Football is a sport with great popular participation and an activity in which the audience demonstrates significant attachment for its teams (Scharf et al., 2016). Since beginning with, “the first match organized by Charles Muller in our territory, still in the nineteenth century, through the transformation from an elite sport to a popular phenomenon” (Martins, 2016, p. 8 independent translation), football in Brazil acquired several peculiarities. As suggested by Martins (2016), there is a growing appreciation of the presence of fans in the stadium, as this experience tends to be more satisfactory when compared to television and other mass media.

Football is an everyday form of Brazilian cultural expression, holding significant social and economic impact (Martins, 2016). Considering the influences mentioned above, one can state that football is a market with varied offers, such as athletes, teams and events. In addition, when it comes to attracting fans, athletes and teams, their importance stands out. However, in the case of collective modalities, there is a difference, “because while an idol has a shorter life cycle, teams tend to remain.” (Martins, 2016, p. 22 independent translation).

All of this popularity has resulted in millions of players and attracted billions of fans. Thus, it has become a business, which generates enormous revenues (Müller, Simons, & Weinmann, 2017). One factor that justifies the quest for better balance in revenues and expenditures, is the recurring news of Brazilian clubs experiencing administrative problems. Difficulties range from excessive indebtedness to involvement in ethical and legally questionable issues (Marques & Costa, 2016).

The adoption of good management practices, through administrative professionalization initiatives, and the alignment of different stakeholders with the goal of achieving long-term sustainability, is a way to soften this scenario. In addition, the “adoption of this type of practice can even be a differential in the search for capital and other resources, by stimulating a better administrative structure of clubs.” (Marques & Costa, 2016, p. 401 independent translation).

Fans’ engagement with their clubs is a differential for marketing actions. It is more effective when compared with conventional segmentation approaches that rely on demographic variables to reach their target audience, such as, income, region, gender and age (Fleury et al., 2016). Thus, opportunities to create marketing actions to improve return on investment are substantial.

The Fan Membership Programs (FMPs), which is a proposal inspired by the European clubs, stands out in this direction, being a viable alternative to increase revenue and make the modernization projects of Brazilian clubs’ feasible. In addition, FMPs act as mechanisms to improve the relationship between clubs and supporters, broadening the knowledge of public loyalty (Martins, 2016). As stadiums are places of interactions between multiple stakeholders (sponsors, investors, governments, and telecommunications), it may be suggested that while sports can be considered as a spectacle and a popular form of entertainment, FMPs are a practice that allow the club to strengthen its relationship with its fans. (Martins, 2016).

With practices such as Football FMPs, this relationship marketing adoption has achieved widespread success in Europe, where European clubs pioneered the club-related products and services offering (Martins, 2016). Sport Club International was the first Brazilian club to conceive and carry out philosophies that put fans as the focus of their business, making them the pioneer of Brazil’s FMP creation in 2002 (Avancini et al., 2010).

Brazilian football clubs sought to adopt their Fan Membership Programs in order to increase their revenues with the public in the stadiums, (Martins, 2016), as fans who are also members, buy tickets with advantages, besides having access to other benefits (Itaú BBA, 2016). In Brazil, one of the main supporters of FMPs is the “Movement for Better Football”, which aims to foster partnerships between large companies and the teams. Such movements aim to “leverage fan club programs in Brazil by offering many brands, products and service discounts to participants” (Martins, 2016, p. 11 independent translation).

Marketing employs the concept of perceived value as a starting point for the construction of new offers. Considering that football has a significant public variety, such a concept includes the need to map the different decisions of these sport fans. The perceived value is composed of qualitative, quantitative, objective, and subjective factors, which form the users’ experience. The proportion of costs, in relation to the perceived benefits, implies the perceived value. Therefore, it is “the consumer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product based on the perception of what is received and what is given” (Yang et al., 2016, p. 257).

Hence, understanding and quantifying the consumer’s perceived value is a required step to delivering a valuable offer. In this way, the value analysis is a step that must precede an FMP strategy. To accomplish this analysis, researchers who are investigating the consumer decision process usually rely on the use of Conjoint Analysis (Nuraeni, Novani, & Arru, 2015).

The purpose of this paper is identifying the perceived value structure by means of sociodemographic segments, in a set of attributes as offered by Fan Membership Programs of the 2016 Football Brazilian Championship series A clubs.

This article is organized as follows: the next section presents the theoretical foundation; the third section describes the methodological procedures; the fourth section presents the results analysis; and the last section reports the conclusions of this study, as well as the limitations and suggestions for future research.

This study utilizes both descriptive and quantitative research. The data was collected by a virtual self-completion survey elaborated in two stages. Firstly, the respondent was evaluated using the real plans of his favorite team’s FMP and what he would be more likely to acquire. Then, he was evaluated in the same way using a Likert scale of 10 points 16 fictitious plans.

The fictitious plans were elaborated for Conjoint Analysis estimates. Such plans were derived from the benefits identified in FMPs of 20 teams from the 2016 Brazilian Football Championship series A, which was summarized in six main attributes, a mix of nominal and scale attributes. Typical values found in real FMPs in the market were the source for determining the values, range, and level for each attribute.

The option was to use a fractional factorial design for stimuli combinations. The design is comprised of six attributes, three attributes with three levels and three attributes with two levels. It would be impracticable to opt for the full profile approach because the instrument would have 72 stimuli (3³ x 3²) which would require more time and effort from the respondent, rampaging the responses rate and quality.

Figure 2 demonstrates the six chosen constructs. In the price, the levels 20, 40, 100 and 140 Brazilian reais were presented to the respondents. The discount on tickets had the options of 30 %, 60 %, and 90 %. The benefits attribute was related to partnerships, with the options, “movement for better soccer”, “discount in the partners’ network” and “official stores’ discount”. For the anticipated purchase and privileged area, the respondent only opined in a binary form (yes or no). Finally, the number of invited and family (dependents) had the levels one, two or three guests.

Figure 2. Source: Prepared by the authors

A convenience sampling was adopted, while the target population was derived from estimates on the number of fans between 2015 and 2016 (survey). It is worth mentioning that even with a large and unknown population size, we used the standard 5 % margin of error and 95 % confidence level, the minimum sample size goal was 386, and the research gathered information from 436 valid observations.

A pre-test was performed and applied to respondents with the same profile of the target population, to verify issues that could hinder the questionnaire interpretation. The dubious points were modified, and the pre-test reapplied. Next, it was verified if the CA design was coherent before deriving to the ultimate survey. The questionnaire was applied through SurveyMonkey® sending the links to emails, social networks, and WhatsApp® groups related to the selected Football clubs.

The questionnaire used a forced response approach, so all responses were mandatory. In this way, there was no missing data. Of the 584 partial respondents, 87 interrupted the questionnaire, corresponding to 14.9 % of the entire database. In addition, 43 respondents evaluated the 16 fictitious plans with the same note, making the estimation by CA impossible (since the dependent variable Y become constant). These cases were also removed from the sample, corresponding to 7.3 % of the results. In total, the data loss corresponded to 22 % of the potential database.

Univariate outliers were analyzed using Z scores and the Mahalanobis distance was used to classify multivariate outliers. Using these approaches, six atypical observations were found, which were all positive outliers (Z greater than 2,58), none of the multivariate form. Such responses were excluded from analyses.

To check the CA reliability, the Kendall correlation measure was employed, which indicates if there is a consensus between the original responses and those estimated by the model. A significance level of 5 % (p <0.05) was applied and used for this finality (Benitez & Golinski, 2007). Traditionally, the cut-off point of the p-value to reject the null hypothesis is 0.05 (Ferreira & Patino, 2015). Twelve non-significant individual results were found, which were excluded. All research analyses were done using statistical software SPSS 17.0®.

This section presents the main results of the study, mainly focusing on the CA results (Hair, Jr. et. al 2005). The majority of respondents in the sample were males aged between 18 and 29 years old, single, and living in Minas Gerais state, with higher education, and a family income between R$ 2,041.00 and R$ 5,100.00. The researcher’s social networks influenced these results since it is a convenience sample.

Attributes levels part-worth and attribute importance were estimated at the individual level before post hoc aggregated results (Hair, Jr. et. al 2005). This allowed us to predict the FMPs’ best offer possibilities, based on both their characteristics and the individual choice model estimates. This is an effective approach for allowing marketers to identify the process which fans compare and evaluate FMPs’ alternatives (Anand, Bansal, & Aggrawal, 2018). However, it’s important to emphasize the requirements to adapting marketing strategies for sports marketing, as pointed out by Baker, McDonald and Funk (2016), since it’s a market with an unusual lack of “competing brands” (teams) from the point of view of the fans, since they are loyal to their teams.

Results indicate that, for the general sample, the perceived attribute with the highest value for the respondents is the “Price”, and the level “R$ 20.00” was the one that presented the largest relative importance weight. Hinterhuber (2004) argues that the consumers’ value perception in relation to a service, interferes with the price they are willing to pay.

The need for high-quality services has emerged as a value perception antecedent. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the interpreting ways and what constitutes a value offer in the user’s perception, as consumers have become more selective with the offers, analyzing the total cost and not just the monetary one (Berry, Zeithaml, & Parasuraman, 1985).

Next, the attribute “Discounts on tickets” received greater importance and the “90 %” level was the most valued. Among their many benefits, FMPs have, as a main objective, to offer discounted tickets, which is a good option for clubs that usually do not fill all the stadiums’ seats. This factor is usually associated with the sporting momentum experienced by the team (Itaú BBA, 2016) and such discounts encourage the fans’ presence at matches.

Fanatical fans are present at most games, regardless of the importance of the match. However, Baker, McDonald and Funk (2016) recommend not to adopt strategies focused exclusively on this small number of fans, who consume in large quantities, but rather to invest in a broader base.

Next, it was verified that the construct “Benefits” received more importance, the preferred level being, “Discount in the network of partners.” In Brazil, one of the FMPs’ main supporters is the “Movement for Better Football.” According to Martins (2016), these supporters aim to “leverage the club programs in Brazil by offering discounts on products and services of various brands to participants” (p. 11 independent translation). Therefore, it is noted that the “Partner Network Discount” and “Movement for a Better Football” levels, which were identified as higher and lower interest levels respectively, have similar purposes, so the results suggest that there is a preference for one and the other is not so relevant.

Thus, these findings demonstrate that fans’ preferences vary, and it is necessary to identify which strategies are most effective for each plan. FMPs are models that use both the points accrual and consumer-level approach, which are the most popular loyalty program formats. Therefore, when a fan who is very proud of his team is identified, it may be an example of how emotions are prone to have the greatest impact on consumer-level models, as they provide the opportunity to signal a status, which is consistent with the pride role (Septianto, An, Chiew, Paramita, & Tanudharma 2019).

The “Advance Purchase” benefit was identified as the fourth most important, being an attribute without differentiation levels, meaning that the respondent only opined “yes” or “no”. The attribute refers to the possibility of associates acquiring tickets before other fans can buy them, which is attractive for the major championship finals, as in these cases, ticket demands are generally higher. In addition, it has also been considered advantageous for the clubs, since the fan, when becoming a member, undertakes to pay a monthly fee having, often, the possibility of buying tickets in advance. The discount offered to members is an amount referring to the ticket sales anticipation and games with a small turn out of fans form a part of the tickets revenue, which will already be guaranteed with the payment of the members’ monthly fees.(Itaú BBA, 2016).

These results illustrate the need for sports managers to refine their relationship marketing strategies, seeking mutual benefits for all team stakeholders. Therefore, clubs should also pay attention to satisfaction and trust, and offer superior benefits in their value propositions (Demo et al., 2015; Lo & Campos, 2018; Morgan and Hunt, 1994).

Figueiredo, Santos and Cunha (2017) reinforce that football is Brazil’s most popular sport and it has a significant economic movement. In addition, Cardoso and Silveira (2014) point out that “fanatics are those who go most frequently to stadiums, but this group of fans is only a portion of the total number of fans” (p. 22 independent translation). Thus, the need to invest and diversify the FMPs’ plans stays evident.

Subsequently, the attribute with greater importance was the possibility of including more dependents, being the option that allows customers to add “three dependents” the best-evaluated level. The smaller importance of this attribute may be a result of the sample structure by 62.2 % of singles, respondents that probably have less dependents in average than married, divorced, or widowed football fans. As such, we need to take care when interpreting the general sample results for this attribute, since Family engagement in Brazil‘s Football context is strong, for example, in the influence parents have in their children’s choice for the favorite soccer team (Macagnan & Betti, 2014). Finally, the attribute “Access to the Privileged Area” was what aroused the least interest in comparison to the others.

Therefore, considering that familiar context has a major influence on individual engagement with football, we may point out a great potential for implementing word-of-mouth communication strategies. “Rumor agents” are people who perceive other consumers as a reference source for a good. An unsatisfied fan with past cumulative performances and with high future dissatisfaction probability will present a high willingness to promote the organization negatively (Claro and Bortoluzzo, 2015; Weitzl, Hutzinger, & Einwiller, 2018).

The results showed that a lower priced plan and higher ticket discounts have greater intentions to be bought, even if it does not grant access to the privileged area. However, when analyzing the results in a stratified form, it is noted that there are different preferences. Therefore, in a context of high variance in customer preferences, their needs have to be better mapped, being fundamental to know them to adjust the FMPs’ profile to aim new value propositions targeting different segments (Hills, Walker e Barry, 2019; Sheth, Newman, & Gross, 1991; Shin, Kim, & Severt, 2019).

Chart 2 presents each attribute importance (percentage) for different sociodemographic profiles. To test such differences, the Analysis of Variance - ANOVA - was applied in order to identify groups’ means variations. Thus, we tested the null hypothesis of equality by means of the dependent variables throughout the groups (Hair, Jr. et. al 2005). Therefore, all (p < 0.05) were considered significant.

Chart 2.

Sociodemographic Characteristics		Attribute in Importance Order
		Price	Discount on tickets	Benefits	Advanced purchase	Dependents	Privileged area
Genre	Female	22%	21%	19%	15%	15%	9%
	Male	23%	22%	18%	17%	13%	7%
Age range	Up to 17 years	15%	19%	20%	18%	15%	13%
	18 - 29 years old	21%	24%	18%	15%	13%	8%
	30 - 39 years	23%	20%	18%	17%	14%	7%
	40 - 49 years	29%	18%	17%	15%	15%	6%
	50 years or more	24%	18%	20%	17%	15%	6%
Marital status	Single (a)	22%	23%	18%	16%	13%	8%
	Married (a)	23%	20%	17%	16%	15%	8%
	Widower (a)	11%	41%	20%	8%	11%	8%
	Divorced (a)	24%	19%	23%	14%	15%	5%
Schooling	Incomplete fundamental	15%	26%	24%	14%	18%	4%
	Incomplete High school	15%	19%	16%	18%	17%	14%
	High school	21%	19%	21%	13%	15%	10%
	Incomplete Higher	22%	24%	18%	14%	14%	8%
	Higher education	23%	21%	18%	17%	14%	7%
Family income (Values in real Brazilian)	Up to 1,020.00	17%	24%	23%	10%	18%	9%
	From 1,021.00 to 2,040.00	21%	23%	21%	13%	14%	9%
	From 2,041.00 to 5,100.00	24%	22%	18%	15%	13%	8%
	From 5,101.00 to 10,020.00	23%	21%	18%	17%	14%	7%
	Above 10,021.00	21%	21%	17%	19%	14%	8%
	Overall Result	22%	22%	18%	16%	14%	8%

Source: search data

There is little difference in the importance estimates between men and women for FMPs’ attributes. The attributes “Price”, “Discount on Tickets” and “Advance Purchase” were of greater importance for men, while the attributes “Dependent”, “Privileged Area” and “Benefits” were more important in the women’s opinion. However, the differences did not exceed 2 %.

For age, “Price” and “Discount on tickets” continued to be the attributes most valued by respondents, except for those aged up to 17 years but this age group is not very representative in the present sample, corresponding to only 1 % in the database. Nevertheless, the “Dependent” and “Privileged Area” constructs remained the least attractive in intent to purchase a Fan Membership Programs plan.

Sequentially, the division by marital status also had “Price” as the attribute most valued by the respondents, except by widowers. Thus, as it happened for the age group up to 17 years, such respondents are not very representative in the present sample, corresponding to only 0,5 % of the total data base. Nevertheless, the “Privileged Area” construct remained the least attractive in intent to purchase a Fan Membership Programs plan.

As for schooling, “Price” and “Discount on the tickets” were also the attributes most valued by the respondents, except by those who only have High School who prefer the “Benefits” construct. The “Privileged Area” construct continued as the least attractive. Incomplete High School respondents were more distanced from the average general results, which represents 1.4 % in the sample.

Following the same line, in the Family Income results, the “Price” and the “Discount on the tickets” continued to be attributes most valued by the respondents and the “Privileged Area” construct remained the least attractive in intention to purchase a Fan Membership Program. It was also observed that the respondents with incomes up to R$ 1.020,00 were the ones that more distanced themselves from the average general results.

The results show that academic tools can support sports managers. Especially considering that there are many sports organizations, especially small ones, which assign the marketing responsibility to an inexperienced employee, which can be detrimental to team goals (Dickler, 2015).

This study shows that, in the general sample, the attribute “Price” has a significant impact on the purchase decision and in the FMPs’ plans for value perception. The “Discount on the tickets” was the second most significant. The literature considers the attribute as one of the FMP main objectives (Itaú BBA, 2016). In terms of levels, the “Discount in partner network” was the level most valued of attribute “Benefits”, followed by “Early purchase”, the inclusion of three dependents, and, lastly, access to the privileged area. While consumers that have become more selective by looking at the total cost, not just the monetary, it is clear that the financial dimension still has significant influence and the value of perception interferes with the price fans are willing to pay.

The sociodemographic characteristics results indicate that there is little difference in preference between men and women. However, those attributes that related to the financial values (price, discount on the tickets, and advance purchase) are of greater importance to men. While the attributes related to convenience (dependents, privileged area, and benefits) were more important in the opinion of women.

Thus, this evidence reinforces that fans’ preferences vary, and it is necessary to identify which strategies are most effective for each plan. In addition to offering plans with accumulation points and consumer level options, it is worth considering the alternative for fans to select their own interest attributes.

For the age range significant differences were found. For respondents up to the age of 17, “Benefit” was the most valued attribute, but the 20-29 age group attributed greater value to “Discount on the tickets”. All respondents aged 30 years or more evaluated the “Price” as the highest value attribute. The attribute “Discount on tickets” resulted in greater opinions divergence between the ages range.

In comparing marital status, singles value the “discount on the tickets” more, while the divorced and married prioritize the “Price”. The widowers rated “Benefit” as the most important attribute. The attribute “Discount on the tickets” was the one that presented greater opinions divergence comparing with the other attributes.

As for schooling, it was found that the participants who had completed Higher Secondary School gave a better evaluation for the “Benefits” construct. Those with complete Higher Education preferred the “Price”, and those with incomplete High School and incomplete Higher Education gave more importance to the “Discount on the tickets”. Participants with incomplete secondary education and incomplete elementary education were not included since, together, they represented only 1.6 % of the total database.

In Family Income results, it was verified that those with an income of up to R$ 1,020.00 valued “Discount on the tickets” as the most important attribute and according to the increased income the “Price” became the most valuable attribute, except for the respondents with an income above R$ 10,021.00 who attributed the same importance to both attributes. Therefore, those who had an income up to R$ 2,040.00 gave more importance to the discount on tickets, and those that were in the range of R$ 2,041.00 to R$ 10,020.00 gave more importance to the price. The attribute “Advance Purchase” resulted in a greater opinions divergence.

The sample representativeness is the main study limitation. We opted for convenience sampling and no measures were taken to stratify it. Thus, the sociodemographic characteristics representativeness became unbalanced, which made it difficult to prove certain premises, such as the preference for a plan with dependents. A biased representation by region also occurred, since the majority of the respondents reside in the Southeast and cheer for teams in that region. Therefore, we suggest the adoption of stratified sampling for future research, in order to elucidate differences by segments more clearly.

The “Dependents” construct, which was evaluated in the general sample as the penultimate preference, suggests that this fact may have occurred due to a large number of singles present in the sample (62.2 %). The plans that include family members arouses more of an interest in the people who have children, which is more common among married, divorced, and widowed people. Such a premise becomes more convincing by observing the results stratified by marital status, since the highest mean of importance in the construct was that of married respondents, followed by divorcees and having singles as their last preference.

Therefore, we recommend that future research adopt a stratified sample to prove this premise, especially considering the influence that family involvement has on the context of Football and the consequences of these relationships. For example, a fan may possibly communicate his or her experience to those close to him or her by implementing word of mouth communication strategies that may alert or recommend the organization involved.

As for the instrument utilized, Kendall’s agreement coefficient was applied to determine the agreement between the real preferences and the ones predicted by the CA (Benitez & Golinski, 2007). We used the significance level for the cut-off point, because if we have chosen Kendall’s agreement coefficient, (W) that ranges from 0 to 1, we would have to consider values ​​above (W ≥ 0.66), as affirms Conover (1971 cited by Lima et al. 2012, p.6), as indicative that the model was able to foresee the respondents’ preference. If we had used such a measure, the sample would have been significantly reduced. Therefore, we suggest for future research to adopt stratified sampling in order to soften such limitations.

The present work, contributed to football clubs’ FMPs’, applies the value structure-mapping proposal. In addition, the article may be useful to encourage sports managers to seek both compressions: the best benefits to offer and the identification of FMPs’ good points. In addition, it is evident that sports managers need to improve their relationship marketing strategies by investing and diversifying FMP plans, strengthening satisfaction and trusting relationships, and offering superior offers and benefits.

Although, in general, ticket price and discount were the most valued attributes and the privileged area of ​​least interest, some peculiarities in preferences imply that value is a multidimensional construct with several possibilities to compose new proposals value and FMP plans preparation.