Marketing Communication Report: Sponsorship and Brand Building

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of marketing communication, with a specific focus on the role and effectiveness of sponsorship as a marketing tool. It begins by defining sponsorship and discussing its importance in communicating with target consumers, using Fresh Fruit Soda as a fictitious case study. The report then delves into a critical analysis of sponsorship, exploring its benefits such as enhancing brand image, raising corporate profiles, and facilitating consumer interaction through events and contests, as well as its drawbacks, including the potential for negative impact from sponsored entities and the lack of control compared to other marketing methods. The report includes a literature review that examines the decline in sponsorship marketing, the importance of ROI, and the threat of ambush marketing. Real-world examples of successful sponsorships, such as M&S's sponsorship of Britain's Got Talent and Aldi's sponsorship of The Great British Bake Off, are analyzed to illustrate key concepts. The report concludes with recommendations for Fresh Fruit Soda, including identifying events aligned with their target audience, creating opportunities for consumer interaction, and mitigating the risks of ambush marketing. This report is a valuable resource for students studying marketing communication and sponsorship strategies.

Marketing
Communications

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Critical analysis and discussion .............................................................................................1
Examples ...............................................................................................................................3
RECOMMENDATION ..................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFRENCES ..................................................................................................................................7
REFLECTIVE STATEMENT.........................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Communicating with the target consumer base is one of the main elements of marketing.
Business organisations utilise various methods to communicate with the consumer in a way
which increases the sales and enhances brand image of the company. The fictitious organisation
selected for this report is fresh fruit Soda. This company is targeted at drinkers who like the taste
of fizzy drinks but prefer a low sugar alternative. The company offers a wide range of soft drinks
which includes apple, orange and cranberry flavour. Academic theory related to sponsorship is
analysed in this report with the focus on role of sponsorship in communicating with the
consumers. In addition to this recommendation are given to the fictitious company on the basis
of critical discussion for improving marketing communication through sponsorship. 130
MAIN BODY
Critical analysis and discussion
Sponsorship is defined as the process of providing monetary or charitable assistance of a
particular event, sports team or any charitable firm with the objective of accomplishing specific
business objectives. Sponsorship plays an important role in communicating benefits of the
products offered by the company to a niche market effectively. The aim of utilising sponsorship
as marketing tool differs from industry to industry. Sponsorship helps business organisations
enhance corporate image as it influences impression of a company or a particular product brand
targeted towards particular segment of the market. The brand awareness of the company is
enhanced if the events sponsored by the company is globally recognised. Sponsorship of global
sporting events which have millions of viewership are one of the most widely used sponsorship
practices as it promotes the firm on a global level. Business organisations which use sports
sponsorship as their choice of sponsorship method are able to market their company to the
consumers until the spots tournament lasts (Cornwell and Kwon, 2019). In addition to this
sponsorship of sports tournaments enables business firms to communicate with their consumers
through contests. This type of sponsorship is highly advantageous to business organisations as it
not only increases brand awareness but also helps the company conduct positive interaction with
their consumer base. communicate with their consumers Sponsorships assist in raising
corporate profile of the bran which has positive impact on the brand image of the company.
Reputation of a business firm is enhanced with the help of sponsorship activities which focus on
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charitable organisations. Sponsorships centred around charitable events create a benevolent
brand image of the firm. This tool can be used to alter public perception of the consumer and
increase goodwill of the company (Jensen and Cornwell, 2018). In addition to this business
organisations are able to use sponsorships to drive awareness about certain product range and
persuade the target consumer base of the company to create various organisational factors for the
growth and development of the company.
On the other hand usage of sponsorship as a promotional tool and way of interacting with
consumers has various demerits. A major demerit of sponsorship is that actions of the event,
personality or charitable organisation which is sponsored by the corporation have impact on the
company. Controversial actions of the event, charitable firm or personality reduce the reputation
of the company and have negative impact on the company (Lee and Kim, 2020). The worst case
scenario for this situation is that the corporation has to face backlash from their consumers for
any unlawful actions conducted by the sponsored firm or individual or any illegal activity
associated with the sponsored event. Another demerit of using sponsorship as marketing tool is
that it does not ensure desired results and cannot be controlled in comparison to other
promotional tools such as digital or traditional advertisement campaigns. This factor lowers the
effectiveness of sponsorship as a tool to connect with consumer on large scale and helps the
company complete various organisational tools for the benefit of the company (Jin, 2017).
Literature Review
According to Madumere (2017) sponsorship marketing focused around sponsorship of an
event, sports tournament, cause or arts has decreased over the past few years. The main reason
behind this decline is that business organisations have started scrutinising their marketing
expenditure. This along with economic slowdown has made sponsorship marketing expensive in
comparison to other marketing tools and most business firms are not aiming to use this tool as a
part of their marketing plan. The author states that the focus on sponsorship marketing needs to
be on return on investment. Business organisations which aim to use sponsorship marketing
needs to understand their target audience and identify appealing activities for that consumer base.
In addition to this the sponsorship activities used by opponent organisation need to be identified
by the company (Sponsorship marketing will impact your business, 2017). This will give the
company information about sponsorship of which event, firm or cause will yield the best results.
In addition to this business organisations need to identify where the sponsorship activity fits in
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the communication plan and the objective which needs to be accomplished through this
sponsorship activity. Charitable sponsorships are helpful in CSR objectives of the company
while sponsorship of sports tournaments helps the company create increase brand awareness.
Business firms need to reduce risk associated with sponsorship activities while focusing on
investing in activities which provide high return on investment.
As per the viewpoint of Shewan ambush marketing is one of the biggest threats to
successful sponsorship activity. Ambush marketing is defined as the activity of hijacking a
sponsorship activity which is usually event sponsorship of another organisation with the aim of
promoting products of the company. Ambush marketing is built around an event but does not
involve the payment of sponsorship fee to the event. Business organisations which invest to be
come excursive sponsor of a particular event face threat due to ambush marketing. Business
organisations which use ambush marketing find a way to connect their marketing efforts with an
event which has been sponsored by another organisation (Ambush Marketing: What It Is & Why
It Works, 2020). This is completed in a legal manner and help business firms gain results without
investing as much as the exclusive sponsor of the event. This type of marketing makes event
sponsorships and other types of corporate sponsorship activities target of hijack by other
organisations. This type of marketing has been used by various organisations all over the globe.
One of the most well known examples of ambush marketing is when American Express
ambushed visa's marketing camping during the 1992 winter games. Visa sponsored Olympic
winter games and marketed aggressively against American express and aimed to persuade the
consumers of American express to switch to Visa. American Express was able to impact the
consumer base of Visa by using ambush marketing. The marketing efforts of Visa were a failure
as their rival company was able to gain advantages from the huge investment made by the
company during their sponsorship of Olympic winter games in the year 1992. This aspect of
sponsorship marketing need to be dressed by business organisations which aim to invest in
gaining exclusive sponsorship of an event. Preventive measures such as construction of unique
event which can not be hijacked by other organisations need to be taken by business firms in
order to gain desired results from the sponsorship marketing efforts of the company.
Examples
As per the view of Hammnett (2019) is sponsoring annual television event of Britain's
got talent. Britain's got talent is one of the largest talent competition in UK which airs on ITV on
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an annual basis. The main objective of this sponsorship is to change public perception about food
products offered by M&S. The value score of is low and the company Is ranked 24 out of overall
27 UK supermarkets on the basis of the quality of their food products. This low food product
score has negatively affected the overall sales of the company. In order to alter brand perception
persuade consumers into purchasing the products of the company, M&S has sponsored the
annual talent competition of Britain which viewed by large number of consumers on a daily
basis. The food products of M&S will be featured during ad breaks and videos which depict
various family friendly favourite food products offered by M&S will be showcased at the
beginning and end of every episode. The company will showcase content of the talent show on
various social media platforms. This sponsorship will help the company create an impression on
the viewers of the show and improve the brand image of the company (M&S inks first TV
sponsorship deal with ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, 2019). In addition to this, the company is
aiming to engage fans of the show with the help of this sponsorship. This task will be
accomplished by creating culinary challenges with the help of Britain's got talent application.
This sponsorship will be highly advantageous for the company as it will help the firm alter their
bran reputation and attract large number of consumers with the firm. The aim of interacting with
the consumers will also be attained with the help of this sponsorship as it includes consumer
interaction.
According to Vizard the decreasing sales and lowering market share has impacted Aldi to
take sponsorship of Channel 4's Great British Bake Off from Amazon. The aim of this
sponsorship is to increase brand awareness and position the company as quality food provider in
the British retail industry. Another reason which has influenced Aldi to sponsor Great British
Bake Off is that this annual baking competition is one of the most viewed television events in
UK. In addition to this, the annual television event appeals to consumers off all ages (Aldi puts
focus on quality with Great British Bake Off sponsorship, 2020). The company has taken wise
decision to sponsor this show is to sponsor this show a sit will have positive impact on the Brand
image of the company. This show is depicts the love of British consumers for baking which will
help the company construct a connection with the British identity of Baking. The act of
sponsoring British baking competition will help the Aldi enhance their brand image and change
brand reputation. In addition to this the reputation of the firm in relation to British identity will
be increased.
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RECOMMENDATION
Fresh fruit Soda company needs to utilise sponsorship marketing in order to attain the
business objective of becoming one of the leading brands in the food and beverage industry in
next two years. Recommendation for the respective company which will help the company gain
desired results from sponsorship is provided below:
 Fresh fruit soda needs to identify events which appeal to their target consumer base with
focus on sport tournaments. The reason behind focus on sports tournaments is that this
company is targeting health conscious consumers and usually such consumers are
inclined towards watching sports tournaments.
 The company needs to sponsor a sports event in a way which lest the company interact
with their consumer base and highlights various health benefits associated with their
drinks.
 The company needs to connect with their target consumer by conducting contests in the
sports events which is being sponsored by fresh fruits and soda company. This will
increase consumer engagement and help the company gain loyal consumer base for their
firm.
 The firm needs to ensure that their sponsored event is not ambushed by other
organisation. This task includes constructing the tournaments in a way which maximises
the presence of company and reduces any negative impact of ambush marketing efforts
from other organisations. In addition to this the sports players participating in the
tournaments need to be advised about their social media usage to reduce ambush
marketing in digital spaces.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that the sponsorship is an effective marketing tool
used by business firms to accomplish their marketing objectives and communicate with their
target consumer base. Sponsorship has various advantages which include increased brand
awareness, enhanced brand image and reputation of the company. In addition to this business
organisations are able to use sponsorship as a tool to interact with large number of consumers.
Disadvantage associated with use of sponsorship include low guarantee of desired results and
controversial actions of the sponsored event, personality and cause resulting in backlash against
the firm. This happens as consumers link the actions of sponsored event with the company
sponsoring the event.
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REFRENCES
Books and journals
Cornwell, T.B. and Kwon, Y., 2019. Sponsorship-linked marketing: research surpluses and
shortages. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, pp.1-23.
Jensen, J.A. and Cornwell, T.B., 2018. Assessing the dissolution of horizontal marketing
relationships: The case of corporate sponsorship of sport. Journal of Business Research.
Lee, S. and Kim, E., 2020. Influencer marketing on Instagram: How sponsorship disclosure,
influencer credibility, and brand credibility impact the effectiveness of Instagram
promotional post. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 11(3), pp.232-249.
Jin, C.H., 2017. Retrospection and state of sports marketing and sponsorship research in IJSMS
from 1999 to 2015. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship.
Online
Aldi puts focus on quality with Great British Bake Off sponsorship, 2020. [Online] Available
through <https://www.marketingweek.com/aldi-quality-great-british-bake-off-sponsorship/>
Sponsorship marketing will impact your business, 2017. [Online] Available through
<https://guardian.ng/business-services/sponsorship-marketing-will-impact-your-business/>
Ambush Marketing: What It Is & Why It Works, 2020. [Online] Available
through<https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/04/04/ambush-marketing>
M&S inks first TV sponsorship deal with ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, 2019. [Online] Available
through <https://www.marketingweek.com/marks-and-spencer-britains-got-talent-sponsorship/>
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REFLECTIVE STATEMENT
During the completion of this report I was able to identify reliable sources with the help
of CRAPP test. This test helped me identify authentic, reliable, relevant, useful and unbiased
resources to be used in the report. I checked if the links to various digital sources were functional
and were updated in order to use sources which had information relevant to current time. I
understood the relevance of the sources used in this report by gaining information about the
intended audience of the source and if the level of the information is suitable for this report. I
checked the credentials and qualifications of the author and checked if the information is
supported by evidence or reviewed in order to check the reliability of the source. I ensured that
the information in the sources is impartial and unbiased and the intention of the author is clear in
order to complete the report with reliable sources. I leaned the ability to check the reliability of
sources and gained the skill of time management and critical analysis enduring the completion of
this research. These skills will be helpful in professional career as I will be able to complete my
project in an effective manner.
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