Are sport team brands unique? The effect of product category and marketing orientation on engagement intentions among cultural brands

Purpose Sport team brands seem to be a unique, yet marketing research comparing differences between sport team brands and other cultural brands is non-existent. Applying relationship marketing theory, this research aims to demonstrate how relational and transactional marketing influence engagement intentions with sport teams differently than other cultural brands. Design/methodology/approach Experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. Study 1 was a lab study and Study 2 was a field study. The lab study employed a 4 (category of brand: sports teams/restaurants/clothing/musicians) × 2 marketing orientation (relational/transactional) between-subjects design to test differences in engagement intentions. The field study compared engagement intentions for an e-newsletter between a sports team brand a nearby retailer. Findings Across two experiments, six product categories and hundreds of brands, results indicate sport team brands effectively execute a balanced marketing orientation, finding similar (high) engagement intentions when presented with a relational or transactional offer. On the other hand, consumers have an imbalanced marketing orientation with other cultural brands, intending to engage significantly more or less with brands in other product categories (restaurant, clothing, music and specialty food) depending on whether the offer was relational (e.g. media content) or transactional (e.g. coupons). Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to test differences between sport and other product categories of cultural brands in experiments. It also provides empirical evidence for Christy et al. (1996) conceptualization of a balanced marketing orientation.