US academic studies of the impact of
sports sponsorship on the sponsoring
businesses, mainly conducted on
larger companies, has shown that such
businesses tend to perform better than
their competitors, in terms of market
share, by about 15%. I am not aware,
however, of any similar studies in the
UK, particularly with small to medium
sized businesses such as ours.
Monitoring sales alone, or asking
questions of enquirers, does not
necessarily give a complete picture.
Quite often, when asked, people coming
to us for the first time will say that they
found us through our website. But you
have to raise the query – why were they
looking for us? Or even – did they look
for us? (or did they use a particular
search term in Google?)
Even more often, people will say that
they are coming to us because they
received a recommendation. That is
OK as far as it goes, but that would
not necessarily mean that we get the
business. To do that we have to be
friendly, approachable, knowledgeable
and show that we understand what
someone needs. All of that, it seems
to me, is more easily achieved if the
person making contact with us is
already positively disposed towards us.
It’s in that arena, the feeling positive
aspect, where I believe sponsorship
plays an important part. this effect, but such subtle influences
on behaviour obviously exist, or vast
numbers of people believe they do,
otherwise there wouldn’t be as much
money spent on sports sponsorship as
there clearly is.
It strikes me that if someone makes a
recommendation to another person, it’s
much more likely that the other person
will follow up on the recommendation
if they have some warm association
with, or at least have heard of, the
recommended business. So, if Paul
asks Steve who he would use for his
Will, if Steve recommends us (as I hope
he would) that may be because Steve is
a Brighton supporter, so knows we are
Solicitors, or it may be that Steve has
used us himself. If Paul is a Brighton
supporter, he may feel, when he hears
the name “Oh, I’ve heard of them” or
even (if he is a Brighton supporter) “Oh
yes, they sponsor my team”. In either
case, at this quite subtle level, it may
be the case that Paul becomes more
positively inclined to use us than would
have been the case if we didn’t feature
in his consciousness at all. Now that Brighton have been promoted,
will our sponsorship continue?
As I say, it is very difficult to quantify
Yes, initially it certainly will, as we have
a long term contract on the Mayo
Wynne Baxter lounge. However, we
may find that we get a little less in terms
of signage around the ground, and
gradually, if Brighton continue to do
well once in the Premiership, I expect
that larger national and multinational
companies will be able to offer
sponsorship funds way in excess of
our budget, and will take more of the
opportunities offered by the club. But
we are proud that we have come this
far, and hope that we will be able to
keep supporting the club for as long as
possible. We see ourselves as Premier
League Solicitors, so it’s good that the
club we sponsor and support has finally
caught us up!
By Chris Randall
5