Event sponsorship effectively informs the target market about a company’s goods and services, making it a more creative marketing technique than other initiatives like advertisements and product promotional campaigns. The effectiveness of media advertising as a marketing strategy has decreased over time, due to the expanding number of media channels available to clients today and market fragmentation. As a result, the perception of event sponsorship has shifted from what once a charitable endeavor was intended to contribute to the success of an event (Cornwell, 2013. Pp 460). Therefore, the sponsor must establish a clear set of objectives, the market’s size in terms of consumer audience, and the potential for exposure before taking part in an event sponsorship program.
This feature helps a business set up efficient communication channels to draw a significant number of potential customers to the event. Sponsorship is a marketing strategy where a business uses another platform, such as an event, a sport, a movie, or other occasions, to advertise or promote its brand or product (Cornwell, 2013. Pp 460). The business pays the event’s organizers a certain sum in exchange for sponsorship. The primary goal of sponsorship is to communicate to the target audience, which consists of event participants that a corporation desires to sponsor the event. The sponsor and the event are these two stimuli utilized as instruments to assess the value of sponsorship using the simple exposure effect or traditional conditioning techniques. This study aims to demonstrate the pros and cons of sponsorship activities as a strong marketing approach in the present marketing environment.
Event Sponsorship Strengths
A company must have defined aims before sponsorship to properly present a product message in line with the principles of the brand.The three media, corporate, or marketing areas are where the most frequently acknowledged sponsorship goals may be found. Media is a crucial component to consider because it connects the corporation with the event audience. More media exposure is required for the company to reach its target markets. Because this is the company’s primary objective and depends on how its consumers view it, corporate sponsorship must be designed to enhance the company’s reputation and raise awareness in various ways. The company’s main reasons for participating in the sponsorship program are to increase sales and promote its brand. The last two objectives imply that a company’s sponsorship efforts are an investment because they increase customer awareness (McDonnell & Moir, 2013). Business and marketing objectives are likely to have an impact on customers.
The schema theory is crucial for establishing potential reactions when speculating how customers will react to sponsorship. According to the schema theory, information on a thing, idea, or sensory area, encompassing all of its characteristics and how they relate to one another, is represented by a cognitive structure stored in memory. As a result, when target customers learn more about the product through the sponsorship program, they assess how well the event and sponsor fit together based on what they already know about the brand and the event. Due to the spread of the event’s beneficial impacts on the brand schema, a perceived congruence between brand and event typically results in good evaluations of established brands. High-congruence pairing is easier to accept within the previous cognitive schemas (McDonnell & Moir, 2013). It is more easily retained in memory because of the positive relationship, which is a common explanation for these effects. Conversely, the disparity in fitness can frequently lead to customers needing a clearer view of the sponsor’s positioning.
The findings of the schema theory promise a rise in the likelihood that fitness will succeed rather than guaranteeing sponsorship failure or success. So even if the company is still trying to achieve a perfect fit between the event and the brand, there is still a chance that it will succeed in achieving its goals. To make sure the intended message is conveyed to persuade customers of the brand’s relevance to their lives and spending patterns, the company must invest in communication strategy in the case of low congruence (McDonnell & Moir, 2013). The public’s views toward the sponsored event are another good performance demonstrating the sponsorship scheme’s success. People attend events where they can gain benefits; on the other hand, they avoid those that do not enhance their perception of well-being. Therefore, an event must be able to benefit its audience. Therefore, the business must analyze the advantages that the sponsored event will likely confer on the populace to ascertain the event’s capacity to have a sizable target audience.
Challenges of Event Sponsorship Marketing Plan
In contrast to other forms of advertising, where companies may be considerably more inventive and have considerably more discretion in how they present their ads to the public, sponsorship has the disadvantage that there is less tolerance for error and less creative license. Therefore, a business may, for example, run television ads for a few days. However, in the case of sponsorship, the business may only exploit the sponsorship until the conclusion of the competition.
Most of the time, every business hoping to be an official sponsor of an event needs clarification. However, a company still determines the likelihood of ambush marketing by other companies and the confusion caused by the target customers’ opinion of the brand. Unfortunately, such ambush marketing frequently originates from the sponsoring company’s direct rival (Michelini et al., 2017. Pp 322). However, there are also drawbacks for the firm in sponsoring this event, including hefty sponsorship costs and exposure to significant risks. Sponsorship is a costly expenditure that might interfere with a company’s budget if not handled properly. Because the event’s market size needs to be clarified, it is difficult to predict how much product inventory needs to be maintained for attendees. High expectations for sales can lead a business to overproduce its goods to satisfy high expectations, which is costly and burdens the company’s resources. The corporation incurs enormous losses if it sells fewer things than anticipated.
The company is also exposed to the significant risks connected to this incident:
- For an event to be successful, sponsorship must be professional. Due to the incident’s significant exposure immediately generated, the corporation may need more time to manage welfare-related issues.
- The company’s success would suffer significantly if the event failed. According to the schema theory, target customers infer a company’s brand’s reputation from the event’s reputation, as was already indicated. As a result, the event’s success directly affects the company’s ability to fulfill its sponsorship goals (Preston, 2012).
- Most spectators stand near the racing track to observe the competitors, which presents an excellent opportunity for other businesses to engage in ambush marketing in chaotic settings.
Dependence on others is another challenge in any event sponsorship marketing plan. The performance of the club or player will determine how successful the sponsorship is. For instance, if an organization sponsors a football event in the world and that team prematurely exits the world cup due to poor play, the sponsorship idea will ultimately fail not because of a poor product or a poor marketing strategy, but rather because of poor play by the team or individual that the company has sponsored.
Conclusion
A business relationship between two parties is involved in the marketing strategy known as sponsorship. The beneficiary is the other party who permits access to the sponsor for the sake of rights and affiliations utilized for economic gain. One party is the sponsor, who supports the beneficiary with money, resources, or services. The primary goal is to promote our products at the event through sponsorship. As a result, the company will be able to quickly spread knowledge of its products to many potential buyers, as described under the benefits of sponsoring the event (Preston, 2012). Consequently, it should have a clear marketing strategy implemented during the event.
The sales income will rise due to the marketing strategy’s success. In addition, sponsoring this event will yield benefits for the sponsor, and the business will use the opportunity to sell its goods. For instance, the business intends to minimize stocks through a change in logistics, whereby company cars will deliver the goods to the event, and the marketing staff will sell them out at market rates. This action will lower supply chain expenses, increase sales income, and protect the sponsorship agreement investment (Preston, 2012). In addition, the event sponsorship is anticipated to boost consumer awareness of the brand’s products, resulting in higher income and sales.
Even in the presence of ambush marketers, the corporation has a good chance of succeeding in the sponsorship since formal sponsorship ensures benefits like media exposure that ambush markets only sometimes receive. However, it is wise for the business to sponsor the event because of all the perks that come with it, from which the business has a chance to gain significant advantages targeted toward reaching its goals.
Reference list
Cornwell, T.B., 2013. State of the art and science in sponsorship-linked marketing. Handbook of research on sport and business, pp.456-476.
McDonnell, I. and Moir, M., 2013. Event sponsorship. Routledge.
Michelini, L., Iasevoli, G. and Theodoraki, E., 2017. Event venue satisfaction and its impact on sponsorship outcomes. Event management, 21(3), pp.319-331.
Preston, C., 2012. Event marketing: how to successfully promote events, festivals, conventions, and expositions. Wiley.
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