Background/Purpose Sponsorship is vital to sports. To date, however, limited research has been done to examine a specific industry when they pursue sponsorship deals; and, to examine sponsorship specifically in Asia. The beverage industry has always played an important role in sports sponsorship in North America and is involved in sponsorship globally and in Asia. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine the motivation, consideration, decision-making model and behaviors of sport sponsorship in the beverage industry in Taiwan.
Method Delphi method was used to construct in-depth interview questions. Three major beverage manufacturers who have been active in sport sponsorship in the past three years were willing to participate in the study: King Car Otsuka Company (KCO), Anheuser-Busch Company (ABC), and Young Energy Source Company (YES).
Analysis/Results Among the findings were: 1)Sponsorship motivation: The major sponsorship motivation for KCO was to improve corporate image; ABC wanted to increase sales; and, YES sought sales and brand awareness. 2)Consideration factors: KCO considered corporate image improvement, whereas sales volume was the main consideration for ABC and YES. 3)Decision-making model: according to Draft (1992)'s contingency decision-making model, KCO belonged to the Rational model; ABC was Carnegie model; and YES had a Garbage Can model.
Conclusions Based on the different corporate goals and resources, the three manufacturers sponsored various sporting events and sport organizations with various ways, and each had different goals and expectations. Sports marketers can use these findings to develop more successful sponsorship projects in Taiwan.
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