sponsorship

SPONSORSHIP

Event sponsorship helps organizations to reach or attract different audiences, who are familiar with the sponsor through such activities like free sampling (Fan & Pfitzenmaier, 2002). Free sampling was the route taken by the sponsor during the Francistown marathon, which saw the locals take part in the city’s first marathon.

This event was planned and organized by B-mobile, who team up with Kalahari Breweries Limited (KBL) to provide the beverages such as coca cola and water. Looking at how many sporting events coca cola had sponsored, this was a perfect fit. The better fit between coca cola (sponsor) and B-mobile (sponsee) the more valuable the sponsorship became to both establishments (cornwell et al, 2006).

During the planning stages an agreement was made that KBL will provide the beverages and the organizing team will be in charge of issuing them out to the public. But upon morning of the event organizing team back tracked and failed to do their duty. This resulted in some athletes not receiving water during their race, giving KBL bad reputation. This soured the relationship between the companies.

REFERENCE

Cornwell, T., Humphrerys, M., Maguire, A., Weeks, C. & Tellegen, C. (2006). Sponsorship linked marketing: role of articulation in memory. Journal of consumer research, (3), pp 312-321)

Fan, Y & Pfitzenmaier, N. (2002) event sponsorship in china. An international journal, (7), pp110-116