Riassunto esame Marketing, prof. Brioschi, libro consigliato Marketing Communications: A European Perspectivel, De Pelsmacker

OBJECTIVES

sponsorship is a very flexible communications tool that can be used to achieve both marketing (product or

brand) and corporate communications objectives. Depending on the type of sponsorship and the type of

company, different objectives are important. As far as marketing communications objectives are

concerned, mainly awareness building and, to a certain extent, image building semme to be the objectives

that sponsorship is most suited to achieve. A direct increase in sales or market share is not the primary

objective of sponsorship. Equally important are the corporate communications objectives of sponsoring.

Promoting corporate image and increasing goodwill with a variety of target groups are the most important

corporate communications objectives of sponsorship. Another important category of objectives or motives

of sponsorship is corporate hospitality, which can be aimed at own staff, salespersons, and any other

opinion leader or decision maker, ex. Si paga ad essi biglietto a stadio o backstage di concerto. One of the

most important motives in sponsorship is the leveraging effect of the media coverage of the event.

Sponsorship is indeed becoming more and more broadcast driven. 33

TYPES OF SPONSORSHIP



Event-related sport, arts, culture, entertainment.



Cause-related MUSC (Municipal University Social Hospital), transaction-based (the company invests a

pre-specified amount of money in a good cause every time a consumer buys a product), value or societal

marketing (said before), ambush or parasitic marketing (is a planned effort by a company to confuse the

consumer regarding its affiliation status and to associate indirectly with an event in order to gain at least

some of the recognition and benefits associated with being an official sponsor, a company may be a minor

sponsor of an event, but by spending considerable budgets on advertising support it creates the impression

of being an important sponsor).

Event-related sponsorship

The opportunitiea and advantages are multiple. Compared to advertising, it is a cost-effective instrument in

terms of reaching a particular audience. Very specific market segments in terms of demographic and

psychographic characteristics. Event sponsorship is also flexible in achieving different kinds of objectives. It

can increase awareness with actual and potential customers, and improve the company’s image and the

image of the company’s products. It is a tool in relationship building and corporate hospitality, it can be a

platform for advertising campaigns, database building and sampling, and it is efficiently capable of avoiding

advertising bans. On the other hand, event sponsorship and, more particularly, sports sponsorship has a

number of disadvantages and poses a number of threats. Spending large amounts of money on sponsorship

can cause trouble with employees, especially if they are not properly informed about the relevance and

economic justification of the sponsorship strategy. A company sponsoring a sportsman or woman or a team

can alienate fans of the opponent. Furthermore, unlike television sets and newspapers, sportsmen lead

their own lives, and sometimes attract media attention that is not always favourable to the sponsor.

Then some sports, like bull fighting, are unfit for global brand sponsorship because they are culturally

unacceptable in a number of countries.

Obviously, arts and cultural sponsorship in fudamentally different from sports sponsorship. Audiences are

older and more affluent and generally less numerous. The arts attract less media coverage and publicity,

and are more suited to niche market segments than sports. Nevertheless, arts sponsors are believed to

pursue corporate image and relationship and hospitality objectives rather than marketing goals. That

makes arts sponsorship more of a PR tool than a marketing communications instrument.

Broadcast sponsorship

Broadcast (alla radio?) or programme sponsorship is an increasingly important phenomenon. This kind of

sponsorship differs from plain advertising in a medium, for instance tv, in that the sponsor has an influence

on the content of the sponsored programme. Mentioning the name of a sponsor in a television programme

is called billboarding. (product placement involves the sponsor’s product being used during the

programme, and it is deliberately shown to the audience). In-script sponsoring is a specific form of product

placement: the sponsoring brand becomes part of the script in the programme. In prize sponsorship the

sponsoring company pays for awards or prizes and is mentioned in the programme. Of all sponsorship

types, broadcast sponsorship is closest to advertising and, for that reason, is capable of achieving similar

objectives of awareness and image building. Nevertheless, broadcast sponsorship is perceived more

positively by the public. Sponsors are closely tied to the programme itself. In fact, they are physically part of

it. The long-term association between a likeable programme and a sponsor may lead to a very strong and

positive brand image. Finally, broadcast sponsorship, as opposed to advertising, is perceived to benefit

everyone. On the contrary, short term sponsorships are usually as ineffective as ordinary advertising or

sports sponsorship campaigns. 34

Cause-related sponsorship

This kind of sponsorship is a combination of public relations, sales promotions and corporate philanthropy,

based on profit-motivated giving to good causes. MUSH sponsoring comes closest to traditional sponsoring

in that money is given to good causes in return for exposure and image-building linkage with the good

cause sponsored. Transaction-based sponsorship said before. Although the objectives of cause-related

sponsorship are, to a certain extent, the same as those of other sponsorship activity, more emphasis is put

on the impact on corporate or brand image as a result of the link between the company or the brand and

the good cause sponsored. Research has shown that effective cause-related sponsorship programmes can

enhance a company’s reputation and brand image and, at the same time, give customers a convenient way

to contribute to non profit organizations through their buying decisions. Cause-related marketing allows

companies to attract and retain consumers, differentiate themselves from the competition and reach niche

markets. Furthermore, cause-related sponsorship can motivate and engender loyalty in employees.

Ovviamente per fare ste cose impresa deve essere trasparente, integra etc. a hybrid formo of broadcast

and cause-related sponsorship is the organised sponsorship of advocacy advertising on tv.

Ambush marketing

Ambush marketing occurs when an oraganisarion deliberately seeks an association with a particular event

without being an official sponsor of the event to persuade the audience that the ambusher is a legitimate

og major sponsor. Ambush marketers use several techniques, some of which are illegal, more of which are

at least dubious, and some of which are legitimate.

Selection criteria

Selecting sponsorship proposal should be based on a careful comparison using appropriate selection

criteria. A five-step multi attribute decision procedure of sponsorship selection: defining relevant selection

criteria, grading the importance of the selection criteria, scoring each proposal on selection criteria,

summed scores for each proposal, ranking proposals and determining cut-off point. Multiple criteria can be

used to assess and select sponsorship proposals. They can be divided into three categories: sponsored

event or cause, potential promotional spin-off, budget.

BUDGETS

Obviously, it is impossible to provide detailed guidelines as to the required budgets of a sponsorship

campaign. Budgets should depend on the expected effectiveness or return in terms of exposure,

communications effects and sales or market share impact. Assessment criteria for sponsorship proposals,

budget: costs in cash or kind, alternative investment for budget and expected return, budget for supporting

marketing activity, time implications for own staff.

Sponsorship should be supported by other media efforts for different reasons. First, as already been

mentioned, sponsorship has its limitations. Very often brand awareness and brand image are supported,

but other necessary communications and commercial objectives, like building knowledge about the brand

and generating sales, will have to be achieved by means of additional communications support. The more

sponsorship is supported by, and integrated in, the rest of the communications mix, the more effective it

will be.

MEASURING SPONSORSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

Similar to the measurement of the effectiveness of other communications tools, isolating the effect of

sponsorship is complicated by a number of factors.

Sponsorship is to a certain extent similar to advertising in that one of its main objectives is to build brand

awareness with specific target groups. Additionally, and equally important, brands try to improve their

image by linking their name to the event sponsored. Furthermore, in a number of sponsorship projects,

communications results are not only obtained during the sponsored event, but also as a result of their 35

media coverage. Sponsorship research reflects these objectives and characteristics of this communications

mix instrument.

Four types of sponsorship effectiveness can be distinguished: exposure, communications results, sales and

market share, feedback from participating groups. Two types of exposure can be distinguished: the number

of people attending the event and the exposure resulting from the media coverage of the event. Evidently,

frequency of exposure and reach only give an indication of the probability of having contacted parts of the

target group, but nothing about the actual number of contacts, let alone of their quality or impact.

Communications results can also be measured. In this respect, sponsorship campaign effectiveness are very

similar to the advertising campaing: brand awareness, correct sponsor attribution and the effect on the

image of the sponsored event and the sponsoring brand can be measures. Besides increasing brand

awareness, associating the brand with the sponsored event is the most important objective of a sponsoring

campaign. As a result, measuring the percentage of the target group able to attribute correctly the name of

the sponsoring brand to an event is one of the most important measures of sponsorship effectiveness. The

effectiveness of sponsorship can also be conceptualized by means of the Persuasive Impact Equation =

strength of the link x duration of the link (gratitude felt due to the link + perceptual change due to the link).

The link is between the sponsor and the sponsee.

Although increasing sales and market share is not the primary objective of sponsorship, its long-term

affactiveness can also be assessed by estimating the sponsorship’s commercial impact. Finally, sponsorship

effectiveness can also be measured on the basis of the feedback from participating groups

See summary.

CAP.9 – ADVERTISING RESEARCH

STRATEGIC ADVERTISING PLANNING AND THE ROLE OF RESEARCH

Advertising research is used