Abstract: Sports sponsorship has been considered a key branding strategy for various marketing objectives, but little research investigated how consumers perceived sponsor brands through sports competitions. This study aimed to examine whether team performance and gender difference jointly impacted consumers’ perceived brand personality and how team identification and self-brand connection moderated such impacts on perceived brand personality in the context of sports sponsorship. A two (Team performance: win/loss) by two (Gender: male/female) between-subjects experiment was designed with team identification and self-brand connection as two moderators. Results indicated that team performance, team identification, and self-brand connection yielded individual and joint influences on perceived brand personality. Specifically, team performance exerted significant effects on five dimensions of brand personality, while team identification yielded significant effects on brand responsibility, aggressiveness, and simplicity. Self-brand connection moderated the effect of team performance on brand responsibility and activity. The empirical evidence further illustrated that consumer-level factors came into play to influence perceived brand personality. In support of the affect-transfer hypothesis, team performance that evoked emotions greatly impacted consumers’ perceived brand personality, as they rated a sponsor brand as more positive in terms of brand responsibility, activity, aggressiveness, simplicity, and emotionality.
Abstract: This study examined effects of Facebook reaction icons and user comments on brand attitude, trust, information seeking, purchase intention, and eWOM intention towards a health brand, as well as potential moderating effects of SNS use. Results of a 3 (reaction icons: positive/neutral/negative) × 3 (valence of comments: positive/neutral/negative) between-subjects experiment (N = 306) indicated that positive Facebook reaction icons significantly influenced brand attitude, trust, purchase intention, and eWOM intention, while neutral comments significantly impacted brand attitude and trust. The degree of SNS use also negatively moderated between reaction icon valence and eWOM intention. Implications for health marketing communication are discussed.
Lee, Yen-I, Phua, Joe, & Wu, Tai-Yee (Forthcoming).
Abstract: Used during sport games to guard against incorrect calls by referees, instant replay review has provided sponsoring brands an additional advertising opportunity. Although instant replay video (IRV) encourages sport spectators to stay focused on the screen, no study has examined how viewer perception of and attitude toward an ad or brand tied to IRV are formed or how such formations might vary in different circumstances. Applying Social Identity Theory and the concept of schadenfreude (i.e., the experience of joy when observing another’s misfortune), the current study examined sport fan perceptions of an IRV-sponsoring ad and its sponsoring brand. Results from an experiment using a 2 (rivalry level: high vs. low) × 2 (suspense level: high vs. low) between-subjects design revealed that the positive emotion induced by a negative instant replay outcome for the opposing team (i.e., schadenfreude) led to positive attitude toward the ad (Aad-IRV) and the sponsoring brand (Ab-IRV). Importantly, the results indicate that the effects of schadenfreude on Aad-IRV were greater when the level of rivalry was higher. Participants exposed to the high rivalry game condition showed a stronger relationship between schadenfreude and Aad-IRV than the low rivalry game group. In addition, when the participants felt high suspense during the game, the schadenfreude resulting from a negative outcome of the rivalry team produced a significantly positive effect on Aad-IRV. However, no such schadenfreude effect was observed in the low suspense situations. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
