Corporate sponsorship effects on nonprofit brand credibility and perceived quality

If learning of an oil company's sponsorship of wetlands conservation makes you wonder about the motives in operation, you are not alone. While the degree of perceived fit between a sponsor and a nonprofit involved in a sponsorship may positively influences consumers' attitudes toward the nonprofit brand, if suspicion is aroused, the results might not be the same. This research contributes to sponsorship theory by showing that fit and entity similarity influence brand outcomes. In two experiments utilizing student participants, we test our conceptual framework for two nonprofit brands. Consumer perceptions are not only highly sensitive to fit but are also affected adversely by the perceived similarity between the partners involved in the cause sponsorship. Importantly, perceived similarity has more detrimental effect on nonprofit credibility and perceived quality for low fit sponsorships than for high fit sponsorships