Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

Birds of a Feather Consume Sports Together: The Role of Emotion, Family, and National Identity in Sports Fan
Communities
Geraldine Henderson, The University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A.
Nakeisha S. Ferguson, University of St. Thomas, U.S.A.
Brigitte Balogh, The University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A.
Research has shown that individual and communities of consumers can exhibit emotional and passionate ties to brands
(Fournier 1998; Muniz and O‘Guinn 2001). In this research we investigate these relationships in the realm with respect
to sports team and player brands (Gladden and Funk 2002; Holt 1995). As such, fans perceive that they have
relationships with either player (individual) brands, the team brand, or both. Our research questions are: How do people
develop and sustain relationships with sports teams and/or players? How is one‘s identity connected to a team or
player‘s identity or performance?
Method
To develop and illustrate our theory of the sports brand communities, we employed an exploratory research design, and
collected primary data in the form of depth interviews and drew heavily from extant literature. We conducted 51 depth
interviews of sports fans representing multiple countries-of-origin over a two-month period. The coauthors and 25
student collaborators (from two different private universities in two different geographic regions of the United States)
identified in multiple ways: some were personal contacts of the interviewers, others were spectators at sporting events,
and a few were identified through the Internet.
Informants were from a variety of race/ethnic groups, countries, and ages. Race/ethnic groups include Taiwanese,
Mexican, Argentinean, Peruvian Brazilian, African-American, Hispanic, and Chinese. Respondents‘ countries-oforigin
include Spain, Nigeria, Bolivia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Korea, Taiwan, China, Brazil, Argentina, Peru,
Japan, and the United States. Those of non-American nationality either did not reside in the U.S. at the time of their
interview or had only resided in the U.S. for a short period of time while attending college prior to their interview. The
informants ranged in age from 12-58. Interpretations of emergent themes were derived directly from interview
transcripts, interviewer notes, and the extant literature. The themes were independently developed by the co-authors,
and while the labels differed, the interpretations overlapped. This consistency in the themes provides confidence in the
―story‖ the data tell. The themes which emerged from our data were: Emotional Connection, Family Connection, and
National Identity. Below, we present you with select quotes from our data within each of these emergent themes to give
you an idea of the direction in which we plan to take our research. We will interweave the data with original texts from
extant literature to make for a rich, interpretive description of the phenomena.
Emotional Connection (Crisp, et al. 2007; Kerr, et al. 2005 ; Wann, et al. 1994).
. . . you have to be very careful, because you are going to wear a jersey and . . . the guys . . . from the other team . . . are
going to be like "you are from the other team so we are going to hit you" just because you're wearing the jersey.36 year
old, Brazilian Male
[When I know that my team has won] I try to call the other teams' guy . . . and say so our teams played today and have
you seen the score or anything? You know, try to make fun of the other guys . . . it is a moment thing, soccer for us.
Like we watch the game then we talk about it, then it is over. Then we are waiting for the next game. But this making
fun thing is pretty common in Brazil, it's pretty common, it's pretty fun. 36 year old, Brazilian Male
Family Connection (Dimmock and Grove 2006; Boyle and Magnusson 2007; Muniz and O‘Guinn 2001)
Well my father likes its and when you are young . . . You will watch what your father watches and you will sit down
with him and you will watch TV with him. 30 year old, Asian Peruvian Male
. . . [I] came out of the womb with a Bolivian national jersey . . . [my] father is a big fan…[it‘s] part of my heritage. 35
year old, Bolivian Male
National Identity (Kim and Chalip 2004; Trienekens 2002; Batra, et al. 2000).
. . . every two years when the Bolivian national team plays, I schedule my activities around the Latin American games
in hopes that they will win the Americas cup. 35 year old, Bolivian Male
. . . it's too hard to get a Bolivian jersey in the states, however, I drape the Bolivian flag over my shoulders for good
mojo.35 year old, Bolivian Male
So back to the blood thing. See the thing is, we invented the sport for starters and with all due respect to Pele and
Maradona, we have created some of the most amazing footballers the world has and will ever see (Bobby Moore,
Charlton, Beckham, Gazza, Keegan,... the list is long). 28 year old, White British Male.
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