Role of Brand Personality Traits in Creating an Umbrella Brand for Small-Scale Sports Events: The Case of Gorski Kotar, Croatia

Abstract

While the importance and positive impact of small-scale sports events for the tourism of host regions has been well researched, the possibilities of branding such events under a common denominator have not been fully explored. This paper attempts to provide an approach for using the concepts of brand personality and umbrella brand for the purpose of small-scale sports event analysis and promotion recommendations. Gorski Kotar, an underdeveloped region in Croatia, was chosen as the research area. The research target was small-scale sports events organised in this area. The aim was to build a general recommendation of an overall umbrella brand for all examined events, developed from the brand personality traits of each event (sub--brands). Using desk research along with workshops and interviews with organisers, three characteristics for each of the 81 small-scale sports events were extracted. The existing framework of five brand-personality dimensions by Aaker (1997) was used for the purpose of coding characteristics into traits and later linking with factors. An overall brand personality profile of all events was created and results imply the necessity of introducing a new factor called Nature (nature-oriented) into the existing framework.

Benchmarking service delivery for sports tourism and events: Lessons for Gorski Kotar, Croatia from Pokljuka, Slovenia

“…One visit was made to observe simultaneous cross-country skiing events (at the Mrkopalj Peace Memorial) and speak with two event organisers. The purpose of these visits was to discuss and observe the sports tourism offer and collect data on related projects (see Perić, Škorić & Jurčević, 2016;Perić, Đurkin & Wise, 2016;Perić, Čuić Tanković & Đurkin, 2017).…”

“…Year-round employment can enhance social and economic sustainability locally in a destination, and observations from Slovenia show that diversifying the sports tourism offer in mountainous regions keeps people engaged year-round opposed to needing to save enough to sustain financially during the off-season. In the last few years a series of events, organised by local tourism planners and residents, have been initiated in Gorski kotar (see Đurkin & Wise, 2018;Perić, Čuić Tanković & Đurkin, 2017;Perić, Škorić & Jurčević, 2016) but there is still much to do to reach Slovenian standards, which is why Slovenia is a strategic destination to benchmark planning, managing and service delivery.…”

Preferences of sports tourism consumers

“…In this process, the role of the media in consumer preferences has been key (Mataruna-Dos-Santos, 2020). In addition, the creation of an umbrella brand that integrates the diversity of sports activities, workshops and interviews with sports organizers allows the introduction of nature as an important pillar in the preferences of sports tourists (Perić et al, 2017).…”

The Role of Professional Athletes in the Development of Sports Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…In this sense, "tourism, where sport is the main reason for traveling and staying in a certain destination, is called sports tourism" (Bartoluci, Škorić & Starešinić, 2016). Active or passive participation in sports is a frequent motivation for traveling to tourist destinations (Perić, Čuić Tanković & Đurkin, 2017). Sport and tourism are intrinsically connected, so as globalization progresses technologically, through telecommunications and traffic, new exciting opportunities open up for enriching the tourist experience through sports, as well as for accelerating sports development through tourism (De Knop & Van Hoecke, 2003).…”