Fan loyalty


Fan loyalty is the loyalty felt and expressed by a fan towards the object of their fanaticism. Fan loyalty is often used in the context of sports and the support of a specific team or institution. Fan loyalties can range from a passive support to radical allegiance and expressions of loyalty can take shape in many forms and be displayed across varying platforms. Fan loyalty can be threatened by team actions. The loyalties of sports fans in particular have been studied by psychologists, who have determined several factors that help to create such loyalties.

Underpinning psychology

Given the extensive costs involved in managing and operating a professional team sport, it is beneficial for sports marketers to be conscious of the elements that establish a strong brand and the effect they have on fan loyalty, so they can best cater to their current fans while acquiring new ones. This is because fans and spectators are considered key stakeholders of professional sports organisations. 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. Therefore, fans are a key factor to consider in determining the economic success of a sports club.
Deep psychological connections with new teams can be built with individuals before a team has even played a match revealing insights can develop quickly in the mind of consumers without direct encounters or experiences e.g. watching a team compete. Brand management approaches are helping sport organisations to expand the sport experience, appeal to new fans and enable long term business to consumer relationships through multi faceted connection such as social media. 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.
Loyalty programmes positively shape fan attachment and behaviour as it connects teams and their fans, aside from a club's season ticketholder database. 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.
Bauer et al. concludes that non product related attributes such as contextual factors hold a higher place in fan experience than product related attributes such as the team's winning record. Therefore, to increase fan loyalty Bauer et al. suggests sports marketers focus on targeting non product related benefits and brand attributes. As a result of fostering this loyalty, sports organisations can afford to charge prices at premium. Fan loyalty also leads to dependable ratings in broadcast media which means broadcasters can also charge premiums for advertising time in team broadcasts with loyal followings. 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.
Fan loyalty, particularly with respect to team sports, is different from brand loyalty, in as much as if a consumer bought a product that was of lower quality than expected, he or she will usually abandon allegiance to the brand. However, fan loyalty continues even if the team that the fan supports continues to perform poorly year after year. Author Mark Conrad uses the Chicago Cubs as an example of a team with a loyal fan following, where fans spend their money in support of a poorly performing team that had not won a pennant since 1945 or a World Series since 1908.
They attribute it to the following factors:
;Entertainment Value:The entertainment value that a fan derives from spectating motivates him/her to remain a loyal fan. Entertainment value of team sports is also valuable to communities in general.
;Authenticity:This is described by Passikoff as "the acceptance of the game as real and meaningful".
;Fan Bonding:Fan bonding is where a fan bonds with the players, identifying with them as individuals, and bonds with the team.
;Team History and Tradition:Shank gives the Cincinnati Reds, all-professional baseball's oldest team, as an example of a team where a long team history and tradition is a motivator for fans in the Cincinnati area.
;Group Affiliation:Fans receive personal validation of their support for a team from being surrounded by a group of fans who also support the same team.
;Fair Weather Fans: Fans that engage when a team is good, and lose interest when a team is bad.
;Bandwagon Fans: Fans who support the winning team, instead of supporting the same team year after year.
;Diehard Fans: Fans who follow their team no matter if they are winning or losing.

Factors influencing fan loyalty

Community

Fan loyalty attachment is strengthened through communal ties that connect fans around a team, forming a community that results in regular fan interaction. This interaction is particularly important as fans may not develop solely an intra-psychic team identity but predominantly display behavioural loyalty through the group consumption of indirect sport experiences instead, such as wearing the team colours, singing, cheering, flags and interaction between the sport's team's fans Through indirect sport experiences, the stadium atmosphere can be heightened and as a result, the frequency of fan attendance can increase.
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. For example, a study on NASCAR fans found that their personal identity was connected to the brand itself as they felt connected to the larger community of NASCAR revealing an emotional connection to the brand. This indicates that their fan loyalty will result in the notion that fans are naturally more resistant to the promotional efforts of competing brands as their emotional commitment to NASCAR is greatly embedded in their sense of identity. When they associate themselves with the sponsors because of the sponsor's relation to the brand, they are solidifying their relationship with NASCAR and are therefore reinforcing their identity. Consequently, their fan loyalty translates into brand loyalty so long as the sponsor remains attached to the subject of their fanaticism, NASCAR, meaning they are less price sensitive and more willing to pay premium prices for sponsor's products or services. Another aspect of consumer behaviour regarding fan loyalty is the existence of consumption communities where members feel a sense of unity when they participate in the group consumption of brand sponsors’ goods and services further strengthening their ties to a brand and its sponsors. However, a strategy sports marketers use to appeal to a wider range of fan identities is to sponsor more than one club in sports such as soccer. 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.

Brand association

Any benefit or characteristic connected to a brand as perceived by a consumer is called a brand association. These hold significance over the thoughts and opinions a consumer holds about a brand and can therefore influence one's loyalty. These associations provide a reference point to gauge the salience of a brand which is the perceived favourability associated with it. Brand salience is vital because it ultimately effects the likelihood of brand selection and loyalty leading to steadier spectator numbers, and an increase in attention from the media such as advertisers and sponsors.
However, loyalty is a developmental process. According to Bee & Havitz, spectators who are highly involved in the participation of a sport and exhibit psychological commitment, possess the capability to display high levels of behavioural loyalty as they develop into committed fans. On the other hand, neutral or negative feelings towards a team are found to foster indifference or cause an individual to disidentify with a team altogether. A model of ‘escalating commitment’, put forward by Funk and James, demonstrates an individual's movement from ‘awareness’ of team to a subsequent ‘allegiance’ but came to the conclusion that more research was required to find out the key influences that lead one to the highest state of commitment. However, brand association development is fostered under brand management within a sports organisation. It is important for sports management research to identify their brand associations in order to influence management and marketing actions as they reflect the meaning and value extracted from the team as well as the integral characteristics of a team.
Five personality traits are used as a brand personality identification method for sports teams. These include competitiveness, morality, credibility, prestige and authenticity. 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. The degree to which a team resonates with self-assurance and confidence captures their credibility consisting of traits such as being influential and/or wealthy. The overall credit for a team's achievements and its superiority in relation to other teams relates to a team's prestige characterised by descriptions such as glorious, strong, honourable and great. Authenticity encapsulates the uniqueness of a team with descriptions corresponding to being uncompromising, radical or traditional. When teams are perceived as having human traits, the emotional connection between sports team and their sports fan is strengthened due to the ability to link their self-identity, with the team's identity, showing congruence with the brand's personality. Aspects that enable fan identification with a sports team are considered to be predictors of their consumption behaviour such as the continuation of support and participation in the team's activities even after long losing streaks.