Classifying Fans of Tractor FC based on
Commitment Variable
Reza
Norouzzadeh1, 2,
Jafar Barghi
Moghaddam1, 2*
RESEARCH
RJSS
JOURNAL OF
SPORT SCIENCES
Vol 3 (2): 34-38
http://www.rjssjournal.com
ISSN: 2148-0834
Copyright © 2015
1Department
of Physical Education, East Azarbaijan Science and Research Branch,
Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
2Department
of Physical Education, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz,
Iran
*Corresponding
Author: Jafar Barghi Moghaddam
ABSTRACT The purpose of the present research was to classify fans of Tractor FC
based on commitment variable. There were participated 384 subjects in the
research. Data were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA after completing
questionnaire. Age variable had no effect of loyalty. There was no significant
difference in loyalty of different age groups. Evaluation of fan loyalty in each
occupational category showed that loyalty of employees class were significantly
more than student class. Loyalty of student class fans was significantly lower than
loyalty of military, self-employed, students and workers classes. Evaluation of fans
loyalty in income levels showed no significant difference between fans loyalty of
the club in different income classes. Evaluation of fans loyalty in terms of residency
showed no significant difference between fans loyalty of the club based on
residency. Thus, planners and managers can use similar programs to improve and
increase loyalty and attendance fans at all levels of income levels of fans.
KEYWORDS Fan, Football, Marketing.
INTRODUCTION
Many people define marketing as promoting advertising and sales. They argue that companies are always looking to
sell something to customers (Jalilian, 2004). They are surprised when they hear that sale is a small part of
marketing tasks. In fact, even if sale is final objective, there will be other functions that facilitate and develop sales
(Kennet et al., 2001). The functions can be determined as customer needs, producing quality goods and pricing.
Peter Drucker, father of modern management, about marketing says the purpose of marketing is to increase selling
by considering customer’s consciousness and knowledge as which the presented goods or services are consistent
with needs of customers (Alipour et al., 2010). Of course, this does not mean that sales and promotional efforts are
not credible, but it means that the sections constitute marketing duties. Marketing is defined as a managerial social
process that individuals and social groups provide their needs and demands through production and trade
(McDonald, 2002). In general, marketing deals to satisfy needs. Nowadays, most successful companies use concept
of marketing, it means that firstly marketers identify needs of consumer and provide products to meet their needs
and guarantee long-term profitability of organization (Roosta et al., 2008). Hunt defines a fan as an avid fan of some
special sport facilities. Thus, a consumer is a user of the organized sports. We use fan term because it is dependent
on a sport. Viewers show their dependence through special actions about the object. The used sport object can
generally be sport, a particular league or team. The object can refer a character such as player, coach/manager or
other people that have strong association with team or sport (Bauer et al., 2005). Parkhouse defined sport
marketing as predicting, managing and meeting needs and wants of customers (audiences) through using and
applying marketing principles (Roosta et al., 2008). On the other hand, Koria considers sport event as a mental
experience that fans are part of the sport event or product (Bristow et al., 2001). Both definitions show importance
of fans attendance in stadiums. The first aspect shows marketing main objective because according Koria, the most
important part of sport marketing is to meet fan’s needs. The second aspect shows role of viewers to produce sport
event or product. Many managers of clubs should design their programs in an environment with decreasing income
sources and increasing executive costs. Attracting people to stadiums is a suitable solution for many clubs to
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Res. J. Sport. Sci. Vol., 3 (2), 34-38, 2015
increase income and be different from other clubs. Understanding factors affecting people has a great
importance on sport marketing to increase presence of fans. This allows marketers to use effective
marketing strategies about audiences. It also allows managers to program games more effectively, do
their jobs better and use new ways to increase revenue and income. Fans of a team can be classified
according different variables. Segmentation is based on geographic variables. This means that we divide
market to smaller geographical areas such as province, city, distinct and alley and examine them
separately in terms of behavior, needs and various needs (Vosuqi et al., 2009). Market dividing based on
geographical regions require dividing market based on different geographical regions such as country,
province, region, county, city and. . . A company can work in one or more geographical areas, but consider
local groups specially. Other is to divide physical distribution based on demographic. Sharing market
demographic means dividing market on different sections such as age, sex, occupation, income, education
level, household size and race (Boer et al, 2008). In market segmentation based on psychological
variables, buyers are divided into different groups based on lifestyle or personality and values. Finally,
market segmentation in terms of behavior, buyers is divided based on knowledge, attitudes, use of the
product or their reaction on the product. Buyers’ interest, consumption rates, customer loyalty and
readiness are the used indicators in this method. The attitude of buyers (enthralled, positive, indifferent,
negative, opposite) is another used indicator in this method to divide market. Deep loyalty is a strong
sense of identity that fans feel succession and belonging. Such a strong feel with products minimizes
possibility of changing demand. This means that a sport product is not easily substituted with another
product. The low possibility of substitution means that a team can consistently perform poorly, but its
fans do not tend to other teams with better performance. Thus, according definition of sport marketing
based on all marketing activities and needs of its customers, along with assessment of services, facilities,
costs and facilitate customer satisfaction as well as market share based on different variables as one of
main tools for marketing to identify small market segments with common needs and attendance of
football fans as clients in defining marketing in Premier League (sport product) provide the thought for
the researcher that in fact, fans of Iran Football League are divided to which sections in terms of loyalty
variable (Lee et al, 1980). Since Tractor FC is one of the most popular teams, therefore, the purpose of the
present research was to classify fans of Tractor Club football club based on commitment variable.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research was descriptive. Static population of the research was all followers of Tractor FC. Averagely,
there were attended 5,000 people to watch the matches at last season. Based on Morgan Table, there
were considered 384 people as sample size. The followers were selected voluntarily. The author
distributed questionnaires by collaborating with colleagues in one of matches, and then collected them
after completing. At the beginning, there was randomly determined some platforms among full platforms
of stadium. After a brief explanation about the research plan, the questionnaires were distributed among
them with a pen, and then they were collected after completing. The questionnaires were distributed
from two hours before starting game and then they were collected ten minutes before starting game.
Questionnaire of Psychological Commitment (Attitudinal Loyalty) of Mahoney: The questionnaire
consists 14 questions with five-scale value Likert including strongly agree, agree, no comment, disagree
and totally disagree. Scoring method of the scale is that to respondents get 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 scores by
choosing strongly agree, agree, no comment, disagree and totally disagree respectively. The evaluation of
questions 1, 3, 8, and 14 are reversed, namely totally disagree, disagree, no comment, agree and strongly
agree options get scores 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. Mahoney (2000) indented 0.58 and 0.88 for
credibility and justifiability of the questionnaire. This questionnaire has been used previously in similar
studies (Saatchian, 2011).
Questionnaire of Demographic, Geographic and Behavioral Data: the questionnaire’s demographic
consisted questions about age, income, race, marital status, education level, occupation; its geographic
side consisted questions about place of residence as well as access to motorcycle and other vehicles to go
to stadium; and its behavioral side consisted questions about time of supporting the team, number of
attending in the stadium in a season, the considered time to follow matches and news about their favorite
team through the Internet and TV. Sagha (2011) has translated and compiled the questionnaire. To
determine reliability of the questionnaire, he has reported 0.82 for Cronbach's alpha coefficient after
conducting a preliminary study on 50 followers, which it is an acceptable coefficient. The questionnaire
consists 14 questions (questions 1 to 14) to measure attitudinal loyalty by using five-point Likert scale
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Res. J. Sport. Sci. Vol., 3 (2), 34-38, 2015
(strongly agree to strongly disagree). There are five questions to measure behavioral loyalty (questions
26 to 30) and 11 questions (questions 15 to 25) to collect demographic and geographic data. Data was
analyzed by descriptive statistics. There was considered p≤ 0.05 as significance level for all statistical
analyses.
RESULTS
Due to the large number of participants and skewness of all variables between +1 and -1, there was
assumption of normal data distribution. There were used t-test and ANOVA for statistical analysis of
loyalty of each demographic variable. Results of t-test showed there is a significant difference between
loyalty of the married and single fans of the club (p≥ 0.05, t= 82.3) In other words, marriage fans are more
loyal than single ones significantly (Table 1).
Table 1. Comparing the fans’ loyalty in gender variable.
Variable
Married
Single
Number
220
164
M
60.8
57.8
SD
8.4
10.7
t
82.3
df
384
P
0.039
ANOVA results in Table 2 showed no significant difference between loyalty of fans in different age classes
(F(218.5)= 2.315, p= 0.055).
Table 2. Comparing the fans’ loyalty in age variable.
Tractor
FC
Variable
Difference place
df
SS
MS
F
P
Loyalty of age classes
Intra-group
Inter-group
Total
5
379
920.35
1730.2
1825.2
184.07
79.49
2.315
0.055
ANOVA results in Table 3 showed no significant difference between loyalty of fans in different education
classes (F= 6.96, p≥ 0.05).
Table 3. Comparing the fans’ loyalty in education variable.
Tractor
FC
Variable
Difference place
df
SS
MS
F
P
Loyalty of age classes
Intra-group
Inter-group
Total
4
380
2058.7
16328.1
18386.9
514.6
73.8
6.96
0.072
ANOVA results in Table 4 showed a significant difference between loyalty of fans in different job classes
(F= 6.253, p≥ 0.05). Tukey test results showed that source of differences are between loyalty of employee
and collegian (p≥ 0.05), self-employed and collegian (p≥ 0.05), military and collegian (p≥ 0.05), student
and collegian (p≥ 0.05) and worker and collegian (p≥ 0.05). In other words, loyalty of employee fans is
more than collegian fans. Loyalty of collegian fans is less than loyalty of military, self-employed, students
and worker classes.
Table 4. Comparing the fans’ loyalty in job variable.
Tractor
FC
36
Variable
Difference place
df
SS
MS
F
P
Loyalty of age classes
Intra-group
Inter-group
Total
6
378
2689.07
15697.8
18386.9
448.1
7168
6.235
0.000
Res. J. Sport. Sci. Vol., 3 (2), 34-38, 2015
Results of variance analysis in Table 5 showed no significant difference between loyalty of fans in
different income classes (F= 1.190, p= 0.095).
Table 5. Comparing the fans’ loyalty in family monthly income variable.
Tractor
FC
Variable
Difference place
df
SS
MS
F
P
Loyalty of age classes
Intra-group
Inter-group
Total
5
379
762.48
17624.4
18386.9
152.4
80.11
1.90
0.095
Results of independent t test in Table 6 showed no significant difference between loyalty of fans in terms
of resident (t= 0.198, p= 0.84).
Table 6. Comparing the fans’ loyalty in resident variable.
Team
Tractor
Variable
Tabriz
Other towns
Number
244
140
M
60.2
60
SD
9.6
8.09
t
0.198
df
222
P
0.843
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The purpose of the present research was to classify fans of Tractor FC based on commitment variable. The
results showed that age variable did not have effect on loyalty. There was no significant difference in
loyalty between different age groups. Evaluation of fan loyalty in each occupational category showed that
loyalty of employee fans is significantly more than collegian ones. Loyalty of collegian fans is less than
loyalty of military, self-employed, students and worker classes significantly. Evaluation of fans loyalty in
income levels showed no significant difference between fans loyalty of the club in different income classes
thus, planners and managers can use similar programs to improve and increase loyalty and attendance
fans at all levels of income levels of fans. Evaluation of fans loyalty in terms of residency showed no
significant difference between fans loyalty of the club based on residency. Using this approach, Stewart
and Smith have described five types of fans: 1) Aficionado, the group will explore performance and they
are loyal of play, in turn of team. Although they have usually a chosen team and follow games regularly,
but focus on aesthetic or skills; 2) theater goer, they want fun, they have modest loyal to team, continuous
losses will lead to loss of their interest in team, but they may be attend in some games. 3) Passionate
partisan, they want team to be winner, they are loyal to team. Their loyalty will not be decreased in short
time and they react successes and failures of team; 4) Champ fan they want team to be winner, their
loyalty to team is in short time, loyalty is a function of success of team. And 5) Reclusive partisan hey
want team to be winner, they don’t show their loyalty by attending in game but they hidden support. Each
sector interests to core product or competing, but expresses the interest in different ways. To understand
full content of loyalty requires studying both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty of fans (Forintino, 2009).
Previous research (e. g Day, 1969) emphasized importance using both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty
when trying to assess customer loyalty (Grover, 1989). In this respect, Mahoney et al (2000) developed
scale of psychological commitment to team (PCT) to divide market based on loyalty. Therefore, in the
research, there was used PCT to measure attitude loyalty and the considered times to watch sport
programs in TV, read subjects in sport newspapers and following news through the Internet for
behavioral loyalty.
Overall, the results showed that some fans have a high degree of loyalty to the team. Possibly, association
with team is an important part of life for the fans and it is impossible to change their behavior or level of
commitment. However, if these fans are ignored by managers of teams, their loyalty will be slowly
decreased over time. Strength approach is a useful tool for marketing fans with high loyalty. This strategy
should focus on strengthening the existing knowledge and possibility of inconsistency (McDonald et al.,
2002). Since they are valuable to for teams, marketers need to avoid situations where fans with high
loyalty fidelity reduce their behavior. Marketers also should focus on increasing the behavior of loyal fans
(such as more presence in stadium). Therefore, strengthening mechanism may occur in two ways. Firstly,
it can be externally strengthened through economic incentives (e. g, discount, value-added services).
Secondly, psychological strengthening based on local encouragement can be provided by personal
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Res. J. Sport. Sci. Vol., 3 (2), 34-38, 2015
encourages (e. g. newsletters). Generally, the purpose is to increase number of fans of this sector through
developing long-term relationships, interactions with additional value (Jacobi et al., 1973).
Some fans showed a low level of loyalty to the team. to explain the result, it can be said that they come to
stadium for the following reasons: 1) they come to stadium because os family and friends; 2) they come to
stadium but they are fans of other teams; 3) games are a relatively inexpensive source of entertainment;
(4) they have some free tickets, or 5) they watch games because of other reasons (e. g, commercial
transactions, social being bet). The proposed solution for the class is to increase level of commitment to
the team. Increasing loyalty among this class is very important, because they are generally fans that stop
their support from the team, when circumstances are not going well (e. g, reducing performance of team,
favorite player transfer) (Leuven, 2010).
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