Naming rights deals

A pandemia de COVID-10 causou uma disrupção sem precedentes no mundo dos esportes visto que competições passaram a ser realizadas sem público, direitos de transmissão tiverem que ser renegociados e marcas patrocinadoras foram forçadas a repensar os seus investimentos. O objetivo deste estudo é avaliar se acordos de naming rights poderiam ser uma alternativa a ser considerada por clubes de futebol e marcas patrocinadores diante do contexto de pandemia, por meio de um entendimento das percepções dos torcedores a respeito desse tipo de negócio e dos fatores que influenciam as reações dos torcedores a este tipo de negociação. Estudos anteriores à pandemia a respeito do tema apresentaram resultados diversos: enquanto em alguns casos de comercialização de naming rights houve forte reação de parcela dos torcedores, em outros casos alguns tipos de fatores contextuais foram capazes de reduzir essa resistência. Com o objetivo de investigar as percepções dos fãs, um questionário e um experimento foram aplicados com torcedores brasileiros. O estudo atual optou por focar no Brasil com o intuito de expandir a literatura relacionada ao tema, já que até o momento a produção acadêmica esteve concentrada na análise de mercados desenvolvidos como EUA e Alemanha.

Keywords: Naming rights, Patrocínio, Marketing esportivo, Gestão esportiva, Cocriação

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented disruption to sports all around the world, since matches had to be played behind closed doors, broadcast rights were renegotiated and sponsor brands were pushed to rethink their investments. The objective of this study is to find out if naming rights deals could be a conceivable alternative for football clubs and sponsor brands in the context of the pandemic, by assessing the fans perceptions toward this topic and by understanding the factors that influence fans’ reactions to this kind of negotiation. Previous studies about the topic had showed mixed results: in some cases, a part of the fans presented a strong criticism to naming rights commercialization and to the sponsor brand, whereas in other situations some types of contextual factors seemed to reduce resistance. In order to collect subsidies about the subject, a survey and an experiment were conducted with Brazilian fans. This study decided to focus in Brazil with the aim of expanding the literature related to the topic, as it had been previously concentrated in developed markets such as USA and Germany.

Keywords: Naming rights, Sponsorship, Sport marketing, Sport management, Cocreation

1. Introduction, 13

2. Theoretical background, 15
2.1 Naming rights: an overall perspective, 15
2.2 Naming rights scene in Brazil, 16
2.3 Fans’ perceptions of naming rights deals, 18
2.4 Hypotheses, 19
2.4.1 Team identification, 19
2.4.2 Perceptions toward club tradition, 19
2.4.3 Attitudes toward sponsorship, 20
2.4.4 Attitudes toward commercialism, 20
2.4.5 Conative loyalty, 21
2.4.6 Sponsor behavioral intentions, 21
2.4.7 Perceived benefits of naming rights deals, 21
2.4.8 Expected awareness, 22
2.4.9 Expected image, 22
2.4.10 Expected goodwill, 22
2.4.11 Expected purchase intention, 23
2.5 The role of contextual factors, 23

3. Research, 25
3.1 Study 1, 26
3.1.1 Methodology, 26
3.1.2 Results and Discussion, 27
3.2 Study 2, 37
3.2.1 Methodology, 37
3.2.2 Results and Discussion, 39

4. Conclusions, 44

5. Limitations and future research, 45
References, 46

Appendices, 54
Appendix 1 – Questionnaire – Study 1, 54
Appendix 2 – Questionnaire – Study 2 – Experiment 1 – Without Co-creation x Low interaction, 74
Appendix 3 – Questionnaire – Study 2 – Experiment 2 – With Co-creation x Low interaction, 82
Appendix 4 – Questionnaire – Study 3 – Experiment 3 – Without Co-creation x High interaction, 90
Appendix 5 – Questionnaire – Study 2 – Experiment 4 – With Co-creation x High interaction, 98