Sport Sponsorship: The Relationship Between Team Loyalty, Sponsorship Awareness, Attitude Toward the Sponsor, and Purchase Intentions

TLDR

Sponsorship studies have generally focused on attitudinal measures of fan loyalty to understand reactions to abstract sponsors. This study examines the relationships between attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, sponsorship awareness, attitudes toward two actual sponsors, and purchase intentions. Data were collected among fans of a professional soccer team, and a structural equation model shows that attitudinal loyalty influences attitudes toward both sponsors and purchase intentions. Behavioral loyalty increases sponsorship awareness and differentially affects attitudes and purchase intentions toward each sponsor, while sponsorship awareness boosts attitudes toward both sponsors and the sponsor attitude is the strongest predictor of purchase intentions, underscoring the need for sponsors to attract fans to stadiums and design activation strategies to enhance sponsorship value.

Abstract

Sponsorship studies have generally been focused on attitudinal measures of fan loyalty to understand the reactions to abstract sponsors. This study examines the relationships between both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty with sponsorship awareness, attitude toward two actual sponsors, and purchase intentions. Data were collected among fans of a professional soccer team, and the results of a structural equation model provide evidence that attitudinal loyalty impacts the attitude toward both sponsors and purchase intentions. Behavioral loyalty influences sponsorship awareness, and impacts differently the attitude and purchase intentions toward each sponsor. Sponsorship awareness influences significantly the attitude toward both sponsors, while the attitude toward the sponsor was the strongest predictor of purchase intentions. These findings highlight the importance of examining actual sponsors and suggest managerial implications, such as the need for sponsors to help attract fans to the stadium and to design additional activation strategies to improve sponsorship value.