Abstract
D.Phil. (Sports Management)
Despite the large amounts of money spent on sponsorships and per
implication sport sponsorship, little research is available concerning
sponsorship practices in South Africa. There is thus a need for a research
study or project to establish how corporate sponsors and sport organisations
manage relationship marketing within sponsorships.
Literature shows that there is a need to understand the various relationships
in sport sponsorships, in order to be able to establish and maintain long-term
successful sponsorship agreements. Most international as well as local
research on the subject, focused on the establishing of the sponsorship
objectives (Abratt & Grobler, 1989; Mattheus, 1996; Polonsky, Sandler,
Casey, Murphy, Portelli & Van Velzen, 1996 and Spence, Abratt & Mattheus,
1997). Although this gap is prevalent in the broader field of sponsorships, the
focus of this study is on the maintaining and enhancing of the sponsorship
relationship between a corporate sponsoring organisation (the sponsor) and
sport federations (the sponsoree).
The primary objective of this study is to develop a framework from a
marketing perspective that could guide the establishment and enhancment of
relationships in sport sponsorships in South Africa between a sponsor and a
sponsoree. The following sub objectives were formulated to help achieve the
primary objective of the study: - Identify, describe, analyze and contextualize the relationships within sport
sponsorships.
- Investigate, describe and argue the theoretical framework of marketing
and the positioning of relationships therein.
- Compare the theoretical framework of relationships in sport sponsorship
with the current practices within the South African context.
For the purpose of this study, the respondents have been divided into two
categories. The first category is corporate organisations in South Africa
involved with sport sponsorships (that is corporate organisations sponsoring
sport). The second category is the sport organisations in South Africa (sport
codes) that receive sponsorship money.
The first phase of the study involved an intensive study of the available
literature on the subject, involving local as well as international resources.
This provided the academic as well as the theoretical basis for this study. The
second phase of the study focused on the empirical research of the study.
During the empirical research phase, a questionnaire was developed in order
to determine the primary and secondary objectives of the study.
The growth in sponsorships illustrates its popularity as a marketing
communication element to be applied by organisations. All indicators are that
sport sponsorships will continue to play a major role in the marketing
communication of organisations. It is therefore important that marketers
understand the role of sport sponsorships within marketing.
Corporate organisations view the sponsorship relationships as an activity that
will benefit both the corporate organisations, as well as the sport federations.
This implies that such a relationship already exists. Sport federations on the other hand rank the development of such a relationship as a priority, implying
that they are of the opinion that such a relationship does not exist at this point.
The two target groups ranked the reasons (or intentions) to become involved
in sponsorships somewhat differently. For the respondents of the corporate
organisations, the development of the corporate image is the most important
goal. The respondents from the sport federations are of the opinion that the
most important goal for corporate organisations to get involved with
sponsorships lies in the fact that sponsorships have the ability to generate
some free publicity for the organisation.
The respondents of the two target groups viewed the different factors that
might have an influence on the sponsorship decision-making differently.
Respondents from corporate organisations viewed the ability to get their
organisation involved in the community as the element that had the greatest
influence on their decision-making process while the respondents from the
sport federations on the other hand saw the coverage that a sporting event
would get, as the element that would have the biggest impact on the decision
making process.
Trust was viewed by both the corporate organisation as well as the sport
federations as an important element in the forming and establishment of
relationship marketing within sport sponsorships. In the establishment of
relationships within sport sponsorships, the conclusion can be drawn that the
concept of loyalty has a very strong influence, since the respondents from
both target groups viewed it as such. The same conclusion can be drawn
concerning the development of bonds in sport sponsorship relationships.
After comparing the views of the two target groups concerning the role of
empathy in sport sponsorship relationship, it was found that each group had a
different view of its importance. The respondents from the corporate
organsiations saw it as very important while the respondents