Investigating Motivation and Attitudinal Loyalty †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Investigating Motivation and Attitudinal Loyalty. Answer: Introduction Professional athletes are sport people who are enrolled in various athletic teams to express their skills, natural talents and competitive drive for performance payment. Professional athletes are involves in vigorous training, excise and personal fitness. Professional athletes may be from various sports such as football, baseball, hockey, basketball or rugby. Professional athletics though is on the continuous rise has met opposition from those who views the professionalism as earning living contrary to expression of talents and enjoyment. Some of the professional athletes are Greg Ingilis and Tim Cahill both from Australia. Professional athletes agents on the other hand are legal representatives of professional athletes. The main role of athlete agents is to lead in contract negotiation with sponsors and branding endorsement. Brand ambassadors are sport people hired by companies to advance brand awareness (Erdogan Drollinger (2008, pp.573 - 582). The following report presents analys is of athletes as brand ambassadors. Greg Ingilis is Australian professional rugby player with many awards and position in his career. Greg Ingilis currently play for south Sydney Rabitton and previously Australian International representative for Melbourne Storm. Greg Ingilis has won two grand finals, medals and other award making Greg Ingilis one of the competitive brand ambassadors from Australia. Greg Ingiliss professional playing career began sometimes back in 2005 where Greg Ingilis scored 12 tries while playing for Brisbanes North Devils. Later in 2006 Greg Ingilis begin his career at State of Origin with Maroon team. Greg Ingilis is under the manger Allan Gainey as his agent that sign deals with sponsors (Fizel, McNeil Smaby 2008, pp.247-56). Greg Ingilis is brand ambassador for POWERADE ION4 hydration drinks that is product of Coca Cola Company. In promoting the drinks Greg Ingilis advocate that athletes lose up to 3liters of body fluid every one hour of excise. In addition, professional athletes can improve their performance through using hydration drinks thus managing stress for optimum training. Through different online sites Greg Ingilis endorses the POWERADE ION4 drinks as agent of increasing athlete performance. This implies that through many advertisements of POWERADE ION4 drinks Greg Ingilis has been featured as celebrity branding. Initially, Greg Ingilis had been know for promoting his own clothing brands yet the controversy stated when some of his clothing resemble another companys brands. Currently Greg Ingilis signed deal with coca cola Company for endorsement of its brand POWERADE ION4 hydration drink (Shuart 2007, pp 126-140). Tim Cahill legally named Timothy Filiga is Australian professional footballer currently playing for Melbourne city. Tim Cahill has been named all-time goal scorer for Australian national team owing to his aggressive and powerful approach during sports. In addition, Tim Cahill is one of the most famous professional footballers in Asian Football Confederation. Tim Cahill started his club career at Millwall. Later Tim Cahill move to Everton club where he became the Evertons top goal scorer in his first season. Since playing for Everton, Tim Cahill have played for many teams or clubs (Goldman Papson 2000). Currently Tim Cahill is under the management of his agent Ante Alilovic. Tim Cahill is an athlete who considers his interest first than the interest of sponsors. Tim Cahill criticise being under control of sponsor as having sponsors owning his celebrity image through brand endorsement. Tim Cahill endorsed menswear brand under the name Cahill+menswear produced by Shoreditch International Company. The company feature Tim Cahill in different range of products such as jackets, t-shirt, and shorts. The contract is under partnership between Tim Cahill and Shoreditch International Company. In addition, Tim Cahill successfully launch Australian mens grooming brand called Vitaman in China. Tim Cahill and Greg Ingilis are both celebrity professional athletes from Australia who feature in different brand adverts. According to Braunstein and Zhang (2005, pp 242-268), the two professional athletes have attracted many sponsors with the views to help in brand endorsement for various products in Australia and abroad. Greg Ingilis has been featured in coca cola company advert on its popular brand POWERADE ION4 hydration drink as compared to Tim Cahill who partner with Shoreditch International Company to endorse Cahill+menswear suits. The comparison is quite clear as initially did not endorse any brand except own fashion brand. Tim Cahill on the other hand according to Carlson Donovan (2008, pp.154-62), rejected formal contract with one company and instead partner with Shoreditch International Company to advance its brands (Kim, Morris Swait 2008, pp 99-117). Agents ability to maximize the objectives of all stakeholders Athlete agents normally communicate and keep in touch with various stakeholders. Some of the most common stakeholders that take part athletic career management are sponsors, team, team mangers, government agencies and club supporters (Harris 2008, p16). Firstly, sponsors contract athletes through their agents for signing of deals. Sponsors are mostly companies that involve athletes in endorsement of their products or brands and in turn sponsor athletes. Secondly, athletes are employed in various teams which form part of stakeholders and also sign deal with athletes. Thirdly, team mangers are important stakeholders that keep in touch with athletes agents. Team mangers supervise the activities of clubs, individuals or teams. Fourthly, government agencies that regulate athletes are Australian Sport Commission, Australian Olympic Committee, Confederation of Australian Sport and Australian Athletic Alliance. These government agencies monitor the terms of contract between athletes and thei r sponsors according to laws that govern sport in Australia (Jowdy Mcdonald 2002, pp 186-189). The uniqueness of sport industry places the sport agents at the central position in the communication link with team owners or sponsors. Athlete agents therefore play an important role in ensuring that the objectives of all stakeholders are maximised. To maximise objectives of all stakeholders, athletes agents provides contract law guidance, handle public relation matters and communicate with stakeholders (Keller 2003, pp.595-600). The complexity of professional athletes career requires agents that are familiar with contract laws. Athletes agents provide legal guidance to their clients and this makes most of agents to be lawyers who are conversant with contract laws. For instance, for Tim Cahill to sing the partnership deal with Shoreditch International Company his agent has understood the nature of partnership and the legal requirement. To maximise objectives of stakeholders such as Australian sport commission, Tim Cahill agents has to understand the requirements of the Australia constitution regarding brand promotion and athletes endorsement. Moreover, agents acts as negotiators or brokers for deals that are signed outside the country with another company or team that require understanding of foreign laws (Ueltschy Laroche 2004, pp.91-102). The second way that agents maximise objectives of stakeholders is through handle public relation matters. Most of the athletes public relation matters are dealt with through athletes agent. This implies that agents being the representative and mostly mangers represent athletes in public functions or matters that pertain to public interest. The public relation duty of athlete agents makes agents to work for several hours to meet stakeholders requirements. For instance, confrontation of Greg Ingilis due to personal fashion endorsement requires his agent Allan Gainey to explains the relationship between Greg Ingilis and the Jordan based company that manufacture the same clothes. This also ushered in another contract with Coca Cola Company to promote companys hydration drink brand (Kaynak, Salman Tatoglu 2008, pp 336-357). Thirdly, athletes communicate with stakeholder such as sponsors, sport regulators and teams. Agents are legally allowed to communicate with team managers, or other stakeholders on behalf of their clients. Objectives of stakeholders such as sponsors are to maximize their terms of contract with athlete. For instance, brand endorsement requires that athletes promote certain brand according to the agreement with the company. To evaluate the level of endorsement agents keeps in touch with company and the athlete to ensure objects are met. Furthermore, agents communicate with sport regulators on the legal issues that touch their clients. Therefore, agents play an important role in ensuring that objectives of stakeholders are met according the requirement of laws and contract (Till 2001, pp 35-42). Effectiveness of the athlete and their major endorsement contract Athletes can endorse varieties of brand whether related to sport or completely different product from sport. The effectiveness of athletes endorsement for brand also differs from one brand or athlete to another. Some of the factors that contribute to the effectiveness endorsement are provision of celebrity image, attractiveness, credibility of the product and endorser characteristics attached to the brand. According to Augustine-Schlossinger (2003, p.43), the effectiveness of athletes endorsement lies on the credibility of the source athlete. Credibility model of effectiveness of the endorsement explains that credibility of message and expertise of the endorser has a lot to offers in endorsement. For endorsement to be effective the attributed message need to trustworthy thus appealing to customers that buys the product that has been endorsed. For instance, Greg Ingilis endorsement of his own fashion attracted the attention of customers labelling him as most wanted man. The primary cause of negative reaction from public was due to lack of credibility of clothes that the athlete endorsed. In addition, many customers considered that the products were from a totally different company though Greg Ingilis did not recognise the original manufacturer of the fashion (Summers Johnson 2008, pp 176-182). Attractiveness of the endorsement that link celebrity athlete and the similarity with endorsement plays an important role in effectiveness of endorsement. Physical attractiveness of the endorser is critical when analysing the effectiveness of endorsement. This attractiveness is based on the beauty though customers perceive physical attractiveness differently. Matchup model for brands give the guidelines that is used to matchup brand and celebrity athlete. Therefore congruency or fit between athlete and product endorsed many consultants attribute to the success of brand endorsement. Tim Cahill signed partnership with Shoreditch International Company to endorse menswear in a very attractive look. Some of the advertisements that feature Tim Cahill show features that are indistinguishable between brand and Tim Cahill. Thus the Tim Cahill endorsement can be termed by many consultants as successful (Richard 2007, pp 1). The final feature that explains the effectiveness of endorsement is endorser characteristics attached to the brand. Celebrity characteristics that an athlete poses in combination with credibility and attractiveness provides an interaction with product endorsed. Expertise and attractiveness of celebrity endorser can form inseparable characteristic making endorsement effective. This implies that athletes concentrate on its endorsing brands that are related to their area of expertise. Customers can link brand and celebrity athletes through congruency of their characteristics. Cultural attractiveness as a characteristic of celebrity endorsement can attract customers curiosity to learn the expertise of the athlete making it effective (Rein, Kotler Shields 2006, pp 30-31). The most effectiveness brand and endorsement The most effective endorsement is Greg Ingilis endorsement of POWERADE ION4 hydration drink. The endorsement of POWERADE ION4 hydration drink provides the link between product and the celebrity athlete (Ross, James Vargas 2006, pp 260-279). Firstly, POWERADE ION4 hydration drink is important product in athletes as it increases performance of athlete during excise thus customers can get attracted. Secondly, POWERADE ION4 hydration drink is manufactured by Coca Cola Company making its information credible and of good reputation. The attractiveness in POWERADE ION4 hydration drinks advertisement owing to the physical fitness of Greg Ingilis. Furthermore, the attractiveness of the advert is based on the pictures drown from Greg Ingilis doing excise in the field. Tim Cahill contract with Shoreditch International Company though resulted in production of menswear; the area of expertise differs making the endorsement not that much appealing to customer as compared Gregs endorsement. In Tim Cahill, the depiction of celebrity image is brought about with Tim Cahill though brand remains totally different from athlete. Moreover, endorsement is on partnership as oppose to Gregs endorsement that is a different contract (Low Lamb 2000, pp 350-368). There are number of issues that arises in brand endorsement or sponsorship for professional athletes Some of the issues are include conflict of interest, the length of endorsement term, credibility of athlete, number of sponsors and athletes retirement. Conflict of interest differs between sponsors and athletes they sponsor. The difference in interest has impact on the brand or terms of contract. For instance, conflict arose when many sponsors wanted to sign contract with Greg Ingilis a deal that was denied by the.... Greg Ingilis agents wanted high earning as compared the expected earning that is set by the governmental regulatory agency. AFL also protects sponsors from exploitation by agents negotiating deals on behalf of their clients. The exploitation arises when athlete needs high earning from brand endorsement as compared to return on the endorsement (Malhotra Peterson 2006). Moreover, Tim Cahill highlighted his interest as the core for contract not sponsors interest. This made Tim Cahill to reject normal contract for brand endorsement for fear of being owned or company owning his celebrity image. Credibility of the athlete also determines the effectiveness of the contract between sponsor and athlete. The trustworthiness of both sponsor and athlete determines the objective achievement for both parties involved. The credibility also arises on the brand that is under endorsement as credibility play role in making customers like a product subsequently impacting the contract between sponsor and athlete. The communication link between athlete and sponsor also play role as sponsor trust those athletes that are in continuous contact with them. Moreover, brand value is lifted through continuous contact between athlete and sponsoring company. This has been contradicted by those who view it as being owned by sponsor. Some athletes such as Tim Cahill therefore shift to partnership instead of sponsors (Neale Funk 2006, pp 307-317). Number of sponsors that athletes can have differs depending on the contract terms. Some companies such as Nike have numerous numbers of athletes that they sponsor. Sponsorships terms determine the number of sponsors that one athlete can have at ago. In addition, some products require one athlete at one time to feature in their products. This is quite different with the case of sponsors who can sponsor as many athletes as possible. Within specific time frame, an athlete can contract single sponsor hence feature in its products without doubling sponsors. Brand owners on the other hand can stipulate a number of sponsorship with many athletes under different contract (Kim, Morris Swait 2008, pp 99-117). Conclusion In conclusion, athletic management provides structure and strategies that are used to manage professional athletes. Professional athletes are sport people who are employed in sport teams or clubs. Professional athletes are managed by their legal agents who negotiate contract deals with sponsors and other stakeholders. Athletes are used in brand endorsement for advertising brands for companies that acts as their sponsors. Two examples of professional athletes are Tim Cahill and Greg Ingilis who have taken part in brand endorsement of different products, agents and different companies. Factors such as attractiveness, credibility and characteristics of endorsement determine the effectiveness of celebrity athlete brand endorsement. Finally, athletes agents relationship with stakeholders can help maximise the achievement of stakeholders objectives. References Augustine-Schlossinger, L, 2003, Endorsement Contracts for Professional Athletes. The Colorado Lawyer, vol.32, no.1, p.43. Braunstein, JR, Zhang, JJ, 2005, Dimensions of athlete star power associated with Generation Y sports consumption. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol.6, no.4, pp 242-268. Carlson, BD, Donovan, DT, 2008, Concerning the Effect of Athlete Endorsements on Brand and Team-Related Intentions. Sport Marketing Quarterly, vo.17, no.3, pp.154-62. 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