An Empirical Analysis about Romanian Soccer Consumers and Their Perception on Superliga Branding and Engagement Impact

Romanian soccer SuperLiga has its own visual identity and it is promoted as a standalone brand having its own sponsors and creating the possibility for fans to associate it with sentiments and emotions. Our research aims to analyze the impact of this strategy over football consumers engagement, behaviours and evoked emotions. For completeness purposes the research will compare these factors with how teams are perceived as brands outside of SuperLiga. This will allow correlations to check if teams involved in Superliga obtain additional gains by a direct association between these brands and perception transfer. These research findings are relevant for brands that act as stakeholders in sport via sponsorships, marketing or other activities as well for sport governing entities and public governing bodies that aim to increase general population involvement in sports of all natures. We found scientific proof for each analyzed item that was also included in the survey as studied variables or control variables. During the work process, a similar research methodology was found that helped with improving the quality of findings. The current study revealed that rebranding efforts of SuperLiga did change the overall perceptions of Romanian Football fans but it is not enough to impact their engagement in any phase regarding attending matches at stadion, watching on TV, online or other place and purchase of merchandising products.