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Analysis of Sports Fan Relationships with Soccer Teams.

Conference Paper · September 2016

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Tiago Marques Helena Nobre

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 ANALYSIS OF SPORTS FAN RELATIONSHIPS WITH SOCCER
TEAMS

Marques, Tiago1; Nobre, Helena2;

1
University of Aveiro, [email protected], Aveiro, Portugal
2
GOVCOPP, DEGEIT, University of Aveiro, [email protected], Aveiro, Portugal

ABSTRACT
This paper investigates relationships sports fans establish with teams. Specifically, it is
studied the Sporting C.P. case. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the efforts that
Sporting managers are putting on marketing strategies and initiatives, grounded on new
communication channels and services (for instance, social media presence) impact the bonds
of Sporting’s fans with the club. Important European soccer teams need to preserve a strong
fan relationship base, both at domestic market and abroad. Results indicate, in general,
correspondence between the expectations expressed by club leaders in semi-structured
interviews and information collected through questionnaires on fans perceptions. Most of the
marketing strategies and initiatives are well received by fans. It seems that Sporting brand still
has space to grow. The establishment of strategic partnerships, and sport marketing innovative
strategies, in line with innovative communication channels are recommended. Study also
emphasizes the importance that social networks have achieved in sports management.

Keywords: Sports Fan, Relationships with Teams, Sport Marketing, Team Sport
Industry, Sports Club, European Soccer Teams.

Track No: 54. Consumer Brand Relationships (Nº8 MARKETING).

Acknowledgements: This work was financially supported by the research unit on Governance, Competitiveness
and Public Policy (project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939), funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020 -
Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) – and by national funds through FCT -
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

1
 ANALYSIS OF SPORTS FAN RELATIONSHIPS WITH SOCCER
TEAMS

ABSTRACT
This paper investigates relationships sports fans establish with teams. Specifically, it is
studied the Sporting C.P. case. The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the efforts that
Sporting managers are putting on marketing strategies and initiatives, grounded on new
communication channels and services (for instance, social media presence) impact the bonds
of Sporting’s fans with the club. Important European soccer teams need to preserve a strong
fan relationship base, both at domestic market and abroad. Results indicate, in general,
correspondence between the expectations expressed by club leaders in semi-structured
interviews and information collected through questionnaires on fans perceptions. Most of the
marketing strategies and initiatives are well received by fans. It seems that Sporting brand still
has space to grow. The establishment of strategic partnerships, and sport marketing innovative
strategies, in line with innovative communication channels are recommended. Study also
emphasizes the importance that social networks have achieved in sports management.

Keywords: Sports Fan, Relationships with Teams, Sport Marketing, Team Sport
Industry, Sports Club, European Soccer Teams.

INTRODUCTION
In recent years, sports marketing has experienced a growing interest. Basically, sports
marketing apply the principles and processes of traditional marketing with the purpose to
create a sport product directed to fans, participants and spectators (Gray and McEvoy, 2005;
cit. in Fullerton and Merz, 2008). According to Shank and Lyberger (2015, p. 5) “sports
marketing is the specific application of marketing principles and processes to sport products
and marketing of non-sport products through association with sports”.

Sports marketing can be divided into two categories: the marketing of sports and marketing
with sports. The marketing of sports involves the promotion of sport products and services
such as: sport events and equipment for fans and participants. The marketing with sports
refers to all marketing activities that use sports, sports events or athletes to promote non-sport
products and services (Ratten and Ratten, 2011).

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Sports results are an essential factor for the financial success of a club, since they are
determinant in sponsorship catchment, membership and audience in domestic market (Arigil
and Penazzio, 2011), and participation in European events, for instance in the case of
European soccer teams, among others. In this way, a team with low sport scores tend to show
a lower brand equity, and vice-verse. However, to limit sports brand equity issue to athletic
success does not offer all the picture about how sports fan relationships with teams are
grounded. For instance, strong emotional, exclusive and unconditional relationships that a lot
of soccer fans establish with their teams are one of main assets that a soccer club can hold,
since they give guarantee of continuation in the relationship (see, Aaker, 1996; Fournier,
1998; Keller; 1998) even in face of low results. Thus, teams should work to strength
relationships with fans in order to increase brand equity (Bauer et al., 2005). Given the
considerable growth that nowadays sports industry is experiencing, sports marketing can be of
main importance for sports managers (Shank and Lyberger, 2015).

This topic has gained relevance in Portugal due to the consolidation of the soccer business in
the national economy, and its importance in the promotion of Portugal image abroad. In
particular, Sporting Club de Portugal (Sporting CP) is one of more important soccer teams in
Portugal that has been suffering a downturn in terms of sports scores that put it away from the
more important European football competitions in the last years. Sporting CP was one of the
first Portuguese and European football teams, holding a long tradition and international
recognized image, represented by internationally well-known and valued players and
performing important economic transactions every year. Besides, there is a lack of
investigation about it compared to the other two major teams in Portugal.

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the efforts that Sporting managers are putting
on marketing strategies and initiatives, grounded on new communication channels and
services, impact the bonds of Sporting’s fans with the team.

The paper includes six sections. The first addresses theoretical background, the second section
describes a qualitative first study, the third offers the hypotheses of the study for the second
study, and the fourth the methodology. Results and conclusion are presented in the fifth and
sixth sections, respectively.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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Kapferer and Laurent (1992) state that brand performs some roles in consumer’s decision
making process: guiding (distinctive, contributes to improve the information available),
facilitator (allows consumer to store results of recent decision-making processes, seeking a
repetitive buying process), guarantee (repetitive quality standard) and personalizing (the
consumer choice expresses the will of differentiation). A brand becomes valuable when
consumers react positively to the product from the moment that recognize and identify it. This
effect is at cognitive, affective and behavioral level. Brand equity is inextricably linked to
marketing activities and market performance, and can be, ultimately, measured by the
awareness and associations that brand achieve in the market (Keller, 1998). Keller also notes
that the emotional factor, attached to the brand, results from the interaction between consumer
and service.

Sport consumption is highly symbolic and experiential (Bauer et al., 2005) and, therefore,
offers a ground to the development of highly emotional brand relationships. A consumer-
brand relationship normally contains both functional and emotional components and the
importance of each one can vary according to the offer, customer, etc. A brand-customer
relationship is directly linked to customer satisfaction. This satisfaction varies depending on
the perceived quality as a result of their individual expectations and perceptions
(O’Shaugnessy and O’Shaugnessy, 2003). Thus, customer satisfaction is an important
element of the emotional component. Common to all activities is necessary to measure,
manage and improve brand value. Sport teams are no exception to this. A brand is the most
valuable asset for the team sport industry (Bauer et al., 2005) because a team brand assumes
the role of a partner in the relationships between clubs and their fans, sponsors, partners,
investors and even shareholders.

One of the main interests of business today is to create conditions so that customers remain
loyal and create strong ties with brands, generating satisfaction and confidence (Demo, 2010).
Sports clubs are now seen as major brands that have their fans as special consumers, detaining
advantages over other brands because a fan will never change his club by a rival (Rein et al.,
2008). Kim et al. (2011) have created a scale that measures the quality of the relationship
between a sports fan and his team, named SCTRQS – Sports-Consumer-Team Relationship
Quality Scale, which will be adapted and used in this study.

Online marketing is an important vehicle to promote teams, considered an essential tool for
sport marketing. In particular, social networks have been featured as one of the preferred

4
communication channels in sport marketing (Ratten and Ratten, 2011). Most of the sports
clubs have an official site and presence on various social networks (Ioakimidis, 2010).
Moreover, sports marketing is one of the many business areas that today are engaging in the
new media trying to competitively deliver their products and services to consumers (Askool
and Nakata, 2011; Mangold and Faulds, 2009).

FIRST STUDY
In order to get a precise comprehension of the Sporting CP’s context and to support
hypothesis formulation, a preliminary exploratory study was developed, based on semi-
structured interviews to three leaders of Sporting CP and three managers of others Portuguese
soccer teams. This study has as specific objectives to understand Sporting’s brand image,
compare the perspectives of managers and fans, understand sport managers expectations, and
understand the impact of the new strategies and marketing initiatives, such as the use of social
networks, on relationships with fans. As research questions, this study inquires about the new
sport marketing communication strategies, new services recently launched, and how these
strategies and initiatives generate customer satisfaction; as well as how social networks
improve relationships with fans, and, finally, if Sporting CP brand has space to grow. Data
collection was carried out using different forms of communication: physical presence, video
calls, phone calls and email.

The Sporting’s leaders considered that relationships with fans are a key issue for the success
of team’s image. Marketing strategies, products and services and, even, communication
channels follow the objective to satisfy fans and to get close to them, whose suggestions are
useful and essential to the team. To achieve strong relationships with fans and attract new fans
are the priorities of team managers who are working on several benefits to offer team
community, either through the club (e.g., events, tickets, services) or through partners and
sponsors (e.g., merchandising, discounts). Close relationships are catapulted by the use of
new technologies, which are considered essential for the club. The creation of daily use
communication channels as the official site, Facebook or Twitter, were considered very
important because fans can follow the team’s news with live updates, use services or
communicate with the community, and offer suggestions to the team. Although Sporting
innovates with this channels, it still promotes traditional communication channels such as the
official newspaper or Sporting TV. Club also gives importance to the traditional media so that
team can reach each type of fan, even if geographically distant from its area.
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The managers of rival teams corroborated most of the information and opinions of Sporting
managers. The divergent issues were related to the fact that rival managers sustained that
better sports results from direct competitors may affect the growth of Sporting’s brand.
Regarding to communication channels, sport marketing strategies and relationships between
fans and team, rival managers sustained Sporting’s decisions.

In sum, all managers consider that new sports marketing strategies and initiatives (e.g.,
etickets, Apps, merchandizing, promotion of non-sports events, website, or Sporting TV)
generate satisfaction, and the investment in social networks improves and strengthens
relationships with fans. Is was also considered that Sporting brand still has space to grow
nationally and presents potential to grow at an international level.

HYPOTHESES OF STUDY
The focus of this investigation is to check whether the expectations of Sporting managers
match the perception of fans regarding products and services offered, in particular some new
services recently launched, marketing communication strategies and initiatives followed, and
respective benefits. In particular, study intends to inquire if website and social networks have
impact on the relationships that fans establish with the team.

Based on the literature review and on the first study, four hypothesis of study were
formulated:

H1: The continuous usage of the team’s new services positively influences relationship
strength.
H2: The presence of team in social networks positively influences relationship
strength.
H3: The fans living outside team’s geographic area show lower scores of relationship
strength than fans living in the team’s geographic area.
H4: Team’s communication channels have a lower effect on relationship strength for
fans living outside team’s geographic area compared to fans living in the team’s
geographic area.

METHODOLOGY

Participants

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A sample of 787 Sporting fans was obtained. The sample was divided in 2 groups: Group A
consisting of participants living in Lisbon area (n = 307), and Group B consisting of
participants living outside Lisbon area (n = 480). Different ages, genders and “fan condition”
(1 = “I sympathize with Sporting”; 2 = “I am a Sporting fan, but not an associate”; 3 = “I am a
Sporting associate”). It is worth to note that associates, under a payment fee, benefit from
several services (e.g., special places to assist to games, participation in sports) and advantages
(e.g., ticket discounts).

Measures
To measure the quality of team relationship it was used an adapted version of SCTRQS scale.
This scale seeks to assess the relationship strength of a fan with his team (Kim et al, 2011).
SCTRQS scale is multi-factorial, composed by five dimensions: Trust, Commitment,
Intimacy, Self-Connection and Reciprocity.

Procedures
Questionnaires were developed in Google documents tool and collected on-line. The first part
of questionnaire inquires about personal data of participants such as gender, age, occupation,
fan condition and geographic location. Then a group of 18 dichotomous questions were
placed (0 = “ No”; 1 = “Yes”) in order to assess fans’ opinions on several marketing
initiatives and services of the club and referred in the interviews in the first study. The
objective was to ascertain if fans attributes importance and relevance to these issues as sports
managers expected. The last part of questions was related to SCTRQS scale, in a total of 14
interval scales, anchored using a Likert type measurement approach of 5 points, between (1)
“strongly disagree” and (5) “strongly agree”.

RESULTS
Parametric Tests (T-TEST), Univariate Tests (ANOVA, ANCOVA) and Multivariate Tests
(MANOVAS, MANCOVAS) were used to test hypotheses. The hypotheses were considered
acceptable at a statistical level of p equal to or less than 0.05.

Reliability and normality

Reliabilities were calculated, through Cronbach’s alphas coefficients, based on SCTRQS
scale items (Kim et al, 2011). Acceptable internal consistency was achieved for the Trust,
Intimacy, Self-Connection and Reciprocity dimensions, where Cronbach’s alphas ranged from
7
.76 to .87. Commitment dimension had a Cronbach alpha of .68, very close to the minimum
of .70 recommended by DeVellis (2003).

The five dimensions on the SCTRQS scale did not follow a normal distribution; p < 0,001,
which constrains the use of parametrical tests. But, since n = 787 (more than 30) parametric
tests like T-TEST is acceptable (Pestana and Gageiro, 2003).

Hypothesis tests
H1 tests whether the latest services available to fans (e.g., etickets, team’s Apps, team
merchandizing, promotion of non-sports events) had the expected adherence and success as
Sporting leaders reported, and if those services have a positive impact on the relationship of
fans with the team. According to the four T-TESTS performed, the differences between
groups are statistically significant at the level of relationship strength (SCTRQS scale) score.
Data indicates higher relationship scores for the fans that use the service, in all cases,
confirming H1.

H2 tests the influence of social networks in the relationship of fans with the team. Two
MANOVAs tests were performed, assuming as dependents variables the five SCTRQS
dimensions and as factor the dichotomous variable SocialNetworkPage (0 = “I do not have the
Sporting page of Facebook/Twitter added to my account”; 1 = “I have the Sporting page of
Facebook/Twitter added to my account”). Statistically significant tests were obtained for both
social networks. While Facebook team’s page has a statistical significant impact on all
dimensions of SCTRQS scale, Twitter team’s page impacts all dimensions except Self-
Connection. Moreover, fans that have Sporting’s Facebook/Twitter page added score higher
on relationship dimensions, confirming H2. Two more factorial MANOVA were performed,
for the same dependent variables, assuming as independent variables SocialNetworkPage and
Geographic Location. No statistically significant results were obtaining, indicating that no
differences were found between Group A and Group B, relating to the impact of the use of
team’s Facebook/Twitter page on the relationship strength dimensions.

H3 tests whether the Geographic Location of fans influences relationship with the team.
MANOVA tests, using SCTRQS scale dimensions as dependents and Geographic Location as
factor, indicated statistically significant differences between groups for Trust and Reciprocity
dimensions. For these variables, the average of Group B is superior to the Group A. Thus,
fans living outside Lisbon area evaluate more favorably their relationships with Sporting,

8
rejecting H3. These results are in line with the information gathered with Sporting managers,
that revealed that huge marketing efforts have been invested on reaching audience and
reinforce attachments with Sporting fans living in different parts of Portugal and abroad.

H4 tests the impact of club's communication initiatives (i.e., Sporting TV and team’s website)
on the different groups of fans. Two factorial MANOVA were performed, assuming the five
SCTRQS dimensions as dependent variables, and as factors the Geographic Location and the
dichotomous variable CommunicationChannel (0 = “I do not assist to/visit the Sporting
TV/Website”; 1 = “I assist to/visit the Sporting TV/Website”). Both models showed statistical
significance. Of the variables tested, only statistically significant differences were obtained
for Commitment dimension, in the case of website; and for Trust dimension, in the case of
Sporting TV. In both cases, Group B scored higher for Commitment and Trust, in contrast
with H4 statement. Thus, H4 was rejected. Again, this result was in line with Sporting
managers efforts to reach more distant fans.

The effect of other variables (as covariates) in the models above described shows that, for
instance, gender influences relationships with team, except for social networks. The high
number of men compared to women, in the sample under study (a sample mostly collected on
online Sporting communities) might indicate that it is still necessary to explore initiatives
adapted to female preferences, as different merchandising alternatives, creating new events or
new content on the official website and Sporting TV. Age affects fans’ relationships with
team, except on the Facebook social network. In this case, there is the need to adapt the club
initiatives, products and services to different ages. Fan condition also influences relationship
with the team in all the variables, where associates showed the higher relationship scores,
followed by other team fans.

CONCLUSION
There is some correspondence between the expectations of club leaders and information
collected through questionnaires about fans satisfaction. Most of the marketing strategies and
initiatives are well received by fans, which may indicate well succeed marketing decision
have been taken. However, they still have to develop the less successful marketing decisions
(for instance, to capture female audience) and be updated with the different needs that
constantly come up with fans. Social networks won their space in sport marketing, which is
clear in Sporting case. Sporting looks to be an innovative club with presence in the most

9
visited social networks. At the same time, the club developed their official newspaper and TV,
as they give importance to the traditional media, important to build brand awareness, with
impact on the team’s brand value.

To establish strong relationships with fans is one of the team priorities. Based on the
managers’ interviews and on the questionnaires given to the fans, it’s possible to understand
that the majority of marketing strategies and services and communication channels seems to
positively impact fans’ relationships with team. Sporting is not just a Lisbon team, it’s a
Portuguese team with international representation. This reality forces club managers to
improve strategies and initiatives to reach fans who live away from Lisbon.

From this investigation, it appears that Sporting brand still has space to grow, domestically
and internationally, through the establishment of strategic partnerships with different entities,
the sale of official merchandising and product licensing or through sports marketing
innovative strategies, in line with innovative communication channels, besides sports results,
especially of the professional soccer.

This study becomes relevant to the management of soccer clubs since, first, addresses an issue
that is essential for the management of a sports club: the relationship with their fans. Without
fans a club does not make sense, they are its greatest strength, they are always present in good
and bad times, have an emotional attachment to the club that expands loyalty to levels that
few brands are able to match. Second, it portrays the importance that social networks have
gained in the management of a club. This study refers specifically to Facebook and Twitter,
where every major international clubs already have official pages, but it should be noted that
the characteristics of these networks mean that today you can find clubs exploring different
networks, such as Instagram, Google+ or Snapchat. Social networks create a direct link to
other online platforms increasingly developed by the clubs, as the case of Youtube, Spotify,
blogs and official forums. There is a whole new world associated to new technologies that
football clubs should explore as a way to expand their brand, advertise their products and
services, and reach fans. It should also be noted that social networks and online communities
allow enhancing business and partnerships, it is quite easy and intuitive to the association of
two or more brands to certain campaigns. However, it should be noted that the importance of
these communication channels should be combined with the maintenance and updating of
other channels such as the website, television or the club's official newspaper and, if possible,

10
to independent media that are daily published information about the club, available nationally
and internationally.

In sum, this study reveals the importance that club’s strategies and marketing initiatives have
on their relationship with fans. All events, services, merchandising, campaigns, etc. must be
studied in detail in order to achieve targeting fans, such as fans that are geographically distant
from the club, different genders, different ages, etc. The trust, commitment, familiarity,
connection and reciprocity of fans should be a priority in sports management, particularly in
large clubs that have to adapt their strategies, initiatives, communication channels and
benefits to different groups of fans.

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