Brand personality of sports clubs

Purpose: Brand is the meaning attributed to products/services that makes it easier for us to distinguish a product or service from similar ones. In this research, which is planned to be studied on sports clubs due to the importance the brand concept gives to distinguishability, it is aimed to develop the "brand personality scale of sports clubs" in order to reveal the brand values ​​of the fans' sports clubs. With the developed measurement tool, the brand personality perceptions of the fans according to various variables were examined. Method: In accordance with the purpose of the research, it was aimed to develop a Likert-type rating scale. During the development phase, statistical methods that should be applied step by step during the scale development phase were applied. At these stages, first of all, with the measurement tool developed after the creation of the item pool, ensuring the content validity, performing the pre-test application, and performing the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, according to the variables of gender, age, income level, professional status, education level and the team they support, the brand of the fans for the sports clubs. personality perceptions will be examined. Findings: In the first part of the research, the development process and analyzes of the measurement tool were carried out. In this direction, 58 items were created as a result of qualitative interviews and literature review. As a result of expert opinions and the pre-test, 30 items were removed from the item pool and 28 items were subjected to exploratory factor analysis, and a 28-item structure consisting of five sub-dimensions was obtained. The reliability of the measurement tool was verified by applying confirmatory factor analyzes to the structure obtained, and finally, the "brand personality scale of sports clubs" was developed, consisting of five sub-dimensions of 28 items whose content and construct validity were ensured. Conclusion: A measurement tool with proven accuracy was developed by ensuring the content and construct validity of the brand personality scale of sports clubs. The developed measurement tool was developed by applying it specifically to the fans, and brand personality perceptions in sports were examined according to different variables. Studying the measurement tool with different sports groups will support the usefulness of the measurement tool. Keywords: brand, personality, sport, sports club