Sponsorship leverage and its effects on brand image - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 146

structure” where this particular soccer player “has
very strong associations, brand recognition and
loyalty among fans”. Therefore, understanding the
definition of brand and their role in the formation
of attitude towards brands is necessary for spon-
sors to comprehend the dynamics of their brands
and how consumers evaluate and make brand
choices (James, 2005).
A corporate brand marketing strategists usually
believes that the brand itself should be enough to
attract it consumers (Schultz & Hatch, 2003). Frus-
tratingly, many corporate brand managers are com-
placent enough to realize the opportunity of linking
the corporate brand and other brand assets in their
portfolio with other prospective elements such as
associating themselves with events or even other
brands. Furthermore, corporate marketing brand
managers tend to ignore the power and possibili-
ties in brand association, through sub-brands such
as Nescafé by Nestlé or Playstation by Sony and
endorsed brands such as Holiday Inn by Interconti-
nental Hotels Group (Uggla, 2006). Brand associa-
tions is how we take advantage of suitable situations,
product categories and product attributes to relate
with customer which could benefit both parties
(James, 2005). Many companies opted to promote
the brand as it is, simply because the economics
of it. They believed that managing and developing
a single corporate brand is a more cost-effective
and time-saving rather than managing a portfolio
of other sub-brands or involving themselves with
events which for them, are of “different nuances”
(Aaker, 2004; Melewar & Walker, 2003).
Consumer-derived brand, on the other hand, are
communicated in the associations a company make
with the consumer of which a strong and positive
associations will contributes to the establishment
of the brand and this associations act as a lever-
age depending on the types of associations it has
with its consumers (James, 2005). Generally, it is
about how likeable a brand is to the consumer and
it is the likability that is assisting in the formation
of the brand itself. Consumer's associations with
corporate brands revolve around three conceptual
main streams, associations based on social expec-
tations, associations based on corporate personal-
ity traits and associations based on trust (Berens &
van Riel, 2004).

is regarded as the world's fastest growing form of
marketing investment with $24.6 billion world-
wide being spent in 2001 alone (Dolphin, 2003).
Since a decade ago, sponsorship has also become
a conventional marketing communications tool as
evidence showed a worldwide sponsorship spend-
ing reaching US$33 billion (International Events
Group, 2014as cited in Woodside & Summers,
2009). Data published by International Events
Group in 2009 showed that “Asia Pacific is the
world's fastest-growing sponsorship region, with
spending anticipated to increase 7.4 per cent from
US$9.5 billion in 2008 to US$10.2 billion in 2009,
equivalent to approximately 22 per cent of the glo-
bal sponsorship market” (Johnston, 2010). Recent
report by IEG also shows that Asia Pacific region
leads all other geographies with a forecast growth
rate of 5.6 per cent (International Events Group,
2014).
Likewise, public relation could also be used to
support sponsorship activities in return. Sylves-
tre and Moutinho (2008) in their study relating
to activities involved to leverage sponsorship by
four companies in London found that public rela-
tions activities were used to support advertising
for branding and to promote corporate hospitality
and community relations of sponsoring organiza-
tions in an event. It could be understood that apart
from being one of the major tools in public rela-
tions activities itself, sponsorship leveraging activi-
ties also include public relations as one of its tool
simultaneously.

4 METHODOLOGY

In preparing this paper, the researcher has accessed
a number of academic literatures, as well as text
books and journal articles to obtain data and infor-
mation. Existing academic sponsorship discus-
sions form the framework of this study and work
as a guideline for the research, which is the most
appropriate method considering the research set-
ting. Substantial hour of browsing related websites
has also been done. No direct interview or survey
has been attempted. Therefore, the outcomes of
this research are mainly based on secondary and
tertiary sources. Škoda Australia has been selected
as the subject of this case study.

3.1 Public relations and sponsorship
Sponsorship, as one of the public relation branches
is fast becoming a formidable tool to reach to the
core of customers brand awareness and brand
associations (Muotka & Mannberg, 2004). One of
the primary reasons for undertaking sponsorship
is understood as to develop image (Smith, 2004).
A report by IEG Network stated that, sponsorship

5 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ŠKODA

AUSTRALIA

The Škoda brand, originated from Czech Republic,
first came to Australia in 1965 with the Škoda Octa-
via model but discontinued its Australian distribu-
tion in 1983 (Fallah, 2007). In December 1990, the