Sponsored activities can conduct an effective communication channel between the enterprise and its targeted customers, and among all kind of sponsored activities, sports sponsorship is the most popular one. Enterprise always hope to successfully lift up the brand¡¦s awareness and image all over the world by sponsoring a big sport event. However, whether the enterprise can benefit from the sponsorship is the main thing enterprise really caring about after throwing big bucks and efforts, and it is also the focus of this study. We take the Acer as our targeted enterprise, and examine the sponsorship effect of two different sport events that Acer sponsor (We pretend that Acer sponsoring the 2010 World Cup). The data were collected through a questionnaire. This study totally sent out three hundreds and ten questionnaires, two hundreds and ninety-six questionnaires were received, two hundreds and seventy-nine of them were effective. The results suggest that when consumers have positive attitude toward the sport events, the enterprises can enhance the awareness through sponsoring the sport events. But it is uncertain whether the enterprise can enhance the image by sponsoring the sport events when consumers have positive attitude toward the sport events. The results also suggest that the consumers¡¦ perception of sponsor-event fit will affect the awareness and image. Moreover, the study indicate that both the awareness and image have significantly positive effects on purchase intention.

While the volume of research on corporate event sponsorships as a marketing tool has increased markedly over the past decade, the results have done little to help marketers to justify sponsorship spending. Not only do marketers have little knowledge of a sponsored event’s financial return, they also struggle to demonstrate any impact on consumer behavior at all. Using multi-wave survey data, we quantified the financial impact of a sponsorship. We predicted the number of new buyers based upon changed brand attitudes, consistent with a hierarchy of effects model. We then established the financial return on the sponsorship spending by estimating the customer lifetime value (CLV) of these new buyers. We collected the data around a major college football bowl game. Six phases of data collection were used to determine purchasing behavior and brand attitudes of attendees before and after the sponsored event, in comparison to television viewers of the event and the general public. We applied Lavidge and Elrick’s (1961) attitudinal constructs as the independent variables in a logistic regression to predict future purchase. The final data collection was used to validate the model’s prediction. The findings show that the model accurately predicted the number of new customers after one buying cycle for the sponsor’s products. We also quantified the positive impact of the sponsorship on the CLV of existing customers within the same time frame. The managerial implications of this study are significant. Sponsorships are highly risky, with fixed outlays up front, and unclear benefits to be realized in the future. We provide a methodology that not only allows sponsors to measure the effectiveness of the sponsorship, but to determine the return on their sponsorship investment. We have taken consumer behavior theory from marketing communications research and combined it with CLV tools, thus allowing marketers to determine the number of new customers that a sponsorship generates, as well as how it influences the buying patterns that drive customer lifetime value.

A presente dissertação estudou o comportamento do consumidor esportivo, mais especificamente o consumidor de produtos ligados ao futebol, torcedores de Corinthians, São Paulo e Palmeiras. Após um referencial teórico que buscou as principais teorias de comportamento do consumidor e apontou as especificidades do mercado futebolístico, os resultados apontaram que os consumidores têm preferência por alguns atributos como a marca e a durabilidade do produto, em detrimento da distribuição e comunicação, que da forma como são feitas hoje não possuem importância significativa junto ao mesmo. A pesquisa ainda relatou que o consumidor tem dificuldade em identificar o produto licenciado em relação ao pirata e que quando a escolha é feita para presente e não para utilização própria, o produto licenciado tem uma participação maior na escolha. / This dissertation studied the behavior of the sport\'s consumers, more specifically the consumer products linked to football fans of Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo. After a theoretical framework that sought the main theories of consumer behavior and pointed out the specifics of the football market, the results showed that consumers have a preference for certain attributes such as brand and product durability at the expense of distribution and communication, so that the how they are made today do not have significant importance next to it. The survey also reported that consumers have difficulty identifying the licensed product relative to the pirate and that when the choice is made for this and not for their own use, the licensed product has a larger share in the choice.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect gender bias has in sports and howmarketing can be used to challenge gender bias. Design/methodology/approach – This paper will use data collected from 188 surveys from registered fans of the Linköping Hockey Club. Findings – This paper targets why female ice hockey is not as popular as male ice hockey. Theories such as marketing mix are used to identify the differences and similarities between thetwo teams as if they were products. Practical implications – Sports leagues and clubs with male and female teams could use the results to limit gender bias against women in sports. Originality/value – This will help limit gender bias through a marketing perspective, by specifically addressing gender bias in sports marketing.

D.Comm. (Sport Management) / The primary objective of the study was to establish what brand leverage strategies could be implemented in sport mega-event branding based on the case study of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. The secondary objectives focused on discovering the dimensions of sport mega-event branding, investigating the areas of sport mega-event impacts and leverage, identifying sport mega-event brand leverage activation tools and understanding the role of mega-event brand leverage activation tools in the context of their potential influence on the development of small and medium enterprises in the host country. Deriving from the research questions and objectives, a theoretical framework of sport mega-event brand leverage was created. It provided a blueprint for seven hypotheses, formulated in this study. A quantitative descriptive design was employed by the researcher. A self-administered web based questionnaire was uploaded at the Statkon website at the University of Johannesburg. The researcher utilised a purposive judgement sampling technique which targeted small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces in South Africa. The companies were registered on four major online databases in South Africa – The Box, BizConnect, BizNetwork and online Yellow Pages. The main study was preceded by a two-phase pilot where five individuals representing conveniently chosen SMEs located in the city of Johannesburg filled out a hard copy of the questionnaire in each phase. Once the researcher refined the questions following the second pilot, the main research took place. The total of 8 902 emails, containing the website link, were sent out with 239 returned questionnaires accepted as valid to be included in the statistical analysis (2,95% response rate). The questionnaire was available online for five months between July and November 2011. The researcher made use of factor analysis and the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) in the process of data analysis. The exploratory factor analysis enabled a reduction in the total number of latent variables (factors). It was followed by the confirmatory factor analysis, which also computed the goodness-of-fit indices allowing for establishing how well the model explained the data. Once the number of factors were reduced, the EQuationS (EQS) software was used to investigate mutual relationships between different variables and testing the hypotheses. The summary statistics, such as mean, median and standard deviation also helped in the interpretation of the findings. The main finding of the research was that the destination brand (South Africa) was a significant predictor of co-branding and an integral element of the sport mega-event branding (2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa). Co-branding was identified as the main brand leverage strategy – although there were various ancillary events supporting the World Cup. Ultimately the leverage opportunities lay in South Africa co-building the strong 2010 FIFA World Cup brand. In that, South Africa was one of the two dimensions of the mega-event branding which involved event and destination brands. The impact of social and political areas was identified as the most relevant to consider when staging a sport mega-event. In consequence they should be considered by destination brand managers and sport mega-event governing bodies when planning for leverage. Further analysis revealed that national identity and international prestige were found to have been considered as the most valuable areas of mega-event brand leverage in 2010. Close associations between national identity and prestige suggested that achieving one would have an influence on the other. Respondents thought that the aspects related to national identity should be included in marketing communications associated with the mega-event, such as advertising, public relations, sponsorship and licensing. Meanwhile, strengthening of a country’s international prestige should be anticipated when establishing the public relations strategy. In addition, sponsorship and relationship marketing were viewed as potentially having a significant influence on the development of local SMEs while licensing was seen as a solution with the power to boost SMEs growth in the short-term. This suggested that sponsors and other stakeholders should be involved in planning for positive event outcomes from a point of view of a local SME. This research had four main limitations which could not make the findings relevant to the broader population. Those limitations were: the low response rate, specific characteristics of hosting nation South Africa, as well as the fact that the World Cup is the most popular sporting event in the world. In addition, the sample population was limited to South African SMEs located in the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces which had an email and were registered on the four chosen online databases. That decision was driven by the fact that these two provinces are the two major business hubs in the country and were also involved the most in hosting of the World Cup matches in 2010. SMEs’ online presence enabled the researcher to conducts the study in an efficient and cost-effective way. More research is required in the future which would test the framework in different settings, with a different sample and also within an alternative time focus, mainly pre-and post-event.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY OF THE SOCCER CLUB SK SLAVIA PRAHA AND PROPOSALS OF ITS IMPROVEMENT Objectives: The objective of this research is the establishment of communication strategies of an organization SK Slavia Praha Football Club for the upcoming season. This project will be completed based on the analysis of the club's current communication mix as well as current communication distribution channels with the club's fan base. Methods: For the research various methods were used such as the case study, the analysis of the documents, the interviews and the SWOT analysis. The case study was applied during the research of the current club's communication strategy with its fan base, the analysis of the documents for the evaluation of the club's communication mix, the SWOT analysis for the evaluation of the communication mix and interviews for obtaining the essential information from the individuals involved. Results: A new project of the club's communication strategy was established, which includes the improved communication mix of the club, the communication strategy project with the most important fans' organizations as well as a communication strategy project with the club's youth. Keywords: sports marketing, communication strategy, communication mix, soccer, fans

Title: Marketing research of visitors'satisfaction at sport and music event Bm(X)treme fest 2013 Objectives: The goal is to analyze results of visitors'satisfaction research. Furthermore, on the basis of the results obtained to develop proposals which should be directed to increase of visitors' satisfaction. Methods: Visitors satisfaction research has been done by electronic questioning. Research sample was randomly selected from the visitors of that event. Results: The obtained data are arranged in tables and graphs in the analytical part. In each of researched areas has been found few unsatisfied visitors, therefore are some suggestion to improve event. In general were visitors satisfied with the event and some research hypothesis has been disproved. Keywords: Sports marketing, marketing research, satisfaction, festival, BMX

Title: Objectives: Methods: Results: Keywords: Achievements offer for partners of selected Czech and Slovak football clubs of Synot liga and Fortuna liga during economic crisis The aim of this thesis is on the basis of analysis of the football marketing environment in Czech republic and in Slovakia and on the basis of analysis of the current offers for partners of Czech and Slovak football clubs to identify weaknesses and shortcomings in sponsorship relations. Results of analytical part will be used to create proposal implementation of sponsor activities of football clubs of Synot liga and Fortuna liga, including utilize of opportunities, that the current situation of economic crisis offers, due to differences of the Czech republic and Slovakia. In qualitative research of thesis I used descriptive case study, interview, observation, SWOT analysis, document analysis and comparative analysis. I applied these methods in the analysis of various football clubs, while I also used SWOT analysis in the processing of proposals. I used comparative analysis to compare marketing environment in selected football clubs. The data obtained from research helped me identify aspects of the marketing environment, in which individual football clubs have shortcomings. In addition to the specific proposals of cooperation...

Title: Three Chosen Football Clubs' Marketing Towards Fans Objective: Analysis of the marketing program three football teams and its application towards the fans on the literature, obtained materials and conducted interviews. Methods: Marketing analysis was performed by analysis of internal and external documents and publications relating to the topic, followed by unstructured interviews with fans and semi structured interviews with representatives of clubs SK Slavia Praha and FC Flora Tallinn. A case study was based on the study of sport organizations and institutions and captures descriptions of the relationship and defines the complexity of the problem. This descriptive case study is supported by SWOT analysis. Results: Comparison of marketing programs of examined football clubs and the ways in which these programs are applied. Keywords: Marketing, marketing mix, sports marketing, communication, fans

Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal verificar como são realizados os processos de segmentação e posicionamento por empresas inseridas na indústria esportiva no Brasil e, se os processos utilizados pelas empresas são os mesmos encontrados na literatura. Para alcançar esse objetivo, foram realizados alguns procedimentos metodológicos. A primeira etapa envolveu uma revisão da literatura onde buscou-se conceitos de segmentação e posicionamento de mercado e também, por meio da revisão da literatura buscou-se entender quais eram os pilares envolvidos no marketing esportivo. A segunda etapa envolveu uma pesquisa de campo, e para realização da mesma determinou-se que a maneira mais adequada de desenvolver essa pesquisa, tendo como foco o objetivo principal desse trabalho, seria desenvolver uma pesquisa descritiva/exploratória, qualitativa e a técnica utilizada para coleta de dados foi entrevista em profundidade. Foram então entrevistadas dez empresas produtoras de artigos esportivos as quais somadas, representam aproximadamente 68% da indústria esportiva no Brasil. A seleção das empresas entrevistadas deu-se por meio de conveniência e técnica \"bola de neve\". Para análise dos dados obtidos na pesquisa de campo, foi realizada uma análise global e posteriormente uma análise qualitativa de conteúdo. De modo geral foi possível identificar que a indústria esportiva é um mercado extremamente competitivo e portanto, poucas são as informações divulgadas nesse mercado. Outro ponto identificado através dessa pesquisa é que o comportamento das empresas inseridas nessa indústria é diretamente guiado pelas líderes de mercado, em um comportamento de \"ação e reação\" onde ou busca-se a liderança do mercado ou busca-se constantemente pelos GAPs de atuação das líderes, sendo estes \"buracos\" deixado pelas mesmas, oportunidade para atuação de outras empresas. / This work had as main objective to verify how are the processes of segmentation and positioning by companies inserted in the sports industry in Brazil and, if the processes used by the companies are the same found in the literature. To achieve this objective, some methodological procedures were performed. The first stage involved the review of the literature where we sought concepts of segmentation and market positioning and also, through the literature review, sought to understand which were the pillars involved in sports marketing.The second step involved a field research, and to achieve this, it was determined that the most appropriate way to develop this research, focusing on the main objective of this work, would be to develop a descriptive / exploratory, qualitative research and the technique used to data collection was an in-depth interview. Ten companies that produced sports articles were interviewed, which together represent approximately 68% of the sports industry in Brazil. The selection of the companies interviewed was by means of convenience and snowball sampling. For the analysis of the data obtained in the field research, a global analysis and a qualitative content analysis were performed. In general it has been possible to identify that the sports industry is an extremely competitive market and therefore, little information is disclosed in this market. Another point identified through this research is that the behavior of the companies in this industry is directly guided by the market leaders, in an \"action and reaction\" behavior where either the market leadership is sought or the GAPs left by the Market leaders, which become opportunities to other companies to act.