Executive Summary
In this study, the focus will be on understanding different aspects of consumer behavior that affects their purchasing of sports. A research objective and project will be followed by a brief introduction about the topic. Research methodology will be defined with the theories on which this methodology will be based.
After a thorough study and analyzing the data, a brief analysis or findings will be presented to enable the reader to understand the consumer behavior towards the purchase of sports. By the end of this paper, a conclusion will be formed stating the basic factor that derives the consumer behavior towards purchasing sports along with suitable recommendations.
Introduction
Consumers are supposed to be the guards of interests of any industry or market in the world . When it comes to sports, consumers are the one who do not care for weather, location or the conditions and all they want is just to enjoy their favorite sports or to watch their favorite sporting team in action.
These consumers even don’t care about the price that they have to bear in order to enjoy the sport. Sporting industry also contributes to the success of other industries as the consumers of sporting industry pay premium prices for other products to enhance their sports experience .
Online marketing of sports has added more value to the attractiveness of the industry and people use this medium also to purchase a chance to see their favorite teams in action. Sometimes the love for sports reaches to a point where the consumers think of themselves, as an investor in their favorite team and put every effort to get a chance to watch their team playing and win a game .
In the recent decades, sporting and other brands, Nike, Adidas, Fila, Emirates Airlines, Pepsi, Coca Cola and others has targeted sporting teams and individual player games to promote and create awareness about their products. These sports teams and athletes have contributed a lot to increase products’ sales of their sponsors .
As the nature of this study is focusing on the impact of brand sponsorship on the behavior of consumers towards the purchasing of these sponsors, it is necessary to understand few theories and a scaling method before formulating the methodology for this study. These theories and scaling method will be used in analyzing the data collected from the questionnaire developed.
Likert Scale
Likert Scale based questionnaires provide the respondents a specific level of agreement or disagreement with the statements provided in the questionnaire. These statements provide an overview about the favorable or unfavorable attitude of respondents towards the research objective .
Theory of Buying Behavior
The theory of buyer’s behavior states that the consumer considers some factors before purchasing a good or service. These factors are quality, price, differentiation, availability, emotional appeal, product’s bond with consumers’ desires and social perceptions. These factors designs the attitude of the consumer towards intending to buy certain products or services .
Recall and Recognition
Associating a product with a popular event or activity provides an opportunity of window to the organizations to advertise their product, because it enables the consumer to recall and recognize a product on a time to time basis. It also provides a chance to organizations to create brand awareness among the consumers and open doors for launching new products in an existing or new market .
Research Methodology
Research is method applied to find a possible solution to a specific problem. These methods can be scientific, systematic or objective . Establishment of research methodology can be achieved through designing other aspects of the research in a systematic and organized manner. Research methodology holds core importance as it helps the researcher in analysis and formulating conclusion to the research .
Research Design
The focus of this study is on the evaluation of sponsoring sports for creating brand image and awareness and deriving consumers’ behavior to consume these brands. This study pushes hard on understanding the reason that compels brands to sponsor a sport or sports or an athlete and the reaction of sports’ audience or fans towards the associated brands.
Due to the nature of this study, the outcome will be descriptive and dependent upon the ability of the researcher to evaluate a particular segment of the market. Keeping in view these facts, it seems appropriate that a descriptive quantitative approach be used for collection of data and analyzing it.
Statistical tools and methods will be used for analysis of the data collected under a state of controlled conditions. The results will be derived from a small sample so the study will be based on inductive approach. During this study, both primary and secondary sources will be used.
Primary Research
A survey questionnaire will be designed to collect primary data from the respondents. This survey questionnaire will be especially designed and tested for collecting appropriate responses. There will be a combination of open ended and close ended questions included in the questionnaire so as the ensure consistency in the responses and fetching out detailed information .
The questionnaire will include questions about respondents’ background and a set of ten statements based on Liker Scale model. The opinions associated with values are assigned as: 1 – Strongly Disagree, 2 – Somewhat Disagree, 3 – Neither Agree or Disagree, 4 – Somewhat Agree, and 5 – Strongly Agree. The ten statements are aimed at determining the impact of partnerships between brands and sports.
Sampling
Sampling refers to the process of selecting a population, consisting of a certain amount of respondents. These respondents represent a target population . This study will use simple random sampling method to ensure the objectivity and avoiding biasness. Sports’ audience will be targeted and a sample of 40 respondents will be derived from the population.
Secondary Research
Different websites, published journals and articles, periodicals, books, previous researches, thesis, study reports and online data will be used to collect information for secondary research. The information retrieved from these secondary sources will be used to understand different theories and methodologies for formulating a suitable research strategy for this study.
Basis for Analysis
Since, the responses collected from the primary research are based on Likert Scale therefore; the findings are presented in a tabular form along with discussion of the mean values of responses collected. The mean values of responses indicate the trend in the majority of responses collected from the survey. Once, findings are presented then a discussion is formed on the basis of the secondary information already available in the form of previous studies to generate descriptive conclusions from this study.
Statistical Software
For summarizing the data collected through quantitative methods and carrying out analysis, statistical software, SPSS will be used. SPSS has built a dependable image in the eyes of researchers and considered to be one of the best software to analyze data.
Findings & Analysis
- Age. The survey was conducted to the target consumers aging 20 to 25. Reason is that most of the sports lovers are young people in this age group. Most of the respondents were of age 23 years and respondents of 23 years were the least in count.
- Gender. Majority of the respondents were gender which is supported by the fact that male loves sports more as compare to female.
- Frequency of Following Sports. Majority of the respondents were regular sports audience as this is evident from the responses collected that majority of the respondents somewhat agreed with the statement and the other majority strongly agreed that they are regular sports audience. This proves that watching sports, whether live or at home has became an important part of youngsters’ lives.
- Brand Association. Majority of the respondents somewhat agreed with the fact that brand association or sponsorship has became an important factor for individual and team sports. Brands seek greater opportunities by associating with a sport team or athlete. This is evident from the report written by David Bibby (2009), in which he associated brand image, brand equity with sponsoring sports .
- Marketing’s Impact on Consumer Attitude. Most of the respondents somewhat agreed with the fact the promotional activities of brands do influence their attitude towards purchasing these brands. This implies that the association of brands with sports does have a positive influence on consumers regarding their attitude towards purchasing of brands as stated by Belen del Rio, Rodolfo Vazquez and Victor Iglesias (2001), in their research paper on effects of brand association on consumer response .
- Impact of Brand’s Association with Sports. Around 64% of the respondents, either partially or strongly, agreed with the fact that their intention to purchase a product or service is influenced by the brands’ association with team or athlete. Theory of buying behavior justifies these results as the social association of brands in the form of sponsoring a sport team or athlete does have a positive impact on people’s intention to buy a product .
- Frequency of Following a Team or Athlete. Majority of the respondents were regular follower of a team or an individual athlete which shows that brands have a fair chance to succeed if they associate themselves with a sporting team or athlete and promote their products as discussed in David Johnston’s study on building loyalty amongst sport audience .
- Impact of Association of Brands with Favorite Team or Player. Around 79% of the respondents responded that they purchase a certain brand due to its affiliation with their favorite sport team or an individual player. Majority of the respondents strongly agreed. Only 12% denied the fact the affiliation with sport team or player derives their intention towards buying a product. This degree of agreeableness is supported by the theory of recall and recognition, as brands have an opportunity to promote themselves again and again to the audience of a sport team or athlete .
- Recognition Build Through Association with Sports. To support the results of this statement, theory of recall and recognition can again be discussed, as this is evident from the responses that 76% of the respondents accept that brands’ association with sports has helped them to recognize a brand and they spend a significant amount of money on the purchasing of these brands while shopping.
This claim is supported by Marc Gobe’s (2009) book, in which he wrote that organizations emotionally link their brands to consumers and make them buy these brands by associating them to anything with which the consumer is emotionally or socially attached . - Recalling Build Through Association with Sports. The findings here are the same as the findings of the previous statement. 67% of the respondents admit that brands’ association with sports helps them to recall them while shopping. Due to this association, they repeatedly take decision to purchase products of these associated brands. This statement can also be supported by Gobe’s book in which he linked brand recall to its association with a sporting event or a sports with which the target audience is attached .
- Satisfaction. Consumer behavior towards purchasing a brand, associated with sports, is also derived by the satisfaction level that these brands provide to the consumer. So, it is evident that beside being associated with consumers’ favorite sports teams, brands ability to satisfy consumers’ needs and wants also play a crucial role. This can be supported by the responses, in which 79% of the respondents agree with the fact in which majority somewhat agreed. A study conducted by Simon Cliffe and Judy Motion (2004), in which they presented a similar idea in general, that people’s satisfaction level also depends upon their association or sponsoring to any event .
- Impact of Sports Association on Buying Behavior. In the end, respondents were asked about the impact of brands’ association with sports on their buying behavior, and majority of the respondents, somewhat agreed that they buy a particular brand due to its partnership or sponsorship with their favorite sports, team or athlete.
The similar degree of agreeableness to positive impact of brands’ association with sports on buying behavior of consumers has been made by Matthew Walker (2007), in which he studied and concluded the consumer behavior by stating that that a brand leaves a positive impact on consumers’ mind by sponsoring sports and people increase their repeated purchasing of those brands .
Conclusion
Few important conclusions can be derived from the present study in relation to the impact of marketing via sports on consumer behavior. Theoretical framework of the present study suggests that the consumer behavior is affected by a set of factors and individuals’ perceptions of those factors which motivate them to buy a particular product or service.
Moreover, advertisement or marketing via brand affiliations with sports are also assessed with respect to the ability of consumers to recognize and recall brands which they encounter during their fellowship of sports. The results clearly suggest that majority of the respondents are of positive view that the marketing via sports by companies help them in forming an attitude towards a particular brand and they can actually associate those brands to the type of sports they follow.
Positive attitude leads to customer intentions to purchase particular brand or product or service they have observed during sports events. Such brand affiliations and marketing also affect their ability to recognize and recall a particular brand when they go shopping. Finally, sports marketing positively affects consumers’ buying behavior leading to purchase of particular brand associated with sports they follow.
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