Lawrence, Neale

Some brands seem to garner uncommon levels of loyalty from their customers. These brands can weather economic downturns, long-term competitive disadvantage and continual performance failures to emerge with a core of dedicated, committed, and loyal consumers. Good examples of this phenomenon come from sports. Some sports teams have fans who proudly proclaim their loyalty as well as financially support their team through attendance, yet live their entire life without witnessing their team win a championship. Why would they do this, when switching brands is possible? This study used the sports industry to explore the minds and analyse the behaviours of sports fans in order to learn more about their uncommon loyalty towards their favourite team. A comprehensive review of loyalty and sports literature revealed researchers were better defining and measuring the dimensions of loyalty, while sports marketers were able to explain more of the variability in attendance. This study uses a sample of 651 attendees at an Australian Football League game to explore ritual behaviour, define the game-day rituals observed, and design a scale to measure sports fan ritual in order to investigate the link between ritual, and attitudinal and behavioural loyalty.

Edited version of author's abstract.… (meer)