THE EFFECT OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT NO SPECTATOR LOYALTY IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL CLUB IN BANGKOK AND PERIMETER
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Abstract Background: Football is the most popular sport in Thailand. Nowadays, Thai football spectators are considered an important part in driven the development of Thai football. Therefore, marketing public relations strategy is necessary for attracting spectators to support and follow Thai football clubs. However, there is no previous research about the effect of celebrity endorsement on spectator loyalty in Thai professional football club. Objective: The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of celebrity endorsement on spectator loyalty in Thai professional football club. Method: This study was quantitative research using survey questionnaire. A total of 720 respondents who buy the ticket sales and physically attend at home games in Thai Professional Football League (T1) in Bangkok and Perimeter participated in this study. Data were collected from 6 representative football clubs, with 120 spectators in each club. To measure the constructs, we modified survey questionnaire from previously developed scales. The resulting 15-item questionnaire consisted of two main components: celebrity endorsement and spectator loyalty. Data were analyzed with Pearson’s product moment correlation and regression by using SPSS 24.0. Results: There was a significant correlation between celebrity endorsement and spectator loyalty (r=0.444) and the celebrity endorsement could explain the spectator loyalty at 19.6% (R2 = 0.196). The influence of celebrity endorsement on spectator loyalty was β = 0.444, with the effect of a statistical significant in the expected direction (p = 0.00), even though low levels of correlation and factor loading. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that celebrity endorsement potentially increases spectator loyalty in Thai professional football league. This finding has an implication for managers to perform marketing public relations strategies and to maintain their existing spectator base and possibly increase new spectator.
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