Academic literature on the topic 'Apparel sponsorship'

Gaining exclusive sponsorship rights to international football club apparel has become increasingly competitive, resulting in larger deal values. The first objective of this study was to analyze the effect of kit sponsorship announcements on the underlying value of sponsoring firms. Utilizing event study analysis, we found that firms announcing kit sponsorships experience negative abnormal returns. This finding may not be surprising given the fierce competition for obtaining valuable, scarce marketing space and the well-known winner’s curse. The second objective was to shed further light on the value of kit sponsorship deals by conducting a novel test in which we analyzed a subset of sample observations where the kit sponsorship changed to a new sponsor. We found that firms may be willing to overpay for sponsorships to pre-empt their direct competitors from obtaining valuable, scarce marketing space. Firms losing a pre-existing sponsorship to a direct competitor experience large negative abnormal returns.

Purpose – Due in large part to the proprietary nature of costs, there is a dearth of academic literature investigating the factors influencing the costs for sport marketing investments, such as sponsorship. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical framework for market intelligence that enables managers to better predict and forecast costs in today’s ever-changing sport marketing environment. Design/methodology/approach – Given the dynamic and ultra-competitive nature of the athletic apparel industry, this context was chosen to investigate the influence of four distinct factors on sponsorship costs, including property-specific factors, on-field performance, and market-specific factors. A systematic, hierarchical procedure was utilized in the development of a predictive empirical model, which was then utilized to generate predicted values on a per property basis. Findings – Results demonstrated that both property-specific and performance-related factors were significant predictors of costs, while variables reflecting the attractiveness of the property’s home market were non-significant. Further analysis revealed the potential for agency conflicts in the allocation of resources toward properties near the corporate headquarters of sponsors, as well as evidence of overspending by challenger brands (Adidas, Under Armour) in their quest to topple industry leader Nike. Originality/value – Though the context of apparel sponsorships of US-based intercollegiate athletic programs limits the generalizability of the results, this study represents one of the few in the literature to empirically investigate the determinants of sponsorship costs, providing much-needed guidance to aid decision making in a highly volatile, unpredictable industry.

This paper examines corporate sponsorship as an additional source of funding for college recreational facilities and programs. The purpose of the study was to: (a) examine current sources of funding for campus recreation, (b) estimate the percentage of institutions currently involved with corporate sponsorship in their campus recreation programs, (c) identify the types of businesses sponsoring campus recreation centers as well as what these companies receive in return for their sponsorship, and (d) identify the reasons various institutions give for their lack of involvement with sponsorship. Questionnaires were mailed to campus recreation directors at 140 randomly selected universities representing four regions of the United States. Results indicated that primary sources of funding for campus recreation programs currently include student fees (63.5 percent), private donations (23.5 percent), and state funding (13 percent). The use of corporate sponsorship to supplement funding was indicated by 46 percent of responding institutions. The most common types of businesses currently sponsoring campus recreation programs included athletic equipment/apparel, soft drink, insurance companies and restaurants. Slightly over half of the companies identified in the sponsorships were national chain corporations, while almost 40 percent were local businesses. In regard to what sponsoring companies received in exchange, results of the study indicated that use of company names in recreation center literature was most common. In addition, 20 percent of respondents reported that sponsoring corporations were given advertising space on the recreation center website. The two primary reasons given by campus recreation directors for lack of involvement with sponsorship were: (a) institutional policy prohibiting sponsorship involvement, and (b) uncertainty of how to pursue sponsorships. There are several implications of the study for campus recreation directors. These include the following: 1. Corporate sponsorship represents a significant opportunity for obtaining additional funding for campus recreation. 2. Knowing the types of companies currently involved in campus recreation sponsorship provide a starting place for those recreation directors who are exploring sponsorship as a source of funding. 3. Recreation center directors should closely examine what sponsors are currently receiving, or will receive in exchange, so that the sponsorship is not perceived as purely philanthropic.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of brand associations and the formation of attitudes towards a new sponsor. Specifically, the paper evaluates the Under Armour brand and its anomalous position in the Barclay’s Premier League. Design/methodology/approach – The research design is longitudinal, qualitative and interpretivistic, utilising 26 online focus groups with 213 participants over a 24-month period encompassing the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 Premier League seasons. Findings – The results indicate that Under Armour’s lack of football (soccer) presence in the context of the Premier League offered significant differentiation, as it diminished “common ground” with other fans, offered the opportunity to create personal identities beyond the club and the consumption of kit apparel, and was seen as positive given the articulation that brands such as Nike and Adidas were “forced” onto fans. Additionally, for the first time in the sports sponsorship literature, the findings reveal fans engaging with brands in a utilitarian manner, expressing concerns relating to cost, durability, functionality and value for money. Research limitations/implications – This study is exploratory in nature and highly contextualised, and a larger-scale study of the phenomenon is desirable. This study extends the literature on fans’ perceptions of sponsoring brands and shows that a new sponsor, without prior league or club associations, can generate significant brand interest and elicit consumption behaviours beyond team apparel. Practical implications – The findings suggest that there are considerable opportunities for “outside” brands to garner a market share and instigate loyalty through sponsorship. Subsequently, kit manufacturers should consider strategies that encompass entry into new sporting areas. Originality/value – The study reveals that fans seek uniqueness and differentiation in a sponsoring brand, with brand image paramount in relation to the club and to both social and personal identity.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the post type of the official account of the Korean fashion brands on Instagram and to analyze the images and keywords according to the use of the hashtag in it. This study also will provide data of how fashion brands use the new media of Instagram and how they promote it. Design/methodology/approach This study investigated the types of postings and keywords of hashtag(#) of fashion brand’s official Instagram account in order to analyze the post type and keyword. In total, six apparel brand companies were selected, with two in each of three categories (classic casual brand, outdoor sports brand and designer character brand), and seven types of postings were classified (lookbook and product, collection, broadcasting ads, brand issue, sensibility pictures, sponsorship and event). The frequencies were collected according to their types that were confirmed by four fashion major specialists. Findings First, the proportion of the types of postings varied according to the characteristics of the brand. Second, the six brands used keywords of a symbol because it is important to convey brand identity. Third, the sensibility keywords of each brand were investigated, and one of the designer character brands used only practical keywords without sensibility keywords. Fourth, this study examined the number of Instagram hashtags and hearts to determine if the reaction was in alignment with the marketing trends of the company’s official Instagram account and consumers. One of the classic casual brands, one of the outdoor sports brands and both designer character brands showed a high proportion of types of posts on Instagram that well matched with consumer response. As a hypothesis of this study, it was supported that the posting types of images and hashtags will be different according to the characteristics of brand. Originality/value Instagram is the fastest growing social network service (SNS) globally, especially among young adults. Instagram is noted for its strong SNS marketing but it has not been well researched in the apparel industry. The study results will help improve the brand image and promotion by using official Instagram account in the apparel industry.

Scholars have frequently examined sponsorship effectiveness via survey instrument; however, no efforts have been made to gauge sponsorship effectiveness via social networking sites. As a medium for consumer activity and interaction, scholars and industry professionals can leverage social media to monitor the effects of sponsorship in real time, as consumers experience a sporting event. In this exploratory study, we employed a mixed methods study design to examine Twitter users’ discussion of 2013 French Open sponsors during the tennis tournament. We found a weak positive relationship between sponsor-event functional fit and positive sponsor-related sentiment, and a weak positive relationship between a sponsor company’s social media presence and event-related buzz. Through case study analysis, we discovered unintended misrepresentation and activation were apparent drivers of sponsor-related social media conversation during the 2013 French Open. As an emerging area for sponsorship research, we provide suggestions for future research into sponsorship and social media.

Purpose This paper aims to provide a systematic review of evaluations of public health and social marketing campaigns reporting the use of sports sponsorship. Sports sponsorship is a key health promotion strategy, yet academic literature on the use of sponsorship in social marketing and public health is surprisingly limited. Design/methodology/approach Seventeen studies were identified following systematic literature review procedures. Findings Coupling of social marketing and public health sponsorship with changes in policies in sporting clubs and associations offers an effective means to achieve desired outcomes, e.g. behaviour change. Research limitations/implications The analysis presented in this review included information that was reported in the identified studies, which might be an incomplete representation of work undertaken but not reported. All of the studies identified in this review were conducted in English-speaking countries. Considerable opportunity for future research is apparent, and areas for future research are outlined. Practical implications Limited evidence was available, and additional research examining the effectiveness of sponsorship in attaining behavioural change is urgently needed. Future studies should assess the role, scope of involvement in, aims and benefits of non-government sponsors of public health and social marketing campaigns; use methods that do not rely on self-reporting, such as observations; and explore the influence of health sponsorship on attitudes, social norms and behaviours. Originality/value This is the first study to provide a systematic review of the use of sports sponsorship in public health and social marketing.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is show how sponsors in a major sponsored event may react when facing a potential doping affair. The Tour de France cycling competition is a premier global sporting event – broadcast worldwide – and thus attracts very significant sponsorship. Cycling teams are named after their team sponsors. Recent global news has, however, shown that there are doping scandals involved in this event which impact both teams and team sponsors. When a doping scandal occurs in a team, the sponsors have to react rapidly and expeditiously to protect their brand reputation. Design/methodology/approach – To ascertain potential reactions, team sponsors are interviewed in depth and their reactions to a doping affair assessed. The sponsors represent different brands and their commitment as team sponsors also varies. Findings – Research shows that sponsors react similarly when a doping scandal occurs in their team and adopt similar communication strategies in that situation. While best practice is apparent, doping policies put into place by sponsors nevertheless differ. These practices are more than just preventative in nature, i.e. they anticipate and try to prevent doping affairs. Practical implications – The teams and sponsors are engaged in a long-term relationship to build brand heritage. Undoubtedly, doping is taken very seriously, as consequences can be severe. In this sense, the sport, the teams and the sponsors share the same vision and objectives. Originality/value – Team sponsors reactions while facing a potential doping affair have not yet been assessed. Best practices become visible which might serve as guidelines in other global sporting events, also generating significant sponsorships.

This paper addresses the phenomenon of globalization, which has also spread to sports, in terms of its economic, social and cultural aspects; while discussing the concept based on examples from the discipline of football in the premier league of Turkey. In this framework, sports labor emigration mobility is handled, and sponsorship and the effects of globalization in Turkey’s sport is examined in terms of relationships between media and sports. The paper also provides concrete examples from the national and international sports circles by framing the fields where globalization becomes apparent in sports. In this framework, this article addresses the sport labor migration, and studies the effect of globalization in Turkish sports within the relations among sponsorship, media and sports.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer attitudes towards ambush marketing and official event sponsorship through the lens of sentiment analysis, and to examine social media users' ethical responses to digital event marketing campaigns during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Design/methodology/approach The study employed a sentiment analysis, examining Twitter users’ utilization of sponsor and non-sponsor promotional hashtags. Statistical modelling programme R was used to access Twitter’s API, enabling the analysis and coding of user tweets pertaining to six marketing campaigns. The valence of each tweet – as well as the apparent user motivation underlying each post – was assessed, providing insight into Twitter users’ ethical impressions of sponsor and ambush marketer activities on social media and online engagement with social media marketing. Findings The study’s findings indicate that consumer attitudes towards ambush marketing may be significantly more positive than previously thought. Users’ attitudes towards ambush marketing appear significantly more positive than previously assumed, as users of social media emerged as highly responsive to creative and value-added non-sponsor campaigns. Originality/value The findings affirm that sentiment analysis may afford scholars and practitioners a viable means of assessing consumer attitudes towards social marketing activations, dependent upon campaign objectives and strategy. The study provides a new and invaluable context to consumer affect and ambush ethics research, advancing sponsorship and ambush marketing delivery and social sponsorship analytical practice.

“West Indian interventions at the BBC” examines the Corporation’s sponsorship of and collaborations with Trinidadian singer Edric Connor, Trinidadian talent agent Pearl Connor, and British Guianese actor and singer Cy Grant. Edric Connor used the BBC’s mandate to educate and uplift viewer and listeners to promote Caribbean culture, history and artists. Pearl Connor channelled the Corporation’s demand for colonial talent into the business of professionalizing and directing West Indian performers in London. She created opportunities for her clients by helping expand their niche and persuading producers to cast black actors in a wider range of roles. Cy Grant had the voice, looks, and charm to secure a long-running presence on the Tonight program. Their success highlights a moment when the BBC was open to a progressive vision of the nation’s future. Ultimately, however, the cultural priorities of these artists diverged from the Corporation, a fact that was strikingly apparent by the 1960s. Only then did the disillusionment so characteristic of later generations of ‘black British’ artists become pronounced.

In this chapter Walters returns to influential earlier work in which he pointed to apparent correspondences between late canonical Pāli texts of the Khuddaka Nikāya (especially Apadāna, Buddhavaṃsa and Cariyāpiṭaka, the “ABCs”) and archaeological and epigraphic evidence from the monumental stupa sites of early post-Aśokan South Asia (2nd - 1st c., BCE). Walters’ concern in that work was to reconstruct the overlap of Buddhist narrative with monumental art and epigraphs as a context in which to understand the elite, royal, and sometimes imperial sponsorship of the sites in question. He suggested that the affective experience of participants created in that conjuncture of story with stupa might help make sense of the imperial and other elite sponsorship of the latter, both because individual elite donors could imagine their own participation as progress in traversing the soteriological maps drawn by the ABCs, and because the congregation of wider populaces to participate in stupa festivals could serve more mundane ends including political mobilization, economic or intellectual exchange, and the enhancement of social prestige through public displays of piety. In this new chapter, Walters enlarges those considerations in two ways. On one hand, he moves beyond the cataloguing of individual narrative details (such as technical terminology for architectural features or liturgical practices, or narrative segments) which emerge simultaneously in both the textual and the archaeological record to explore how collectively those “details” situate stupa-cult participants within the textual narrative as a whole. In particular, he suggests that such an experience is facilitated through homology of the whole site to “big picture” images narrated in these texts (in particular, the ratanacankama of Buddhavaṃsa and the buddha-pāsāda of Buddhāpadāna). He makes this argument in part through considering the visual within a larger range of senses simultaneously engaged by the texts and the monuments, which he suggests might have contributed to the persistence and enlargement of such embodied imagination of whole “Buddhaverses” or pure lands in subsequent Buddhist traditions. On the other hand, he enlarges this work by including consideration of a parallel Sri Lankan site, Mihintale, during the same period, an example of the adaptability of the narrative-and-monument conjuncture as the religion was adopted beyond its original home. As such, this chapter bridges the general Introduction and the rest of the volume by painting a compelling picture of the role of narrative in physical sites of devotional and political activity in early South Asia.