[1] Fans directly and indirectly influence the production of operating revenue through purchasing merchandise, buying game tickets and improving the value that can be obtained from television broadcasting deals and sponsorship.
To affect consumers’ loyalty with a team, they must develop a compelling, positive and distinctive brand in order to stand out amongst competitor and vie for fan support.
It not only provides marketers with essential information about consumers and their thinking, but also acts as a channel to promote attendance and an opportunity to add value to their game day experience.
[4] Bauer et al. concludes that non product related attributes such as contextual factors (other fans, the club history and tradition, logo, club colours and the stadium atmosphere) hold a higher place in fan experience than product related attributes such as the team's winning record.
Therefore, to increase fan loyalty (customer retention) Bauer et al. suggests sports marketers focus on targeting non product related benefits and brand attributes.
A flow on effect from fan loyalty is the ability to create additional revenue streams outside of the core product such as merchandise shops and food venues that are close to the location of the game if the team chooses to own and operate ventures or share licensing agreements.
[10][11] Furthermore, by wearing team apparel, fans can visually identify with one another resulting an increased likelihood of opportunities to engage with others socially through this point of connection.
This is so they are careful not to come across as a singularly affiliated club brand, where the opinion or perceptions of opposing teams’ fans would be one of disfavour towards them.
The team's aptitude to defeat competitors and attain goals is a measure of its competitiveness relating to descriptions such as triumphant, winning, dynamic, proud, successful and ambitious.
Morality indicates fans’ thoughts and opinions about a team's code of conduct relating to their quality of character like being principled, ethical and cultivated.
Nevertheless, providing exclusive access to players, other team members and executives as well as coaches can be a successful means to offer value to a highly committed fan.
[7] Aspects relating to a club's brand image that motivate fan loyalty include peer group acceptance (e.g. through consumption communities), escapeism, identification, nostalgia, emotion, socialisation/companionship and entertainment.
By strengthening these features of psychological commitment towards a team, it provides a stable foundation for brands to ultimately increase their fans’ behavioural loyalty.
Today, social networking sites make it possible for companies to interact with their customers and for consumers to become “co-creators and multipliers of brand messages” [22] providing a greater opportunity for campaigns to go viral and establish prospects for word of mouth marketing through reviews and endorsements.
[22] Emotional connection is central to fan loyalty and therefore is important for brands to promote it on their social media by reinforcing user trust in their site page.
Other consumers can then use the ‘reaction’ button and comment thread on Facebook to communicate their response allowing for brand managers to gauge their fans’ feeling and opinions, strengthening the brand-customer relationship.
Fan loyalty towards professional-level sports is beginning to erode in the U.S. as a consequence of continual threats to uproot franchises and to move them to other cities.
School and college teams do not threaten to move away from the fans in order to obtain a better deal on their sports stadiums.
The Nashville Predators employ customer relationship management techniques to collect information about the demographics and psychographics of their fans.