For the Love of Sport: Examining Sport Emotion Through a Lovemarks Lens

Lovemarks are brands and products that have high levels of love and respect and evoke a loyalty beyond reason response from consumers. These are products and brands that consumers are devoted and emotionally connected to with disregard for competitors, price change, or controversy. In the world of sport, loyalty beyond reason is common and seemingly required with many fan bases. In addition, athletes of all skill level are loyal to sporting goods and brands. The purpose of this exploratory research was to examine the relationship between Lovemarks and the world of sport. Outcomes of this research aim to assist sport managers and communication specialists in (a) breaking through advertising clutter, (b) recognizing and utilizing fan emotion for good, and (c) segmenting advertising and marketing campaigns into attainable subgroups. Utilizing a content analysis to analyze 668 open-ended nominations of sport-related products, brands, teams, venues, and people to Lovemarks. com, researchers uncovered themes and top-coded categories of love and respect. Practical and theoretical application and implications are discussed.