Sports and Brands - An undetachable combination
Everything in the world follows money. So when a company decides to sponsor a sports tournament or a player or a team, they are looking at the big picture of getting sales up and getting more sales and so in turn more profits. If we look at any major sports tournament going on at the moment, such as the Monte Carlo Masters Tennis Tournament, we can see some big brand has sponsored the tournament. In the case of the Monte Carlo Masters, one can see a massive Rolex logo above the name of the tournament.
If we look at the current Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, we can see that a lot of teams are sponsored by some big brand. We can see brands like Red Bull and Marlboro sponsoring race teams. These are big brands and the benefit that they get from the F1 series is the massive viewership statistics. So every time a car with a Red Bull logo zooms by the camera everyone watching the race at that moment sees the logo. That at some level must do something to increase sales for Red Bull. Marlboro on the other hand has a lot to gain from sponsoring a race team. Since they cannot advertise on television or print media, this is a great way for them to reach their target audience.
Rolex advertising the Monte Carlo masters also has a logical reason because they are also the official match timekeepers. This makes sense for them because they get two benefits from the tournament, one of being the official timekeepers and also by having their logo witnessed by all those watching the tournament. Massive brand recognition will be achieved by Rolex, but the question remains does Rolex need it. It is understandable for Red Bull to sponsor a race team because it is a relatively newer brand than Rolex. Red Bull can gain a lot from the brand awareness they will gain but does Rolex really need the attention.
Being such a luxurious and well-known brand does it serve Rolex to get more attention from a tennis tournament or will it do them good to increase sales and increase profits for the company. A lot of newer companies use sponsorship to increase brand awareness among consumers and increase sales, and maybe Rolex is using the Monte Carlo Masters to maintain their brand position and not increase sales. They are probably happy to maintain their sales level and customer base and from their point of view it is good to keep their customers reminded that Rolex is still here and they don’t need to buy another watch from their competitors.
As sports keep getting more popular and viewership increases more companies will sponsor tournaments and teams in order to either increase brand awareness or to maintain their strong market leadership positions. But you probably don’t see any tournament organiser complaining, they probably enjoy the money they get from these companies very much. They are probably able to command a very solid bidding war to ensure the highest returns from their sponsors. The cycle seems likely to continue unabated. I just hope that we don’t see a Cadbury’s Premier League ad anytime soon.
Sports seem to be becoming more and more popular as time goes by, and as they become more popular that will just lead to more and more brands being put into sports. Recently this trend can be seen in the fact that companies are increasing their overall brand awareness by sponsoring whole teams and complete events. Examples include Red Bull sponsoring a whole F1 team, and also an Air Racing team, Pepsi and Coke continuing to fight their cola war by increasing sponsorships of whole teams like cricket teams.
More brands being linked to sports teams and events can be seen as a very positive thing because it enhances the entire sport because of increased consumer awareness. For example if someone was a big fan of a certain brand and that brand started sponsoring a sport then their consumers might start to take an interest in the sport and the sport suddenly gets more fans. It can also work the other way round with sports fans trying a product that is sponsoring their favourite sport.
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