Brands shouldn’t start imitating sports teams but they do need to understand how fandom makes them so powerful, writes Sarah Hackett.
Inflation, tough market conditions and uncertainty around the upcoming Budget are forcing us to make challenging financial choices.
Two-thirds of consumers now say that price matters far more than it did before. Our loyalty towards premium and high street brands is being tested, with many of us instead becoming loyal to lower prices and more convenient options.
To help draw us back in, brands need to take inspiration from the UK’s love for sports and the clubs and organisations that earn our unwavering loyalty week in, week out.
By taking a look at what attracts the millions of people that follow teams from the Premier League, Women’s Super League and Formula 1, brands can build their own set of loyal fans.
Build fandoms, not loyalty
The kind of loyalty shown in sport is almost unheard of within retail. Sports fans show up week after week, no matter what the result, spending hundreds of pounds on merchandise and tickets in the process. Customers who show that kind of consistency and emotional investment are the stuff of dreams for businesses.
Our new report, The Fandom Advantage: What brands can learn from the sports playbook, finds that while 71 per cent of people consider themselves deep fans of a sports team or organisation, only 53 per cent say the same about consumer brands.
The report also shows that fandoms are also more influential on spending for consumer brands (27 per cent for brands vs 16 per cent for sports organisations). Brands need to know how to close the fandom gap.
Sport earns its loyalty not because it markets better, but because it builds a stronger emotional contract. You stay true to your sports team because of the meaning it holds, and it’s true for businesses as well.
Brands can often try a shortcut through big launches or highly produced campaigns, but sport shows that fandom is built in smaller, repeated interactions.
Think of the weekly match: the sense of belonging that builds on the walk to the stadium, the tradition of singing your favourite chant. Finding ways to tap into those moments of connection between friends, family and fans is the key to establishing a fandom.
What sport teaches us about identity
Businesses can also learn from sports fandoms on how they build an identity. Fans value recognition over relevance. We want to feel part of something and not just targeted by it.
This is quite often the case when it comes to personalisation programmes. These are built for efficiency. Trying to get the right product and the right message to us, all at the right time. But if personalisation feels like an algorithm, then it stops any chance of building a proper connection.
Engagement is another integral ingredient brands can learn from fandoms. Sports teams succeed because they keep fans connected year-round, not only in-season.
They do this through always-on digital content, community forums, and mobile platforms that reward ongoing engagement, giving fans a place to express their identity in between games.
But brands will often operate in bursts, with one campaign then silence, losing fans in the gaps in between. If they want to have thousands of fans turning up week in, week out to their stores or websites, businesses need to build support in the same way as our favourite sports teams.
You can’t put a price on loyal fans
This doesn’t mean brands should start imitating sports teams, but they do need to understand what makes them so powerful. Fans are earned, not bought, through thoughtfully designed experiences, participation, and emotional connections.
Eric Cantona once famously said: “You can change your wife, your politics, your religion. But never, never can you change your favourite football team.”
If brands want to experience this same level of devotion, they need to embrace the mentality shown by fandoms.
Sarah Hackett is managing director, EMEA at Apply Digital.