Management of brand attributes and fan engagement with social media: A case of a Finnish professional sport club’s use of Facebook
Onyekwu, Ifeanyi (2024)
2024
Tiivistelmä
With contemporary sports organisations striving to make their brand attributes visible, and to get their fans
to engage their brand attributes, studies have shown that social media is a reliable tool to achieving these
salient goals. Although several studies have examined how sport clubs demonstrate their brand attributes
on social media, and how the fans engage them, research still shows that the topic is understudied.
The study explored how Finnish professional football clubs adopted Facebook to demonstrate their brand
attributes, and how the demonstrated brand attributes influenced the engagements of fans.
To achieve the study’s objective, Parganas, Anagnostopoulos, & Chadwick’s (2015) brand attributes model
was used as the study’s framework. The (single) case study research strategy was adopted, with a Finnish
football club (anonymous) chosen as the case organisation. Exploratory positivism was adopted as the
research philosophy which suited well in quantitative research method. 287 Facebook posts were
purposefully sampled during two sporting seasons, the onseason and offseason. With numerical data
(primary data) collected, quantitative (social media) content analyses were adopted in analysing the public
Facebook posts of the case organisation.
The results revealed that two types of brand attributes (product related and nonproduct related) were
demonstrated unequally during the onseason and the offseason; and that while majority of the 11 brand
attributes of Parganas, Anagnostopoulos, & Chadwick’s (2015) were demonstrated, not all eleven of them
were demonstratred. With all the product related brand attributes were demonstrated, not all the
nonproduct related brand attributes were demonstrated. All the brand attributes were demonstrated using
social media contents of Text, Picture, Video and Sound, with contents in Text and Picture being the most
used. And lastly, all the demonstrated brand attributes attracted significant engagements from the fans,
the product related attracted more engagement than the nonproduct related related brand related.
Although, the study commends the thoroughness and the application of the brand attributes model of
Parganas, Anagnostopoulos, & Chadwick (2015) to solving real life problem, but the applicability of the
model to demonstrating brand attributes on social media in a bid to increase fan engagement depends on a
sound social media skills and a strategic use of social media, and knowledge of branding in sports.
to engage their brand attributes, studies have shown that social media is a reliable tool to achieving these
salient goals. Although several studies have examined how sport clubs demonstrate their brand attributes
on social media, and how the fans engage them, research still shows that the topic is understudied.
The study explored how Finnish professional football clubs adopted Facebook to demonstrate their brand
attributes, and how the demonstrated brand attributes influenced the engagements of fans.
To achieve the study’s objective, Parganas, Anagnostopoulos, & Chadwick’s (2015) brand attributes model
was used as the study’s framework. The (single) case study research strategy was adopted, with a Finnish
football club (anonymous) chosen as the case organisation. Exploratory positivism was adopted as the
research philosophy which suited well in quantitative research method. 287 Facebook posts were
purposefully sampled during two sporting seasons, the onseason and offseason. With numerical data
(primary data) collected, quantitative (social media) content analyses were adopted in analysing the public
Facebook posts of the case organisation.
The results revealed that two types of brand attributes (product related and nonproduct related) were
demonstrated unequally during the onseason and the offseason; and that while majority of the 11 brand
attributes of Parganas, Anagnostopoulos, & Chadwick’s (2015) were demonstrated, not all eleven of them
were demonstratred. With all the product related brand attributes were demonstrated, not all the
nonproduct related brand attributes were demonstrated. All the brand attributes were demonstrated using
social media contents of Text, Picture, Video and Sound, with contents in Text and Picture being the most
used. And lastly, all the demonstrated brand attributes attracted significant engagements from the fans,
the product related attracted more engagement than the nonproduct related related brand related.
Although, the study commends the thoroughness and the application of the brand attributes model of
Parganas, Anagnostopoulos, & Chadwick (2015) to solving real life problem, but the applicability of the
model to demonstrating brand attributes on social media in a bid to increase fan engagement depends on a
sound social media skills and a strategic use of social media, and knowledge of branding in sports.