The Vigor of a Disregarded Ally in Sponsorship: Brand Image Transfer Effects Arising from a Cosponsor
研究发现赞助商可以从共同赞助商那里获得品牌态度和个性特质的直接转移，且这种转移受品牌形象匹配度和目标赞助商熟悉度调节，为品牌管理者选择赞助伙伴提供了新思路。
Typically, brands vie for image transfer from an event or other property when entering a sponsorship engagement. Yet, this practice leaves a valuable part of a sponsorship alliance unexploited. This study addresses a new opportunity for brand collaboration that may arise from the vigor of a disregarded ally. Specifically, the authors infer from congruity theory and associative learning theory to propose a research model that advocates the idea of a sponsor to also gain from brand attitude and personality traits innately tied to a cosponsor paired with the same event. Structural equation and, respectively, path model testing provide evidence for direct transfer of attitudes as well as for carryover of personality traits between two sponsor brands. These transfer effects turn out to be moderated by perceived fit between the sponsor brands’ images and by familiarity with the target sponsor brand. Brand managers may want to bring these findings to bear in sponsorship policy design and execution by purposefully choosing with whom they share a perimeter billboard or any other sponsorship signage. Such a deliberate approach stands in contrast to current sponsorship practice where agents tend to disregard linked cosponsors and, instead, fortuitously yield up to their fate.