Communicating a sport sponsorship profile internally: a case
study describing a company active in the general dealer
industry

Abstract: Building a sport sponsorship profile is an important part in the marketing
strategy today, as well as supporting the interest of a company by
associating it with a specific activity, event, or sport team. The
significance of internal communication of a company’s sport sponsorship
profile has increased due to the fact that in a hierarchical organization,
base-level employees can be seen as company ambassadors outwards, and their
knowledge of a company sport sponsorship profile is for this reason of
great importance. The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis was to gain a
deeper understanding for how a company applies sport sponsorship to build a
profile, with emphasis on how a company manages the internal communication
of its profile. In order to reach the purpose, research questions focusing
on how a company builds and communicates its sport sponsorship profile, and
its employees’ involvement in building and implementing its sport
sponsorship profile have been formulated. Based on the research questions,
a literature review was conducted resulting in a conceptual framework,
functioning as a foundation for the data collection of this thesis. In
order to collect relevant data, a qualitative case study was applied, using
interviews and documentation of one company in the general dealer industry
in the county of Norrbotten. The general result of this study indicates
that the investigated company is not aware of all the associations deriving
from a sponsored event, activity, or sport team when building its profile.
Its main objectives when utilizing sport sponsorship is to create goodwill,
create good community relations, gain more customers, and to be seen as a
healthy and sporty company. Furthermore, our study found that the internal
communication in the investigated company is lacking and needs to be
improved. The company’s base-level employees are its ambassadors and
require more information of its company sport sponsorship profile in order
to act in line with its company sport sponsorship profile.