EVENT SPONSORSHIP -A CORPORATE TOOL FOR BRAND POSITIONING

Abstract

The use of event sponsorship has increased greatly in the recent years, and the proportion of event sponsorship in companies’ marketing budgets has increased. There are many reasons for this, but a major contributor to this development is the increasing difficulty of differentiating from competing brands through mass-media advertising. Events offer an opportunity to focus on a smaller, but more select number of people in an appealing environment, which can bring forth positive associations to the brand and thus give it a competitive advantage. This thesis studies the use of event sponsorship in five major consumer product companies that operate on the Finnish market and looks at how they use event sponsorship to position their brands. The study made evident that event sponsorship was still a rather minor component in most companies’ marketing mixes, and that is was not explicitly included in most companies’ marketing strategies. The role of event sponsorship in building brand image and identity was thus a minor one. Accordingly, the use of event sponsorship was reported to be very much “ad hoc” in nature, and events were occasionally sponsored if they “fit the brand” and if resources gave way for such an investment. However, event sponsorship was seen as an effective tool for reaching desired consumer groups and positioning it in their minds, but it was seen to be very time-consuming and unpredictable, as unexpected changes can often occur during the course of events. As the element of time is always prevalent in events and hence event sponsorship as well, the results of the study were analyzed against the time frame of an event. By doing so, it was possible to separate the different processes that event sponsorship entails and gain a clearer view on how companies use event sponsorship as a part of their marketing mix.