Building Your Brand Through Sports Sponsorships!
It’s easy to forget how important sports are to so many people when college football crowns its champion and the NFL playoffs begin. A brand can benefit from partnering with sports properties due to their passion. Companies in North America spent $14 billion dollars on sponsorship rights in 2014. Companies in Europe spent nearly $15 billion. Sports make great sense for brands like Gatorade, which are sport-related. Nevertheless, brands from all sectors, including soft drinks, cars, and insurance companies, benefit from sport sponsorships.
A well-chosen sports sponsorship can enhance a brand’s marketing efforts. It is important, however, for a company to choose its sports sponsorship carefully and consider many factors before signing a contract. In order to determine whether a sponsorship is cost-effective, it must have clearly defined objectives and valid, reliable measurement methodologies.
It is important to include sports sponsorship as part of a broader marketing strategy that considers both the long-term goals of the brand and the company overall. Companies that choose to use sports sponsorship face the constant challenge of implementing a success plan and calculating the ROI.
There are four main areas of the marketing mix that a major sports marketing agreement will impact. How effectively the sponsorship plan impacts these areas will be something each company will have to devise a method for measuring, but in order for the sponsorship to be successful, each area will need to benefit.
How to Produce Differentiated Marketing Platforms
through Sponsorships?
In order to develop a new market or reach new customers, a sports sponsorship marketing plan must reach consumers who haven’t been exposed to the product or brand before. By signing a sponsorship agreement, you can gain access to an underserved market or expand into a new region. Comparing the demographics of new and existing customers is one of the ways to measure differentiation effectively.
A brand or product can also expand to a complementary market segment by building upon prior sponsorship success. An organization with success on the professional level could utilize that loyalty and expand into a similar geographical area on the collegiate level. The sponsorship of a single event rather than a team is also an effective way to test a sponsorship agreement on a smaller scale and gauge interest. If a sports sponsorship marketing plan is to be successful, it must aim to grow an existing consumer base, expand into new markets, or create a new market that did not previously exist.
