Post on 19-Jul-2015
‘Investigating the Impact of Relationship Marketing upon a Football Fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty
as the Antecedent to Behavioural Loyalty: A UK Perspective’
A dissertation submitted by
David William Greenslade
in partial completion of the award of
BA (Hons) Events & Leisure Marketing
‘I hereby declare that the dissertation submitted is the wholly work of
David William Greenslade.
Any other contributors or sources have either been referenced
in the prescribed manner or are listed in the acknowledgements
together with the nature and scope of their contribution.’
School of Tourism
Bournemouth University
(2014)
ii
Dissertation Declaration
I agree that, should the University wish to retain it for reference purposes, a copy of my dissertation
may be held by Bournemouth University normally for a period of three academic years. I understand
that once the retention period has expired my dissertation will be destroyed.
Confidentiality
I confirm that this dissertation does not contain information of a commercial or confidential nature or
include personal information other than that which would normally be in the public domain unless the
relevant permissions have been obtained. In particular, any information which identifies a particular
individual’s religious or political beliefs, information relating to their health, ethnicity, criminal
history or gender, has been made anonymous, unless permission has been granted for its publication
from the person to whom it relates.
Ethical and Health & Safety issues
I confirm that the on-line ethics checklist was completed and that any ethical considerations associated
with the proposed research were discussed with my supervisor/tutor and an appropriate research
strategy was developed which would take them into account. I also confirm that any potential health
& safety risks associated with the proposed research were discussed with my supervisor/tutor and
where necessary, appropriate precautions were documented, including an appropriate risk assessment.
Copyright
The copyright for this dissertation remains with me.
Requests for Information
I agree that this dissertation may be made available as the result of a request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Signed: D. Greenslade
Name: David William Greenslade
Date: 01/05/2014
Programme: Events and Leisure Marketing
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Abstract
Marketing in recent decades has experienced a paradigm shift away from product orientation towards
building relationships between customers and businesses, with the point of sale no longer the end of
interactions. The use of relationship marketing to retain customers can result in substantial increases in
profits thus demonstrating the power of effective relationship marketing. However a review of the
current literature surrounding the topics under investigation revealed a lack of research into
relationship marketing within the sport industry. Given the monumental sums of money invested in the
sports industry, coupled with the unique nature of loyalty amongst sports fans and their team, provided
a sizeable research gap in which to investigate.
This dissertation research study provides an investigation into the impact of relationship marketing
upon a football fans’ attitudinal loyalty and subsequently how this may indirectly affect their
behavioural loyalty. A quantitative method with deductive approach was chosen for this research using
two sampling methods; the data collected from the questionnaires was then interpreted thematically
using SPSS for Windows through data frequencies and relationship testing. The key insights found
that fans that interacted with relationship marketing had a significant relationship with behavioural
loyalty, and their identification with their team. The results could not fully support the notion that
relationship marketing had a significant relationship with attitudinal loyalty and therefore cannot
determine whether relationship marketing impact upon attitudinal loyalty will result in increased
behavioural loyalty in terms of attendance. However future research in this area is necessary before
accepting these findings as absolute fact.
The key findings and limitations are found in the conclusion chapter of the dissertation study with
using consolidated tables and conceptual figures. Final recommendations for sports practitioners and
future research involving relationship marketing amongst sport fans are provided in Chapter 5 based
upon the interpretation of the researcher’s findings.
Dissertation word count: 9,963
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Acknowledgements
The researcher would like to devote this section to thank those who have contributed to the completion
of this dissertation.
Firstly, I am indebted to my dissertation supervisor Clive Allen who has given me the support, advice
and direction with positivity throughout every stage of this research process.
I would also like to thank my family and friends for their constant support throughout my University
experience. Without them this would have been impossible to achieve.
Finally, I would like to thank both my course peers and house mates who have offered advice, listened
to my complaints, and kept me sane during the final year of my studies.
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Table of Contents
Dissertation Declaration ii Abstract iii Acknowledgement iv Table of Contents v List of Tables vii List of Figures viii
Chapter 1- Introduction 1
1.1 Relevance of Study 2 1.2 Aims and Objectives 2
Chapter 2- Literature Review 3 2.1 Relationship Marketing 3 2.2 Brand Equity 5 2.3 Loyalty 6
2.3.1 Attitudinal Loyalty 7 2.3.2 Behavioural Loyalty 7 2.3.3 Sport Fan 8 2.3.4 Sport Fan Loyalty 9
2.4 Team Identity 10 2.5 Football Industry 11
Chapter 3- Methodology 13 3.1 Aims and Objectives 13 3.2 Research Context 14 3.3 Research Philosophy 15 3.4 Secondary Data 16 3.5 Primary Research 17
3.5.1 Research Method 17 3.5.2 Survey Design 17 3.5.3 Sampling Method 18 3.5.4 Population 18 3.5.5 Data Analysis 19
3.6 Limitations 19 3.7 Ethical Issues 20
Chapter 4- Data Analysis and Discussions 21
4.1 Demographic Frequencies 22 4.1.1 Age Breakdown 22 4.1.2 Gender Breakdown 23 4.1.3 Region Breakdown 24 4.1.4 Origin of Support Breakdown 25 4.1.5 Factors Preventing Attendance Breakdown 26
4.2 Result Testing 27 4.3 Spearman Rank Correlation Testing 27
4.3.1 Hypothesis 1 Testing 28 4.3.2 Hypothesis 2 Testing 29 4.3.3 Hypothesis 3 Testing 30 4.3.4 Hypothesis 4 Testing 32 4.3.5 Hypothesis 5 Testing 32 4.3.6 Hypothesis 6 Testing 33 4.3.7 Hypothesis 7 Testing 34 4.3.8 Hypothesis 8 Testing 34
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4.4 Mann-Whitney U Test 36 4.4.1 Hypothesis 9 Testing 36 4.4.2 Hypothesis 10 Testing 38 4.4.3 Hypothesis 11 Testing 39 4.4.4 Hypothesis 12 Testing 40 4.4.5 Hypothesis 13 Testing 41
Chapter 5- Conclusions 43
5.1 Consolidated Key Research Findings 43 5.2 Recommendations 46
Chapter 6- References 48 Chapter 7- Appendices 56
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List of Tables
Chapter 2- Literature Review 3 Table 1: Top European Football Club’s Social Media Following 12
Chapter 3- Methodology 13
Table 2: Mapping Sentences process 14 Table 3: Differences between Quantitative & Qualitative research 16
Chapter 4- Data Analysis and Discussion 21
Table 4: Secondary Data Hypotheses 21 Table 5: Null Hypotheses 56 Table 6: Summary of Age Breakdown 22 Table 7: Summary of Gender Breakdown 23 Table 8: Summary of Region of Respondents Breakdown 24 Table 9: Frequency Region of Supported Team 25 Table 10: Frequency Name of Supported Team 25 Table 11: Frequency Region of Supported Team 25 Table 12: Summary of Respondents Factors of Origin Breakdown 26 Table 13: Summary of Factors Preventing Attendance Breakdown 27 Table 14: SPSS Test of Normality 14 Table 15: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty 28 Table 16: Summary of Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty 28 Table 17: RM against Attitudinal Loyalty 29 Table 18: Summary of RM against Attitudinal Loyalty 30 Table 19: RM against Attendance 31 Table 20: Summary of RM against Attendance 31 Table 21: RM against Attendance LAST Season 32 Table 22: RM against Attendance THIS Season 33 Table 23: Summary of RM against Recent Attendance 33 Table 24: RM against Fan Identity 34 Table 25: Summary of RM against Fan Identity 34 Table 26: Fan Identity against Attitudinal Loyalty 35 Table 27: Fan Identity against Behavioural Loyalty 35 Table 28: Summary of Fan Identity against Attitudinal and Behavioural Loyalty 36 Table 29: Website Membership against Attendance Test Statistics 37 Table 30: Website Membership against Attendance Report 37 Table 31: Summary of Website Membership against Attendance 37 Table 32: Loyalty Card Holders against Attendance Test Statistics 38 Table 33: Loyalty Card Holders against Attendance Report 38 Table 34: Summary of Loyalty Card Holders against Attendance 39 Table 35: Age of Fan against RM Usage Test Statistics 39 Table 36: Age of Fan against RM Usage Report 39 Table 37: Summary of Age against RM Usage 40 Table 38: Age of Fan against Attitudinal Loyalty Test Statistics 40 Table 39: Age of Fan against Attitudinal Loyalty Report 40 Table 40: Summary of Age against Attitudinal Loyalty 41 Table 41: Age of Fan against Behavioural Loyalty Test Statistic 41 Table 42: Age of Fan against Behavioural Loyalty Report 41 Table 43: Summary of Age of Fan against Attitudinal Loyalty 42 Table 44: Key Outcomes of Test Variable Relationships 44
Chapter 5- Conclusions 43
Table 45: Recommendations for Practitioners 46 Table 46: Recommendations for Future Research 47
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List of Figures
Chapter 2- Literature Review 3 Figure 1: Literature Review Topic Format Process 3 Figure 2: The Buyer Seller Relationship 4 Figure 3: Why Loyal Customers are More Profitable 5 Figure 4: The Two Elements of Loyalty 7 Figure 5: Top Twenty Money League Clubs Revenue (€) 11
Chapter 3- Methodology 13
Figure 6: Potential Determinants of Fan Loyalty in terms of Attendance 15
Chapter 4- Data Analysis and Discussions 21 Figure 7: Frequency Age Group of Respondents 22 Figure 8: Frequency Gender of Respondents 23 Figure 9: Frequency Region of Respondents 24 Figure 10: Frequency Factors of Origin of Supported Team 25 Figure 11: Frequency Factors to Prevent Attendance 26
Chapter 5- Conclusions 43
Figure 24: Conceptual Relationships between Test Variables 44
Chapter 7- Appendices 56 Figure 12: Visual Representation of SPSS Data Normality 57 Figure 13: RM against Behavioural Loyalty 57 Figure 14: RM against Behavioural Loyalty (LAST Season) 58 Figure 15: RM against Behavioural Loyalty (THIS Season) 58 Figure 16: RM against Attitudinal Loyalty 59 Figure 17: RM against Fan Identity 59 Figure 18: Fan Identity against Behavioural Loyalty 60 Figure 19: Fan Identity against Attitudinal Loyalty 60 Figure 20: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty 61 Figure 21: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty 61 Figure 22: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty (LAST Season) 62 Figure 23: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty (THIS Season) 62 Figure 25: CRM Conceptual Map 63 Figure 26: Questionnaire Design 64
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1.0 Introduction
In recent years there has been a significant paradigm shift from product focus to becoming
progressively more concerned with development and maintenance of long-term customer relationships
(Berry 1983; Grönroos 1994, 2000; Morgan and Hunt 1994; Buttle 1996; Sheth and Parvatiyar 1999).
The concept of ‘relationship marketing’ (RM) is the processes by which organisations create and
sustain longitudinal customer relationships (Berry 1983). This is referred to as an ‘on-going process’
that encourages the engagement in ‘cooperative and collaborative’ interactions (Sheth and Parvatiyar
1999; Palmatier 2008) that over time will change repeated behaviours into ingrained habits (Kapferer
2005).
Sport is a billion dollar industry, with numerous challenges for sports marketers who must try to
nullify negative team performance, and develop fan loyalty through longitudinal relationships
(Deloitte 2014; Tsiotsou 2013). A fan’s loyalty with their football team however is said to be unique
when compared to a consumer loyalty with brands or commodities due to its irrational and
unpredictable nature (Oliver 1999). Being a sports fan is said to go “far beyond the bounds of simply
regular or spasmodic match attendance” with deeper unseen interlinking bonds between fan amd their
favoured sport’s team (Edge 1998, p18).
This dissertation was largely influenced by studies that investigated factors affecting fan loyalty
behaviour within a sports team, such as attitudinal loyalty, involvement and fan identification (Bee and
Havitz 2010; Laverie and Arnett 2000; Neale and Funk 2006; Tsiotsou 2013; Wakefield 1995). The
aim of this dissertation is to gain an understanding of the phenomenon ‘fan loyalty’ within UK football
so that football clubs can more successfully leverage this relationship for marketing purposes. The
results will look to provide insights into RM’s application to the sports industry which is an area of
literature that is currently limited (Bühler and Nüfer 2010; Stavros et al. 2008).
The structure of this dissertation will follow:
1. Firstly, the researcher will state the aim and objectives of this dissertation.
2. Next, a critical review of the current literature surrounding RM, sports fan loyalty and fan
identity within the context of football.
3. An appropriate research methodology will follow, detailing the exact research approach
adopted, and to what extent the approach may be limited
4. The key results will be displayed conceptually against the research hypotheses, with
discussion as to what the results indicate using relevant literature comparisons.
5. Finally, a critical summary of the results will be provided with recommendations for
practitioners and future research.
2
1.1 Relevance of Study Marketing has experienced a shift away from a product orientation focus towards service and
interaction (Grönroos 1994; Kotler 1991; Sheth and Parvatiyar 1999. It is important that the sport
industry adapts to this shift using CRM through RM methods as fan loyalty is a key feature of a
football clubs future in respect to their financial contributions (Deloitte 2014). However sports
literature indicates a lack of research in RM in sports with the need to move beyond direct focus upon
behavioural loyalty and include variables that influence attitudinal loyalty (Bee & Havitz 2010; Bühler
& Nüfer 2010; Laverie & Arnett 2000; Neale & Funk 2006; Tsiotsou 2013; Wakefield 1995). This
research will investigate the impact of RM upon fans of UK football teams’ attitudinal loyalty as an
antecedent to their behavioural loyalty in terms of their attendance to live matches involving their
team. Humphrey (2009) suggests that information gained through research studies involving RM and
team identification will be crucial to sports marketers; particularly informing those sports clubs that
operate on a smaller scale to use the most efficient money –orientated resources in their promotions to
encourage fan spending.
1.2 Aim and Objectives
Objectives
1. Critically analyse existing theory
involving fan loyalty and relationship
marketing.
2. Develop
understanding between fan loyalty
and relationship marketing within a football context.
3. Select an appropriate research philosophy to obtain a
relevant sample of football fans for investigation.
4. Critically appraise
the impact of relationship marketing upon fan loyalty with recommendations for
practitioners and future research.
Aim
To investigate the impact of relationship marketing upon fan's attitudunial loyalty as an antecendent to behavioural loyalty in terms of their attendance to live matches involving their team.
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Chapter 2.0 Literature Review
RM is an emerging paradigm shift in marketing that has had a dramatic impact upon the relationship
between companies and their customers with far more tailored and personal involvement than in the
past (Berry 1983; Grönroos 2000; Morgan and Hunt 1994; Buttle 1996; Sheth and Parvatiyar 1999).
However the sports industry is yet to fully embrace the relationship marketing through customer
relationship management despite numerous literature highlighting huge financial benefits (Bühler and
Nüfer 2010; Reichheld 1996; Winer 2001). The purpose of this literature review is to address
objectives 1 and 2 by critically reviewing the existing key literature relevant to this dissertation study
and the extent to which current research may be limited, before identifying a viable research gap. This
literature review will start with the broad concept terms before narrowing towards the specific research
gap that this dissertation study will contribute, to as shown by Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Literature Review Topic Format Process
2.1 Relationship Marketing RM’s origin is widely attributed to Berry (1983) and is described as the marketing activity efforts to
establish, develop and maintain long-term successful relationships (Buttle 1996; Morgan and Hunt
1994). With the growing importance of long-term, strategic relationships it seems inevitable that an
increased emphasis will be placed upon RM skills within organisations (Webster 1992). This shift in
the marketing paradigm from a transactional to a relationship focus has led to the adoption of the term
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and practice of RM (Bühler and Nufer 2012, Christopher et al. 1991; Gummesson 2002; Sheth and
Parvatiyar 1999). Grönroos (1997) believes that if marketers are to compete in an ever growing and
competitive marketplace they must look beyond the traditional marketing philosophy; and adds that
although methods such as the Four Ps may have been useful from a management perspective at one
time, they were never applicable to all markets and to all types of marketing situations which has led
to the progression of RM theory.
The basic premise of RM tools is to create value for the parties involved through an interaction
process between suppliers, customers, competitors and others through a mutual exchange and
fulfilment of promises (Grönroos 1997; Gummesson 2002). RM has been driven by technological
advances in recent years through customised direct marketing such as social media interactions,
creating a greater potential for ‘emotional bonding from economic exchange’ between consumer and
organisation (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1999; Winer 2001).
“The sale cannot be the end of the process for the seller anymore” (Winer 2001, p391).
The progression is demonstrated by “The Buyer-Seller Relationship” by Levitt (1986) in Figure 2
whereby “C” illustrates RM whereby the buyer and seller have become interdependent with both the
seller and buyer depending on the other in some way.
Figure 2: The Buyer Seller Relationship (adapted from Levitt 1986, p113-114)
Satisfaction is one of the requirements of customer loyalty with many studies showing a positive
relationship between loyalty and profitability (Palmatier 2008; Srivastava et al. 1998; Winer 2001).
Loyal customers stimulate revenue growth, are less expensive to serve, will refer new customers to the
organisation and are often more willing to pay a price premium (Winer 2001). Reichheld (1996) found
that increases in profits as high as 95% can occur from as little as a 5% increase in retention rates
demonstrating the power that effective RM can produce. Figure 1 displays a conceptualised graph of
the potential increases from loyal customers by Reichheld (1996). The graph steadily increases over
time to increase annual customer profit and nullifies the acquisition cost.
Seller Buyer
Buyer Seller
Seller Buyer
A
B
C
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Figure 3: Why Loyal Customers are More Profitable (taken from Reichheld 1996, p39)
Winer (2001, p98) identifies the methods by which satisfaction from customer relationship
management can be gained through “Customer Service, Frequency/Loyalty Programs; Customisation;
Reward Programs and Community Building”. However difficulties that arise include how companies
manage their image as an ally, not an enemy, and how to obtain knowledge based on customer and
environmental factors to sustain this relationship over time (Palmatier 2008; Ramkumar and
Saravanan 2007). The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as the process responsible
for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably and the key to this will be
through meeting consumer needs to strengthen customer loyalty (Chartered Institute of Marketing
2014).
2.2 Brand Equity A brand is said to be a name, term, symbol, design, or combinations of these that identifies a seller’s
products and differentiates them from a competitors’ products (Aaker 1991; Bauer et al. 2005). A
definition of Brand Equity comes from Keller (1993, p2), as a key academic in branding literature, as
“the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand”.
Hattula et al. (2012) believes there is a lack of scientific studies on the role of marketing and brand
building activities in sports clubs particularly in considering the interrelationships between brand
equity and sport-related success. This is surprising given that the brand is often considered the most
important asset of sport clubs (Bauer and Sauer 2004) and that brand equity is said to be the key
indicator of sport-related and managerial capabilities in a sports company (Madden et al. 2006).
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The challenge for sport clubs is to compete in foreign markets to improve revenue such as Manchester
United and Real Madrid as Europe’s most valuable football teams competing in European
competitions and selling merchandise internationally (Kerr and Gladden 2008). Gladden and Milne
(1999) exploring the influence of sporting success on brand equity in their study of National Hockey
League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball found that both athletic success
and brand equity had significant positive effects on attendance and merchandise revenues.
Because loyalty has been found to determine brand performance (Tsiotsou 2013); this dissertation will
look to investigate the importance of a football club’s brand equity, in terms of the perceived success
and popularity of the team, against the loyalty of the fan of the club.
2.3 Loyalty Customer retention has moved from the periphery of an organisation’s concern as perceiving
customers simply as an audience toward seeing them as key assets (Christopher et al. 2013).
Academics such as Bee and Havitz (2010) have noted that by efficiently maintaining relationship with
sport consumers the relative cost of customer retention processes are substantially lower than those of
acquisition. The key to retention is through the development of brand loyalty to exhibit consumer
repeat purchasing behaviour consistently in the future (Oliver 1999). A conceptualisation of brand
loyalty that is widely accredited by academics is given Jacoby and Chestnut (1978, p.165)
“The (a) biased, (b) behavioural response, (c) expressed over time, (d) by some decision-
making unit, (e) with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands,
and (f) is a function of psychological (decision making evaluative) processes.” Jacoby and
Chestnut (1978, p.165)
The definition helps to split loyalty into two distinct forms as ‘attitudinal loyalty’ and ‘behavioural
loyalty’ as also considered in previous research by Oliver (1999) and Bee and Havitz (2010);
conceptualised below in Figure 2.
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Figure 4: The two Elements of Loyalty
2.3.1 Attitudinal Loyalty Attitudinal loyalty is seen as the consumer exhibiting positive or favourable beliefs towards a
product/service (Agustin and Singh 2005). It is said to be a process of psychological attachment
leading to increased intention to repurchase (Iwasaki and Havitz 2004; Mahony et al. 2000).
Attitudinal loyalty suggests that customers have favourable perceptions of products however this is
just an indication of a consumer’s opinion rather than the act of actual purchase (Neale and Funk
2006). The ‘Attitudinal’ component is said to distinguish ‘true brand loyalty from simply repeat
buying’ (Eagly and Chaiken 1993). However in sport Bee and Havitz (2010) suggest the ‘attitudinal
component’ of loyalty is an antecedent to ‘behavioural loyalty’ with the initial attraction to a sport
likely to influence their psychological to a sport-specific sport event.
This psychological attraction is said be as a result of the level of involvement in terms of motivation,
arousal or interest towards a recreational activity or product, usually evoked by a particular stimulus of
situation (Bee and Havitz 2010; Havitz and Dimanche 1997; Rothschild 1984). Research suggests that
involvement has a significant affect upon psychological commitment in terms of fans’ team
attachment (Bee and Havitz 2010; Tsiotsou and Alexandris 2009) and therefore indirectly the
attitudinal loyalty which the authors argue acts as the antecedent to behavioural loyalty.
2.3.2 Behavioural Loyalty Behavioural loyalty in the last few decades has dominated much of the literature within sports
management and sports psychology research (De Schriver ad Jensen 2002; Hill and Green 2000;
Hansen and Gauthier 1989). Behavioural loyalty refers to the actual behaviours that individuals exhibit;
often including repeat purchasing of a product/service from the same supplier, positive
recommendation and repetitive behaviours (Bee and Havitz 2010; Dick & Basu, 1994). Many
researchers believe that consumer repeat purchases best captures loyalty toward the brand of interest
(Kahn et al. 1986; Ehrenberg 2000; Funk and Pastore 2002).
Attitudinal Element
Behavioural Element
Loyalty
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The present study will consider behavioural loyalty in terms of frequency of attendance as the author
believes that following a similar approach to past sport research studies involving fan loyalty and
identification (Laverie and Arnett 2000; Murrel and Dietz 1992; Neale and Funk 2006; Tsitosou 2013;
Wakefield 1995). A study by Russell (1997) scanned crowd size data from the inter-war period finding
that the majority of football team’s support was in direct correlation to the success of the team. This is
reiterated by Sutton et al. (1997) who concluded that successful teams attract fans and teams often
gain admirers when teams perform well. However the concept of RM is a relatively new phenomenon,
and even more so in a sporting context with the growing number of channels in which to view sport,
and so the present study will consider RM’s impact upon attitudinal loyalty as an antecedent to
behavioural loyalty in terms of the fan’s frequency of attendance.
2.3.3 Sport Fan A ‘sport fan’ within the context of sports fandom is said to be those individuals who are interested in
and follow a sport, team, and/or athlete Wann et al. (2001). This is not be confused with a ‘sport
spectator’ who actively witness a sporting event in person or through some form of media (Jones
1997). The main differences between a sport fan and sport spectator lie in terms of their interest and
devotion in that a spectator of a sport will quickly forger the spectacle whereas a fan’s interest is so
intense that it often occupies great parts of the day (ibid).
It is also important for sport marketers to identify the key differences between ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’
sport consumption so as to understand the specific needs of each segment of fans and formulate
strategies to best reach them (Funk and Pastore 2002; Mullin et al. 2007). Wann et al. (2001) identified
the fact that only some sport fans will actively try to witness a live sporting event on and defines
‘direct sport consumption’ as involving actual attendance at a sporting event with the potential to
impact the result. Whereas Kenyon (1969) refers to ‘indirect sport consumption’ as involving exposure
to sport through some form of mass media, such as television or the radio.
Tapp and Clowes (2002) also included segmentation in their exploration of football supporters in
which they identified a number of segments such as “professional wanderers, repertoire fans, and
carefree casuals”. These segments are important to consider, particularly when investigating behaviour
and attendance as indicators of fan loyalty, because repertoire fans who occasionally attend their
team’s matches may still see themselves as loyal supporters despite also watching matches not
involving their team (ibid).
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2.3.4 Sport Fan Loyalty Oliver (1999) emphasised the need to consider that loyalty in the context of sports consumption may
be different from loyalty towards a brand, vendor or store. For example a study by Parker and Stuart
(1997) into fan loyalty in football found that customer loyalty was comparatively higher than in other
sectors. However Funk et al. (2004) notes that there does not appear to be much agreement within
literature to which factors best explain and predict the behaviour of consumers in a sporting context.
The sport business as a whole needs willing fans to spend their time, emotions and money on their
favourite team as they form part of a unique joint product (Bühler and Nüfer 2010; Morrow 1999),
with Bauer et al. (2005, p14) assertion that “it is beyond question that the most significant asset of a
team sports club is a stable following”.
Reported income generated from attendances at sport matches over a season can contribute as much as
75% to the overall revenue of some sport teams through ticket sales, and indirectly through sales of
merchandise, concessions, advertising rights and sponsorship deals (Neale and Funk 2006). Neale and
Funk (2006) suggest that it is unrealistic to make assumptions on consistent income received from
sport spectators as their frequency of visits is likely to be sporadic; therefore sports marketers have
always been more concerned with increasing attendance at games through building loyal fans.
Gantz et al. (2012) considered fan loyalty in terms of attendance exploring the in- person and virtual
co-viewing of sports stating that “across viewing settings, sports fanship is a social phenomenon”,
suggesting that when fans fill the stadium they are contributing both to positive atmosphere as well as
providing a sizeable financial aid to the club. However it is important to consider that worldwide
thousands of fans cannot, or prefer not, to attend live performances but will follow their team through
television, radio, newspapers and the internet (Phua 2010; Laverie and Arnett 2000). This reaffirms
the importance of RM as fans that do not financially support a team through their attendance can still
financially support their team through shirt sales or online club website membership. The club
therefore must go beyond the idea that a fans love for the sport will be enough to sustain loyalty to a
given team, but that involvement and connection to the players or club are crucial (Billings 2011;
Tsiotsou 2013).
Wann et al. (1996) found that although significant persons and geographical reasons were the most
common reasons for the initial support of a team, lack of team success was the greatest reason for the
discontinuation of support. Success impact upon spectator attendance is the most extensively
researched relationship, with the majority recognising a strong positive association between the two
(Neale and Funk 2006). Neale and Funk (2006) found fans with a stronger attitudinal loyalty to their
team are more likely to be unaffected from their team’s poor performances on the pitch, which could
further emphasise the importance of RM as the vast majority of teams are likely to go without success
for sustained periods of time. Bee and Havitz (2010) stress the importance of marketers using image
10
management and wide dissemination of consistent information that is easily acceptable so as to
strengthen psychological commitment and therefore possibly increase behavioural loyalty indirectly.
2.4 Team Identity Team identification is the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to a team linked
heavily to a fan’s social identity and the degree to which a fan believes the team is an extension of his
or herself (Theodorakis et al. 2012; Wann et al. 2001; Wann and Branscombe 1993). Strongly
identified fans typically have a greater level of involvement with their team, embraced team successes,
have better expectations of results and were more willing to invest in the club (Wann and Branscombe
1993). These qualities are highly desired by marketers; especially in sport where emotional bonds with
a team are not fully understood (Bühler and Nüfer 2012).
Humphrey (2009) suggests that the information gained from team identification is critical to sport
marketers when promotional resources are limited as they must be efficient with money-orientated
promotions particularly to those fans with low team identification to try to offset negative moods after
losing performances. Models/scales have been developed to try to ascertain the extent to which a fan
identifies with a team such as Wann and Branscombe’s (1993) “Sport Spectator Identification Scale”
which uses behavioural, affective and cognitive reactions to validate team identification.
Sheth and Parvatiyar (1999) believe that for a successful relationship to form between a sport
organisation and its fans there must be a process that facilitates ‘engagement’ and ‘collaboration’.
Theodorakis et al. (2012) adds that to successfully influence strong levels of team identification
sports marketers should look to develop strategic campaigns that influence fan’s cognitive and
affective responses, alongside influencing perceptions of a team’s values; reiterating the purpose
of the study to investigate attitudinal loyalty (cognitive processes) as an antecedent to
behavioural loyalty (affective responses) through the use of RM.
How fans originally identified with their team could have a significant impact upon how susceptible
(if at all) they will be to specific relationship marketing methods. However discrepancies are very
much evident when considering origin of identifying with a team with several studies focusing on the
origin of fan involvement found significant persons to have the greatest influence (McPherson 1976;
Smith et al. 1981; Wann et al. 1996; Wann et al. 2001). In contrast Jones (1997) found that
traditionally geographical reasons were the greatest influence towards the identification of a favourite
team; which could suggest that a fan is born into a football club which could result in strong place
marketing used by sports marketers. Higham and Hinch (2010) suggest a possible shift in younger
football fans team identification away from lower-level teams. A fan’s hometown or place of birth
seems to have less significance on the team a young football fan will support, with increasingly
younger fans opt to support more popular/successful teams with a perceived higher quality of football
experience; which could have serious implications for smaller clubs (ibid).
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2.5 Football Industry The European football market alone is valued at more than £13billion (Deloitte 2014), however
research on RM in sports is very limited which appears strange given the unique nature of fan in sport
in comparison to other business sectors (Bühler and Nufer 2012; Tapp and Clowes 2002). RM in most
sports lags behind other industries in implementing customer relationship management techniques
(CRM) and is often misused in application because communication, trust and dialogue have been
traditionally difficult between fans and a club (Adamson et al. 2006; Grönroos 2006, Chadwick and
Clowes 1998). Adamson et al. (2006) suggest that in order to establish deeper relationships the
football industry must treat supporters as customers whilst however recognising them as fans.
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have floated shares on the stock market as the commercial
pressures continue to place larger emphasis upon profits (Chadwick and Clowes 1998). However the
importance in RM efforts to drive attendance is illustrated in the breakdown of revenue of the top
European football clubs. The graph shown below (See Graph 2) illustrates the top twenty football
clubs for 2012/13 season in terms of their revenues by source (Deloitte 2014).
Figure 5: Top Twenty Money League Clubs’ Revenues (€) (Taken from Deloitte 2014,
p11)
Although match day gate receipts are the smallest of the three incomes it still represents a huge
revenue stream, this is highlighted through the majority of Italian teams who do not have full
12
ownership of their stadiums, inhibiting their ability to generate revenue through gate receipts. An
example is shown by the highest placed Italian team AC Milan in 10th position with only 10% of total
revenue raised through gate receipts despite their success that includes 18 European trophies (Deloitte
2014) and their social media RM efforts illustrated in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Top European Football Club’s Social Media following (Information taken from
Deloitte 2014 report p9)
Club Facebook Likes (m) Twitter Followers (m)
FC Barcelona 52.4 10.9
Real Madrid 49.1 9.9
Manchester United 39.6 1.7
Chelsea 21.7 3.3
AC Milan 19.3 1.7
Arsenal 19 3.4
Liverpool 14.7 2.3
Bayern Munich 11.6 0.9
Juventus 9.5 0.9
Galatasary 9.4 3.5
Gray and Wert-Gray (2012) state that in recent years RM efforts by sports organizations have become
increasingly prominent with anticipated benefits including higher customer loyalty, improved
complaint resolution and increased willingness to support teams and events through consumption
behaviours such as attendance. A good example of attempted RM within an English football club is
Manchester City FC who installed a CRM system with the aim of becoming one of the leading
football clubs in the world both on and off the pitch (Martin 2010). The programme holds details of
the members in a database for third party promotional offers to reward the fans with allocation of
tickets and other personalised mailings. However literature is limited to suggest that these methods
positively contribute to increased loyalty from fans in terms of their consistent attendance to live
matches (Ramkumar and Saravanan 2007).
13
Chapter 3 – Methodology
This methodology section will addressed Objective 4 set in chapter 1 of this dissertation study by
outlining the research approach that the dissertation study followed whilst highlighting areas that may
exhibit limitations. It includes a reasoned explanation as to why the particular sampling approach was
chosen with reference to relevant past literature and research studies to support the decision. A section
will be devoted to examining in detail the method of analysis, including the statistical tests, to enable a
complete comprehensive. This dissertation study’s research design followed the process considered
the layers of research design or “Research Onion” by Saunders et al. (2012, p128). The course of
action involves understanding outer layer research philosophy, possible methodologies, selection of
strategies and the constraints incurred to ensure that the core data collection technique used in this
research project are appropriate and coherent (ibid).
3.1 Aim and Objectives
Objectives
1. Critically analyse existing theory
involving fan loyalty and relationship
marketing.
2. Develop
understanding between fan loyalty
and relationship marketing within a football context.
3. Select an appropriate research philosophy to obtain a
relevant sample of football fans for investigation.
4. Critically appraise
the impact of relationship marketing upon fan loyalty with recommendations for
practitioners and future research.
Aim
To investigate the impact of relationship marketing upon fan's attitudunial loyalty as an antecendent to behavioural loyalty in terms of their attendance to live matches involving their team.
14
3.2 Research Context One of the most important tasks of the research design is said to be undertaking an initial description
of the domain or area involved (Clark et al. 1999). The chosen method to achieve this will be through
the use of a ‘mapping sentence’, which is described as the initial description of the research expressed
and wholly encompassed in one sentence providing a clear and concise methodology foundation
(Clark et al. 1998).
Balnaves and Caputi (2001, p41) consider the importance of differentiating between establishing
relationships and establishing causation by ‘mapping our thoughts’ about possible relationships
between different phenomenon. For the results of this study to be useful, the research must clearly
define the boundaries of the area whilst identifying the main components with the probable
relationships (Clark et al. 1998). To check the logic of the relationships between phenomena the
information should be presented graphically (Balnaves and Caputi 2001). Using information gained
from Clark et al. (1998) and Balnaves and Caputi (2001) the following table (Table 2) has been
provided and subsequently a mapping conceptual diagram (Figure 6).
Mapping Sentence:
“To investigate whether relationship marketing usage impacts upon the attitudinal loyalty of
the fan and subsequently the behavioural loyalty in terms of attendance; with considerations
to the level of identity of the fan and the fans demographic information [gender/age/location]”
Table 2: Mapping Sentences process (adapted from Clark et al. 1998, p47)
Stage Description of Process
1 Describe all the variables in the area of interest and by so doing define the parameters of the
study.
2 Describe the range of variation that is possible for each variable
3 Describe the nature of the relationship between the variables e.g, casual, antecedents of,
consequence of, similar to, different from, etc.
4 Display the logical sequence of the methodology.
5 Cover all variable (of all types).
6 Cover all the variation within each variable.
15
Figure 6: Potential determinants of fan loyalty in terms of attendance (adapted from
Balnaves and Caputi 2001)
3.3 Research Philosophy Researchers should be aware of the philosophical commitment they make when adopting a research
strategy and the impact incurred from this decision upon the research assumptions involving human
knowledge and the nature of the realities the researcher will encounter (Johnson and Clark 2006;
Saunders et al. 2012). A positivist approach was adopted as the study will seek out initial conditions,
processes, cause, and effects (Hudson and Ozanne 1988). This is because the researcher believed it
would be logical to follow the approach in key previous research into sport fan identity, sport fan
motivation and relationship marketing in sports which used the positivist approach (Wann 1995; Wann
et al 1999; Branscombe and Wann 1991; Tsiotsou 2013; Melnick and Wann 2011; Ravald and
Grönroos 1996).
The basic processes of reasoning in research science are said to be either deductive or inductive; with
inductive data associated more with qualitative research (Balnaves and Caputi 2001; Gratton and
Jones 2010). Qualitative research looks to understand, give description and draw conclusions within a
social reality using methods such as interviewing and observations (McGivern 2009; Sarantakos 2005).
However given that this dissertation study has set a specific research question, and will use numerical
data to measure observations a deductive quantitative method is far more appropriate (Aliaga and
Gunderson 2000; Balnaves and Caputi 2001; Bryman 2008; McDonald et al. 2012; Walliman 2011),
this is because it measures social phenomena to provide facts and determine relationships through
samples to try to generalise populations (Clark et al. 1998; Gratton and Jones 2010; Saunders et al.
2012). Also the researcher believed it was not feasible to use a qualitative research method given the
Relationship Marketing
Attitudinal
Loyalty
Behavioural
Loyalty
Fan
Identification
16
time constraints to carry out in depth interviews with a large enough sample size to present a strong
enough conclusion.
A table displaying key differences in ‘Quantitative’ and ‘Qualitative’ research adapted from Gratton
and Jones (2010) is shown below.
Table 3: Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative research (adapted from
information found in Gratton and Jones 2010)
Quantitative Research Qualitative Research
Uses numerical analysis to measure social
phenomena to provide ‘facts’.
Relies on non-numerical analysis to provide
understanding.
Assumes a single, objective social reality. Assumes social reality is a subjective experience.
Assumes social reality is constant across
different times and settings.
Assumes social reality is continuously
constructed and related to the immediate social
context.
Uses statistical analysis to determine casual
relationships.
Objectives are description, understanding and
meaning.
Studies samples with the intention of generalising
to populations.
Uses smaller samples, or ‘cases’.
Researcher is objective, and ‘detached’ from the
subjects under investigation.
Data are rich and subjective.
The setting is often contrived. The location of the research is often natural.
Data is collected using inanimate objects, for
example pen and paper.
Flexible approach to data collection; often non-
traditional approaches, e.g. content analysis.
Associated with the positivist approach. The researcher is the data collection instrument.
Generally deductive. Associated with the interpretative approach.
Generally inductive.
3.4 Secondary Data It is widely accepted that secondary data in the form of a literature review is key to the success of a
research study and so an extensive examination of current literature that was concentrated specifically
around sport fan loyalty, sport fan identity and relationship marketing was performed in chapter 1 of
this dissertation study to provide the foundation for the researcher’s knowledge (Creswell 2003;
Marczyk et al. 2010; Gratton and Jones 2010; Walliman 2005). By gathering key broad concepts and
theories the researcher was more able to identify a significant gap in the literature that justifies the
need for this dissertation study whilst highlighting trends in research approach and potential
limitations (Bryman 2004; Cottrell and McKenzie 2010; Mitchell and Jolley 2012). Current literature
upon relationship marketing in sports is lacking (Nufer and Bühler 2010) with limited specific
sports given full investigation into causality of relationship marketing effects.
17
3.5 Primary Research
3.5.1 Research Method The selected research method was the use of an electronic self-administered survey (Gaiser and
Schreiner 2009) in the form of a questionnaire designed using ‘Google Forms’ (See Figure 26 in
Appendices). This was chosen as the most appropriate method primarily because of its ability to reach
a varied demographic, low cost and provides anonymity to avoid researcher bias (Balnaves and Caputi
2001; Brace 2008; Gratton and Jones 2004; Walliman 2005). Other strengths of Google Forms include
that it enables cloud-based data storage for greater reliability and security through password protection.
The results collected from Google Forms can then be translated directly into Microsoft Word Excel for
analysis and SPSS relationship testing.
Given that quantitative research focuses on high volumes of numerical data Veal (2006) believes that
questionnaires are the best method to collect this data. Questionnaires as a method of data collection
can be a very flexible tool but must be implemented carefully in order to fulfil needs of the research
study; this is because survey research emphasis is largely upon representativeness (Long 2007,
Walliman 2005). Balnaves and Caputi (2001) warn that quantitative methods require detachment of
the observer for the outcomes to be reliable and so self-administered surveys have been selected.
3.5.2 Survey Design The survey design is vital to the success of this dissertation study which will look to collect relevant
and reliable data through a series of theme specific questions that can be tested against one another for
a rich, in-depth analysis to answer the research question (Balnaves and Caputi 2001). The online
survey obtained information upon the respondent’s basic demographic information, the level of
identity with their football club, the origin of their support, the extent to which they experience RM
from their team, and both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty.
Primarily the study will examined the impact of RM against their attitudinal loyalty, and behavioural
loyalty (in terms of physically attending live matches) to determine any significant relationships and
provide an answer the research aim. The answers could provide insights as to which RM approaches
are best in influencing behavioural loyalty, and the extent to which RM can affect the fan’s attitudinal
loyalty.
Further tests examined the extent to which Fan Identity has significant relationships with RM,
Attitudinal Loyalty and Behavioural Loyalty helped to identify the importance of sports marketers
building a connection with their fans to avoid switching behaviour. Tapp and Clowes (2002) proposed
the idea of ‘repertoire fans’ who consider themselves strong fans but will only watch live games on
occasion opting to attend other matches and sports. This could have serious implications among
18
smaller sized football where reliance on attendance for revenue is far greater than larger English
Premiership teams (Bauer 2005; Bühler and Nüfer 2010; Morrow 1999).
As a sub-plot, the results received will provided interesting comparisons between the respondents
demographic variables in terms of their RM usage such as age and home town region to indicate
which groups are more/less susceptible to RM so that sports marketers can adopt a more differentiated
and tailored approach to gain their attendance (Adamson et al. 2006; Billings 2011; Chadwick and
Clowes 1998; Grönroos 2006).
3.5.3 Sampling Method A sample is said to be a sub-set of larger grouping of a population (Clark et al. 1998); where the
population is the collective term describing the total quantity of cases of the type which are the subject
of this study (Walliman 2005). Therefore the sampling method is vital to the success of a research
study as it will determine the extent to which the results will be representative to the characteristic of
the larger groups of which they are part (Armour and MacDonald 2012; Clark et al. 1998).
The primary sampling approach that was used for this dissertation study was using non-probability as
the population will not be chosen randomly but purposively. It is a widespread belief that the best
sample is a random sample however this is rarely possible for sport research (Armour and MacDonald
2012); this is because it would be near impossible to ascertain a complete contact list of UK football
fans that have attended a football match involving their team. Armour and MacDonald (2012) states
that a common approach to sport-related research is using volunteer or convenience sample with
representation often better achieved through purposive or stratified samples. Purposive sampling
involves selecting elements based on the researcher’s judgement about which elements will facilitate
the investigation (Adler and Clark 2007). This dissertation study had a number of requirements in
which to be applicable such as describing themselves as a current fan of a UK football club and also to
have attended a minimum of one live match involving the UK football club they support.
Convenience samples are said to be inappropriate for generalisation to the greater population with
scepticism at how indicative of the target population their sample is (Churchill and Iacobucci 2002).
For this reason the research process also included non-probability sampling in the form of snowball
sampling as respondents were asked to forward the link to the online survey to their contacts which
allowed for access to football communities that would be otherwise impossible to enter such as invite
only football club groups and forums (Saunders et al. 2012).
3.5.4 Population In order to select an appropriate sample for valid results the population must be defined (Veal 2006;
Gratton and Jones 2004). In this study, the population consisted of fans of UK football clubs that have
19
attended a minimum of one live football match involving their supported football club. The sample
size included 104 respondents which allowed for partial representation of the population however the
very small amount of both female respondents and respondents aged over 35 will mean that the sample
is not fully representative of an average football fan. This does not mean however that the results did
not provide rich insights but that the approach was exploratory in nature using the demographic data
that had been received.
3.5.5 Data Analysis The collected secondary data was first analysed the basic demographic information visually using
frequency graphs and tables constructed using simple Microsoft Excel program to provide a solid
foundation to interpret how far the data would be accurate when used in testing. Next SPSS.19
software identified that the population was not of a normal distribution (See Table 14) using the
Shapiro-Wilk test (Field 2009). Therefore following non-parametric tests, Spearman Rank Correlation
and Mann-Whitney U test to test against the null hypotheses by identifying significant relationships
between the variables. The reasons for the selection of these particular tests are explained in chapter 4.
3.6 Limitations Saunders et al. (2012) states that “good theory has the power to explain and predict” however notes
that it may also be limited by the scope of the research approach. The main limitation associated with
the use of non-probability sampling was the extent to which the results were generalizable in terms of
their representation of the entire football fandom population.
A probability sampling method could possibly have reached a wider demographic providing a better
representation of more Northern-England/Welsh/Scottish football clubs included in the results.
However given the constraints including time and cost, as well as the requirement to have attended a
minimum of one match to be applicable, convenience sampling with added snowballing was far more
appropriate.
The population contained a large proportion of student respondents which will help to gain insights
into whether success and/or popularity of the football club have affected the origin of their support. It
will also impact whether they attend more games based on continued success and/or popularity. Most
importantly, as notoriously heavy social media users, the student population sample should provide
valuable insight into whether relationship marketing has a significant impact on live match
attendances.
20
3.7 Ethical Issues Although this dissertation study has few serious ethical concerns, the researcher feels that it is
important to consider potential ethical breaches that may arise from any section of the research design
are considered with methods in place to maintain anonymity and data protection of the respondents.
The researcher completed a Bournemouth University ethics checklist that identified any ethical
considerations that needed to be changed attributed with the research before the distribution of
questionnaires was made live.
The research process involved the collection of personal demographic data such as age and location
and so the data was stored the demographic information securely with a password encryption. All
respondents were voluntary, and were made aware before they begin the questionnaire of the purpose
of the study, and that the data will not be passed onto a third party.
21
4.0 Data Analysis and Discussions
With reference to Objective 4 this section will critically appraise the impact of relationship marketing
upon fan loyalty through the analysis of the data collected through both primary and secondary
research. This chapter will first identify the key demographic information in the form of frequency
tables to provide an insight into how wide the scope of results reached. Next the thematic secondary
data collected will be tested using SPSS to determine whether the hypotheses should be accepted or
rejected with indications to the extent in which they may be limited, and the implications for sports
marketers. There were 104 applicable responses collected through secondary data that will be used to
address Objective 4 by testing the following Hypotheses in Table 4 below through the Null
Hypotheses (See Appendices Table 5).
Table 4: Secondary Data Hypotheses
Number Hypothesis
1 “Attitudinal Loyalty will have a significant relationship with a fan’s Behavioural Loyalty”
2 “RM usage will have a significant relationship with a fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty”
3 “RM usage will have a significant relationship with the fan’s total attendance at live
matches involving their supported team”
4 “RM usage will have a significant relationship with the fan’s total attendance LAST season
at live matches involving their supported team”
5 “RM usage will have a significant relationship with the fan’s total attendance THIS season
at live matches involving their supported team”
6 “RM usage will have a significant relationship with the level of identity the fan has with their
football club”
7 “Fan Identification will have a significant relationship with the fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty”
8 “Fan Identification will have a significant relationship with the fan’s Behavioural Loyalty in
terms of their attendance”
9 “Fan’s that have been a member of their clubs website will have a significant relationship
upon the number of times they have attended live matches involving their team ever”
10 “Fan’s that currently owned or had owned a loyalty card in the past will have a significant
relationship upon the number of times they have attended live matches involving their
team ever”
11 “The age of the football fan will have a significant impact upon their RM usage”
12 “The age of the football fan will have a significant impact upon the strength of their
attitudinal loyalty to their team”
13 “The age of the football fan will have a significant impact upon their Behavioural Loyalty in
terms of their attendance”
22
4.1 Demographic Frequencies
4.1.1 Age breakdown Figure 7: Frequency Age Group of Respondents
Table 6: Summary of Age Breakdown
Number Insight
1 The most popular age of respondents between 23-28 followed by 18-22.
2 Older age demographic far less represented resulting in less generalizability to a wider population.
3 Could suggest the research method was received by less older fans because of older generations
less frequent users of social media sites.
4 If true, sports marketers must be aware of potential age segments less susceptible to social media
marketing tools.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
18-22 23-28 29-34 35-40 41-46 47-52 53-58
23
4.1.2 Gender Breakdown Figure 8: Frequency Gender of Respondents
Table 7: Summary of Gender Breakdown
Number Insight
1 Gender represented predominately by male respondents with 93 (83% of the sample)
therefore the results cannot be representative of female population perspectives.
2 Lack of female respondents could be due to the nature of the study which as a stereotype
has a stigma that football is dominated by male participation and spectators.
3 This could have serious repercussions for sports marketers within the football industry as
potential revenue could be halved if females do not interact with clubs.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Male Female
Male
Female
24
4.1.3 Region Breakdown Figure 9: Frequency Region of Respondents
Table 8: Summary of Region of Respondents Breakdown
Number Insight
1 The sampling method using purposive-convenience approach with the addition of
snowballing has likely influenced the large proportion of respondents born in the South-
East of England (See Figure 9); as the researcher is from this region.
2 Results difficult to generalise to the entirety of the UK however the results could provide
insights into team supported against the region of the fan.
3 Team supported suggests popularity/success is the most dominant reason, similar as
findings by Wann et al. (1996) and Neale and Funk (2006).
4 Illustrated by 54 respondents stating a team residing in London and 32 stating a team in
the Northern England (See Table 9). In these regions four of the top five teams currently
compete within the top tier English Premiership league (See Table 11), have rich
histories of winning trophies and have an enormous fan base both nationally and
internationally.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
East Midlands
East of England
London
North West
Northern Ireland
Outside UK
South East
South West
Wales
West Midlands
Yorkshire & Humber
25
Table 9: Frequency Region of Supported Team
Top 5 Region of Supported Team
South East London East Middlands North West Other
10 54 3 32 6
Table 10: Frequency Name of Supported Team
Top 5 Most Supported Team
Arsenal Brighton Chelsea Liverpool Manchester United Tottenham
15 7 14 7 22 12
Table 11: Frequency Region of Supported Team
League in which Supported Team Currently Plays
English Premiership
English Championship English League 1 or Lower
Outside English League
82 17 4 1
4.1.4 Origin of Supported Breakdown Figure 10: Frequency Factors of Origin of Supported Team
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Popularity Success Hometown Friends/Family
26
Table 12: Summary of Respondents Factors of Origin Breakdown
Number Insight
1 Figure 10 reveals influence of friends/family as most commonly stated reason for origin of
a fans’ support.
2 Hometown as an origin was the least stated reason may explain the high volume of
London and Northern England supported teams such as Manchester United and Arsenal
(See Table 10) despite the vast majority of respondents region of birth in the South-East
of England (See Figure 9).
3 This evidence fully supports the past research that friends/family (McPherson 1976;
Smith et al. 1981; Wann et al. 1996; Wann et al. 2001), and supports Hinch and Higham
(2010) research that younger generations of fans are beginning to shift their support to
more successful teams; particularly as the majority of the respondents of this study were
aged 18-28 (See Figure 7).
4.1.5 Factors Preventing Attendance Breakdown Figure 11: Frequency Factors to Prevent Attendance
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Cost
Family
Change Interest
Participating Sport
Ticket Availability
Time
Travel
Work/Education
Other
27
Table 13: Summary of Factors Preventing Attendance Breakdown
Number Insight
1 Cost was the most commonly stated response as prevention to attendance at live
matches (29%). Price of tickets however is likely to continue to rise in the future.
2 Effects of recent economic pressures may have impacted disposable income however
Russell (1997) in his study of crowd size from the inter-war period found that the majority
of football teams’ support was in direct correlation to the success of the team.
3 These findings may be limited to fans in the South-East as Tables 9, 10 and 11 displays
that the allegiance of fans lies in the successful teams residing in London and Northern
England requiring substantial travelling fees and demanding highly priced match tickets
because of their top tier status and prestige.
4 Sports marketers should be aware of the likely large catchment of fans that lie within the
South-East and could develop promotions that entice the fans to purchase match day
tickets in the future if they feel value for money or receive discounted journeys/tickets.
4.2 Result Testing The program SPSS.19 was used to code the data collected from the questionnaire so that relevant tests
can investigate the Hypotheses that were set in the beginning of this Chapter 4 (Field 2009). First the
author identified the type of tests that would be relevant for the collected data (parametric/non-
parametric) by performing a test of normality to reveal whether the variables have a normal
distribution (Field 2009). Using the Shapiro-Wilk test against the RM variable resulted in p<0.005 (an
example See Figure 12 and Table 14 in Appendices) indicating a deviation from normality therefore
for the remainder of this chapter all tests will be non-parametric (Field 2009).
4.3 Spearman Rank Correlation Testing For the following section Spearman Rank Correlation was the most appropriate test in which to test
the hypotheses as there was no requirement of normality, it tested the strength of a monotonic
relationship between paired data, and used ordinal level or ranked data (Field 2009; Pallant 2010). All
Spearman Rank Correlation tests include a visual representation of the relationship between the
variables via a scatter graph using SPSS to better conceptualise the type of relationship (i.e.
positive/negative/none correlation) to be found in the Appendices of this Dissertation Study (See
Figures 13-23 in Appendices).
28
4.3.1 Hypothesis 1 “Attitudinal Loyalty will have a significant
relationship with a fan’s Behavioural Loyalty” As the impact of RM upon Attitudinal Loyalty is being investigated as the antecedent to Behavioural
Loyalty it is crucial to establish if there is already a significant relationship between Attitudinal
Loyalty and Behavioural Loyalty. It is predicted that those fans with a strong Attitudinal Loyalty will
result in an increase in Behavioural Loyalty as their psychological interest will motivate them to seek
involvement by attending more matches live involving their team (Bee and Havitz 2010; Eagly and
Chaiken 1993; Mahony et al. 2000).
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between Attitudinal Loyalty and
Behavioural Loyalty in terms of attendance. There was no statistically significant relationship
between Attitudinal Loyalty and Behavioural Loyalty. (rs= -0.024, n= 104, p= 0.809> 0.05)
Table 15: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty
Attitudinal (V3) Attendance
ever
Spearman's rho
Attitudinal
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.024
Sig. (2-tailed) . .809
N 104 104
(V3) Attendance ever
Correlation Coefficient -.024 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) .809 .
N 104 104
Table 16: Summary of Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty
Number Insight
1 Results suggest that Attitudinal Loyalty has a statistically significant relationship with
Behavioural Loyalty in terms of attendance at live matches involving the fan’s supported
team and so the null hypothesis (nH1) must be accepted.
2 Implications may suggest that a fans’ Attitudinal Loyalty does not directly result in
attendance and therefore team performances or PR may not affect purchases of match
tickets.
3 The limited scope of the sample enveloping a small spread of fans’ region (See Figure 9)
is likely to have impacted the regularity of attendance to live matches because of travel
distances (See Table 10).
4 Also the strength of Attitudinal Loyalty is likely to be strong and unwavering given the
likely success of the team that the fan supports, illustrated by Table 11, with the huge
majority of teams stated within the top tier of the English League.
29
4.3.2 Hypothesis 2 “RM usage will have a significant relationship
with a fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty” It was hypothesised that RM would positively influence the strength of a fan’s attitudinal loyalty; this
is because football clubs require satisfied fans much like any other business requires satisfied
customers in order for repeat purchasing and loyalty over alternatives. It is near impossible to
guarantee the success of the team and so the impact of failures upon fans must be minimised using
processes such as RM to encourage interaction and community building. The RM mean set of
questions were tested against the attitudinal set of questions.
A Spearman’s correlation was run to determine the relationship between RM and fan’s attitudinal
loyalty. There was no statistically significant relationship between RM and Fan Identity. (rs= 0.161,
n= 104, p= 0.000< 0.52)
Table 17: RM against Attitudinal Loyalty
RM Attitudinal
Spearman's rho
RM
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .161
Sig. (1-tailed) . .052
N 104 104
Attitudinal
Correlation Coefficient .161 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .052 .
N 104 104
30
Table 18: Summary of RM against Attitudinal Loyalty
Number Insight
1 The results from this study indicated that RM does not appear to have a significant
relationship with a fan’s attitudinal loyalty and the null hypothesis (nH2) must be
accepted.
2 However there are a number of reasons as to why this result may be unreliable:
a) Firstly perhaps the current means by which RM is administered by football clubs is not
effective enough to influence attitudinal loyalty of fans; or even perhaps attitudinal loyalty
is largely only affected by results of the team on the pitch; not off it.
b) Secondly the sampling procedure limited the respondents to predominately South-East
England (See Figure 6) supporting clubs that were a great distance away (See Table 11)
and so perhaps their attitudinal loyalty differs to those who live in close proximity.
c) Finally the questions to ascertain RM usage within the questionnaire were limited to
key methods at the discretion of the author after a review of literature however these
could not hope to cover all angles that fans experience RM from their club.
4.3.3 Hypothesis 3 “RM usage will have a significant relationship
with the fan’s total attendance at live matches involving their
supported team” The second hypothesis of this study predicted that RM would increase a fan’s attendance to live
matches involving their team. This is because RM end efforts are to facilitate and drive attendance to
live matches involving their team through ticket selling, direct marketing and promotions. The RM
mean were tested against total attendance ever.
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between RM and attendance. There was
a weak positive monotonic relationship between RM and attendance (rs= 0.302, n= 104, p= 0.001<
0.05)
31
Table 19: RM against Attendance
(V3) Attendance
ever
RM
Spearman's rho
(V3) Attendance ever
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .302**
Sig. (1-tailed) . .001
N 104 104
RM
Correlation Coefficient .302** 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .001 .
N 104 104
*Monotonic= “A Monotonic function is one that either never increases or never decreases as its
independent variable increases” (Field 2009)
Table 20: Summary of RM against Attendance
Number Insight
1 The results from this study indicated that RM does appear to have a statistically
significant relationship with a fan’s total ever attendance at a live match involving their
team and so the null hypothesis (nH3) must be rejected.
2 It is likely that those fans that regularly attend games will also want to interact and involve
themselves with RM to feel a greater part of the club.
3 Also however it is important to consider that perhaps increased interaction and
involvement with RM would increase attendance through the promotion and sale of
tickets through greater access to information and payment routes.
4 For the future it is critical that sports marketers are aware of which methods are the most
successful, which methods must be adapted to individually suit the fan and how to keep
the methods fresh to avoid irritating the fan (Funk and Pastore 2000; Mullin et al. 2007;
Tapp and Clowes 2002).
32
4.3.4 Hypothesis 4 “RM usage will have a significant relationship
with the fan’s total attendance LAST season at live matches
involving their supported team”
& 4.3.5 Hypothesis 5 “RM usage will have a significant relationship
with the fan’s total attendance THIS season at live matches
involving their supported team” As RM is a relatively new phenomenon within marketing and particularly so within the sports industry,
RM was tested against both last season and this season total attendance to try to ascertain any
relationship that greater interactions resulted in higher attendances. After reviewing the literature the
author predicts that football fans that are more involved with their football teams will have attended
more matches both last season and this season. The RM mean set of questions was tested against total
attendance LAST season; and THIS season.
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between RM and Attendance last
season. There was a moderate positive monotonic relationship between RM and Attendance last
season (rs= 0.447, n= 104, p= 0.000< 0.000)
Table 21: RM against Attendance LAST Season
RM (V4) Attendance
LAST season
Spearman's rho
RM
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .447**
Sig. (1-tailed) . .000
N 104 104
(V4) Attendance LAST
season
Correlation Coefficient .447** 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .000 .
N 104 104
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between RM and Attendance this
season. There was a weak positive monotonic relationship between RM and Attendance this season
(rs= 0.388, n= 104, p= 0.000< 0.000).
33
Table 22: RM against Attendance THIS Season
RM1 (V5) Attendance
THIS season
Spearman's rho
RM1
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .388**
Sig. (1-tailed) . .000
N 104 104
(V5) Attendance THIS
season
Correlation Coefficient .388** 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .000 .
N 104 104
Table 23: Summary of RM against Recent Attendance
Number Insight
1 The results suggest a significant statistical relationship between both RM usage and
recent attendance at live matches involving their supported football team and so the null
hypothesis (nH4 & nH5) must be rejected.
2 Given the assumption that sports marketers’ use of customised direct marketing in the
form of RM and the recent surge of social media promotions it seems logical to deduct
that RM indeed results in attendance at live matches to an extent.
3 However it must be noted that the huge majority of respondents stated that the team they
support to be very successful English top tier teams (See Table 11) and so their
successes could also be argued to have contributed to the high attendances of their fans.
4.3.6 Hypothesis 6 “RM usage will have a significant relationship
with the level of identity the fan has with their football club” The literature review highlighted the likelihood that fans that had a higher level of team identification
would be more involved with their supported teams through their increased interactions with RM and
so it was hypothesised by the author that there would be a significant relationship between the two.
The RM mean set of questions was tested against the Fan Identification mean set of questions.
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between RM and Fan Identity. There
was a moderate positive monotonic relationship between RM and Fan Identity. (rs= 0.584, n= 104,
p= 0.000< 0.05)
34
Table 24: RM against Fan Identity
RM1 Identity
Spearman's rho
RM1
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .584**
Sig. (1-tailed) . .000
N 104 104
Identity
Correlation Coefficient .584** 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .000 .
N 104 104
Table 25: Summary of RM against Fan Identity
Number Insight
1 The results suggested a moderate positive relationship between RM and fan identity
suggesting that more identified fans interacted with RM with a significance of 0.000 and
so the null hypothesis (nH6) must be rejected. However which variable is the antecedent
to the other is unknown; does RM influence the extent to which a fan forms strong team
identification or, is it simply that fans that have strong team identification will look to
interact with RM because they desire greater involvement with their team.
2 It is the author’s opinion that the most probable answer would be a combination of the
two given the review of literature (Theodorakis et al. 2012; Wann et al. 2001; Wann and
Branscombe 1993); but future studies into the extent that RM could build stronger team
identification with fans would undoubtedly be useful to sports marketers in building
loyalty.
To determine whether fan identity can indeed build loyalty the following two hypotheses were set and
will now be tested.
4.3.7 Hypothesis 7 “Fan Identification will have a significant
relationship with the fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty”
& 4.3.8 Hypothesis 8 “Fan Identification will have a significant
relationship with the fan’s Behavioural Loyalty in terms of their
attendance” Fans with stronger team identification will be more likely to interact and attend live matches involving
their football team because they will want to experience as much connection with their team as
possible, are more impressionable to sell tickets to and apportion greater importance to football. Fan
35
Identification mean set of questions against Attitudinal Loyalty mean set of questions; and
Behavioural Loyalty Attendance.
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between Fan Identity and Attitudinal
Loyalty. There was a weak positive monotonic relationship between Fan Identity and Attitudinal
Loyalty. (rs= 0.294, n= 104, p= 0.001< 0.05)
Table 26: Fan Identity against Attitudinal Loyalty
Identity Attitudinal
Spearman's rho
Identity
Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .294**
Sig. (1-tailed) . .001
N 104 104
Attitudinal
Correlation Coefficient .294** 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .001 .
N 104 104
A Spearman Correlation was run to determine the relationship between Fan Identity and Attendance.
There was a moderate positive monotonic relationship between Fan Identity and Attendance
(rs= 0.418, n= 104, p= 0.000< 0.05)
Table 27: Fan Identity against Behavioural Loyalty
(V3) Attendance
ever Identity
Spearman's rho (V3) Attendance ever Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .418**
Sig. (1-tailed) . .000
N 104 104
Identity Correlation Coefficient .418** 1.000
Sig. (1-tailed) .000 .
N 104 104
36
Table 28: Summary of Fan Identity against Attitudinal and Behavioural Loyalty
Number Insight
1 Both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty has a statistically significant relationship with fan
identity allowing and so the null hypotheses (nH7 & nH8) must be rejected.
2 The extent to which a fan identifies with their supported team has a significant impact
upon their attitude and behaviour which means that sports marketers must try to
influence team identification however they can.
3 Using these results it is clear that smaller clubs struggle to attract the younger generation
of fans as the majority of young respondents supported top flight successful teams such
as Manchester United (See Table 11).
4 Finally studies in the future should try to pinpoint exact determinants that can positively
influence fan identification to increase fan satisfaction and possibly spending into the
club.
4.4 Mann-Whitney U Test Another non-parametric test was used for the following hypotheses below because of the nature of the
variables that were required to be investigated against each other. The Mann-Whitney U test is a
nonparametric statistic test most frequently used to assess whether two independent groups are
significantly different from each other (Field 2009; Pallant 2010). The test will determine the
likelihood that two samples come from the same population in respect to their medians (Gold 1999).
4.4.1 Hypothesis 9 “Fan’s that have been a member of their clubs
website will have a significant relationship upon the number of
times they have attended live matches involving their team ever” This hypothesis investigates the impact of direct RM through the football team’s website against the
behavioural loyalty (attendance) of the fan. It is predicted that as websites facilitate the sales of tickets
that if the fan is currently/in the past been a member then they will have attended more live matches
involving the football team they support. The median value was required for each variable and so a
further SPSS test comparing means was completed in every test with the table named ‘Report’. The
total attendance ever at live matches was tested alongside website membership past/present.
37
Table 29: Website Membership against Attendance Test Statistics
V3 Attendance
Ever
Mann-Whitney U 541.000
Wilcoxon W 1244.000
Z -4.751
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000
Table 30: Website Membership
against Attendance Report
V3 Attendance Ever
V30 Website Member N Median
1.00 37 5.00
2.00 67 25.00
Total 104 13.00
Effect Size: (Medium-Large Effect)
A Mann-Whitney U Test revealed a significant difference in the attendance of fans that were a
current/past website member (Md = 25, n =67) and fans that have never been a website member (Md =
5, n = 37), U = 541, z = –4.751, p = 0.000, r = -0.465).
Table 31: Summary of Website Membership against Attendance
Number Insight
1 The results indicate that fans that had been a member of their clubs website had a
statistically significant relationship with the number of times they had attended live
matches involving their team and so the null hypothesis (nH9) must be rejected.
2 The fans that had ever been a member of their club’s website had attended five times as
many matches involving their team according to the mean score. This is likely to be a
result of direct sales of match day tickets through the website.
3 Sports marketers must devote huge time and effort through creative professionals to
create websites that engage the visitor to interact and collect personal details of the fan
so that CRM databases can use RM to better target the fans with relevant information
such as the current system implemented at Manchester City FC (Martin 2010).
38
4.4.2 Hypothesis 10 “Fan’s that currently owned or had owned a
loyalty card in the past will have a significant relationship upon the
number of times they have attended live matches involving their
team ever” In a similar vein to Hypothesis 8 it was predicted that those fans that had ever owned a loyalty card
would have been more likely to attend a larger number of live football matches involving their team.
This is because loyalty cards enable the fan greater ease of buying match day tickets as a priority fan
when they are on release and are often at a lower price which would encourage fans to attend more
games than those fans without a loyalty card. The total attendance ever at live matches was tested
alongside website membership past/present.
Table 32: Loyalty Card Holders against Attendance Test Statistics
Effect Size: (Large Effect)
A Mann-Whitney U Test revealed a significant difference in the attendance of fans that were a
current/past Loyalty Card Holder (Md = 60, n =33) and fans that have never held a Loyalty Card (Md
= 10, n = 71, U = 313.5, z = –6.003, p = 0.000, r = -0.589.
V3 Attendance
Ever
Mann-Whitney U 313.500
Wilcoxon W 2869.500
Z -6.003
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000
Table 33: Loyalty Card Holders
against Attendance Report
V31 Loyalty Card N Median
1.00 71 10.00
2.00 33 60.00
Total 104 13.00
39
Table 34: Summary of Loyalty Card Holders against Attendance
Number Insight
1 With a significance of 0.000 the results indicate a definite statistically significant
relationship between owning a loyalty card and attendance at live matches involving the
fan’s supported team and so the null hypothesis (nH10) must be rejected.
2 Although this RM method was far less popular among respondents than a website
member of a football team, the effect size was very large (r > 5) with the median number
of times attending a match was 60 which is in huge contrast to fans without the loyalty
card at a median of just 10.
3 Sports marketers should investigate firstly why this is? Before developing customised
strategies targeting those without loyalty cards to purchase one. The difficulty will be in
the profit margins as often loyalty cards offer discount prices on tickets compared to
those without who will pay full price, however if they attend a minimum of just two
matches the club is likely to make a profit.
4.4.3 Hypothesis 11 “The age of the football fan will have a
significant impact upon their RM usage” With RM a relatively new phenomenon; particularly so in the world of sport it is predicted that the
older generations would not be as heavy users of RM methods such as through social media which
younger generations have known nearly their whole life. It is by this assumption and the review of
literature that the author predicts that younger generations of football fans will interact and involve
themselves with RM more than older football fans. The RM mean set of questions was tested
alongside the age of the football fan (18-28; 29+).
Table 35: Age of Fan against RM Usage Test Statistics
RM
Mann-Whitney U 786.500
Wilcoxon W 1164.500
Z -1.879
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .060
Table 36: Age of Fan against
RM Usage Report
RM
V39D2 Age N Median
18-28 77 3.4000
29+ 27 2.8000
Total 104 3.4000
40
Effect Size: (Small Effect)
A Mann-Whitney U Test revealed no significant difference in the RM usage of fans that were
younger, 18-28, (Md = 3.4, n =77) and fans that are older, 29+, (Md = 2.8, n = 27, U = 786.5, z = –
1.879, p = 0.060, r = -0.184)
Table 37: Summary of Age against RM Usage
Number Insight
1 Surprisingly the presumption that younger generations would use social media and
interact with RM more has been proven to have no statistically significant relationship and
so the null hypothesis (nH11) must be accepted.
2 However it is important to consider the impact of significantly less respondents aged 35+
which has most probably had an influence upon the results of this test.
4.4.4 Hypothesis 12 “The age of the football fan will have a
significant impact upon the strength of their attitudinal loyalty to
their team” The review of literature suggested a recent shift of loyalty from younger generations of football fans
towards more popular/successful teams than the older football fan generation whose loyalty is more
likely to remain steadfast. For this reason the author predicted that the age of the fan will have a
greater psychological impact upon a younger fan’s attitudinal loyalty as they are more likely to
develop switching behaviours. The Attitudinal Loyalty mean set of variables was tested against the
Age of the football fan (18-28; 29+).
Table 38: Age of Fan against Attitudinal Loyalty Test Statistics
Attitudinal
Mann-Whitney U 990.000
Wilcoxon W 1368.000
Z -.370
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .712
Table 39: Age of Fan against
Attitudinal Loyalty Report
Attitudinal
V39D2 Age N Median
18-28 77 4.0000
29+ 27 3.7500
Total 104 3.7500
41
Effect Size: (Small Effect)
A Mann-Whitney U Test revealed no significant difference in the attitudinal loyalty of fans that were
younger, 18-28, (Md = 4, n =77) and fans that are older, 29+, (Md = 3.75, n = 27, U = 990, z = –0.370,
p = 0.060, r = -0.036).
Table 40: Summary of Age against Attitudinal Loyalty
Number Insight
1 Again, as above, the null hypothesis (nH12) must be accepted as the presumption that
older generations would have a significantly stronger attitudinal loyalty than younger
generations has been proven to have no relationship in this instance; with the age range
of respondents likely to have had a substantial effect.
4.4.5 Hypothesis 13 “The age of the football fan will have a
significant impact upon their Behavioural Loyalty in terms of their
attendance” While it may seem unfair to test age ranges of fans against their total attendance ever given the
younger generations have not had the same amount of time and opportunities to attend live matches;
by testing the paired mean of attendance at live matches LAST season and THIS season against age
can indicate which age generation CURRENTLY displays the greatest behavioural loyalty in terms of
their attendance currently.
Table 41: Age of Fan against Behavioural Loyalty Test Statistic
Current Attendance
Mann-Whitney U 721.000
Wilcoxon W 3724.000
Z -2.394
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .017
Table 42: Age of Fan against
Behavioural Loyalty Report
Current Attendance
V39D2 Age N Median
18-28 77 1.0000
29+ 27 3.0000
Total 104 1.0000
42
Effect Size: (Small-Medium Effect)
A Mann-Whitney U Test revealed a significant difference in the Current Attendance of fans that were
younger, 18-28, (Md = 1, n =77) and fans that are older, 29+, (Md = 3, n = 27, U = 721, z = –2.394, p
= 0.017, r = -0.235)
Table 43: Summary of Age against Attitudinal Loyalty
Number Insight
1 The null hypothesis (nH13) must be rejected as the significant figure = 0.017 > 5% which
means that this data indicates that Age has a significant impact on their Behavioural
Loyalty in terms of attendance.
2 The difference between the two in terms of their median score is only twice more in the
older generations and so sports marketers should try to increase this figure by using
processes such as RM; particularly website memberships and loyalty cards as shown
above to reach the younger generations so as to improve this attendance in the future.
43
5.0 Conclusions
To conclude this dissertation study, this final chapter reflects upon the aims and objectives that were
set in chapter 1 of this research study.
The author believes that through critical analysis of primary and secondary data the research aim has
been answered. This has been achieved through sequential research chapters devoted to addressing the
four objectives, with indications as to how far the information in this study is relevant and how future
studies could use the information from the results of this study. The following chapter will provide a
consolidated summary of key findings with reference to the research aim, and the extent to which the
findings may be limited. It will also provide recommendations for sports marketer practitioners and
future studies involved in this research area.
5.1 Consolidated Key Research Findings Figure 24 displays the conceptual framework of variables that were investigated to answer the aim of
the research study, with Table 45 displaying the strength of the relationship between the variables (if
at all).
Objectives
1. Critically analyse existing theory
involving fan loyalty and relationship
marketing.
2. Develop
understanding between fan loyalty
and relationship marketing within a football context.
3. Select an appropriate research philosophy to obtain a
relevant sample of football fans for investigation.
4. Critically appraise
the impact of relationship marketing upon fan loyalty with recommendations for
practitioners and future research.
Aim
To investigate the impact of relationship marketing upon fan's attitudunial loyalty as an antecendent to behavioural loyalty in terms of their attendance to live matches involving their team.
44
Figure 24: Conceptual Relationships between Test Variables
Table 44: Key Outcomes of Test Variable Relationships
Relationship
Investigated
Strength of Relationship
R1 RM had a moderate positive relationship with Fan Identity
R2 RM did not appear to have any significant relationship with Attitudinal Loyalty.
R3 RM had a weak positive relationship with Behavioural Loyalty.
R4 Attitudinal Loyalty did not appear to have any significant relationship with
Behavioural Loyalty
R5 Fan Identity had a weak positive relationship with Attitudinal Loyalty.
R6 Fan Identity had a moderate positive relationship with Behavioural Loyalty.
RM did not appear to have any significant relationship with Attitudinal Loyalty (R2), therefore from
the evidence of this study, the impact of RM upon a fan’s attitudinal loyalty cannot be conclusively
proven to be the direct antecedent to behavioural loyalty in terms of attendance at live matches
involving the fan’s supported team. Interestingly, Attitudinal Loyalty and Behavioural Loyalty did not
reveal a statistically significant relationship suggesting that intention may not directly link to actions
(R4). Although these results cannot confirm RM’s impact upon Attitudinal Loyalty as the antecedent
to Behavioural Loyalty in terms of attendance, it is important to consider that the this study has
numerous factors within that may have limited the extent to which the results are valid, reliable and
generalizable to the greater population. This is mainly due to time and money constraints experienced
by the author resulting in the adoption of a purposive sampling approach that may not have been far
reaching enough demographically.
With literature revealing attitudinal loyalty stems from the level of involvement with their club (Bee
and Havitz 2010; Hunt et al. 199l; Alexandris and Tsiotsou 2012) this study must highlight the fact
that the majority of the respondents were born in the South of the UK but supported teams from
45
London and the North of England (See Table 11) which implies that interaction and involvement
would be much harder and probable to be less than lose living in closer proximity. However all the
tests involving RM usage of fans resulted in a weak/moderate significant relationship with
Behavioural Loyalty (R3) in terms of their attendance, suggesting that the impact of RM is likely to
have an impact upon ticket sales. If RM can drive attendance through retention consistently, then
based on research by Reichheld (1996) profits could dramatically increase, and less money will need
to be spent upon obtaining new fans (See Figure 3).
The tests involving Age did not appear to have a significant relationship when tested against other
variables. This may have been affected by the majority of respondents aged between 18-28, suggesting
that the distribution of the web based survey reached a greater number of younger fans or perhaps that
older fans were less willing to take part. In whichever case the older fans were far less represented
within the study and so future studies should look to investigate older fans impact of RM usage upon
both Attitudinal Loyalty and Behavioural Loyalty for a more fair set of results. By including a large
number of fans aged 18-30 the results revealed valuable insights into the origin of support among
younger aged fans (See Figure 10) with friends/family and success the highest stated reasons. The data
is particularly relevant given that the vast majority of respondents residing in South-East England
where there are scarce few large and successful football teams which suggests that the success of a
club influences fan loyalty.
RM had a moderate significant relationship with Fan Identification (R1), this could be vital for sports
marketers as they try to nullify the effect of negative performances upon a fan’s attitudinal loyalty
(Tapp and Clowes 2002; Tsiotsou 2013). Both attitudinal and behavioural loyalty displayed
weak/moderate relationships with fan identification (R5 & R6); and given that fans who identify
strongly with their team often attribute the failures of their team internally (Wann and Branscombe
1993), sports marketers should look to provide interaction and involvement between fans and the club
to avoid switching behaviour to alternate teams or sports (Hirt et al. 1992; Miller and Ross 1974;
Wann et al. 2001; Wann and Branscombe 1992). However as these studies may be outdated and the
fact that sports marketers cannot control the outcome of their team’s results (Humphrey 2009) and so
RM through forms such as web forums and social media as an outlet to vent frustrations could provide
sports marketers insights into their fans’ attitudes. These methods also allow the gain of involvement
and information to the fans by explanations on performances which may help reduce negative attitudes
through gaining involvement and answers (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1999).
The variables that revealed the strongest relationships with were highly significant results were when
investigating the fans that had ever been a member of their website, and fans that had ever owned a
loyalty card, against their Behavioural Loyalty in terms of their attendance to live matches involving
their supported team. Both football club’s websites and loyalty cards facilitate the sale of tickets
however the extent to which the fans attend live matches was very highly represented. Sports
46
marketers, particularly at smaller clubs, should devote great time and efforts towards improving their
branding strategies through creative and interactive methods to increase fan loyalty, creating barriers
to competition and ultimately generating greater sales and profits (Humphrey 2009; Sheth and
Parvatiyar 1999; Tsiotsou 2013). It is important to consider the previously stated limitations with
particular reference to the age of the respondents as the younger generations are more likely to sign up
both the club website and loyalty card as they are more frequent internet users.
The female demographic was also far less represented which would not have been affected too greatly
by the sampling method as it was far too low to have only been seen by just eleven female respondents
and so deeper reasons must be responsible such as possible un-interest in the subject area or simply
that there are considerably less female football fans in the South.
5.2 Recommendations With reference to research structure and the consolidated key conclusions noted above the following
recommendations are outlined to sports marketers (Table 45) and future studies (Table 46).
Table 45: Recommendations for Practitioners
Number Description 1 The results suggest a significant relationship involving fan identity against RM, and both attitudinal
and behavioural loyalty. Therefore sports marketers should consult the literature to become aware of the factors contributing to strengthening the extent to which a fan feels a psychological connection to their team as an extension of themselves. The success of teams appears to be important to the extent to which fans identify positively with their team; particularly given that these results encompassed a large number of successful teams in the top tier league of English football. However success cannot be guaranteed and so literature suggests that clubs should provide opportunities that facilitate engagement and interaction between fan and club (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1999) with branding key for smaller market teams (Tisotsou 2013). Evidence from this study suggests that website memberships and loyalty cards may be the best relationship marketing tool to achieve this.
2 With the majority of respondents in this study aged between 18-30 and located in the South of England sports marketers should be aware that the vast majority support the more successful teams which are located in London and Northern England which will be of great concern to local Southern teams in how to better build relationships at an early age to younger fans. With results indicating that ‘hometown’ was the least stated factor of origin in supporting a team, sports marketers for smaller teams should try to improve their branding through the adaption of their marketing campaigns to include soccer schools, volunteer community work and emphasis upon place marketing to build hometown pride (Humphrey 2000; Tsiotsou 2013). For the larger, more successful teams, sports marketers should be aware of the wide scope in which their fans can reside who may become disillusioned at their lack of connection to their team because of the distance separating them. With the rapid increase in technologies; particularly social media sports marketers could bridge this distance through CRM (Figure 25 in Appendices) using regular, personal updates to strengthen the fans overall loyalty to their team (Tsiotsou 2013).
47
Table 46: Recommendations for Future Research
Number Description
1 To approach the same investigation into “RM’ impact upon attitudinal loyalty as the antecedent to behavioural loyalty” using a non-probability sampling method to widen the scope of respondents demographically across the UK to achieve a more reliable representation of the population resulting in more accurate data.
2 A mixed research method that includes qualitative data after using quantitative tests would provide richer insights into how and why RM affects fan loyalty and fan identification.
3 Using more open ended questions within the questionnaire to probe the respondents into deeper explanations. This is because the majority of respondents from this study were avid football fans keen to share their thoughts and opinion with the researcher after the questionnaire had finished.
4 To develop a theoretical framework to gain a better understanding of RM’s impact upon attitudinal loyalty as the antecedent to behavioural loyalty.
5 As much of the literature may be outdated, future research should explore origin of fan loyalty in current younger fans in order to appraise the possibility of a shift toward selecting more successful/popular teams than home teams (as proposed by Higham and Hinch 2010)
6 To investigate both female fans, and older fans usage of RM to establish their preferred interaction methods and how this could impact both their attitudinal and behavioural loyalty.
48
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56
7.0 Appendices
Table 5: Secondary Data Null Hypotheses
Number Null Hypothesis
nH1
“Attitudinal Loyalty will have no significant relationship with a fan’s Behavioural Loyalty”
nH2 “RM usage will have no significant relationship with a fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty”
nH3 “RM usage will have no significant relationship with the fan’s total attendance at live
matches involving their supported team”
nH4 “RM usage will have no significant relationship with the fan’s total attendance LAST
season at live matches involving their supported team”
nH5 “RM usage will have no significant relationship with the fan’s total attendance THIS
season at live matches involving their supported team”
nH6 “RM usage will have no significant relationship with the level of identity the fan has with
their football club”
nH7 “Fan Identification will have no significant relationship with the fan’s Attitudinal Loyalty”
nH8 “Fan Identification will have no significant relationship with the fan’s Behavioural Loyalty
in terms of their attendance”
nH9 “Fan’s that have been a member of their clubs website will have no significant
relationship upon the number of times they have attended live matches involving their
team ever”
nH10
“Fan’s that currently owned or had owned a loyalty card in the past will have no
significant relationship upon the number of times they have attended live matches
involving their team ever”
nH11
“The age of the football fan will have no significant impact upon their RM usage”
nH12
“The age of the football fan will have no significant impact upon the strength of their
attitudinal loyalty to their team”
nH13
“The age of the football fan will have no significant impact upon their Behavioural
Loyalty in terms of their attendance”
Table 14: SPSS Test of Normality
Tests of Normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnov
a Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
RM .070 104 .200* .971 104 .024
- The results indicated that because the (Sig) P value = 0.024 < 0.05 deviation from normality
indicating that the responses are not suitable for distribution to the whole population and so
non-parametric tests should be used.
57
Figure 12: Visual Representation of SPSS Data Normality
Figure 13: RM against Behavioural Loyalty
58
Figure 14: RM against Behavioural Loyalty (LAST Season)
Figure 15: RM against Behavioural Loyalty (THIS Season)
59
Figure 16: RM against Attitudinal Loyalty
Figure 17: RM against Fan Identity
60
Figure 18: Fan Identity against Behavioural Loyalty
Figure 19: Fan Identity against Attitudinal Loyalty
61
Figure 20: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty
Figure 21: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty
62
Figure 22: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty (LAST Season)
Figure 23: Attitudinal Loyalty against Behavioural Loyalty (THIS Season)
63
Fig 25: CRM Conceptual Map (Adapted from Winer 2001)
CRM Satisfaction
Frequency/ Loyalty Programs
Customization
Reward Programs
Community Building
Customer Service
64
Figure 26: Questionnaire Design
Dissertation Research Survey
Thank you for agreeing to take part in this survey. The survey should only take between five to ten
minutes of your time or can be completed at a later date. The information collected will remain
confidential. The information collected from this survey will be used for a student’s dissertation study
investigation into fan loyalty and attendance at football teams matches. For this reason all respondents
MUST support a UK based football team AND have attended a minimum of one live match involving
their team to be applicable. By completing this survey, you are giving your consent to participate in
this study.
(1) How often do you attend any level of live sporting events?
Please select the answer that best reflects your attendance level
Weekly
Fortnightly
Monthly
Yearly
Almost Never
(2) How often do YOU attend ANY level of live football matches involving ANY football club?
Please select the answer that best reflects your attendance level
Weekly
Fortnightly
Monthly
Yearly
Almost never
(3) Approximately how many times have you EVER attended a live match involving the football
club you support?
(4) Approximately how many times have you attended ANY live match involving the football
club you support LAST season?
(5) Approximately how many times have you attended a live match involving the football club
you support THIS season?
(6) Are YOU currently (or have you ever been) a season ticket holder of YOUR football club?
65
Please select the extent to which you agree with the following statements
Strongly
Disagree Disagree Unsure Agree Strongly Agree
(7)
"Attending
football
LIVE is
MORE
enjoyable
than other
forms such
as on
television
or online"
(8) "I
would like
to attend
more LIVE
matches
involving
my
football
club in the
future"
(9) "When
my
football
club is
enjoying a
successful
season I
feel
MORE
encouraged
to attend
live
matches"
(10)
"When my
football
club is
NOT
enjoying a
successful
season I
feel LESS
encouraged
to attend
live
66
Strongly
Disagree Disagree Unsure Agree Strongly Agree
matches"
(11) What factors prevent you from attending live matches involving your football club?
Please tick any of the options that apply to you
Time
Cost
Work/Education
Travel
Family Commitments
Ticket Availability
Other:
(12) What do you consider to be the biggest factor that stops you from attending live matches
involving your football club?
(13) How important is it to you that your football club wins?
Please select the answer which best reflects your opinion
1 2 3 4 5
Not Important
Very Important
(14) How important is being a fan of you football club to you?
Please select the answer which best reflects your opinion
1 2 3 4 5
Not Important
Very Important
(15) How strongly do you see yourself as a fan of football?
Please select the answer which best reflects your opinion
1 2 3 4 5
Not Strong at all
Very Strong
(16) How strongly do you see yourself as a fan of your team?
Please select the answer which best reflects your opinion
1 2 3 4 5
Not Strong at all
Very Strong
(17) How important is the success of your football club?
Please select the answer which best reflects your opinion
67
1 2 3 4 5
Not Important
Very Important
Please select the extent to which you agree with the following statements
Strongly
Disagree Disagree Unsure Agree Strongly Agree
(18) "My
friends/family
had a big
influence on
my decision
to start to
support my
football club"
(19) "My
home town
had a big
influence on
my decision
to start to
support my
football club"
(20) "The
popularity of
my football
club had a big
influence on
my decision
to start to
support my
football club"
(21) "The
success of my
football club
had a big
influence on
my decision
to start to
support my
football club"
(22) Are you now, or have you ever been a member of your football clubs website?
No
Yes
(23) Do you own, or have you ever owned a loyalty card for your football club?
No
Yes
68
Please select the most suitable answer to the following questions*Required
Daily Weekly Monthly Yearly Never
(24) How often do
you visit your
football clubs
website?
(25) How often do
you use social
media to find
information about
your football club?
(26) How often do
you receive e-
mails/post from
your football club?
(27) How often do
you use social
media to interact
with your football
club?
(28) How often do
you follow your
football club
through the
television, radio,
the newspapers, or
through contact
with other fans?
(29) How often do
you interact with
other fans of your
football club using
a web forum?
(30) How often do
you display or wear
your football clubs
name/merchandise?
69
Personal Information
What is your gender?
Male
Female
Other
Please provide the age category that you are part of
18-22
23-28
29-34
35-40
41-46
47-52
53-58
59+
Please select the region that you were born in UK
N/A
South West
South East
London
East of England
East Midlands
West Midlands
Yorkshire and the Humber
North West
North East
Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland