Atlantic Marketing Journal Atlantic Marketing Journal
Volume 11 Number 1 Article 2
2022
Encouraging and Rewarding Customer Loyalty: Key Encouraging and Rewarding Customer Loyalty: Key
Considerations for Sports Teams Considerations for Sports Teams
Vassilis Dalakas
California State University - San Marcos
Madeleine Tseng
University of Southern California
Joanna Melancon
Western Kentucky University
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Dalakas, Vassilis; Tseng, Madeleine; and Melancon, Joanna (2022) "Encouraging and Rewarding
Customer Loyalty: Key Considerations for Sports Teams,"
Atlantic Marketing Journal
: Vol. 11: No. 1,
Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/amj/vol11/iss1/2
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Encouraging and Rewarding Customer Loyalty: Key
Considerations for Sports Teams
Vassilis Dalakas, California State University San Marcos, vdalak[email protected]
Madeleine Tseng, University of Southern California
Joanna P. Melancon, Western Kentucky University
Abstract – The authors contacted five practitioners in the sports industry who offered
through email insight from their experiences on the practices of their teams for encouraging
and rewarding behavioral loyalty. Their comments highlighted the importance of letting the
loyal customers know that they are valued and appreciated, the need for special exclusive
benefits that reward loyalty, and the significance of social benefits.
Keywords – customer satisfaction, entitlement, exclusive benefits, loyalty rewards, season-
ticket holders, social benefits, sports marketing
Relevance to Marketing Educators, Researchers and Practitioners – The manuscript
summarizes interviews with sports practitioners about what their organizations do for
encouraging and rewarding loyalty. In doing so, it bridges theoretical knowledge with
practical insight and, thus, provides value to educators teaching those topics, researchers
studying them, and practitioners interested in the important topics relating to building
customer loyalty.
Introduction
Consumer loyalty has been defined as “a deeply held commitment to rebuy or re-patronize
a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-
brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts
having the potential to cause switching behavior” (Oliver, 1999: 34). In the context of sports,
a tangible way of identifying such loyalty is customers who purchase season tickets and/or
premium seats (e.g., suites).
A loyalty program can be “any institutionalized incentive system that attempts to
enhance consumers’ consumption behavior over time beyond the direct effects of changes
to the price or the core offering” (Henderson et al., 2011: 258). Sports loyalty programs share
commonalities with other loyalty programs in terms of tier structure/subgroup hierarchy,
approaches to generating value for program members, and cross-promotional opportunities
(Drèze and Nunes, 2009; Nunes and Drèze, 2006; Pritchard and Negro, 2001). However,
sports teams also generate a psychological commitment, where they may become part of
fans’ social identity (Ellemers et al., 1999; Rees et al., 2015). Sports consumers experience
high levels of loyalty towards their chosen team–to the point where their passion,
investment, and loyalty can lead to irrationality in their consumer behavior (Bühler et al.,
2006).
The focus of this paper is to gain understanding of how to best reward loyal, and
valuable, consumers of sports teams. We do so by combining insight from practicing sports
marketing professionals with previous research on loyalty and rewards. Therefore, the
paper offers meaningful practical takeaways that can be used by sports organizations in
multiple sports at multiple levels to encourage and reward behavioral loyalty from their fans.
Insight from sports industry practitioners
Experience surveys revealed insights from sports marketing professionals working for
major US sports team franchises representing four different sports in five different markets.
Experience surveys are used primarily in exploratory research with expert subjects who can
offer insights on a topic that the average person cannot (Maestas, 2018). Experience surveys
are a qualitative technique that balances a smaller number of responses (due to difficulty in
qualifying and recruiting respondents) with richer data from every respondent (Maestas,
2018).
Our respondents were representatives of teams in Major League Baseball (San Diego
Padres), the National Basketball Association (Atlanta Hawks), the National Football League
(Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers), and the National Hockey League (Pittsburgh
Penguins). Interviews were conducted via email with the following individuals from each
team (listed alphabetically):
Brian Bracci, Ticket Sales Manager at the Los Angeles Chargers, SoFi Stadium at
Legends (NFL)
David Elgin, Senior Vice-President of Analytics at the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm
Arena (NBA)
Xochitl Glaser, Fan Experience Manager at the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL)
Jeff Gould, Director of Premium Membership and Suite Sales at the San Diego Padres
(MLB)
James Santilli, Chief Experience Officer at the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
To provide some structure, questions were asked in regard to the following:
1) How important is it to show season ticket holders and/or premium seat buyers that they
are valued and appreciated?
2) How do the rewards offered to season ticket holders and/or premium seat buyers convey
to them that they are valued?
3) How do you find the balance between rewarding season ticket holders and/or premium
seat buyers for their loyalty without, unintentionally, creating an entitlement attitude?
Importance of showing loyal customers they are valued and appreciated
A season ticket or premium seat purchase is considered a high-involvement (McDonald and
Shaw, 2005) and discretionary purchase for the customer that generates important revenue
for the team. All practitioners recognized the significance of loyal customers (season ticket
holders and premium seat buyers) and emphasized how important it is to show them that
the team values them and appreciates them. For example, Jeff Gould (Padres) stated:
Showing clients that they are valued and appreciated is one of the most important aspects
of what we do. The organization can’t operate the way we want to (keeping Petco Park the
best in the league, player acquisitions and contracts, etc.) without the support of our fans.
We are not an expense of necessity, but one that is discretionary. Because of all that, we
can never take our clients for granted, because they don’t have to work with us.
James Santilli (Penguins) echoed that sentiment:
For NHL teams, season ticket holders are the lifeblood of the organization. Because the
NHL doesn’t enjoy the huge TV deals of the other major sports, season ticket monies make
up our largest revenue stream. We understand the commitment it takes to be a season
ticket holder. We hope that our actions during the pandemic show them that we truly
appreciate them and consider them an integral part of our organization, because, they are.
Brian Bracci (Los Angeles Chargers) also agreed:
It is immensely important to make season ticket members feel valued and appreciated.
Especially here in Los Angeles where we have such a crowded market. No one wants to be
in a ‘one-sided relationship’ personally or professionally. When the relationship is
mutually beneficial there is a much higher likelihood that that member will continue to
stay committed to the team long term. We want to make sure that they feel that they are
truly part of the team and Chargers family.
Special exclusive benefits to reward loyal customers
A key structural component of loyalty programs across various markets is their tiered,
hierarchical structure (Drèze and Nunes, 2009; McCall and Vorhees, 2010). Such a structure
is intended to offer more special rewards to the most loyal customers (in terms of volume
and/or frequency of their purchase), which often create a special sense of status (Ivanic,
2015). People are innately driven to pursue elevated status and superiority (Han et al.,
2010), and are thus likely to desire elite status within loyalty programs (Drèze and Nunes,
2009).
David Elgin (Hawks) highlighted that:
It’s important to tier your benefits, amenities, and pricing to make sure that the value is
strong when a season ticket member is considering an increase in number of events or
ticket costs. By adding items like better per seat pricing, all-inclusive food and beverage,
pre-loaded cash value on top of each ticket, free parking, membership only gifts, and
exclusive membership events, we think we achieve that. Without those things, we are stuck
trying to just push more games, which works for some basketball enthusiasts, but not for
the majority of today’s consumers.
Reinforcing Elgin’s point, Bracci (Chargers) recognized that:
As sellers it’s our job to build rapport with our clients and find their “why.” Is it to spend
more time with their clients, reward their employees, or just go to a game as a family? By
finding these things out on the front end of the sales process we can create experiences
and benefits that fit our members’ needs. When a benefit feels like it was made specifically
for that person it is when it goes from a “nice to have” to actually moving the needle. One
of the best examples of this was what the Chargers did with building out their Chargers
Lux Program. The team did a great job of not only surveying their premium and suite
holders, but truly listening to them to understand what was important to them. From the
information we were able to tailor our benefits to provide increased value to our fans. We
created a platform that allowed our members to access perks and experiences year-round
which helps the Chargers stay top of mind with our members even in the off season.
Similarly, Gould (Padres) explained that:
Many of our premium clients have the means to purchase or enjoy almost any experience
there is. That can make planning events challenging. Last thing you want is to waste
resources on something clients don’t want or execute an event in a way that makes them
less excited to work with you. One rule of thumb I keep is how can we provide things they
aren’t able to do on their own or wouldn’t do on their own. With that we think of events
that are unique, not widely available, and something that creates relationships.
A key factor in rewarding loyal customers is benefit exclusivity (Sajtos and Chong,
2018). High-loyalty customers gain the ability to exclusive access benefits (Meyer-Waarden,
2013), which is critical in the sports team’s effort to communicate to them that they are
valued and appreciated. Santilli (Penguins) highlighted several (discussed later in more
detail) special “gifts and experiences that were exclusive to season ticket holders and for the
most part they were all a surprise.”
Through a process called integrated regulation (Ryan and Deci, 2000), an extrinsically
driven activity that is recognized can be translated to one’s sense of self to the point where
the integrated action is fully authentic. Thus, an extrinsically motivated action, such as
purchasing a season ticket for the sake of a net discount, can also be because of one’s
emotional investment in the sports team and the personal enjoyment from watching them
play. Gould (Padres) captured the significance of recognizing this:
Our clients who work with us based on their fandom deserve TLC because they are
investing so much in us, it is only right to invest back in them. In this COVID-19 era people
are having to make tough decisions. We want to be an escape and something people enjoy
in uncertain times. Because of that we need to make sure we earn their trust, and we do
that through great events, experiences, and finding any way can to show that we care.
Typical exclusive benefits for season ticket holders across sports include special
discounted food and merchandise prices, gifts, priority access for playoff tickets (if the team
makes it to the playoffs), and priority access for tickets to other events in the team’s facility.
Most notable however, are the benefits including unique and exclusive team-related
experiences. Glaser highlighted that:
At the Kansas City Chiefs, our rewards program is free and open to all fans, however there
is an added tier for users who are identified as being season ticket members with the
organization. The platform is focused on providing an exclusive level of access to those
season ticket members in this elevated tier.
This expanded access to various rewards and events through the Chiefs Kingdom Rewards
program is used to motivate fans and sales prospects to become season ticket members in
the first place. This access includes but is not limited to autographed memorabilia,
collectibles, unique experiences and tickets to exclusive events.
The organization is focused on using this elevated tier to provide added value for having
season tickets and showcase the added benefits to retain our season ticket member base.
As a testament to this value the rewards program provides, about 50% of season ticket
member accounts actively use and engage with the platform regularly.
It is important to note that there is some risk in managing consumers’ expectations
when the consumers have elevated status and are accustomed to special benefits (Fisk and
Neville, 2011). Elgin (Hawks) acknowledged that “it’s true, once you provide new benefits
for a significant amount of time, it can become an expectation.”
As a result, sports organizations need to be careful about how they reward their loyal
customers without creating a sense of entitlement where the benefits do not feel as special.
As Elgin (Hawks) stressed:
When we think about those benefits, we try to keep things fresh by continually tweaking
our offerings not letting any benefits become stale. It could also work better to position
some benefits as renewal incentives versus renewal gifts, to place a stronger emphasis on
the commitment for the next year. We also consider tying them to dates to drive behavior.
In real world discussions with our members, we empower our reps to use their best
judgement on what ancillary benefits they should be utilizing, as everyone is different, and
it’s the personal touches that help create the most committed relationships. Ultimately, we
believe it’s about making sure the value proposition for membership versus just buying
individual tickets is as favorable as possible.
Along these lines, Glaser (Chiefs) shared insight regarding how the Chiefs strive to
find the balance between rewarding fans for their loyalty without, unintentionally, creating
an entitlement attitude.
After leveraging the Chiefs Kingdom Rewards program for almost ten years, the
organization has incorporated best practices to diminish a sense of entitlement amongst
users. Primarily, the organization is focused on providing clear communication and
managing the expectations of fans.
For instance, monthly update emails are sent to users in both tiers of the program which
share all information for upcoming prizes, memorabilia and events, including their ‘go-live’
date and time, and any associated parameters. Once prizes and event access are made
available through Chiefs Kingdom Rewards, this information is re-iterated in prize
descriptions, confirmation messages and informational emails.
Additionally, creating consistency and equality is another way to create balance between
providing rewards and creating a sense of entitlement. Consistency is applied to when and
how rewards are accessed and as well as who is eligible to receive them. Whenever
possible, an effort is also made to treat season ticket members equally so as to avoid
ranking. Overall spend, tenure and number of tickets may unintentionally create a ranking
system and lead to an entitlement attitude.
Despite these efforts, an entitlement attitude may never be fully eradicated, however it
does create a manageable way for the organization to provide benefits to two different
tiers of fans.
Social aspect of benefits
The positive social associations between the customers and the sports team are an important
part of the intrinsic motivation for purchasing season tickets and/or premium seats.
Research found that perceived social rewards within loyalty programs can lead to stronger
affective commitment, or an intrinsic motivation to continue relations or exchanges with an
organization (Melancon et al., 2011). These social rewards are critical to fostering an
emotional connection between fans and sports teams, thereby creating personal
justifications for those consumers to repurchase season tickets.
Our respondents highlighted how special the benefits with a social component are.
For example, the Padres sponsored a fishing trip where they invited suite package buyers.
As Gould (Padres) shared:
At the end of the day, our clients want to hang with people just like them, so creating events
where they can socialize provides a lot of value. That’s where the fishing trip came in. It’s
something that’s difficult to do (people aren’t going to rent an entire fishing boat
personally too often), and something people may have always wanted to do, but kind of
intimidated by. Because we made it turn key for them the moment they arrived, even the
most novice fisher found success and had fun.
Experiences that connect the team with the loyal customers became even more
relevant during 2020 when, due to COVID-19, fans could not attend games and interact with
the team in person. Santilli (Penguins) mentioned several such benefits the Penguins offered
to their season ticket holders during COVID-19:
We always strive to deliver value to season ticket holders and give them special
experiences, and during the COVID pandemic, we had to find new ways to do both. Showing
that we value our season ticket holders was even more important because their main
benefit, seeing every home game in person, was taken away from them.
We know that our season ticket holders truly value the interaction they have with our
players. So, we immediately asked our players to pitch in and they didn’t hesitate. Early in
the pandemic our players personally placed phone calls to over 400 season tickets
holders. They didn’t call to ask them about an invoice or how likely they were to renew. No,
they simply asked if they were doing ok, gave them some encouragement, and urged them
to stay safe. A month or so later, another 66 season ticket holders, received a hand-written
note from a Penguins player with the same message.
We have also continued to surprise season ticket holders at home, either by mail or special
delivery from Iceburgh, our team mascot. Gifts included Home Watch Party Kits, complete
with food, beverage and Penguins gear. A few even included a projector, big screen, tent,
chairs, cooler and beer courtesy of our partner COORS Light. We also published and mailed
two magazines and a Penguins calendar to their homes in recent months.
Customer satisfaction
Special exclusive benefits, especially in connection to a shared experience with the
team, create a special feeling of recognition for the loyal customers and likely cause
increased satisfaction among higher membership tiers (Fombelle et al., 2015), all while
encouraging lower-status members to engage in upward comparison and potentially
increase the level of their own commitment to the team (Sajtos and Chong, 2018).
Furthermore, public recognition for high-status members can lead to downward
comparison, which consequently increases consumer satisfaction and positive associations
for the loyalty program due to the sense of superiority generated from the recognition (Drèze
and Nunes, 2009).
Offering specific privileges during the in-game experience to season ticket holders
can enhance the experience and motivate fans to buy (or renew) season tickets. For example,
Reese and Bennett (2013) studied a sample of 615 minor-league baseball fans–consisting of
both season ticket holders and non-season ticket holders– and found that 37% of the season
ticket holders attend events to take advantage of benefits afforded to them as season ticket
holders (e.g. pre-purchase of tickets, season ticket holder discounts, etc.). More importantly,
season ticket holders indicated an intent to repurchase, regardless of the team’s competitive
success.
This idea was reinforced by the insight from the sports industry practitioners. Gould
(Padres) indicated that “we are not just a sports organization, but an entertainment and
business tool” to discuss the effect of these unique experiences was on loyal customers in
terms of their satisfaction and willingness to renew their financial commitment to the team:
For the group on that ship it was immense. One client met another at the event and closed
a significant deal as a result. So many people sent thank you notes, and still reference that
event to this date. Things like that, where our reps can build relationships beyond Padres
baseball build trust. It cuts down on the amount of time we spend renewing and often
opens up new sales opportunities.
Bracci (Chargers) had a similar take:
This goes back to the importance of making season ticket holders feel valued and
appreciated. Members are far more likely to renew when they feel that the benefits of their
seats outweigh the cost benefits. These benefits also have an impact on new sales. For one,
members are far more likely to refer their friends and family, but we also can use examples
of these benefits to paint a picture of what that person’s experience could look like as a
member of the Chargers.
CONCLUSION
Loyalty in a sports context can be transformative for a consumer, producing a deep
emotional commitment and sense of self-identification with a sports organization. Loyalty
among a base of dedicated fans is also critical for a sports organization to thrive. Thus, the
ability to reward consumers in a way that makes consumers feel connected to and valued by
the franchise is crucial. One way in which teams can show consumers they are valued is in
the design of season ticket holder rewards. Existing literature and sports practitioners both
support the notion that all rewards are not equally effective at delighting the best fans of an
organization. Benefits that enhance an experiential and unique connection to the team are
impactful and long remembered by fans. Additionally, rewards that provide opportunities
for meaningful social interaction with the organization may be critical to building
relationships that can sustain challenges that range from a losing season, to an economic
downturn, to a worldwide pandemic that completely prohibits consumers from attending
live sporting events.
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