The Spillover of Brand Equity within a Corporate

Sponsorship Portfolio

Joe Cobbs

Northern Kentucky University

Mark Groza

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Outline

Research Motivation

Theoretical Background

Hypotheses

Experimental Study

Discussion and Implications

Research Motivation

Corporate Sponsorship

“Provision of assistance either financial or in kind to an activity by a commercial organization for the purpose of achieving commercial objectives” – Meenaghan ’83

Top objective: Brand awareness & image enhancement through association (Thjømøe et al. 2002; Meenaghan & Shipley 1999)

Do not exist in isolation (Farrelly & Quester 2003; Ruth & Simonin 2003)

Literature & Theory

Brand Associations

Image transfer (Gwinner & Eaton, 1999; McCracken, 1989; Meenaghan 2001)

◦ Celebrity Endorser Endorsed firm◦ Sponsored event Sponsoring firm◦ Sponsored organization Sponsoring firm

Brand Alliances

(Lebar et al. 2005; Rao et al. 1999)

Associative Network Model

?

Hypotheses

H1: Perceptions of BE of particular sponsor are positively influenced by BE of other brands within common portfolio

H2: Consumers’ purchase intentions (PI) for a particular sponsoring brand are positively influenced by BE of other brands within common portfolio

Experimental Design

160 subjects at two universities

2 sponsorship portfolio conditions ◦HIGH brand equity◦LOW brand equity

4 product categories

Low High

Lodging: MarriottMarriott

Auto: Dodge ToyotaDiscount Retailer: K-Mart Target Credit Card: Discover Visa

Experimental Stimuli

Results

Validated Likert scale questionnaire◦Brand equity◦Purchase intentions◦Identification

Manipulation checks

No main effect of sport league

ANOVA compared Marriott’s BE/PI between HIGH and LOW conditions

Results

AVOVA Results

H1: Brand Equityα = .891

H2: Purchase Intentα = .941

High Brand Equity Portfolio Condition

31.64(5.52)

15.19(3.59)

Low Brand Equity Portfolio Condition

29.51(5.63)

14.37(3.65)

F(1,159)=5.87P=.017

F(1,159)=2.04P=.155

Limitations & Future Research

Context specific

Field experiments

Holistic perspective of sponsorship portfolio◦Map primary and secondary

associations◦Potential network effects