Sport Sponsorship as a Tool of Marketing Communication – A Case Study of Two Real Estate Companies

Sponsorship, in general, is an important component of promotional mix devised by many companies. Companies are known to use sponsorship as a means to associate with a particular event as part of their marketing efforts. Sponsoring of sporting events has been in use since long in various parts of the world and has also found ready acceptance in India. Many companies, whether their products /services have some association with a sport or not, are using sport sponsorship. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to make an attempt to better understand the use of sport sponsorship as a tool of marketing communication. To achieve this purpose, a simple instrument was designed with questions related to the sponsorship objectives, process of selecting the event, and evaluation of effectiveness of sport sponsorship. Review of literature was carried out to develop a conceptual framework presenting a foundation for data collection. Real Estate companies are prominent sponsors of sports in the country. A qualitative, case study methodology has been used, based on documents and interviews of two Real Estate companies. The study shows that sport sponsorship has varied objectives. However, some of the most commonly used objectives of sport sponsorship are the corporate related objectives like corporate image, entertainment for clients, and employee relations. The study further shows that companies select a specific sport sponsorship property on the basis of different criteria such as the interest of the top management and the concerned sport’s potential to convey the marketing message. Further, the results of the study show that companies do not carry out formal evaluation of the effectiveness of sport sponsorship.