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Gauging fans’ involvement and commitment

This is an excerpt from Sport Marketing 6th Edition With HKPropel Access by Windy Dees,Patrick Walsh,Chad D McEvoy,Steve McKelvey.

Socialization, Involvement, and Commitment

External and internal factors influence how and how much people become involved with and committed to sport. Think about your own sports activities, whether as a child, youth, or adult. Something or somebody got you interested, somehow, in an activity. Perhaps it was a trip to watch a game, an afternoon playing with a parent or friend, a television broadcast of an exciting event or championship, or a cool new app. A trigger of interest prompted your involvement and perhaps your socialization into sport.

Sociologists typically consider socialization to be the process by which people assimilate and develop the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and other “equipment” necessary to perform various social roles. This process involves two-way interaction between the person and the environment. Socialization, in turn, demands some kind of involvement—in our case with sport. Often referred to as the ABCs of involvement, the three basic stages are affective, behavioral, and cognitive:

• Affective involvement is the attitudes, feelings, and emotions that a consumer has toward an activity. Pep rallies and pregame festivities are standard fare for affective involvement, but so too are the best advertisements. Just think of any Nike ad. Like them or not, these ads stir the emotions about a sport, about Nike, or about issues that extend far beyond the playing field. Nike rarely focuses on the products in its advertising. It highlights star athletes, tells an emotional story that resonates with the target audience, and ends with a poignant message and the famous tagline, Just Do It.
• Behavioral involvement is the actual doing. This behavior includes athletes practicing and competing; it also includes the activities of fans at a venue, at home, or on a mobile device, watching and listening and cheering. To sport marketers, behavioral involvement often means purchasing.
• Cognitive involvement is the acquisition of information and knowledge about a sport. Players sitting through position meetings, booster club members listening to a head coach’s speech, and fans reading about their favorite team’s performance on social media all exemplify cognitive involvement. Magazines, websites, apps, radio, television, and smart devices are key media for cognitive involvement by consumers eager to know more about sport.

Commitment refers to the frequency, duration, and intensity of involvement in a sport, or the willingness to expend money, time, and energy in a pattern of sport involvement. Fans consciously choose to become more or less committed to sport organizations over time, and their behavior will reflect those decisions. When fan commitment and behavior change, either positively or negatively, sport organizations have to be ready to meet evolving consumer wants and needs.

Marketers must clearly understand the types of involvement and commitment that consumers represent. The WNBA season-ticket holder who attends every game, follows player Instagram posts, tracks game statistics, pays for special-content websites, downloads the team app onto her cell phone, plays in a fantasy league, and roots with great emotion is obviously different from the father who takes his child to one game to satisfy a sense of parental duty. The casual spectator who attends a game with a free ticket is distinctly different from the rabid fan watching the same game at home. The act of attendance may or may not reflect or develop a deeper commitment. The committed fan thinks more, feels more, and does more.

One of the biggest ways sport marketers can develop committed consumers is to start early and attract kids. When children participate early and often, the effects of that involvement can last a lifetime, whether that means competing as an athlete or enjoying sports as a fan. The more kids are given access to sports and supported in their involvement at all levels, the higher the likelihood they will become adults who support the sport industry.

More Excerpts From Sport Marketing 6th Edition With HKPropel Access

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