Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare brand equity components among Adidas sportswear shoppers, both athletes and non-athletes.
Methodology: It was a descriptive survey. Since Adidas is a well- known and popular sports brand in the world, it has official agency in Iran. The target population was defined as customers who had referred to and purchased from the Adidas official agency in Tehran (Iran capital city). 404 questionnaires were filled out by costumers using randomly simple method. The tool has already been applied by Tong and Hawley (2009). Apart from demographic questions (age and gender), the main part of this questionnaire included five items measuring various dimensions of brand equity including brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and its perceived quality. For analyzing data, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman correlation coefficient and Fisher's Z test were utilized.
Results: The findings indicated that athlete and non-athlete Sportswear customers were different in brand awareness and loyalty, while in the dimensions of brand association and perceived quality, there was no significant difference among them. Furthermore, these results showed that there was a significant and positive relation between four dimensions of brand equity (brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and perceived quality) and sportswear brand equity.
Conclusion: According to the obtained results of this study, the managers of sportswear industry have to focus their marketing activities on brand association and its perceived quality for extending brand.