Extending the understanding of professional team brand equity to the global marketplace

TLDR

Communications technology has enabled fans worldwide to access teams and players, creating satellite fans and prompting managers to cultivate this fandom. The study extends prior team‑sport brand equity models to explain how brand equity develops across domestic boundaries. The authors expand existing models to incorporate satellite fans and the consumption of the sport product in foreign markets. This framework can help sport managers better capitalize on branding opportunities across geographic boundaries.

Abstract

Due to the rise of communications technology in recent years, fans have unprecedented access to their favourite teams and players regardless of geographic location. Such developments have led to the emergence and increased importance of 'satellite fans'. Given the inconsistent nature of the sport product, managers should actively seek to cultivate and develop such a fandom. The purpose of this paper is to extend prior conceptualisations of brand equity in team sport (Gladden and Milne, 1999; Gladden et al. 1998), to explain the development of brand equity across domestic boundaries. Earlier models can thus be expanded to account for satellite fans and the consumption of the sport product in foreign markets. Such a framework may assist sport managers to better understand how to capitalise on branding opportunities across geographic boundaries.