Football brand management: Minor league versus Champions League.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explain how managers can build a football team brand at different levels of competition, reaching from the minor leagues to the Champions League level. Therefore, the authors analyse which catalyst factors have an impact on building a football team brand. The study uses a case analysis method, for which seven football teams were selected (three in Germany, three in France and one in Spain). The paper contributes to the existing sports marketing knowledge by presenting and discussing, first, the relative importance of the internal and external catalyst factors in developing a sports team brand identity, according to the calibre of the team, its ambition and means; and secondly, the strategies that would be the most appropriate for a sports team in order to build and manage its brand identity, depending on its calibre, ambition and means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]