The impact of brand extensions on the brand associations of a professional sports team

Brand extensions in sport are becoming increasingly common as they represent a great way to increase revenue, enter a new product class, and interact with fans outside of the core product. Previous research on sport team related brand extensions has focused on the categorization of extensions and how consumers evaluate these new offerings. However, what has not been considered is how these extensions may be impacting the team's brand. Research in business literature has examined this relationship and determined that brand extensions have the potential to either dilute or enhance the team's brand. As any positive or negative change in the team's brand will impact their ability to generate revenue and fan loyalty, it is important to understand the impact that extensions have on a professional sports team. Therefore, this study is one of first to examine how the introduction of extensions by a professional sport team effects the brand associations for that team.;Utilizing an experimental design, study participants were randomly assigned to a control group or to one of six experimental groups. Participants in the experimental groups were exposed to hypothetical brand extensions manipulated to have varying degrees of typicality and attribute congruency with the parent brand. After exposure to the hypothetical brand extension the brand associations that participants had with the team were measured using the Team Brand Association Scale (TBAS). These associations were then compared to the TBAS measurements from the control group in order to determine if any significant dilution or enhancement occurred to the team's brand after exposure to the extension.;The results indicated minimal evidence of dilution to the team's brand associations, while no enhancement effects were found. In addition, it was determined that the participant's level of identification with the team had a significant impact on the evaluation of a team's brand associations. Specifically, the respondent's level of identification had more impact on brand ratings than the exposure to the hypothetical brand extensions. Based on these results theoretical, managerial and future research implications are presented.