Qualitative Modeling of the Impact of Doping Scandal on Sport Marketing in Iran

There are a number of factors affecting consumers' purchase behavior. It is believed that celebrities can affect selling positively by transferring their popular image to the endorsed product. But, it is heard lots about excommunicate behaviors in the sport world today. The main aim of the present paper was to explore the impact of doping scandal on sport marketing in Iran. Depth interviews data were analyzed in three phases: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. 297 open codes were achieved by 18 interviews. Grouping axial codes in each case and comparing, all gained codes can be divided in five groups: brand image (athlete and endorsed product brands images), moral reasoning (moral coupling, moral decoupling, and moral rationalization), consumer behavioral consequences (word of mouth, purchasing intention, and brand loyalty), attitude change (attitudes change toward athlete and brand), and moral emotions (moral evaluation, contempt, anger, disgust, and sympathy).