How the Fan Effect Highlights the Role of Celebrity Endorsement in Driving Sports Brand Marketing

Sifeng Li

doi:10.54097/j5pwag28

Authors

Sifeng Li

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/j5pwag28

Keywords:

fan effect, celebrity endorsement, sports brand marketing.

Abstract

In today’s rapidly expanding sports industry, brand marketing has become a core strategy for sports enterprises to enhance competitiveness and increase market share. Celebrity endorsement is a widely used and highly influential tool in sports brand marketing, playing an increasingly critical role. The fan effect—emerging from the enthusiasm and loyalty fans have for celebrities—acts as a powerful driving force behind celebrity endorsement and offers new opportunities for sports brand marketing. Fans’ admiration and pursuit of celebrities can translate into attention to and support for the endorsed brand, showing immense potential in enhancing brand awareness, conveying brand values, and driving sales conversion. This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of how the fan effect functions in celebrity-endorsed sports brand marketing, draws on successful case studies, and explores effective strategies for utilizing this effect to help sports enterprises formulate precise and effective marketing plans. The research is conducted across multiple dimensions and aims to provide useful insights and references for practical sports brand marketing.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

[1] Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104

[2] Pegoraro, A. (2010). Look who’s talking—Athletes on Twitter: A case study. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3(4), 501–514. https://doi.org/10.1123/IJSC.3.4.501

[3] Geurin-Eagleman, A. N., & Burch, L. M. (2016). Communicating via photographs: A gendered analysis of Olympic athletes’ visual self-presentation on Instagram. Sport Management Review, 19(2), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2015.03.002

[4] Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers' perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Journal of Advertising, 19(3), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1990.10673191

[5] Jowdy, E., & McDonald, M. (2002). Tara Nott case study: Celebrity endorsements and image matching. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 11(3), 186–189.

[6] Ho, M. H., & Tanaka, H. (2023). Following Naomi Osaka and Rui Hachimura on Social Media: Silent Activism and Sport Commodification of Multiracial Japanese Athletes. Social Media + Society, 9(4), 20563051231211858. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231211858

[7] Mahmoudian, A., Sadeghi Boroujerdi, S., Mohammadi, S., Delshab, V., & Pyun, D. Y. (2021). Testing the impact of athlete brand image attributes on fan loyalty. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 36(2), 244–255. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-10-2019-0464

[8] Toffoletti, K., & Thorpe, H. (2018). The athletic labour of femininity: The branding and consumption of global celebrity sportswomen on Instagram. Journal of Consumer Culture, 18(2), 298–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540517747068

[9] Lim, J. S., Hwang, Y., Kim, S., & Biocca, F. A. (2015). How social media engagement leads to sports channel loyalty: Mediating roles of social presence and channel commitment. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, 158–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.013

[10] Shank, M. D., & Lyberger, M. R. (2014). Sports marketing: A strategic perspective. Routledge.

[11] Field, A. (2013). Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics. Sage.

[12] MacPherson, E., & Kerr, G. (2021). Sport fans’ responses on social media to professional athletes’ norm violations. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 19(1), 102–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2019.1623283

[13] Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20(1), 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000116

[14] Koo, G.-Y., Ruihley, B. J., & Dittmore, S. W. (2012). Impact of perceived on-field performance on sport celebrity source credibility. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 21(3), 147.