{"id":554,"date":"2010-06-16T05:14:29","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T09:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yupingliu.com\/wordpress\/?p=554"},"modified":"2010-06-16T05:14:29","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T09:14:29","slug":"loyalty-lessons-from-sports-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yupingliu.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/16\/loyalty-lessons-from-sports-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Loyalty Lessons from Sports Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Image by wwworks<\/a> | CC 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2010 FIFA World Cup<\/a> kicked off on June 11. While total viewership is still unknown at this point, Nielsen has reported an 80% audience gain for ESPN and ABC<\/a> during their weekend coverage of the event. For past World Cups, FIFA reports a worldwide audience of 26.29 billion in 2006 and 26.4 billion in 2002<\/a>. If these statistics are not convincing enough, I give you my dad as another example. He would stay up late or get up in the middle of the night to watch a match, and he has been doing so for as long as I could remember.<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, the FIFA World Cup and soccer in general claim one of the biggest fan bases around the world, and many people feel fiercely loyal toward the sport and toward their team (think fans’ riots after losing a game). Wouldn’t it be great if your company can have the same level of loyalty among your customers? While whether an average consumer’s loyalty toward a brand can reach the level of loyalty toward a sports team is open to debate, there are at least valuable loyalty lessons that can be learned from how people associate themselves with sports and sports teams. Here I would like to talk about two main takeaways.<\/p>\n

Excitement and Passion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soccer fans are passionate about the sport. Why? It is exciting! When you watch a soccer game (or any sports for that matter), you don’t know who is going to win, you are carried away by moment-to-moment excitement, and you get a rush from capturing a glimpse of an incredible move by a player that may be talked about for decades afterwards. It may be hard to imagine the same kind of passion and excitement in your products. For example, most people are not going to feel really excited about a tube of toothpaste. But that does not mean you cannot bring excitement and passion into your customer relationship. There are three ways about it:<\/p>\n

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  1. If your product category<\/strong><\/em> has excitement potential, you can try to build excitement about the category itself. Examples of this include fashion, automobiles, and entertainment.<\/li>\n
  2. If your product category is not that exciting (e.g., if you are unfortunately stuck with marketing a toothpaste), you can still build excitement around your brand name<\/strong><\/em>. In this case, brand image is the surrogate of an exciting team. To do so, your company’s culture needs to have a touch of excitement built in, and your communication strategies should coherently convey a sense of excitement. This would include your advertising messages, your sponsored events, your online social networks, etc.<\/li>\n
  3. Sometimes it is also possible to build passion about a lifestyle<\/strong><\/em> and then tag the brand name alongside it. This is different from category-level excitement in that it is not about a single product category but about a unique way of lifestyle that may span across multiple product categories. For instance, consider the extreme sports lifestyle. It has a unique target audience and it spans across fashion, sports, and other industries. It is a way of life that people feel passionate about. If your brand happens to be in such areas, you can benefit from the excitement and passion that are associated with this lifestyle.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Build Connection (in Different Ways)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Except for the most generous donors, I bet most sports teams or players do not know the names and faces of their biggest fans. But this does not deter those fans from feeling a strong connection with and loyalty toward their teams. Why? Sports build connections for individuals, in many different ways:<\/p>\n