Sports Marketing & Sponsorship - FIFA/CIES International University ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Drivers to divasAttractiveness and expertise: the newwinning combination?Till and Busler (1998) examined how physicalattractiveness of a male athlete affected attitudestowards an endorsed brand. When a profile created fora fictitious male athlete endorser was matched with anattractive image, undergraduate business students at anumber of universities had more positive brandattitudes and stronger purchase intentions than whenthis profile was matched with an unattractive image.However, Till and Busler (1998) also found that theperception of expertise regarding a male athlete wasmore important than good looks alone. If a competentmale athlete was endorsing a product related in someway to athletic performance, consumers envisioned anenhanced endorsement fit.Research has found that attractive and traditionallyfeminine women athletes gain more media coverageand endorsement opportunities than those who areseen as less attractive and less feminine, regardless oftheir level of skill (Spencer & McClung, 2001).However, for women athletes, attractiveness alone hasnot been found to be especially influential inproducing endorser-endorsement fit.Fink et al (2004) examined how characteristics of aspokesperson influence attitudes towards an athleticevent and intentions to purchase a ticket to that event.These researchers tested the hypothesis that athleteattractiveness would be positively related to perceivedfit as an endorser of an athletic event. They sought todetermine if athlete attractiveness or expertise wasmore important in determining fit. In creating afictional softball player, the researchers controlled forattractiveness and expertise to investigate how likelyrespondents were to attend an NCAA softball event.Similar to the findings of Till and Busler (1998), theydetermined that highlighting expertise was moreconvincing in influencing purchase intent thanfocusing on attractiveness.Garu et al (2007) addressed the frequency thatfemale athletes appeared as product endorsers inmagazine ads, and whether the portrayals emphasisedathletic ability (i.e. expertise) or beauty and sex appeal(i.e. attractiveness). In content analyses of six types ofmagazines, Garu et al (2007) assigned advertisementsinto categories of suggestive, partially nude or demure.The researchers analysed advertisements in magazineswhich included sports publications, generalmagazines, men’s magazines, women’s magazines,women’s fitness magazines and women’s teenmagazines. Out of 169 advertisements that featuredathletes, 91.7% of these ads contained male athleteswhile only 21 ads (12.4%) contained female athletes.Out of the 21 ads featuring female athletes, 15 wereclassified as suggestive and 2 were classified aspartially nude. Overall, 81% of the advertisementswith women athletes focused on their attractiveness.Only four (19%) were classified as demure.Incidentally, male athletes were demure in 61% of theadvertisements in which they were portrayed. Clearly,male athletes had more opportunity to serve asproduct endorsers, and their portrayals inadvertisements were based on athletic competency farmore often that were the portrayals of women athletes.MethodFor the present study, the construct of sourcecredibility is applied to the findings of Cuneen et al(2007) to better understand the focus of advertisers intheir portrayal of female racing car drivers. Specifically,two factors of source credibility – expertise andattractiveness – were assessed. The third componentof Ohanian’s (1990) Source Credibility Scale,trustworthiness, was not examined in this particularstudy because the chosen methodology of contentanalysis is not a means to measure consumerconfidence in the source.Content analysis is a qualitative research design thatis used to describe observations and search for coremeanings (patterns and themes) that emerge from adocument (Patton, 2002). Content analysis has beenused in several studies on sports-related advertising(Cuneen, 2001; Cuneen & Claussen, 1999; Cuneen &RESEARCH PAPER● APRIL 2009 ● International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship207
Drivers to divasRESEARCH PAPERSidwell, 1998; Cuneen & Spencer, 2003) and wasthe method chosen by Cuneen et al (2007) to assessadvertisements that depicted female drivers in theofficial Indianapolis (Indy) 500 programme. Theresearchers examined souvenir programmes from1977 to 2006 and found that female drivers appearedin only six issues of the official programme over that29-year period. There were three advertisements withJanet Guthrie, three with Lyn St. James, two withSarah Fisher and 10 with Danica Patrick. The units ofanalysis included pose, connotation, role portrayal andcamera angle.For this study, the same advertisements examined inCuneen et al (2007) were assessed for sourcecredibility in terms of expertise and attractiveness.Expertise was determined by a combination of factors:an active pose, a strong connotation or undertone ofthe ad photo (suggesting competence), a role portrayalwith an athletic component, and whether the productbeing endorsed was racing-related. Attractivenessbased on traditional femininity was also determined byseveral factors including a passive pose, a weakconnotation and a role portrayal consisting of a nonsportstraditional gender role and/or sexualsuggestiveness.Resulting application of source credibilityThe three advertisements in the official Indy programmethat featured Janet Guthrie, two in 1979 and one in1980, all indicated expertise by containing an athleticcomponent in the role portrayal and promoting racingrelatedproducts (Indy Hall of Fame and Texaco Oil).One of the advertisements also included an active poseand strong connotation suggesting a strong emphasis onexpertise. The other two Guthrie advertisements werepassive poses and neutral connotations which suggestsome interest in attractiveness, but overall, the Guthrieadvertisements were more focused on expertise as thesource of credibility.Lyn St. James, who was an endorser in two Indyprogramme advertisements in 1993 and one in 1996,was portrayed as athletic in all three advertisements.Two of the advertisements had non-sports companiessponsoring racing-related products (Bank One Rookieof-the-YearAward and the JC Penney & Nike RacingTeam) while the other advertisement was for LifetimeTV. Two of the advertisements included active posesand strong connotations of competence. Theadvertisers who featured St. James were primarilyfocused on gaining credibility via expertise.In 2003 Sarah Fisher was a spokesperson in twoadvertisements in the official Indy programme, one forTag Heuer Watches and the other for RaybestosBrakes. Both advertisements depicted Fisher in apassive pose with a neutral connotation wearing herracing gear, but in one of the advertisements, therewas some sexual suggestiveness through an alluringfacial expression and body position. Thus there wasless emphasis on expertise and more on attractivenessin comparison to advertisements featuring earlierracers, Guthrie and St. James.The 10 advertisements featuring Danica Patrick inthe 2006 Indy programme included a mix ofadvertisers, half of them endorsing racing-relatedproducts. She was in an active pose in only oneadvertisement, but displayed a strong connotation ofcompetence in four of the advertisements and aneutral connotation in all of the others. She waswearing her racing gear in eight of the advertisements.She was wearing a formal length dress and stilettoheels in an advertisement for Secret deodorant andjeans and a tank top in a promotion for Peakantifreeze. An advertisement for Tissot Watchesincluded three head-and-shoulder shots of Patrick, onein her racing suit and the other two in a tank top.Sexual suggestiveness was evident in four of theadvertisements featuring Patrick. Some advertisersemphasised Patrick’s expertise while others zeroed inon her attractiveness or highlighted both expertise andattractiveness as sources of credibility.208 International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship ● APRIL 2009 ●
Page 4 and 5: ContentsAbstracts 196●●●●
Page 6 and 7: EditorialGlobal reach to reflect de
Page 8 and 9: Interview with Orlando SalvestriniP
Page 10 and 11: Interview with Orlando Salvestrini
Page 12 and 13: Interview with Orlando SalvestriniN
Page 14 and 15: Drivers to divasimage portrayal of
Page 18 and 19: Drivers to divasDiscussionPioneer f
Page 20 and 21: Drivers to divasRussian tennis play
Page 22 and 23: Drivers to divascomponent of source
Page 24 and 25: The relationships between team attr
Page 26 and 27: Team attributes, identification and
Page 40 and 41: European football under close scrut
Page 54 and 55: Can sponsorships be harmful for eve
Page 62 and 63: (Bourgeon & Bouchet, 2001). It has
Page 64 and 65: Stade Français Paris rugby clubdis
Page 66 and 67:
Stade Français Paris rugby clubvic
Page 68 and 69:
Stade Français Paris rugby clubWor
Page 70 and 71:
Stade Français Paris rugby clubPon
Page 72 and 73:
Editorial policyThe Journal welcome
show all

Sports Marketing & Sponsorship - FIFA/CIES International University ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?