Leverage of a sport mega-event branding : a case study of the 2010 FIFA World Cup

D.Comm. (Sport Management)The primary objective of the study was to establish what brand leverage strategies could be implemented in sport mega-event branding based on the case study of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. The secondary objectives focused on discovering the dimensions of sport mega-event branding, investigating the areas of sport mega-event impacts and leverage, identifying sport mega-event brand leverage activation tools and understanding the role of mega-event brand leverage activation tools in the context of their potential influence on the development of small and medium enterprises in the host country. Deriving from the research questions and objectives, a theoretical framework of sport mega-event brand leverage was created. It provided a blueprint for seven hypotheses, formulated in this study. A quantitative descriptive design was employed by the researcher. A self-administered web based questionnaire was uploaded at the Statkon website at the University of Johannesburg. The researcher utilised a purposive judgement sampling technique which targeted small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces in South Africa. The companies were registered on four major online databases in South Africa – The Box, BizConnect, BizNetwork and online Yellow Pages. The main study was preceded by a two-phase pilot where five individuals representing conveniently chosen SMEs located in the city of Johannesburg filled out a hard copy of the questionnaire in each phase. Once the researcher refined the questions following the second pilot, the main research took place. The total of 8 902 emails, containing the website link, were sent out with 239 returned questionnaires accepted as valid to be included in the statistical analysis (2,95% response rate). The questionnaire was available online for five months between July and November 2011. The researcher made use of factor analysis and the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) in the process of data analysis. The exploratory factor analysis enabled a reduction in the total number of latent variables (factors). It was followed by the confirmatory factor analysis, which also computed the goodness-of-fit indices allowing for establishing how well the model explained the data. Once the number of factors were reduced, the EQuationS (EQS) software was used to investigate mutual relationships between different variables and testing the hypotheses. The summary statistics, such as mean, median and standard deviation also helped in the interpretation of the findings. The main finding of the research was that the destination brand (South Africa) was a significant predictor of co-branding and an integral element of the sport mega-event branding (2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa). Co-branding was identified as the main brand leverage strategy – although there were various ancillary events supporting the World Cup. Ultimately the leverage opportunities lay in South Africa co-building the strong 2010 FIFA World Cup brand. In that, South Africa was one of the two dimensions of the mega-event branding which involved event and destination brands. The impact of social and political areas was identified as the most relevant to consider when staging a sport mega-event. In consequence they should be considered by destination brand managers and sport mega-event governing bodies when planning for leverage. Further analysis revealed that national identity and international prestige were found to have been considered as the most valuable areas of mega-event brand leverage in 2010. Close associations between national identity and prestige suggested that achieving one would have an influence on the other. Respondents thought that the aspects related to national identity should be included in marketing communications associated with the mega-event, such as advertising, public relations, sponsorship and licensing. Meanwhile, strengthening of a country’s international prestige should be anticipated when establishing the public relations strategy. In addition, sponsorship and relationship marketing were viewed as potentially having a significant influence on the development of local SMEs while licensing was seen as a solution with the power to boost SMEs growth in the short-term. This suggested that sponsors and other stakeholders should be involved in planning for positive event outcomes from a point of view of a local SME. This research had four main limitations which could not make the findings relevant to the broader population. Those limitations were: the low response rate, specific characteristics of hosting nation South Africa, as well as the fact that the World Cup is the most popular sporting event in the world. In addition, the sample population was limited to South African SMEs located in the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces which had an email and were registered on the four chosen online databases. That decision was driven by the fact that these two provinces are the two major business hubs in the country and were also involved the most in hosting of the World Cup matches in 2010. SMEs’ online presence enabled the researcher to conducts the study in an efficient and cost-effective way. More research is required in the future which would test the framework in different settings, with a different sample and also within an alternative time focus, mainly pre-and post-event