Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series IX: Sciences of Human Kinetics • Vol. 13(62) No. 1 – 2020 https://doi.org/10.31926/but.shk.2020.13.62.1.35 BUILDING THE BRAND OF ROMANIAN SPORTS TEAMS FROM HANDBALL I. TURCU1 G.B. BURCEA2 D.L. DIACONESCU2 2 2 A.A. TOHANEANU M.C.R BARBU Abstract: In our days building a brand means that you start getting visitors to the site who have no reason to be there, except that part of the brain is connected with the company name. In the long run, this situation becomes paramount to expanding the brand. Because it is a first choice, people think about the name of the business and will tell or recommend the services / product to their peers. In the paper " Building the brand of Romanian sports teams from handball" we initially sought to present the theoretical aspects of the brand term, an introduction to the history of Romanian handball, presentation of the results and medals won by the Romanian teams and the strategy used so far that led to the transformation of Romanian handball into a brand. Key words: branding, handball, marketing strategy, history, sport. 1. Introduction innovation. It needs to be brought to fruition and create an incredible consumer Building a brand means creating stories. experience. The product and company are there to Creating a brand is quite a long process. support and facilitate customer success. The This means you have to be patient and brand is the differentiator in the business develop a long-term strategy. The brand market already crowded with a multitude of image must be supported by actions and solutions for the same needs [1]. creations that are pointing in the same There are brands that have innovated by direction [12]. communicating the sharing of business To stay in people's minds, you must experience, education and support repeat yourself. How many times it is offered to other people to learn about necessary. Here comes the created business, market, mechanisms. Others content, which can be a tweet, a Facebook have opted for transparency and post, a blog article. The key is to be innovation has continued over time distributed and can be remodelled several because it came from a genuine place. To times. The strength of quality content is build a brand you can't just talk about scalability, both as a large number of 1 Departament of Motric Performance”, Transilvania University of Braşov. 2 Department of Theory and Methodology of Motor Activities, University of Craiova. 266 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series IX • Vol. 13(62) No. 1 - 2020 people who can consume information and being used by charities and non-profits, the multiple ways in which it can be which compete with commercial brands transmitted and produced. on the emotional territory of people's minds and hearts, for the money in their 2. Literature Review pockets [5]. 2.1. Theoretical notions about the brand The brand is the key element in the development process of a company, so it Once upon a time, brands were simply is important that it is used effectively in household goods - soap, tea, washing the sales process. powder, shoe cream, boring everyday The branding mechanism has been products that were consumed and designed and defined by modern replaced. The brand was a symbol of communication techniques. But the consistency. In a time when the products success of the idea of branding has were counterfeit, the quality of the surpassed even the most ambitious production was inconsistent, and the price, dreams of its creators. Branding has so far variable, the brand meant quality, quantity exceeded its commercial origins that its and standard price. The brand image impact is practically immeasurable in designed and supported the product. social and cultural terms. He has spread in Today, all this has changed radically; education, sports, fashion, tourism, art, brands have affirmed their place in the theatre, literature, regional and national world. Most often, we consider the politics and in almost all other areas we functional qualities of a product as self- could think of. Branding is increasingly evident and, while brands continue to deal being used by charities and non-profits, with the image, it is not just their own which compete with commercial brands image anymore, but ours. Nowadays, on the emotional territory of people's branding is mainly about involvement and minds and hearts, for the money in their association, the external and visible pockets. demonstration of private and personal All this means that the brand is not affiliation [4]. Branding allows us to define actually controlled by the marketing ourselves by using an immediately people, despite their huge budgets, their intelligible abbreviation for the world research programs and their army of around us. Diesel, Adidas and W hotels branding, advertising and event mean a lifestyle; Hermès, Ralph Lauren management. The brand is controlled by and Ritz are another. You can combine us - by the customers. When a brand is and match them to adjust, amplify, and truly successful, it can develop in ways emphasize your perception of yourself. and rhythms that amaze those who claim Branding has so far exceeded its to control it; and when a brand has commercial origins that its impact is problems, the opposite happens. practically immeasurable in social and Brands are those intangible resources cultural terms. He has spread in that need to be developed daily and education, sports, fashion, tourism, art, maintained with great care. The theatre, literature, regional and national characteristics of a brand are: reputation, politics and in almost all other areas we trust and recognition among customers [9]. could think of. Branding is increasingly People involved in branding try to I. TURCU et al.: Building the Brand of Romanian Sports Teams from Handball 267 develop or align expectations behind the idea was not entirely original. At the end brand experience, creating the impression of the nineteenth century and in the first that a brand associated with a product or two decades of the twentieth century, service has certain qualities or there were already several variants, characteristics that make it special or practiced in Bohemia, Denmark or unique. A brand is therefore one of the Germany. most valuable elements in an advertising Former athletic champion, Carl Schellenz theme. The art of creating and thought of handball in eleven especially maintaining a brand is called brand for women, whose football was rather management and it takes colossal work to forbidden. The success of the new achieve the desired results [7], [8]. discipline was also due to the position of While many people value the brand as a professor at the Higher School of Sport in logo, as a brand, it needs to be specified Berlin, held by Carl Schellenz. Thus, the that the brand is something more than future teachers of physical education them. A brand includes consumer began their career already knowing the confidence and loyalty. The brand identity rules and taste for this game. Became very is described as the one that offers the popular in Germany, handball in eleven customer safety, and this perspective is was included in 1936 in the program of beneficial. The brand gives people the the Berlin Olympics, a tournament measure of things - an indicator of the attended by Romania. But it was not until level of their expectations and the 1972 (in Munich, for men) and in 1976 (in assurance that promises will be kept. Montreal, for women) that handball Brands make a difference, which is why became an authentic Olympic sport [2]. they matter. Loyalty to the brand is proof The history of Romanian handball begins that consumer preferences are not always with a physical education teacher from determined by the lowest price. Brands Sibiu. In Transylvania, in the Saxon schools decrease the price elasticity and this means organized and administered by the that brands will ask for and receive higher Evangelical Church, physical education prices because they are unique and cannot was an old tradition. Teachers were often be repeated by other products or services. sent to Germany or Austria to learn the methods of teaching gymnastics and 2.2. Introduction to the history of sports games. It happened that in Romanian handball February 1920, when Carl Schellenz organized the first demonstrative handball The emergence of handball as a sport match at eleven on a football field, such a Like basketball or volleyball, the handball teacher was among the spectators. game was invented by a gym teacher. It's just Therefore, the birthplace of Romanian that he does not teach at an American handball were the schools in Sibiu where college, but in Germany. Carl Schellenz (1890- Wilhelm Binder was active as a teacher. 1956) actually adapted the football game. The first games were played in 1921. The first "handball" teams were made up The other communities of Transylvanian of eleven players, and the field was the Saxons or Banat Swabians also adopted size of the football, which explains the the new sports discipline. During the scores quite similar. But Carl Schellenz's interwar period, handball was played 268 Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov. Series IX • Vol. 13(62) No. 1 - 2020 mainly in Sibiu, Mediaş, Sighişoara, Bistriţa Olympic champion. or Braşov, but also in Lugoj, Timişoara, Romania wins the pre-qualification but less in Bucharest. tournament at the Olympic Games. Rio However, the centre of Romanian 2016 is only the fourth qualification out of handball remained in Transylvania and 11 attempts, and the best ranking came at Banat and the first big players were Saxons the inaugural edition: fourth place in and Swabians.