As a result of existence of many firms in the global markets, those markets have become highly competitive and survival in those markets became harder and harder for the firms over the past years thus producing quality products and services is no longer considered to do something special and became normal. In other words, functional differences between products and services have been diminished in the markets. So, companies in those markets started to look for solutions to this vicious circle. Sponsorship appeared to be one of the solutions; as it is one of the difference makers in customers’ perceptions adding intangible values to the tangible functions of the products or the services produced by the brand appealing to emotions.
Sponsorship is a practice through which both fund receiver and supporter get benefit. Receiver puts into practice what they are good at without thinking about fund problem. Brand sponsorship is a kind of cooperation which is established between parties. Supporter gets the advantage of publicizing its brand name together with the receiver’s brand name and its activities which are open to public in return based on certain rules. Brands pay certain amount of money to the legal entity for the cooperation through a legal agreement.
The research is based on the fact that 39% of the soccer teams in Turkish Super League have brand sponsorship and the tendency of having a brand sponsorship increases. Research questions of the research are, what soccer fans think about brand sponsorship? and how brand sponsorship effects the perception of both soccer teams and the brands? A survey has been developed through Google Forms and used to get the research data needed for the research. Survey, which has 6 demographic questions, 16 questions designed with Likert Scale and 5 questions with multiple choices, has transferred via a link to participants Dictionary of Ekşi over the internet. The reason why Dictionary of Ekşi has been chosen is because it has thousands of users from various backgrounds and most of them are fans of various soccer teams in Turkey.
The following questions (R.Q.) were examined in the research:
R.Q. 1. Is there a relationship between positive thoughts of individuals regarding the contributions that brand sponsorship provides and positive attitudes of individuals towards the company that becomes brand sponsorship?
R.Q. 2. Is there a significant difference between genders in terms of the answers given to the question of positive thoughts of individuals regarding the contributions that brand sponsorship provides?
R.Q. 3. Is there a significant difference between genders in terms of the answers given to the question of attitudes of individuals towards the company that provides brand sponsorship?
Initial factor analyses were conducted with reliability tests to identify items to be included in each category. KMO values for the two categories of data were acceptable (KMO: 0,853). The Barlett's tests also showed that the data were suitable for factoring (p=0.000).
As a result of factor analyses, we found all factors we have defined at the beginning of the survey. The factors found are as follows:
• Factor 1: Positive thoughts of individuals regarding the contributions that brand sponsorship provides.
• Factor 2: Positive attitudes of individuals towards the company that becomes brand sponsorship.
• Factor 3: Effects of brand sponsorship on individual’s bonds with the soccer team.
Reliability value is an indicator of the degree of reaching the same result after repeated measurements. Therefore, reliability analysis is needed. To do that Cronbach’s Alpha is computed. If Alpha value is above 0,70, the survey is considered reliable. Overall Cronbach’s Alpha value is high (0,814).
Some of the findings of the research are as follows:
• There is a significant (p=0,000) positive relationship (r=0,381) between positive thoughts of individuals regarding the contributions that brand sponsorship provides and positive attitudes of individuals towards the company that becomes brand sponsorship (R.Q. 1).
• There is a significant difference between genders in terms of the answers given to the question of positive thoughts of individuals regarding the contributions that brand sponsorship provides. Answers given as women to the question of gender are closest to definitely agree (695,94), while men are closest to definitely disagree (560,75) (R.Q. 2).
There is a significant difference between genders in terms of the answers given to the question of attitudes of individuals towards the company that provides brand sponsorship. Answers given as women to the question of gender are closest to definitely agree (598,18), while men are closest to definitely disagree (574,58) (R.Q. 3).
Sponsorluk, küresel rekabetin bir sonucu olarak markaların pazarda ayakta kalmak ve bilinirlik gibi beklentileri doğrultusunda uyguladığı bir iş birliğidir. Bu iş birliğinin özel bir türü olarak isim sponsorluğu, markanın adının işbirlikçisi ile birlikte anılarak akıllarda yer etmesine katlı sağlayacak türde bir sponsorluktur. Söz konusu iş birliğini gerçekleştirmek için markalar, isim sponsoru oldukları kuruma sözleşme karşılığında belirli bir bedel ödemektedirler. 2019-2020 sezonunda Süper Lig’de futbol kulüplerinin %39’unun isim sponsoruna sahip olması ve her sezon bu sayının artma eğilimi içerisinde olması bu araştırmanın çıkış noktasını oluşturmaktadır. Futbol taraftarı isim sponsorluğu hakkında ne düşünmektedir, isim sponsorluğu futbol kulüplerinin ve markanın algısına nasıl etki etmektedir sorularına yanıt aranan bu çalışmada verilerin elde edilmesi için 1153 katılımcıya birincil araştırma yöntemlerinden anket çalışması uygulanmıştır. Araştırmada elde edilen veriler SPSS Programında değerlendirilerek yorumlanmıştır. Araştırmada, isim sponsorluğunun takımlara yararlı olduğu, sporun doğasına aykırı olmadığı, ancak takımların isim sponsorluğundan elde edeceği ekonomik getiriyi başka bir alandan sağlamalarının tercih edildiği saptanmıştır.
Birincil Dil | Türkçe |
---|---|
Konular | İletişim ve Medya Çalışmaları |
Bölüm | Araştırma Makaleleri |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 25 Aralık 2020 |
Gönderilme Tarihi | 7 Kasım 2020 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2020 Cilt: 7 Sayı: 13 |
Intermedia International E-journal
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