The impact of sports sponsorship on brand equity

• Autor(a) principal: Nunes, Madalena Lucas de Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/27161
• topic: Sports sponsorship; Brand equity assets; Brand love scale; Patrocínio desportivo; Ativos de brand equity; Escala de amor à marca

Purpose: Sports Sponsorship aims to build a synergic relationship between the sponsor brand and the sponsored entity. Knowing that these partnerships benefit from impacting consumer perception, the dissertation’s main objective is to investigate sports sponsorship’s impact on consumer-based brand equity assets: Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty, Perceived Quality and Brand Associations. As a parallel objective, the relationship between supporters and the sports entity was studied as a mediator of the sponsorship and brand equity relationship through the brand love scale. Methodology: first, a literature review focused on retrieving pertinent academic contributions for Sports Marketing, Sports Sponsorship and Brand Equity was conducted. Next, hypotheses were developed and tested through an exploratory study focused on two Portuguese brands and three football teams. Finally, the retrieved data was examined to confirm the proposed hypotheses. Finding: All hypotheses were accepted, and the objectives were accomplished. There is statistical evidence that Sagres and Super Bock’s sponsorship of FC Porto, SL Benfica and Sporting CP impacts brand equity variables. Furthermore, the linear relationship sponsorship-brand equity assets are justified through the mediator, supporters’ brand love for their team. The study revealed that Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty, Perceived Quality and Brand Associations had significantly better results among the sponsorship-aware groups, confirming that brand equity is positively impacted by sports sponsorship. Additionally, it was demonstrated that supporters’ brand love for their team is a mediator between the sports sponsorship effect and each brand equity asset. Hence, sports sponsorship impacts the consumer-based brand equity of supporters with higher brand love for the sponsored entity.