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UNDERSTANDING CLEVELAND AS A SPORTS DESTINATION:
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF BRAND PERSONALITY THEORY
A thesis submitted to the
Kent State University College and Graduate School
of Education, Health, and Human Services
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Science
by
Jiayi Wang
May 2016
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Thesis written by
Jiayi Wang
B.A., Shanghai Normal University, 2013
M.S., Kent State University, 2016
Approved by
______, Director, Master’s Thesis Committee Phillip Wang
______, Member, Master’s Thesis Committee Theresa Walton-Fisette
______, Member, Master’s Thesis Committee Ju Yup Lee
Accepted by
______, Director, School of Foundations Leadership Kimberly Schimmel and Administration
______, Dean, College of Education, Health and Human Mark Kretovics Services
ii! ! !
WANG, JIAYI, M.S., May 2016 Hospitality and Tourism Management
UNDERSTANDING CLEVELAND AS A SPORTS DESTIONATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF BRAND PERSONALITY THEORY (76 pp.)
Director of Thesis: Phillip Wang, PhD
In this globalizing world, sporting events play an important role in improving the attractiveness and competitiveness of a city. Sports tourism and sporting events are viewed as a growing niche market. This is reflected by the contribution that sports tourism brings to a destination. As a consequence of sports being attractions or activities that tourists seek to experience in the destination, it is paramount for a destination to be able to offer them.
Cleveland’s continuously increasing sports offering is making the city an appealing tourist destination to wider groups of tourists. Brand personality theory provides the theoretical support for the present study. The purpose of the study is to test the brand personality framework in the context of sports tourism, explore the brand personality of Cleveland as a sports destination, and apply the theory into destination marketing. Two types of quantitative data analysis were performed in the present study to test the hypotheses and gain meaningful information from the study. The results of the present study contributed to the knowledge of promoting sports tourism in Cleveland and limitations and future research were discussed.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Theresa Walton-Fisette and Dr. Ju
Yup Lee, for their time, support and guidance to my work. Their inspiration, expertise, and advice have improved the work and made the whole process a pleasant and enjoyable learning experience.
I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Phillip Wang, my thesis advisor and committee director, for supporting my research and guiding me throughout my graduate program. His patience and encouragements gave me the strength and direction to continuously focus on my thesis to achieve my goals.
I would also like to thank my all friends for their continued support. I am grateful to have such positive people around me.
Lastly, I would like to sincerely thank my parents, Yongjun Wang and Jie Li, for all their endless and unconditional love, support, and encouragement throughout my graduate program as it would not have been possible without them.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iv LIST OF TABLES ...... vi CHAPTER Page I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 Sports Tourism ...... 1 Major Events ...... 1 Destination Cities ...... 2 Impacts ...... 4 Resident Perceptions and Attitudes ...... 5 Cleveland as a Sports Destination ...... 6 Major Attractions in Cleveland ...... 7 New Hotels Added to the City ...... 7 Sports Events that Cleveland Successfully Hosted ...... 8 Principles of Destination Development ...... 8 Destination Image ...... 10 Theoretical Framework ...... 12 Brand Personality Theory ...... 12
II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 15 Sports Tourism Origins and Development ...... 15 Traveler Type ...... 18 Brand Personality Theory ...... 21 Destination Personality ...... 26 Cleveland Comparable to Other Cities in the United States ...... 28
III. METHODOLOGY ...... 29 Instrument Design ...... 30 Focus Group ...... 30 Pilot Study ...... 31 Main Survey ...... 32 Data Collection ...... 35 Data Analysis ...... 36
IV. RESULTS ...... 38 Description of the Sample ...... 38 Focus Group ...... 39 Brand Personality of Cleveland ...... 40 Interest in Cleveland Attractions ...... 41 iv! ! !
Attractiveness of Cleveland Sporting Events ...... 43 Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 44 Interest in Cleveland Attractions and Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 44 Attractiveness of Cleveland Sporting Events and Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 46 Traveler Type and Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 47 Personal Background and Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 48
V. DISCUSSION ...... 50 Implications ...... 52 Limitations ...... 54 Future Research ...... 55 Reflections of the Study ...... 55 Destination Development ...... 55 What Other Cities Can Learn from Cleveland ...... 56
APPENDICES ...... 57 APPENDIX A. KSU INSTITUTION APPROVAL FORM ...... 58 APPENDIX B. RESEARCH FOCUS GROUP ...... 60 APPENDIX C. RESEARCH SURVEY ...... 62 APPENDIX D. CONSENT FORM ...... 67
REFERENCES ...... 70
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1! Cohen’s Typology of Tourist Type ...... 19
2! Allocentric and Psychocentric Travelers ...... 20
3! A Brand Personality Scale ...... 23
4! Socio-demographic Profile ...... 37
5! Brand Personality of Sports Destination Cleveland ...... 39
6! Attractions in Cleveland ...... 41
7! Attractiveness of Cleveland’s Sporting Events ...... 42
8! Relationship between Interest in Attraction Types and the Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 44
9! Relationship between Interest in Sporting Events and Participants’ Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 45
10! Traveler Type in the U.S...... 47
11! Relationship between Tourist Types and Participants’ Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 48
12! Relationship between Personal Background and Participants’ Desire to Visit Cleveland ...... 48
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Sports Tourism
Major Events
In this globalizing world, sporting events play an important role in improving the attractiveness and competitiveness of a city. Every year, a significant number of people travel to other cities to watch sporting events or participate in sporting events, such as track and field meets, rodeo, Gay Games, running marathons, cycling events, climbing mountains, and etc., which forms sports tourism. With the growth of tourism in cities, researchers have increased their interest in studying urban tourism. Rennes (1988) defined urban tourism as a set of resources or activities located in the city and made available to outside visitors irrespective of the purpose of their visit. Leisure, recreation and business are examples for urban tourism. Urban tourism comprises of a comprehensive set of resources and activities. The primary elements can be cultural and artistic facilities, sports facilities, and cultural events intended for entertainment and leisure. Secondary elements include a range of urban facilities that support the tourist experience such as hotels and restaurants (Law, 2002). Sports tourism is overlapping with urban tourism, and has increasingly become a main sector of a country’s economic development (Matheson, 2002). Therefore, many countries are constantly trying to find ways to increase tourism, for example, through hosting sports events.
1 ! 2!
Sporting events are consisted of professional, amateur, and collegiate sports. In the
United States, a lot of sporting events take place every year including professional sports such as
Major League Baseball games, National Basketball Association games, and National Football
League football games, amateur games such as Color Run, collegiate sports such as the National
Collegiate Athletic Association tournament and the Ohio State University football games.
Sporting events can also be classified in the perspective of single and multiple sports.
Examples for single sports the United States Open Tennis, the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the example of multiple sports is the Olympic Games. These sporting events help localities attract many sports fans and well-known media broadcasting companies across the country.
Many cities and countries have realized the economic impact that sporting events can bring and have started valuing these events as a way to promote tourism and create economic benefits.
Large international sporting events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup not only bring host countries enormous benefits during these events, but also improve the nation’s image which help attract more tourists. For example, in 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chinese government invested in transport infrastructure including an additional airport terminal at the Beijing Capital
International Airport, a new Tianjin intercity railway with high-speed trains, and doubled the capacity of the subway network to meet the various needs of tourists. Because of the increasing importance of the sporting events, sports tourism has gained the attention of media and academia alike.
Destination Cities
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What a destination city offers is greatly influenced by the resources available to support sports tourism. Several previous researches have been conducted to study the classification of physical resources associated with recreation, leisure, and sport tourism (Clawson, Held, &
Stoddard, 1960; Burton, 1995; Bale, 2003). Based on location and other characteristics such as size, major use, and degree of artificial development, one of the classifications suggests that destinations are arranged on a continuum of recreational opportunities from user-oriented through intermediated to resource-based (Clawson, Held, and Stoddard, 1960). User-orientated areas have artificial features with small spaces demand, which include stadiums and arenas, swimming pools, golf-courses. Resource-based areas focus on the quality of the physical resource where the landscape elements are more important such as National Parks and wildness areas catering for rock climbing, canoeing. Another classification, which is more applicable to sports tourism, includes five separate resource characteristics: climatic; costal; landscape and wildlife; historic; and cultural, entertainment and man-made (Burton, 1995).
User-oriented environment is an important part of sport tourism. Weed and Bull (2004) have pointed out that sports teams attract potential support, especially in larger cities. Many major sporting events are held in tourist-friendly metropolitan areas. Cities that are well-equipped to entertain people that travel for pre- and post-game activities are rising in popularity for sports destinations. Originally, sporting events were dominantly organized in major cities. Recently, there is an upwards trend where an increasing amount of sports events are hosted in second-tier cities. Sports has been utilized as part of tourism’s role in shaping
! ! 4! long-term city product (Tyler, 1998). Arguably, the most famous American football event is known as Super Bowl. The latest Super Bowl, XLIX, took place in Glendale, Arizona near
Phoenix in 2015. It has attracted not only local residents but also tens of thousands of visiting sports fans across the country. The College Football Championship game was held in
Arlington, Texas in January 2015. Tickets and travel packages for this game were sold out very quickly because people traveled from all over the United States to witness the competition between Ohio State University and the University of Oregon. According to FIFA, more than five million people had attended FIFA Fan Fests in Brazil during the World Cup 2014, with Rio de Janeiro's spectacular Copacabana beach attracting over ninety-three thousand tourists, becoming the number one tourist destination in Brazil. With a history since 1903 and an estimated 12 million spectators attending the race in a typical year, the Tour de France is now recognized as the largest annual sporting event in the world while other events such as the
Olympics and the Soccer World Cup only take place every four years. Therefore, sports have become an integral part of building a city’s image. Cities have become even more important sport tourism destinations due to the recognition of the importance of major sporting events.
Impacts
Sports tourism and sporting events are viewed as a growing niche market. This is reflected by the contribution that sports tourism brings to a destination. It is proposed that events have socio-cultural, economic, and environmental impacts on the destination (Swart &
Smith-Christensen, 2005). According to Dwyer (2001), sports tourism events can be beneficial
! ! 5! or detrimental to the host destination. Benefits may include community development, civic pride, induced development and construction expenditure, as well as additional trade and business development. However, there is a risk that the sports event might disrupt resident lifestyle, cause unwanted noise and crowding, and interrupt normal local business (Dwyer, 2001).
There is also a financial risk to host cities, particularly when facilities must be built. According to the Travel Industry Association of America (1999), two out of five U.S. adults attended an organized sports event, competition or tournament as either a spectator or as a participant from
1994 to 1999, which translates to roughly 75.3 million U.S. adult attendees. In Walo, Bull and
Breen’s (1996) study about economic impacts of university sports games in Australia, it is proposed that sports driven consumption gives impetus to local economic growth. In addition, two thirds of the participants said they would not visit a destination if it did not host the sporting events. It has been estimated that the Olympics Games in Beijing attracted over 40 billion US dollars in investment including the construction of the Olympic village, airport and other supporting facilities.
Resident Perceptions and Attitudes
With the growing reliance of sports tourism as part of a destination’s development and promotion, it is meaningful to consider the involved host community (Fredline & Faulkner,
2002). A host community refers to people or residents who are staying at or are in close proximity to an event location (Delamere, 2001; Burker, Page, & Meyer, 2002). It is argued that having a professional sports team in a city improves the perceived image of the city
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(Groothuis, 2014). Studies have attempted to estimate the unquantifiable, intangible benefits to host cities, for instance, the benefits from fan identification and civic pride (Johnson, Groothuis,
Whitehead, 2001; Owen, 2006). Groothuis (2014) defines intangible benefits as “the wellbeing of an individual that derives from the ability to watch local game on television, to read about these games in the newspaper, to talk about them with friends and coworkers, and the pride generated from being in a ‘major league’ city”. Again, there is also the less positive side, where professional sports and facilities drain resources from cities.
Cleveland as a Sports Tourism Destination
It is widely recognized that North America was the first to use sport tourism as a tool for urban regeneration and it has been adopted by lots of cities around the world (Law, 1992, 2002;
Weed & Bull, 2004). The city of Cleveland offers a variety of unique architectures, distinctive public arts, restored historical sites, beautiful parks and options that fulfil travelers’ both functional and symbolic needs. With its domestic and international sports games, Cleveland can be considered as a sports travel destination with a variety of sports tourism resources.
Sports resources are sports venues which including stadiums and arenas, training facilities, sport science resources, and sports medicine facilities (Maier & Weber, 1993). The number of tourists in Cleveland has raised rapidly, partly driven by the increased visibility of the various local sports teams and events. Cleveland is the home of several sports teams such as Cleveland
Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, and Cleveland Browns. Sports facilities including Quicken Loans
Arena, First Energy Stadiums, and Progressive field enable the city of Cleveland to host national
! ! 7! and international events. As a consequence of sports being attractions or activities that tourists seek to experience in the destination, it is paramount for a destination to be able to offer them.
Cleveland’s continuously increasing sports offering is making the city an appealing tourist destination to wider groups of tourists.
Major Attractions in Cleveland
Individual sports stars may function as tourist attractions (Rooney, 1988). During an interview with the Cleveland’s local paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dr. LeRoy Brooks (2014) suggested that there could be approximately $500 million added to the local economy after the return of American professional basketball player LeBron James’ to the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. Economics scholars called it the LeBron James effect or
LeConomics which are the economic ripples that are created by James’ return. The increase of sales tax was approximately 10 percent for Cuyahoga County from November 2013 to
November 2014 (State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County, 2014).
Other major attractions in Cleveland, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
Museum, Great Lakes Science Center, University Circle, and Playhouse Square provide tourists with world-class entertainment options that they can explore before and after sports events.
Playhouse Square is the largest performing arts center west of New York and welcomes one million visitors annually in eights spaces for Broadway shows, concerts, art education and more.
New Hotels Added to the City
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The number of hotels in Cleveland has increased in the past few years due to high demand in the Cleveland area. According to Smith Travel Research, Inc., a global hospitality analytics firm which tracks hotel occupancy globally, the increase in demand for hotel rooms in
Cleveland was 8.6 percent in 2014, which was higher than the national average of 5.8 percent.
It is also reported that room inventory in downtown Cleveland has increased 16 percent since late 2012, to 3,945 rooms (STR, 2014). These include hotel rooms at the Aloft Cleveland
Downtown, the Westin Cleveland Downtown, the Metropolitan at the 9, and the new Hilton
Cleveland downtown. The new Hilton Cleveland downtown is scheduled to open by 2016. It will feature a 28-story tower filled with 600 guest rooms, which will be connected with the new
Cleveland Convention Center and the Global Center for Health Innovation.
Sports Events that Cleveland Successfully Hosted
Sports are considered major attractions for the city of Cleveland. Sports fans love to show their support and cheer for Cleveland Browns football team, the Cleveland Indians baseball team, and the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team particularly at their home stadiums throughout the year. The Gay Games 9 was held in the Cleveland metropolitan area in the summer of 2014 and attracted roughly 20,000 people from all around the world. It has been estimated that the game led to an increase in wage earnings of approximately $20.6 million, equaling to 726 new full-time jobs (Rohlin & Greenahlgh-Stanley, 2014).
Principles of Destination Development
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In Gartner’s (1993) opinion, tourism is a change of place and pace. As people go to places that are different from where they usually lived, there are changes of the places they are going to stay. They experience new and different things in different places. It also changed the pace of life into slow or fast. Gartner (1993) also indicated that tourism is a change of tourists and hosts. People go to different places, behave as tourists, explore new things, and bring new culture to the destination at the same time. It means that the development of tourism can change a destination in many aspects such as environment, economic, and culture.
According to William Gartner (1993), principles of destination development can be described in three steps: inventory, assessment, and attraction mix. In light of the potential of tourism development in Cleveland, a study that applied principles to the city is necessary. In the city of Cleveland, there are existing attractions such as restaurants and bars in East Four
Street and Warehouse District, cultural institutions and theaters such as Playhouse Square and
University Circle, sports facilities such as Quicken Loans Arena and First Energy Stadium.
Being one of the Four Symphonies with great reputation, the Cleveland Orchestra performs many brilliant concerts and shows in the Severance Hall. Many tourists choose to attend one of the shows to enjoy the music while they are in town. Being conveniently located by Lake Erie,
Cleveland is now developing rapidly, and with great potential. One of the newest projects of the city is Flats East Bank. East Bank of the Cuyahoga River used to have a heavy industrial past. According to the Wolstein Group and Fairmount Properties (2015), with a $750 million waterfront development including office buildings, trendy hotels, local restaurants and
! ! 10! entertainment venues, Flats East Bank is going to bring Cleveland the next stage of sustainable development and, therefore, will attract more tourists.
Not far from Downtown Cleveland, Lakewood Park is also under a construction to enhance lake access and provide better view of Lake Erie and Downtown Cleveland for both residents and tourists. The assessment of destination development consists of five components: quality, authenticity, uniqueness, activity expansion, and drawing power (Gartner, 1993).
Quality attractions relate directly to quality clients. Sporting events can be an incentive to attract tourists to a destination, which will also relate to activity expansion for the destination.
People who are interested in a sports game may visit destination because of this event. A good example would be how far people are willing to travel for a Cleveland Browns Football games.
Sports tourists travel all over the country will be seen at the First Energy Stadium just to be in part of the game and cheer for their favorite team. In terms of authenticity, it is assessed by many components. Cleveland has many attractions that are in their original settings, for instance, the West Side Market, a farmer’s market and Little Italy, which is a unique ethnic neighborhood.
Destination Image
There is a fierce competition among different travel destinations around the world.
Therefore, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are in a constant and intense battle to maximize the amount of travelers visiting their destinations (Pike & Ryan, 2004).
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Among many researchers that conducting research on destination image, Crompton (1979) defined destination image as “the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a person has of a destination” in his study of Mexico as a tourist destination. Hunt (1975) assessed the perceived images of four Rocky Mountain States in five different test markets and indicated that tourists from same group have similar perceived destination image of a particular destination, while it varies for tourists from different groups. It has been explored by scholars that destination image affects tourists’ destination selection processes (Jenkins, 1999; Gartner, 1993; Sirakaya,
Sonmez, & Choi, 2001). Hunt (1975) also noted that potential tourists’ ideas about whether a destination’s development is successful or not may shape perceptions or images. Putting forward Hunt’s conclusion, Crompton (1979) also pointed out that a perceived image of a destination plays an important role on potential tourists’ decision making.
As sporting events are hosted in cities across the country and the world, they may shape the cities’ images functionally and/or psychologically. The earliest research about destination image focused on its functional characteristics, which concluded that scenery, congestion and climate are the three basic dimensions of holiday destination images (Mayo & Jarvis, 1981).
Other scholars pointed out that destination image should also include psychological characteristics (Dichter, 1985; McInnis & Price, 1987). Obenour, Lengfelder, and Groves
(2005) described that functional characteristics are “based on physical or measurable perceptions such as scenery, attractions, accommodations, and price levels” and psychological characteristics
! ! 12! have “more abstract and intangible characteristics such as friendliness, safety, fame, and atmosphere” .
It is suggested that destination image can help to influence travel behavior and provide deeper understanding of destination, which can leverage when trying to design effective tourism marketing strategies (Echtner & Ritchie, 2003). It is also important to note that this influence is a two way straight. While sporting events can influence tourist behaviors, they in return shape and bring an image to the destination brand.
Theoretical Framework
In the behavioral science field, brand personality theory is one of the most employed in tourism and leisure studies. Therefore, it is selected to provide theoretical support for the present study.
Brand Personality Theory
Brands are traditionally associated with products or services. Traditional marketing methods value physical attributes of products and activity opportunities, whereas functional attributes such as service and the infrastructure of destinations used to be the only marketing focus.
Initially, the theory of brand personality was adopted in consumer good studies. In
Jennifer Aaker’s (1997) pioneering study, she described brand personality as a set of human personality traits that linked to a brand and built a Brand Personality Scale which included five
! ! 13! dimensions: sincerity, excitement, ruggedness, sophistication, and competence. In Ekinci and
Hosany’s (2006) empirical study based on Aaker’s (1997) research result, they proposed that brand personality theory is applicable in the field of tourism with three dimensions: sincerity, excitement, and conviviality. Ekinci and Hosany (2006) also indicated that tourists describe destinations with different personality traits which provide better understanding of tourist behavioral intentions through the human personality traits that associate with destinations.
In the context mentioned above, the purpose of the study is to test the brand personality framework in the context of sports tourism, explore the brand personality of Cleveland as a sports destination, and apply the theory into destination marketing. The results of the present study contributed to the knowledge of promoting sports tourism in Cleveland. More specifically, the research questions are as follows,
(a) What are the brand personalities of Cleveland, particularly relating to its sports tourism?
(b) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to visitors’ personal interest/identity?
(c) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to visitors’ interest in Cleveland attractions?
(d) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to the attractiveness of Cleveland’s sporting events?
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(e) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to traveler type?
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter focuses on the theoretical and empirical research that is relevant to the present research project including theoretical framework, up-to-date conceptual development, as well as complementary and contradictory views.
Sports Tourism Origins and Development
Sports tourism, as a form of tourism, has already existed since the time of ancient Greece and Rome (Weed, 2009). The history of people traveling for sporting events dates back to 776
BC when the first ancient Greek Olympic Games were held in Olympia (Crowther, 2001). The gladiatorial events in Roman Empire, shooting and archery competitions during Medieval and
Renaissance period also attracted competitors travelling significant distances (Barker, 2001). In the sixteen century, the development of transportation system made people’s travel easier, followed by the increase of sports tourism opportunities. Later on, European people started traveling to different countries as part of their education, which is known as “Grand Tour”.
Sports tourism developed rapidly during this period in Europe (Hudson, 2012). For example, the Dutch devote themselves into golfing, and in Spain, bullfighting attracted people from different areas of the country and was one of the favorite spectacle activities.
Modern development of sports started during the period of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Guttmann (1974) concluded the transformation of sports during this time
! ! 16! as the codification of rules, the development and regulation of competitions, specialization of player roles, measurement of performance and the maintenance of records of achievement. A critical examination of the sport trends during 1970s to 1980s was presented by David
Halberstam (1999), which included the emergence of cable television and live broadcasting sports games by ESPN, the development of sport commercials and media interests, and the appearance of sports celebrity. Due to the increasing public appeal, in some cases sports games have been reorganized by rule changes aimed at enhancing media presentation and maximizing commercial advertising revenue (Higham & Hinch, 2003). Consequently, sports, sports teams, sports events and sports facilities have transformed into tourism attractions (Rooney, 1988).
It has been estimated that sporting and its related events make up at least 25% of tourism activities (Pitts & Ayers, 2000). Gibson (1998) defined sports tourism as “travel to participate in sport, to watch sport, or to venerate something or somebody associated with a sport”. Gibson also classified sports tourism according three of associated types which are active sport tourism, event sport tourism, and nostalgia sports tourism. Active sport tourism is comprised of individuals who travel to actively participate and compete in a wide variety of sporting events. People who travel to watch spectating activities, including professional, armature and collegiate sporting events such as the Olympics games, state high school championships, and NCAA men’s Basketball Tournament are considered as event sports tourism.
Nostalgia sport tourism involves visiting famous sports-related attractions such as the Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton,
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Ohio. Weed and Bull (2004) argued that “nostalgia” is rather a motivation for sports tourism than a type. Therefore, they provide another general recognized categorization of sports tourism. Weed and Bull (2009) categorized sports tourism into five types: tourism with sports content, sports participation tourism, sports training tourism, event sports tourism and luxury sports tourism. More specifically, tourism with sports content does not only include a variety of activities but also a range of providers. This type involves sports as an incidental activity as its simplest and most unorganized. Sports participation tourism refers to multiple or single-sport activity participation in tourism at the most basic level, which excludes active participation at higher levels, instructions and training. Sports training tourism consists of trips where the main purpose is sports instruction and training ranging from beginners to elite athletes.
The prime purpose of sports events tourism is to take part in sports events, either as a participant or a spectator. In terms of luxury sports tourism, it is the quality of facilities and the nature of the accommodation, facilities, and services that makes the trips luxurious.
Various attempts have been made to explore what sports tourism can bring to a tourist destination. Kim and Chalip (2003) studied five hundred and sixty-six members of American
Soccer Association as sample and conducted a survey on their travel motivation, social background, interest and constraint of attending World Cup games in sports tourism. In this study, it is found that the travel motivation, escape, is indifferent among respondents. Kim and
Chalip (2003) showed that event interest increased respondents’ desire to attend the World Cup, but costs to the game decrease the ability to attend. It is also reported that event interest and the
! ! 18! desire to learn about Korea had a positive effect on their desire to attend the World Cup, however the the perception of risk decreased their desire to attend. Miranda and Andueza (2005) proposed that sports tourism has become the main stream of European tourism after their research on analyzing the content of service purchasing from hotel industry employees. Gibson,
Willming and Holdnak (1998) indicated that college sports games have the potential to promote local tourism in the United States. In a profile of travelers who attend sports events that was provided by Travel Industry Association of America (2001), event sport tourism brings an estimated twenty seven billion dollars every year. It is also reported that more than seventy-five million American adults attend a sports event as either a spectator or as a participant while traveling in the past five years (TIA, 1999).
Traveler Type
It is important to understand sport tourism participants in order to analyze sport and tourism resources at a destination (Weed & Bull, 2004). An understanding of development potential in sport tourism destination is incomplete without understanding sport tourist markets.
In Cohen’s (1972) typology of tourist role, he classified tourists into institutionalized and non-institutionalized tourists (See table 1 Cohen’s typology of tourist role). Institutionalized tourist roles include organized and individual mass tourists with the pursuit of familiarity, while non-institutionalized tourist roles include drifters and explorers with novelty and adventure seekers (Cohen, 1972). Cohen (1972) concluded that organized and individual mass tourists are
! ! 19! content to enjoy their ‘environmental bubbles’ while explorers and drifters tend to immerse themselves into host cultures.
Table 1
Cohen’s Typology of Tourist Type
Type Familiarity Novelty Explanations Non-institutionalized Drifter Lowest Highest Highly adventurous; lives tourists within the local community
Explorer Lower Higher Travel alone; seeks comfortable accommodations and reliable transportation Institutionalized Individual Higher Lower Not bound to a group; tourists mass somewhat controlled time tourists and itinerary
Organized Highest Lowest Follows a tour guide; mass follows an itinerary fixed in tourists advance
Source: Kim, Chang, and Huh. The Relationship between Types of Tourist and Destination
Authenticity
In the perspective of psychographics, tourists are identified as allocentric, near-allocentric, mid-centric, near-psychocentri, and psychocentric by Stanley Plog (1974). Allocentric tourists are drawn to adventurous travel, while psychocentric tourists prefer familiarities in all aspects including attractions and destinations, and are not open to new experiences, for example, they are comfortable with staying at hotel chains when they are traveling. In terms of sports tourists, according to a result of research by Plog Research Incorporated (1987), an example of the ! ! 20! allocentric sports tourist would desire to be the first individual to a new destination, while the psychocentric sports tourist would follow family members or acquaintances who have had the experiences to travel to familiar and safe sports tourism areas. (See table 2 Allocentric and psychocentric travelers)
Table 2
Allocentric and Psychocentric Travellers
Allocentric Psychocentric More frequent travel Less travel Venturesome Less venturesome Self-confident Less self-confident Less inhibited More inhibited Less anxious More anxious Travel by various means Travel most likely by car Select more exotic sports destinations Select familiar and safe destinations Spend more money on destinations Spend less money on travel while on vacations
Source: Plog Research Incorporated, 1987
Table 2 Allocentric and psychocentric travellers
In order to get a better understanding of sport tourist markets, a range of participation profiles from sport tourism markets were examined in the present study. Sport tourism markets consist of leisure and business travel markets. Leisure travel market includes visitors who attend the sport games as participants or spectators, non-elite sports events, and many other
! ! 21! purposes (Delpy, 1997). These travelers travel for observing the organized sports events, such as sports fans that travel to another city to follow their favorite team to the away game. The main purpose for these kind of travelers is to visit famous or their favorite teams’ home sports stadium and field. Previous studies have focused on the meaning and identities associated with fans in sports tourism as well as other tourism contexts (Anderson, 1979; Wann & Branscombie,
1993; Gibson, Williming, & Holdnak, 2003). Business travel markets include professional sports teams, elite athletes, management team, sport marketing agencies, media staff, and administrators of professional sports. These travelers travel to destinations to compete or be a part of the organized sports events.
Brand Personality Theory
The topic of brand personality has come into focus in the field of marketing research since
1980s. Kotler (1991) defined “brand” as “a name, sign, symbol either design or combination of all”. Brands are wildly applied to differentiate products and services from different competitors in marketing field (Blain, Levy, & Ritchie, 2005). The word “Personality” originally comes from a Latin word “persona”. It is the mask that a drama actor wears for a show, which later extended to present different roles in the shows. Personality contains many subjective social or emotional attributes which cannot be seen directly and there are other characteristics that people tried to hide on purpose (Bai & Hu, 2013). In terms of definition of brand personality, different scholars represented it in different perspectives. Upshaw (1995) suggested that the appearance of a brand is the external personality that the brand shows, same with a person. It is the link
! ! 22! that associated brand with its existing and potential consumers. Consumers tend to take a brand as their companion and attach human personality traits with the brand (Frounier, 1994). Aaker
(1997) defined brand personality as “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand”.
Brand personality can offer consumers with symbolic value of a product or service (Aaker, 1997).
Kotler (2000) proposed that personality plays an important role in branding strategy. A well-considered personality can make a contribution to differentiate a specific brand from its competitors (Aaker, 1995). Therefore, when facing homogenized products, consumers’ choice of brand tend to be subjective: “I think this brand is the same with my personality”, or “I want to be one of the people who use this brand”
A lot of scholars have contributed to the development of brand personality scale.
McCrae and Costa (1987) proposed Big Five Model which includes five dimensions: openness to experience, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Openness features characteristics such as imagination and insights. People who are open to experience are intellectually curious, open to emotion, sensitive to beauty and willing to try new things.
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions and people who score high in neuroticism are more likely emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress. Extraverts tend to be enthusiastic, full of energy, and enjoy interacting with people. People with agreeableness traits are generally considerate, kind, helpful, and value getting along with others. Conscientiousness indicates a preference for planned rather than spontaneous behavior. Based on the Big-Five scale, Aaker (1997) developed a Brand Personality Scale using terms from the field of marketing
! ! 23! and psychology (See Table 3: A Brand Personality Scale). Aaker’s personality scale also has five but different dimensions: sincerity, excitement, ruggedness, sophistication, and competence.
Aaker, Benet-Martinez, and Garolera (2001) also tried to build a cultural-fit brand personality scale through a cross-cultural brand personality survey in Japan and Spain to test the applicability of the brand personality scale in different cultural background. The objectives of their study is to determine how commercial brands are perceived by Japanese individuals as defined by personality attributes, to examine the difference between the Japanese brand personality dimensions and Aaker’s brand personality scale, and to test if dimensional structure is applicable in a different cultural context. According to their result, brand personality of
Japan is sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and peacefulness, brand personality of
Spain is excitement, passion, peacefulness, sophistication and sincerity.
Table 3
Aaker’s (1997) Brand Personality Scale
Traits Factor Name down-to-earth Sincerity family-oriented small-town honest sincere real wholesome original
! ! 24! cheerful sentimental friendly Exciting daring trendy exciting spirited cool young imaginative unique up-to-date independent contemporary Competence reliable hard working secure intelligent technical corporate successful leader confident Sophistication upper class glamorous good looking charming
! ! 25! feminine smooth Ruggedness outdoorsy masculine Western tough rugged
Ever since then, Aaker’s five-dimension brand personality scale has been widely applied in studies across from the world. Even though some of the studies could not fully replicate
Aaker’s scale, it is presented that the use of this framework is the most stable, reliable and comprehensive measure in future studies with minimal adjustments (Ekinci & Hosany, 2006).
Siguaw, Mattila, and Austin (1999) validated Aaker’s scale through studying restaurant brands.
Similarly, Austin, Siguaw, and Mattila (2003) tested Aaker’s brand personality scale with regards to restaurant brands in the United States and found out that the brand personality scale does not generalize to individual brands within one product category. Supphellen and
Gronhaug (2003) examined the dimensions of brand personality in the Russian context and concluded that Russian consumer’s perceptions of brand personality showed similarity with western consumers. Chu and Sung (2011) conducted their study of brand personality in the context of China and identified six dimensions of Chinese brand personality. They found three of the dimensions are consistent with Aakers’ scale: “Competence”, “Excitement”, and
“Sophistication”, at the same time, China has three specific dimensions: “Joyfulness”,
“Traditionalism”, and “Trendiness”.
! ! 26!
In recent years, the study of brand personality focused more on the relationship between brand personality and other different variables, including analyzing the influence of brand personality (Traci &Lucas, 2005), the relationship between consumer personality and brand personality (Pragya, Jain & Masheswaren, 2012), the relationship between brand personality and consumer behavior (Kim, Magnini & Singal, 2011; Fennis & Pruyn, 2007). Patterson (1999) pointed out that brand image is a subjective perception of functional and non-functional information regarding a product or service. Previous studies have attempted to identify and explain the nature of the relationship between brand image and brand personality (Upshaw, 1995;
Keller,1998; Patterson, 1999). According to these authors, brand image is a larger concept which has many key components and dimensions including brand personality, brand identity, and user image. Hosany, Ekinci and Uysal (2006) initially applied branding theories to tourism destinations and provide explanations to the destination image- destination personality relationship.
Destination Personality
Ekinci and Hosany (2006) described destination personality as “the set of human characteristics associated with a destination”. Hosany, Ekinci and Uysal (2006) indicated that tourist destination image and destination brand personality are related but have different definitions. Destination brand personality is part of destination image. Scholars have linked destination to personality construct (Ekinci & Hosany, 2006; Lee, Baek, & Kim, 2009). Ekinci and Hosany (2006) found that personality characteristics can be used to describe destinations by tourists which means brand personality scale is applicable to tourism destinations. The results ! ! 27! of their study showed that destination personality can be represented in three dimensions: sincerity, excitement, and conviviality. It has been brought to marketers’ attention that symbolic attributes of destinations can no longer be underestimated. The significance of brand personality to tourism has become the study focus for scholars (Ekinci & Hosany, 2006; Murphy,
Moscardo, & Benckendorff, 2007).
For destination marketers, destination branding is becoming a more and more compelling tool for a destination to be competitive (Murphy, Benckendorff, & Moscardo, 2007). Tourist destinations can be considered products for the reason of consisting value-expressive attributes, which are personified due to different personality traits. Ekinci and Hosany (2006) were the first to examine and prove the applicability and validity of Aaker’s brand personality scale into tourist destination context. Ekinci and Hosany (2006) found that destination personality have positive impacts on tourists’ intention to recommend, which corresponds with the previous research (Sirgy, 1982).
Being considered as the core component of destination branding, brand personality makes destinations more personalized and less possible to be replaced. Ekinci, Prokopaki, and
Cobanoglu (2003) designed a process of establishing a successful destination brand which included three steps: establish destination images, destination branding, and establish a distinctive brand personality. It has been suggested that destinations need to build brand personality in order to be more effective in connecting tourists’ self-image with their needs and motives (Ekinci, Prokopaki, & Cobanoglu, 2003).
! ! 28!
Cleveland Comparable to Other Cities in the United States
Located in Ohio, in the United States, Cleveland is a culturally diverse city on the shores of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. Cleveland experiences four seasons, with vivid spring blossoms, humid summers, vibrant falls, and chilly winters. With world-class museums, cultural events, professional sports, and amusement parks in Cleveland, recreational, cultural and educational opportunities are abundant throughout Northeast Ohio.
Cleveland is the urban center of Northeast Ohio, the 15th largest combined metropolitan area in the United States (United States Census Bureau, 2013). The city of Cleveland consists of three districts: Downtown, East Side, and West Side. The downtown district includes the area at the heart of the city around the mouth of the Cuyahoga River along Lake Erie, which includes the East Fourth neighborhood, Warehouse District, Playhouse Square, New Flats at East
Bank, Gateway District, Horseshoe Casino, Aquarium, Tower City, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and three professional sports arenas: Quicken Loans Arena (Cavaliers), First Energy Stadium
(Browns), and Progressive Field (Indians). The East Side contains neighborhoods that are the city's world-class cultural and arts complex--including University Circle and Little Italy. The
West Side is the portion of the city to the west of the river, which includes the West Side market and the airport.
! ! 29!
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes the methodology used to achieve the objectives of this study.
According to Jennings (2001), compared to a qualitative approach, a quantitative approach is more suitable for understanding the relationship between variables, especially in empirical studies. Therefore, a quantitative approach was utilized to collect data in the present study.
This quantitative study is designed to test the brand personality framework in the context of sports tourism, explore the brand personality of Cleveland as a sports destination, and apply the theory into destination marketing. More specifically, the research questions are as follows,
(a) What are the brand personalities of Cleveland, particularly relating to its sports tourism?
(b) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to visitors’ personal interest/identity?
(c) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to visitors’ interest in Cleveland attractions?
(d) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to the attractiveness of Cleveland’s sporting events?
(e) Whether the desire of visiting Cleveland is related to traveler type?
! ! 30!
Instrument Design
Focus Group
To determine the personality traits of Cleveland, a focus group comprised of sixteen midwest university students with various majors were used in the study. There are three main reasons for choosing university students in focus group study as well as in the main survey.
Firstly, location; the university is located in the greater Cleveland metropolitan area. It is only a one-hour drive from main campus to downtown Cleveland. Many students visit Cleveland during their spare time for a variety of purposes. Secondly, university students are commonly known as the group of people that are energetic and interested in sports. Before attending college, most of them have already built interests in sports during their high school extra-curricular activities and/or had previous experiences of attending sports games. Lastly, the student body comprises of students from nearly one hundred countries, providing the researcher with the ability to collect data not only from domestic students, but also international students.
Before further elaborating on how the focus group is conducted, the general conceptual base are established. In the present research, a group of sixteen people formed the focus group.
The focus group study is consisted of two sessions and each part has its own purpose.
In the first session, brand personality (BP) of Cleveland as a sports destination was measured. To begin with, in the unique personality generation stage, participants were asked to think of the sports destination of Cleveland as if it was a person and write down two personality ! ! 31! trait items that first come to their mind. Data was recorded and an initial item pool was created which includes thirty-six unique items. From the initial item pool, five of the most frequently-mentioned personality traits were chosen, generating a first list of three personality traits.
Then, in the Brand Personality Scale (BPS) content validity stage, the same group of people was provided a list that includes forty-two personality trait items from Aaker’s (1977)
BPS framework and asked to choose two from the list that can best describe sports destination
Cleveland as if it was a person. The five most frequently-mentioned personality traits from
Aaker’s BPS were included in the second list. After combining these two lists, there are a total of ten personality traits that were utilized in the Brand Personality measurement of Cleveland as a sports destination. This entire process results in a reduced list that is appropriate for my target audience.
A research survey was structured based on the combined two generated lists of ten items from the focus group. This structure was further elaborated on in the main survey section of
Chapter III.
Pilot Study
Before the main survey, a pilot study was undertaken in order to minimize any ambiguity or misunderstanding of any statements in the questionnaire. The pilot testing is designed with two main objectives: to confirm the reliability of the scale and the validity of the content of the questionnaire; and to retain or delete items of measurement scales. A group of students at a ! ! 32! midwestern university were invited to participate in the test. The participants were asked to complete the questionnaire and raise any questions or provide opinions regarding the understanding of the professional terms, the rating scale, and design of the research.
Main Survey
A research survey was developed based on a comprehensive literature review. The research survey includes six sections: (1) Interest in Cleveland attractions, (2) Attractiveness of
Cleveland’s sporting events, (3) Brand personality of Cleveland, (4) Future intention to visit
Cleveland, (5) Traveler type, and (6) Background information (See Appendix).
The questionnaires in the main survey were distributed online through Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk research platform as well as in person by the researcher. The researcher created the questionnaire using Qualtrics research platform, and then linked it to Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk (AMT). AMT is an online labor market where requesters post tasks and workers choose which tasks to do for pay. This platform provides access to a large set of persistently available group of people who are willing to do task, including participating in research studies, for a relatively low pay. On AMT’s webpage, all the HITs (Human
Intelligence Tasks) are listed in a standard format for workers to easily browse and find the tasks that they would like to complete. Each worker then chooses and completes the task. Once the assignment is complete, requester review the work submitted and can accept or reject any of the assignments. The workers are paid only when the assignments are accepted.
! ! 33!
In terms of convenient sampling method, the researcher briefly introduced the research topic and rationale of the survey. If the respondents do not clearly understand the meaning of the questionnaire, the researcher would explain the questionnaire, in order to improve the data collection and validity of the data. All items in the first four sections were measured at the numerical level as such questionnaire items were commonly used in surveys of sports events as well as in the tourism literature (Daniels & Norman, 2003).
The first section of the questionnaire was designed to understand people’s interest in
Cleveland tourist attractions. A list of fourteen different types of tourism attractions was generated by the researcher after a content review of Cleveland tourism websites, e.g. Positively
Cleveland and DiscoverOhio. Participants were asked to measure their degree of agreement in
Cleveland being an interesting destination because of the fourteen kinds of tourist attractions on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1= Strongly Disagree to 7=Strongly Agree, where 4=
Neutral.
The second section of the questionnaire is aiming to understand Cleveland’s sporting events. After an exhaustive content review of Cleveland tourism websites, Cleveland sports events are categorized in nine different types. Participants were asked to measure their degree of agreement regarding to the attractiveness of Cleveland being a good tourist destination to experience sporting events. A total of nine types of sporting events were listed in the survey on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) Strongly Disagree to (7) Strongly Agree.
! ! 34!
In the first part of third section, participants were first asked to measure fourteen personality traits of Cleveland as a sports destination. A list of ten personality traits were generated from content review of previous studies as well as focus group on brand personality relating to sports. Participants can choose how well each personality trait describes Cleveland as if it was a person on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1= Not descriptive at all to 7=
Extremely descriptive. The results were used as Cleveland brand personality (BP) measurement.
The second part of section three is intending to measure the perceived image of visitors who visit Cleveland because of its sports tourism (VI). The same list of fourteen personality traits was used. The fourteen personality traits are ranged from (1) Not descriptive at all to (7)
Extremely descriptive. The results were used as Cleveland sports tourism VI measurement.
The fourth section addresses participants’ desire to visit Cleveland. Participants were asked whether a trip to Cleveland is important for them to better enjoy sports games. They were also be asked whether they intend to visit Cleveland within the next two months.
The fifth section of the questionnaire is designed to study tourist types of the participants.
According to Cohen’s (1972) typology, there are four types of tourists (organized mass tourist, individual mass tourist, explorer, and drifter), which further classified into institutional
(organized mass tourist and individual mass tourist) and non-institutional tourists (explorer and drifter). The participants were asked to choose the statements that were closet to their preferences.
! ! 35!
The questionnaire was concluded by collecting participants’ demographic information in the sixth section. Solomon (1999) suggested that socio-demographic characteristics are important factors that affect consumers’ perception and behavior. This section is designed to investigate the socio-demographical influence on the perception of sports destination Cleveland.
Data Collection
The present study was conducted using an integrated web-based survey tool (Qualtrics and Amazon Mechanical Turk) as well as snow ball sampling. After the review and approval by a Kent State Institutional Review Board (IRB), data was collected in March, 2016, in USA using a combination of web-based questionnaire and convenient sample. The researcher
(requester) published the task (questionnaire) on AMT platform as a requester after gaining IRB approval. Participants (workers) are required to answer filter questions to see if they are qualified in the task. For the present study, participants are required to be residing in the United
States to be able to start the task. Requester’s contact information is available on AMT so workers are able to interact with the requester in case they have any questions and concerns regarding the task. The requester reviewed the online workers’ survey after they finished the task and $0.30 were paid to each worker for their fully-completed task.
Besides online survey, the researcher also approached individual students of both undergraduate and graduate levels at the main library and a variety of academic buildings. Before taking the survey, all participants were informed that participation would be voluntary and all data would
! ! 36! be kept confidential. The questionnaire is respondent-completed, but assistance from the researcher was available if requested.
Data Analysis
Statistics Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 was employed to analyze the collected quantitative data with the aim of answering the research questions. Raw data was entered into SPSS for statistical processing. Two types of quantitative data analysis were performed in the present study to test the hypotheses and gain meaningful information from the study. Firstly, descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, was calculated to summarize the basic samples and the measures. Secondly, an independence t-test was used to analyze the relationship between traveler type and desire to visit
Cleveland, as well as relationship between personal background and desire to visit Cleveland.
An independence t-test was also employed to investigate the relationship between respondents’ demographic profile as well as traveler types and their perception of brand personality of
Cleveland as a sports destination. The corresponding hypotheses are as follows:
H1: There is a relationship between interest in Cleveland attractions (Questionnaire Section A) and desire to visit Cleveland (Questionnaire Section D)
H2: There is a relationship between the attractiveness of Cleveland sporting events
(Questionnaire Section B) and desire to visit Cleveland (Questionnaire Section D)
H3: There is a relationship between traveler type (Questionnaire Section E) and desire to visit
Cleveland (Questionnaire Section D)
! ! 37!
H4: There is a relationship between personal background (Questionnaire Section F) and desire to visit Cleveland (Questionnaire Section D)
! ! 38!
CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
Data were collected using a combination of an integrated web-based survey tool (Qualtrics and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk) and convenient sampling method in March, 2016, in the United
States.
Description of the Sample
The population of the survey was participants on an online survey platform called Amazon
Mechanical Turk as well as a snow ball sampling from a midwest university. Participants voluntarily completed the questionnaires. There is a combination of 63 online platform participants and 79 participants from the university. In total, 142 participants took the questionnaires, and from these collected questionnaires, 13 questionnaires were excluded due to missing data information. Therefore, a total of 129 valid questionnaires were collected with an effective return rate of 90.8%. Detailed socio-demographic profile of the respondents are as follows (Table 4).
Table 4
Socio-demographic Profile
Variable N
Gender 129 Male 66
! ! 39!
Female 63 Age 129 18-34 103 35-64 26 65 and over 0 Traveled to Cleveland before 129 Yes 98 No 31 Zip code 129 Ohio 85 Non- Ohio 44
The sample included 66 (51.16%) male and 63 (48.84%) female. According the zip code that the participants provided, 44 (34.1%) participants live in places outside of Ohio, 85 (65.9%) participants live within the state of Ohio, which is nearly two third of sample. Regarding if they traveled to Cleveland before, 98 (75.97%) participants have traveled to Cleveland before, the rest (24.03%) have not.
Focus Group
Prior to the questionnaire survey, a focus group was conducted to generate brand personality items. Sixteen students at a midwestern university in the United States participated in the focus group. Nine participants of the focus group were male and seven were female. A two-step focus study was utilized to identify personality traits of Cleveland as a sports
! ! 40! destination. During the first step, which is called the unique personality generation step, members of the focus group were first asked to think Cleveland as if it is a person and describe this person using one or more personality traits. Five personality traits raised by the focus group in this stage are positively, friendly, originally, hardworking, and honest. Next, the same group of subjects were used in the brand personality scale content validity stage. Aaker’s (1997) brand personality scale were tested for content validity. The focus group were given a list of forty-two personality traits and was asked to circle the most descriptive personality traits for sports destination Cleveland as if it is a person. Personality traits generated in this stage are attractive, passionate, family oriented, exciting, and athletic.
Brand Personality of Cleveland
Ten brand personality traits of sports destination Cleveland were generated from the focus group and content review: (1) positively, (2) friendly, (3) originally, (4) hardworking, (5) honest,
(6) attractive, (7) passionate, (8) family-oriented, (9) exciting, (10) athletic (see table 5). The personality traits including positively, friendly, originally, hardworking, and honest came up from the focus group. Attractive, passionate, family-oriented, exciting, and athletic were selected by the group using Aaker’s scale.
In Section C of the questionnaire, the participants were asked “think sports destination
Cleveland as a person, how well does each personality traits describe him/her”. The questions are designed on a 7-point Likert scale (1=not at all descriptive, 7=extremely descriptive). All ten personality traits were examined by all participants (N=129)
! ! 41!
Table 5
Brand Personality of Sports Destination Cleveland
Personality Traits N M SD
Positively 129 4.74 1.46 Friendly 129 4.89 1.20 Originally 129 4.42 1.22 Hardworking 129 4.87 1.32 Honest 129 4.66 1.19 Attractive 129 4.57 1.43 Passionate 129 5.09 1.49 Family-oriented 129 4.76 1.50 Exciting 129 4.99 1.44 Athletic 129 5.29 1.31
Note: M=4 means neutral, M=5 means relatively descriptive, M=6 means extremely descriptive
Results showed that the most commonly perceived sports destination Cleveland brand personality traits by the participants in the sample are athletic (M=,5.29 SD=1.31), passionate
(M=5.09, SD= 1.49), exciting (M=4.99, SD=1.44), friendly (M=4.89, SD=1.20), and hardworking
(M=4.87, SD=1.33).
Interest in Cleveland Attractions
In Section A of the questionnaire, participants were asked to measure their degree of agreement in Cleveland being an interesting destination in thirteen kinds of tourist attractions on
! ! 42! a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1= Strongly Disagree to 7=Strongly Agree, where 4=
Neutral. Average scores are used to indicate the importance of each attraction (See Table 6)
Table 6
Attractions in Cleveland
Attraction Type N M SD
Food 129 4.98 1.57 Shopping 129 4.48 1.52 Medical services 129 5.43 1.61 Universities 129 4.42 1.53 Sporting events 129 5.70 1.41 Politics 129 3.84 1.51 Economics development 129 4.18 1.58 Art and theaters 129 5.21 1.58 Casino 129 4.31 1.91 Churches 129 3.80 1.65 Activities related to celebrity persons 129 4.01 1.68 Architectures 129 4.32 1.61 Museums 129 5.01 1.59
Note: M=3 means relatively disagree, M=4 means neutral, M=5 means relatively agree, M=6 means Agree.
Results showed that the top five items, according to the degree of agreement in Cleveland being an interesting destination as perceived by the participants in the sample group, are sporting events (M=5.70, SD=1.41), medical services (M=5.43, SD=1.61), art and theaters (M=5.21,
! ! 43!
SD=1.58), museums (M=5.01, SD=1.59), food (M=4.99, SD=1.57). Moreover, all the average score of the top five attractions are around 5, indicating that these attractions are perceived as relatively interesting attractions for Cleveland being a tourist destination. On the other hand, average score for churches and politics are below 4, indicating that these factors are perceived as less interesting attractions when considering Cleveland as a tourist destination.
Attractiveness of Cleveland Sporting Events
In Section B of the questionnaire, participants were asked to measure their degree of agreement regarding to the attractiveness of Cleveland being a tourist destination to experience sporting events. A total of eight types of sporting events are listed in the survey on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) Strongly Disagree to (7) Strongly Agree. Average scores are used to indicate the degree of attractiveness (See table 7).
Table 7
Attractiveness of Cleveland’s Sporting Events
Attraction Type N M SD
Cleveland Browns Football 129 4.09 2.14 Cleveland Indians Baseball 129 4.82 1.86 Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball 129 5.52 1.70 Lake Eire Monsters Ice Hockey 129 3.66 1.81 Cleveland Gladiators Arena Football 129 2.99 1.75 Cleveland State University college sports 129 2.75 1.71 Cleveland Marathon 129 2.93 1.75
! ! 44!
Mid-American Conference (MAC) Basketball 129 3.02 1.95 Championship
Note: M=4 means Neutral, M=5 means Relatively Agree
The results showed that top three attractive sporting events in Cleveland are Cleveland
Cavaliers Basketball (M=5.52, SD=1.70), Cleveland Indians Baseball (M=4.82, SD=1.86), and
Cleveland Browns Football (M=4.09, SD=2.14). Moreover, Cleveland is home to three major sport leagues, and the results also indicated that these three sporting events are the top three sporting events regarding their attractiveness.
Desire to Visit Cleveland
Section D of the questionnaire addressed participants’ desire to visit Cleveland.
Participants were asked whether a trip to Cleveland is important for them to better enjoy sports games. The results showed that 55 participants (42.64%) relatively agree that a trip to
Cleveland is important for them to better enjoy sports games (M=4.44, SD=2.04). They were also asked whether they intend to visit Cleveland within the next two months. When asked to indicate the desire to visit Cleveland in the next two months, 73 participants (56.59%) rated 6 and 7, which means they agree and strongly agree that they will visit Cleveland with the next two months (M=5.35, SD=2.01).
Interest in Cleveland Attractions and Desire to Visit Cleveland
An independent t-test was used to examine the relationship between interest in attraction types and the desire to visit Cleveland (see table 8). The interest in Cleveland’s attractions
! ! 45! were measured by asking participants about the level of agreement of Cleveland being an interesting destination because of the following thirteen kinds of attractions. A seven-point
Likert scale measures each attraction type, ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Table 8
Relationship between Interest in Attraction Types and the Desire to Visit Cleveland
Interest Measurement t df Sig.
Food -.726 127 .470 Shopping .657 127 .513 Medical services -1.805 127 .074 Universities .200 127 .842 Sporting events -2.606 127 .011* Politics -.876 127 .383 Economic development -1.911 127 .059 Art and theaters -1.539 127 .127 Casino -2.096 127 .039* Church -.832 127 .408 Activities related to celebrity persons 1.047 127 .298 Architecture -2.026 127 .046* Museums -1.755 127 .083
Note: *p<.05
The results showed that, out of the interest in the thirteen attraction types, three attraction types have significant differences between participants who desire to visit Cleveland within two
! ! 46! months and those who do not. These three attractions are sporting events (p=.011), casino
(p=.039), and architecture (p=.046). Therefore, Hypothesis 1, which suggests that there is a relationship between interest in Cleveland attractions and desire to visit Cleveland, is partially accepted.
Attractiveness of Cleveland Sporting Events and Desire to Visit Cleveland
In order to examine the relationship between attractiveness of Cleveland’s sporting events and the desire to visit Cleveland, an independent t-test was utilized (see table 9). The attractiveness of Cleveland’s sporting events was measured by asking participants about the level of agreement of the eight sporting events. A seven-point Likert scale measures each attraction type, ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Table 9
Relationship between Interest in Sporting Events and Participants’ Desire to Visit Cleveland
Sporting events t df Sig.
Cleveland Browns Football -.664 127 .508 Cleveland Indians Baseball -1.904 127 .060 Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball -1.880 127 .063 Lake Erie Monsters Ice Hockey -.064 127 .949 Cleveland Gladiators Arena Football .805 127 .423 Cleveland State University sports .766 127 .445 Cleveland Marathon .161 127 .873 Mid-American Conference (MAC) -.374 127 .709
Note: *p<.05 ! ! 47!
As we can tell from the table, in Sig. column, there are no numbers that are less than .05, which means, in terms of Cleveland’s sporting events, there is no significant difference between participants who desire to visit Cleveland within two months and those who do not. However, it needs to be noted that Cleveland Indians Football has p=.060 and Cleveland Cavaliers
Basketball has p=.063, which means these two sporting events have marginal significant difference between participants who desire to visit Cleveland within two months and those who do not. Hence, Hypothesis 2, which suggests that there is a relationship between the attractiveness of Cleveland sporting events and desire to visit Cleveland, is rejected.
Traveler Type and Desire to Visit Cleveland
Participants were asked to report their traveler type by choosing one of two statements describing their preferences. The two statements describing tourists’ travel style are theorized by Plog (1974). Psychocentric travelers are described with the statement “I prefer familiar destinations, I prefer pre-designed schedule and complete packages, I prefer local people speaking English” whereas allocentric travelers are described with the statement “I feel confident in communicating with local people, I don’t feel anxiety to an unfamiliar destination, I prefer unique and exotic destinations without many crowds”.
Table 10
Traveler Type in the U.S.
Traveler Frequency Percent
! ! 48!
Psychocentric type 83 64.3% Allocentric type 46 35.7%
The analyses with traveler types were to determine tourists’ desire to visit Cleveland with respect to their travel style. The results indicated that, of the sample, 83 participants (64.3%) identified themselves as psychocentric tourists, whereas 46 participants (35.7) are allocentric tourists (see Table 10 above). Accoridng to Plog (1947), psychocentric tourists are more dependent on services provided by tourism institutions, where as allocentric tourists are more interested in exploring on their own. An independent t-test was performed to investigate the significance of the relationship between traveler types and participants’ desire to visit sports destination Cleveland.
Analysis showed that the relationship between traveler types (psychocentric and allocentric) and participants’ desire to visit sports destination Cleveland is not statistically significant (p<.05), (see table 11). Therefore, Hypothesis 3, which suggests that there is a relationship between traveler type and desire to visit Cleveland, is rejected.
Table 11
Relationship between Tourist Types and Participants’ Desire to Visit Cleveland
t df Sig.
Traveler types 1.601 127 .113
Personal Background and Desire to Visit Cleveland
! ! 49!
In Section F of the questionnaire, data were collected as socio-demographic information for the present study. In order to test Hypothesis 4, which suggests that there is a relationship between personal background and desire to visit Cleveland, an independent t-test was employed
(see table 12).
Table 12
Relationship Between Personal Background and Participants’ Desire to Visit Cleveland
t df Sig.
Gender 1.379 127 .113 Age -.889 127 .376 Travel to Cleveland 2.969 127 .004** before
Note: p<.05*, p<.01**
The results indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in Gender and Age between people who desire to visit Cleveland in two months and those who do not. Moreover, according to the table, we can find that there is a Sig.=.004, which means there is a statistically significant difference in whether the participants have been to Cleveland. Therefore,
Hypotheses 4 is partially accepted.
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CHAPTER V
DISCUSSION
The main objective of this study was to test the brand personality framework in the context of sports tourism, explore the brand personality of Cleveland as a sports destination, and to apply the theory into destination marketing. There is a lack of studies regarding second-tier cities as sports destinations which leaves tourism industry professionals and market researchers unfamiliar with the concept. The present study uses Aaker’s (1977) Brand Personality Scale to understand the city of Cleveland as a sports destination. This study used the definition of sports tourism provided by Gibson (1998), “travel to participate in sport, to watch sport, or to venerate something or somebody associated with a sport”, which also classified sports tourism into three categories: active sport tourism, event sport tourism, and nostalgia sports tourism. With the clear guidelines, it makes it easier to study sports tourists. In terms of data collection, the present study employed a combination of an integrated online survey tool as well as paper-based surveys to avoid a sample having only student population and certain cultural background.
According to the results, among the ten brand personality traits that Cleveland has, the top five ratings in terms of their mean scores are athletic, passionate, exciting, friendly, and hardworking. The personality traits of “athletic” consists of characteristics such as fast and active. The brand personality described by “athletic” fits the professional sports teams leading position and good reputation in local tourism. The personality traits of “passionate” and
“exciting” implies that sports games in Cleveland are considered to be fun and are thus highly
! ! 51! capable of generating interest. The personality trait of “friendly” reflects the how people perceived these sporting events as high quality and high performance. The personality trait of
“hardworking” suggests that sports destination Cleveland are seen as outdoorsy and tough.
Destination marketers could utilize this sports characteristics of Cleveland to promote tourism in terms of sporting events. In the meantime, although consumers also perceived sports destination Cleveland to have “positively”, “originally”, “honest”, “attractive”, and
“family-oriented” personality traits, these five brand personality traits are not strong enough to produce statistically significant advantage in the context of sports destination marketing.
The results of this research showed the relationship between participants’ background and their perceptions of brand personality of Cleveland as a sports destination. Among the hypotheses, Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 4 are partially accepted, where Hypothesis 2 and 3 are rejected. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between interest in
Cleveland attractions and desire to visit Cleveland as well as personal background and desire to visit Cleveland. More specifically, the significant relationship exists in Cleveland attractions including sporting events, casinos, and architecture and the desire to visit Cleveland.
Hypothesis 1 states that there is a relationship between interest in attraction types and the desire to visit Cleveland, while Hypothesis 2 states that there is a relationship between
Cleveland’s sporting events and the desire to visit Cleveland. According to the results,
Hypothesis 1 was partially accepted while Hypothesis 2 was rejected. Interestingly, one of the accepted items of which attraction types was sporting events, however, there is no statistically relationship between Cleveland’s sporting events and the desire to visit Cleveland. One ! ! 52! explanation here could be individuals’ difference in preference. Hypothesis 1 is about sports in general, which included the relationship between each of the thirteen attraction items and the desire to visit Cleveland. Hypothesis 2 cared about specific sporting events. More specifically, it tested the relationship between the attractiveness of each sporting events and desire to visit Cleveland. Therefore, data were scattered which leaded to the rejection of
Hypothesis 2.
One thing to be noted is that, politics as an attraction perceived a relatively low average score in the result. However, Cleveland is going to host the 2016 Republican National
Convention, where the result of the study may vary if the study is conducted at a later date than the present study. In terms of personal background, previous traveling experiences to
Cleveland has a significant difference on desire to visit Cleveland.
Implications
Several theoretical and marketing contributions were made to brand personality literature in this study. Brand personality enables marketers to effectively communicate with consumers regarding the brands as well as building strong relationships (Diamantopoulos, 2005).
Diamantopoulos (2005) indicated that “a well-established brand personality can result in consumers having stronger emotional ties to the brand and greater trust and loyalty, thus providing an enduring basis for differentiation which is difficult to copy” (p.129). Das (2012) also suggested that brand personality scales could help brand managers understand how consumers identify and recognize their brand as well as their competitors’ brand. Given the
! ! 53! importance of brand personality being a marketing tool, destination brand managers and marketers are able to apply the results of present study to their destinations’ tourism development.
Specifically, the findings in the present study would help managers to have better understanding of their destination in travelers’ mind. Therefore, it will enable the sports destinations to better distinguish themselves from competing tourism destinations and further identify the target market that is closely related to the personality traits of their brands.
It needs to be noted that sports destination marketing is not only about advertising, the promotion strategies of sports destination marketing also includes communicating with various sports teams brand sponsorships, public relations, personal selling, as well as sales promotions
(Shank & Lyberger, 2015). The five personality traits which received higher ratings should be incorporated into marketing strategies and campaigns that are mainly used in the process of destination development such as advertising, celebrity athlete endorsements and sports event sponsorship (Radder & Huang, 2008). For example, when tourism marketers use celebrity athletes to promote their destination, they should use athletes who are perceived as athletic, passionate, exciting, friendly, and hardworking to create a tie between consumers and brands to increase the destination’s sports awareness.
In addition, practitioners in destination marketing organizations could use the information of sports destination brand personality to develop and promote marketing strategies to effectively attract sports tourists as well as sport events sponsors in order to make themselves outstanding in the highly competitive sports tourism industry. More specifically, destination brand managers
! ! 54! and sport events marketers need to understand how their tourists and fans assess their brand’s personality. They should create and maintain personality for destinations by conducting studies to identify their own personality traits that are unique and appealing to its target markets in order to make a strong relationship with tourists. They could also include advertising information of destination brand personality in their promotion brochures and websites.
Limitations
This research is significant for the development of a sports destination based on brand personality. Although the study utilized a reliable and valid instrument for measuring sports destination brand personality, it has its limitations. Firstly, the questionnaire was administered using a combination of an integrated online survey tool and paper-based survey, where the sample consists of both online participants and university students. The sample size in the present study is limited (N=129), therefore, it may not accurately represent Cleveland as a sports destination. Secondly, the present study identified the sports destination brand personality of a city in the USA (Cleveland). Since Cleveland is home to three major sport leagues, it seems reasonable to select the city in order to examine brand personality for the study. However, in order to develop a generalizable brand personality scale for sports destinations across a number of other cities to gain more cultural-diverse findings. Thirdly, the personality traits used to measure Cleveland as a sports destination were derived from a focus group method on previous sports brand studies. Although the traits are relevant and applicable to the sports destinations
! ! 55! personality, it may not represent Cleveland specifically. Therefore, it is difficult to identify unique brand personality traits of sports destination.
Future Research
Firstly, the present study only examined one city as a sports destination. Future research can take a look at two or multiple sports destinations of a similar size to do a comparative study on their brand personalities. Secondly, the present study surveyed participants’ opinions on a city having a number of nationally recognized sports teams. Future studies can focus on a single sport, either seasonal games, or one off events, to study its relationship to local tourism.
Moreover, it has been explored that there is a connection between tourists and destination brands by studying the connection between tourists’ self-concept and travel behaviors (Sirgy& Su,
2000).
Reflections of the Study
Destination Development
Travelers’ interests and desire to visit Cleveland is deeply influenced by its sporting events. Hence, studying travelers’ attitudes and perceptions about Cleveland as a sports travel destination is of fundamental importance to the tourism industry. It is paramount to comprehend the needs of sports tourists. After understanding the demand, it should be mapped against one’s current offering which will reveal the development needs and then determine development priorities.
! ! 56!
In establishing and maintaining a brand personality, destination developers and marketers should strategically position the brand to match with human characteristics and differentiate the brand from competitors (Lee & Miloch, 2011). Therefore, it is very important for a city to have a clear brand personality.
What Other Cities Can Learn from Cleveland
Practically, considering Cleveland as a whole brand, the result of this study will help destination marketers determine the personality traits that tourists associate with the destination.
Consequently, Cleveland and other cities will be able to attract more tourists according to their market segmentation.
! ! !
APPENDICES
! !
APPENDIX A
KSU INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD APPROVAL FORM
! ! !
APPENDIX A
KSU Institutional Review Board Approval Form
59! !
APPENDIX B
RESEARCH FOCUS GROUP
! ! !
Appendix B
Focus group 1. Please take a moment to think about Cleveland. Think about Cleveland as if it is a person. Imagine this person in your mind and then describe this person using one or more personality traits.
2. Choose and circle one or more personality traits from the table below to best describe Cleveland as if it was a person: Down-to Earth Daring Reliable Upper-class Outdoorsy Honest Spirited Intelligent Charming Tough Wholesome Imaginative Successful Glamorous Masculine Cheerful Up-to-date Hard-working Good-looking Western Family-oriented Trendy Secure Feminine Rugged Small-town Exciting Technical Smooth Sincere Cool Corporate Real Young Leader Original Unique Confident Sentimental Independent Friendly Contemporary
61! !
APPENDIX C
RESEARCH SURVEY
! ! !
Appendix C
Research Survey
!
Study&Title:&Understanding+Cleveland+as+a+sports+destination:+an+empirical+study+of+brand+ personality+theory+
&
Principal&Investigator:+Philip+Wang,+Jiayi+Wang+
+
You!are!invited!to!participate!in!this!research!survey.!Participation!is!totally!voluntary.!The!purpose!of!the! survey!is!to!analyze!the!brand!personality!of!Cleveland!related!to!its!sporting!events.!It!is!important!that!you! ask!any!questions!you!may!have!and!fully!understand!the!survey!in!order!to!make!an!informed!decision.!All! data!obtained!will!be!anonymous.!Thank!you!for!taking!time!to!complete!this!survey.!
!
SECTION&A.&INTEREST&IN&CLEVELAND&ATTRACTIONS&
!
Cleveland!is!an!interesting!destination!because!of!the!following!attractions:!
! Please!circle!one!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Strongly!Disagree!!!!Strongly!Agree!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Food! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Shopping! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Medical!services! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Universities! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Sporting!events! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Politics! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Economic!development! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
63! 64!
Art!and!theaters! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Casino! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Churches! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Activities!related!to!celebrity!persons! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Architecture! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Museums! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
!
SECTION&B.&CLEVELAND’S&SPORTING&EVENTS&
!
I!am!attracted!to!sports!destination!Cleveland!for!the!following!reasons:!
! Please!circle!one!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Strongly!Disagree!!!!Strongly!Agree!
!
Cleveland!Browns!Football! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Cleveland!Indians!Baseball! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Cleveland!Cavaliers!Basketball! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Lake!Erie!Monsters!Ice!Hockey! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Cleveland!Gladiators!Arena!Football! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Cleveland!State!University!college!sports! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Cleveland!Marathon! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
MidVAmerican!Conference!(MAC)!Basketball!Championship! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
!
SECTION&C.&BRAND&PERSONALITIES&OF&CLEVELAND&
Think!Cleveland!as!a!person,!how!well!do!you!think!each!personality!describe!him/her?!
! Please!circle!one!
Personality!Traits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Not!at!all!Descriptive! ! ! ! Extremely!Descriptive
! ! 65!
!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Positively! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Friendly! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Originally! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Hardworking! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Honest! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Attractive! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Passionate! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
FamilyVoriented! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Exciting! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
Athletic! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
!
SECTION&D.&DESIRE&TO&VISIT&CLEVELAND&
Please!indicate&your&desire&to&visit&Cleveland&by!selecting!the!number!corresponding!with!the!statements!on! a! !
7Vpoint!scale:!
! Please!circle!one! !
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Strongly!Disagree!!!!Strongly!Agree!
!
1.! A!trip!to!Cleveland!is!important!to!me!to!better!enjoy!sports!games! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
2! I!intend!to!visit!Cleveland!within!the!next!two!months! 1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7!
!
&
&
&
! 66!
&
Section&E& TRAVELER&TYPE&
Please!choose!one!statement!which!is!the!closest!to!your!preferences.! !
During!a!trip,! ! ! !
! I!prefer!familiar!destinations! I!feel!confident!in!communicating!with!local!people! ! I!prefer!preVdesigned!schedule!and! I!don’t!feel!anxiety!to!an!unfamiliar!destination! ! complete!packages! I!prefer!unique!and!exotic!destinations!without!many! I!prefer!local!people!speaking!English!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! or! crowds!
!
&
&
&
SECTION&F.&BACKGROUND&INFORMATION&
!
1.! Gender! !!Male! !!Female!
2.! ! Age! ! ! ! ! !!21V34! ! ! !!35V44! ! ! !!45V54! ! ! !!55V64! ! ! !!65!and!over! ! ! ! !
2.! I!have!traveled!to!the!Cleveland!before.! ! ! ! !!Yes! ! ! !!No! !
3.! What!is!your!zip!code?!______! !
! !
! !
APPENDIX D
CONSENT FORM
! !
Appendix D
Consent Form
&
!
Understanding&Cleveland&as&a&sports&destination:&an&empirical&study&of&brand&
personality&theory&
!
Welcome!to!"Understanding!Cleveland!as!a!sports!destination,"!a!webVbased!questionnaire!that! analyze!the!brand!personality!related!to!its!sporting!events.!Before!taking!part!in!this!study,! please!read!the!consent!form!below!and!click!on!the!"I!Agree"!button!at!the!bottom!of!the!page! if!you!understand!the!statements!and!freely!consent!to!participate!in!the!study.! !
!
Consent&Form!
!
Principal&Investigator:+Philip+Wang+
CoMInvestigator:+Jiayi+Wang+
+
This study involves a web-based experiment designed to understand the brand personality of Cleveland related to its sporting events. The study is being conducted by Jiayi Wang and Dr. Philip Wang of Kent State University Master of
68! ! 69!
Science in Hospitality/Tourism Management Program, and it has been approved by the Kent State University Institutional Review Board. No deception is involved, and the study involves no more than minimal risk to participants (i.e., the level of risk encountered in daily life).
Participation in the study typically takes 50 minutes and is strictly anonymous. Participants will answer a series of questions about brand personality of Cleveland relates to its sporting events.
All responses are treated as confidential, and in no case will responses from individual participants be identified. Rather, all data will be pooled and published in aggregate form only. Participants should be aware, however, that the experiment is not being run from a "secure" https server of the kind typically used to handle credit card transactions, so there is a small possibility that responses could be viewed by unauthorized third parties (e.g., computer hackers).
Many individuals find participation in this study enjoyable, and no adverse reactions have been reported thus far. Visitors to this web site (e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk) are welcome to complete the study. Participation is voluntary, refusal to take part in the study involves no penalty or loss of benefits to which participants are otherwise entitled, and participants may withdraw from the study at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which they are otherwise entitled.
If participants have further questions about this study or their rights, or if they wish to lodge a complaint or concern, they may contact the principal investigator, Dr. Philip Wang, at (330) 672-0219; the co-investigator, Jiayi Wang, at (407) 683-5408; or the Kent State University Institutional Review Board, at (330) 672-2704.
If you are 18 years of age or older, understand the statements above, and freely consent to participate in the study, click on the "I Agree" button to begin the experiment.
I"Agree I"Do"Not"Agree
!
!
!
! !
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