Effects of Event-Sponsor Fit on Consumers’ Attitude Toward Sponsors and Intention to Purchase Sponsored Products

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of sponsor-event fit on consumers' attitudes towards corporate sponsors and the intention to purchase sponsored products at different levels of sponsorship advertising; It is a team against the league.

The statistical population of this research was the spectators of the sports matches of the country's premier football league in 2021. The statistical sample was selected from the audience according to the research objectives. Sampling in this research was available randomly. A 2 x 2 factorial design was used in this study. The research design included 2 factors of fit between the sponsor and the event and the level of financial support. Companies were used as sponsors of the club and the Iranian Premier League. Respondents were asked to select their favorite professional football team from among all teams in the Iranian Premier League. Subjects were exposed to the stimulus for 30 seconds as instructed. Then, the participants were asked to answer the questionnaire related to the dependent variable of the research. This questionnaire includes the sections of sponsor attitude, attitude to advertisement, purchase intention, matching of sponsor event, choosing one of the two logos as a manipulation check process (the logo of the premier football league of the country and the logo of the favorite club), team identity with respect to the favorite club. attitude towards advertising and demographic characteristics.

The results of the MANOVA test showed that the participants who were exposed to the advertisements supporting the league as well as advertisements with high relevance had a higher attitude and purchase intention.

Also, the results showed that there was no difference in the two levels of support, i.e. league and team, in the change of attitude and purchase intention in high fit and low fit. And in both levels, with a high fit, the attitude and purchase intention increases.