Consumer Motivation In Festivals And Sports

Drawing on the consumer motive areas of festivals and sport, critically discuss the extent to which there are common motives in the respective areas and critically discuss the way in which consumer motivations are measured in EITHER festivals OR sport. 

Fulfillment of Psychological Needs in Festivals and Sports

An event refers to a gathering of people and it is generally convened during a special occasion. Festivals provide an occasion for merriment and United Kingdom celebrates a wide range of excellent festivals along with events. Events like Edinburgh Festival, music festival and world cup attracts a large number of people who gets drowned in the pleasure of the festival or the cup (Lee, Petrick and Crompton 2007). An event of sports refers to a competitive physical activity that involves the participation of people. It helps in maintaining and improving the physical status of a person and provides entertainment to that of the spectators. This essay elaborates on the consumer motive areas of festival and sports and the measurement of consumer motivation in festivals.

The needs that compel an individual to attend an event are physiological and psychological. The people witnessing the sports or festival event will be able to derive fulfilment after watching the event. It will pave the path for their self-esteem along with that of the development. An event like a festival or a sports event can satisfy the psychological needs of an individual and it makes a person mentally satisfied. Social interaction during an event can appease the interpersonal needs. According to Ayob, Wahid and Omar (2013), man is a social animal and every individual has the innate urge of engaging oneself in conversation and expressing their deepest feeling. These kinds of urges are satisfied when one watches a game of sports or any festival. The spectators can engage in conversations during the course of the match and sharing of the feeling of joy helps in magnifying the element of joy and happiness. It has been argued by Báez and Devesa (2014),that the pleasure felt in isolation does not amount to much gain for an individual. This satisfaction and happiness can increase manifold on the occasion of sharing of the pleasurable feeling. The people in the audience of the sports or festival become animated during the game that helps in releasing their hidden tensions. The daily monotony in the life of an individual can be warded off to a great extent after watching a festive event or a sports game.

 According to Bruwer and Kelley (2015), everyday life does not provide an individual with opportunity for any kind of novelty. It leaves an individual feeling frustrated and an event provides opportunity for the much necessary change that is needed in the life of a person. An event of festival or sports helps in gaining more knowledge and an individual undergoes new experiences in the course of an event. It helps in fulfilling fantasies of an individual. According to Maslow, “physiological”, “safety”, “love”, “esteem”, “ self-actualization” along with “ self-transcendence” are the different patterns through which the human motivation passes (Lee, Petrick and Crompton 2007). Physiological need is indicative of the physical requirements that an individual needs for surviving. It has been argued by Choo and Park (2017), that without the fulfilment of these requirements, the human body will not be able to function in the proper manner and these needs are conceived to be of singular importance.  An event gives opportunity to an individual to satisfy the need of getting fresh air, food and clothing that satisfies an individual mentally.

Measurement of Consumer Motivation in Festivals

The safety need of an individual occupies the next position and this need dominates the behaviour of an individual. On account of war, family violence and incidents of abuse an individual may experience post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Cole and Illum (2006), dearth of work opportunities makes an individual feel insecure and vulnerable.  A festival or a sporting event provides respite to an individual from the problematic thoughts that plague the human mind and provides an individual with mental satisfaction.

The motive that compels an individual to attend an event relates to interpersonal and the feeling of belongingness. Neglect and ostracism affects the ability of an individual to maintain emotionally significant relationship. It has been stated by Hall, O’mahony and Vieceli (2010) that the feeling of social belonging that one gets after attending an event makes an individual feel more accepted in the society and raises their self-esteem. Humans have a tendency to love and to be loved and an event like a sports or a festival can satisfy that innate instinct of an individual. The esteem needs refer to the ego needs that are satisfied when an individual gets recognition and acceptance in the society (Crowther 2011). Every individual wants to be valued by other individuals and this need is satiated by an event of festival or sports. The desire of self-actualization is also satisfied with the help of a festival or a sports event. Individuals are endowed with the desire to reach the level of the infinite. Transcendence is indicative of the highest level of that of human consciousness and an event of a festival or sports helps an individual in reaching great heights. 

Events help in increasing yield from that of the audiences. It leads to an increase in the sale of goods, merchandise, food and drink. The short-lived pleasurable activity of an event is rewarding as it satisfies the need of happiness of an individual. According to Duran and Hamarat (2014), an amateur can launch themselves in a career after acquiring special skills and experience in an event. This provides a motive for the event consumer to attend the festival or the sports programme. Serious participation in an event can pave the path for joining groups that can help in sustaining beliefs and it can help in re-enforcing ideals. Attending an event can help the event consumer in adopting an alternative community or that of the sub-culture. It creates a feeling of “we” that proves to be beneficial for the social life of an individual.  An event can help an individual in sharing interest on the public platform like that of lifestyle choice.

Socio-Psychological Motivation Domains

Watching a game of sports and seeing the favourite team win can provide solace to the individual. Sports can help an individual in getting a feeling of winning on the event of the victory of his favourite team. This helps in the process of purgation of the emotions and feelings of an individual and in the similar manner the games of a festival can satisfy the feelings of an individual. The motives of the tourists are multiple. The multiplicity can happen at level of individual and at aggregate level. At the level of individual, a visitor can have different needs that are satiated with the help of a festival visit. It has been argued by Oriade, Hall and Robinson (2016), that the need of interaction with that of the family is inhibited on account of the independent action of that of the family members within that of the home environment which is accompanied by that of a desire of that of cultural enrichment. These are greatly helped by different elements within that of the package of hearings that comprises a festival. Different visitors can engage themselves in that of the same package element and get various benefits from that of the experience. For the visitors of an event consuming a specific kind of food can be a way of experiencing of cultural tradition whereas for others it can be a way that facilitates intra-group socialization.

It is a well known fact that people do not buy products but rather they buy the expectations in relation to benefits that can help in satisfying the need. According to Kim, Kim and Jai (2016), the elements of an event are designed on the basis of the needs of the tourist and identification of the needs is crucial for the development of the elements of the festival. The psychologists in the modern era have said that searching for the optimum level of that of the arousal underlies that of psychological motives. This highlights that people neither look out for the absence or the excess of that of stimulation but rather they look for an optimal level. Basic principle behind that of optimal arousal is that a person tends to look for a level of stimulation that fits their individual character. It has been argued by Jackson (2013), that a person whose life is quiet will look for stimulation with the help of activity and on the other hand if too many things are happening in the life of a person then the person will search for cut-off stimulation and grope for an environment that is quiet.

Benefits of Attending Festivals and Sports Events

As per the critical discussion, this can be drawn that consumer motivation in relation to festivals can be measured by the repeat visitation of the event since festivals occur within relatively local areas. The conceptual framework of Crompton made use of seven socio psychological motivation domain that can help in measuring the consumer motivation in relation to festivals (Lee, Lee and Park 2014). It would prove to be appropriate for the representation of the situation of a festival. The seven domains crucial to festivals are novelty, socialization, prestige, rest, education value, enhancing kinship and that of regression. 62 motive items were created after the reviewing of scientific literature and from officials who were associated with Fiesta San Antonio that acted as source in relation to this study. The 62 items were handed to that of eight judges who were doctoral candidates and had experience in relation to tourism behaviour. The judges had been provided with seven motive domains (Lee, Kang and Lee 2013).  The judges were asked to assign each of the item to the seven motive domains on the occasion of them meeting the definitions of the domains and they had to be rated on a scale from 1 to that of 3. 1 would suggest clearly representing the motive, 2 would signify somewhat representative and 3 would mean not representative of the motive. Judges were even asked to put forth additional motive domain which did not fit within the seven motive domains. The judges were asked to clarify items and identify which may not fit within the seven motive domains. Consequently, a series of that of decision rules were established and items not being able to meet the decision rules were discarded. All these procedures led to that of a set of 46 items that remained out of the original of that of 62 items (Lee, Petrick and Crompton 2007).  The seven proposed domains were retained. Responses from that of convenience sample of that of 415 undergraduate students were made use of in order to pre-test the reliability of that of the 46 scale items. 

Oblique rotation factor analysis was made use of for the measurement of consumer motivation in festivals in order to validate a priori assignment of the items within that of seven motive categories. Reduction was carried out by throwing all the items the factor loadings of which were less than that of <0.40 and the communality of which was less than < 0.40. The decision rules produced 31 item instruments that were used for measuring the seven dimensions of that of the motivation construct. The dimensions were found to be consistent with that which was used in doing initial conceptualization and the motive domains that emerged were named in a different manner in order to highlight the changes in that of item distribution. The particular domains crucial in relation to consumer motivation in festival were named as novelty, familiarity, cultural exploration, kinship socialization, external interaction, recover equilibrium and that of known-group socialization. According to Mair  (2010), novelty along with regression was combined to form a single factor and prestige motive did not arise from that of factor analysis. On the other hand, original socialization motive was divided into that of two factors that reflected the interaction between the strangers i.e. external and that of friends i.e. known group (Malekmohammadi, Mohamed and Ekiz 2011). 

Conclusion

Festival or sports can help in the satisfaction of the individual’s psychological needs and paves the way for mental satisfaction. Interpersonal needs can be satisfied with the help of social interaction. A festival or a sports event can help in driving away the monotony in one’s life. Different kinds of visitors can participate in the same event but they can derive different benefits out of it. Activity will be the priority of an individual who has a quiet life and he will look for stimulation in an event and on the other hand a busy person will search for an environment that is quiet. Crompton’s conceptual framework made use of seven psychological motivations that can help in representing a situation. Novelty and regression was a single factor and prestige did not rise from that of factor analysis. Oblique rotation factor analysis can help in the validation of the priori assignment of items into that of the categories. The items whose factor loadings and communality were less than that of 0.40 were discarded. 

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