On the road to the world’s most powerful eSports brand: A case study of ESL gaming

• Autor(a) principal: Kirchfeld, Carolin Katharina
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/20783
• topic: eSports; Relationship marketing; Customer engagement; Customer retention; Marketing relacional; Compromisso com o cliente; Retenção do cliente

With this pedagogical case study, the company ESL Gaming, which is one of the few companies that have recognized the potential of the nowadays thriving eSports sector at early stage, is examined. Aiming to become the world’s most powerful eSports brand, the enterprise focuses on extending their strong market position and withstand growing pressure of competition. This goal is intended to be reached with an improvement in brand management and the creation of customer engagement that decides on sustainable customer relationships. Herewith, a sustainable competitive advantage shall be created, directing at the goal to increase attractiveness for brand investors and gamers. In order to gain comprehensive understanding of the industry, quantitative and qualitative analyses are applied, covering the eSports market and business performance of ESL Gaming. Subsequently, critical success factors are analysed and recommendations for a customer engagement strategy along the AER model (Acquisition-Expansion-Retention) are developed. Based on the results, business implications are presented. The case resolution displays the current alteration in the market. It is moving from a merchant-determined to a consumer-oriented market. eSports consumers demand an active role in brand-customer-relationships. Thus, ESL Gaming should focus on implementing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution that helps providing one-on-one offerings through digital, but also offline channels on the basis of individual customer journeys. Therewith, personalized and high-quality contents, improved streaming offers, merchandise, ticketing and on-site offerings, as well as mobile options along the identified relationship journey, promise long-term relationships. In effect, purchase intentions, cost-effectiveness and co-creation, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage, are enhanced.