[How the Sports Sponsorship Influence the Brand Awareness ?]

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible (Alexandris, 2007,, 130).

ABSTRACT

The marketers have been making the most of the sports events to promote their brands and create awareness among the consumers, however it is important to determine the extent to which the sports sponsorship influence brand awareness. For this reason, this research take into account NBA to analyze the perception and awareness of the sponsored brands. A focus group study is undertaken to take responses of the NBA followers. The emphasize was on deducting their knowledge and recall of the brands that sponsored the favorite teams of consumers in NBA. A group of 10 graduate and undergraduate students were selected that will comprise of the individuals who follow NBA. The results were analyzed through, transcription, charting and interpretations. This research enabled the marketers to understand how they can better understand the sports marketing and target the required consumer segment more effectively. It was found that the awareness of the logos among the participants were greater for the brands that sponsored NBA event. They shows more attachment and connection to the companies and preferred these brands over others. The results are the depiction of this very important marketing strategy that the companies can make the most on keeping track of the sports events. Sports industry for marketers is attractive to target the segments and the fans who follow these sports events religiously and tend to recall the brands more frequently than through any other marketing activity.

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT3

TABLE OF CONTENTS4

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION6

Background6

Definition and Purpose of Sponsorship7

Research Purpose8

Research Significance9

Objectives9

Research Questions10

Theoretical Framework10

Research Hypotheses13

Key Definitions and Terms14

Limitations15

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW16

Visual Fluency19

Congruence19

Fan Involvement20

Visual Fluency22

Conceptual and Perceptual Fluency22

Familiarity23

Congruence in Sponsorship24

Sponsorship Activation25

Brand Preference30

Purchase Intentions30

Sponsorship Awareness31

Involvement in the Product Category32

NBA Brand Sponsorship Effectiveness- A research by Neurofocus Group33

Activation and Event Attendance34

Research Design39

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria39

Data Collection40

Data Analysis41

Recall of the Logos43

Conceptual Fluency and Recall45

Familiarity and Recall45

Congruence and Recall45

Recall and Brand Attitude46

Brand Building47

Summary49

Recommendations56

Conclusion59

REFERENCES62

APPENDICES73

Focus Group Interview Questions73

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

The trend of sponsoring the sports events has become a charming method of creating brand awareness among the consumers for a couple of years. Interest is growing in sponsorship as companies with researchers in management science. This growth can be explained by the globalization of markets and communication networks, commoditization of products, the primacy the brand equity and the plethora of advertisements for consumer increasingly sophisticated (Derbaix et al., 1994). Companies must develop new methods to seduce their targets. Sponsorship has the advantage of exploiting interest's socio-cultural audiences. In 2004, the global market for sponsorship is more than 30 billion and is expected to surpass the 45 billion euros in 2006, according to the study Sponsor Click performed with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). The share of Sports sponsorship is predominant (27.3 billion euros) because sport is field of major concern in most countries, such as the figures of audience sporting events ...