Abstract:
Background. Brand identity is a dynamic phenomenon with both internal and external aspects and the principles of brand identity have become a topic of the day in the field of brand literature and marketing.
Objectives. The present study seeks to explain the conceptual model of factors affecting the brand identity of handball.
Methods. The present study was applied in terms of purpose and was of the descriptive-analytical type conducted as a field study. The statistical population included experts in the areas of brand, brand identity, urban branding, brand management, and sport management. For sampling, 60 individuals were selected among 200 experts through purposeful sampling and were invited to participate in fuzzy Delphi rounds. Eventually, 25 individuals entered the Delphi rounds as the final statistical sample. A semi-open researcher-made questionnaire was used for data collection.
Results. The results of implementing the two fuzzy Delphi rounds led to the consolidation of the conceptual model of internal and external factors affecting the brand identity of handball. These included humanware factors (managers, coaches, veterans, players, fans, volunteers, sponsors, citizens and citizen fans of handball) with a score of 0.89, "performance" of handball with a score of 0.88, and having macro goals and media relations with a score of 0.86.
Conclusions. The leading model can provide managers with a comprehensive guide to building and promoting the brand of handball. In this regard, the brand identity of handball depends on the development and promotion of human resources, club performance, and media relations more than any other factor.
Machine summary:
Explaining the Conceptual Model of Factors Affecting the Brand Identity of Handball 1Maryam Balali, 1Seyed Morteza Azimzadeh*, 1Mohammad Keshtidar, 2Brenda Pitts 1Department of Motor Behavior and Sports Management, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
The results of implementing the two fuzzy Delphi rounds led to the consolidation of the conceptual model of internal and external factors affecting the brand identity of handball.
Thus, the researcher is attempting to identify the sport's internal and external elements by presenting the conceptual model and identify the role of each of them in the brand identity of handball to help the development of urban brand of Sabzevar (Figure 1).
In order to discover and extract the factors affecting the brand identity of handball, and due to the ambiguity in model components and structures, experts' opinions were utilized through fuzzy Delphi method.
The Final Model of the Factors Affecting the Handball Brand Identity in the Perspective of Experts Based on the results of Table 3, the most of the components introduced achieved a fuzzy score equal to or greater than the threshold score of 7.
Concerning the football sport, Fasanghari's (2017) research results indicated that factors affecting brand identity of Iranian Premier League clubs can increase their appeal to fans, valid history and background of the club, club traditions, reliability and trustability of promises made by the coaches, players and managers of the club, credible sponsors and even team uniforms with the logo of reputable company and the valid status of the club among the various visual, written and virtual media (25).