Sponsorship, sponsorship and business promotion

Due to the role that sponsorship plays in the business environment, since the doctrine is dominant when considering it as such, we approach the study of sponsorship from its incardination in the business world. Here we will analyze the business dimension of sponsorship, dealing, among other issues, with its fit in the various forms of business promotion, with the peculiarities of sponsorship messages in relation to those of advertising.

BUSINESS PROMOTION MODALITIES

The company, to place its products on the market, must put in place a communication process in order to inform and persuade potential customers, whenever the mere putting of a good product or service available to the customer at a price Competitive is not enough to guarantee your success. As SANTESMASES points out, business promotion aims to communicate the existence of the product, to publicize its characteristics, advantages and the needs it satisfies. Thus, the term “promotion” designates a set of communication activities with the “target” market. These activities –tools or instruments of the “promotion” - are basically the following: the sales force (personal sales); advertising; sales promotion; and public relations.

The term "sales force" refers to the action of the company's sales staff on its potential customers in order to achieve the sale of its products or services. "Personal sale" constitutes a form of direct promotion that has as a drawback, among others, the fact that it is sometimes difficult to access the potential buyer; In addition, it requires adequate vendor training; its use therefore implies a high cost. On the other hand, it offers certain advantages, such as its flexibility and the possibility of immediately knowing the reaction of the potential buyer. In the field of business promotion, advertising is defined as any transmission of impersonal information carried out through the mass media. masses (press, radio, television, etc.),through advertisements or insertions paid by the advertiser. Advertising is conceived as a communication process with a commercial purpose. For the effectiveness of this communication process, the company must plan its advertising activity; that is, you must identify the audience you want to target, adequately build the messages you want to convey, choose the most appropriate means to achieve them, etc. The commercial purpose differentiates this figure from propaganda. Thus, while the first is intended to persuade, the second is aimed at social, political, religious, etc., but not for commercial purposes. This promotional instrument is characterized, among other notes, by being an impersonal form of communication, which sometimes reduces its effectiveness. As advantages, among others,presents the one that the sender controls at all times the message. Lastly, it should be noted that not only the entrepreneur-producer or merchant needs this mechanism (advertising) to show the benefits of their products, since the consumer also demands advertising for the knowledge of the goods and services that the Market offers. As with advertising, there are multiple definitions of sales promotion. One of them is the one advocated by KOTLER, which defines it as a set of incentive instruments, generally in the short term, designed to quickly stimulate the purchase of certain products or services by consumers or merchants. The techniques used for this purpose are very varied, and may consist of or discounts on prices, delivery of free samples, gifts,prizes, demonstrations, etc.

Although sales promotion is a very effective instrument to stimulate purchasing in the short term, it can, however, reduce subsequent purchases, if there are no other factors that contribute to maintaining the level of demand. In addition, it is possible that the buyer gets used to buying the product exclusively in time of sales promotion

The term "public relations" refers to the set of activities carried out by organizations, with the generic purpose of achieving, maintaining or recovering the acceptance, trust and support of a diversity of audiences, not always related to products or activities carried out by the company or entity. In view of this definition, it can be affirmed that the purpose of public relations is to create and develop a favorable image of the organization, both for the publics internal to it (workers, intermediate managers, vendors, etc.), as well as external (public powers, suppliers, distributors, consumers, etc.).

SANTESMASES has thus systematized the characteristics that public relations present: 1st, it is a habitual and planned activity. Irregular and improvised actions have no place in public relations; 2nd, with this technique it is about obtaining the trust of the publics to whom it is addressed. There is no direct sale proposition, but there is an indirect one. It is expected that the trust obtained will lead to a positive and favorable opinion that predisposes to purchase the products or to support the initiatives of those who carry out the promotional activity; 3rd, it is aimed at a multitude of heterogeneous audiences; 4th, communication is not repetitive. Just as repetition is a characteristic of advertising, in public relations it acts negatively; 5th,the message is more subtle than that of advertising or personal selling; 6th, the message is more credible than that of the other tools used in the company's Commercial Communication Strategies.

SPONSORIZATION AS A FORM OF BUSINESS PROMOTION

In the treatment of this point, it seems appropriate to begin by referring to the main arguments that are usually used against the consideration of sponsorship as a form of business promotion; arguments that, according to GILLIES, can be synthesized in the following:

The fear that the workforce will react against it. The high budgets that these mechanisms require may not be understood by workers, especially in situations in which the company is threatened by the possibility of closing one of its factories. This argument is contested by the cited author, pointing out how unrealistic is in practice the opposition of the workforce to the expenses incurred by companies in television campaigns. The belief that if the company assumes sponsorship of some activity will subjected to an avalanche of requests, a belief that can be founded but that clashes with the planning and management criteria that govern modern business life. The company's corporate policy on these issues can undoubtedly remove this drawback.Management's belief that these techniques are of no value. GILLIES objects to this by asking if the sponsorship is really explained. If the president of the company does not distinguish the “sponsorship” from the donation, the difficulty is important. It is easy to see that the remedy to the situation is found in well-directed information. Sometimes legal difficulties are invoked, such as the fact that the law does not allow the promotion of this or that product (for example, alcohol). But it is in these cases where, at times, sponsorship turns out to be of great business utility. In fact, as SAHNOUN and DOURY have highlighted, in industrial sectors whose advertising is regulated, the use of sponsorship operations is frequent, as with them, sometimes,the company can dodge the law and advertise.

In short, as we have seen, the arguments used against sponsorship as a form of business promotion are not convincing. Practice demonstrates the performance that companies obtain using this promotion technique.

Well, in the face of the adverse position to the concept of sponsorship as a form of business promotion, the strength of reality rises, revealing the liveliness and progressive spread of the use of sponsorship as a tool for business promotion. ROCA has referred to the factors that have influenced its rapid development and, among them, highlights the change in government policies, whose restrictions on advertising on tobacco and alcohol have led companies to search for new ways to make themselves present.; the significant increase in advertising costs; the growing interest of governments in promoting sport to take advantage of its image for electoral or institutional purposes; the growing boom of the so-called “promotion of the image of the company” (“Corporate Image”);the unstoppable development of the importance of the social role that the company can or should play in the country; the scope that sponsorship achieves thanks to the media and, lastly, the increase in leisure time - SLEIGHT is expressed in similar terms. For his part, José Antonio GÓMEZ SEGADE has highlighted the influence that the development of sponsorship has had on the change of attitude in relation to the commercialization of personality rights, specifically, the right to a name and to one's own image.; If in past times it was considered dishonorable that someone allowed the use of their name or image as a claim for the acquisition of products or services, today, on the contrary, the possibility of their transfer for advertising purposes is naturally accepted.

In short, as BELLO has pointed out, the classical means of communication in some cases are insufficient to transmit certain images and, in others, they have been rendered inoperative due to various factors, such as high costs, degree of saturation, restrictions on television advertising spaces, etc. In this framework, sponsorship grows as a new form of communication that has been called by CEGARRA "communication by action". BELLO highlights the reciprocal tie that the inclusion in the company of this new way of communicating produces between market, product and company, introducing a new element in this union: the event or event. This linkage brings as a consequence an interrelation with the elements already mentioned, giving communication its own personality and its own values.

At this point, it is necessary to ask whether sponsorship constitutes an autonomous and differentiated form of business promotion, or whether, on the contrary, it must be integrated into one of the promotion modalities discussed above. Well, according to a prevailing doctrinal trend, it seems that sponsorship does not in itself represent a substantive and independent form of promotion, but that it manifests itself as a subsumable form within public relations. In effect, through sponsorship, the sponsor seeks to create and affirm a favorable image, both of his company, and of his products, in the target audience, which predisposes him to acquire his products or support his organization.

THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING SPONSORIZATION AS A MEANS OF BUSINESS PROMOTION

The selection of the means of business promotion according to the purposes to be achieved is a priority task of the company. Hence, an analysis of the means to be used is essential so that the communication needs of the company are reflected in the results. Sponsorship offers the advertiser, like other corporate media, the possibility of reaching a specific audience. But this possibility requires a more detailed analysis.

Two types of criteria have been pointed out to select the business media: quantitative criteria and qualitative criteria, this is the classification criteria that, among others, PIQUET. Let's look at some of these possible criteria, making special reference to what sponsorship can bring.

Media selection and distribution

The animation of the points of sale and the improvement of the relations of the company with its commercial partners is one of the possible criteria that the companies have in their sights to define themselves in favor of the specific promotion technique consisting of sponsorship. Obviously there are certain types of events that perfectly fit this type of objective. If we think about sponsoring a Formula 1 car race, it is easy to see how the event is ideal for advertisers to invite suppliers so that they improve relations with their customers. However, in order for sponsorship to be an effective instrument for the animation of the distribution network, all the parameters must be taken into account, evaluating them correctly.Hence the convenience that the event can take place in various parts of the territory and that the advertiser is in a position to exploit the event to meet demands.

Selection of the media and the “target” audience

In terms of communication, a distinction is usually made between direct audience and indirect audience. The first term refers to the number of people physically present at the event site, while the second refers to the number of individuals who have heard of the event, who have seen it on the television screen or read in newspapers or magazines, or heard on the radio. Certainly, not all events have the same audience and, on the other hand, the choice of the type of event will influence this matter. It should be noted, on the other hand, the importance for companies of the analysis of the audience and the activity that will serve as a means of communication,without being unaware that numerous failures of the sponsorship are due to an inadequacy between the target audience and the chosen means of communication to achieve it.

Media selection and budget availability

SZYBOWICZ and MAGISTRALI point out that sponsorship as a communication technique requires sums whose amounts are almost always lower than those of classic advertising. This statement does not mean, however, that this matter should not be taken into careful consideration, as it is common for poor forecasts of cost to lead to the failure of the event. Most authors distinguish two parts in the budget: the participation or competition budget and the campaign enhancement budget, and recommend careful planning

It should be noted that, especially in the sports field, annual costs tend to increase since, many times, to ensure success, large sums of money must be invested in technology (think, for example, in Formula 1 or nautical sports).). In relation to this, ROCA has stated that, given the commercial nature of the operation, "sponsorship is charged to the advertising budget and not to the good works budget"

Selection of the media and the type of product marketed

As already stated, the selection of sports or cultural activity has a direct link with the product or service marketed. Obviously not all events convey the same image and are suitable for a certain product. This is clearly seen in the field of sports, where each of them is chosen as the object of sponsorship based on what they want to sell.

Thus, as an example, tennis is a very suitable means of visual communication for sportswear manufacturers, and the same is true of motor sport - think of Formula 1 in relation to the sale of cars - since the great car manufacturers (Renault, Ferrari, etc.) seek to win the grand prizes to show the public the effectiveness of their technology. The mechanism is apparently simple since when winning, or simply being well classified in the competition, the technological image of the high competition extends to the other products of the manufacturers; This type of sponsorship, whose presence in showing the products "in full action", calls it SAHNOUN and DOURY "credibility sponsorship", while seeking to build trust in the potential recipient of the product.

Selection of the media and the nature of the message

Not all the media have the same characteristics when it comes to transmitting messages. This statement, valid for the classical media (radio, for example, is chosen because of its punctual nature, and the company can advertise quickly), is also applicable to sponsorship in its various forms. In the same way that cinema, to take another example, is the appropriate medium to transmit to the potential recipients of brands a dreamy or imaginary message associated with certain products (cosmetics, perfumes, etc.), the media that they serve sports or culture have their own qualitative characteristics; in this sense,It has been stated that cultural activities as an object of sponsorship lend themselves better to reaching higher levels of «target» in the medium or long term, while sports sponsorships achieve a rapid diffusion thanks to instantaneousness and large television audiences.. In accordance with this approach, JUAN DE ANDRÉS places cultural sponsorships very close to public relations and corporate advertising, and sports sponsorships very close to sales promotion. It is clear that not all sports transmit the same aggressive image or an aesthetic image, and the same is true of the arts. Thus, while classical music has an international dimension that transcends languages and cultures and has a broad spectrum, other types of music can affect a specific audience.On the other hand, some arts, such as photography, can express their messages through a double facet: the artistic and the scientific facet. In any case, an analysis must be imposed on the selection.

THE SPONSORIZATION AND THE MESSAGES OF THE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION.

In the field of business communication, a distinction is made between messages of a commercial nature, messages of a neutral nature and messages of an interpersonal nature.

Regarding commercial messages, it should be noted that the large number of messages to which consumers are exposed produces a saturation effect, with the inevitable consequence that their credibility is very limited. The consumer, in the face of this type of communication, is suspicious for believing that he is being manipulated. According to recent studies, a supermarket buyer is bombarded with approximately 6,000 ads. The advertising creators, aware of this situation, try to build their messages based on the feeling of trust, using either the image of average consumers (often women) or stars of the show. However, frequently, the message does not reach the public because the image offered turns out to be a stereotype. So,When the image of women is used, it happens that advertising professionals associate it with traditional roles (wife, mother); And, when it comes to stars of the show, the message is not assimilated because the recipients of the ad do not have the same values or do not feel identified with the stars who recommend the company's products.

Against this, sponsorship is revealed as something authentic and reliable. It is framed in a real event with real characters and the message then becomes credible. If, for example, the attempt to break a world record is sponsored, the public experiences it as something real, among other things because nobody knows for sure if the record is going to be broken.

Neutral messages refer to information that comes from organizations that have no direct interest in product sales. Think of consumer magazines, state informative publications, etc. This type of communication allows the recipient to confront and compare reports, more or less impartial, about the products he intends to buy. The character of this information, normally of a technical nature and addressed to a knowledgeable and prepared consumer, does not have common ground with the sponsorship, since, in it, the message is addressed to everyone, to all those who are interested in the event.

Finally, those messages that come from individuals are interpersonal. This type of information source, of a personal nature, is more effective due to its immediate and direct nature. Its specific character, targeting a specific audience, leads much more to the act of buying than the messages of the mainstream media. The latter, when targeting a larger number of people, lose effectiveness.

Well, there is no doubt that company sponsorship is largely framed within interpersonal messages. There is an individual connection in the message. People who participate in the show identify themselves with the artist or with the athlete who performs the feat. It can be said that sponsorship directs your audience towards interests and activities with a specific lifestyle, it reaches out to your audience through activities in which they are personally interested. There is no doubt that classic advertising also does this in the sense that media buyers reserve spaces within television and magazine programs that predispose the audience to a leading program towards a specific product. Regarding the existing difference, SLEIGHT maintains that sponsorship does not attempt,Generally, giving a direct sales message but trying to spread a bundle of messages and want to do it in a subtle way.

One of the great advantages of sponsorship, which ensures you a place within the market arsenal, is its ability to act as a built-in theme in both advertising, public relations and sales promotions. This produces a more powerful combined effect than could be achieved with an individual campaign.

Sponsorship achieves its objectives because it fulfills one of the ends pursued by the media: it achieves that a particular audience is the object of a particular set of messages. Thus, determined by a company the profiles of the audiences it wants to reach, these audiences can be investigated to discover what recreational activities they may have in common. Once this is achieved, sponsorship is used to contact specific audiences in a non-commercial way, that is, in a social and relaxed environment.

PECULIARITIES OF THE MESSAGES OF THE SPONSORIZATION REGARDING THOSE OF THE ADVERTISING.

VERDE has synthesized the differences between advertising and messages derived from sponsorship. In effect, advertising involves a direct message of short duration, while in sponsorship the message is articulated in an indirect way, with a longer duration over time. This particularity of the sponsored message was also highlighted by GATTI, who points out that the control by the company is superior in advertising than in sponsored messages. It is clear that in the first one, the company or its advertising agency can prepare the television commercials, with little chance of error. PORRAS has highlighted the control that the company exercises over its advertising, stating, in a very graphic way, that in it the company decides "when", "how", "why" and "why" it is issued. Conversely,in the sponsorship, there are elements that are foreign to the company and the agency in charge of the event that can lead to the total failure of the message it wants to transmit (for example: the company depends on the skill of the cameraman who may be determined not to film the correct billboard; the protagonist of the event may fall ill, etc.). Certainly, as GATTI says, this limitation is compensated by the possibility that the public, in advertising sponsorship, participates more emotionally, with more spontaneity, contributing to the effectiveness of receiving the message. Furthermore, one cannot ignore the fact that in advertising the public can voluntarily delete the message (for example, quickly turning the advertising page) while in sponsorship this risk does not exist,because if the recipient of the message acts like this, he himself deprives himself of the sport or event that interests him. On the other hand, the wide level of dispersion of the message in the first of the mentioned categories should be highlighted, since it aims at a wide spectrum of recipients. On the contrary, in sponsorship we are dealing with a selective medium. It is enough to choose carefully the activity or event that you want to sponsor to drastically reduce the dispersion fee. Finally, in relation to this point on the differences between the two figures, we highlight how in the sponsorship the message is introduced or is intended to be introduced, in a neutral, subtle way, while in the other category the negative influence of the message on viewers is much more pronounced (think, for example,in the reaction of a certain sector of the public to the introduction of cuts for advertisements in films).

In short, it can be said that sponsorship is a global communication mechanism that can be used with other techniques in an interrelated way. At this point, as pointed out by SLEIGHT, the flexible character of the figure, which can be used for a wide range of purposes such as name awareness, image enhancement, media exposure, new market development, access to decision makers, motivation and communication with the workforce, sampling, community relations, etc. This broad outlook does not mean that sponsorship has to operate in isolation from other media but that sponsorship activities can be more fruitful when advertising is used,sales promotion and public relations techniques to articulate total communication around the topic of sponsorship.

OBJECTIVES OF THE SPONSORIZATION

Sponsor

ROCA classifies the sponsor's (or sponsor's) goals into overall goals, product-related goals, sales goals, and media coverage goals.

Here is the classification table of the objectives of the sponsorship according to this author:

CLASSIFICATION OF THE OBJECTIVES OF THE ADVERTISING SPONSORSHIP *

General objectives	goals related with the product	goals selling	goals coverage by the media
a) Improve the notoriety of the company.	a) Improve notoriety.	a) Sponsorship = possibility for tobacco and alcoholic beverages (¿).	Presence or not in the media. - Nationals - Regional - Local
b) Improve the image of the company or modify the current perception of the company that has a public.	b) Improve the image.	b) Sponsorship = sales promotion in the cases of products directly related to the sponsored sport. - Adidas and sportswear - Honda and motorcycles - Ferrari and Formula 1 - Michelin and sports competitions.	What kind of media: - TV - Radio - Press - General or specialized magazines
c) Create a positive attitude in opinion leaders.	c) Modify the public's opinion of the product / brand	c) Sponsorship and public relations.	What type of message can be achieved: notoriety or image, what content.
d) Help attract qualified personnel, good vendors, and senior managers.			How long: before, during and after the event. How long is the brand in size?
e) Counteract a contrary or negative publicity
f) Help improve internal relationships: the common project, the pride of belonging to the company.
g) Improve the local implementation of the company.

JUAN DE ANDRÉS, for his part, distinguishes between important campaign objectives and general objectives. Among the first are product knowledge, notoriety, brand image and positioning; Regarding the brand image, the important advertising function that the brand fulfills in modern marketing must be remembered here, as highlighted by AREÁN, when he points out that it has ceased to play the role of simple indicator of business provenance, to also be an accrediting sign of the quality of products and services and a highly effective advertising resource. PORRAS, similarly, distinguishes between marketing objectives and corporate communication objectives; Among the first includes the objectives linked to the brand image of products and services,and within the corporate communication objectives it places those aimed at gaining notoriety and those aimed at achieving a defined and effective corporate image.

Of all these objectives, it is interesting to see here those related to achieving notoriety and improving image, either for the product or the company.

The notoriety refers to the ease with which the idea or judgment about the sponsor's brand or name comes to the public's memory; When referring to it, it is convenient to take into account, according to ROCA, the distinction between spontaneous notoriety and assisted notoriety. The first refers to the information on the recall of the product by the consumers interviewed without having been helped to remember it, while the second helps consumers to remember the name by asking the question by quoting the sponsor. The sponsorship of notoriety aims, fundamentally, to make the name of a product or a company known to a given audience, so that the greatest number of potential customers have it in their minds.For this, a strong advertising presence of the sponsor and attention from the media that multiply the audience of the event are essential. Many times, the companies they sponsor seek exclusively to achieve notoriety; This is especially the case with manufacturers of products whose advertising is restricted (for example, tobacco, alcohol) and who must resort to sponsorship formulas simply so that their presence in the market is not forgotten. The image, according to ROCA, connects with the idea that consumers have of the company: how they see it, what they think, how they define it, etc. GILLIES synthesizes the functions that the image must perform in the following: define and transmit corporate culture and strategy;integrate the communications and messages of the company seeking the participation of the human team; look for the improvement of activities and performance of the board of directors; transmit notoriety and prestige; optimize the possibilities and commercial potential; prepare the market to launch new products or services, facilitating the relaunch of sales; get a favorable attitude in the capital market, and review the performance of advertising.

In this order of things, the image of the company is manifested not as an abstract concept, but represents an important part of the life and efficiency of an organization. It comes to be the materialization of the company strategy and culture, thus symbolizing the raison d'être, its positioning with respect to its competition in the market and its differentiating values. These three parameters are interrelated. Thus, to achieve an increase in notoriety, knowledge is previously required; If this has been achieved, either through conventional advertising, or because the audience and the event are local and therefore known, then it will be possible to increase the duration of the memory. The sponsor can resort, to fix this memory, to increase the volume of ads,making them more frequent and numerous. ROCA adds, static advertising, noting that it is a good resource to achieve this fixation but not the only one, since the sponsorship of creative actions aimed at spectacularity also presents very good results. In this type of actions, communication is strengthened so that it is retained in the viewer's subconscious.

From the sponsored

The fundamental objective pursued by the sponsored is the development of the sponsored activity; In order for it to be carried out with expectations for continuation in the future, you must strive to maintain a harmonious relationship with the sponsor. In this sense, following BAGEHOT and NUTALL, the objectives of the sponsored can be systematized with a view to achieving good relations with him as follows:

Try to get the sponsor to have a good image and category to adequately project the event; Seek verification of the financial capacity of the sponsor; The sponsor must be aware of all the potential cost of the event to avoid that a bad cost forecast ruins the event; The sponsored tries to verify the compatibility of the sponsor with respect to the context of the event; This aspect must be taken care of extremely, because otherwise undesired effects can take place; indeed, if there is no adaptation of the sponsor with the project, the publicity could seem cynical and produce, consequently, negative effects; This could happen, for example, if a tobacco company financed research related to lung diseases; and,You should also check the seriousness of the financial agreement signed by the parties, especially in those cases where long-term sponsorship is intended; the frequent change of sponsor due to financial difficulties is not favorable to the image of the event, since the idea of managerial disorganization would undoubtedly be transmitted. In those cases where the name of the event is associated with the name of the sponsored product, it would also favor enormous confusion for the consumer.In those cases where the name of the event is associated with the name of the sponsored product, it would also favor enormous confusion for the consumer.In those cases where the name of the event is associated with the name of the sponsored product, it would also favor enormous confusion for the consumer.

EVALUATION AND MEASUREMENT OF THE EFFICIENCY OF SPONSORIZATION

Dealing with evaluation and measurement issues is one of the most important parts of establishing a sponsorship policy. The evaluation, according to SLEIGHT, covers two aspects. The first one involves observing the expectations of the sponsorship, paying special attention to the part of the sponsorship that you want to bring to the overall communication strategy, what audience you hope to influence and with what type of messages. The second aspect refers to the critical evaluation of each and every one of the sponsorship opportunities.

Measurement refers to the research that is used to provide information about the success or failure of the chosen projects. This way in which success is measured will depend on the criteria established during the evaluation.

The Italian doctrine, headed by VERDE, has highlighted the differences between classical advertising and sponsorship in terms of valuation and measurement. Thus, it has been pointed out how in the second, unlike advertising, the costs are not certain, since normally this type of sponsorship operations are presented accompanied by a series of parallel actions, such as support advertising, hiring of technicians, which they make a cost forecast very difficult.

VERDE, for its part, points out that the efficiency of classic advertising is measurable through certain research methods, while in sponsorship, the results cannot be known in the same way. On the contrary, BELLO believes that this new form of communication is measurable in the same way and with the same criteria as classical communication, that is, through coverage indices, evaluating the useful audience, etc., then pointing out some difficulties in the evaluation derived from the quantification of the audience itself and the way to assess the positive or negative benefits that the association of the company or brand image with the event may cause.

Another important difference from advertising sponsorship is the one related to abandoning the campaign when it has been poorly planned or is wrong. In advertising, if the campaign turns out to be wrong (possible assumption in view of the “alea” that intervenes in these operations), its abandonment is fast and does not produce significant sequelae. On the contrary, VERDE points out that in sponsorship operations, the long duration of the event-sponsorship association determines that a wrong sponsorship can distort the image of the company in such a way that later it cannot be easily corrected. It is also clear that in all this matter the sponsorship-patronage distinction is implied,As MOUSSERON has pointed out, the company that uses sponsorship tries to establish a more or less direct relationship with the product, while when resorting to patronage, it wants to endow it with a certain personality or image, or it wants to modify an existing one.

At the time, certain indicators were used to measure the effectiveness of the sponsorship, such as: the association of the sponsor with the type of activity (racing, sailing, soccer, etc.); notoriety changes, both at the company and product level; memorization of the name of the sponsors; association of the sponsor with the event, and image changes, attending to specific products.

Some authors have highlighted how an attempt has been made to differentiate between certain types of sponsorship (such as the American “endorsement”) (American sponsorship) and what Anglo-Saxon doctrine has called “sponsorship”, stating that the objectives of the “endorsement "They are essentially quantitative in nature as they focus on brand awareness, while the objectives of the second, which has been called creative sponsorship, present a qualitative difference that points to the institutional image of the company, which leads, in this case, to a certain difficulty in the evaluation and measurement of the results.

It should be noted that the valuation of these forms of communication largely depends on the strategy of the company that uses them. This can be clearly seen if we refer to the classification of possible sponsor ways, depending on the existence or not of the event. Indeed, a first form refers to an already existing event that is imposed on the sponsor. The second refers to the creation of an event, which requires in the sponsor the union of all the elements that are needed to create it. These two forms of communication have different characteristics and lead the sponsor to different obligations and different expectations.

In the first mode, the sponsor is limited in his freedom of organization, since the event already exists, being subject to obligations regarding calendar, public, etc. If, on the contrary, he creates the event, he will enjoy greater freedom and flexibility, having greater control and control of the repercussions. Faced with these advantages, there are also disadvantages such as the possible lack of credibility. The sponsor who tailors the event for him has, at first, the great risk of finding only doubt and skepticism on the part of the public and journalists. Indeed, in the early days, the new demonstrations do not usually have broad coverage in terms of advertising. In these cases where the event already exists, the deadlines to achieve the desired notoriety are shortened,whereas when the event is organized ad hoc it takes several years on average to obtain appreciable commercial results. In the first case, sometimes six months is enough for it. In PIQUET's opinion, the creation of the event will be revealed in the long term as much more effective, since it will allow achieving the same objectives while keeping the company in control of the operation, its management, its organization, its exploitation and its repercussions.its exploitation and its repercussions.its exploitation and its repercussions.

According to BELLO, the following parameters will be taken into account to measure the efficiency of the sponsorship: 1st. The volume of the communication that is transmitted in exchange for our investment (verifying as is natural, that it is communicated in the previously defined sense), and 2nd. The evaluation through survey of knowledge, notoriety, of the number of spectators, image of the company, brand, etc.

It can be said that the evaluation of the results by the sponsor cannot be considered under the prism of a single model. It must be the company itself that must develop its own mode of analysis according to its own appearance and identity, without leaving aside factors such as management style and procedures, company culture, etc.

SANTESMASES, Miguel. Marketing: concepts and strategies. 2nd ed., Madrid, Pirámide, 1992, p. 532.

KOTLER, Philip. Marketing management: analysis, planning, management and control. 7th ed., New York, Prentice-Hall, 1995, p. 720.

On this matter See the documented study by FRAIZ BREA and VARELA GONZÁLEZ, José Antonio. Sales promotion. Santiago, Tórculo, 1990.

On this important marketing tool, see KOTLER. op. cit., p. 731.

SAMSTS. op. cit., pp. 624 ss.

GILLIES. op. cit., pp. 24 ss.

SAHNOUN, Pierre and DOURY, Nathalie. How to find a sponsor. Madrid, Maeva, 1990, p. 18.

ROCA, Quim. Sponsorship: advertising show. 2nd ed., Barcelona, Distribución Consulting, 1987, p. 144.

SLEIGHT. op. cit., pp. 9-10.

BELLO, Laurentino. Sponsorship and patronage in business communication strategy. Industrial Economics, (267), May-June, 1989, p. 138.

CEGARRA, JJ Sponsorisme et mécénat ou la communication. Direction et Gestion (2), 1986, pp. 59 ss.

PIQUET. op. cit., pp. 29 ss.

SZYBOWICZ and MAGISTRALI. op. cit., p. 113;

Among them, GILLIES. op. cit., pp. 121 ss., And PIQUET. op. cit., pp. 171 ss.

ROCK. op. cit., p. 10.

SAHNOUN and DOURY. op. cit., p. twenty-one.

JUAN DE ANDRÉS. op. cit., p. 184.

For a general study of what is known as advertising research, see KINNER, Thomas C. and TAYLOR, James R. Market Research: An Applied Approach. 4th ed., Santafé de Bogotá, McGraw-Hill, 1993, pp. 714 ss.

SLEIGHT. op. cit., p. 39.

GREEN, Camillo. Il contratto di sponsorizzazione. Napoli, ESI, 1989, p. 33.

GATTI, Serafino. Sponsorizzazione e pubblicità sponsorizzata. Rivista del diritto commerciale e del diritto generale delle obbli, fasc. 5-8 (August), pt. 1, 1985, p. 149.

PORRAS, Charo. Sponsorship: a versatile technique for the social projection of companies. Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid), Universidad Europea-CEES, 1995, p. Four. Five.

GATTI. op. cit., p. 149.

SLEIGHT. op. cit., p. 42.

On the coordination of sponsorship with other branches of comprehensive communication, see JUAN DE ANDRÉS. op. cit., pp. 182 ss.

ROCK. op. cit., p. 136.

* This painting is taken from ROCA's work. Sponsorship: Advertising show.

JUAN DE ANDRÉS. op. cit., pp. 52 ss.

AREAN LALÍN, Manuel. The change of shape of the brand. Santiago de Compostela, University Santiago de Compostela, 1982, pp. 17 ss.

PORRAS. op. cit., p. 26.

ROCK. op. cit., p. 19.

Ibid., P. 25.

GILLIES. op. cit., p. 121.

For an overview of what sponsorship can contribute to changing the corporate image of the company, see JUAN DE ANDRÉS. op. cit., pp. 78 ss.