Even though the widespread practice of athletes utilizing a visual symbol to represent and communicate their brand (i.e., a personal logo) is still in its infancy, a number of athletes who have previously established a personal logo have undergone a visual rebrand. The practice of rebranding is not seen as an enviable branding tactic in other realms (e.g., professional teams and business), given that its utilization is typically tied to a miscommunication of the brand or lacking consumer connection. Furthermore, the consequences of athlete branding may even be amplified in comparison to that of team or organizational brands, given the significantly shorter brand life cycle that athletes have to communicate their associations and logo. However, athletes are still using this brand management strategy, indicating a need to further examine rebranding in this context. This commentary discusses current examples of athlete rebrands, what these rebrands communicate, the influence that endorsers have in this phenomenon, and how future scholars can utilize communication theories to better understand this branding strategy.

PurposeNational Olympic Committees (NOCs) in small states operate in a unique market (e.g. small population, confined market and limited private sector) that brings challenges in securing sponsors and funding athletes. Whereas more than a quarter of International Olympic Committee (IOC)-recognized NOCs represent small states, not much is known about the sponsorship landscape in the market. This study explores the importance and challenges of NOC sponsorship in small states, with a focus on the Caribbean region.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were conducted with representatives from NOCs in Caribbean small states. Textual analyses were conducted with Leximancer to identify key themes on the importance and challenges of NOC sponsorship.FindingsAthletes, funding and community were identified as key themes for the importance of NOC sponsorship. Olympic Movement, time, priority, resources and overcome were themes for sponsorship challenges. Compared to existing sponsorship knowledge driven from developed economies, known determinants for the sponsor's decision-making (e.g. interest in sport, competitor) were found to affect NOC sponsorship in Caribbean small states, but in distinctive ways. Particularly, the lacking appreciation of Olympic values and sport within society, resource constraints (e.g. volunteer-based and operating “within reality”) and competition against member federations and government were highlighted as unique situations/challenges faced in the market.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to explore NOC sponsorship in the important, yet overlooked, market of Caribbean small states. Theoretical insights on how existing sponsorship knowledge applies to and practical implications for securing NOC sponsorship in the marginalized market are provided.

Despite sport rebranding becoming an emerging topic for both academia and industry, there has been a limited number of investigations on how sport rebranding influences sport fans. The aim of this study is to investigate how sport rebranding in the form of logo redesign influences fan loyalty. Through an experimental approach, the results indicate that attitude toward rebranding plays a significant role in fan response when sport rebranding occurs. Additional findings suggest that logo evaluation partially mediates the relationship between logo change and brand loyalty. This study makes significant contributions to the body of knowledge on sport rebranding by revealing how fans’ attitudes toward rebranding affects brand loyalty. The proposed model suggests directions for future sport rebranding research, and the paper provides implications for how sport marketers can use various rebranding strategies to improve rebranding outcomes and diminish negative responses from sport fans.

As brand associations are a key component of team brand equity, and ultimately influence consumer behaviour, it is important to have accurate measures of these associations. Previous research has developed scales to measure team brand associations, yet it has been suggested that pre-existing scales may not capture salient features of brands and any unique brand associations not captured by scaled measures. In addition, scales will not uncover the brand association networks and how team brand associations are interconnected. However, with advances in technology there is potential to develop methods which accomplish these goals. This study utilises a freethought listing technique to capture team brand associations which were then analysed by the Leximancer textual analysis software. The results suggest that this method provides an avenue to more accurately uncover the most salient team brand associations and to visualise team brand association networks.

Purpose The achievement of a requisite return on investment (ROI) from a brand’s investment in sponsorships of sport events is becoming increasingly important. Consequently, evolving trends in the consumption of the live television broadcasts of such events (e.g. increased usage of second screens by consumers) are an important consideration. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of second screen use during sport broadcast consumption on important marketing outcomes (i.e. brand awareness and the perceived value and intrusiveness of sponsor brand integration), and whether effectiveness is dependent on the consumer’s level of identification with the sport being broadcast. Design/methodology/approach A 2×2 (experimental/control and high SportID/low SportID) between-subjects experimental design featuring the broadcast of a sport event as the stimuli was utilized to examine a potential interaction effect between sport identification and second screen use on three dependent variables important for sport sponsors. Findings Results confirmed that those with a high level of sport identification realized significantly higher levels of brand awareness for sponsors integrated into the broadcast. However, when consumers were asked to engage in second screen use, the experiment revealed a moderating effect of sport identification on the impact of second screen use, for both brand awareness and the perceived value of the brand integration. Originality/value Consumers with higher levels of sport identification are an important target of sport sponsorship activities by brand marketers. Given this, the implication that second screen use can reduce the effectiveness of important sponsorship-related outcomes such as brand awareness is a sobering result for marketers expecting a positive ROI from sponsorships of sport events.

In an era of dynamically priced tickets, sport marketers benefit from a greater understanding of factors impacting the price consumers are willing to pay. Past research has investigated external factors affecting ticket price on the secondary market, but little work has investigated internal factors and no prior research has utilized actual price paid as a dependent variable. The current study found age, income, prior attendance, timing of purchase, and seat location influenced secondary ticket price paid, explaining 44.9% of the variance, while fan identification and alumni status did not impact the amount patrons paid for tickets to a major college men’s basketball tournament. Subscribe to JASM

While rebranding is very common in professional sport, little research has been devoted to this topic. In particular, no studies have examined the reasons why teams decide to make changes to their names, logos, and/or colors, and the process they go through while doing so. Through content analysis of public statements from teams and interviews with team executives, this study found five common reasons for rebranding, as well as recommendations from team executives for how to handle this process. Based on the results, practical implications are provided for teams who may be deciding to engage in some aspect of rebranding.

Rapid advances in technology have influenced the ways in which consumers experience live events, both in person and via television. One of the most prevalent of recent trends has been an increase in the use of “second screens,” or the simultaneous consumption of an event and use of an electronic device, such as a smartphone or tablet (Galily 2014). A recent study of US consumers found that 86 % said they participated in multitasking during television consumption, up from 72 % in 2011 (Deloitte 2014). Research has suggested that this trend is particularly pervasive among sport fans (Gantz and Lewis 2014). There are a number of entertainment options available to sports fans via such devices, including accessing statistical information about the event, viewing other camera angles, and participating with other fans on social media.

Published 4 decades ago, "Basking in Reflected Glory: Three (Football) Field Studies" (Cialdini et al., 1976) is the most influential study of sport consumer behavior. This article features re-creations of Studies 1 and 2, exactly 40 years after the original publication. The results of Study 1 were reproduced, with participants more than twice as likely to wear school-affiliated apparel after wins and 55% less likely after losses. The study also extends the BIRGing literature in its investigation of the influence of gender and the effect's salience over time. Study 2's results were not reproduced. However, study participants were significantly more likely to use first-person plural pronouns, providing further empirical evidence of BIRGing behaviors. This article makes a novel contribution to the sport consumer behavior literature by advancing the study of one of the field's most foundational theories and serving as an impetus for future investigations of BIRGing motivations.

While athletes have been building and leveraging their brands for many years by introducing brand extensions, research on sport brand extensions has primarily focused on factors that influence the success of team-related extensions. However, as there is potential risk involved when introducing brand extensions, it is important for athletes to understand how consumers respond to extensions they may introduce. Through the use of self-administered web-based surveys this study provides the initial examination of this topic by exposing participants (n = 292) to hypothetical brand extensions and investigating factors that may influence perceived fit and attitudes toward athlete brand extensions. Partial least squares path modeling suggests that athlete prestige had the most significant effect on fit and attitudes for a brand extension that is considered to be a fit with an athlete’s image, while athlete attachment had the most influence on fit and attitudes for a brand extension with low perceived fit.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how simultaneous use of devices such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones impacts the sponsors that receive brand integration during the broadcasts. Advances in technology now allow fans to consume broadcasts of televised events almost anywhere via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. These devices are also frequently utilized as “second screens” to communicate with fellow consumers on social media, access additional content or otherwise multitask during televised consumption. Design/methodology/approach – An initial study served to test the applicability of the theoretical framework of a dual coding theory in this new context, followed by a 3 × 2 between-subjects design utilized to advance understanding of the influence of second screens on brand awareness of the sponsors of televised events. Findings – Results demonstrated that both brand recognition and recall were reduced by second screen activity across nearly all audio or visual consumption experiences. Further, while second screen use in an audiovisual setting did not interfere with consumers’ ability to recognize brands, indicating they were able to multitask and were not distracted, it inhibited their ability to recall brands from memory. This result provides evidence that second screen use may interfere with elaborative rehearsal and reduce cognitive capacity. Practical implications – Given that marketers are investing more resources than ever to achieve brand integration during televised events, these findings suggest that brands face challenges in achieving a requisite return on their investments. Originality/value – This study represents the first empirical investigation of the impact of consumers’ use of second screens in the academic literature, and has important implications for the sponsors of televised events.

While the examination of brand extensions in sport has started to garner more attention, research on the use of professional sport teams as brand extensions of non-sport related corporate parent brands is limited. In particular, what has yet to be examined is the perceived impact ownership of these teams has on the parent brand. The authors sought to examine this effect by interviewing team executives of professional baseball teams in South Korea that are owned by corporate parent brands (e.g., the Samsung Lions, Kia Tigers). The results suggest that the teams are generally given power by the parent brand to operate autonomously, and there was some consensus that team performance does have an effect on parent brand image and sales of the parent brand's products and/or services. These findings shed light on the nature of using teams as brand extensions and provide a number of theoretical and practical implications.

Purpose – Advances in technology allow fans to consume live broadcasts of sports events almost anywhere via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. These devices are also frequently utilized as “second screens” to communicate with fellow fans on social media, access additional content, or otherwise multitask during televised game consumption. The purpose of this study is to investigate how simultaneous use of these devices impacts sponsors that receive brand integration during the broadcasts.Design/methodology/approach – A 3x2 between-subjects design based on the theoretical framework of dual coding theory was utilized to advance understanding of the influence of second screens on brand awareness and attitudes toward the sponsors of televised events. Findings – Results demonstrated that brand recognition and recall was reduced by second screen activity across nearly all audio or visual consumption experiences. Further, while second screen use in an audiovisual setting did not interfere with consumers’ ability to recognize brands, it inhibited their ability to recall brands from memory, providing empirical evidence that second screen use may interfere with elaborative rehearsal and reduce cognitive capacity.Practical implications – Given that marketers are investing more resources than ever to achieve brand integration during televised sports events, these findings suggest that brands face challenges in achieving a requisite return (in the form of brand awareness) on their investments. Originality/value – This study represents the first empirical investigation of the impact of consumers’ use of “second screens” in the academic literature, and has important implications for advertisers during live sports broadcasts.

Understanding team brand associations is important as they can contribute to the team's awareness, image, ability to generate revenue, and a fan's overall loyalty. While previous conceptualizations of team brand associations have added considerably to the study of brand associations in sport, they do not take into account the associations that may exist for varying target segments. One market segment that has grown in consumer sophistication and thus is important for teams to understand is that of youth consumers. It has also been suggested that we should not be assume that research on adult buying behavior and branding is applicable to this market segment. Therefore, this study utilized a free-thought listing technique with children ranging from 4 to 14 years of age in order to examine the specific team brand associations held by youth fans. The results suggest that brand associations that children hold for sport teams are not as well-developed as those of their adult counterparts and children tend to focus on product related attributes as the most common associations mentioned were the team's star players, brand marks, the way the team plays, or simply that they mention the sport itself.

As technology advances, new forms of in-game advertising (IGA) executions continue to be developed. Whatwas once simply a static advertisement has expanded to include verbal mentions of the brands placed within the games. While research has examined brand awareness of IGA, what has yet to be determined is the effectiveness of IGA which features these verbal cues. Therefore, this study examined the brand awareness levels of IGA which featured a visual brand placement (e.g., company logo placed within the game) versus those that have the visual placement accompanied by a verbal mention of the brand name. The results indicate that brand awareness levels were significantly higher for advertisements that contained both the visual and the verbal cues.

As social media provide athletic departments and their constituents with an additional point of engagement with their fans, it is important to understand the social media audience. However, despite the growth of social media use among collegiate athletic departments, coaches, and teams, relatively little is known about the individuals who are utilizing various social media forums. This study was the first to attempt to understand why college sport fans engage in sport-focused social media use, with a theoretical grounding in uses and gratifications. Utilizing a survey of student fans from a large Division 1 institution, the results suggest that there is a relatively low level of social media participation among college sport fans in relation to official Twitter and Facebook feeds of the team, and a surprising prevalence of traditional media usage for informational purposes. Factor analysis reveals dimensions of gratification for social media use include content creation as an identifiable factor. These and other findings are discussed.

Due to the growth of the video game industry, the practice of in-game advertising, and the desirable game player demographics, then U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama placed early voting advertisements in a series of online sport video games during his 2008 presidential campaign. The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of these political ads and the attitudes towards the ads when compared to advertisements featuring corporate brands. The results suggest there were higher levels of awareness for the political themed advertisements while attitude enhancement was more likely to occur for advertisements which featured corporate brands.

Purpose – While brand extensions and licensing are two distinct brand strategies, recent literature suggests that licensing be treated as an “external” brand extension. As both of these strategies have the ability to have positive and negative effects on the team's brand it is important to understand if consumers are aware if they are purchasing licensed products or extensions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine if consumers are aware when a brand extension or licensing situation is present. Design/methodology/approach – This research involved exposing participants to a total of 16 products (eight brand extensions and eight licensed products) and asking participants to indicate who developed the products they were exposed to. Findings – The results suggest that participants had a difficult time correctly identifying team licensed products, while in general they were able to successfully identify team brand extensions. Research limitations/implications – This study provides empirical evidence suggesting that licensed product should not be classified as brand extensions as has been previously suggested. As such, research on brand extensions may not be applicable to licensing and vice versa. Practical implications – As there is some confusion in regards to who is manufacturing team licensed product, it is important that sport properties choose licensees that produce high quality products to limit potential negative effects on their brand. Originality/value – This was the first known study to examine differences in consumer awareness of team brand extensions and licensed products.