Perhaps nothing excites members of our society more than sports. Many of us love sports and have our own favorite teams. These teams have found ways of marketing to individuals that have succeeded. This book seeks to investigate these secrets and shed light on them for anyone in business or another consumer generated part of culture.
Chapter 1 introduces us to the brand “game” that is played by sports teams all over the world and how this branding moves people from emotion toward their team to engagement with their team. Chapter 2 looks at the players in this brand game—specifically, us as the fans of these teams. Chapter 3 details how the brand game has changed with the fans more involved and how these fans really do control what the marketing departments put into play. Chapter 4 looks at how each team becomes a community with its fans, almost to the point of being a tribe. Chapter 5 delves into the longevity of fandom, and how many take this fandom of one team throughout their entire lives. Chapter 6 repackages the brand game in the digital age, showing how the different sports brands use the digital market to their advantage. Chapter 7 gives even more details on bringing in fans and how to continue to enhance a team’s market. Chapter 8 concludes with some remarks about how the future of brands and fans will play out.
As a Christian and a sports fanatic, I read this book from 2 different perspectives. From the Christian side—there are ways that we can bring people into our church and do a better job of “marketing” Christianity. But that does not mean that we should sacrifice our beliefs and most importantly the Gospel. From the sports side, I appreciated this look at the different marketing techniques that teams use and will be looking for the different principles used as I watch sports and view sports teams going forward. For these reasons, I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.
WHERE TO BUY THIS BOOK:
http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319488530
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THIS BOOK:
Smith, Aaron C.T., Constantino Stavros, and Kate Westberg. Brand Fans: Lessons from the World's Greatest Sporting Brands. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International, 2017.
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Springer book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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