The influence of fan identity on consumer decisions towards sponsor brands in sports marketing: An experimental study in different product involvement categories

In consideration with the ongoing growth and importance of sports team sponsorships in contemporary marketing communications, its influence on consumer decisions are scrutinized in this study. In this regard, the relationship between consumers' fan identities and their attitudes and intentions toward the team sponsors' products are examined in different brand familiarity and product category involvement contexts. Two research models are developed to conceptualise the role of fan identity on sponsorship outcomes. Consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions towards the team sponsors' products are identified as the outcome variables of these models. Different brand familiarity and product category involvement contexts are customized in four different scenarios and experimented among 2083 subjects in the study. In order to test the research hypotheses, post-test multi-group experiment and post-test multi-group quasi-experiment methods are utilized. Results are analysed with MANOVA, MANCOVA procedures and multigroup structural equations modelling method in MPLUS. Findings evidence that the customers supporting the team have stronger attitudes and purchase intentions than the non-fan customers toward the team sponsor brand's products in all brand familiarity and product category involvement conditions. Fans' attitudes and intentions towards the sponsor brand's products are significantly and positively influenced by their social fan identification, overall beliefs about sponsorships, and pre-attitudes toward the sponsor brands. No significant effects of personal fan identification on attitudes and intentions toward sponsor products are found in any experiment group.