The Impact of Digital Communications on Consumer Perceptions of Sport Celebrity Transgressions

ABSTRACT

Whilst the use of sport celebrities in marketing strategies is growing in popularity it is not without risk. The increasing reliance on scandal by the news media to capture audience attention, has accelerated the interest in sport-celebrity transgressions. This research adopts an netnographic method to analyze over seven thousand comments from online forums about sport celebrity transgressions. We found that consumers were more likely to express negative comments in relation to transgressions that violated moral, ethical and/or legal norms and that this in turn was most likely to effect the perceived role model ability of a sport celebrity. We provide evidence that the communication behavior of sport fans in a digital communication medium extends the life of a transgression in the public domain. Finally, we noted sport fans exhibited higher levels of engagement and willingness to participate in debate in these mediums than observed in other types of online communities.

数字通信对消费者关于体育明星越界行为认知的影响

营销策略中使用体育明星的做法越来越受欢迎, 但这也并非毫无风险。新闻媒体越来越依赖丑闻以博取观众的瞩目, 加速了人们对体育明星越界行为的兴趣。这份研究采取了网上网民调查法来分析七千多条来自网上论坛针对体育明星越界行为的评论。我们发现, 消费者们对体育明星有悖道德、伦理和法律准则的越界行为更倾向于做出负面评论, 因而也很有可能影响体育明星所具有的行为榜样的能力。我们提供证据, 证明在数字通讯媒体中, 体育迷的沟通行为延长了越界行为在公共领域的传播寿命。最后, 我们注意到体育迷在这些媒体讨论中表现出高于其它类型的网络社区的参与度和意愿。

KEYWORDS:

• Digital communication
• sport celebrity transgressions, role model ability
• sport expertise
• netnographic method

关键词:

• 数字通信
• 体育明星越界行为
• 行为榜样的能力
• 体育专长
• 网上网民调查法

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Additional information regarding transgression scenarios and sites accessed and examples of coding of the comments are available upon request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne-Marie Sassenberg

Anne-Marie Sassenberg (Ph.D., University of Southern Queensland, Australia) is an academic within the school of Management and Enterprise at the University of Southern Queensland. This research presented in this paper was extracted from Dr. Sassenberg's Ph.D. dissertation which explored consumer responses to sport celebrity transgressions.

Jane Summers

Jane Summers (Ph.D., University of Queensland, Australia) is an Associate Professor Marketing at University of Southern Queensland. Dr. Summer's research interests are in the area of sport marketing and consumer psychology, particularly with reference to how consumers perceive marketing communications and respond to transgression information. Dr. Summers was the principal supervisor of Dr. Sassenberg's Ph.D. dissertation and research.

Melissa Johnson-Morgan

Melissa Johnson-Morgan (Ph.D., University of Queensland, Australia) is an associate professor in marketing at the University of Southern Queensland and her research interests are in the area of sport marketing and entrepreneurship. Dr. Johnson Morgan was a supervisor for the thesis work for Dr. Sassenberg.

Rumman Hassan

Rumman Hassan (Ph.D., University of New England, Australia) is an academic within the school of Management and Enterprise at the University of Southern Queensland. Dr. Hassan's research interests are in the area of services marketing and in particular sport marketing.