Special Events as an Instrument for Building Customer Loyalty to Sports Brands

The main purpose of the study is to identify factors which could help brands to meet participants ' expectations and increase customer loyalty. Special events are called ambiguous as it is difficult to measure their effectiveness, cost justification and evaluate the impact on customer loyalty. It is necessary to understand what tools are more related to the loyalty formation and brand attachment. This paper could be interesting for brand- and event-managers because it shows possible factors connected with the loyalty formation of participants. The work includes 3 chapters. The first chapter describes problems of event marketing, theoretical aspects of special events, features of their conduct for sports brands, as well as real cases. Expert interviews allow better understand the specifics of the topic. The second chapter is about loyalty and its connection with events. The types of activities are considered using theoretical framework of experience types. The concept of “brand experience” was created. The last chapter includes the empirical part of the study presenting the results of quantitative research (interviews with participants in special events) and qualitative research (survey). As a result, connections of event-management tools and their impact on the formation of consumer loyalty were identified. The paper shows what kind of experience consumers need increase their loyalty. The research materials can be useful to introduce special events into brand marketing strategy. The paper includes recommendations for event managers.