Question

what do you think about the effect of sponsorship on brand equity? how should you choose sponsorship activities and integrate them communication mix?

Answer 1

Sponsorship is a key component of developing brand equity. Brand equity refers to the situation when the consumers are attracted to a particular product or service not because of the product in itself but because of the brand name. For example, between two t-shirts of same quality one bears a local brand name and other is Adidas. Then consumers are often willing to pay more for the Adidas t-shirt even though there is not inherent quality difference. In this context sponsorship is closely related. For example if a fashion shoot is conducted then a dress manufacturing company which is new in the market might want to sponsor the shoot because then the consumers would get to know the name of the brand and attach to the fashion shoot a sense of connection with the brand of the dress manufacturer. Thus the sponsorship helps in giving exposure to the new entrant into the market and might help to raise its market share. Also if an event is organised for first time then t has the pressure of attracting audience or telecaster. To attract them the event organizer might want to get top brand names as sponsor so that people come to watch the event in the belief that since the top brand is sponsoring it there's a chance that the event is going to be worth attending.

Communication mix means the ways in which a company tries to promote its brand to targeted audience. This is intertwined with the last case of sponsorship. Because a nice way to get exposure is to be sponsored by a top brand or to sponsor a top event and thus both sponsoring and getting good sponsors are integral part of brand promotion.