How FIFA Scores from an Offside Position: Understanding the longevity of a Disliked Brand.

Sammanfattning: Background: Organizations desire to create and maintain a strong and long-lasting relationship with their consumers. Firms enjoy many benefits through the loyalty of customers, such as lower marketing costs, increased revenue, and much more. Our study pinpoints two specific elements within brand loyalty that are in need of research: brand longevity, which describes the duration of a brand’s activeness, and customer loyalty to disliked brands. Furthermore, our study tries to identify how consumers add value during their relationship with the video game franchise FIFA. We identified the video game franchise FIFA as a perfect fit for this study; a criticized franchise that has been successful since 1993. Research Purpose: The purpose of this research is to understand why a disliked brand stays successful despite increasing criticisms from critics and consumers. Research Problem: Our study identified a need for further investigation into the concept of brand longevity, brands with a rich heritage would benefit from understanding their assemblage. Furthermore, qualitative research is needed to address the lack of knowledge of loyalty for disliked brands in other cultural and demographical contexts. Finally, more insights about customer value are needed to better understand how firms can evaluate their customers. Research Question: How is FIFA able to attain such longevity, despite receiving strong critics on their annual products? Method: Ontology through a relativistic scope - Epistemology with a social constructionism view - 20 Semi-structured Interviews - Snowball Sampling for gathering participants - Content Analysis for analyzing and coding the data. Conclusion: Our study managed to identify several drivers that keep consumers loyal to FIFA. We also identified how the community of FIFA perceives the environment of the franchise. Finally, the intensity of the value contribution has been outlined to illustrate how consumer differs from each other. Practical Implications: Emerging from our findings, implications are formulated for franchises, brands, and firms in general, both inside and outside of the gaming industry.