Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

(www.gallup.com) in mid 2009, it was observed that more than 56% of the respondents were watching the sportsbecause they were the fans of a particular playing team. It is therefore important for team management to identifycritical factors that have an impact on the success of the teams.One such factor has been identified as „brand-equity‟ of the teams which helps a sport team to differentiate it fromthe competitors and can help in developing competitive advantage. Bauer, Sauer and Schmitt (2005) empiricallydetermine the positive relationship between brand-equity, purchase intentions and loyalty of the fans which directlyacts as antecedents to the economic success of the sport team(s). Gladden, Milne and Sutton (1998) advised thebrand managers to incorporate the concept of brand equity in their teams in order to enhance the image of the teamand hence their revenues. Gladden, Irwin and Sutton (2001) put more focus on strengthening the team as a brand.According to them today team managers give greater emphasis on branding as a strategic activity to achieve thelong-term profits rather than the focusing on winning that helps only in achieving the short-term profits. Thus,measuring the brand-equity of sports teams is as important as building it.Till date the research in the area of brand equity in sports (Gladden, Milne and Sutton, 1998; Gladden and Funk,2002; Bauer, Stokburger-Sauer and Exler, 2008; Villarejo-Ramos and Martin-Velicia, 2007; Ross, Russell and Bang,2008) focuses on full-season ticket holders or the spectators but does not include those viewers who watch sports onTV or on pay-per-view channels. Such viewers are in large numbers in Asian and European countries and areinvolved in majority of the sports related consumption. As per International Cricket Council (ICC), more than 310million viewers view different sports on ESPN Star Sports 24 hours a day in Asia. As per a rating agency aMap, thefinal of the ICC World Cup 2011 between India and Sri Lanka, considering the viewership of a single channel only,was viewed by 67.6 million viewers in India only. Important thing is that this figure did not include the viewershipof national channel Doordarshan which has a reach to approximately 90% of the countrys‟ 1.21 billion population.These numbers are huge and motivating for the marketers who are associated with the sports. Thus, measuring thebrand-equity of sports team(s) should include above mentioned target customers. This paper, thus, aims at validatingthe spectator-based brand equity model of Ross, Russell and Bang (2008) among television viewers in the context ofa sports team playing in the Indian Premier League.Literature ReviewBrand EquityThe concept of brand equity is supposed to be born during 1980s‟ when it was widely used by advertisingpractitioners and academicians. Aaker (1991) further popularized this concept through his best-selling book-―Managing Brand-Equity‖. A close association with brand loyalty and brand extension and viewing brands as one ofthe most valuable assets of the companies has led brand equity to generate much interest among the researchers,business houses and wide variety of industries. Brand equity has been defined by different definitions and indifferent forms. Keller (1993) defined it as: ―The differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to themarketing of the brand‖. Farquhar, et al. (1991) defined it as added value endowed by the brand name. Thedifference between overall brand preference and multi-attributed preference based on objectively measured attributelevels defines brand equity (Park and Srinivasan, 1994). Yoo and Donthu (2001) defined it as the difference inconsumer choice between the focal branded product and an unbranded product given the same level of productfeatures.Various financial techniques were used to measure the brand-equity, in the beginning years of its growth, to arrive ata financial value called as financial-based brand equity but with the passage of time most of the researchers felt thatbrand-equity should be centered on the customers and should be measured from the customers‟ perspectives. Yooand Donthu (2001) argued that a positive marketing outcome created by the branded product is responsible for thedifference between a branded and a generic product in the customers‟ mind. In marketing literature, this differenceor the utility can be viewed both from customer and firm-based perspectives. The former focuses on ―consumermind-set‖ and the later as the financial-outcomes. Keller classified these two perspectives as the motivations forstudying the brand-equity concept.One motivation is financially-based which is basically used for the estimation of the value of the brand foraccounting purpose. Financial based brand-equity is defined as the financial asset value it creates to the businessfranchise. The second reason as per Keller (1993) arises from a strategy based motivation. Intense competition,higher prices, flattening demand has led marketers to have a good understanding of the behavior of their consumers.