Sports Business Journal
Volume:3 Issue: 4, Autumn 2023

The study aimed to develop the brand equity model of football clubs in the Iranian premier football league. We emphasized the partial role of identity distinction, attractiveness, and fan-team identification.

The research method was quantitative, correlational, and practical. The participants consisted of football fans in the Pro League of Iran, and a sample of 450 fans was selected through random sampling in virtual pages attributed to chosen clubs. The research tool was a combination of standard questionnaires. Their content validity was verified using marketing experts' comments, and the structural validity was verified using confirmatory factor analysis. According to Cronbach's alpha equal 0/82, the questionnaire's reliability was confirmed. Structural Equations Modeling (SEM) by AMOS software has been applied to use the validity of the results.

The results showed that identity distinction and attractiveness significantly and positively affected fan-team identification. Fan identification also had a substantial and positive impact on brand equity. The effect of identity distinction and identity attractiveness on fan-team identification and fan-team identification on brand equity demonstrated the importance of psychological and social elements in football club branding.

Originality: 

Trying to make the identity of Iranian football clubs attractive and different can provide the necessary ground for the unity of the fans with the clubs and facilitate the branding by improving brand equity. This research can be one of the few studies conducted in the field of sports brands in Iran by combining identity distinction, identity attractiveness, fan-team identification, and brand equity as a comprehensive model.

Color is commonly regarded as the primary symbol that elicits customers' attraction, interest, or aversion. This research examines brand characteristics concerning color: Brand Commitment and Brand Equity.

The statistical population consisted of all customers of sports shopping stores in Jahrom City. Due to the uncertainty of the number of the statistical population, 384 questionnaires were distributed by convenience sampling, 300 of which were analyzable. The Color questionnaires based on Haji Hassani et al. (2018), the Brand Equity questionnaire (Aaker & Keller, 1990), and the Brand Commitment questionnaire (Momen, 2014) were used for data collection. The face and content validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by sports management professors who were experts in sports marketing, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient confirmed the reliability of the questionnaires. Cronbach's alphas of questionnaires achieved 0.89 for color, 0.92 for brand equity, and 0.87 for brand commitment. PLS software was used for fitting and testing the hypotheses using structural patterns.

The results showed that color directly and significantly affects brand equity and commitment (Path coefficient = 0.50, t-value = 7.96). The mediating role of brand equity value on the role of color in brand commitment in sporting goods buyers is also confirmed (Path coefficient = 0.84, t-value = 6.50). The model fit analysis also showed that the proposed model has a goodness of fit (GOF = 0.57). According to the research findings, manufacturers and sports executives must always consider the importance of color, which is far more than its aesthetic aspect, in choosing a practical and comprehensive brand strategy.

Color in sports is presented as a unique symbol that often affects the biases of sports fans and excites them. According to this issue, the effect of color on the brand of sports goods was investigated in this research, which has been given less attention in the reviewed literature.

This research has been conducted to develop a social network marketing model for Sepahan Sports Club based on customer behavior and brand promotion.

The research was descriptive and conducted by a survey. The statistical population of this research includes the users and active members of the Sepahan sports club on social networks. Three hundred eighty-four people were selected by random sampling. Data collection was done using standard questionnaires, and data analysis was done using structural equation modeling using Smart PLS and SPSS software.

We showed that the antecedents of social network marketing include social business drivers, brand experience, and perceived values ​​from branded web advertisements, which have a positive and significant effect on customer business relationships and brand health through customer brand engagement and brand attitude. Also, we showed that the customer's brand engagement and attitude lead to brand promotion. Making the right decision for clubs regarding social networks is very important.

Originality: 

We showed that social networks cause the message to reach a group of contacts and improve the attitude of customers towards the club and its services, raise the level of awareness of the customers about the club and improve the mental image of, increase customer loyalty and finally the value of the customer.

Today, an essential part of sports' duties towards society is the responsibility of the clubs of various sports disciplines. Sports clubs play an indispensable role in developing the health of people in the community and healthily spending their free time. This study investigates the relationship between predictors of experience quality and athlete loyalty. It also evaluates the mediating effect of the quality of athlete experience on the relationship between predictor variables and athlete loyalty.

The research method was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of the research was the athletes of Iran's private clubs, using non-probability sampling and convenience sampling. Data was collected online from 391 athletes in combat sports, bodybuilding, and fitness through Google Forms. 6 hypotheses were proposed and tested using structural equation modeling.

A significant relationship existed between predictor variables and the athlete experience quality (P<0.05). Also, the experience quality mediates the relationship between predictor variables and athletes' loyalty positively and significantly (P<0.05). The results can help to develop and improve marketing strategies to increase the athletes' experience quality in service centers and sports clubs and create customer experience and management processes. It also has implications for managers of service centers and sports clubs or marketing managers who aim to increase customer loyalty and club effectiveness.

Originality: 

This study empirically justifies the relationship between predictor variables for the quality of experience and loyalty of athletes in private clubs. This study also provides insight into the relationships between predictor variables, experience quality, and athlete loyalty in an integrated model.

Today, due to the potential of networks and social media, marketing has experienced significant growth in them. However, the mechanism by which a sports equipment manufacturing company can engage in this field is uncertain. Therefore, this study aimed to present an electronic marketing model based on social networks in sports equipment manufacturing companies.

This research was conducted qualitatively using a structural-functional analysis approach at the strategic level. The participants consisted of experts in sports marketing, media, and sports equipment production, and a snowball sampling method based on theoretical saturation was used to select 18 of them. The data collection tool was a semi-structured interview, and its validity, transferability, reliability, and conformability were examined. The data was analyzed using the coding method.

We showed the company's marketing model production of sports equipment in the network social functions subject to five main aspects (opportunity, targeting, setting up, monitoring and optimization, and threats), and there are 19 major categories. This result showed electronic marketing based on social networks in the company production of sports equipment is a systemic process. Based on this, it is suggested that the company producing sports equipment is made for optimal use of the opportunity. The existing part of their marketing actions is the fluency of the media in social activities while keeping pace with statistics and content steps that are based on the opinion of experts, monitoring the threats in this area, and as much as possible based on the reasons for the political conditions of the country from the all-round presence on the platform foreigners should be avoided and if possible, in the network internal social activities to operated.

Originality: 

This study helps to understand how companies producing sports equipment can effectively use social networks for marketing purposes.

Online customers' purchase experience has become significant because of the emergence of the Internet as the primary network for the supply of products and services. The study aimed to introduce critical and influential factors in the progress of online sales of sports products through qualitative and quantitative processes.

The participants in the qualitative section include 17 managers of sports production companies and sport management experts and sport product consumers. The questionnaire was made through open questionnaires and interviews and weighting of Delphi. And 564 online customers participated in the quantitative section and were analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis.

The findings showed that the components of online retail development include digital strategy, predicting the subsequent purchase of customers, creating value through the marketing mix, providing a dynamic information matrix of goods and equipment, tracking customer-level data, Financial, and information security, website content quality, product and service information evaluation, service tools, and customer value dynamics. As a result, for the development of online retail sales, it is necessary to plan separately for these variables to provide the grounds for the formation of development. Respecting the law of the "chain of businesses" creates an environment rich in interaction and economic synergy, benefiting all aspects of a healthy and dynamic economic puzzle. The dimensions of the development of online retail sales includes digital strategy, predicting the subsequent purchase of customers, creating values through marketing mixes, and evaluating product and service information, service tools, and customer value dynamics.

Originality: 

The study's creativity is to use quantitative and qualitative methods to show the online retail development dimensions of sports goods and equipment.