sports

Team Loyalty Big For Cards, Giants, Dodgers

With a week under its belt, Major League Baseball is well underway as we take a fresh look at the annual Sports Fan Loyalty Index conducted by New York market research firm Brand Keys.

The St. Louis Cardinals retain their No. 1 ranking from last year, while the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants swapped places, coming in at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. The Detroit Tigers remain at No. 4 and the Washington National are still No. 5.

Let’s look at the cellar dwellers: The Seattle Mariners sank from No. 25 to last place at No. 30; The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies retained standings at Nos. 29 and 28, respectively; The San Diego Padres were down to No. 27 from No. 24, and the Houston Astros rose from last place to No. 26 this year.

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Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, Inc., says the survey of 250 self-declared fans in each team’s local market provides more than just gate counts, but insights that enable league and team management to identify areas, particularly emotional aspects of loyalty, that need strategic brand coaching. 

The Sports Fan Loyalty Index, which measures all teams in the four major sports leagues, provides an apples-to-apples comparison of the emotional intensity with which fans in a team's area support the home team.

The drivers of fan loyalty include:

Authenticity: How well they play as a team, offensively or defensively. Sometimes a new stadium or new manager can help lift loyalty when it comes to this driver. 

Fan Bonding: Are the players particularly respected and admired on and off the baseball diamond?

History and Tradition: Is the game and the team part of fans' and community rituals, institutions and beliefs? No matter how you feel about them, the Yankees (No. 9, down from No. 7 last year) have the highest rating when it comes to this driver, and for what it’s worth, it’s what has kept the Cubs going for years.

Pure Entertainment: This has always been the most important driver when it comes to reinforcing or building fan loyalty. But more important than a win-loss ratio is how exciting is a team’s play. 

“Overall league and team rankings correlate very highly with game viewership and merchandise sales,” says Passikoff, “and since rankings can be influenced depending upon how loyalty drivers are managed, it's critical that team marketers do accurate scouting regarding the strategic ball they intend to pitch to fans. All teams benefit from increased fan loyalty levels, particularly America's National Pastime. Teams need to create strong emotional connections to succeed with their fans.”

2 comments about "Team Loyalty Big For Cards, Giants, Dodgers".
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  1. Joel Rubinson from Rubinson Partners, Inc., April 11, 2016 at 7:56 a.m.

    wow, Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Royals not on the list?  Really have to think hard if this is a finding or a problem with the methodology

  2. James Smith from J. R. Smith Group, April 11, 2016 at 3:09 p.m.

    I have to believe that win/loss and momentum have pretty strong weights across the board.  What are the negative correlates?  Player scandals? Negative social media?  Are there differences in the home/away game scenarios?  Last year's post season?  Are the results skewed due to sampling "self declared" fans?  While I applaud the efforts to tackle such a multivariate problem, until more of the methodology is transparent, it's difficult to assess validity.

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