The role of sponsorship in brand building
1. Sponsorship can realize organizational mobilization and cultural construction of brand creation. Brand-sponsored activities will inspire employees' enthusiasm and pride in the activities, and even contribute to the construction of corporate culture. For example, if a brand sponsors a team, employees will pay close attention to the performance of the team sponsored by their own brand and feel proud of their connection with such a prosperous time.
2. Provide customers with an experience. Activity experience is an excellent opportunity to enhance the relationship between consumers and brands and brand institutions. Enterprises can invite target users or potential users to participate in brand-sponsored activities or give tickets, mascots and props related to the activities, and interact with consumers while giving these gifts to deepen consumers' understanding of the brand.
3. Show new products and technologies. You can display the brand's new products or technologies through related items needed for sponsoring activities. For example, during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Panasonic sponsored the largest video display in the stadium.
4. Create brand display opportunities. The biggest feature of sponsorship is that it can greatly expose the brand. Although the cost of sponsorship is high, if the sponsored activities are good, the same exposure cost is lower or even much lower than the advertising cost. Wang Lao Ji is the first sponsor of China's good voice. Because it was the first time that Voice of China was held at that time, the title fee was low. Wang Lao Ji just needed exposure at that time, so he took the title of China's good voice. Later, China's good voice became an instant hit, and the title fee naturally rose.
5. Develop brand association. A brand can develop or strengthen its association by sponsoring some activities related to its category status, brand image, target group or product. If the brand signs a contract with top athletes, it can establish or consolidate the position of category leader; Brand sponsorship of global activities can establish an international image; The ingredients sponsored by a brand for a large-scale event can also reflect the excellent quality of its ingredients.
Sponsoring a large-scale event does not mean that the event is successful, but sponsoring a brand is successful. There are seven keys to effective sponsorship. Knowing these seven keys before sponsorship will help brand sponsorship to achieve its set goals better.
1. has a clear brand communication goal. Sponsorship strategy should be adapted to communication objectives, which usually include three communication objectives: increasing exposure, developing brand association and developing customer relationship. First of all, we must determine the desired goal of this sponsorship, and then decide whether to sponsor and how to sponsor (title or just sponsor one of them).
2. Actively manage sponsorship activities. In the face of numerous sponsorship activities, enterprises should take the initiative to understand the situation of each activity and choose activities according to their own goals. The following figure can be used as a simple decision-making method for choosing sponsorship activities.
3. Find the best fit point. It is best to sponsor associations that can establish or strengthen brands, such as DuPont thermal underwear to sponsor the crossing of the cold Bering Strait and watches to sponsor the timer of the competition. When the brand wants to seize the cognition and market through rapid exposure, it can also sponsor some activities that have little to do with itself, such as Jiaduobao sponsoring China's good voice.
4. Sponsored. The brand finally established a strong connection with the sponsored activities, and even let consumers know who sponsored the activities when they saw them. To achieve this goal, brands need to focus on one or several activities; Establish long-term relationships and contracts with activists to prevent them from being replaced by competitors; Consider using the title; Beware of sponsorship confusion; Consider the threat of covert marketing and make a response plan.
5. Look for publicity opportunities. The cost of an effective sponsorship budget should be 3-4 times that of the sponsorship itself. These increased budgets need to be used to help connect brands and activities and fully tap the value of sponsorship activities. For example, after being sponsored by an activity, you can use this identity to carry out some offline or online activities to interact with consumers (giving mascots and event tickets, etc.). ), so as to spread brand value and deepen consumers' understanding of the brand.
6. Consider various sponsorship benefits. Some sponsorships create opportunities to display brands, establish and consolidate brand associations and bring profits to enterprises. In addition, sponsorship can also achieve meaningful brand creation in other ways, such as establishing or strengthening contact with key customers, displaying new products, and mobilizing brand creation within the organization.
7. Actively manage sponsorship activities. Successful sponsorship does not appear out of thin air. It is necessary to set goals and make plans to achieve them, and actively carry out activities related to sponsorship or marketing activities through sponsorship around sponsored activities.
In fact, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, sponsorship is an area that is rarely considered and involved. However, SMEs can also use sponsorship to build brands.
Suggestions on sponsorship of small and medium-sized catering enterprises.
1. Choose to sponsor different activities according to different strategic stages. If it is to enhance popularity, it doesn't matter even if the activity has almost nothing to do with all aspects of the enterprise. As long as it can enhance visibility, it can also be sponsored.
2. Major cities and events participate in sponsorship, and sponsorship is used as a publicity hotspot or sponsorship activity to carry out other activities (such as distributing souvenirs and winning tickets for events). ); Small activities can not participate; Small cities, actively participate in event sponsorship, if possible, long-term sponsorship, especially local representative activities (showing their strength and showing that they are leading brands).
3. Sponsor activities of target consumer groups. For example, if the store sponsors activities organized by surrounding residential areas, it can use the good ingredients of catering enterprises as prizes, enter the relevant exhibition areas in the community, and send relevant personnel to promote the brand.
4. Sponsorship is secondary, and it is the key to support and carry out related supporting activities around the goal, so the money should be reserved for supporting activities. For example, Vantage supported the French team during the 20 18 World Cup. Vantage is a partner of the French team. It didn't appear in the live broadcast of the World Cup, but it made a good marketing by using the World Cup.