If the Cause Fits, Wear It: Jersey Sponsorship and the Role of Congruence, Articulation, and CSR-Linked Marketing

Abstract

The aim is to advance the understanding of how brand-property congruence and articulation strategy influence the perception of jersey sponsorships and how consumer-level factors such as team identification affect sponsorship outcomes. Different types of fi t and sponsor categories were tested to determine the most effective type of fi t as determined by outcomes of attitude toward team and sponsor, sponsor patronage, and perceptions of team and sponsor social responsibility. With a pretest (n=154) and two experiments (n=169, n=172), results indicated sponsors with a functional-based fit with the team result in greater purchase intention than corporate sponsors with a schema-based congruence. However, sponsors that were schema-based showed better performance in driving fan attitude. The work adds to schema-congruity theory by examining multiple types of fi t in a new context of jersey sponsorships.