Event Sponsorship's Impact on Brand Image : A Case Study of Haglöfs Night Trail Run

Because of the increased competition on the market companies need to consider new ways to communicate their marketing. Event marketing is a tool commonly used by companies to link their business to an event which people attend and by doing so increase for example their brand awareness or building brand image. An important part of event marketing is event sponsorship which is what this thesis focuses on.The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding on how the use of event marketing, with focus on sponsored event, can build brand image. Based on that purpose the study will answer the research question of how event sponsorships can contribute to build brand image. In order to answer this question, a qualitative case study was made on the event Haglöfs Night Trail Run in which I have interviewed two of the sponsoring organizations Haglöfs and Addnature.The results of this study indicate that event sponsorship can have an impact on brand image. The results also suggest that the process of choosing what event to sponsor and what that event entails is absolutely crucial for the impact it will have on brand image. The type of event as well as the similarity between event and sponsor is the most important variables to consider in event sponsorship.Validerat; 20130623 (global_studentproject_submitter