Why Do Businesses Sponsor Certain Sports & Athletes?

Businesses sponsor certain sports and athletes to target advertising to a specific audience, improve brand image, build brand loyalty and drive sales. This style of marketing involves supplying moneys or goods for an event, team, person or car. In exchange, the event guarantees the company a specific level of advertising, such as banner hangings or exclusive wear.

1. Captive Audience

   • Sporting goods manufacturers provide athletes in the sport related to their product with free clothes and equipment so long as the athlete uses the manufacturer's brand exclusively. Advertising in this manner is not inexpensive, but it ensures visibility with fans and other players of the sport. If the athlete stands out in his sport as a success, fans may be encouraged to buy the manufacturer's product in hopes that it will positively influence their own playing of the sport. Similarly, a non-sporting goods company, such as a beverage or food purveyor, may sponsor a sport to ensure that their product is available for purchase to fans at the game.

   Brand Image

   • Sports and athletes are regarded in society as wholesome, hardworking, fun and successful. Sporting events can be enjoyed by entire families and do not single out any gender or age group. The image projected by athletes and their related sports is one which many companies wish to be identified with. Sponsoring a specific athlete who is known for his sportsmanship aligns that company with that athlete's image. Many companies will pull their sponsorship of an athlete if his personal conduct proves salacious, illegal or any way strays from the desired association off the field.

   Customer Brand Loyalty

   • If sales of a product do well at a sporting event, a company may continue to sponsor that type of sporting event. Overtime, fans will come to expect to see that product at all similar sporting events and make the connection between the sporting event, the values embraced by the event and the sport with the product. Fans of a given sport may identify a sense of loyalty to that product in conjunction with their loyalty to the sport.

   Drive Sales

   • Sponsorship of a sport or athlete can propel a company's product into mainstream use by reaching a broad sampling of the consumer population, from government officials to business decision makers to children. The company increases the likelihood that more consumers will become customers when faced with a purchase decisions of a similar product because of the consumer's exposure to sponsorship advertising.