Obtaining Sports Marketing Success

“You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.” Joseph E. Levine did not beat around the bush with this quote; if companies advertise their goods and services properly to their audience, then success should be inevitable. Andrew G. Mikhailitchenko, Assistant Professor of Marketing College of Business Administration California State University Sacramento, has conducted a study to research the effectiveness of “visual imagery in advertising to sports marketing”(Mikhailitchenko, 267). His research paper, “Exploring Saturation Levels for Sponsorship Logos on Professional Sports Shirts; a Cross-Culture Study”, focuses on finding the optimal amount of sponsorship logos to advertise on professional ice hockey shirts that will be most effective to fans in Europe, Russia, and North America. Mikhailitchenko does this by “testing the influence of intensity of on-shirt advertising on three variables: attitude towards the team; team-related purchase intention; and sponsor brand recall rate”(Mikhailitchenko, 267). Mikhailitchenko identifies the problem that having excessive advertising can lead to a negative team image and it being ineffective for sponsors. The author wants to find a solution that will not only eliminate this exigence, but also identify the ideal amount of advertising to best promote the sports teams and sponsors. The purpose for producing this text was to, “explore theoretical and empirical links between the intensity of shirt advertising and team-related and brand-related customer intention, in cross-cultural settings”(Mikhailitchenko, 268). In sports business-to-consumer marketing, little research has been conducted to produce a research-based model that can explain the influence that certain types of advertising can have on consumers. He delivered his argument and results through the strategies of logos and the inclusions of tables, figures, and graphs. Throughout this research study, the author develops a strong use of logos to support his research. To prove his argument, Mikhailitchenko uses theories, citations from experts, factual data, definitions, and reasons that support the claim. The theoretical framework used for this study is clearly distinguished as the Associative Network Theory. This framework is identified as, “the foundation of research in sponsorship-linked marketing that was defined by Cornwell (1995) as the ‘orchestration and implementation of marketing activities for the purpose of building and communication an association to a sponsorship’”(Mikhailitchenko, 269). When an individual retrieves specific pieces of information, the most “readily available” information surfaces and the less memorable information diminishes. So, if the information regarding sponsors comes to mind quicker if there are more or less sponsors, we can determine the amount of sponsorship logos that should be advertised. The Associative Network theory was specifically used for this study because it relates to brand associations in team sports, team identification, fan loyalty, and the psychological commitment to the team. The Associative Network model helps explain the concept that the amount of ‘clutter’ we have in our memories affects the ability to retrieve pieces of information. This is an important theory for the audience to understand how to logically see the relationship between shirt advertising and the consumer. This research paper is loaded with citations from various experts. This strategy demonstrates the amount of prior research that was conducted. The citations help the reader to better understand that the argument was thoroughly researched and there are plenty of references to learn more about the topic or verify information. The use of factual data is helpful in the text because it further proves the author’s claims by showing the reader the research results and to prove the information is fact-based.