Branding af fodbold fanklubber: Et casestudie af Brøndby Support og FCKFCs brand

Abstract

The Danish football-fanculture began to grow in the 1980’ies with the success of the Danish national team and has since then been fast evolving, in the early 1990’ies every “Superliga” club set up a fanclub, and the number of members soon grew. In the new millenium the trend has been moving away from the fanclubs towards the smaller groups, and the fanclubs are now experiencing falling member numbers. The master thesis examines how branding is translated, when transferred to football fanclubs, and more specifically how two football fanclubs’ brands performe in an competitive environment with high loyalty. This is done by examining the two brands identity and image, in order to compare the two and discover any potential brand gaps. The thesis is designed as a comparative case study of the two football fanclubs Brøndby Support and FC Copenhagen Fan Club. The thesis employs the theoretical framework of branding with the focus being on brand identity and brand image as tools in the in-depth analysis of the two football fanclubs’ brands. The research of Lise Joern and Birger Peitersen is used to define the background of the competitive environment, and to charactherize the Danish football-fanculture as it is today. The primary data of the thesis are quantitative and comes from a survey placed online on Brøndby IF and FC Copenhagen forums. The data is used to analyse the football fanclubs brand image. The analysis shows, that the two football fanclubs’ brand identities are based on their values. Values that are primarily based on the support of their mother clubs, Brøndby IF and FC Copenhagen. Brøndby Support, however, also includes the relationship to and between their members. The initial conclusion of the analysis of the brand identity of the two football fanclubs is, that FC Copenhagen Fan Club’s brand identity is not differentiating enough, and does not fully describe what FC Copenhagen Fan Club is all about. Brøndby Supports brand identity does describe what the brand is about, and what it does for its members, and also has atleast one element that differentiates from its competitors. In the competitor analysis a number of competitors is identified and their relative strength to the football fanclubs are evaluated on the basis of the recall question included in the survey. The recall question showed that the football fanclubs achieved top of mind, while their two largest competitors achieved an overall high recall score. The brand image analysis shows, that the fanclub members are generally positive towards the fanclubs’ brand, while the non-members were less positive towards the brands. Non-members in Brøndby IF is leaning towards the negative, and do not consider Brøndby Support as part of the active fanculture. The non-members of FC Copenhagen Fan Club are more positive, but not quite as positive as the members. In the final analysis of the two football fanclubs’ brand, the identified brand identity and brand image is compared in order to identify any brand gaps if any exists. The analysis shows that when it comes to the fanclubs’ members there is a brand fit. The analysis also shows that when it comes to the FC Copenhagen non-members the brand also fits. When it comes to Brøndby non-members there is a brand gap, identified as a vision-image gap caused by a communication problem. Though there is a general brand fit in the FC Copenhagen Fan Club brand, the limited brand identity results in a vision-culture gap.