Sponsorship leveraging improves consumer attitudes and purchase intentions towards the sponsoring brand - but is it relevant for FMCG packaging?

Abstract

In the last decade sponsorship spending increased with large corporations now including some sponsorship spend in their marketing budget. With worldwide sponsorship spending now in excess of US$26 billion (IEG2005), it is important for marketers to understand the impact of sponsorship investment on their customers as well as how to best leverage their sponsorship spend to achieve marketing and corporate goals. One widely used form of sponsorship, particularly in the fast moving consumer goods industry (FMCG) is sponsorship leveraged packaging (SLP). In spite of its common use, little is known empirically about if and how leveraging sponsorship through packaging impacts consumer attitudes to the sponsoring brand. This paper proposes a research model and methodology that will allow researchers to test the relationship between SLP and consumer attitudes and purchase intention.