Case: Euroleague Final Four Mentor: Chris Kennett Understanding customer experience in terms of brand awareness through the use of pop-up stores at fanzones in sport events. La Salle University of Ramon Llull – Degree program in Management of Business and Technology Bachelors Thesis, Summer 2019 | Svetlana Krstajic LA SALLE Ramon Llull University Degree Program in Management of Business and Technology KRSTAJIC, SVETLANA: Pop-Up Stores in Sport Events Research Case: Euroleague Final Four Bachelor’s Thesis in Sports Management, 49 Pages, 4 pages of appendices Summer 2019 ABSTRACT The subject of this thesis is to research and understand customer experience in terms of brand awareness through the use of pop-up stores in fanzones sports events. The aim here is to get more knowledge on how customers experience with pop-up stores and if it improves their brand awareness towards certain brands. This is done by collecting data at the Euroleague Final Four in Vitoria Gasteiz held in May 2019. The theoretical framework of this research consists of what brand awareness is as well as in depth analysis of what pop-up stores are, their benefits, key elements as well as limitations. Theoretical part also includes an insight on successful pop-up stores in both the fashion and sports industry. The empirical part of the thesis was implemented as a quantitative research where the target population were the fans that attended the Euroleague Final Four Fan Zone, where the pop-up stands of the Euroleague sponsors were located. Fans of all ages, residence and gender participated in the survey that was done at the Euroleague Final Four in person. From the results of the study it can be concluded that the customer experience was positive at the pop-up stands, however in terms of brand awareness the pop-up stores did not have a significant effect on the customers. Both males and females expressed similar opinions throughout the research questions, meaning that gender did not have an effect on customer experience. This could be due to the nature of sponsor pop-up stands at events rather than retail stands, which would require further research. 1 Table of Content 1 INTRODUCTION 2 BRAND AWARENESS 2.1 What is brand awareness 2.2 Brand awareness & pop-up stores 3 POP-UP STORES 3.1 What are pop-up stores? 3.2 History of pop-up stores 3.3 Key elements of pop-up stores 4 VALUE OF POP-UP STORES 4.1 Pop-up stores as a retail strategy 4.2 Benefits of Pop-up stores and building brand awareness 4.3 Limitations of Pop-up stores 4.4 What sports can learn from the Fashion Industry 4.5 Successful sports Pop-up stores 5 CONCLUSIONS 5.1 The unexplored gap 6 METHADOLOGY 6.1 Methodology 6.2 Description of sample population 7 FINDINGS 7.1 Results 7.2 Demographics 7.3 Pop-Up Store/Brand Awareness related survey questions 7.4 Social Media Questions 8 DISCUSSION 8.1 Discussion 8.2 Limitations 9 CONCLUSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH 9.1 Conclusion 9.2 Further Research 10 REFFERENCES 11 APPENDECIES 2 1 Introduction With the advance of technology and innovation, there always comes a time of certain disruptions that not only change retailing, but business in general. Looking back, the growth of cities and railroad networks made modern department stores possible, the 1960s and 1970s brought the rise of discount chains like Walmart and Kmart. These changes are directly affected by the consumer and their expectations. (Darrell K. Rigby: 2011). However, it is important to note that new disruptions do not eliminate the previous one, but rather adapt and change. Today, retail stores face a new challenge. According to the Credit Suisee Bank, 25% of the USA shopping malls will be closed by 2022 due to the lack of customers visiting the physical shops, while about 7000 stores closed in 2017 alone. Now, this does not necessarily indicate that physical stores are going to vanish. (Van Elven: 2018). Stores will continue to exist in the foreseeable future, as they can be an effective competitive weapon. Research shows that physical stores boost online purchases, Europeans retailers report that it captures nearly 5% of online sales in areas near physical stores, but only 3% outside those areas. Having mentioned that, owning a physical store will not be enough to satisfy Generation Z consumers. According to the report by The Future Laboratory, 75% of Generation Z consumers prefer stores that provide a memorable and encouraging offer. (Darrell K. Rigby: 2011). It is also important to mention the millennials, since this is the most adaptive and entrepreneurial group (Huffelen). Their adventurous lifestyle and innovative mindset, is influencing the way they shop and the way they want to experience shopping. Interestingly enough, they are the ones who are more likely to shop in physical stores, since they are looking for the experience and a way to interact with the product. In addition to that, millennials are open to new environments that offer unique settings, a story to tell and share with their friends. With this new way of shopping and interacting with brands, come new tools and strategies for businesses to satisfy their customers. In the last few years there has been a movement away from a purely sales-oriented retail strategy, where traditional retail spaces have been converted into branded “flagship” spaces for branded experiences like Apple and Starbucks did. Recent trends have seen retail go mobile and, in some cases, temporary pop-up concepts. 3 While this has its origins in the traditional marketplace concept, these spaces are increasingly focused on providing branded experiences and deepening customers engagement, both in physical and virtual contexts. Interestingly enough, even though one can find heaps of secondary information on pop- up stores and how retailers use this new strategy, there is little research done on this phenomenon in the sports industry. This is an attractive gap to explore especially when it comes to sport events, which will be the primary objective in this research paper. Due to my previous experience with working in the Sports Industry, specifically Euroleague Basketball, and my life- long passion for sports I decided to use the Euroleague Final Four, hosted in Vitoria Gasteiz this year, as a case study to gather data. Pop-up stores have always been a field of interest especially due to the fact that it has become a trend in the retail world. Euroleague Basketball is a sports and entertainment business that runs the European competitions of professional basketball clubs since 2000. There are two main men’s basketball competitions that run each year, the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the 7Days EuroCup, where the best Europeans basketball teams compete. Not only that, but Euroleague Basketball also has the EB Adidas Next Generation Tournament which is an under-18 showcase. Euroleague competitions have become more popular as the years go by with 186 games being played in season 2009-10 and 260 games being played in season 2017-18. Not only that, but the season average for attendances in 2009-10 was 1,182,046 while in 2017-18 it was 2,282,297. In the Turkish Airlines Euroleague competitions, there is the Final Four which is played each year in a different city. This is where the Fan Zone is located with the Euroleague Sponsors stands including activities, games, merchandise, and social media activations for the event. Euroleague’s title sponsor is Turkish Airlines, with some of the premium partners include 7Days and Adidas. (Euroleague.net) Having mentioned that, using the Euroleague Final Four as the primary case the main focus of this research paper is to understand customer experience in terms of brand awareness through the use of pop-up stores at fan zones in sports events. Some of the research objective of this research paper include: 4 • To determine what transfer there is from fashion to sport • To understand what pop-up stores bring value to • To see how pop-up stores can be improved in sports events/tournaments • To determine the customers experience in pop-up stores These research objectives along with the research question will be answered throughout this paper, starting off with the literature review where there will be an in-depth analysis of pop-up stores (history, benefits, values, limitations, examples, etc.). Moving along with the empirical research where the results of the survey at the Euroleague Fan Zone are presented. Then, an explanations and analysis of the results will follow where finally a conclusion will be drawn and discussed to what the data collected could potentially mean. 2 Brand Awareness 2.1 What is Brand Awareness? Building a strong brand that customers can relate to or that can simply express the message or goal of the company is of utmost importance in today’s business. Not only do we find this in fashion and retail companies, but any industry where a company is trying to build a loyal customer base. Branding is a process which involves the creation of a logo, symbol or design that your customer can identify with and can differentiate one’s product with another (Lopez 2016). This is also called brand awareness, the customers strength and ability to recall the brand, or in other words brand recognition. This can be measured simply by the customers’ ability to identify the brand in different situations and from different visible and recognizable attributes that have been mentioned above (Keller et al, 2012). There are several different brand theories that describe what a brand is and why it is important, some describe brand and brand awareness as how the company creates meaning while other theories look more into how consumers see the brand.