The role of sports sponsorship in negative new stories about a brand: Approach the halo effect

This study examines whether a company’s sports sponsorship plays a buffering role that mitigates negative consumer perceptions of the company or its brands. The study highlights the necessity of examining how congruence between a sports event and a sponsoring brand is related to brand image or brand attitude formation. An experimental design was used to test the hypotheses. To prevent leakage of information about the experimental stimulus, two experiments were implemented in different places at the same time. There was no exposure to either experimental stimulus in advance. A random sampling scheme was used for group allocation. The results indicated that attitude and image formation changed considerably when sports sponsorship was strongly related to a company’s corporate image. In general, consumers experience amicable and favorable reactions and evaluations of a company that sponsors sports events that are highly congruent with the company’s corporate image. Consumers evaluate a company or product more favorably when a sports event is congruent with the company or product image. As indicated in the experimental results, sports sponsorship affects corporate brand attitude and purchase intention.