consortiums

PROJECT 3

PERSONNEL RECRUITING

Kirk Wakefield
School of Business Administration
University of Mississippi

Proposed Grant $73,780

Abstract:
The growth of corporate sponsorships in the last decade, particularly in the area of sports, has escalated at a staggering rate. Interestingly, aside from generic polling research regarding consumer recall of Olympic sponsors, consumer research in this area is virtually nonexistent. Practitioners, relying primarily upon anecdotal information and perhaps just a

desire to be associated with major league sports, continue to pour promotion dollars into sponsorships with little knowledge of its effectiveness in reaching the intended audience .

Recent work by Jahar & Phar (1999) has begun to examine some of the characteristics of sponsorships that lead to consumers correctly identifying the sponsor of an event or activity. However, no research to date has examined characteristics of the consumer that may lead to consumers correctly identifying the sponsor of an event or activity. Such research is critically important since it matters less that a given sponsorship has high recall among the general population and matters more that the sponsorship has high recall among a specific target audience with specific customer characteristics. This research, then, seeks to determine methods by which sponsorships can be an effective tool in reaching specific target audiences who are motivated to look for relevant information regarding the sponsor and its products or services.