Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences ISSN: 2231– 6345 (Online) An Open Access, Online International Journal Available at www.cibtech.org/sp.ed/jls/2014/04/jls.htm 2014 Vol. 4 (S4), pp. 1848-1851/Ojaghi et al. Research Article © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 1848 EXAMINING LOAYALTY OF WOUSHU PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM ATHLETES TO SPORT BRANDS *Amir Ojaghi, Farshad Tojari and Mohammadrea Esmaeili Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran *Author for Correspondence ABSTRACT Sports industry includes sectors such as sporting goods, marketing and financial support. Changes in marketing concept over the past decade lead all businesses and organizations to customer Orientation and customer loyalty. This aim of this study is to examine loyalty of Wushu premier league team athletes to sport brands and identify its underlying factors. The method of this study was descriptive, correlation, longitudinal and applied and data was collected in field method. The statistical population of study included all athletes participating in Wushu premier league (150) and was held in Tehran and sample was selected as (n = 150). The tool was new version of brand loyalty evaluation questionnaire of Lau et al (2006) including eleven factors of product quality brand name, price, product style, shop environment, advertisement, quality of services, affected by others, social class, lifestyle and advertisement size. Reliability of questionnaire was obtained 0.86 in a preliminary study of 40 subjects by Cronbach's method. The collected data was analyzed afterdiagnosing its normality by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and using Spearman correlation test at ≥ α 0.05 and statistical Software of SPSS19. The data revealed a significant positive relationship between all factors of Wushu premier league team athletes’ loyalty to sport brands. Finally Friedman test showed that advertisement size, social class and influence of others have the highest rate in loyalty of Wushu premier league team athletes to sport brands. Given the importance of gender effect on loyalty, three factors of advertisement size, social class and influence of others are recommended to merchants, store authorities, agencies and production companies so that they emphasize on combination of these three factors on their marketing policies. Keywords: Loyalty, Wushu Athletes, Sport Brands INTRODUCTION Physical Education and Sport Sciences like other sciences have succeeded unimaginable boundaries of progress and technology and have affected all basic sport infrastructures including business, economics, politics, etc. Internationally, the sport ranks eleventh among the major industries of country. Sport industry includes sectors such as sporting goods, marketing, implementation supervision and financial support, professional sports, sport clothing, sport media and entertainment sports (Georgia, 2011). Changes in the concept of marketing in the last decade have led all organizations and businesses to customer orientation. Also, one of the main challenges is keeping customers or in other words, is their desire. Increased competition to acquire more customers has led companies to attach more value to services offered to clients so that they show themselves different compared to their competitors (Hizi, 2002). On the other hand, brand name or symbol is used to identify a product or services and to distinguish it from competitors (Aaker, 1991). Brand loyalty is defined as the ability to attract and retain customers; also, it shows feel, behavior and attitude towards brand (1,991 acres). Studies by Peterson and Tarth (2009) showed that people engagement in marketing activities in sport clubs is related to service quality and brand loyalty. If this relationship does not have any benefits, it will not last long. Being aware of negative and positive relationship with brand allows sport centers to gain brand loyalty (Williams, 2010). Also Annecy (2007) considers lack of brand loyalty as the most important factor involved in health industry. In sport centers, the central core is activity and exercise. Sport complexes satisfy their customers through meet the needs of customers in terms of complexes, facilities, sports facilities and services (Annecy, 2007). Tejari and