Holy cow ! Wait ’ til next year ! A closer look at the brand loyalty of Chicago Cubs baseball fans

This study examined several factors related to the brand loyalty exhibited by fans of the Chicago Cubs major league baseball team. A total of 371 patrons of a restaurant located in Wrigleyville were surveyed prior to Cubs games at Wrigley Field. Working from a tripartite model of brand loyalty, it was predicted that, compared to less loyal fans, die-hard (extremely loyal) Cubs fans would demonstrate different attitudes and behaviors regarding the Chicago Cubs. Several hypotheses were developed and tested using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, and ANOVA procedures. Significant differences between the two fan groups were found in the areas of brand loyalty, baseball knowledge, childhood exposure to Cubs’ games, frequency of Cubs’ game attendance, and likelihood of purchasing Cubs paraphernalia. A variety of managerial implications are drawn from the results and future research suggestions are provided. Introduction A quick perusal of the van parked in the driveway provides a more than subtle hint that the homeowner is a Chicago Cubs fan: the Georgia license plate reads `̀ CUBVAN’’. Once inside the home, the visitor is inundated with further evidence of the owner’s devotion to her favorite major league baseball team. Indeed, to walk into Eileen’s home is to walk into a veritable shrine to the Chicago Cubs. On one wall a Harry Carey poster resides next to a framed official Cubs program signed by Ernie Banks. An adjacent wall is dominated by a Chicago Cubs pennant, beneath which hangs a replica of the Wrigley Field mast head, which proudly proclaims the Cubs as the 1984 National League East `̀ champs’’. A ``Wrigley Field’’ sign tucked above a doorway invites guests into a lower level restroom bedecked with Chicago Cubs wall paper complete with pinstripes, framed pictures of Wrigley Field, and towels and wash cloths adorned with the Chicago Cubs logo. Perhaps Eileen’s allegiance to the team is best summed up by a placard which recognizes her as `̀ a certified member in good standing, since 1967, in the Die-Hard Cub Fan Club’’. From computers to hamburgers, marketing organizations the world over spend billions of dollars a year (Anschuetz, 1997) in attempts to develop and The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to Mr Jay Blunk, Director, Promotions and Advertising for major league baseball’s Chicago Cubs, Father Tom Dore, and Mr George Loukas of the world-famous Cubby Bear for their cooperation, encouragement, and dedication to this research effort. A veritable shrine to the Chicago Cubs 256 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING, VOL. 18 NO. 3 2001, pp. 256-275,#MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0736-3761 An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article maintain consumer loyalty on par with the team allegiance and devotion demonstrated by Eileen. Such efforts on the part of marketers to develop brand loyalty in their consumers is understandable when one considers the following: experts estimate that it may be five times more expensive for a firm to attract a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer (Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995) and that a brand loyal customer may be nine times as profitable as a disloyal one (Light, 1994). However, despite marketers’ efforts, brand loyalty to consumer goods appears to be waning (Anschuetz, 1997; Shimp, 1997). In a world of increasing parity within product categories, consumers tend to rely on sale prices, promotions, and other marketing efforts, rather than on brand name, to decide between competing product alternatives. In essence, unlike Eileen, consumers who are `̀ die-hard’’ fans of specific brands seem to be few and far between. All else being equal, if a consumer has a choice between two competing brands, one of which is of superior quality and/or performance, that consumer could reasonably be expected to select the product that outperforms the competition. Such an expectation is supported by the results of a study conducted by Sebastian and Bristow (2000). In a study involving college students and their brand loyalty across six different product categories, the researchers found that for blue jeans, soft drinks, tennis shoes, and delivery pizza, participants exhibited significantly less brand loyalty for inferior/low quality products. More importantly, for the present research, the study also revealed that students’ brand loyalty scores were not negatively impacted for professional sports teams exhibiting low quality or inferior performance. Stemming from the work of Sebastian and Bristow (2000), the query which served as the starting point of this research is: `̀ What are some of the factors that lead consumers to be loyal to sports teams yet disloyal to consumer products?’’ A subsequent question, and the focal point of the current study is, ``If consumers are disloyal to inferior products, why are they not disloyal to professional sports teams with losing records?’’ The behaviors and decorating scheme of Eileen in the introduction of this paper clearly illustrate the phenomenon of interest in the current study. Consider if you will the history of baseball’s Chicago Cubs and the following statistics gleaned from the Chicago Cubs 1999 Information Guide. Beginning in 1876, the team has compiled a win loss/record of 9,358 and 8,790 for a winning percentage of 0.516. Since 1903, the Cubs have had five more losing seasons than winning seasons. In the past two decades the team has managed only five winning seasons. In 1999, the Cubs finished 30 games out of first place in their division with a record of 67 wins and 95 losses while the World Champion New York Yankees and the runner-up Atlanta Braves compiled regular season records of 98 and 64 and 103 and 59 respectively. Finally, as evidenced by the fans wearing T-shirts emblazoned with: `̀ Ninety Years of Suffering Is Long Enough,’’ the Chicago Cubs haven’t won a World Series title since 1908’’, a fact celebrated by another favorite Cubs’ T-shirt which reads: `̀ Chicago Cubs ± World Champions 1908’’. Clearly, relative to many other major league baseball teams, that is, relative to comparable alternative products from which fans could choose, the Chicago Cubs have a record indicative of inferior performance. Accordingly, the keen observer might reasonably expect fan loyalty to the team to wane. However, such does not appear to be the case. During each of the Cubs’ winning seasons since 1903, the average attendance at beautiful Wrigley Select the product that outperforms the competition A record indicative of inferior performance JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING, VOL. 18 NO. 3 2001 257 Field was 1,027,901 fans per year, compared to 1,099,467 fans during losing seasons. In the last ten winning seasons, stretching back to 1969, the Cubs have averaged slightly over 1.9 million fans per year. In each of their last ten losing seasons, going back to 1986, the team has drawn an average of 2.17 million fans. In essence, like Eileen, millions of sports fans are remaining loyal to the Chicago Cubs despite a somewhat painful performance history. Perhaps a comparison between the Chicago Cubs and the Minnesota Twins baseball teams best captures the essence of the phenomenon studied in this research. In 1999, the Cubs, with a record of 67 wins and 95 losses, drew nearly 3 million fans to the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. Conversely, the Minnesota Twins, a team which, much like the Cubs compiled a season record of 63 wins and 97 losses and which finished 33 games out of first place, drew slightly over 1 million fans to the Teflon-roofed Metrodome. Despite similar inferior performance records in the 1999 season, despite the fact that both teams finished last in their respective divisions, and despite the fact that ticket prices for each club are similar (Cubs tickets range from $6-$25; Twins tickets range from $4-$21), the Cubs and the Twins experienced vastly different fan behavior. In short, fans of the Minnesota Twins, as consumers of a product exhibiting inferior performance, behaved in a predictable manner and failed to consistently fill the Metrodome to capacity. The Minnesota Twins experienced a decline in fan loyalty. Chicago Cubs fans, on the other hand, behaved in what may be construed as a less conventional or rational manner and, despite the poor performance of their team, demonstrated strong brand loyalty to the team and routinely filled the seats at Wrigley Field. The important comparison between the two teams is not one of the sheer number of fans attending games, which could be accounted for, at least in part, by significant differences in the markets in which the franchises are based (i.e. Chicago has a population of some 6.5 million people compared to Minneapolis/St. Paul with 3.3 million). It is also important to keep in mind that Chicago has another major league baseball team, the Chicago White Sox, and that it is rare for native Chicagoans to be fans of both teams. Thus, the two market sizes are arguably equivalent assuming an equal distribution of Cubs and Sox fans in the Chicago market. The more important comparison is one based on the observed trend in fan attendance ± a decline for the more recently successful Minnesota team and an ongoing increase in attendance for the historically sub-par Chicago Cubs. This enigmatic behavior of Cubs fans prompted the researchers to ask, `̀ What is it about Chicago Cubs baseball fans that compels them to remain brand loyal to their team?’’ The remainder of this manuscript presents a study designed to investigate that question. Hypothesis development Consistent with basic social psychological research (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993), the brand loyalty literature has, over the years, evolved to include both behavioral and attitudinal components and to incorporate a tripartite model of customer loyalty. Initially, researchers tended to focus on the behaviors of consumers to identify and measure brand loyalty. That early work emphasized the consistency, sequence, proportion and/or probability of a consumer purchasing one brand over alternative choices (i.e. Cunningham, 1966; Kahn et al., 1986; Massey et al., 1970). Recognizing a variety of shortcomings associated with the measurement of brand loyalty via only behaviors (buying not because of loyalty but rather due to convenience, price, availability), some scholars argued that consumers’ loyalty to a Comparison between the Chicago Cubs and the Minnesota Twins Shortcomings with the measurement of brand loyalty 258 JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING, VOL. 18 NO. 3 2001 product or service included both behavioral and attitudinal components (Day, 1969; Jacoby and Chestnut, 1978; Dick and Basu, 1994). Working from this perspective, researchers have acknowledged that brand loyal consumers must hold a strong positive attitude towards the brand. That is, as illustrated in Figure 1, customers who are loyal to a brand must exhibit an overall liking for the product or service (Sheth et al., 1999; Jacoby and Chestnut, 1978) that translates into repeat purchase of that product or service. As such, the authors of this manuscript set out to assess the degree to which die-hard Chicago Cubs fans found their favorite team to be likeable. It was predicted, as discussed later, that die-hard fans would higher overall liking for the Cubs than would less loyal fans. Figure 1 also depicts three fundamental components that, according to Sheth et al. (1999), contribute to a consumer’s brand loyalty: (1) perceived brand performance fit; (2) social and emotional identification with the brand; and (3) habit and long history with the brand. The first component suggests that brand loyal consumers are not only concerned with the overall performance of a brand, but also how well the exhibited performance meets or exceeds that consumer’s expectations regarding performance of the brand. The second component of the brand loyalty model builds on the idea that, over time, some brands develop or acquire social images with which consumers may identify and to which those consumers may become emotionally attached. The third and final component of brand loyalty, habit and history with the brand, is based in part on the concept of intergenerational influence by family members. For example, a consumer who, as a child, saw his/her parents consistently purchase Kenmore appliances, might be expected to accept his/her parents’ history of using that brand as evidence of the superiority, dependability, or value of the Kenmore brand and, ultimately, those children, as adults, are likely to be `̀ loyal’’ to the Kenmore brand of appliances. Figure 1. A tripartite model of consumer brand loyalty Fundamental components JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING, VOL. 18 NO. 3 2001 259 Working from this model of brand loyalty, the following hypotheses were developed and tested. The first two hypotheses are related to the investigation of the attitudinal component of brand loyalty (H2 is a combination of attitudinal and behavioral components) while H3 and H4 address the behavioral and social and emotional identification with the brand components of the construct. H1: Die-hard Cubs fans will consider the Chicago Cubs to be more likeable than will other Cubs fans. H2: Greater numbers of die-hard Cubs fans will report having watched/ listened to Cubs games during their childhood than will other Cubs fans. H3: Die-hard Cubs fans will attend Chicago Cubs baseball games more frequently than will less loyal Cubs fans. H4: Die-hard Cubs fans will be more likely to purchase Chicago Cubs paraphernalia than will less loyal Cubs fans. Although our next hypothesis (H5) at first glance might be considered a simple procedural check, the hypothesis was developed in order to allow the researchers to empirically test the tie between the behavioral and attitudinal components of consumer brand loyalty. That is, if, as proposed in the tripartite model of brand loyalty, likeability of/attitude toward the brand, plus habit and long history with the brand are related to repeat purchase of the brand and ultimately to consumer brand loyalty, then a fan who exhibits a positive attitude towards and has a history of association with and exhibits repeat purchase behavior for a sports team should score highly on a measure of brand loyalty. H5: Die-hard Cubs fans will score higher on a measure of brand loyalty than will less loyal fans. The remaining hypotheses were developed in order to more fully examine additional factors predicted to be associated with or related to sports fans’ loyalty to inferior teams. H6: Die-hard Cubs fans will score higher on a measure of baseball knowledge/expertise than will less loyal fans. H7: Die-hard Cubs fans will score higher on a measure of nostalgia than will less loyal fans. H8: Die-hard Cubs fans will score lower on a measure of competitiveness than will less loyal fans. H9: Compared to less loyal fans, die-hard Cub fans will be more likely to remain fans if Wrigley Field were to be replaced with a new ball park. The study The data were collected from patrons at a restaurant/bar located across the street from Wrigley Field. Prior to data collection, the researchers met with the owner of the restaurant, and after presenting an outline of the research program, received the owner’s consent to administer surveys to patrons of his establishment. Data collection began shortly after the business opened and was generally stopped approximately 45 minutes prior to the first pitch at home games at Wrigley Field. Data were collected during three different home stands of the Cubs. The first data were collected in late May/early June before games against the St Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres. The second phase of data collection Consumer brand loyalty