Determinants of Marketing Effectiveness and Brand Development in Women’s Football: Evidence from the Indian Sports Ecosystem

Abstract

 Women’s football has shifted from on-field performance to a globalized, commercially important sport driven by institutional forces, media and commercial forces. In 2017 there was launch of Indian Women’s League and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League and it is still fragile and in the maturing stage through the commercial ecosystem. This study examines the effect of sponsorship, fan engagement and digital media on marketing effectiveness and brand development in Indian women’s football. The study is based on customer-based brand equity theory and principles of sports marketing. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted, engaging 229 participants, with the measurement scale showing excellent internal consistency, with Cronbach’s α = 0.961. Studies related to multiple regression showed the β value for sponsorship was 0.383, fan engagement was 0.324, digital media was 0.299 which explains 76.2% of the variance in marketing effectiveness. On the other hand, β value for digital media was 0.38 and that of sponsorship was 0.329 which explains 77.1% of variance in brand development. General football awareness had no measurable results. One-sample t-tests further confirmed that visibility, social-media engagement and sponsor trust are the strategies respondents rate as most important for sustainable growth. Together, the results argue for a relational, digitally-led marketing approach backed by stronger institutional support.