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Abstract
Professional sport is a highly marketable product, whereby favourite teams often become ‘overseas sweethearts’ for millions of satellite supporters and their imagined community of like-minded fans. Scandinavia has historically proven to be a fertile market for English football and is home to some of the largest supporter groups for English clubs, in particular the Liverpool FC. This article examines the origins of Scandinavian identification with the Merseyside club and how satellite supporters in the region maintain a connection with the famous brand. Scandinavian supporters highlighted the importance of the media, especially the popularity of state-run television programmes such as Tippekampen, the team’s playing style and the presence of star players in their initial support for Liverpool FC and explained how they had turned to a virtual ‘third place’ to regularly connect and engage with fellow fans and the brand in cyberspace. In a global marketplace, satellite supporters are critical for the future of many brands and this article offers a valuable case study for those who seek to exploit these markets, monetize these consumers and build equity for their team brands.
Notes
1. Ozanian, ‘Forbes Fab 40’.
2. Deloitte, Football Money League.
3. Ibid.
4. Kerr, ‘Team Identification and Satellite Supporters’; ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
5. Cutler, ‘United Targets North American growth’.
6. ‘Liverpool Closing in on United’.
7. Gieske and Forato, Most Valuable Football Brands in Europe.
8. Kerr and Emery, ‘Allure of an ‘Overseas Sweetheart’’.
9. Underwood, Bond, and Baer, ‘Building Service Brands’.
10. Underwood, Bond, and Baer, ‘Building Service Brands’, 2.
11. Heere and James, ‘Stepping Outside the Lines’; Jacobson, Rooting for Laundry; Sutton et al., ‘Creating and Fostering Fan Identification’.
12. Branscombe and Wann, ‘Role of Identification with a Group’, 1017.
13. Gau et al., ‘Effects of Team Identification’; Wann, Causes and Consequences.
14. Wann and Branscombe, ‘Sports Fans’.
15. Janda and Donovan, ‘Identification: A Phenomenological look’; Wann, Causes and Consequences.
16. Greenwood et al., ‘Sport Fan Team Identification’; Jones, ‘Further Examination of the Factors’; Wann et al., ‘Exploratory Examination of the Factors’.
17. Chen, ‘Managerial Factors Affecting Team Identification’; Fisher and Wakefield, ‘Factors Leading to Group Identification’; Sutton et al., ‘Creating and Fostering Fan Identification’.
18. Jacobson, Rooting for Laundry.
19. Kerr and Gladden, ‘Extending the Understanding of Professional Team Brand Equity’.
20. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity.
21. Funk and James, ‘Psychological Continuum Model’.
22. Bloemer and Kasper, ‘Complex Relationship between Consumer Satisfaction’.
23. Goksoyr and Hognestad, No Longer Worlds Apart?; Hognestad, Long-distance Football Support.
24. Hognestad, Long-distance Football Support; Reimer, For the Love of England.
25. Reimer, For the Love of England, 271.
26. Heinonen, ‘Finnish Soccer Supporters’; Reimer, For the Love of England.
27. Andersson and Carlsson, ‘Diagnosis of the Commercial Immaturity of Swedish Club’.
28. Goksoyr and Hognestad, No Longer Worlds Apart?, 206.
29. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Recovering the Social’; Hognestad, ‘Transnational Passions’.
30. Goksoyr and Hognestad, No Longer Worlds Apart?; Heinonen, ‘Finnish Soccer Supporters’; Hognestad, Long-distance Football Support.
31. Armstrong and Hognestad, ‘We’re Not from Norway’, 463.
32. Hognestad, ‘Transnational Passions’; ‘Transglobal Scandinavian?’.
33. Nash, ‘Globalised Football Fandom’, 8.
34. Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6.
35. Armstrong and Hognestad, ‘Hitting the Bar’; Hognestad, ‘Transglobal Scandinavian?’.
36. Weed, ‘Pub as a Virtual Football Fandom Venue’.
37. Kerr, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
38. Crawford, ‘Career of the Sport Supporter’; Jones, ‘Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods’.
39. Ozanian, ‘Forbes Fab 40’.
40. Gladden, Milne, and Sutton, ‘Conceptual Framework for Assessing Brand Equity’; Kerr and Gladden, ‘Extending the Understanding of Professional Team’.
41. Kerr, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
42. Kerr, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’; Kerr and Emery, ‘Foreign Fandom and the Liverpool FC’.
43. ‘John Henry Hints Liverpool may Stay’.
44. Coakes et al., SPSS Analysis without Anguish; Fraser, COM703 Factor Analysis.
45. Comrey and Lee, First Course in Factor Analysis.
46. Gladden and Milne, ‘Examining the Importance of Brand Equity’; Kerr and Gladden, ‘Extending the Understanding of Professional Team Brand Equity’.
47. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity.
48. Funk and James, ‘Psychological Continuum Model’.
49. Oldenburg, Celebrating the Third Place.
50. Bayartsaikhan et al., ‘Market for Third Screen’.
51. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity, 85.
52. Chadwick, European Football Clubs and their Asian Supporters.
53. Anderson et al., Gender Differences in Sport Consumer Behavior.
54. Melnick and Wann, ‘Sport Fandom Influences’; Theodorakis and Wann, ‘Examination of Sport Fandom in Greece’.
55. Cutler, ‘Barcelona makes Indian Connection with Nokia’.
56. Muniz and O’Guinn, ‘Brand Community’.