Third-Party Certification,Sponsorship, and Consumers’ Ecolabel Use

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory and a stratified random sample of more than 1200 consumers, we assess how third-party certification relates to consumers’ use of ecolabels across different program sponsors. We find that consumers’ trust of government and environmental NGOs to provide credible environmental information encourages consumers’ use of ecolabels sponsored by these entities, and consumers do not differentiate between certified versus uncertified ecolabels in the presence of trust. By contrast, consumers’ distrust of private business to provide credible environmental information discourages their use of business association-sponsored ecolabels. However, these ecolabels may be able to overcome consumer distrust if their sponsors certify the ecolabels using third-party auditors. These findings are important to sponsors who wish develop ecolabels that are more credible to consumers, and thus encourage more widespread ecolabel use.     

Satellite fans: Does sport nostalgia influence purchase intention toward sponsors’ products?

The purpose of this study was to investigate how nostalgia influences their attitude towards the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) sponsors and purchase intention towards EPFL sponsors' products. Based on a convenience sampling, a total of 317 EPFL fans in Singapore responded to an online survey that included items on sport nostalgia, attitude towards EPFL sponsors, and intention to purchase EPFL sponsors' products. Data were analysed using confirmation factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that sport nostalgia had a direct positive effect on both attitude and purchase intention towards EPFL sponsors’ products. Also, this study found that sport nostalgia had a significant indirect effect on purchase intention through attitude. From the findings of this research, sponsors could understand the role of sport nostalgia and would be able to implement marketing strategies that direct their consumers to purchase their products.     

Ambush marketing: Is confusion to blame for the flickering of the flame?

Previous studies about the use of ambush marketing during major global sports events like the Olympics concentrated on the battle between ambush marketers versus official sponsors, and their success or failure to create a high level of recall or recognition. Almost no attention has been paid to the role event organizers are playing in this battle. This article presents the view that the Olympic event organizers are partially to blame for the growing use of ambush marketing, and the indifference that consumers exhibit to the use of ambush marketing. Data collected from a random sample of 1,500 consumers following the conclusion of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games reveal that consumers exhibit a lack of knowledge and confusion about the rights of official sponsors, the different levels of sponsorship, and the commitment to the event that is associated with each sponsorship level. Furthermore, the results demonstrate consumers' apathy to the use of ambush marketing. Some implications and actions that event organizers should take to improve consumer knowledge about the role of sponsors and to increase consumer public opinion against ambushers are suggested. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Entitativity of Concurrent Sponsors: Implications for Properties and Sponsors

We examine concurrent sponsors’ entitativity as a driver of people’s intentions to view the sponsored property and ultimately their intentions to purchase from a concurrent sponsor. Entitativity is the degree to which audiences perceive a collective as a group. We consider moderators to the relationship between entitativity and viewing intentions within two sponsorship contexts, namely, sponsors investing financial versus nonfinancial resources in properties. We use factorial survey designs and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the model across two studies. The results are consistent. Entitativity is positively related to the likelihood of viewing a sponsored property, and viewing intention is positively related to purchase intention. The entitativity–viewing intention relationship is moderated by sponsor sincerity in the context of sponsors investing products/services but not sponsors investing financial resources. Findings are discussed, and avenues for further research drawn.     

The Effects of Native Ads on Consumer Brand Engagement: The Moderating Role of Website Credibility

Abstract

This research examined the effect of native ads on consumer brand engagement – specifically, how source disclosure of ad sponsors affected consumers’ perceived ad deceptiveness as well as their attitude toward the company and the brand. It also explored the moderating role of website credibility. One hundred and ten college students in South Korea participated in the experimental study, which found that high source disclosure of ad sponsors positively affected perceived deceptiveness. The effect of source disclosure on perceived deceptiveness was moderated by website credibility. Perceived deceptiveness negatively affected consumers’ attitude toward the company and the brand. The mediating role of perceived deceptiveness between source disclosure and consumer brand engagement was confirmed only when website credibility was high. The paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as suggestions for future research in this area.     

Determinants of Consumers’ Attitudes Toward a Sport Sponsorship: A Tale from College Athletics

Although sponsorship is considered one of the most important revenue sources, there have been surprisingly few attempts to explain how sponsorship works in the mind of a consumer in the nonprofit business segment. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that determine consumers’ attitudes toward sponsorship in college athletics. A conceptual model includes factors related to the sports property/event/team and sponsors. This study also examined the role of a perceived congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored property. A structural equation model test using a convenience sample of 460 students enrolled in a division I-A university suggested that specific characteristics of both the sponsor and the sponsored event are significant determinants of attitudes toward a college athletic sponsorship, and the perceived congruence plays an important part as moderator of a sponsorship perception–attitude link.     

Cues of credibility and price performance of life insurance comparison Web sites

An array of Web sites is available to help consumers find the best deals on products and services. While these sites have the potential to save time and money by directly comparing alternatives, consumers still have the task of assessing the credibility of these comparison sites. Experts recommend that consumers look for certain key disclosures or “cues” to assess a site's credibility (e.g., a site's identity, the currency and authoritativeness of its information, its sponsors and business relationships, and its privacy practices). Focusing on 32 life insurance comparison Web sites, this research found that these recommended cues are often not present on Web sites and, when they are, do not seem to predict a site's ability to deliver the lowest‐priced quotes for term life insurance policies.     

Is sponsorship retention dependent on the geographic location of the sports facility?

This study tested the hypothesis that 'revenue maximization of the tenants of sports facilities is dependent on the geographical location of the facility (location of distribution)'. Revenue maximization was operationalized pertaining to sponsorship. A survey instrument was sent to all sponsors of a Melbourne-based football club. The sponsors were grouped as location dependent and location independent based on the location of their head office and financial turnover achieved in the area around the sports facility. The survey collected information on three different steps in the sports consumption process including 'coming to the sports facility', 'being in and around the sports facility' and 'being serviced in the sports facility'. t-Tests were run for most items of the questionnaire in relation to location dependency. Indicative evidence was found in support of the general hypothesis. In particular, direct sales (turnover) in the area around a sports facility were found to be an important factor when considering the issue of location dependency. Smaller, lowspending sponsors with an important percentage of turnover in the area around the sports facility were less likely to move with the football club to a (remote) new facility. In relation to sponsors' objectives, it was found that the objectives of location-dependent sponsors are directed more towards direct sales (or product /brand related as defined elsewhere), whereas location-independent sponsor's objectives seemed to be indirectly related to sales (or corporation related and generation of media benefits as defined elsewhere).     

Designing Effective Promotional Games: Opportunities and Problems

Abstract

Games such as sweepstakes and contests have become increasingly popular parts of promotional and advertising campaigns. Despite their wide use, very little academic theory or research exists about how consumers perceive and respond to promotional games. This paper presents a conceptual model of why consumers decide to participate in games, and how the process of play and game outcomes influences attitudes, self-perceptions, and behavior. The model provides a theory-based perspective for the design of promotional games that considers both the opportunities and ethical dilemmas that game sponsors face. Managerial implications are provided and hypotheses are suggested for future research.     

Window displays and consumer shopping decisions

Window displays are an ubiquitous and prominent but under-researched element of retail strategy. This paper explores how the store and product category information communicated by a store's windows are related to consumers’ shopping decisions, such as store entry and product purchase, and how these relationships vary for consumer segments that differ in terms of their knowledge of the retailer's product(s). Results of a study conducted in the context of clothing retailers demonstrate that the store entry decision is related both directly as well as indirectly (through acquisition of inferred, store-related information) to the acquisition of observed, store-related information from window displays. However, it is product category-related information (e.g. fashion and product-self fit) rather than store-related information (e.g. merchandise and store image) that is more strongly associated with the product purchase decision. Moreover, consumers with medium levels of clothing knowledge are more influenced by windows in their shopping decisions than those with low or high levels.     

Why Corporations Sponsor the Olympics

Abstract

This study reports results of a survey of the top category of sponsors of the Atlanta Summer Olympics in 1996. Results suggest that the growing investment in sponsorship of Olympics is motivated by a multitude of objectives such as information, imagery, signaling, and generation of trial and sales. Sponsors also want to reach several clienteles including consumers, trade clients, investors, and community through the sponsorship of the Summer Olympics.     

奥运赞助商北京奥运会赞助营销效果实证研究

2008年北京奥运会带动了体育赞助营销在中国的迅速发展。奥运赞助对企业来说，是巨大的投入。奥运赞助的效果究竟如何，在现有的营销研究中鲜有涉及。本文介绍了笔者和益普索（Ipsos）公司的研究人员共同进行的企业奥运赞助营销实证研究。通过调查数据的采集和分析，我们发现，消费者并不能有效区分奥运赞助商和非奥运赞助商，但是奥运赞助有助于提高企业及其品牌的形象，增强消费者对其产品和服务的购买意愿。     

Dynamic Effects of Sponsoring: How Sponsorship Awareness Develops Over Time

This study takes a longitudinal perspective to investigate sponsorship awareness in a multiple-year, international context pertaining to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League, a prestigious European soccer competition for club teams with worldwide exposure. A logit model aims to predict sponsorship awareness for one of the main sponsors of the league using data pertaining to more than 25,000 consumers from five countries, over the period 2005 to 2009. The findings provide an empirical argument for building long-term relationships. Sponsorship awareness levels increase over the measurement period, and the highest increase occurs in the second year of sponsorship.     

Sport sponsorship,team support and purchase intentions

This research assessed the influence of team support and perception of sponsors on the purchase intentions of sport consumers. In a case study of a not‐for‐profit, membership‐based Australian professional football club, 1647 respondents reported their perceptions of team support, sponsor integrity and purchase intentions for the sponsor's products. Results revealed that the key pathway to purchase intention is associated with fan passion and a perception of sponsor integrity. This implies that the best mechanism for sponsor return on investment comes in the form of activities to bolster both passion for the team and perceptions of sponsor integrity.     

The implications of recency and gender effects in consumer response to ambush marketing

So-called ambush marketers, are companies that use clever advertising imagery (and/or ad placement) to link their brand(s) with a major event, in the minds of its audience, without having to purchase the expensive rights fees that event properties often charge for official sponsorship status. This study uses an experimental design to explore certain effects of the ambush marketing strategy. Its focus is on the potential impact of recency (of ad exposure), as well as gender differences, on measures of memory, brand attitude, and behavioral intentions for brands perceived to be official sponsors. Respondents (n-215) were randomly assigned to groups viewing Olympics programming intercut with advertising for either official sponsors or ambush marketers. No statistically significant differences are observed between males and females in their pretest sponsor recall or recognition levels, whereas recency of ad exposure is found to be a significant influence on posttest sponsor awareness in the aggregate. Significant gender differences are detected, however, in attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions for two of three product categories investigated, as females have higher mean scores for those two measures. The implications of these results are discussed and followed by recommendations for event promoters seeking to preserve the value of event sponsorships, along with defensive advertising-strategies to protect the investments of their official sponsors. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Examining consumers’ sensory experiences with color: A consumer neuroscience approach

This research advances neuroscience as a tool with which to study consumers’ visual mental imagery. Applying these methods, we suggest that the presence or absence of color is a critical dimension along which consumers’ visualizations can vary, and explore when and why color of visual mental imagery becomes more prominent. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we find neural evidence for distinguishing black-and-white (BW) versus color visualization, and that visual mental imagery becomes increasingly monochrome (vs. colorful) when consumers imagine distant (vs. near) future events. Our neural evidence further suggests construal level as the underlying mechanism of this effect, showing common regions of activation for imagining distant future events, engaging in high-level construal, and forming BW mental imagery. We discuss the implication of these findings and the benefits of fMRI techniques for marketing in general.     

Cutting Through the Online Review Jungle — Investigating Selective eWOM Processing

Consumers frequently rely on online reviews, a prominent form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), before making a purchase decision. However, consumers are usually confronted with hundreds of reviews for a single product or service, as well as rich information cues on online review websites (review texts, helpfulness ratings, author information, etc.). In turn, consumers face more information cues on online review websites than they can or want to process, and are likely to proceed selectively. This paper investigates selective processing of such eWOM information cues. Results of Study 1, an exploratory study using verbal protocols, confirm that consumers display selective eWOM processing patterns and are able to articulate them. Study 2 develops and applies a measurement instrument to capture these patterns. A subsequent cluster analysis on members of a large-scale online panel (N = 2,295) indicates five prominent eWOM processing types, termed “The Efficients”, “The Meticulous”, “The Quality-Evaluators”, “The Cautious Critics”, and “The Swift Pessimists”. Insights of this research can help firms to better understand consumers' eWOM processing and improve the user-friendliness of online review websites.     

Consumer Attitudes toward Sponsors’ Counterambush Marketing Ads

Since the existing measures to prevent ambush marketing are widely ineffective, sponsors can use countercommunications, a public response to an ambushing attempt that aims to strengthen their own brand, relative to the ambusher. This research examines consumer responses to three types of counterambush marketing ads: humorous complaining, naming and shaming, and consumer education. Three experimental studies using both real and fictitious brands as well as different event settings indicate that a humorous counterad (vs. naming and shaming and consumer education counterads) results in more favorable consumer evaluations of the countermessage. The studies also show that perceptions of the advertising tactic's appropriateness mediate these effects and that a humorous counterad is only advantageous when consumers hold positive (vs. negative) attitudes toward the practice of ambush marketing. In addition, comparing the three types of counterads with a common sponsorship leveraging ad suggests that a humorous counterad and simply ignoring the ambusher produce equal perceptions of tactical appropriateness and similar positive indirect effects on consumer attitudes toward the ad. The studies thus provide implications for how sponsors can respond to ambushers.     

Ambush Marketing Revisited

Corporate sponso~ship of events has become a multi-bil- lion War promotional enteqnise. Some companies have sought methods of gaining the benefits of official spansorship while subvdng the esca- lating s m h i p fees charged by most major events. This approach has come to be known as ambush marketing. One event that is a traditional target for ambushers is the Olympic Games. Ambush marketers have found that by purchasing large amounts of advertising during these events they enjoy as much (or more) brand awareness as official sponsors incur- ring much greater costs. The results of this experimental study shed light on existing sponsorship questions, partic+rly ambush marketing in the Olympic context. Among the key finbgs are that coIlsumers seem unable to distinguish between official and ambush sponciors. This confu- sion has implications in terms of attibdinal measures, as study data indicate that sponsors rarely gain oompetitive advantage here, either. Measures of purchase intention also indicate that ambushers consistently do as well, or ktlw, than official sponsors.     

Whiteness and Western Values in Global Advertisements: An Exploratory Study

This paper explores the emergence of sponsorship-linked events as a strategy to leverage relational outcomes through sponsorship investment. The growing use of sponsorship-linked events reinforces the need to understand the potential of such leverage strategies, thus the findings contribute to the body of literature on effective sponsorship practices. Findings from semi-structured interviews with Sponsorship and Marketing Managers suggest a shifting orientation among sponsors towards the pursuit of relational objectives. The privileged access to consumers afforded through sponsorship allows sponsors to manufacture opportunities to create intimacy with customers through sponsorship-linked events in relaxed, comfortable environments; thus sponsorship-linked events are positioned as a rich environment to add value to consumer–brand interactions and achieve relational objectives. Hosting specifically designed events affords sponsors an increased modicum of control over consumer–brand experiences in sponsorship environments characterised by a lack of control over sponsored property actions. However, this control may be eroded by social media technologies, which facilitate consumer–consumer communication around sponsorship-linked events. Social media, however, is proposed as a useful tool to elicit consumer feedback, addressing the misalignment between current sponsorship evaluation practices and emergent relational objectives revealed in the empirical findings. Therefore, successfully activating the sponsorship-linked marketing space demands an integrated and strategic approach.