The results of these studies are important for firms seeking to use sponsorship for image-enhancing purposes, as they establish that individuals perceive image links between a brand and ad sport. This finding supports the contention that sponsorship holds the potential to beganieffective image-enhancing promotional vehicle. Our results highlight the impact of personality links, which establishes basis for (and suggests the plausibility of) an image transfer from sport to brand in a sponsorship relationship.
The ability to help define a brand’s image via affiliation with a sport appears to be a strategy that is gaining momentum. Thus, research into the selection of an appropriate sponsorship opportunity to achieve such goals is clearly warranted. At this stage it is important for researchers to explore methods that will assist firms in finding the best match for the desired image they wish to project. We feel our studies present a viable methodology that allows firms to best select a sponsorship that meets image- enhancement goals. Furthermore, We feel the personality-matching technique advances current practices for sponsorship selection. In particular, our method is unique in that it takes a brand perspective and evaluates sport on dimensions shown to have high relevance for brands.