Team Brand Personality and Fan Perspective Congruence of the Big Four Professional Sports Teams in Detroit

Abstract

Brand personality has become popular in modern marketing. Brands extending themselves with qualities which appeal on an emotional level with consumers is becoming more common. Not only is this phenomenon taking place regarding large corporations, but also with sport franchises. This paper aims to address the brand personality in which the Big Four Detroit sports franchises market and how fans perceive each team's brand personality. The Lions, Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers each market in different ways, while remaining distinct to Detroit fans. This paper intends to address each franchise's ability to connect with fans and judge how well they do this. The Tigers' marketed brand personality is congruent with the fan perspective, while the Pistons' and Lions' is not. The Red Wings' brand personality stands as partially congruent; however, the fan perspective conveys a slightly different result.