Exposé

Assessing the effectiveness of Athletes Sponsorship through brand

awareness and brand recall

Submitted by Benoit Jagot

European Master in Business Studies

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Abstract

Title: “Assessing the effectiveness of Athletes Sponsorship through brand

awareness and brand recall”

Keywords: Athlete’s sponsorship, Sponsor, Sponsorship, Brand awareness, Brand recall, Aided

brand recall, Sponsor fit, image fit, Involvement, Country of origin, patriotism, Visibility

Background and Purpose: Sponsorship is a field that has been researched by a lot of scholars

twenty years ago. The researches then slowed down for about ten years and is restarting to be

thoroughly studied now. Reasons may be the increased medialization of sport, the rise in

popularity of sports or new sports but especially the change in consumers’ mind. Consumers

nowadays want something else than to simply watch sports, they want a show. Some gaps have

been left in the literature by scholars, and this thesis is here to try to fill some of it. The athlete’s

personal sponsor is something that has not been research in terms of brand awareness and brand

recall. Therefore, every theories advanced in the field of sponsorship have not been proven on

this specific topic. In addition to that, the impact of nationality on sponsors’ awareness and brand

recall has been completely left out. Finally, sponsor’s visibility in the sense that some places on

the athlete are better to be seen than others has not been researched either. These are the main

points this thesis will be investigating.

Method: Using a quantitative approach three questionnaires will be distributed online to alpine

skiing viewers. In total, the cumulative answers of these surveys should amount for at least 1152

respondents.

Conclusion: At the end of this study, it is expected to prove that previous theories advanced in

the sponsorship’s field are applicable to the athlete’s personal sponsors but also that country of

origin plays a role on which sponsors viewers know and will recall. It is also expected to lead the

path for further research on the sponsor’s visibility on the athlete’s body.

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Table of Contents

I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 6

II. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses ............................................................................... 8

II.1. Sponsorship Definition .................................................................................................... 8

II.2. Reasons and Advantages of Sponsorship ........................................................................ 8

II.3. The situation of sponsorship today .................................................................................. 9

II.4. The different type of sport sponsorship ......................................................................... 10

II.4.A. Federation sponsorship .............................................................................................. 10

II.4.B. Team sponsorship ....................................................................................................... 11

II.4.C. Athlete sponsorship .................................................................................................... 12

II.5. Physical attractiveness ................................................................................................... 13

II.6. Image transfer ................................................................................................................ 13

II.7. Memory and Time .......................................................................................................... 15

II.8. Athlete sponsor fit .......................................................................................................... 17

II.9. Involvement and fans commitment ................................................................................ 18

II.10. Country of origin and brand recall ............................................................................... 20

II.11. Sponsor visibility ......................................................................................................... 21

III. Literature review ................................................................................................................ 23

IV. Study Framework ............................................................................................................... 32

IV.1. Problem Statement ....................................................................................................... 32

IV.2. Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 32

IV.3. Research question and sub questions coupled with hypotheses ................................... 32

V. Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 33

V.1. Sample and context of the survey .................................................................................. 33

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V.2. Settings .......................................................................................................................... 36

VI. Overview of chapters ......................................................................................................... 37

VII. Timeline ............................................................................................................................. 39

VIII. References ...................................................................................................................... 40

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List of figures

Table 1 literature review sponsorship ........................................................................................... 24

Table 2 literature review: physical attractiveness and image transfer .......................................... 26

Table 3literature review: Memory and time ................................................................................. 28

Table 4literature review: country of origin and sponsor visibility ............................................... 29

Table 5literature review: athlete sponsor fit ................................................................................. 31

Table 6 Sample size ...................................................................................................................... 34

Table 7 Race calendar .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 8 Timeline ........................................................................................................................... 39

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I. Introduction

The aim of this research is to assess the effectiveness in terms of awareness and brand recall of

athlete sponsorship. Indeed, the outcome of sponsorship is something that has been overlooked by

many companies, in the sense that very few of them check what comes out of it (Thjømøe, Olson,

& Brønn, 2002); (Cornwell & Maignan, 1998). To build upon that, 25 brands sponsoring alpine

skiers have been contacted in the aim of spreading even more the questionnaire. They would have

gotten the thesis and all the data for free in exchange of them sharing the questionnaire. None of

them has replied so far so it may be that they are not interested by checking the outcome of their

sponsorship at all. Scholars on the other hand have been very prolific in the sponsorship domain

but none of them has addressed the issue of brand awareness and brand recall of the sponsors

sponsoring athletes. The effectiveness has been checked but on sponsors sponsoring either an

event, a sport or a team but not the personal sponsors of an athlete and most of the articles published

on that matter are old (Cornwell, Maignan, & Irwin, 1997) ; (Cornwell et al., 1997) ; (Dees,

Bennett, & Ferreira, 2010) ; (Quester & Farrelly, 1998) ; (Lardinoit & Derbaix, 2001) ; (Javalgi,

Traylor, Gross, & Lampman, 1994) ; (d'Astous & Bitz, 1995) ; (Cornwell & Maignan, 1998) ;

(Chavanat, Martinent, & Ferrand, 2009). Which means that most of the theories advanced and

proven in the field have not been proven true for athletes and that the ones who have been proven

for sports or team or event may have changed in ten or twenty years since they were written. Only

(Grohs, Wagner, & Vsetecka, 2004) have written about the sport of alpine skiing twelve years ago

and it was about the sponsors sponsoring the event and not in any case the sponsors seen on the

athlete. This was the only article published with a focus on alpine skiing. In addition to that, no

scholars have written about the impact nationality has on the brand awareness and brand recall.

Alpine skiing has been the sport chosen, because alpine skiers have all numerous sponsors that

you can see on their body. The number or brands that can be seen on an athlete can range from 7

to 15, which is a lot on a human being. For that reason, it made sense to test the brand awareness

and brand recall on sponsored athletes who had a lot of sponsors and not only a few like swimmers

or gymnasts. Because, if most of the respondents managed to recall all the sponsors then it is not

possible to know how many they can truly remember. With alpine skiers, the number of different

sponsors that can be seen on a single race is probably around 200 different sponsors this is therefore

impossible for anyone to remember them all. (Since there are on average about 80 racers at a world

cup, 60 of them will have different sponsors on the front of their helmet. That is already 60 different

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sponsors. There are about 5 sponsors on each national suits, and there are more than 20 nation

represented. This make 100 different brands. Plus the pole brands (10), the ski boots brand and the

skis (14), the gloves (10) and the sponsors sponsoring the event. (Personal communication,

October 20, 2016)

In other words, the viewers are exposed to an incredible number of brands but what if they didn’t

see any?

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II. Theoretical Background & Hypotheses

II.1. Sponsorship Definition

Sponsorship is one area of marketing that is the most quickly growing, it has been said that it is

among the strongest mean of communication (Skildum-Reid & Grey, 2014).

Sponsorship can be qualified as "an investment, in cash or in kind, in an activity, in return for

access to the exploitable commercial potential associated with that activity" (Meenaghan, 1991,

p.36). In other words, it signifies that the support is earned for the sport entity either or both;

financially and in kind. This support is needed to enhance the quality of the sponsored in any

imaginable ways. In exchange, the sponsoring company obtains appreciable and non-appreciable

perks of being identified with that sport, event or athlete (Chen & Zhang, 2011).

(Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2014) have defined sponsorship as "the acquisition of rights to affiliate

or directly associate with a product or event for the purpose of deriving benefits related to that

affiliation or association"(p.254). Even if Sponsorship and advertising are both forms of

promotion, sponsorship differs because the creative message is not overseen by the sponsor. It

may, therefore, offer less control but offers other benefices (Javalgi et al., 1994).

II.2. Reasons and Advantages of Sponsorship

Until twenty-five years ago, media coverage and brand exposure were the principal reasons for

companies to engage into sport sponsoring. But it turned out that the benefits from it were very

weak if measurable at all. From this discovery, sponsorship objectives for the managers changed

to matters related to consumer behavior. The main reason nowadays to engage in sponsorship

according to recent surveys in Canada, Great Britain and Germany is to boost company's image

and company's brand awareness (Grohs et al., 2004, p. 120).

Sports can overcome and connect people, no matter their religion, nationality, social category and

culture. For this reason, one advantage for a brand to be associated with a sport is to overcome

cultural barriers (Cousens, Babiak, & Bradish, 2006).

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Sponsorship can increase brand awareness and improve the brand image (Apostolopoulou &

Papadimitriou, 2004). According to (Keller, 1993), brand awareness consist of brand recognition

and brand recall. Sponsorship also opens the door to a company to become involved with a certain

community and to access new markets. Sponsoring has also the capacity to generate sales and to

obtain market shares thanks to brand loyalty. In addition, it protects the brand against competitors

and to gain hospitality opportunities (Apostolopoulou & Papadimitriou, 2004). (Chadwick & Des

Thwaites, 2004) discovered that the main incentives to attract companies into sponsoring deals

are; the chance to promote the company’s image, for a media coverage opportunity and grow its

awareness. But also the chance to turn event spectators into customers of the brand. (Barros &

Silvestre, 2006) pointed out other benefices of sponsorship, for them, it can also help companies

for hiring employees and improve the morale of its current one. They also agree that the goal for

companies through sponsorship is to set themselves apart from competitors and to drive

consumer’s preference towards the brand’s product. Sponsorship gives the opportunity for

companies to improve their general corporate communication. More precisely, it can improve their

image, their brand awareness thus in overall enhance their corporate identity (Meenaghan, 1991).

Sponsorship communication can have an enticing impact if shoppers see that showcasing through

a specific event or sportsmen is a gentler or less monetarily one-sided approach than the more

conventional one-route advertising from vender to purchaser, even in circumstances where the

sponsorship affiliation is publicized through mainstream media (Quester & Farrelly, 1998).

It may also improve brand identity. Sponsoring an event may be for some brand a way to work on

its image while benefiting from an exclusivity selling deal. No other brands from competitors

would be sold. This beside bringing some revenues can really develop brand awareness and the

brand image because the brand's product would now be associated in the mind of the consumer to

the event it has sponsored (Meenaghan, 1991).

II.3. The situation of sponsorship today

Sponsorship expenditure in the categories of sports, entertainment, festival, music, charity and arts

has grown drastically over the last ten years, $60.2billions have already been spent on sponsorship

in 2016. For comparison, $57.5billions were spent in 2015 and $37.9 in 2007. Even more

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impressive, sponsorship spendings have been multiplied by almost five in a twenty-year span

(Statista, 2016).

As the amount of money spent is multiplying, the cost of sponsorship is increasing each year for

marketers. This is partly due to the sponsorship rights growing sharply but mostly because

marketers can eventually spend ten times the amount spent on sponsorship rights to leverage their

investment. Advertising is the best way to leverage sponsorship investment but it comes at a very

high price. (Lardinoit & Derbaix, 2001). This leverage can be TV advertisement where 30 seconds

of advertising during the soccer European championship final on M6 (French channel) had a cost

of €270 000. This price would go up to €320 000 if the advertising was during the prolongation.

(Baptiste Langlois, 2016). This already very high price is nothing compared to the most expensive

sporting event: The Super Bowl. For a 30 seconds commercial, brands had to pay up to $5 million

(Benjamin Snyder, 2016).

With all that money spent on sponsorship and advertisement to leverage the investment, one could

expect that companies would check the outcomes of such spending. However, (Thjømøe et al.,

2002) found out that only 33.3% of the companies who sponsored with the aim to increase their

sales checked if the objective was met or not. This mean only 33.3% measured their turnover and

sales before and after the event. More shocking, is that only 15.4% of the companies who had for

goal to increase their brand awareness measure the outcome of it. The same conclusion can be

drawn for the companies who sponsored to improve their image where only 15.6% of those firms

measured if they had reached their goal or not. Similar findings were found by (Cornwell

& Maignan, 1998) 14 years before. Related to that point, no sponsors that have been contacted in

the scope of this thesis ever replied to check for free the data that had been gathered about them

and to get some insights.

II.4. The different type of sport sponsorship

II.4.A. Federation sponsorship

It is possible to enter into a sponsorship agreement with federations or leagues but it is important

to respect the image fit. Image congruency between the brand and the sport is decisive, affinity is

key to get some results (Marischler, 2008).

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The deal for the sponsor side is the same: money and or material support. The counterpart for the

sponsor is very interesting because it gives to the brand the rights to market (on TV commercials,

on the packaging) its products as an official sponsor of the federation. This licensing right gives to

the brand an edge on its competitors and a plus on its products (Marischler, 2008).

Federation sponsoring gives to the brand little control on the federation's athlete but diminishes

the risks taken by the sponsor as it is not only relying on the athlete’s image but on the image of

the federation. However, as the risks are lower so are the rewards due to the fact that the brand

cannot directly enjoy the image of the athletes (Marischler, 2008).

II.4.B. Team sponsorship

Team sponsorship for the sponsor not only include money but other forms of compensations in

nature. The sponsor may finance equipment, cars or buses and very often the training camps.

Supporting an international team is obviously costlier but allows to reach a bigger target than a

local team. The advantages for the brand are that it is seen on the outfit of the team (jersey, jackets,

sweatpants, shorts and other clothing), on some billboards during events and on their buses that

the sponsor may have put at the disposition of the team. These outfits are worn by several

individuals on TV hence a better coverage as the sponsoring brand is seen on every members of

the federation. Another advantage is that the sponsor may ask in return the athletes to be involved

in the brand promotion and to attend autograph session (Marischler, 2008).

The risks for the sponsors are smaller than if it was sponsoring a single athlete as players are

replaceable whereas the single athlete if injured is out. It also decreases the risk of having its image

suffer from the performances as one single athlete poorly performing is less obvious in a group

and the viewers will remember mostly the overall team level. Lastly, the sponsor is not only seen

on players but also on the coaches, staff and everyone involved in the team. This account for a lot

of spokespersons and so a lot of promotion (Marischler, 2008).

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II.4.C. Athlete sponsorship

In counterpart of money or materials such as cars, textiles, equipment the athlete must become an

advertising icon on commercials, on billboards or any other media that the sponsor wants to use

or deem necessary. In addition to that, the athlete must wear the sponsor's logo on its equipment,

during press conferences and at the autograph session she/he may have to attend for the brand. For

the company, the athlete becomes an enhanced spokesperson and promotes the brand through its

notoriety and results. Athletes also bring credibility by endorsing the product, they also give to it

a testimonial of quality. The athletes create a lot of promotion by using the product and when using

it in competition bring what has been called proof sponsoring (Marischler, 2008).

The traits of the athlete, to some extend rub off to the brand, that is the reason why some company

uses athletes to change their brand image in the consumer's mind. Athletes serve as an example,

as a role model. They inspire spectators and consumers and represents ideals that can be reached.

This is very important as anyone can identify itself with the athlete and can try to be like her/him

(Marischler, 2008).

Sponsoring athletes has its perks but is also very risky as there are some downsides from athlete's

sponsorship to the company. The brand of the company may be not seen at all if the athlete gets

injured for example. The company's image is linked to the athlete's image, therefore, any scandals

(drunk driving, drugs, doping, violence) may affect negatively the sponsor's image. In other words,

if the athlete is going down in the news or in people's mind, the brand will follow. The sponsor is

also dependent on the athlete's performance which is a big risk as nothing is certain in sports and

many things can happen (Marischler, 2008).

(Walliser, 2010) thinks that integrating sponsorship into the communication mix would decrease

those risks. For example, in the case of a scandal or of a poor performance of the sponsored athlete,

advertising may help. The company should try to make the public thanks to advertisement to

associate the sponsor with the sport's characteristics and not with what just happened. The most

important is not to stay passive but on the contrary to react: to redirect the attention and to replace

its involvement.

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According to Marischler, the best solution for companies is to sponsor athlete on a short period of

time because it is very rare for an athlete to manage to perform at her/his best for a long period of

time and avoid scandals (Marischler, 2008).

II.5. Physical attractiveness

(Aristotle) said thousands of years ago “Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of

introduction” (n.d).

Related to this and the athlete’s topic seen above, (Kahle & Homer, 1985) have demonstrated a

link between attractiveness and brand recall. The author has demonstrated that brand recall results

were better for the persons exposed to an attractive celebrity rather than an unattractive one. This

tendency is also confirmed for purchase intention; viewers were likelier to buy a product endorsed

by someone physically appealing

On that very topic and related on the research that will follow, alpine skiers have been voted as the

professionals with the nicest butt. Indeed, (Deni Kirkova, 2013) has released a survey with around

2000 participants in which those respondents were asked to ranked the professionals with the nicest

bottom. In total, 26% of the total respondents placed alpine skiers in first. This research about

sponsors of male alpine skiers will be a good way to also check if physical attractiveness has an

impact or not on brand recall. In other words, if physical attractiveness has an impact on brand

recall women should have an average of brand aided recall higher than five since in the researches

of (Anne, 1992); (Walliser, 1994) about the number of brand respondents could recall while being

helped by some visual help was below 5.

II.6. Image transfer

Contrary to advertising which has “two separate components, a medium and a message, combined

to achieve brand image effect. Sponsorship is different in that both medium and message elements

are not separate, but are inextricably linked” (Meenaghan & Shipley, 1999, p.333).

Image transfer in sports sponsorships is defined as “the transfer of associations attributed to the

sponsored activity to the sponsoring brand" (Grohs et al., 2004, p. 123). Another definition, which

gives to the previously cited definition a better understanding of what is image transfer: “The term

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image transfer is used in marketing literature and sports sponsorship to indicate the sequence by

which a sponsor benefits from the inherent attributes of a sporting event” (Alonso-Dos-Santos,

Vveinhardt, Calabuig-Moreno, & Montoro-Ríos, 2016, p. 79). The objective is to bring out

positive sentiments and dispositions for the sponsoring brand by nearly connecting the sponsor to

an event the spectator praise profoundly (Grohs et al., 2004). A key point for (Keller, 1993)

regarding brand association is that it can only be obtained if the brand is already known by the

consumer before being endorsed by an endorser.

When sponsorship is utilized to build, or change the brand image the procedure is genuinely more

complex than with seeking brand awareness, however, both are unavoidably connected. The

benefits of sponsoring are that every sponsored entity has its own particular identity, epitomizing

an extraordinary arrangement of properties and values in the audience’s view (Meenaghan

& Shipley, 1999).

For (McCracken, 1989), the image transfer is a transfer of meaning. The meaning of the endorser

or what the endorser represents for the consumer is associated with the brand sponsoring it

(McCracken, 1989). Sponsoring athletes brings positive feelings for the brand if the fans like the

athlete. On the contrary, a brand sponsoring an athlete that fans don't like or some fans dislike for

plenty of reasons (this athlete plays for a team they dislike or a team that beat their favorite team)

then the fans position towards the brands sponsoring those disliked athletes will be negative: this

is the domino effect theory (Dalakas & Levin, 2005).

Brand positioning can be partly done using sponsorship, however, it may also occur that the image

transferred is not the one the company had for goal. This means that, before starting any

sponsorship endeavor, managers should check the image that the event or the sports has in their

consumer or potential consumer's mind. If it is aligned with the message the company wants to

pass on it is good if not an inconsistent image can be transferred to the consumers due to a wrong

event or athlete choice. (Gwinner & Eaton, 1999)

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II.7. Memory and Time

Cornwell et al. have identified three factors affecting memory of sponsorship; brand fit (congruent

or incongruent sponsor-event relationship), articulation and direct competitors. Congruent and

incongruent brand make sense, it can be very easy to see the link between a brand and a sport (e.g.,

creatine and bodybuilding) and therefore to connect both together. Whereas in the case of

incongruent sponsorship the link is not obvious (e.g., car oil and soccer). It is in those cases that

articulation plays a crucial role for memory. They define articulation as “the act of explaining the

relationship between entities” (Cornwell, Humphreys, Maguire, Weeks, & Tellegen, 2006, p. 4).

Articulation is the role of marketers who will use packaging, direct marketing, public relations,

promotion, merchandising and advertising to strengthen the link between the event and the sponsor

in people's mind. Because articulation creates and activates connective pathways in memory it

must help and enhance brand recall (Cornwell et al., 2006).

A cognitive limitation seems to exist about spontaneous sponsors recall. This limit that can be

memorized and recalled per spectators unaided is close to two (Troll, 1983). If spectators are

helped (aided recall) the number of sponsors a spectator can remember ranges from 2.28 and 7.78,

the average being below 5(Anne, 1992) ; (Walliser, 1994). Linked to the number of sponsors a

person can recall, (NANOPOULOS & Walliser, 1999) have stated that the longer the event goes

on or repeats itself the more sponsors are spontaneously remembered. It is worth mentioning that

the relationship between time and number of brand remembered is not linear in the sense that both

growths at the same rate but in fact growths in a logarithmic manner (NANOPOULOS & Walliser,

1999). The capacity to recall a brand as part of a team or an event's sponsor is determined by its

amount of exposure during games or events throughout time (Chadwick & Des Thwaites, 2004).

However, (Troll, 1983) has even observed that the number of memorized brands was decreasing

after following an event for an extensive period of time. The influence of time on sponsor recall

has been proven by (Merbold, 1989). The bigger the gap between the sponsor’s exposition at an

event the more the memory recall decreases. To prove this, an experiment at a hockey game had

been done. Measures were taken before the game, during the game and two times after. During the

game, the sponsor recalls augments and reaches its maximum but after two to four weeks the recall

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rate decreases back to the value it was before the game. This means that individual memory about

sponsors tends to fade very quickly (Merbold, 1989).

The individual characteristics influencing spectator’s memory are socio-demographic variables

such as age and gender, but also the involvement in the sponsored event and the feelings felt during

the event. The level of education, the revenue, and the sporting habits do not seem to affect sponsor

memorization (NANOPOULOS & Walliser, 1999). Linked to that, the more the interest for the

sponsored event is and the more the spectators are young the highest the sponsor memorization

rate is. On the contrary, the strongest the feelings felt during the sponsored event are the less the

spectators will recall about the sponsors (Walliser, 1994).

Now that the effects of time on the viewers have been seen it is also important to look at it from a

sponsor’s point of view. The longer a brand has been sponsoring a sport the most likely it is that

the company's goal has shifted from building awareness to building its image (Armstrong, 1988).

The author is stating that companies who are doing sponsorship go through two phases. The first

reason why they have entered their sponsoring deal was to create brand awareness and once the

desired level of brand awareness was reached the company moves to a second phase which is

building its brand image through the sport’s image (Armstrong, 1988). The duration of the

relationship between the two parties can strengthen the brand association or image transfer in the

memory of the consumer (Johar & Pham, 2000).

Seeing a sponsor's name or logo seasons after seasons sponsoring the same event gives numerous

opportunities to the consumer to build upon the meaningfulness of the product-sponsorship

relationship which results in a deeper memory association of the sponsor (Keller, 1993). With

continuity in the exposure, sponsor's credibility grows in the viewer's mind (Benveniste & Piquet,

1988). In some cases, novelty beats longevity. A new sponsor can spark the attention of viewers

who have been watching and following the event time after time, that new sponsor because it is

new to the eye of the viewer may get more interests than the others (Meenaghan, 1983).

From the findings mentioned above it is clear that a lot has been done about brand recall and brand

awareness but all are more than 10 years old and none had a focus on the personal sponsors of the

athlete. Therefore, the following hypothesis can be stated:

H1 Athlete’s sponsor awareness grows during the season.

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II.8. Athlete sponsor fit

Image congruency or sponsor fit has been briefly evoked in the previous chapter as part of a factor

that impacted the memory and thus the recall of the brands. But more precisely, event sponsor fit

occurs when there is a synergy (McDonald, 1991) and similarity (Gwinner, 1997) between the

event and the sponsor.

(Gwinner, 1997) and (McDonald, 1991) agree on the fact that there is two type of sponsor fit, “a

functional fit and an image related fit.”(p.150) The functional fit refers to a “thematic relatedness

between” (p.150) an event and a sponsor. For example, HEAD which is a manufacturer of sports

equipment (tennis, squash, alpine skiing) sponsors an alpine skiing World Cup, the functional

similarity is high.

Image related fit refers to the attributes associated with the brand sponsoring an event and the

attributes associated with an event. Red bull is in this case a very good example. Red Bull being a

manufacturer of energy drinks has placed its products as a product enhancing the brain and the

body for extreme actions. Red Bull is not directly related to the sport in the sense that we don't

need Red Bull to practice it, but Red Bull is related to the image that we have of extreme sport. the

image related fit of red bull in extreme sports is therefore high (Gwinner, 1997).

Brands who are perceived to be linked or to have a congruent image with an event are likelier to

be identified as actual sponsors (Pham & Johar, 2001). It has been proven that a brand that seems

related to the event it sponsors is better remembered, in other words event sponsor fit as a positive

impact on sponsor recall. From the same study, it has been demonstrated that event sponsor fit

has an impact on image transfer (Grohs et al., 2004). Building on this congruency, spectators and

viewers who see a fit between the sponsor and the event are likelier to think that the reasons or

motives of this sponsor are honest and sincere. This perceived sincerity positively impact the

sponsor's image perception and the behavior of the sport consumer which translate into purchase

(Demirel & Erdogmus, 2016).

Linked to the purchase intention, a good sponsor event fit creates spokesperson and give

credibility. When the brand and the sponsored person are related, in other words, if their image fits

together the sponsored becomes an enhanced spokesperson. Indeed, the brand can benefit from the

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athlete expertise and credibility and will be taken therefore more seriously by the consumer or

future consumer. This also creates a better opinion toward the company and its products and most

importantly and higher brand recall (Lynch & Schuler, 1994). In addition to that, when the image

of the endorser and the product's image converge the effectiveness of the advertisement is

increased (Kahle & Homer, 1985). (Cornwell et al., 2006) stated that "congruent sponsors have a

natural memory advantage"(p.3).

However, it has been investigated that a bit of incongruence between a sponsor and the event on

some occasion may be a good thing for the sponsor because the spectators feel intrigued and

interested by this discrepancy which can help the brand recall (Meyers-Levy & Tybout, 1989).

Based on these findings, it seems appropriate to check if those claims stand for the athlete’s

sponsors and thus the following hypotheses can be stated.

H2 More than 50% of the respondent do not know what the sponsor does: remembering the

sponsoring brands lies on the fact that people know the brand.

H3 Brand directly related to the sport will be better remembered and known.

II.9. Involvement and fans commitment

There is no single meaning of involvement. In any case, numerous authors do relate involvement

with the significance, importance or interest that a matter has for one individual. A few authors

characterize involvement as the individual's perceived significance of a matter (a sport, a club, an

event, an athlete, a celebrity) in terms of interest, values, and needs in the sports marketing field

(Beaton, Funk, Ridinger, & Jordan, 2011) (Alonso-Dos-Santos et al., 2016).

Involved fans of a sporting event tend to respond more positively to the sponsorship activities.

Those fans will look for extra information gravitating outside of the event. They are knowledgeable

about numerous topic related to the sporting events, they know about products not yet released,

they also like to test those products and other ones. Very aware of the news linked to the sport they

are supporting they become opinion leaders and are more sensitive to advertising (Alexandris &

Tsiotsou, 2012); (Speed & Thompson, 2000). Involved fans are generally more involved and active

in the social network and social media community related to the matter they are supporting (Dos

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Santos, 2013). Highly involved fans to receive their team related information go on social media,

this afterwards lead to have purchase intentions on the sponsor's products. Very involved fans are

likelier to buy the products from the sponsor sponsoring the team, sport or athlete they praise. In

other words, high involvement translates into purchase intention of the sponsor’s products

(Demirel & Erdogmus, 2016).

In sports, fans are more prone to give careful attention and apply more effort in processing

information (Flynn & Goldsmith, 1993). Consumers and fan with a high level of involvement are

in a situation in which image transfer can occur. Whereas, image transfer do not occur with

consumers and fans with low level of involvement (Alonso-Dos-Santos et al., 2016, p. 84). Fans

because of their high involvement with a matter, tend to do a bigger cognitive effort to process and

remember information. On the contrary for viewers with low involvement the evaluation of the

message relies on affective signals (Shank & Beasley, 1998). For these reasons, fan involvement

is the significant determinant of the probability that the viewer processes the message. Therefore,

measuring the involvement is a crucial point to ameliorate the advertising efficiency (Funk,

Ridinger, & Moorman, 2004).

From the researches of (Cornwell et al., 1997) spectators of a collegiate basketball game had issues

recalling the sponsors and mistaken them with the advertiser. Spectators very involved in the sport,

however, were more likely to recognize the sponsors.

As said above fans are very involved in everything around the sport they are supporting. Using

diverse website to get their news and to be up to speed about results, scores, and analyses. Fans,

due to their high involvement towards a sport are therefore exposed a lot more to commercial

activities since they see it on a multitude of media (Pritchard, Funk, & Alexandris, 2009). With

that being said, it is important to mention that people who identify themselves as big fans with

sponsored event have been observed to have a more positive attitude for the sponsors and are

likelier to recognize and utilize the sponsor's products (Dalakas & Kropp, 2002).

According to these findings and to the statement made by (Pham & Johar, 2001, p. 138) that in

difficult learning conditions (which is the case of alpine skiing), spectators or viewers will most

likely only recall prominent sponsor. Because less prominent sponsors will be harder to retrieve

from memory the following hypothesis can be made:

H4 Only diehard fans will recall which brand is sponsoring which athlete

20

II.10. Country of origin and brand recall

Shirt sponsorship in European Football is growing by 7% per year. The main reason for this year

to year increase is because it has been proven to work quite well for the companies. One example

is with the Bayern Munich when it was sponsored by Opel. (Chadwick & Des Thwaites, 2004,

p. 41) From a survey, "it has been shown that 70% of Germans, 20% of French, 19% of Spanish,

and 9% of British people knew that Opel were the team's sponsors" (Chadwick & Des Thwaites,

2004, p. 41). With this research, Chadwick & Des Thwaites have only touched the surface but

nothing has been proven. From this idea, it could be possible to argue that nationality has an impact

on the brand the viewers remember and can recall. No theory has been written about a sort of

“patriotic” behavior that makes the viewers watching an event where every nation is represented

remember better the sponsors of the racer of his/her nationality better than the other ones. As if,

Americans viewer of a 100m race would better remember the sponsor of Justin Gatlin than the

ones of Usain Bolt. To tie things up in the context of this survey, in alpine skiing things are different

than in track and field or in soccer, the top thirty racers no matter their country of origins are

broadcasted. When you watch a world cup, it doesn’t matter whether you are French or Austrian

you will be watching the same thing. Unlike soccer where you can pick the games you want to

watch or only watch the games your team is playing. However, articles about national pride in

sports have been written (van Hilvoorde, Elling, & Stokvis, 2010) (Evans & Kelley, 2002) but

none take into consideration the sponsors.

The overall top thirty in the discipline of giant slalom was composed last year of 5 Austrians, 2

Americans, 1 Croatian, 1 Finnish, 4 Frenches, 3 Germans, 5 Italians, 4 Norwegian, 1 Slovenian, 1

Swedish, 3 Swiss. A lot of countries are represented in the top thirty even if some are more than

others. Since time of exposure has been proven by (Nanopoulos & Walliser, 1999) to have an

impact on brand awareness and sponsors recall the logical things to assume is that viewers will

know more about the Austrians or the Italians than for the French or the Americans. To emphasize

this even more, some statistic have been released, since February 2012 there has been only 6

different winners out of the 37 giant slalom raced. The repartition of the victories goes like this:

14 victories for the American Ted Ligety (who hasn’t won since a year because he was injured),

13 victories for the Austrian Marcel Hirscher who is the only skier who has ever won the overall

21

world cup 5 times in a row, 7 victories for the French Alexis Pinturault and lastly one victory each

for the Norwegian Henrick Kristoffersen, the French Thomas Fanara and the German Felix

Neureuther. Based on this, it seems clear that the skiers the best known in terms of sponsors should

be the Austrians and especially Marcel Hirscher (Patrick Lafayette, 2016).

It is however not what is being advanced here. What is being claimed here is that even if the

viewers from every nation are seeing the same event on TV, nationality plays a role in which the

viewers will recall better the sponsors of their national athletes rather than the ones from athletes

from other country even if they are more successful.

H5 The country viewers are from, will impact the sponsors they can recall and know.

H6 Viewers will better know and recall sponsors sponsoring their national athlete

II.11. Sponsor visibility

Surprisingly and for some unknown reasons there is nothing regarding sponsors visibility. No

information or data could be found about where for example in a stadium it was the best to be for

a sponsor. Not to mention on athletes, no scholars have given a thought about where on an athlete’s

body it is the best to be seen. The main sponsor is always present on the cap or hat of the athlete

therefore it makes sense to assume that it is the best spot for them. In alpine skiing, the sponsor is

on the front of the helmet and on the hat or cap later. But perhaps a sponsor on the chest could be

better remembered as they are usually bigger. In the case of alpine skiing, the sponsor on the bib

is by far the biggest one, and is seen on every racer of the event. There is unfortunately no answer

so far about the brand recall results or brand awareness linked to the location of the sponsor. But

it seems like some serious thought should be given about this when sponsoring an athlete or a

team.

Advertising and sponsoring are not far from each other. In order to get some answers for the case

of sponsorship theories made in the advertisement field could to some extend be applied or at

least looked at to have a beginning of information.

(Janiszewski, 1998) has proven that the size of the add had a strong impact on whether or not the

consumer would notice the product. An packaging with colors and bold writing would be better

noticed than a packaging with no colors or with no bold writing (Pieters & Warlop, 1999).

22

Lastly, the center is the part the most looked at whereas the right corner is the least. This last data

come from an experiment with a projector projecting the image on a board of one meter by one

meter on which were placed advertisements. Viewers were at a distance of two meters. (Russo &

Leclerc, 1994). This type of setting looks like the setting in which viewers are when looking at

the television.

Therefore, based on those eye tracking theories about advertisement, it seems acceptable to

assume that some sponsors on specific piece of equipment may be better seen because of the size

(Janiszewski, 1998), the use of colors or specific writing (Pieters & Warlop, 1999). However, no

eye tracking experiments about where or what viewers are looking at on athletes has been done.

So, these are just some potential reasons why some sponsors seen on specific pieces of equipment

may be better seen.

H7 Sponsors seen on some specific piece of equipment will be better remembered or known

than others.

23

III. Literature review

These are just partial lists of all the resources

Introduction: Sponsorship

Author Date Title Place of

publication

In the

quality

list

Abstract Relevant content

Meenaghan 1991 The role of sponsorship in

the marketing

communications mix

International

journal of

advertising

YES def

reasons to do sponsorship

Mullin, Hardy

and Sutton

2014

Human Kinetics.

Sport

Marketing 4th

Edition

No def

Grohs, Wagner

and Vsetecka

2004 Assessing the effectiveness

of sport sponsorships-an

empirical examination

Schmalenbach

Business

Review

YES Reasons to engage in

sponsorship now and then

Cousens,

Babiak and

Bradish

2006 Beyond sponsorship: Re-

framing corporate-sport

relationships

Sport

Management

Review

YES Sports can overcome

cultural barriers

Apostolopoulou

and

Papadimitriou

2004 Welcome home:

Motivations and objectives

of the 2004 Grand National

Olympic sponsors

Sport

Marketing

Quarterly

No Reasons for companies to

do sponsorship

Keller, K. L 1993 Conceptualizing, measuring,

and managing customer-

based brand equity

The Journal

of Marketing

YES

Quester and

Farrelly

1998 Brand association and

memory decay effects of

sponsorship: the case of the

Australian Formula One

Grand Prix

Journal of

Product &

Brand

Management

YES

24

Lardinoit et

Derbaix

2001 Sponsorship and recall of

sponsors. Psychology and

Marketing

Psychology

and

Marketing

YES Statement about the

sponsorship's situation

Marischler 2008 Le sponsoring sportif de

l'UEFA EURO 2008

Uniwien No Definition of

- Federation sponsorship

- Team Sponsorship

- Athlete Sponsorship

Table 1 literature

review

sponsorship

25

Theoretical Background: Physical Attractiveness and Image Transfer sections

Author Date Title Place of

publication

In the

quality

list

Relevant content

Kahle and

Homer

1985 Physical attractiveness of the

celebrity endorser: A social

adaptation perspective

Journal of

consumer

research

YES What physical

attractiveness

impacts

Anne, F 1992 La mesure de l'efficacité du

sponsoring

Revue

française du

marketing

NO Mean of

comparison for the

first hypothesis

Walliser 1994 Les déterminants de la

mémorisation des sponsors

Revue

française du

marketing

NO Mean of

comparison for the

first hypothesis H1

Grohs,

Wagner and

Vsetecka

2004 Assessing the effectiveness

of sport sponsorships-an

empirical examination

Schmalenbach

Business

Review

YES Definition of

image transfer

Alonso dos

Santos et al.

2016 Involvement and Image

Transfer in Sports

Sponsorship

Engineering

Economics

NO Complement of the

definition

Meenaghan

and Shipley

1999 Media effect in commercial

sponsorship

European

Journal of

Marketing

YES -Comparison with

advertisement

- benefits of

sponsorship for

image transfer

McCracken 1989 Who is the celebrity

endorser? Cultural

foundations of the

endorsement process

Journal of

consumer

research,

YES Image transfer is a

transfer of

meaning

Dalakas and

Levin

2005 the balance theory domino:

How sponsorships may elicit

negative consumer attitudes

NA-Advances

in Consumer

Research

YES The domino effect

theory: negative

image transfer

26

Gwinner

and Eaton

1999 Building brand image

through event sponsorship:

The role of image transfer

Journal of

advertising

YES Picking the right

partner to transfer

the desired image

Table 2 literature review: physical attractiveness and image transfer

27

Theoretical background: Memory and time

Author Date Title Place of publication Abstract Relevant content

Cornwell et

al.

2006 Sponsorship-linked

marketing: The role

of articulation in

memory

Journal of consumer

research

Factors influencing brand recall

and definition of some key terms

Anne, F 1992 La mesure de

l'efficacité du

sponsoring

Revue française du

marketing

Number of sponsors that can be

recalled with and without help

Walliser 1994 Les déterminants de

la mémorisation des

sponsors

Revue française du

marketing

Number of sponsors that can be

recalled with and without help

Intense feelings can disrupt the

learning process

Troll 1983 Wirkung von

Bandenwerbung-

Bericht über ein

Pilotprojekt

Jahrbuch der Absatz-

und

Verbraucherforschung

Cognitive limitation

Brand recall decreases after

following an event for an

extensive period of time

Nanopoulos

and

Walliser

1999 Les effets durables de

la Coupe du Monde

de football en terme

de parrainage

The more the event repeats itself

with the same sponsor the bigger

the brand recall

Keller, K. L 1993 Conceptualizing,

measuring, and

managing customer-

based brand equity

the Journal of

Marketing

Arguments that brand recall

grows over time to support the

second hypothesis

Chadwick

& Des

Thwaites

2004 Advances in the

management of sport

sponsorship: fact or

fiction? Evidence

from English

professional soccer

Journal of General

Management

Capacity to recall brands is

determined by the amount of

exposure

28

(Johar

& Pham,

2000)

2000 Relatedness,

prominence, and

constructive sponsor

identification

Advertising & Society

Review

The duration of the relationship

between sponsor and sponsorsed

can strengthen the brand

association and the image

transfer.

Table 3literature review: Memory and time

Theoretical background: Country of origin and sponsor visibility

Author Date Title Place of

publication

In the

quality

list

Abstract Relevant content

Chadwick and Des

Thwaites

2004 Advances in the

management of

sport sponsorship:

fact or fiction?

Evidence from

English

professional soccer

Journal of

General

Management

YES Example about the European

football

Van Hilvoorde,

Elling, & Stokvis

2010 How to influence

national pride? The

Olympic medal

index as a unifying

narrative

International

review for

the

sociology of

sport

NO To prove there is notthing

exactly about this topic

Evans & Kelley 2002 National pride in

the developed

world: Survey data

from 24 nations

International

Journal of

Public

Opinion

Research

YES To prove there is notthing

exactly about this topic

Nanopoulos

& Walliser

1999 Time of exposure has an

impact on brand awareness

and brand recall

29

Patrick Lafayette 2016 La stat qui parle:

Le week-end de

Sölden revisité en

chiffres

Ski chrono NO Statistic about alpine skiing

and the different winners.

Janiszewski

1998 The influence of

display

characteristics on

visual exploratory

search behavior

Journal of

consumer

research

YES Size has an impact for

consumer to notice it

Pieters & Warlop 1999 Visual attention

during brand

choice: The impact

of time pressure

and task

motivation

International

Journal of

Research in

Marketing

YES Colors have more impact

than no colors for consumer

to notice it.

Russo & Leclerc 1998 An eye-fixation

analysis of choice

processes for

consumer

nondurables

Journal of

consumer

research

YES Experiment

Table 4literature review: country of origin and sponsor visibility

30

Theoretical background: Athlete sponsor fit

Author Date Title Place of

publication

In the

quality

list

Abstract Relevant content

McDonald 1991 Sponsorship and

the image of the

sponsor

European

Journal of

Marketing

YES Definition + functional fit

and image related fit

Gwinner 1997 A model of image

creation and image

transfer in event

sponsorship

International

Marketing

Review

YES Definition + functional fit

and image related fit

Pham & Johar 2001 Market

prominence biases

in sponsor

identification:

Processes and

consequentiality

Psychology

and

Marketing

YES Image congruency : sponsor

likelier to be remembered

Demirel &

Erdogmus,

2016 The impacts of

fans’ sincerity

perceptions and

social media usage

on attitude toward

sponsor

Sport,

Business and

Management:

An

International

Journal

NO Sincerity positvely impacts

the sponsor’s image

perception and provoque

purchase intention

Lynch &

Schuler

1994 The matchup effect

of spokesperson

and product

congruency: A

schema theory

interpretation

Psychology

& Marketing

YES Athletes as spokesperson

31

Kahle & Homer 1985 Physical

attractiveness of

the celebrity

endorser: A social

adaptation

perspective

Journal of

consumer

research

YES If endorser and product’s

image converge the

effectiveness of the

advertisement is increased

Cornwell et al. 2006 Sponsorship-linked

marketing: The

role of articulation

in memory

Journal of

consumer

research

YES Congruent sponsors have

natural memory advantage

Meyers-Levy &

Tybout

1989 Schema congruity

as a basis for

product evaluation

Journal of

consumer

research

YES A little bit of incongruency in

some cases can be a good

thing because viewers feel

intrigued thus helping brand

recall

Table 5literature review: athlete sponsor fit

32

IV. Study Framework

IV.1. Problem Statement

Do we remember the sponsors sponsoring an athlete at a major sportive event?

IV.2. Objectives

Assessing the effectiveness in terms of awareness and brand recall of athlete sponsorship.

Proving that country of origin impacts the sponsors viewers know and can recall.

Leading the path on sponsors’ visibility on athlete’s body.

IV.3. Research question and sub questions coupled with hypotheses

Do spectators or viewers of a sportive event notice the sponsors and remember them?

Can sponsor awareness grow over time?

H1: Brand awareness grows over time (during the season)

Do viewers recall the sponsoring brand better if they know what it does?

H2 More than 50% of the respondent do not know what really does the sponsor

(remembering the sponsoring brands lies on the fact that people know the brand)

Do viewers recall the sponsoring brand better if it is related to the sport?

H3: Brand directly related to the sport will be better remembered and known

Is brand recall as high as the viewer’s involvement in the sport?

H4 only diehard fans will recall which brand is sponsoring which athlete

Do viewers better remember sponsors sponsoring athletes from their home country?

H5 The country the viewers are from will impact the sponsors they can recall and know

H6 Viewers will better recall sponsors sponsoring athletes from their own country.

Which are the best place to be seen on athletes for a sponsor?

H7 Sponsors seen on some specific piece of equipment will be better remembered or

known than others

33

V. Methodology

V.1. Sample and context of the survey

The survey was distributed through Facebook. This questionnaire could not be distributed face to

face because it would have meant driving or flying to each world cup and it was not feasible.

Lastly, Facebook and emails allowed to have answers from Fans but also people that are not only

highly involved in ski racing which was important for the survey. Going to the world cup would

have meant having answers from mostly highly committed ski fans. It will also allow the results

to have respondents from different countries such as: Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,

Norway, Sweden, USA and hopefully some other nation.

The questionnaire has not been designed to see if there was any differences in terms of sponsor's

recall due to age or gender because several authors have proven that there was little or no

correlation between those factors and the sponsor's recall (Cornwell et al., 1997) Stolar (1993). In

addition to that it has been mentioned that there was no significant impact between females and

males capabilities to recognize as many sponsors during the Olympic game (Stotlar, 1992).

Same with Quester, who found no differences between gender and also the age on the respondent

(Quester & Farrelly, 1998). Nevertheless, a question about gender will be asked in the

questionnaire to see if, this particular point is confirmed for this topic and this sport.

The total TV audience for alpine skiing is approximately 3billion viewers according to the FIS

(International Ski Federation) (Anna Guarnerio, 2015). For this reason and the size of the sample

according to my calculation should be of 384 respondents to have a confidence level of 95% and

a confidence interval of 5.

However, the best scenario would be try to get around 484 responses for each questionnaire so that

in case some questionnaires are wrong or the data cannot be used 384 correct answer remain.

34

Table 6 Sample size (The Survey System)

Questionnaire to be ready before the end of the race day

In total, three surveys will be done to test and try to prove my hypotheses. Each questionnaire will

be online for seven days.

First questionnaire will be ready by the 22nd of October to be administrated after the first alpine

skiing men world cup on that day. The women will have raced the day before, which should also

increase the brand awareness and help the sponsor’s recall of some brands. The second

questionnaire will be administrated after the second giant slalom at Beaver Creek (USA) on the 4th

of December. In the meantime, 11 races will have taken place (5 Men and 6 Women) on those men

races some of the same contenders than on the giant slalom event will be racing. This should

normally help increase the sponsors awareness and brand recall because for every event they have

the same sponsors. As for the women, the national sponsors seen on their jacket and ski suits are

the same than the men which in other words increases even more the viewer exposure to sponsor

35

and should increase brand awareness and sponsors recall as well. The third questionnaire will occur

after the third men giant slalom, between the second giant slalom and the third one no races will

have taken place but there will be a break of six days.

Figure 1Race calendar (Fis ski, 2016)

V.2. Settings

This questionnaire will be composed of 50 questions devided in 6 main parts (developed below).

Each part will have the same questions three times because there will be three athletes every time.

It will be conceived on Sphinx IQ2 which is the desktop version of the software Sphinx. Answering

the questionnaire will take about 5 minutes per participants.

Part1: Sponsor on the front of the helmet (X3 because it will be for three athletes)

Recognize the sponsor of the athlete (sponsor’s logo are included)

Knowledge about the sponsor the respondent has selected

Relatedness with the sport

Part 2: Sponsors on the suits (X3)

Recognize the sponsor of the athlete’s suit (sponsor’s logo are included)

Knowledge about one of the brand on the suit

Relatedness with the sport

Part3: Helmet sponsor (X3)

Select the right helmet brand

Part4: Ski sponsors (X3)

Select the right ski brand for the three athletes

Part5: Involvement

Trying to pin point the level of involvement of each respondent

Part6: Personal data

Country of origin

Title 37

VI. Overview of chapters

Include the parts of the structure that will be used from the expose plus the parts that will be in the

final thesis

Abstract

Keywords

Background

Purpose

List of figures

Introduction

Theoretical Background

Sponsorship Definition

Reasons and Advantages of Sponsorship

The situation of sponsorship today

The different type of sport sponsoring

- Federation sponsorship

- Team sponsorship

- Athlete sponsorship

Physical attractiveness

Image transfer

Memory

Involvement

Athlete sponsor fit

Country of origin and brand recall

Literature review

Study Framework

Title 38

Problem Statement

Research question and hypotheses

Methodology

Main concerns

Research model

Sample and context of the survey

Settings

Results

Discussion and conclusion

Limitation and future line of research

Bibliography

Title 39

VII. Timeline

Table 7 Timeline

Title 40

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