Title: Leveraging the Olympic brand through the reconciliation of corporate and consumers' brand perceptions

Authors: Benoit Seguin, Andre Richelieu, Norm O'Reilly

Addresses: School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, 125 University St., Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada. ' Department of Marketing, FSA Universite Laval, PAP 2429, Quebec, QC, G1K 7P4, Canada. ' School of Sports Administration, Faculty of Management, Laurentian University, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, ON, P3E 2C6, Canada

Abstract: Over the past 30 years, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has adopted marketing as a key focus of its operations. In turn, the organisation has developed a variety of sophisticated and widely acclaimed marketing practices such as its TOP programme. It has also supported a large number of studies on Olympic marketing. One important observation resulting from these studies is that corporate managers| and consumers| perceptions of the Olympic brand differ from each other|s views on a number of areas. The current research seeks to understand this dichotomy and to provide the Olympic brand with insightful direction. We offer specific recommendations to the IOC and their partners, as well as suggestions for future research.

Keywords: Olympic brand; sponsorship; leveraging sport brands; international sport marketing; ambush marketing; brand management; brand perception; Olympic marketing; corporate managers; consumer perception; IOC; International Olympic Committee.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2008.015958

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2008 Vol.3 No.1/2, pp.3 - 22

Published online: 02 Dec 2007 *

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