Abstract
Sports sponsorship is increasingly becoming part of the major corporate activities. Scholars have recognized the central position taken by sports sponsorships in the corporate world. Busby and Digby (2012 ) posit that sports sponsorship wields transformative power that is capable of driving exponential growth in brand awareness and affinity; amassing the numbers and the connections needed for business success. Sports sponsors have a huge advantage over others in the corporate arena mainly stemming from the massive following sports games have (Gamble, 2011). Kenyans are reputed for their prowess in athletics especially long distance races and the marathon. Hence companies have come out to leverage on this potential with the knowledge that crowds will be attracted by the presence of world athletic champions in their events. Gambel (2011) notes that with just the right personnel, a brand's sales can soar up two times than the brand in the corporate sponsorship and that sports sponsorship impacts brands positively due to the powerful social media influence resulting in sporting activities and discussions. Commercial banks have increasingly used sponsorship of sporting activities to boost their corporate image with the intention of translating this into brand awareness. The objective of this paper is to find out the effect of sports sponsorship on the brand awareness of Family Bank Kenya. The study utilized the descriptive research design with questionnaires and interviews as the research methods. The study sample size consisted of 100 customers and 10 departmental heads from Family Bank branches in Eldoret. Systematic sampling and purposive sampling methods were used. Keywords : Corporate, sports sponsorship, brand awareness, marathon, consumers/customers DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/77-05 Publication date: March 31 st 2021
Highlights
Classical public relations theory as articulated by Grunig (2006) holds that corporate entities undertake corporate sponsorship of social activities like sports as a persuasive tool to help target audiences learn new information about the sponsoring entities
Corporate sponsorship is a covert public relations activity that should lead to tangible benefits for the sponsoring business (Kevin, 2013)
Through MagicalKenya, the country has invested in reputable marathon runners to market itself to the world as the best tourist destination Renowned Eliud Kipchoge, Brigit Kosgei and Ruth Chepngetich have participated in this campaign successfully
Summary
Classical public relations theory as articulated by Grunig (2006) holds that corporate entities undertake corporate sponsorship of social activities like sports as a persuasive tool to help target audiences learn new information about the sponsoring entities. Corporate sponsorship is a covert public relations activity that should lead to tangible benefits for the sponsoring business (Kevin, 2013). It is this expected benefit of competitive advantage that compels companies to sponsor social activities L’Etang (2013). Bank is the sole sponsor of the Eldoret Half marathon. This corporate sports sponsorship event is the focus of this paper
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