The significance of a sponsored event on lesser-known brands in a competitive environment
| Date | 30 June 2020 |
| Pages | 579-593 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-07-2019-2468 |
| Published date | 30 June 2020 |
| Author | Yiran Su,Thilo Kunkel |
The significance of a sponsored event on lesser-
known brands in a competitive environment
Yiran Su
Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA, and
Thilo Kunkel
Department of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Existing research neglected examining the environmental effect of an event on the effectiveness of sponsorship activation in a
competitive setting. The purpose of this study is to explore how the event environment impacts consumers’attitudinal and behavioral responses to
competitive brands that co-present at an event.
Design/methodology/approach –The research comprised an exploratory pre-test and two studies at a sport event with a retailing environment.
The exploratory pre-test was used to examine the competitive relationship in the local market between the market leader and the lesser-known
sponsoring brand. Study 1 used structural equation modelling to test how the event environment impa cts consumers’attitudes toward both brands
at the post-consumption stage. Study 2 compared actual sales data of the two competing brandsto examine the immediate effect of the
sponsorship space on consumption.
Findings –The results revealed the event environment had an impact on consumers’brand attitude toward boththe lesser known sponsoring brand
and the non-sponsoring market leader. However, the effect on the sponsoring brand that activated its sponsorship was influenced by consumer
involvement with the event and was more salient. Furthermore, the product sales of the less-known sponsoring brand outperformed that of the
market leader that co-presented at the event.
Originality/value –This study addresses a call to go beyond exploring the brand image of the sponsoring brands in isolation and holistically
examine sponsorship effectiveness. The study contributes to knowledge on both attitudinal and actual behavioural outcomes of sponsorship
activation in a competitive environment.
Keywords Retailing, Consumer behaviour, Brand image, Sponsorship, Brand choice
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Brand managers looking to introducea new product into a
market already dominated by a leading competitor face a
strategic problem. Market leaders benefit from several
advantages such as strong market exposure and positive
consumer word-of-mouth, which drive consumer preference
(Grewal et al., 2003). Consequently, consumers may have
limited opportunities to gain brand knowledge of brands that
are entering the marketplace. To address this issue,
sponsorship, as a strategic marketing tool, has received
considerable attention from both academic researchers and
marketing practitioners (Cornwell and Kwon, 2019;Henseler
et al., 2011). The entertainment and sport industry have
recently witnessed witnessed a proliferation of sponsorship
activation, which can be an integral part of the event
environment. For example, to penetrate the Chinese market,
Gatorade (a lesser-known brand in China) competes against
the market leader, Redbull, by strategically sponsoring the
NBA China tour to create a sponsored space –an area where
sponsors display marketing and promotional messages –to
foster consumer engagement at stadiums. The enhanced
visibility of the brand image displayed at an attractive
sponsored space may leverage sponsorship effectiveness
(Federico, 2017;Lefton,2015).
Sponsors are seeing increased opportunities to cultivate
immersive consumer experienceswithin event venues by
leveraging such sponsorship activation strategies to stand out
among competing brands (O’Reilly and Horning,2013). For a
lesser-known brand, a sponsored space can be used to
advantageously position products against its competitor at an
event. Recent studies on sponsorship activationhave started to
explore the interactive element of the sponsorship campaign
(Cornwell and Kwon, 2019),especially the experiential facet of
the activation (Hawley, 2018;Hepola et al., 2017). However,
the event environment, within which consumer experience is
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/2 (2021) 579–593
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-07-2019-2468]
The authors would like to thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers
for providing valuable comments on the manuscript. The authors also
thank the Sport Industry Research Center at Temple University and the
event industry partner in the UK for supporting this research.
Received 17 July 2019
Revised 7 August 2019
21 December 2019
5 March 2020
18 May 2020
Accepted 22 May 2020
579
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