Examining Consumer-Based Brand Associations within Women’s Professional Sport

Developing insights to sport consumption theory and assisting managers within sport organisations to position their brands to better attract, retain and develop sport consumers

Numerous Australian women’s professional sport leagues (e.g., AFLW; NRLW) have been created in recent years. The respective teams in these leagues offer increased opportunities for consumers to support women’s sport. Yet, little is known about how consumers perceive these teams. From a branding perspective, the majority of women’s teams are branded as extensions of the existing men’s offerings (e.g., The Brisbane Lions participate in both the AFL and AFLW). However, it is unclear if the women’s and men’s offerings are perceived similarly or differently in the mind of consumers. This research aims to determine the brand association perceptions that consumers attach to women’s professional sport teams, adding to sport consumer behaviour and brand management knowledge. This research will provide insights to sport consumption theory and assist managers within sport organisations to position their brands to better attract, retain and develop sport consumers. High quality academic publications and industry reports are anticipated to emerge from this research.

This research consists of two studies:

• Study 1 leveraged 31 semi-structured interviews and a manuscript based on this data has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Strategic Marketing (ABDC: A): Doyle, J. P., Kunkel, T., Kelly, S. J., Filo, K., & Cuskelly, G. (2021). Seeing the same things differently: exploring the unique brand associations linked to women’s professional sport teams. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2021.1922489
• Study 2 is in progress and will leverage an online survey building on Study 1.