Understanding Explicit and Implicit U SPORTS Brand Associations Among Ontario University Student Sport Fans

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to generate insight to better understand how explicit and implicit associations of the U SPORTS brand affects the brand’s meaning among Ontario university students who identify as sport fans. This research employed an interpretivist research paradigm, as well as a research lens emphasizing Verstehen. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with university-aged student sport fans. To analyze the data, Tracy’s (2013) typology approach was utilized to create conceptual ‘bins’ for the emergent themes to be placed in. From there, findings were parsed into explicit and implicit associations of the U SPORTS brand and subsequently incorporated into a U SPORTS brand meaning model inspired by Batey (2008) and Chard’s (2013) brand meaning frameworks.