The Role of Color in the Brand Commitment of Sporting Good's Consumers: Mediating Role of the Brand Equity

Color is commonly regarded as the primary symbol that elicits customers' attraction, interest, or aversion. This research examines brand characteristics concerning color: Brand Commitment and Brand Equity.

The statistical population consisted of all customers of sports shopping stores in Jahrom City. Due to the uncertainty of the number of the statistical population, 384 questionnaires were distributed by convenience sampling, 300 of which were analyzable. The Color questionnaires based on Haji Hassani et al. (2018), the Brand Equity questionnaire (Aaker & Keller, 1990), and the Brand Commitment questionnaire (Momen, 2014) were used for data collection. The face and content validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by sports management professors who were experts in sports marketing, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient confirmed the reliability of the questionnaires. Cronbach's alphas of questionnaires achieved 0.89 for color, 0.92 for brand equity, and 0.87 for brand commitment. PLS software was used for fitting and testing the hypotheses using structural patterns.

The results showed that color directly and significantly affects brand equity and commitment (Path coefficient = 0.50, t-value = 7.96). The mediating role of brand equity value on the role of color in brand commitment in sporting goods buyers is also confirmed (Path coefficient = 0.84, t-value = 6.50). The model fit analysis also showed that the proposed model has a goodness of fit (GOF = 0.57). According to the research findings, manufacturers and sports executives must always consider the importance of color, which is far more than its aesthetic aspect, in choosing a practical and comprehensive brand strategy.

Color in sports is presented as a unique symbol that often affects the biases of sports fans and excites them. According to this issue, the effect of color on the brand of sports goods was investigated in this research, which has been given less attention in the reviewed literature.