Inversini, A.; Sit, J.; Pyle, T., H. at ENTER2016 eTourism Conference

1. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 1
Mapping Mobile Touchpoints in
Sport Events
Alessandro Inversini, Jason Sit and Harry T. Pyle
Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University
ainversini@bournemouth.ac.uk
jsit@bournemouth.ac.uk
pyleharry@gmail.com

2. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 2
Introduction
• 62% of UK consumers own a smartphone and
36% own a tablet (Deloitte, 2014)
• Mobile devices allow to perform various
activities on the move and they have changed
the way we work, learn, spend leisure time
and interact socially (McNaughton & Light, 2013).
• Mobile technologies allow us to constantly
engage with brands and retailers-and vice
versa-via a series of touchpoints (Dhebar 2013).

3. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 3
Sport Events
• In the sport event domain is crucial to
maintain/increase revenue and growth
membership (Yoshida et al., 2013).
• A mobile device such as a smartphone
naturally becomes an ideal channel that
allows avid sport fans to be connected to
their favourite team/s, constantly and
flexibly (Wilken & Goggin, 2013).

4. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 4
Rationale
• Touchpoints
• Typology of Human Capability
• Consumers’ Journey

5. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 5
Touchpoint
• The definitions of touchpoints consistently involve
words or phrases describing when a consumer
“interacts” (e.g. Dhebar, 2013;), “touches or
connects” (TouchPoint Experience, 2004),
“engages” (Merholz, 2009) or has a “point of
contact” (Jenkinson, 2007) with the business,
organisation or brand.
• Whilst a few definitions are based on the
perspective of one-off transaction (e.g. Khambete,
2011), and most definitions are rooted in the
relational perspective (Brigman, 2005).

6. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 6
What we think a touchpoint is
Any interaction, engagement or point of
contact that a consumer has with a business,
a brand or a service provider before, during
and after the service or product consumption
journey.

7. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 7
Touchpoints & Mobile Technologies
• Consumers nowadays expect to have access to
information, resources and services of a business or a
brand wherever and whenever they desire (Van
Steenderen, 2000).
• Consumers’ rising dependency on mobile technology as
an essential lifestyle device has stimulated businesses
to create touchpoints that engage customers
interactively and that enables customers to perform
various transactional activities efficiently and, over
time, that foster customers’ stickiness to the business
or the brand (Suki, 2011).

8. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 8
Typology of Human Capability
• Digital technology can essentially and effectively support
humans or brands in fulfilling four broad experiential purposes:
– sensing (an individual connecting with a brand interactively),
– linking (an individual connecting or networking with other like-minded
individuals simultaneously);
– performing (an individual carrying out functional activities independently
such as comparing prices or placing an order);
– organising (an individual performing functional activities with other
individuals collectively such as teleconferencing with colleagues from varied
countries).
• Additional category to effectively design an investigation tool:
– Navigation (Gretzel et a., 2006)

9. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 9
Touchpoints & Consumption
• A consumption journey describes the before,
during, and after stages that individuals go through
in a consumption process (Clatworthy, 2011; Teboul, 2006).
• Each consumption stage involves the occurrence of
numerous experiential activities (Carù & Cova, 2003;
Mehmetoglu & Engen, 2011).
• Aligning the experiential activities of a consumption
stage with consumers’ needs (e.g. Gretzel et al.,
2006) can provide a source of competitive
advantage (Caru and Cova, 2003).

10. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 10
Methodology
• Objective:
– to identify and map mobile touchpoints arisen
in the present-day sport consumption journey.
This study is particularly interested in the
mobile touchpoints that link to smartphone
usage, the context of football events, and
the perspectives of football fans.

11. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 11
Methodology
• Convergent interviewing allowed the researchers to
refine a probing question/s after each interview in
order to interrogate or clarify an agreement or
disagreement and seek possible explanation/s (Rao
& Perry, 2003).
• Judgment and snowball sampling were used to
recruit eligible participants for this study. An
eligible participant was defined as:
– (i) any football fan that has attended 20 or more
professional matches within the last calendar year and
– (ii) a member of the millennial generation

12. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 12
Results

13. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 13
Results – Before the Match

14. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 14
Results – During the Match

15. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 15
Results – After the Match

16. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 16
Conclusions
• This study proposes five categories of activities that are
relevant for mapping the consumption journey of a
sport event, namely, “sensing”, “linking”, “performing”,
“organising”, and “navigating”.
• Mobile enhancement and dependency, for the time
being, primarily occur in: “Linking” and “Performing”
before, during, and after a sport event; “Organising”
before and after the event; and “Navigation” during and
after the event. Mobile dependency is less applicable to
“Sensing” across the three consumption stages.

17. ENTER 2016 Research Track Slide Number 17
Conclusions
Mobile touchpoints can be defined as moments of
engagement, interaction or contact that a consumer has
with a business, a brand or a service via any mobile devices
before, during and after the service or product consumption
journey and that enhance users’ possibility to link, perform,
organize, navigate and sense the reality.