Imageination
En uppsats om imageöverföring inom sponsring och Event Marketing
There are two main reasons for why companies engage in sponsoring and Event Marketing; affecting the brand awareness and/or the image of the brand. Historically the main focus within the research field has been on how sponsoring and Event Marketing can create and achieve high brand awareness. More research regarding the image transfer from event to brand has been requested and this study is to be considered as an attempt to begin filling this gap. Today we see more and more brands choosing to arrange their own events; hoping to attain a more direct connection between the event and the brand. This trend raises questions such as - Do brands arranging their own events receive more image transfer from event to brand compared to brands sponsoring the same kind of event? - Are there any differences between an established well-known brand and a new unknown brand? - Will an event fully owned by a brand attract more or less people than an event arranged by someone considered to be less biased? These are some of the questions asked and answered within this thesis. A quantative study with experimental design has been carried out and from the results we can tell that a brand arranging its own event can expect to receive higher levels of image transfer from event to brand than a brand choosing to only be a sponsor the same kind of event. Furthermore the study shows that there are no difference between the two scenarios in terms of word-of-mouth-intentions and intentions to visit the event. The handicap-effect and the trustworthiness are two other variables that have not been studied in this context before, but which turn out to have a positive effect on the level of image transfer from event to brand. Finally, the strength of the brand shows no connections to either the level of image transfer or the intentions to talk about or visit the event. This indicates that sponsoring and Event Marketing can be just as useful for new and unknown brands as for established and well-known ones.