Topics
promotion, sponsorship, brand management, positioning
Review the activity below or download the PDF student worksheet
Student worksheet: Selecting Sponsorship Partners
Student Discussion Activity
Medium to large firms tend to have many sponsorship opportunities presented to them.
Keeping in mind that a sponsorship should be viewed a promotional tool (rather than simply a donation), please rank (in terms of value to the firm) the following sponsorship opportunities for a large supermarket chain.
Opportunity A
- A small charity is seeking a donation of just $1,000
- In return, they will list the firm on their website as a sponsor
Opportunity B
- A high school (of 1,000 students) is seeking a $1,000 sponsorship for their school fete
- In return, they highlight your involvement in their school newsletter and encourage parents to use your stores
- In addition, you may put up corporate signage at the fete
Opportunity C
- A large sports association (of around 50,000 junior players) is seeking a major sponsor to contribute $50,000
- In return, they will give the firm naming rights
- In addition, you will be promoted on their results website, in their newsletters, and with regular signage at major games
- They will even give you access to their customer mailing lists (if required)
Opportunity D
- A fairly well-known charity is looking for a joint promotional day
- Their proposal is that on a certain day, 50 cents from the sale of any of the supermarket’s own brand (private label) products goes to the charity
- Their proposal states that the firm will benefit from:
- The goodwill from supporting a good cause
- Extra customers on the day
- Customers who trial their own brand products for the first time (and may become repeat customers)
Student Discussion Questions
- On what basis (criteria) do you think that firms should assess a sponsorship proposal?
- Using your own sponsorship assessment approach – which opportunity is the best one for the supermarket chain?
- Which one appears to be the poorest opportunity?
- How effective do you think sponsorships are as a promotional tool?
- Why would firms use sponsorship, as those as opposed to more traditional forms of promotion, such as advertising?
Related Activities
Walmart and Corporate Social Responsibility
