<p><strong>Aim of the Thesis:</strong> To investigate the practice of using a CRM strategy in football clubs by comparing earlier successful and unsuccessful CRM implementations by football clubs and study fan relationship theories in a large Swedish football club, thereby presenting guidelines on how to further develop a CRM strategy in a Swedish football club.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>A quantitative approach and a qualitative approach have been used, first collecting empirical data on supporter views through a questionnaire further strengthened by gathering empirical data through an interview. The quantitative data has been presented with descriptive statistics and the qualitative data has been analyzed using a realist approach.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Theoretical Perspectives:</strong> A literature review has been conducted and resulted in a theoretical framework illustrating the concepts of benefits and risks with CRM, fan relationship marketing, CRM implementation process, CRM systems in football clubs, and supporter loyalty. A research model, “FRM implementation process” has been developed from the theoretical findings. </p><p> </p><p><strong>Empirical Data: </strong>The quantitative empirical data has been collected by distributing a questionnaire to supporters of AIK Fotboll. The qualitative empirical data has been collected through interviews with the head of sales and marketing within AIK Fotboll AB.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong>:<strong> </strong>A CRM strategy can benefit Swedish football clubs in areas such as to better capture customer data, better communication between the club and its supporters and provide customized offers as long as the supporters are informed about the changes in strategy. In order for Swedish football clubs to successfully implement a CRM strategy they need to ensure adequate financing and management commitment since an unsuccessful implementation can be devastating to a Swedish football club’s finances.</p>

Aim of the Thesis: To investigate the practice of using a CRM strategy in football clubs by comparing earlier successful and unsuccessful CRM implementations by football clubs and study fan relationship theories in a large Swedish football club, thereby presenting guidelines on how to further develop a CRM strategy in a Swedish football club.   Methodology: A quantitative approach and a qualitative approach have been used, first collecting empirical data on supporter views through a questionnaire further strengthened by gathering empirical data through an interview. The quantitative data has been presented with descriptive statistics and the qualitative data has been analyzed using a realist approach.   Theoretical Perspectives: A literature review has been conducted and resulted in a theoretical framework illustrating the concepts of benefits and risks with CRM, fan relationship marketing, CRM implementation process, CRM systems in football clubs, and supporter loyalty. A research model, “FRM implementation process” has been developed from the theoretical findings.    Empirical Data: The quantitative empirical data has been collected by distributing a questionnaire to supporters of AIK Fotboll. The qualitative empirical data has been collected through interviews with the head of sales and marketing within AIK Fotboll AB.   Conclusion: A CRM strategy can benefit Swedish football clubs in areas such as to better capture customer data, better communication between the club and its supporters and provide customized offers as long as the supporters are informed about the changes in strategy. In order for Swedish football clubs to successfully implement a CRM strategy they need to ensure adequate financing and management commitment since an unsuccessful implementation can be devastating to a Swedish football club’s finances.

Fotbollssupportrar återkommer till en klubbs matcher även om de senaste resultaten har varit dåliga. Referensgrupper har visat sig kunnat påverka supporterlojaliteten som vidare påverkar ett varumärkes supporterbaserade kapital. Tidigare studier har visat att stjärnspelare, arena, coach med mera påverkar en fotbollsklubbs varumärkskapital, detta i kontexten av proffsklubbar. Utifrån bristen av denna kunskap gällande mindre fotbollsklubbar i Sverige uppkom frågan hur varumärkeskapital byggs för dem. För landsbygdsklubbar blir denna varumärkesbyggande kunskap extra betydande med hänvisning till dess problematik med exempelvis knappa resurser. Studien syftar därmed till att undersöka vilka faktorer som spelar in i den supporterbaserade varumärkesvärderingen av mindre fotbollsklubbar. Detta i perspektivet av stads – och landsbygdsklubbar i de lägre divisionerna i den svenska fotbollen. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt användes Aakers ofta citerade modell om varumärkeskapital.  För att besvara detta syfte användes en kvantitativ metod där supportrar till tre klubbar svarade på en enkät. Datan möjliggjorde korrelationsanalyser mellan de teoretiskt identifierade faktorerna och supportrarnas direkta värdering, för att kunna analysera huruvida faktorn var betydande eller ej. Resultatet visar på att varumärkesassociationerna hade starkast samband med värderingen, både för stads – och landsbygdsklubb. Med kunskapen om att faktorerna påverkade varandra skapades modeller för respektive klubbgrupp för att urskilja vilka faktorer som hade störst förklaring av värderingen. Slutsatsen blev att för landsbygdsklubbar inkluderades det i fallande ordning varumärkesassociationer, första klubb, klubbhistoria och identitet. För stadsklubbsmodellen inkluderades det i fallande ordning varumärkesassociationer, identitet och bevittnad klubbhistoria. Sammanfattat betyder det att det skiljer sig något mellan vilka grunder supportern värderar klubben utifrån, beroende på om det är en stads – eller landsbygdsklubb. / Soccer supporters will continue to watch a club’s games even if they have lost their recently played matches. It has been stated that reference groups are able to affect the loyalty of supporters and thereby affect the supporter-based brand equity. Studies has shown that for example star players, the arena and the head coach affect the brand equity of professional soccer brands. There is a lack of equivalent knowledge in the context of smaller city and countryside clubs. For the countryside clubs this knowledge could be stated as more important since their problematics with example lacking resources. Thereby, this study aims to investigate which factors the supporter-based brand equity is based on, depending on if it is a city or countryside club. The perspective of this study constitute of clubs thar are active in the lower divisions in Sweden. As theoretical base, the often-used brand equity model by Aaker is used.  To fulfill the aim, a quantitative research was done where the supporters of three soccer clubs answered a survey. The data made it possible to carry out correlations analyses between the theoretically found factors and the supporters’ direct valuations. This enabled to state if the factors were of importance or not. The results indicates that brand associations are the most important factor for both club categories. The knowledge of correlations between the factors made it necessary to develop a model that explains which factor that affect the equity the most. The conclusion for countryside clubs is, in descending order, that brand associations, first club, club history and identity affect the supporter-based band equity. For city clubs the descending order of affecting factors is brand associations, identity and witnessed club history. By this, it could be concluded that there is a small difference in which factors affecting the supporter-based brand equity between the club categories.