Bullfighting or Jazz playing? Metaphors, brand differentiation, and the implications of team naming in sports leagues
研究了MLB、NBA、NFL和NHL中79%的球队使用隐喻命名，发现主流隐喻将运动员视为“野兽”、运动视为“野蛮战斗”，但替代隐喻可助品牌差异化，同时需关注暴力正常化的伦理问题。
Research questions A team name is a fundamental element of a team’s brand equity. This research addresses two key questions concerning team-naming practices. First, we explore how teams achieve brand differentiation despite paradoxically adopting similar naming strategies – namely, employing metaphors. Second, we discuss whether the dominant conceptual metaphors that underlie sport-team names bear ethical implications.Research methods To investigate these questions, we conducted a systematic metaphor analysis of team names from the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL (Study 1). Building on these initial results, we then examined perceptions of different types of metaphorical team names among a sample of 1140 basketball spectators (Study 2).Results and Findings We found that 79% of teams utilize metaphorical names. While athletes are predominantly conceptualized as ‘wild beasts’ and sport as a ‘brutal fight’ across the four leagues, alternative metaphors exist, offering teams diverse opportunities for brand differentiation. Finally, although these dominant conceptual metaphors raise ethical concerns regarding the normalization of violence in sport, more positive conceptual metaphors for both athletes and sport are also available.Implications Far from being mundane and without consequences, selecting a metaphorical name, such as ‘Bulls’ or ‘Jazz’, is a crucial decision with implications for both brand differentiation and social responsibility. By investigating the pros and cons of different types of metaphorical names concerning these two aspects, this research provides managerial and ethical insights relevant to situations in which managers address the creation or rebranding of sport clubs.