Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective
Open Access

Abstract

The Perceived Brand Equity of the 2013 Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association Games

Lysias Tapiwanashe Charumbira

This paper seeks to determine the perceived brand equity of the Zimbabwe Universities Sports Association (ZUSA) Games and increase knowledge on how producers of sports events can enhance the competitiveness of their brands. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 37 randomly sampled participants during the 2013 edition of the ZUSA Games, in Harare and mixed methods procedures were used to analyze data. The findings show that, dimensionally, the perceived equity of the ZUSA game is an aggregate of brand awareness and brand associations. The study established that brand equity scales cannot be uniformly applied across different sport settings owing to the subjective and experiential nature of customer experiences with sports products and services. It also established that the ZUSA Games have negative perceived brand equity. These Games command very low levels of brand awareness outside the Collegiate sports market and have weak psychological connections with internal customers. This sport brand is not differentiated from competing brands.