Clinton S. Weeks

SPONSORSHIP-LINKED MARKETING: OPENING THE BLACK BOX

Sponsorship of sports, arts, and causes has become a mainstream marketing communications tool. A great deal of fieldwork has attempted to gauge the relative effectiveness of sponsorship in a marketing context, but these weakly controlled field studies contribute little to our understanding of how individuals process sponsorship-linked marketing communications. By considering possible underlying information-processing mechanics, individual- and group-level factors, market factors, and management factors, together with theorized sponsorship outcomes, this paper offers a model of consumer-focused sponsorship-linked marketing communications that summarizes and extends theoretical understanding of the topic.

Shouting From the Ivory Tower: A Marketing Approach to Improve Communication of Academic Research to Entrepreneurs

Evidence–based practice in entrepreneurship requires effective communication of research findings. We focus on how research synopses can “promote” research to entrepreneurs. Drawing on marketing communications literature, we examine how message characteristics of research synopses affect their appeal. We demonstrate the utility of conjoint analysis in this context and find message length, media richness, and source credibility to have positive influences. We find mixed support for a hypothesized negative influence of jargon, and for our predictions that participants’ involvement with academic research moderates these effects. Exploratory analyses reveal latent classes of entrepreneurs with differing preferences, particularly for message length and jargon.

Grocery product pricing and Australian supermarket consumers: gender differences in perceived importance levels

Grocery shopping is an essential and routine activity. Although long regarded the responsibility of the female spouse, modern social and demographic shifts are causing men to become more engaged in this task. This is the first study to analyse gender differences with respect to the criterion of grocery product price within an Australian supermarket retail environment. A stratified sample of 140 male and 140 female grocery shoppers was surveyed. Results showed that men considered price attributes of products as being significantly lower in importance than did women. Additionally, men displayed lower levels of price involvement, reported referencing shelf price to a lesser extent, and gave lesser consideration to promotional tactics focusing on low price. Although men on average buy fewer items than do women, they spend more money for each item they purchase. This higher expenditure per item appears to be driven, at least in part, by a lack of price referencing. This research has implications for gender studies and consumer behaviour disciplines in relation to grocery shopping.

Buffered forgetting: When targets and distractors are both forgotten

In three experiments, we investigated prior findings that, following some memory tasks, essentially flatd′ or forced-choice retention curves are produced. These curves have been interpreted as indicating that forgetting is not present over the intervals examined; however, we propose in this article that forgetting is actually present whenever hit rates and false alarm rates are both declining, despite the result being a flat retention curve. We demonstrate that such curves can be produced using a pair recognition procedure, a plurality discrimination task, and a verbal discrimination task. For all of these tasks, we provide either new evidence or refer to evidence already in the literature that tends to contradict alternative explanations. Then we show how the failure to consider both signal strength and noise has led to distortions in theoretical thinking about forgetting.

There goes my hero again: Sport scandal frequency and social-identity driven response

Abstract With sport scandals reported frequently in the media, it is important to understand how associated stakeholders are affected. In the current work, we investigated the impact of off-field sport scandal on key stakeholders (the sport, implicated team, sponsor brand), and the roles played by team identification and scandal frequency. A 2 (fandom) × 3 (scandal frequency) between-subjects quasi-experiment examined responses to scandal news stories. Ingroup fan attitudes became less favorable toward all stakeholders following scandal, especially when it was described as repeat behavior. This differed to outgroup fan attitudes, which became less favorable toward the sport, but were generally negative and stable for other stakeholders, irrespective of scandal frequency. Respondents were willing to attribute responsibility to particular perpetrators rather than the team, and tended to endorse sponsorship continuation simultaneously with perpetrator removal/sanction. Findings have strategic implications for those involved in sponsorship, sport marketing, and sport management.

Why Consumers Misattribute Sponsorships to Non-Sponsor Brands: Differential Roles of Item and Relational Communications.

Brands engaged in sponsorship of events commonly have objectives that depend on consumer memory for the sponsor–event relationship (e.g., sponsorship awareness). Consumers however, often misattribute sponsorships to nonsponsor competitor brands, indicating erroneous memory for these relationships. The current research uses an item and relational memory framework to reveal sponsor brands may inadvertently foster this misattribution when they communicate relational linkages to events. Effects can be explained via differential roles of communicating item information (information that supports processing item distinctiveness) versus relational information (information that supports processing relationships among items) in contributing to memory outcomes. Experiment 1 uses event-cued brand recall to show that correct memory retrieval is best supported by communicating relational information when sponsorship relationships are not obvious (low congruence). In contrast, correct retrieval is best supported by communicating item information when relationships are obvious (high congruence). Experiment 2 uses brand-cued event recall to show that, against conventional marketing recommendations, relational information increases misattribution, whereas item information guards against misattribution. Results suggest sponsor brands must distinguish between item and relational communications to enhance correct retrieval and limit misattribution. Methodologically, the work shows that choice of cueing direction is critical in differentially revealing patterns of correct and incorrect retrieval with pair relationships.

When ambush marketing is beneficial to sponsorship awareness: creating sponsor distinctiveness using exclusivity and brand juxtaposition

ABSTRACT Ambush marketing is a contentious practice whereby brands communicate an association with an event without being an official sponsor. Those involved in sponsorship commonly try to limit it by restricting ambusher activity in event contexts. We introduce theoretical ideas around distinctiveness to explain that sponsors may actually fare better in terms of awareness outcomes when ambushers are present in the event context, if they strategically use ambusher presence to highlight their own distinctive sponsor status. Across two experiments we show that sponsor distinctiveness can be achieved by communicating sponsorship exclusivity in ambusher presence, and by facilitating juxtaposition of sponsor and ambusher messages. Results include increased recall to sponsor cues, and reduced recall to ambusher cues. The findings suggest ambusher restrictions may sometimes be counter-productive.