![]()
Section II
Marketing perspectives
![]()
Chapter 7
Psychographic profiling and segmenting Major Indoor Soccer League fans
Glaucio Scremin and Su Liu
Introduction
Football is a global sport. The game is played and consumed in all parts of the world. The 3.2 billion viewers who watched the 2014 FIFA men’s World Cup (“2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil – Television Audience Report,” 2015), the 265 million people – about 4% of the world population – who actively play football (“265 million playing football,” 2007), and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) higher country membership than that of the United Nations (FIFA: Six facts about world football’s governing body, 2011) illustrate the ubiquity of football around the world. The global appeal of football is due, at least in part, to its simplicity, accessibility, and adaptability. The game of football has 17 simple rules, many of which (e.g., number of players, player’s equipment, the ball) can be adapted to fit diverse environmental and playing conditions. Football can be played nearly anywhere using almost any round object as a ball – asphalt streets as a pitch, trash cans as goal posts, and thread socks bundled together as a ball.
Football comes in different shapes and sizes. The traditional and most popular version of the game – 11 versus 11 players on an outdoor grass field – is the dominant form, but it is far from being the only one. The traditional form of football imposes environmental, field, and space constraints that limit the practice of the game. To circumvent those constraints, many variations of the game of football organically surfaced overtime (e.g., futsal, beach football, street football, five-a-side, and indoor football). The rapid and exponential growth of two of these variants of football – futsal and beach football – led FIFA to recognize, sanction, and organize world tournaments for futsal since 1988 and for beach football since 2005. Futsal grew to be the most popular variant of football. The game evolved in cities where space was limited and where environmental conditions prevented traditional football from being played year round. Futsal is an indoor version of football played on a smaller, hard-surface field with a smaller goal and ball and five players on each side. The game is played in two fast-paced 20 minute halves packed with action, goals, and displays of skill.
The indoor football popularized in the United States was a version of football done the “the American way.” Professional indoor football is played on synthetic turf on an oblong field in the shape and size of ice hockey rink with six players on each side. The game is divided in four 15-minute quarters. Walls instead of lines delimit the field of play. The walls keep the ball from going out of bounds and players can play off the walls thus making for a fast paced and exciting game. In some indoor football leagues, the game is scored on a point system. Goals have different point values depending on the distance where they are scored. For instance, goals scored on or beyond a 45-foot-arc are worth three points (Major Indoor Soccer League Rules of the Game 2002–2003). Indoor football incorporated many elements of more popular and traditional American sports (e.g., ice hockey’s power play, basketball’s three-point line, and multi-point scoring system) in an effort to appeal to American audiences, used to high scoring and fast-paced sports (Holroyd, 2010).
Indoor football grew in the mid-1970s, when the premier American outdoor professional football league, the NASL, organized the first large scale professional indoor football tournament. NASL leaders saw indoor football as an opportunity to increase fan’s overall interest in football and generate additional revenue streams during the winter months, when outdoor football was unfeasible, but players were still under contract. In its 1975 inaugural season, the NASL indoor tournament was a success, both on and off the field, with average game attendance among its 16 teams of 9,000 fans (Holroyd, 2010). While NASL indoor league averaged game attendance dropped to 4,869 fans per game by the 1979–80 season, many teams continued to draw crowds of over 10,000 to their games, and some teams (e.g., Memphis and Atlanta) regularly attracted more fans to their indoor than their outdoor games (Litterer, 2010; Holroyd, 2010).
The success of the NASL indoor football league led to the creation of rival indoor professional football leagues. By the early 1980s, two leagues – the Super Soccer League, the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) – had entered the professional indoor football market. The MISL boosted the popularity of indoor football. In its first few seasons, the MISL average game attendance grew to 8,000 a game, and some clubs, such as St. Louis Steamers and Kansas City Comets, regularly outdrew their NBA and NHL competition (Litterer, 2010). When the NASL folded in 1984, the MISL became and remained the highest level of professional football in the United States until the inaugural MLS season in 1996 (Moore, 2016). Developing a version of football in the mold of more popular American professional team sports was a vital but not the only strategy used to attract audiences to indoor football. To increase the entertainment value of the game, leagues such as the MISL pioneered creative product extensions and promotional strategies. Professional indoor football teams hosted post game concerts, offered souvenir giveaways, and ran themed game day promotions to attract spectators to their games. Cheerleaders, extravagant mascots, music, and live artistic performances, and other gam theatrics entertained spectators during games. In some cases, those game theatrics generated more publicity for the indoor football than the quality of play on the field (Moore, 2016; Holroyd, 2010).
Despite the early success in creating a version of football palatable to American audiences and enhancing the entertainment value of the game with creative product extensions and promotional strategies, professional indoor football teams and leagues struggled to remain viable. In a saturated sports and entertainment marketplace, professional indoor football teams compete for the attention and dollars of consumers not only among themselves but also with other sports and with other forms of entertainment. Further, as a niche sport, professional indoor football receives limited media attention and fails to appeal to large audiences and big time sponsors, all of which limit its competitive power (Greenwell, Greenhalgh, & Stover, 2013).
To better package and deliver the professional indoor football product to consumers, a clear understanding of why people consume indoor football is essential.
Uncovering the motives behind sport consumption is no easy task. First, there are numerous reasons why sport spectators follow and consume sport (e.g., entertainment, vicarious achievement, social interaction). Moreover, some motives are more salient than others in directing and shaping sport consumption behavior. For example, Zorzou et al. (2014) found that self-identity, information, socialization, financial reasons and escape were the most important factors in explaining game attendance in Greek professional football. Karakaya, Yannopoulos, and Kefalaki (2016) found that supporting the team or athlete, entertainment, interest in football, and bonding with friends as the most important reasons for attending Greek professional football games. Second, sport spectators vary in their degree of fanship ranging from mere spectators to loyal fans. It is unknown which factors or combination thereof account for the difference in fanship behavior. Third, there are several factors that mediate and moderate the relationship between sport consumption motives and behavior. For example, the involvement and team identification constructs have been purported to link motivation antecedents to sport consumption behaviors such as game attendance (Funk & James, 2004; Funk, Ridinger, & Moorman, 2004).
Researchers in sociology, social psychology, marketing, and sport management have used different theoretical models (e.g., social identity theory, attitude theory) to further our understanding of sport fan behavior (e.g., Funk & Pastore, 2000, Heere & James, 2007a). Studies of sport team identification and sport fan motivation led to the discovery of relationships between team identification, psychological well-being, and self-esteem (e.g., Wann, 2006). In sport management, Funk and Pastore (2000) used contemporary attitude theory to study fan loyalty. These authors conceptualized fan loyalty in terms of underlying attitude properties (e.g., importance, knowledge, extremity, certainty) and its strength-related consequences (e.g., resistance and behavior). Funk and colleagues (2001, 2002, and 2003) tested how well several motivational variables explained the level of spectator support among women’s professional football and basketball.
The purpose of this study was to test the proposition that team identity mediates the relationship between sport fan motives and team loyalty in professional indoor football fans. Secondarily, this investigation sought to uncover whether selected personal and social-situational factors have a moderating role in the relationships between professional indoor football fan motives and team identity and between team identity and team loyalty (Figure 7.1). From a practical perspective, creating sport fan loyalty and identification profiles based on their motives for sport consumption may prove very fruitful for sport marketers. Sport consumer profiles based solely on socio-demographic parameters (e.g., age, gender, socioeconomic status) are limited in scope in that not all consumers within a specific demographic have the same wants and needs. An alternative approach is to segment sport fans based on their motives for sport consumption and their level of team identification and loyalty. Thus, sport marketers could develop promotional and advertising campaigns targeted specifically to a given segment of sport fans with the same motivations for sport consumption and with similar levels of team identification and loyalty.
Review of literature
Motives of sport fans
Sport products and services provide consumers with a wide range of hedonic consumption motives. Hedonic motives relate to the experiential, subjective, and emotional nature of consumer choices. The escape, excitement, entertainment value, social interaction opportunities, and vicarious achievement associated with sport consumption are examples of hedonic motives. Sports consumers are also motivated by utilitarian reasons – instrumental, objective, and tangible benefits offered by sport products and services (Funk & James, 2006) (Funk, 2006). The price of admission to a sporting event as well as the convenience and accessibility of sport facilities are examples of utilitarian motives (Ross, 2007).
Stress and stimulation seeking motives include but are not limited to escape, excitement, and drama. For instance, attending a professional indoor football game may be motivated by a diversion from one’s day-to-day routines. On the other hand, someone else may find that a professional indoor football game is not an escape from everyday life but that it provides quality and affordable entertainment. Achievement seeking motivations pertain to the vicarious achievement some sport fans attain through their connection with a sport’s team. This psychological need is inherently tied with the concept of basking in reflected glory (Cialdini et al., 1976). Social interaction motives deal with one’s interest in socializing with family, friends, and other sport fans at games and other team related functions. Altogether these motivation categories encompass the social and psychological needs of sport consumers. In an effort to quantify the motives of sport consumers, researchers have developed numerous scales to measure sport consumption motivation.
Figure 7.1 Conceptual framework depicting (1) the mediating role of team identity and (2) the moderating role of select personal and social-situational variables
Over the past decade the motives behind sport fanship have received considerable attention from sport management researchers (e.g., James & Ridinger, 2002; Mahony et al., 2002 Trail & James, 2001; Funk, Mahony, Nakazawa, & Hirakawa, 2001). These researchers have not only furthered our understanding of the motives of sport fans but also provided us with valid and reliable scales to assess their motives (e.g., Sport Interest Inventory, Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption). Beyond identifying the motives of sport fans, sport management researchers have also used the motives of sport fans to try to explain the level of sport interest (e.g., Funk & James, 2006), fan involvement (Funk, Ridinger, & Moorman, 2004), and team identity (e.g., Fink, Trail, & Anderson, 2003). For instance, Fu...
