The Impact Of Sports Sponsorship On Event Brand Equity

Entering the 21 st century,sports sponsorship economic activities have gradually evolved into a part of the global sports industry from a few industrialized countries in the last century.In the past decades,scholars in the field of brand management have been studying "What sports sponsorship can bring to the sponsors".However,the influence of sports sponsorship on sports enterprises often seems to be simply understood by people: Do sports brands gain only money from the sponsorship relationship? When the sponsor brand has a relatively prominent brand position in the competitive market,it is obviously essential for the sports brand to cultivate its own intangible brand equity through sports sponsorship.Based on theoretical combing and practical refining,and focusing on the perspective of reverse research in sports sponsorship,this study constructs the reverse transfer model of brand equity based on the correlation network memory model,signal theory and detailed possibility model,and tries to solve the following questions: 1.In sports sponsorship marketing activities,does the consumer perception of the sponsor’s brand equity affect the sports brand perception equity? 2.What is the mechanism of sports sponsorship reverse brand equity transfer? What factors are affected and disturbed? The in-depth discussion of sports brand equity is helpful to the development and perfection of professional sports,which is of great reference value to promote the sports industry and realize the dream of sports power.In this study,the theoretical hypothesis of the reverse transfer of brand equity was proposed,and the empirical test of the model was carried out by experimental design and questionnaire survey.The experimental design was composed of preliminary experiment and formal experiment.The formal experiment simulated two non-objective sponsorship relationships,namely the commercial sponsorship of the CBA League by Mercedes-Benz(high sponsor brand equity)and Mazda(low sponsor brand equity).The singlefactor completely randomized experimental design was adopted.Data collection and hypothesis testing were realized in the process of subjects in two independent groups participating in sports sponsorship events in an orderly manner.The PROCESS plug-in program designed by Hayes was used to complete the data processing and analysis.The model explained the variance difference of more than 35% on the result variable of sports event brand equity,in which brand perception reputation played a mediating role in the reverse transfer path of assets,and the event involvement played a moderating role in a certain path.The findings are as follows:(1)The influence of high brand equity sponsors perceived by consumers on brand equity of CBA events is more significant than that of low brand equity sponsors.Consumers show significant differences in brand equity of CBA tournaments sponsored by different brand equity sponsors,which proves the possibility of the reverse transfer of brand equity.(2)Perceived reputation,as a mediating variable,partially mediates the above reverse brand equity transfer path.(3)Race involvement amplifies this reverse transfer effect,but it is limited to the direct path of the model,and the moderated mediating effect is not valid.Based on the above research findings,the following management revelations and suggestions are put forward: In commercial sports sponsorship,sponsors not only bring sponsorship income to sports brands,but also have potential space for brand equity improvement.Sports enterprise brands must be willing to combine strong sponsor brands to strategically enhance the overall strength of the brand.In marketing practice,sports managers should make clear the focus,grasp the direction,screen and screen sponsorship partners at multiple levels,and maximize the potential role of sponsorship brands in promoting the construction of sports events brand equity.