After reading "Atlanta ready to take its place as soccer city," it was clear that involving fans in the team name launch, kit launch and other branding efforts help create strong brand equity and loyalty from the start of this team's first MLS Season. By including fans in the process of developing the team from a branding ploy and giving them access to these events, fans will then have positive triggers and emotions related to this team before a game is even played.
I think including fans in the product development stage of a franchise is important because it can lead to increased fan interest and loyalty down the line. Sports are a source of pride for people, and finding a way to crowdsource and encourage fans to interact with this team on social media, is crucial for any upstart sports organization. Considering expansion teams do not have an on-field product to rely upon yet, focusing even more on the fan experience, setting expectations for success and using social media as a way to create excitement, engagement and interest around this team is a highly recommended way to go about creating high brand equity and loyalty. The Seattle Sounders, another MLS team, are a prime example of an organization using fans to crowdsource ideas for branding purposes , and this can only do good for the organization. Season-ticket holders even can help conduct a vote on the team's General Manager every 4 years! There is no better way to develop brand awareness other than asking fans to get involved with the inner-workings of an organization from the team's inception. Obviously there will be decision makers who make the final call on team colors, team name, mascot, but fans can only become more invested in a team when they are included in this development process. In the short term, I think product extensions like social media, merchandising, and other key metrics are valuable even in the face of losing. I think product extensions become even more important for organizations when a team might not be playing well on the field. However, if there is consistent losing over an extended period of time, especially in a franchise's beginning years, casual fans may no longer be interested in these product extensions, whereas avid fans might still stick around, just with less interest. ​ If I were the head of marketing for an organization, the first thing I would do is send out a survey to fans to get an idea of their experience at their most recent game compared to other sport organizations. While a part of me wants to go to social and see how an organization might be perceived in the digital space, understanding how to improve the in-game experience and taking data including word clouds and perception results and using this to create tailored promotions and a better fan experience is vital. Understanding how a team is perceived from a branding perspective in comparison to other teams and entertainment options in that city would be interesting to analyze. Consumers want to be heard, and finding out what fans dislike about their experience, especially in the face of losing, can be important to build upon and change.