimension in the CBBE-‐model of Keller (1993) is ‘brand image’. The enhancement of an organizations brand image is one of the possible outcomes of sponsorship (Speed & Thompson, 2000). Keller (1993) defines brand image as “perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumer memory”. The brand associations Keller (1993) talks about are all the thoughts that come up when consumers think of a particular brand. These brands associations are preferably strong, unique and favorable. There are three types of brand associations that can come up in the mind of the consumer. The first type is ‘attributes’ and is related to the features that describe the product or service of the brand. The attributes can be either non-‐product related which are all externally related such as the price of the product, the packaging of the product, user imagery of the product, which means what are the type of persons that make use of this product and last usage imagery, which is related to what kind of situation one would make use of the product. Product-‐related attributes are all internally related to the product and are concerned with the physical composition or service requirements of the product.

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The second type of association is ‘benefits’ and is related to what the product or service can do for the consumer; what is the benefit one has when making use of the product or service? Benefits can be divided into functional, experiential and symbolic. Functional benefits are related to intrinsic advantages such as physiological and safety needs and are concerned with the need for solution for a basic problem. Experiential benefits are all about the feeling a consumer gets when the product is being used. The last benefits are symbolic benefits and are related to extrinsic advantages such as how the usage of a product will affect the self-‐esteem or personal expression.

The third and last type of association is that of ‘attitudes’ and that is related to the overall evaluation of a brand (Aaker, 1997). For the purpose of this paper, this study will mainly focus on these last types of associations, which is the overall attitude of a brand. The CBBE-‐model of Keller (1993) is shown below in figure 1.

Figure 1: Customer Based Brand Equity model of Keller (1993).

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3.5. Fan loyalty

In order to get a full grasp of what fan loyalty entails it necessary to first take a look at the determinants for the demand for sports itself. What are the factors that create the demand to attend a sports event? Borland and Macdonald (2003) argue that sport event attendance is determined through the following five dimensions: form of consumer preferences, economic, quality of viewing, characteristics of the sporting contest and supply capacity. The first dimension ‘consumer preference’ is concerned with for example the habits of consumption. Fans might be attending a sporting event because it is a part of their lifestyle and an expression of loyalty to the team. Attendance might also be due to conspicuous consumption where fans are able to have preferred seating in VIP areas such as skyboxes or business seats. Being able to attend a sports event in preferred seating area makes it very attractive to make use of this possibility. Another possibility for attending a sports event might be due to the bandwagon effect whereby the attendance of one fan increases the value of attending the sports event for another fan. Sport fans can then be amongst peers who share the passion for that particular sport event (Borland & Macdonald, 2003). The second dimension ‘economic’ is easily explained that economic factors can influence attendance. The price of a ticket for example is one of the first obstacles one must overcome in order to attend a sporting event. One must be willing to pay the price of the ticket, being able to pay for a ticket is another economic factor that might be influential. Not everybody can afford a ticket to a big and popular sports event. There is also such a thing as opportunity costs where a sports fan also has the option to spend its money on a different form of

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entertainment for example go to a different sporting event or even a different form of entertainment such as a concert or a movie (Borland & Macdonald, 2003). The third dimension is ‘quality of viewing’ and is concerned with factors such as the facilities at the stadium, if the weather is cooperating that day and the timing of the event. These are all factors related to the quality of viewing that determine attendance of a sporting event (Borland & Macdonald, 2003). The fourth dimension is ‘characteristics of the sporting contest’ and this dimension is all about uncertainty of outcome, success of competing teams, quality of contest and significance of contest. Fans might be willing to pay more to attend a sporting event where their favorite team is sure to win. There are fans whom are less attached to a particular sports team and they might be more attracted to attend a match where the level of the two teams is ‘even’ and both teams have a chance of winning instead of a sure win for one of the sport teams. When the particular match is one that is very important for the rankings of the league, the winner will be sure to end as the league champions, the demand for attending such a match is higher than a match that is not that influential for the rankings of a league. The last dimension the authors Borland and Macdonald discuss (2003) is ‘supply capacity’ and is concerned with the size of the stadium and if it can carry the number of fans that wants to attend the sports event. Madrigral (2006) also adds to this list of determinants the level of skill that is displayed. Consumers whom attend a sport event are also attracted to the level of skill that is being displayed, which is usually a skill level higher than the average skill level.

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Now that the factors are discussed that determine attendance at a sports events in general, it is important to discuss factors that determine the attractiveness in football leagues because this study will focus its research with fans in the Dutch football league. Koenigstorfer, Groeppel-‐Klein and Kunkel (2010) discuss four determinants for professional football leagues that determine the attractiveness from the perspectives of the fans. The first determinant that they discuss is the ‘stadium atmosphere’. Stadium atmosphere is defined as ‘’ the entirety of emotionally affective stimuli in a sports stadium”. These can include fan rituals such as club songs or chanting during the game to encourage the sports team, it also includes the opportunity to be with other fans and share the love for the club or team, which adds to the experience of being in the stadium (Uhrich & Koenigstorfer, 2009). The second determinant the authors Koenigstofer et al. (2010) discuss is success in international competitions. When sport teams or clubs are successful in international competitions the club becomes more attractive to fans, media and sponsors than if they were not successful. This success makes it desirable for the fans to attend matches because their club is now an internationally recognized sports club. The third dimension Koenigstofer et al. (2010) discusses is ‘the uniqueness of dominating clubs’. The clubs that are the most dominating clubs within their league also have the highest number of fans compared to the less dominating clubs. Clubs or unique is this way in that they are considered to be the best in their league. Every club is also allowed to display their past successes by incorporating gold stars on their shirt that represent the number of times they have become the champions within their league. Having multiple stars on the shirt adds

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to the uniqueness of the club. The fourth and last dimension the authors Koenigstorfer et al. (2010) discuss that determines the attractiveness of a football league is ‘the competitive balance’. The competitive balance is in line with the determinant ‘characteristic of the sporting event’ that is mentioned in the previous section regarding the determinants of fan attendance in sport in general. Competitive balance is related to uncertainty of outcome within the league and if all the teams are somewhat equally matched. If it is not certain who will win a match or who will win the league it makes the league more attractive and adds to the emotional experience of a fan and therefore to the attractiveness of the event and the football league (Borland & Macdonald, 2003: Koenigstorfer et al., 2010).

Now that there is an understanding how on how attendance and the attractiveness of football leagues is influenced we will move on to how fan loyalty is determined. First we will take a look on how loyalty is constructed. Scholars indicate that the loyalty construct exists out of two dimensions (Kaynak, Salman & Tatoglu, 2008; Bee & Havitz, 2010). The first dimension of the loyalty construct is a behavioral dimension and is called ‘behavior loyalty’. Behavior loyalty is related to the actual behavior of a consumer, specifically it is related to the purchase behavior In terms of sport fans this can be anything from purchasing game tickets or it could be anything related to the purchase of sports team paraphernalia such as team clothing, supporter clothing and sports team accessories (Stevens & Rosenburger, 2012). The second dimension of the loyalty construct is an attitudinal dimension and is called ‘attitudinal loyalty’. Attitudinal loyalty is a more complicated dimension within the loyalty construct than behavioral loyalty because it happens on a

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cognitive level. Attitudinal loyalty is concerned with identification processes such as how much does a fan identify itself with the sport or sports team (Bodet & Bernache-‐Assolant, 2011). The literature refers to these identification processes in the context of sports as ‘team identification’ (Ashfort & Mael, 1989, Bauer Stokburger-‐Saur & Exler, 2008; Bee & Havitz, 2010, Bodet & Bernache-‐Assollant, 2011). Team identification occurs for example when a sports fan perceives its favorite sports team achievements and failures as it’s own. When a sports fan has high or strong team identification this individual will be extremely happy when the team wins a match but can be also really upset when the team loses or makes mistakes (Funk & James, 2001). Before the literature was discussing ‘team identification’ Pooley (1978) was discussing a similar construct which is called ‘involvement’. The involvement construct of Pooley (1978) makes a distinction in this identification process with fans between high and low involvement with the sports team or sports club. When a sports fan has a low involvement it means that this fan has a rather passive relationship with his or hers sports team. These low involvement fans could be consumers whom occasionally watch a match on the television at home with friends or family and do not strongly identify themselves with the sports team (Statista, 2011). A fan that has a high level of involvement with sees the team’s identity as its own identity, which is similar to the team identification construct where one with a high team identification sees the team winnings and losing as its own. The fans with a high level of involvement are extremely loyal fans and commit to a long-‐term relationship with the sports team where they will not miss a single match (Pooley, 1978; Alexandris et al., 2007;Bauer,

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Stockburger-‐Saur & Exler, 2008; Kaynak et al., 2008). Wakefield (1995) discusses that there are three factors that determine attendance on future games for sport fans. Amongst these three factors is the previously discussed team identification, the other two factors are social influence and perceived value. Social influence is related to whether or not attendance at a sport event is approved by others or not. If there is approval there is a higher chance of attending future games. Perceived value is related to previously discussed ‘economic’ dimension of Borland and Macdonald (2003) that affect fan attendance of sport event. It means that the perceived value of attending future games should be in contrast with the economic price of attending the game.

So why is it important to understand whether or not a fan has a high or low level of team identification? This study will focus its research specifically on sponsorship related outcomes amongst fans of the Dutch football league, it is therefore important to understand the theories related to fans and sponsorship outcomes. Literature indicates that fans that score high on team identification elaborate more on sponsorships messages than fans that score low on team identification. Elaborating more on sponsorship messages has several implications. Because these fans elaborate more on the sponsorship message they seem to recognize the sponsor-‐event fit better than fans that do not score high on team identification. Because they strongly identify themselves with the team they also see the teams sponsors as part of themselves. Therefore there will be more thoughts about the sponsor and the sponsorship than if they did not see the team’s sponsor as a part of themselves (Roy & Cornwell, 2004; Deitz, Meyers & Stafford, 2012).

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Another explanation for fans that have higher levels of team identification and therefore also higher levels of fan loyalty, which recognize sponsor-‐event fit more easily than fans with lower levels of fan loyalty, is due to a construct called ‘in-‐group favoritism’. In-‐group favoritism entails that fans that score high fan loyalty is that they deal with inconsistent information between the sponsorship and their team by being more open to the perceived sponsor-‐event fit. They adjust their thinking when they think about the sponsor-‐event fit until they succeed in doing so. In-‐group favoritism amongst loyal fans thus means, that they are biased to anyone or anything that is part of their in-‐group, which is the team. This specifically is related to the perception of sponsor-‐event fit (Galinksy & Moskowicz, 2000).

Scholars also believe that fans that score high on fan loyalty will have a preference for sponsor brands versus non-‐sponsor brands. A study that has been conducted amongst golf fans contains evidence that the highly committed golf fans have a positive attitude toward the sponsor brands versus non-‐sponsor brands (Lascu, Giese, Toolan, Guehring & Mercer, 1995). This result is the same in a study amongst fans of NASCAR races, which showed evidence that loyal fans have a more positive attitude toward sponsor brands versus non-‐sponsor brands. Several other studies have confirmed these results with similar findings, where fans have a preference for sponsor brands (Speed & Thompson, 2000; Madrigal, 2000; Meenaghan, 2001; Levin, Beasly & Gamble, 2004). The last study that confirmed this the relation between loyal fans and brand attitude is the study of Boyle and Magnusson (2007). The scholars have conducted empirical research amongst fans of college basketball and have found that the loyal fans of college basketball have a

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more positive perceived brand image of the sponsor brand, which in their research is the athletic program of the university. All these results imply that highly dedicated supporters lead to more favorable attitudes towards the sponsor and sponsorships. This implicates that highly dedicated fans should be important to a sponsor and are worthwhile paying focusing on this group. In this study, fans will be distinguished based on their level of fan loyalty and how this relates to their levels of perceived sponsor-‐event fit and their perceived brand attitudes, all this has led to the creation of the following hypotheses:

H3. Fans with a high level of fan loyalty will have higher levels of perceived sponsor-‐ event fit than fans with low levels of fan loyalty.

H4. Fans with high levels of fan loyalty will have a more positive attitude towards sponsor brands than fans with low levels of fan loyalty.

The hypothesized model is depicted in the following fig. 1.

Fig 1. Hypothesized model

Sponsor-‐event fit

Fan loyalty _{Brand
image}

Brand awareness H1 H2 H3 H4

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4. Methodology

This chapter will explains the construction of the empirical research as well as the process of the research.. This chapter will first start off with explaining the procedure of this research in the first subchapter 4.1. It will then continue by describing the sample characteristics in subchapter 4.2. And as a last part of this chapter the operationalization of the independent variables in subchapter 4.3 followed by the dependent variables in subchapter 4.4 that will be explained.

4.1 Research procedure

The research goal of this paper is to answer the following central research question:

How does sponsor-‐event fit effect brand awareness and brand image in sport sponsorships and where does fan loyalty play a role in this?

In order to answer this central research question the choice has been made to do research amongst real sports fans of a real sports team. The sports team that is chosen is the Dutch Eredivisie Football club AFC AJAX. The reason for choosing this sports team is because of the personal interest the author has for this particular sports team. This personal interest also made it possible to access the right channels in order to connect with the fans of AFC AJAX. Since a real sports team was chosen, it was only natural to measure sponsor-‐event fit, brand awareness and brand image of the actual sponsors of AFC AJAX. In order to collect data the researcher choose to distribute an online survey through Facebook groups created for fans of AFC AJAX. This survey was distributed between 28th_{May
2014
and
the
5}th_{of
June
2014.
The}

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regarding the level of fan loyalty of the respondents. The second part of the survey concerned the measurement of the perceived awareness level for the sponsors of the Dutch Football club. The third part contained questions regarding the level of sponsor-‐event fit and the last part was concerned with questions regarding the perceived brand image of the sponsors.

The reason for choosing an online survey is because of the limited timeframe available for this research and also the ease of conducting an online survey. The online survey was translated in Dutch because most of the AFC AJAX supporters were native Dutch speakers. The online survey has been distributed via a social network site, Facebook, in a Facebook group called “Zuid H Forever”, which stands for a particular seating area in the Amsterdam arena, which is the home stadium of the Dutch Football Club. There were several more Facebook groups related to Ajax supporters but the author choose this group specifically because of the active users within this group. A copy of the survey can be found in the appendix on page 61 of this paper.

4.1.a AFC AJAX

The Dutch Eredivisie football club AFC AJAX is an Amsterdam based football club that exists since the year 1800. Since its establishment the football club has been playing in the highest division of the Dutch football, called ‘De Eredivisie’, and has been the champion of this division for 33 times heading for the 34th_{this
current}

year.

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4.1.b Sponsors of AFC AJAX

The Dutch Football Club has in total ten sponsors of which two are main sponsors. Because the two main sponsors are easily recognized sponsors, because of their prominent promotion rights, such as the players wearing team clothing from one of the main sponsors and the other main sponsor is printed very large on the chest of the team clothing, the author choose to incorporate all ten sponsors within this study in order to give a better comparison amongst the sponsor brands for the Dutch football club.

Adidas is one of the main sponsors and is a sports apparel brand that supplies all the apparel for the Dutch Football club including the medical and technical staff. This means that every official sports clothing is from the brand Adidas, with an exception to the shoes .The second main sponsor is AEGON, which is a Dutch company who provides services in the financial sector in 25 countries such as pensions, insurances and asset management. Aegon has the sponsor rights to be displayed on the shirts of the Dutch football club and has been a main sponsor for Ajax for the last five years (Hoofdsponsors…’’,2014).

The following eight sponsors are regular sponsors and have no display right on the shirts of the Dutch football players and are not obvious sponsors for the Dutch football club. The first sponsor that is used within this study is BDO, which is an international consultancy firm specialized in financial services. The second sponsor that is used within this study is CSU Total Care. CSU total care is a Dutch cleaning company and is one of the biggest in the country. The third sponsor within this study is CST Tires. CST Tires is an international company that is specialized in

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car and bike tires. The fourth sponsor that is used within this study is HUBLOT. HUBLOT is an exclusive watch brand that is the official timekeeper of the Dutch football club. The fifth sponsor is Mercedes. Mercedes is an exclusive car brand and provides every AFC AJAX player and staff with a new car. The sixth sponsor that is used within this study is OGER. OGER is an Amsterdam based company who sells men’s business clothing. OGER provides the business suits for the AFC AJAX players and technical staff every year. The seventh sponsor is Verwelius Bouwen. Verwelius Bouwen is a Dutch company that is specialized in property development, property management, property construction and property investment. The last sponsor of the Dutch Football club that is included within this research is the sponsor Vriendenloterij. Vriendenloterij is a Dutch gambling company that is specialized in Dutch lotteries. Since the start of this research there is a new official sponsor that signed an agreement with the Dutch Football club in June 2014, which is the sponsor SENGLED. SENGLED is a high tech organization that is specialized in LED-‐ lighting. (Sponsors…’’,2014).This sponsor was not included within the scope of this research because of its late entry as a sponsor for the Dutch Football club, however to ensure completeness of the sponsor’s description, this sponsor is mentioned briefly.

4.3 Sample

In total there were 272 respondents of which 152 respondents completed the survey. Only the 152 completed surveys have been included within this research. Of these 152 respondents there were 80% male respondents and 20% female

How to blend in while hunting for hooligans : a study about sponsor-event fit amongst Dutch football supporters