I forgot its name, but i can remember if i could see its face: A comparison study on the debranding strategy potentials of football clubs in different leagues

The ability of brands to communicate with other distinctive corporate identity elements without using the brand name, which is one of the most important corporate identity elements in every environment and in every condition where they communicate with their target audience, especially in marketing communication activities, is expressed as "Debranding". Debranding is a strategy that brands with high brand value use periodically or permanently to prove or reinforce their power. The aim of our study is to measure and compare Debranding strategy potentials of football clubs, which are accepted as sports brands, through their logos, which are corporate identity elements. The 25 football clubs representing 5 different football leagues in the "Brand Finance Football 50 2022" report, which determines the strongest and most valuable football clubs globally, constitute the sample of our study. Information about the logos of football clubs representing the sample group was obtained by document analysis method. Content analysis was applied by coding the information about the logos within the framework of the design features that support the Debranding strategy. The findings of our study show that the Debranding strategy potentials of football club logos are generally present in the "balance" and "symmetry" sub-criteria under the "harmony" main criterion. In our study, in which 7 different levels of Debranding strategy potential were identified; It is seen that the football club with the highest potential is "Eintracht Frankfurt" and the football club with the lowest is "FC Bayern München". In addition, football clubs with high Debranding strategy potential are representatives of "England-Premier League", "Germany-Bundesliga" and "France-Ligue 1"; It has been determined that the football clubs with low debranding strategy potential are Spain-La Liga Santander, Italy- Serie A representatives.