The delicate art of rebranding a minor league baseball franchise: Practices,pitfalls, and payoffs of rebranding the Winston-Salem Warthogs

This case study deals with the transformative rebranding of the Winston-Salem Warthogs, a Class High-A minor league baseball franchise and affiliate of Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox, as the Winston-Salem Dash. It was written and designed to be multi-faceted for instructors to use in various sport management courses, such as sport marketing, organizational behavior, human resource management, ticket and sponsorship sales, and public relations. There are three primary aims of the study. The first aim is to challenge students to critically assess the practices of external rebranding (with implications relative to consumer attitudes and brand equity) and internal rebranding (with workplace outcomes that favor employees and uphold brand values). The second aim is to make students consider the potential pitfalls of rebranding with regard to crisis and contingency planning and public relations. The third aim is to highlight the potential payoffs of rebranding when managers of sport organizations are willing to consider changes in views regarding the spirit and culture of the work environment (internal brand) and the overall quality and characteristics of brand marks (external brand). As a core feature of this real-world case study, interviews with stakeholders and personnel of the franchise give a glimpse at some real scenarios that students may face as they enter into the industry of team sport marketing.     

Defining the essence of a university: lessons from higher education branding

Branding is a phenomenon that has become increasingly common in higher education over the last few years. It entails defining the essence of what a university “is”, what it “stands for”, and what it is going to be known for, requiring precision and consistency in the formulations as well as internal commitment to the brand. This article details what happened in the process of defining the essence of a regional university in Northern Norway. Addressing the challenges, the article reveals that the notions of consistency, precision, and commitment generated resistance from faculty members and made the process very difficult to fulfill. An important finding is that a university may be too complex to be encapsulated by one brand or identity definition. The article describes this process, explains the reasons for the difficulties, and discusses some implications for higher education branding.     

图书馆移动阅读推广营销模式及其优化研究

图书馆移动阅读推广在现有营销模式的影响下形成了碎片化阅读与品牌聚合营销模式、用户数据化分析与品牌化定位相融合营销模式、移动阅读推广场景化营销模式。结合现有的营销模式特征,图书馆移动阅读推广需要基于细分理念、全景理念和痛点理念对其营销模式实现深度优化。     

The Politics of NASCAR Dads: Branded Media Paternity

The figure of the NASCAR dad emerged in the 2002 and 2004 campaign seasons to signal the importance of white, male Southern voters to politicians and their political parties. Analysis of television news coverage of NASCAR dads shows that it privileges patriarchal masculinity, the Republican Party, and corporate consumerism—all of which were propelled to high visibility by the NASCAR Corporation's place in these stories. Television news produces NASCAR dads as an “emotional brand,” a population of citizen-consumers representing the appropriation of patriotism, Christianity, and fatherhood, deployed in a politically conservative fashion.     

‘You're not just learning it,you're living it!’ Constructing the ‘good life’ in Australian university online promotional videos

Online promotional videos on Australian university websites are a form of institutional branding and marketing that construct university experience in a variety of ways. Here we consider how these multimedia texts represent student lifestyles, identities and aspirations in terms of the ‘good life’. We consider how the ‘promise of happiness’ is deployed to appeal to perceived consumer desires within the local student market, as well as within the highly competitive global knowledge economy. These texts position university students as youthful, attractive, active and fun, and depict student life as being about leisure and pleasure. Such representations promote cultural and social entitlement to the ‘good life’ as if synonymous with choice, participation and success in higher education. Learning and scholarship are depicted as secondary activities. We also contend that claims to cosmopolitanism and consumerism are framed by racialised entitlements where Whiteness remains both a commodity and norm.     

Examining branding co-creation in brand communities on social media: Applying the paradigm of Stimulus-Organism-Response

This paper examines the antecedents of branding co-creation that include social networking sites’(SNSs) participation motivations,customer participation, brand trust and brand loyalty in social media brand communities by applying the “Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm”. The survey method was used to gather data from 407 social media users. Data were analysed using structural equation modeling techniques. The findings reveal that SNSs’ participation motivations positively influence customer participation, which in turn significantly affects brand trust and brand loyalty. Consequently, both brand trust and brand loyalty positively influence branding co-creation in brand communities on social media. Furthermore, brand trust contributes as a mediator between customer participation and brand loyalty on social media brand communities. Although studies on relationships examined through the lens of the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm are popular, to the authors’ surprise there is scant literature examining the relationships between SNSs’ participation motivations, customer participation in social media brand communities, brand trust, brand loyalty and branding co-creation.     

后亚运时代广州羽毛球产业品牌发展

通过文献资料、调查、访谈、归纳分析等方法,对广州羽毛球产业发展问题进行探讨,认为广州在后亚运时代,羽毛球产业进入了一个品牌发展的阶段,面临着新的机遇与挑战,需要解决品牌发展过程中战略意识不强、文化气息不浓、产业化水平不高等问题。     

Introducing branded communities in sport for building strong brand relations in social media

Brand communities have become an important aspect for brand management in social media. However, many brands have failed to establish a successful online brand community. In this study, we introduce branded communities as an alternative concept to brand communities. In contrast to brand communities, a branded community does not revolve around a specific (sport) brand, but around any interest or need. However, a specific brand makes use of the community for marketing purposes by sponsoring or operating the community. We emphasize the suitability of sport as an interest around which branded communities can be built as well as links of branded communities to sport sponsorship. We empirically studied the factors which influence the success of this phenomenon and the effects of operating or sponsoring such a community for a brand by using an online survey (N = 501) of members of a branded online community relating to football. The results demonstrate the relevance of topic interest (i.e., identification and involvement with football) and the quality of the community as determinants of interest in and loyalty towards a branded community. The brand owner benefits from an increase in brand loyalty for those community members who are aware of the brand as the operator of the community, whereby awareness of this sponsorship does not decrease loyalty towards the community. Our research contributes to previous knowledge by proving that branded communities are both an effective means for companies to deploy sponsorship and branding strategies in social media and provide a promising opportunity for sport managers to generate value.     

User-generated branding via social media: An examination of six running brands

The increased global popularity of social media has led many consumer brands to increasingly turn to consumer-to-consumer marketing methods in recent years. One such method, user-generated branding (UGB), is defined as “the strategic and operative management of brand related user-generated content (UGC) to achieve brand goals” (Burmann & Arnhold, 2009, p. 66). Other disciplines have identified potential benefits of UGB such as cost effectiveness, the ability to track consumers, and immediate feedback regarding a brand and its products or services (Burmann, 2010). Hambrick and Kang (2015) also posited that UGB might be effective in developing stronger relationships between brands and consumers and eliciting greater engagement with consumers on social media. This study sought to fill the gap on UGB research within the sport management field. Utilising Porter’s (1985) generic strategies as a theoretical framework, the Instagram accounts of six purposefully selected running brands were examined to determine to what extent brands utilised user-generated content on their Instagram accounts and whether differences existed in audience engagement based on the type of content posted. A quantitative content analysis method was employed, and results indicated that those brands utilising a differentiation strategy and posts with an overt focus on the product or brand were most successful in eliciting engagement from followers. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed in greater detail in the paper.     

Creating fans from scratch: A qualitative analysis of child consumer brand perceptions of a new sport team

When a new sport team enters an existing league, branding becomes an important tool the team uses to establish itself and gain a following within the community. Previous research on new sport teams has focused on adult attachment and formation of fan communities, but few researchers have focused on children learning to value brands and branding techniques. Through this study, the authors examine the aspects of branding efforts, specifically branded imagery and associations, that children find important, relevant, and representative of a new sport team. A drawing contest for children ages 5–14 enrolled in public schools executed in conjunction with a local single-A baseball team after their inaugural season revealed many brand associations traditionally tied to adult fans of both new and established sport teams were irrelevant to the child participants included in this study. Branded imagery was also not used by any participants before the age of 7, extending current research on branding and child development to highlight the lack of effectiveness of branding on children younger than 7. Further findings are also discussed.