Sports Sponsorship as a Marketing Strategy - Essay Example

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR Sports sponsoring is one of the many tools that marketers use and try to reach customers and influence them to buy their products (Harvey 2001). The key to effective sponsoring is to understand consumer attitude formation and change. Attitude comprises of beliefs, evaluative emotional attached and behavior tenderness towards an object. This therefore means that attitude has a strong impact on consumer behavior. Altitude can therefore be changed by changing one of the three components of attitude. Sponsorship affects the emotional attachment by developing a positive association between the consumer’s sport team and the company products. It can also affect the cognitive / belief components by altering brand beliefs or perception. For example, Suzuki motorcycle brand saw the importance of using sports sponsorship in changing the way the brand is perceived by the public. However, marketers face a lot of challenges in assessing the effects of sports sponsorship on consumer behavior and how to determine its importance to the business (Menahga 2001). When an attitude is being formed, stimuli are generalized and many objects are formed and placed in the same category of association in the mind (Triandis 1971). When a category is formed through cognition, it results to pleasant or unpleasant effective state (Lardinoit &Derbaix 2001). In this case an attitude is being assigned, there is usually a prediction made from previous observation of how a person acts at certain times towards a certain object. Attitude is consistent if the belief towards and object and its actions reflect the feelings about it in the same way Why sponsorship affects the consumer attitude is by accessing their cognitive components of the attitude. Consumers drawn to a particular sporting event, marketers can use sponsorship to increase the exposure of their marketing messages to change consumer attitude. Brands can be transferred through mere exposure and attribution theory (Rifon et al 2004). These are the two ways that explain the change of brand name in the minds of consumers. Attribution theory states that consumers make decisions after and observation and an experience. In this case, consumers infer a motive for the sponsorship agreement which could lead to a positive attitude towards the sponsor. Brand associated with celebrities tend to do well according to Gwinner (1997). Consumers associate celebrities with certain meaning as a result of what they do. When they are associated in advertising a product, those meanings are transferred to the product and then to the consumer (McCracken 1989). For example, Attrill’s company involving boxer Greens sponsorship aimed at using the celebrity in changing their brand image in consumer’s minds. Brand attitude affects the customer’s behavior which is determined by the celebrity image in terms of benefits and attributes. The linkages between behavior and attitude have forced marketers to use celebrities in the hope of influencing consumer behavior. Before deciding to market through sports sponsorship, a firm should have all the alternative methods of reaching to the target market with being too depended on media coverage. Small sponsors who do not have much media coverage should concentrate on direct contact with the target audiences. They should use activities like database marketing, promotional licensing and sales promotion. People make judgments about others through observable appearances or belongings such as cars and clothing. Inner self is hard to detect and identify with these brands with values; therefore, personality association has been seen as a clear manifestation of a person’s identity/ self esteem motive (Escalas & Bettman 2005). Therefore, there are certain consumers who reject certain products so as not to add undesired values in their life (Hogg & Banister 2001). This therefore means that when companies venture into new markets, there is a possibility of losing customers whose expectations were not met. When customers are directly involved with the sponsored event, there is a higher probability that they will purchase event related products. When they do not have a positive attitude towards the sponsor, they are less likely to be involved in the event. Moreover, when customers learn that the company they have been doing business with is sponsoring a certain event, there will be an urge for them to attend and the positive feeling towards the firm will automatically lead to brand loyalty. However, this is dependant of whether the sponsored event is familiar to the customer. Consumer markets are divided into very many segments with similar preference and product needs. So as to meet the needs of a certain target market and establish a competitive advantage, the firm must develop marketing strategies that meet the desires of any segment. Sports sponsorship may produce meaningful results if it generates brand awareness, promotes favorable brand image, and satisfies customers with a need or preference for the commercial advantage of the sponsor. To maximize the sponsoring opportunity, the sponsor must focus on projects which are accessible to a larger audience. When purchasing a fast moving product a customer have a repertoire of two to four brands in each product selected. This therefore means that the customer will always go for the cheapest brand available within their repertoire although it may not be necessarily the cheapest of all the available ones. This is a clear indication that brands within a certain category are not functionary substitutable purchase and consumption activities occur in between a relatively open and closed consumer behavior setting. For a closed setting this is whereby the customer has no option than to buy the available. An example is a post office where postage stamps are sold. For an open one, there is room for a customer to decide what to take and what not to take. There are varieties from which he can choose from. In the closed setting, there are already arranged discriminative stimuli that allow conformity to the desired behavior. The customer follows the set rules and regulations presented by others in order to avoid dot avoid consequences that might be faced if one fails to adhere to the instructions. In the open setting the customer is not regulated. He has so many choices. In this case the customer is following self instructions, influenced by freedom and the sense of being in control of ones behavior. Sports sponsorship as a marketing strategy impacts an organization in many ways. The most important aspect of sponsorship impact is image enhancement. This is measured in many ways including the customer’s perception that the firm is prestigious, credible, financially stable and able to produce quality products. Many firms are now realizing that sports are sponsorship is a nice way of increasing sales, changing consumer attitude, brand improvement, building awareness as it maintains the existing customers and acquiring new ones. However when choosing a sport to sponsor, there is a need to have a clear picture of the consumer behavior and market situation. Moreover the sponsorship must align with all the promotional activities within the company and must be evaluated carefully to be sure that it is effective and it results to the desired goals. Scandals affect sports sponsorship. Melbrane Storms lost its key players and sponsors for a rorting salary cap scandal. This resulted to its being branded as cheats. Many organizations back off from sponsoring some sports by citing the risks that may be involved by a scandal arising from sports and paint a negative picture about the company. Consumers like being associated with a positive influence. Once this is compromised, customers may change their attitude towards the products of the victim firm. ME Bank, HOSTPLUS and Skins quit sponsoring Storm after discovering the scandal surrounding the team to safeguard their brand. They did not want to be associated with team that had negative views from many for it may result the same to those supporting it. Phonak sponsored a Swiss boy Landis who was a professional cycler. Phonak strategically sponsored the boy so that they can market their brand, unfortunately Landis was stripped off the victory after he was tested positive of high testosterone use. Phonak never sponsors professional sports; they rather sponsor arts which they say have risks which can be managed. An association with a negative character can result to a negative attitude from consumers. Sponsorship results to diverse outcomes including behavior and attitudinal outcomes such as; customer emotions attitude towards the sponsored and the sponsor, purchase behavior, brand equity, loyalty and purchase intentions (Cornwell et al 2005).Walliser (2003) stated that customers present in an a sponsored sport or event are likely to buy the sponsor’s products compared to the competitors. Customer’s intention to purchase a product or service is predicted in two categories; positive attitude towards the brand and the brand familiarity (Anand et al 1988).purchase intention is one of the very important measures for conative stage (Beeri & Santana 1999). It focuses on the consumer’s likelihood of buying the product and this depends of many factors like information perception and the attitude formed. Conclusion Sports sponsorship is marketing strategies that can help a firm maintain its loyal customers and venture into new markets. It can impact consumer’s attitude in a big way. By giving positive emotional attachment, sports sponsorship alters consumer’s cognitive structures resulting to consumers having a certain behavior. How ever, before a company decides to sponsor, its goals should first be considered to help define the reason why they should sponsor; whether to improve brand awareness, image, or consumer attitude. The goals dictate the form of sponsorship that they need to undertake Highly involved fans are more receptive to the sponsorship, which positively affect the chosen market. However there must be a good fit between the sponsor and the products in order to effectively reach the market. This is because; just signing for a sponsorship doesn’t guarantee the desired results. The image portrayed should much the quality of the products in the market Sports sponsorship has been termed as on of the best marketing strategies. However, research of the sports to sponsor and the information of the team to sponsors needs to be put into consideration. In many cases, teams and games involved with various risks and scandals are risky to sponsor. This is because; consumer attitude towards the firm might be affected when the attitude towards the sport is spoilt. References Escalas, J. E., Bettman, J, R. 2005. Self-construal, reference groups, and brand Meaning. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 378-389. 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