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Abstract
Sponsorship activity has increased dramatically over the last two decades, as has customer knowledge of this promotional activity associated with experiential consumption. While a number of studies have measured consumers' understanding of how event marketing affects their evaluation of a brand, scant empirical attention has been paid to how consumers use sponsorships as signals of event quality. In a between-subjects experimental design, main effects were found for the sponsor's functional similarity and regression analyses suggest that the strength of the sponsors' influence predicted attendance intent, perceived event quality, and advocacy behaviors. Implications of these findings are discussed in practical parlance.
Does Your Sponsor Affect My Perception of the Event? The Role of Event Sponsors as Signals
For the sponsor, the ability to leverage its connection to an event, in addition to accessing specific demographic groups, is exchanged for a financial or in-kind investment used to underwrite the costs of the event (Cliffe & Motion, 2005; Farrelly & Quester, 2003; Howard & Crompton, 2004). This seemingly simple exchange may also result in some unintended effects that to date, have yet to garner the attention of sport marketing researchers. For example, while companies carefully consider how associating with specific events will reflect on their image, little consideration has been given to how sponsors may impact the event's image. If such an issue has been considered, the discussion has been restricted to whether the event should sell sponsorships to the so called "sin industries" of alcohol and tobacco.
In their detailed review of the extant sponsorship research, Cornwell and Maignan (1998) concluded that scholars need to more completely understand how sponsorship communication (i.e., whether intended or unintended) can impact event perceptions. Following this recommendation, Pracejus (2004) summarized seven psychological mechanisms through which sponsorship can impact various desirable marketing objectives. In his discussion, the author offered evidence that implied size, the cognitive processing that "... this must be a big company to sponsor this event" (p. 183), has received both anecdotal and empirical support. He also stated that this function may operate in the opposite direction, wherein the quality of the sponsor may impact the quality (or equity) of the event. Little research, however, has investigated this effect. This statement points to the need to clarify under...