Sport sponsorship as a promotion tool: case study of FöreningsSparbanken

Abstract: Today, as the business climate is getting tougher it has become even more
important for companies to reach out and affect their target group.
Companies have to be creative when communicating their messages: the media
clutter is getting more difficult to penetrate which results in that the
promotion strategy needs to be well-reasoned in order to be effective.
Sport sponsorship has evolved from once being a charity to now turning into
a strategic tool to reach the promotion objectives. This thesis purpose is
to gain a deeper understanding of how sport sponsorship is used as a
promotion tool. In order to reach the purpose I have stated two research
questions: how can the objectives for sport sponsorship as perceived by the
sponsoring company be described, and how can a company’s process and
criteria used for sport sponsorship selection be described. In order to
answer the research questions a case study has been conducted, the company
studied is the Swedish commercial bank: FöreningsSparbanken. The findings
from the case indicate that the main objectives for sport sponsorship are
reaching out to the target group and enhancing the corporate image. When it
comes to the process and criteria used for sport sponsorship selection, the
findings point to a very well defined selection process with a
well-developed follow up procedure. The criteria when selecting an
appropriate
sponsorship object are that there needs to be a match between the chosen
sponsorship and the target group, together with the criterion that the
sponsorship agreement must offer spin-off promotion opportunities.