THE DETERMINANTS OF BRAND AWARENESS WITHIN SPORTS SPONSORSHIP Matthew R. Manning A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina Wilmington for the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in Business Administration Cameron School of Business University of North Carolina Wilmington 2009 Approved by Advisory committee _____Joaquin AldasManzano ______ _______Marcelo RoyoVela _______ _________L. Vince Howe _______ Chair Accepted By ____________________________________ Dean, Graduate School
43
Embed
THE DETERMINANTS OF BRAND AWARENESS …dl.uncw.edu/Etd/2009-3/manningm/matthewmanning.pdfthe determinants of brand awareness within sports sponsorship ... literature review ... brand
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
THE DETERMINANTS OF BRAND AWARENESS WITHIN SPORTS SPONSORSHIP
Matthew R. Manning
A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina Wilmington for the Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in Business Administration
____________________________________ Dean, Graduate School
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................. v
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................................. vi
LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................................................ 3
•This is a significant game to the team. •The game is important to where I live. Status of Event
•I am a strong supporter of this game. •I enjoy following the coverage of this game. •This game is important to me.
Attitude Toward Event
•The sponsor likely has the best interest of the sport at heart. •The sponsor would still support the game even if it was of a lower profile. •The sponsor is inolved with this game because they feel the game has earned the support.
•The company sponsors many events. •The company sponsors many major events. •The company only sponsors sporting events. •The company only sponsors baseball games.
Ubiquity of Sponsor
21
of the sponsor, the attitude toward the sponsor, and the ubiquity of the sponsor. As
each of the independent determinants were analyzed, they were compared in return to
the brand awareness created and ultimately to the usage created by the sponsorship.
The two event related variables, status of the event and attitude toward the
event, deal solely with the event the corporation chooses to sponsor. In the case of the
research I have conducted, the baseball games were a major event in the Columbus,
with attendance of over 10,000 patrons per game, however not reaching the mega
event status of other events, such as music concerts or sporting events involving Ohio
State University teams. The three sponsor related variables, sincerity of the sponsor,
ubiquity of the sponsor, and the attitude toward the sponsor, measure how the
respondents felt about the sponsoring corporation. Huntington Bank is a well known
bank in not only Columbus, but throughout the Midwestern states of the United States.
The company is headquartered in Columbus however, and has a major sponsoring
presence throughout the city.
Before calculating the synthetic measure of the independent variables (status,
attitude towards the event, sincerity of the sponsor, attitude towards the sponsor and
ubiquity of sponsor), we performed a reliability analysis of the items of each construct
using Cronbach’s alpha. Results, as can be seen in table 1, showed a reasonable
reliability for constructs attitude to the event (alpha=0.716), attitude to the sponsor
(0.697) and sincerity (0.785). However, reliability for status of the event was poor
(0.258) what leaded us to remove the first item. That is the reason why no alpha is
provided in table 1, as this calculation makes no sense when only one item is present.
22
The same situation occurred with ubiquity (alpha=0.324) however, after removing the
first item, the rest of the variables provided an alpha of 0.674.
Table 1; Scales of Reliability
Construct Cronbach’s alpha
Status of the event
Attitude to the event 0.716
Attitude to the sponsor 0.697
Sincerity of the sponsor 0.785
Ubiquity of the sponsor 0.674
After checking reliability, five synthetic indicators of the constructs were built as
the mean of the items that formed them. Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of
these constructs that will be our independent variables in the results section.
Table 2; Construct Descriptive
Construct Mean Std. Deviation
Status of the event 2.86 1.05
Attitude to the event 3.01 0.91
Attitude to the sponsor 3.64 0.66
Sincerity of the sponsor 2.97 0.82
Ubiquity of the sponsor 2.19 0.66
ANALYSIS The final analysis of the hypotheses has been conducted under the above
stated definitions of sponsorship and brand awareness, chosen after an extensive
23
search through previous research conducted within the field. To begin testing our
hypothesis we began with two separate steps. First, we attempted to evaluate if the
respondents who had an unaided brand recall of Huntington Bank as a sponsor showed
any significant levels within the perceived statues of the events, attitude of the event,
attitude towards the events, attitude towards the sponsor, perceived sincerity of the
sponsor, and perceived ubiquity of the sponsor. In order to achieve this measurement
we performed five individual one way analyses of the variance, using unaided brand
recall as the independent variable (factor) and the five aforementioned variables as the
dependent variables.
The results shown in Table 3 illustrate the lack of significant differences between
the respondents with unaided brand recall when compared to those with aided recall of
Huntington Bank in respect to the five measurements previously stated.
Table 3; ANOVA Results for Unaided Recall
Construct
Means
F Sig Recalled
(75%)
Didn’t Recall
(25%)
Status of the event 2.92 2.69 0.447 0.507
Attitude to the event 3.02 3.00 0.003 0.953
Attitude to the sponsor 3.65 3.62 0.029 0.865
Sincerity of the sponsor 2.92 3.10 0.467 0.498
Ubiquity of the sponsor 2.20 2.18 0.007 0.935
24
When the means of both the unaided and aided recall are compared, a nearly
identical result is shown. The results indicate that the brand recall, or lack or recall, was
not influenced by any of the five factors. The results of the aided brand recall of
Huntington Bank, shown in Table 4, are similar throughout to those results of the
unaided recall of the sponsor, which have previously been shown in Table 3.
Table 4; ANOVA Results for Aided Recall
Construct
Means
F Sig Recalled
(94%)
Didn’t Recall
(6%)
Status of the event 2.83 3.33 0.625 0.433
Attitude to the event 3.01 3.00 0.001 0.980
Attitude to the sponsor 3.61 4.17 1.998 0.164
Sincerity of the sponsor 2.93 3.56 1.651 0.205
Ubiquity of the sponsor 2.18 2.33 0.139 0.711
To confirm the results, we performed two binary logistic regressions tests using
unaided brand recall and aided brand recall (1 = yes, 2 = no) as the dependent
variables, while the five constructs (status of the event, attitude toward the event,
sincerity of the sponsor, attitude towards the sponsor, and ubiquity of the sponsor) were
used for the independent variables. These tests were used to evaluate if, and to what
degree, these three variables contributed to brand recall, both unaided and aided, or
not.
25
The results of the logistic regression tests can be found in Table 5 for unaided
brand recall, and Table 6 for aided brand recall. As expected, and in line with the
previous ANOVA test results, none of the five independent variables show any signs of
explaining the determinants of unaided brand recall.
Table 5; Logistic Regression Results for Unaided Recall
Independent variable Beta Odd ratio Wald Sig
Status of the event 0.356 1.428 0.748 0.387
Attitude to the event (0.087) 0.917 0.049 0.825
Attitude to the sponsor 0.135 1.144 0.051 0.821
Sincerity of the sponsor (0.608) 0.545 1.438 0.230
Ubiquity of the sponsor 0.059 1.061 0.012 0.913
Cox & Snell R2 = 0.04; Nagelkerke R2=0.05;
Table 6; Logistic Regression Results for Aided Recall
Independent variable Beta Odd ratio Wald Sig
Status of the event (0.047) 0.954 0.002 0.961
Attitude to the event 0.126 1.134 0.021 0.885
Attitude to the sponsor (0.900) 0.406 0.562 0.453
Sincerity of the sponsor (0.855) 0.425 0.761 0.383
In response to the research conducted, in which none of the five hypotheses
were proven, it seems that another outside influence is creating the brand awareness
26
for Huntington Bank. A possible cause of the brand awareness is the large influence
Huntington Bank has throughout Columbus, Ohio, as it has its corporate headquarters
in the city. Brand awareness has been created by Huntington Bank, as the brand
received an aided recall mark of 94% among the respondents, which is an amazingly
high percentage for a sponsor. Due to the lack of a conclusive determinant of this
brand awareness, it must be determined if this brand awareness was created or
increased by the sponsorship, or if the same results could have been achieved through
a simple, and often cheaper, form of advertisement, or if there is no additional action
required by Huntington Bank at all to increase the company’s brand awareness.
As none of the sponsor related determinants, the attitude toward the sponsor, the
sincerity of the sponsor, and the ubiquity of the sponsor, were a determining factor in
the brand awareness, it begs the question of how Huntington Bank is able to create
brand awareness. The simple fact that Huntington Bank is a major contributor to the
local economy of Columbus, Ohio as one of the major banks used in the city, and thus
creating brand awareness simply from the presence of the company throughout the
entire city and the surrounding suburbs. Since the ubiquity of the sponsor was not
proven as a determinant of the brand awareness, Huntington Bank was not able to
create their high brand awareness through any sponsorship or even perceived
sponsorships of other events throughout the city and state. It bears mentioning that a
smaller, less well known company may receive entirely different scores if it would be
able to create brand awareness through sponsorships. The possibility of respondents
having no prior knowledge of the brand could potentially lead to a clear determinant of
27
the brand awareness, as all brand awareness would have to have been created simply
via the sponsorship.
With the event related variables also having a negligible effect on the brand
awareness created by Huntington Bank, it seems that, at least in regard to professional
baseball, the event has little effect on the brand awareness created. Since the
professional baseball team in Columbus, the Columbus Clippers, do not have nearly as
large of a following, or the emotional attachment, as the primary sports team in
Columbus, The Ohio State University football team, there was not the same emotional
attachment to either the team or the event being sponsored. However, if Huntington
Bank had been able to sponsor an event that included The Ohio State University
football team, then the emotional attachment of the fan base may have had a more
positive reaction.
It seems that Huntington Bank either needs to take the motto of “Swing for the
fences” with their sponsorships in order to increase their brand awareness within the
determinants we measured. The company may have invested unnecessary money into
the sponsorship of professional baseball within the city, as it appears that little brand
awareness was actually created specifically from this sponsorship. As a result, if
Huntington Bank wants to increase their brand awareness levels through sponsorships,
the company may want to look into investing a larger amount of money and creating a
sponsorship of college football games in association with The Ohio State University
football team. However, a large company looking to increase brand awareness in a
new market could achieve a much higher increase in brand awareness from the
sponsorship of an event that is well known, but does not have a high emotional
28
attachment to the patrons. In that event, there will once again be a much lesser amount
of brand awareness previously created by the brand within the city and simply having
the brand viewed by that many people would have a dramatic increase in the brand
awareness, which ultimately could prove one of the determinants of this study to be
proven true.
Several factors that went unmeasured throughout the course of the research
conducted include the number of games that each respondent attended and where they
sat during the games. Since the brand awareness, and ultimately the determinants of
the brand awareness, should ultimately increase as the respondent attends more
games, it could become a determinant simply from seeing the brand name more often.
Also, depending on where the respondent sat during the game could also influence their
brand awareness, as certain companies only sponsor certain levels of the stadium, and
companies specifically sponsor the family and group sections as well as the luxury
suites of the stadium.
The goal the company sets for the sponsorship is also important when ultimately
determining if the sponsorship was successful. If the sponsoring company does set a
goal of increasing brand awareness, then their actions could ultimately reflect this
decision. A company may chose to attempt to increase the brand image within the city
and create corporate goodwill, or even simply an association with a particular sport,
team, or event. If either of those are the case, then there will be an entire different set
of measurables that would be of value to the sponsoring company. Companies
attempting to create a sporty image could use a sponsorship of a sports team to change
the general public perception of the brand or product, or the sponsor could attempt to
29
appear more culture savvy by sponsoring art events or other culture events happening
in the city.
REFERENCES
Abratt, R, Clayton, B.C., Pitt, L.F. (1987) “Corporate Objectives in Sports Sponsorship” International Journal of Advertising, 6, 299311.
Amis, J., Slack, T., Berrett, T. (1995) “The Structural Antecedents of Conflict in Voluntary Sport Organizations” Leisure Studies, 14(1), 116.
Armstrong, C. (1987) “Sports Sponsorship; A CaseStudy Approach to Measuring Its Effectiveness”, European Research, 16(2), 97103.
Bendinger, B. (1993) “Copy Work Shop Work Book”, Chicago, IL. The Copy Workshop.
Bennett, G., Henson, R., Zhang, J. (2002) “Action Sport Sponsorship Recognition” Sport Marketing Quarterly, 11(3), 174185.
Bradley, J.P., Daniels, L.F., Jones, T.C. (1960) “The International Dictionary of Thoughts:, Chicago, IL, J.G. Ferguson Publishing Co.
Cornwell, T.B. (1999) “Recent Developments in International Sponsorship Research”, Sponsorship Business Review, 2 (December), 3642.
Cornwell, T.B. (1997) “Worldwide Circumvention of Advertising Restrictions in the Tobacco Industry; The Sponsorship Loophole” Proceedings of the 1997 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, Mackling, M.C., ed., Cincinnati, OH, American Academy of Advertising, 256257.
Cornwell, T.B., Maignan, I. (1998) “An International Review of Sponsorship Research”, Journal of Advertising, 27(1), 122.
Cornwell, T.B., Weeks, C.S. Roy, D.P. (2005) “Sponsorship –Linked Marketing; Opening the black box”, Journal of Advertising, 34(2), 2142.
Crimmins, J., Horn, M. (1996) “Sponsorship: From Managerial Ego Trip to Marketing Success”, Journal of Advertising Research, 36(4), 1121.
Currie, N. (2000) “Maximizing Sport Sponsorship Investments; A Perspective on New and Existing Opportunities” International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 2(2), 159168.
D’Astous, A., Bitz, P. (1995) “Consumer Evaluations of Sponsorship Programs”, European Journal of Marketing, 29(12), 622.
Dean, D.H. (2002) “Associating the Corporation with a Charitable Event through Sponsorship; Measuring the effects on corporate community relations”, Journal of Advertising 31(4), 7787.
31
Drees, N. (1991) “Das SponsoringBarometer; Ergebnisse einer Unternehmensbefragung”, Werbeforschung & Praxis, 36(1), 912.
Farrelly, F.J., Quester, P.G., Burton, R. (1997) “Integrating Sports Sponsorship into the Corporate Marketing Function; An International Comparative Study”, International Marketing Review 14(3), 170182.
Fitzhenry, R.I. (1993) “The Fitzhenry and Whiteside Book of Quotations”, Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, Canada.
Gardner, M. P., Shuman, P. (1988) “Sponsorship and Small Business”, Journal of Small Business Management, 26(4), 4758.
Godin, S. (1999) “Permission Marketing Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY.
Grohs, R., Wagner, U., Vsetecka, S. (2004) “Assessing the Effectiveness of Sport Sponsorships – An empirical explanation”, Schmalenbach Business Review, 56, 119 138.
Gundlack, G.T. (2007) “The American Marketing Association’s 2004 Definition of Marketing; Perspectives on Its Implications for Scholarship and the Role and Responsibility of Marketing in Society”, American Marketing Association, 26(2), 243 250.
Gunther, J. (1960) “Taken at the Flood; The Story of John D. Lasker”, Harper and Brothers, New York, NY.
Hastings, G.B. (1984) “Sponsorship Works Differently from Advertising” International Journal of Advertising, 3, 171176.
Hayakawa, S.I. (1964) “Language in Thought and Action”, Harcourt, Brace, and World, New York, NY.
Hickman, T.M., Lawrence, K.E., Ward, J.C. (2005) “A Social Identities Perspective on the Effects of Corporate Sport Sponsorship on Employees’”, Sport Marketing Quarterly, 14(3), 148157.
IEG (2000) “Year One of IRL Title Builds Traffic, Awareness for Northern Light”, IEG Sponsorship Report, 19(23), 13.
Javalgi, R.G., Traylor, M.B., Gross, A.C., Lampman, E. (1994) “Awareness of Sponsorship and Corporate Image: An Empirical Investigation”, Journal of Advertising, 23(4), 4758.
Keller, K.L. (1993) “Conceptualizing, Measuring and Managing CustomerBased Brand Equity”, Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 122.
Lee, M.S., Sandler, D.M., Shani, D. (1997) “Attitudinal constructs towards sponsorship”, International Marketing Review, 14 (3), 159169.
32
Mack, R.W. (1999) “Event Sponsorship; an Exploratory Study of Small Business Objectives, Practices, and Perceptions”, Journal of Small Business Management, 37(3), 2530.
Meenaghan, T. (1998) “Current Developments and Future Directions for Sponsorships”, International Journal of Advertising, 17, 328.
Meenaghan, T. (1991) “Sponsorship; Legitimizing the Medium” European Journal of Marketing, 25(11), 510.
Meenaghan, T. (1983) “Commercial Sponsorship”, European Journal of Marketing, 17(7), 573.
Mullin, B., Hardy, S., Sutton, W. (2000) “Sport Marketing”, Champaign, IL, Human Kinetics.
Papadimitriou, D., Apostolopoulou, A., Dounis, T. (2008) “Event Sponsorship as a Value Creating Strategy for Brands”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, 17(4), 212 222.
Piquet, S. (1998) “Sponsoring Sportif et Communication Sociale”, Revue Francaise de Gestion, 84, 6674.
Quester, P.G., Rungie, C. (1998) “Hierarchical Log Linear Analysis; An Application to Sponsorship”, Journal of Sport Marketing, 2(3).
Richards, J.I., Curran, C.M. (2002) “Oracles on Advertising; Searching for a Definition” Journal of Advertising, 31(2), 6377.
Rust, R.T., Oliver, R.W. (1994) “The Death of Advertising”, Journal of Advertising, 23(4), 71.
Ruth, J.A., Simonin, B.L. (2003) “Brought To You by Brand A and Brand B”, Journal of Advertising, 32 (3), 1929.
Sandler, D.M., Shani, D. (1998) “Olympic Sponsorship vs. Ambush Marketing; Who Get the Gold” Journal of Advertising Research, 29, 914.
Schultz, D.E. (1995) “What is Direct Marketing” Journal of Direct Marketing, 9(2), 59.
Shaw, S., Amis, J. (2001) “Image and Investment, Sponsorships and Women’s Sport” Journal of Sport Management, 15(3), 219246.
Slattery, J., Pitts, B.G. (2002) “Corporate Sponsorship and Season Ticket Holder Attendances; An Evaluation of Changes in Recall Over Course of One American
33
Collegiate Football Season” International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 4(2), 151174.
Speed, R., Thompson, R., (2000) “Determinants of Sports Sponsorship Response”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28 (2), 226238.
Starch, D. (1923) “Principles of Advertising” A.W., Chicago, IL.
Stipp, H., Schiavone, N.P. (1996) “Modeling the Impact of Olympic Sponsorship on Corporate Image”, Journal of Advertising Research, 36(4), 2228.
Stuart, E.W., Shimp, T.A., Engle, R.W. (1987) “Classical Conditioning of Consumer Attitudes: Four Experiments in an Advertising Context”, Journal of Consumer Research, 14(December), 334349.
Tripodi, J.A. (2001) “Sponsorship; A Confirmed Weapon in the Promotional Armory”, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 3(1), 95117.
Vargo, S.L., Lusch, R.F. (2004) “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing”, Journal of Marketing, 68(January), 117.
Walliser, B. (2003) “An international Review of Sponsorship Research; Extension and Update”, International Journal of Advertising, 22 (1).
Westerbeek, H., Smith, A. (2002) “Location Dependency and Sport Sponsorship; A Factor Analytic Study”, Sport Marketing Quarterly, 11(3), 140150.
APPENDIX
Survey As Distributed This survey has been created to evaluate the determinants of brand awareness
within sports sponsorship. Measured determinants will be status of the event, attitude toward the event, the sincerity of the sponsor, the ubiquity of the sponsor, and the attitude toward the sponsor. The results will be used as primary research for Matthew Manning’s master thesis for the Universitat de Valencia and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. All participants’ identities will be kept confidential and unrecorded. Your participation and honesty in answering the following questions is greatly appreciated.
Age:
Sex: Male Female
Team You Supported:
Columbus Visitor Neither
Are you familiar with local brands of Columbus, OH?
Yes No
List all the sponsors from the game that you remember.
35
Indicate which of the following were sponsors of the game.
1. Progressive Insurance
2. Budweiser
3. Huntington Bank
4. McDonalds
5. Ford
6. Coca Cola
7. Columbus Dispatch
Please answer the following questions with the following scale;
1 – very unlikely 2 – unlikely 3 – indifferent 4 – likely 5 – very likely
Status of Event
This game is important to where I live.
1 2 3 4 5
This is a significant game for the team.
1 2 3 4 5
Attitude Toward Event
I am a strong supporter of this sport.
1 2 3 4 5
I enjoy following the coverage of this sport.
1 2 3 4 5
This game is important to me.
1 2 3 4 5
36
Sincerity of Sponsor
Huntington Bank has the best interest of the sport at heart.
1 2 3 4 5
Huntington Bank would still support the game even if it was of a lower profile.
1 2 3 4 5
Huntington Bank is involved with this game because they feel the game has earned the right to be supported.
1 2 3 4 5
Ubiquity of Sponsor
Huntington Bank sponsors many different events.
1 2 3 4 5
Huntington Bank only sponsors major events.
1 2 3 4 5
Huntington Bank only sponsors sporting events.
1 2 3 4 5
Huntington Bank only sponsors baseball games.
1 2 3 4 5
Attitude Toward Sponsor
Dislike – Like
1 2 3 4 5
Unfavorable – Favorable
1 2 3 4 5
Favorability
This sponsorship makes me feel more favorable toward Huntington Bank.
1 2 3 4 5
37
This sponsorship improves my perception of Huntington Bank.
1 2 3 4 5
Interest
This sponsorship makes it more likely I will notice Huntington Bank’s name on future occasions.
1 2 3 4 5
This sponsorship makes it more likely that I will remember Huntington Bank’s promotions.
1 2 3 4 5
Use
I currently use Huntington Bank’s products.
1 2 3 4 5
This sponsorship makes it more likely that I will use Huntington Bank’s products.
1 2 3 4 5
Thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey.