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Abstract Sports teams generate an emotional response from their fans that is stronger than in any other industry. In an effort to capitalize on the emotional relationship they share with their fans, professional sports teams try to position themselves as brands. This paper examines the strategies and actions four French soccer teams have implemented in order to build and exploit their brand. Our results underline that the development and implementation of a brand strategy should be profitable for most professional soccer teams. However, sport managers need to see the relevance of building strong brand equity for their club. Admittedly, performance on the field remains important in the development of the team brand equity. That is why professional sports teams need to build a strong brand that will enable them to go through performance cycles.
Couvelaere et al. (Tue,) studied this question.