Building a Global Brand in Sports: The Case of National Basketball Association and an Empirical Analysis of the Italian Market - Tapa blanda

This work is about the different strategies used by sports brands to build a global image and gain brand equity from its fans. The investigated subject is the National Basketball Association, the American league of professional basketball, and its positioning in foreign markets, with focus on the Italian one. There are three main areas of analysis: the collective selling of broadcasting rights in the domestic and foreign markets; the licensing of official league merchandising and sports apparel, thanks to the creation of tight relationships with famous equipment manufacturers; the organization of promotional tours (like the Europe Live Tour), with exhibition matches and other events, in some target countries in order to increase and foster the emotional bonds with its fans and gain new followers. The last section of this work analyzes the result of a survey made to some Italian basketball fans, either actual or former players, with the aim to investigate their perception of NBA brand, to identify the main drivers of affiliation. In addition, the survey also analyzes the fans' evaluation of league's strategies in merchandising and the effectiveness of brand promotion in Europe.

Andrea Riva, Studied Economics at Bocconi University. Project analyst at Accenture, Milan (Italy).