11/12/2024
This past week, at the Sport Marketing Association (SMA) Conference, Dr. Gregg Rich presented research that he and Mr. Conner Martin (Class of '24) conducted on humor and fandom's effects on social media advertisements for team-licensed merchandise. The research implemented Cue Utilization Theory as its framework.
Initial findings support that humor and team fandom have statistically significant, though relatively weak effect, on consumer perceived value of team-licensed merchandise. Of the two, team fandom had more influence on consumers' perceptions of merchandise value.
Mr. Martin started this research while an honors student at Georgia Southern as part of his honor thesis. He and Dr. Rich are currently developing a manuscript from his thesis for publication consideration.