Sports Mega-Event Sponsorship: The Impact of FIFA Reputation and World Cup Image on Sponsor Brand Equity.
| Autor | Coelho, Mariana Guara Rocha |
Introduction
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport worldwide and the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is the governing body responsible for organizing major international football events. FIFA is a non-profit organization with members from 209 countries and territories. The entity pursues its objectives through several activities, therefore holding a wide list of stakeholders ranging from national to continental football associations, worldwide fans and professionals, governments, media companies, and sponsors (Pielke, 2013). FIFA's revenue was 5.7 billion dollars between 2011 and 2014, 90% of which was a result of activities related to its international events, such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2013 Confederations Cup. Out of the 5.1 billion dollars derived from international events, 47% came from the 2014 World Cup broadcasting rights and 31% resulted from the event's marketing and sponsorship deals (FIFA, 2015).
Right before the 2013 Confederations Cup Brazil witnessed a series of protests that culminated in demonstrations involving more than 1.4 million participants in 130 cities on June 20, 2013 (Moreno, 2013). Among the popular outcries, and despite Brazil's historical and profound relationship with football and its major global event, was the questioning of Brazil as the FIFA World Cup host country, as well as the event's organization and management practices and FIFA's own reputation (Fonseca, 2013).
Sports mega-events have become a research topic in different fields of study in recent years with some authors approaching issues such as mega-events' social, cultural, and economic impact at a local level, with regards to the host society, and also at a global level (Horne, 2015; Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006; Kaplanidou et al., 2013; Kesenne, 2012; Roche, 2000). Some have tackled issues related to the ethics and governance of organizing entities (Lenskyj, 2000; Pielke, 2013), while others have assessed the potential benefits for the image countries, cities, and private companies derive from association with mega-events (Heslop, Nadeau, O'Reilly, & Armenakyan, 2013; Nufer & Buhler, 2010; Weszka, 2011; Woisetschlager & Michaelis, 2012).
Specifically, in the marketing domain, research on the effects of company association with sports mega-events through sponsorship has received special relevance. Mega events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup are considered to be unique options for companies seeking global sponsorship strategies, as they offer the possibility of brand association with the sport and a high visibility property with which the public is deeply connected (Madrigal, Bee, & LaBarge, 2005).
Despite the rise of a corporate marketing logic in which companies perceive the increasing importance of maintaining good relationships and good standing with a broader group of stakeholders (Balmer, 2011) and of authors pointing to questions about the reputation of organizations (Horne & Manzenreiter, 2006; Kesenne, 2012; Pielke, 2013), the reputation of the organizations behind sports mega-events has not been extensively investigated in empirical studies on sponsorship. Specifically, in the football context, there is only one empirical study found in the literature that relates perceptions about FIFA with the image of the FIFA World Cup. M.
Walker et al. (2013), in a research conducted during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, suggested that the perception of FIFA as a socially responsible organization influences the image of the mega-event.
In such a context, the academic contribution of this study is broadening the body of knowledge regarding sports sponsorship in the context of mega-events, more specifically by investigating: (a) if the reputation of the organizing entity impacts the sponsors' brand equities and the mega-event's image; (b) if the mega-event's image influences the sponsors' brand equities; (c) if the perception of fit between the mega-event and the sponsors exerts a mediating effect on the relationship between the mega-event's image and the sponsors' brand equities.
Theoretical Background
Sports mega-event image
Mega-events enable transmission of promotional messages to billions of people through television and other means of communication (Roberts, 2004) since the attraction of the media constitutes one of their main characteristics. Although the definitions of mega-events typically do not imply a specific theme and therefore include both sports and non-sports events (Heslop et al., 2013; Jago, Dwyer, Lipman, Lill, & Vorster, 2010; Muller, 2015; Roche, 2000), since the 1980s sports mega-events have become a synonym for this category of events (Lenskyj, 2015). Overall, a sports event image may be defined as a set of "mental representations sport tourism participants have about the organization, environment, physical activity, socialization, fulfillment, and emotional involvement with the event" (Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2006, p. 5) or "cumulative interpretation of meanings or associations attributed to events by consumers" (K. Gwinner, 1997, p. 147). K. Gwinner (1997) proposes that the event's image is shaped by: (a) the type of event; (b) characteristics of the event, such as the scope, its history, venues, and sponsorship; and (c) personal aspects.
Given that events may be considered as products, some authors have been treating the image of an event in an equivalent manner to that of the image of a brand (Grohs, Wagner, & Vsetecka, 2004; Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2006; Shin, Lee, & Perdue, 2018). Studies on the aspects of event image are becoming more relevant to the fields of marketing and tourism as the event image may be transferred to another entity, similar to what occurs with host cities (Heslop et al., 2013) and sponsors (K. Gwinner, 1997; Nadeau, O'Reilly, & Heslop, 2013). This happens through the transference of associations comprising that image (K. Gwinner, 1997).
Although unlikely (K. P. Gwinner & Eaton, 1999), the transfer of the image or associations from the host city or sponsor to the mega-event is also possible (Heslop et al., 2013). The possibility of the influence of the sponsor's image on the event's image is more common when the event is small and unknown (M. Walker, Hall, Todd, & Kent, 2011).
Sports mega-event sponsorship
Given the behavioral and lifestyle changes and the development of means that allow for consumer marketing message avoidance, the market has realized a need for bringing brands to consumers with an objective of providing them with a friendlier experience. In this context, nontraditional indirect-marketing tools such as viral marketing, buzz, and product placement have developed and gained relevance in the last decades, with sponsorship becoming a tool of the greatest prominence and participation (Cornwell, 2008).
Sponsorship may be defined as the "provision of assistance either financial or in kind to an activity by a commercial organization for the purpose of achieving commercial objectives" (J. A. Meenaghan, 1983, p. 9). Due to its worldwide popularity, sports sponsorship provides an opportunity for image exposure and for developing a positive relationship between the image of a certain brand and several kinds of properties, offering the possibility of transferring attributes and other associations to the sponsor's brand (Farrelly, Quester, & Burton, 2006).
The increased interest in the sponsorship of mega-events, such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, was not only due to the increase in their audiences, but also to the potential for global communication of these events, overcoming cultural and language barriers. In a moment when multinational companies were looking for ways to globalize their markets and offerings, sports mega-events provided an attractive communication platform (T. Meenaghan, 1991). Sponsoring companies seek to take advantage of the link established with the mega-event through the sponsorship agreement in an attractive context, such as the sport's context, to transfer the positive image of the event to the brand (Nufer & Buhler, 2010).
Organizers of mega-events fund their events by selling sponsorship, broadcasting rights, and licensing of official products. The sponsorship revenue is the second largest source of income for these organizations, being surpassed only by broadcasting rights revenue (FIFA, 2015; International Olympic Committee [IOC], 2013). Both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee developed their sponsorship programs in the 1980s, including the concept of category exclusivity and different commercial rights packages for their organizations and mega-events sponsorship contracts (Chadwick & Burton, 2011).
Fit
The concept of congruence, although lacking a single and widely accepted nomenclature or definition, has been discussed in advertising and marketing literature since the 1980s. The theoretical discussion about this concept is related to the idea that people develop a perception that certain things match each other, while others clash. In consequence, this perception would influence their response to the stimuli coming from a marketing strategy that uses brand extensions, celebrity endorsement, co-branding, product placement, and sponsorship (Fleck & Quester, 2007).
Studies on the impact perception of congruence has on sponsorship results consider the psychological mechanisms underlying audience response to the sponsorship (Deitz, Myers, & Stafford, 2012). These are mainly based on two theories originating from Cognitive Psychology: Associative Network Theory and Schema Theory (Drengner, Jahn, & Zanger, 2011). According to Associative Network Theory, an individual's memory is organized in such a way that the pieces of information are completely interconnected like the knots in a net. Each piece of information is linked to several other pieces of interconnected information. The strength of the connecting knots varies according to the...
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