such as Ted Williams and Carlton Fisk. The brand is, as author Daryl Travis suggested. like a badge that lends you a certain identity" Thus, a key point about branding is that it goes much deeper than the names. symbols, and marks of an organization. Branding really is about what a customer thinks and feels when she sees the marks of a particular brand
As it relates to the sport setting, what a consumer thinks and feels toward a sport-related brand is developed based on experiences that consumers have when consuming sport(for example. attending a game, watching a game on television, or watching highlights of a game on ESPN.com) The benefits provided by consuming sport are much more experiential than tangible You cannot touch or taste an actual baseball game, whereas you can taste the toothpaste you put into your mouth. Additionally, what makes the experience of consuming sport so unique is the emotion tied to sport. Sport has the ability to trigger emotions that are arguably not like other leisure or entertainment products available. Can you think of an experience that triggers your emotions(good or bad) like watching your favorite team play its rival in a game that has play-off implications?
Being experiential and emotional actually lends sport organizations some advantage here. As author Marc Gobe stated:
In this hypercompetitive marketplace where goods and services alone are no longer enough to attract new market or event to maintain existing markets or clients, I believe that it is the emotional aspect products and their distribution systems that will be the key difference between consumers ultimate choice and the price that they will pay. By emotional I mean how a brand engages consumers the level of the senses and emotions: how a brand comes to life for people and forges a deeper, lasting connection.
Think about your favorite team for a minute. Beyond its name and marks, how long do take you to come up with a memory that has some emotion attached to it? Spectator sport is quite unique in the variety of emotions that are generated and in the level of emotional involvement that consumers have with their favorite sport team or athlete brands. This emotional involvement can also be favorably transferred to sponsors of sport. How else can you explain the fact that many NASCAR fans will buy only the products of the corporation that sponsor their favorite drivers? Logic goes out the window when brands are able to create such emotional connections.
This, then, is one of the key goals of branding-to create such a strong impression in the consumers' minds that when they see or hear something that includes a brand's name or its logo, marks, or colors, they experience intense positive feelings. As Declan Bolger chief marketing officer for the Portland Trail Blazers, put it: People make decisions based emotion, and reinforce them with logic." If a sport brand triggers positive emotions, it will be easier for the sport marketer to engage fans and consumers in the products of that sport brand.