STAKEHOLDERS PERSPECTIVE OF BRANDING AS A TOOL FOR SPORTS MARKETING

ABSTRACT

The study was a qualitative assessment of stakeholders’ perspective of branding as a tool for sports marketing; a case study of Nigeria football league. The qualitative research design was adopted in this study. Four research questions were raised to guide this study. The population of this study consisted of 24 sports administrators, whom together form the stakeholders referred in this study, from across the Benin and Delta states respectively. A sample size of 12 coaches was selected using the convenience sampling procedure. Interview was used as the research instrument for this study. The data collected were analysed thematically and triangulated. The findings of this study revealed that the perspective of stakeholders was a major factor in the sports branding process in Nigeria and stakeholders’ engagement in the branding process was very poor. It was therefore concluded that the perspective of stakeholders was a major factor in the success of branding in sports. Furthermore, it was recommended that there was need for stakeholders to be fully engaged in every sports branding process in Nigeria, because their involvement can help policy makers to identity likely barriers to the branding process in sports.