Brand recall and brand preference at sponsored golf and tennis tournaments

J.A.F. Nicholls and Sydney Roslow: Marketing and Business Environment, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA and

Sandipa Dublish: Farleigh Dickinson University,Teaneck, New Jersey, USA

ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This study is based on data which were originally gathered by students under the supervision of Henry A. Laskey and J.A.F. Nicholls.

Introduction

Sponsorship provides the wherewithal for the production of sports events and so for promotion to the consumers who attend the events as spectators or follow them in the broadcast and print media. Billions of dollars are invested in sponsoring such events (Promo, 1993). In 1990, corporations spent $23.5 billion on sports marketing in the United States (Burnett et al., 1993). For 1995, sponsorship alone was projected at $4.7 billion (Kate, 1995). Thus, sponsorship is a major marketing tool (Knox, 1992).

Sponsorship is an opportunity for companies to reach consumers through their "hearts and minds", presenting sponsors with a "back door" opportunity to promote their companies and brands (Heitsmith, 1994). Consumers attend sports events as part of their leisure activities, to experience excitement and entertainment. It is an opportunity for companies to escape the mounting expense and clutter of the conventional advertising media (Hastings, 1984). Consequently, sports event sponsorship is a prime example of place-based marketing. Many elements of the marketing mix come into play with sports sponsorship: promotion, product, and place, in particular. Sports event sponsorship gives companies opportunities for promotional activities, such as advertising, publicity, premiums, and selling. In their promotional efforts, companies may emphasize awareness of the brand or they may emphasize benefits, which become motivations for preference or purchase of the brand.

With such copious amounts of money being poured into sports marketing, measures of effectiveness are very necessary (Meenaghan, 1991b; Witcher et al., 1991). Until effectiveness measures for this advertising medium are created, most sponsors will "waste money" and sponsorship of sports events will be a "high-rollers game" (Advertising Age, 1991; Kim, 1993). Moreover, sponsorship of events is usually accompanied by an additional budget to cover the cost of broadcast advertising. It would appear that some companies were premature in thinking that sports sponsorship was approaching saturation (Wilber, 1988). A greater variety of corporations, in increasing number, is committing promotional resources to sports sponsorship (Promo, 1993).

The setting of this paper

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