Role of Brand Personality Traits in Creating an Umbrella Brand for Small-Scale Sports Events: The Case of Gorski Kotar, Croatia

摘要

While the importance and positive impact of small-scale sports events for the tourism of host regions has been well researched, the possibilities of branding such events under a common denominator have not been fully explored. This paper attempts to provide an approach for using the concepts of brand personality and umbrella brand for the purpose of small-scale sports event analysis and promotion recommendations. Gorski Kotar, an underdeveloped region in Croatia, was chosen as the research area. The research target was small-scale sports events organised in this area. The aim was to build a general recommendation of an overall umbrella brand for all examined events, developed from the brand personality traits of each event (sub-brands). Using desk research along with workshops and interviews with organisers, three characteristics for each of the 81 small-scale sports events were extracted. The existing framework of five brand-personality dimensions by Aaker (1997) was used for the purpose of coding characteristics into traits and later linking with factors. An overall brand personality profile of all events was created and results imply the necessity of introducing a new factor called Nature (nature-oriented) into the existing framework.