Abstract
M.B.A.
Sponsorship of business-to-business conferences is an effective marketing tool available to companies targeting the business market. However, as with any other marketing tool, there are various factors that influence the degree to which business-tobusiness conference sponsorship will be effective in contributing to the achievement of
a company's strategic marketing objectives.
For this dissertation, the research problem is that sponsors do not seem able to accurately measure the degree to which business-to-business conference sponsorship
has been effective in achieving their marketing objectives. If sponsors do not know how
effective sponsorship has been in achieving their objectives then they cannot make
informed decisions about future sponsorships.
The purpose of this study therefore, was to examine the evaluation of business-tobusiness
conference sponsorship and explore the extent to which sponsors evaluate the degree to which sponsorship has met their marketing objectives.
A research survey was conducted amongst senior managers responsible for marketing
decisions within their organisations. The findings of the research showed that 17% of
respondents did not set objectives to be achieved though their sponsorship of a
business-to-business conference. By not setting objectives, it is unlikely that companies
will be able to accurately determine whether the money spent on sponsorship was
justified or not. A further 13% of respondents that did set objectives did not measure the
extent to which the objectives were achieved.
The researcher identified eight primary marketing objectives of business-to-business
conference sponsorship. These are:
Increasing awareness
Positioning
Sales
Niche marketing
iii
Entertaining clients
Database building
Networking and forging new business relationships
Conduct market research
It was found in the research that the most commonly mentioned method to measure the
extent to which business-to-business conference sponsorship objectives had been
achieved was using a sales-related measure, for example sales revenue. However, the
majority of respondents (60%) also indicated that it was "strongly unlikely" that sales
objectives could be achieved through business-to-business conference sponsorship.
It is interesting that the majority of respondents (48%) believe that it is the "fault" of the
sponsors themselves that their marketing objectives have not been achieved by
sponsoring a business-to-business conference, while 30% believe that the "fault" lies
with the conference organiser.
This report concludes with recommendations for both sponsors and conference
organisers about how to improve the effectiveness of business-to-business conference