Co-creation and brand identity within the context of a football club: do the fans co-influence the brand identity of Sport Lisboa Benfica?

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Eduardo Francisco Mendes de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/38689
• topic: Brand management; Benfica; Football; Brand identity; Community management; Co-creation; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The concept of co-creation has been extensively discussed recently both in literature and in practice. Nevertheless, researchers struggle to agree on a single universal definition. For the purpose of this dissertation we define co-creation as “joint collaborative activities by parties involved in direct interactions, aiming to contribute to the value that emerges for one or both parties” (Grönroos, 2008). Additionally, not all brands fulfill the necessary conditions to ensure co-creation. Football club brands, after thorough analysis, are assumed to be a case worthy to study in this context (Healy & McDonagh, 2013; Pongsakornrungsilp & Schroeder, 2011). With the goal of extending knowledge on the topic, we developed a longitudinal single case study, based on qualitative in-depth interviews, studying co-creation in the context of a Portuguese football club brand – Sport Lisboa Benfica. The research brings important insights to the theory of brand identity construction and development, since it demonstrates that the interactions between consumers (i.e., fans) and the brand managers impact the brand identity. We conclude that consumers co-create with football club brands and co-influence their brand identity, together with the managers. Other implications are also discussed in this thesis.