Exploring Tribal Fan Behavior and Digital Marketing in Sports Crises

This study aims to explore how digital marketing strategies contribute to sustaining and reinforcing tribal consumption behaviors among sports fans during times of organizational crisis. However, while the literature has extensively explored fan engagement and brand communities in stable conditions, there remains a significant gap in understanding how digital strategies function as emotional and symbolic tools during periods of organizational instability. This research aims to study the influence of digital marketing strategies in the context of a sports crisis, as promoters of tribal consumption, using a single case study. Most studies focus on stable conditions or general crisis communication, overlooking the intersection of tribalism and digital engagement in turbulent contexts. A single case study was adopted, based on qualitative methods, through a netnographic analysis, and quantitative methods, using a questionnaire focused on a sample of 309 supporters, fans, and/or members of a football club. The findings indicate that, despite the digital affordances that support tribal behavior, such as online interaction and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the effects of a crisis often overshadow the intended outcomes of digital marketing strategies, as perceived by both practitioners and consumers. The study demonstrates that while tribal fan behavior endures during periods of crisis, its manifestation transitions from overt engagement to more symbolic forms of loyalty and passive content consumption. Crises not only reshape fan perceptions but also transform their modes of interaction with digital platforms and brand communications. Although digital marketing can help maintain emotional continuity, it is insufficient to counterbalance the disillusionment caused by poor performance. These findings underscore that fan communities function as emotionally driven tribes, necessitating marketing strategies that are responsive to emotional fluctuations rather than attempting to override them. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54663/2182-9306.2025.v.13.n.24.6-46