Overview

The 2007 Turnkey Team Brand Index is the first annual in-depth, comprehensive consumer research study of brand strength of the 122 team brands in the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL.   We are honored to be able to deliver this precedent-setting brand report!

The Turnkey Team Brand Index compares and contrasts the consumer scores for the team brands in their respective markets.   We believe that a team brand is made and evolves in its local market first, and it is in that local market where we have comprehensively measured the 21 detailed components that comprise the 2007 Turnkey Team Brand Index.   We surveyed approximately 12,000 general sports fans across 47 U.S. and Canadian markets and allowed them to share their perceptions of their local team brands as well as express their loyalty to these same brands.   The results of 21 components were rolled up into one score and teams were ranked from 1 to 122 based on their in-market brand strength.

Why ask sports fans instead of the brand “experts?”   “Brand” is viewed as the sum of the experiences that consumers (in this case – fans) derive from a product/service.   The brand is not the product or service or symbol, it’s the response to it; the emotional experience evoked over time by it.   Our view of the brand concept is that it cannot be measured in any truly meaningful way without measuring fans’ emotional experiences from interacting with it and fans’ emotional connection to it.

What we found is that winning/losing unquestionably has a major impact on brand, probably the largest impact, but that brand is NOT the equivalent of this year’s standings.   Sports fans are looking for so much more than wins and are prepared to give credit where credit is due.

In several important respects, team brands experience unique challenges compared to other brands.   Team brands live 24/7/365 in the white-hot spotlight with an amazing lack of control.   Team brands evolve at hyper speed, as if constantly on fast forward zipping by our eyes.   Material changes will probably occur each year in the Turnkey Team Brand Index and teams can utilize this annual study as a benchmark measure, perhaps not in absolute terms but at least in relative terms.   The Turnkey Team Brand Index aspires to provide agencies, brands and properties a relative directional measure of the strength and contours of each team brand.

Components of the Study.   The 2007 Turnkey Team Brand Index is calculated from the composite of three (3) separate indices:  the Team Popularity Index (14 separate metrics); the Fan Loyalty Index (6 separate metrics) and the Grade of Ownership Index (asking fans to give a letter grade to the ownership).

In addition to the overall 122-team brand ranking, the Turnkey Team Brand Index includes

Sponsor Loyalty Index
A measure of fans’ perceptions of team sponsors and loyalty to sponsors and their products.   Learn which teams most enhance the image of their marketing partners.

Brand Attributes
In every market fans were asked to indicate how important it is for a team to be described by or possess each attribute included in a list of 36 characteristics and traits. Then, fans were asked to indicate to what degree they thought each attribute describes the respective local teams.

Most Admired Leagues
The Most Admired Leagues sections in this study provides a snapshot of the relative brand strength of 24 North American professional sports leagues and governing bodies in each respective market.

Most Admired Sponsors
The Most Admired Sponsors section of this study provides a snapshot of the overall position and brand strength of 40 of the most prominent sponsors in American professional sports in each of the 47 markets included in the study.

In every market, the list was rounded up to 50 with ten “local” sponsors with high profile in the respective market.