The benefits of sport sponsorship from the corporate perspective

Over the past two decades, sport organizations have experienced diminishing levels of support from both participants and national governing bodies. Sport sponsorship has filled the financial void felt by sport properties and has contributed to the marketing objectives of the sponsoring businesses. Without sponsorship support, sport could not achieve the continual growth seen in recent decades.; Understanding why businesses are attracted to supporting sports to promote its products and services has been an area of increasing interest in sponsorship research. However, despite this interest, a clearer understanding of the benefits of sport sponsorship is needed to determine the actual value of a businesses sport association. There is also a need for a means to evaluate the adequacy of sponsorship arrangements in terms of the desired benefits.; The purpose of this study was to explore the benefits of sport sponsorship from the perspective of the corporate sponsor and to utilize the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) evaluation model to guide the exploration. The Moncton Wildcats hockey team of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) formed the focus of the study. This study was guided by three central research questions. First, what is the perceived importance of the benefits of a sport sponsorship relationship? Second, how do the Moncton Wildcats perform in relation to the expected benefits? Third, how do different levels of sponsorship commitments (i.e. size of contract) change the expectations and perceptions of sponsors?; The study developed many recommendations for the Moncton Wildcats such as; the need to profile sponsors to better understand their individual needs, tabulate target market information that can assist in better marketing themselves as a sport property, and develop sponsorship packages that can be consistently compared to each other for their individual benefits to the corporate sponsor. Recommendations are also given to guide future sport sponsorship research such as the need to segment groups of sponsors to fully comprehend their attraction of using sport properties to satisfy their marketing objectives. Concluding comments are offered concerning the use of Importance-Performance Analysis in sport sponsorship. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...