The Impact of Events Sponsorship on Attendee’s Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Brand Image

This study aims to investigate the impact of sponsorship events on the purchase intent of attendees, mediated by brand image. For the purpose of this study, attendee's purchase intention is treated as a dependent variable and brand image as a mediated variable. Independent variables are: brand awareness, attitude towards the event and event-sponsor fit. The study relied on collecting primary data through a self-prepared questionnaire. In total (400) questionnaires were distributed randomly to the sponsoring event attendees who could be reached by the researcher. Response rate was (96.75) percent. The results revealed all the variables under investigation have a significant effect on attendee’s purchase intention. The major effect on the attendee’s purchase intention was for brand awareness followed by attitude towards the event, the weakest effect was for event–sponsor fit. While the major effect on the attendee’s perception of the sponsoring brand image was for attitude towards the event followed by brand awareness, the event–sponsor fit was excluded. Furthermore, it is found that brand image mediates the relationship between brand awareness, attitude towards the event and attendee’s purchase intention.


Introduction
Through the process of informing, persuading, and reminding consumers, marketing communication is considered the voice of the company to build relationship with its customers.Schultz (2003), emphasizes that integrated marketing communications could help companies to go forward in the severe competitive world of the 21st century.
Sponsorship is one of the fastest growing components of the marketing communication mix, which accounts $48.6 billion in global sponsorship funds in 2011 (IEG, 2012).Sponsorship events are dominant in goods brands and services which offering high experience quality (Chang & Horng, 2010).Sponsorship involves supporting an event or event by offering money or other resources to that event, to be benefited from advertising space at the event and its publicity.
There are various types of sponsorship, including: television and radio program sponsorship, sport, art, music, entertainment events and educational sponsorship.Sport, art and music events were received the highest volume of sponsorship funds, because they are events that have global acceptance.Sponsorship in the service sectors have more difficulties than the goods sector due to the difficulties to deliver the service live at the sponsored event as the goods could do, because the lack of tangibility.
Therefore, marketing researchers have to exert more efforts to evaluate the impact of sponsorship events on the marketing performance of service companies.

Problem Statement
According to Czinkonta and Ronkainen (2004), sponsorship is a promotional tool that marketers are using to affect customer behavior.Fahy et al. (2004) addressed that sponsorship considered a potential source of competitive advantage and marketing performance.They demonstrated that it is essential to develop contributions towards "understanding the mechanics of sponsorship management and that this should be further developed and tested empirically in future research".Cornwell (2005) claims the literature review essentially deals with the theoretical explanations of how sponsorship works and open questions for research, bringing together variables to understand their effect on sponsorship processing mechanics and related outcomes.O' Reilly and Madill (2007) focused on the need for continued improved of theory and practical tools of the assessment of sponsorships, because of the lack of practical research that interests on the estimation of the effect of sponsored events on customer purchase intention.The literature has addressed the need for more theory-based and field-tested guides helping brand managers in selecting events to sponsor (Gwinner & Swanson, 2009;Roy, 2010;Woisetschlager & Michaelis, 2012).
Literature on sponsorship indicates many researchers (Keller, 2003, Arens & Weigold, 2011, Picton & Broderick, 2005) have been focused on sponsorship because of its importance on customer behavior in today's marketplace and how sponsorship is essential to achieve competitive advantage in a high competitive market.
Purchase intention is a key factor of consumer behavior that is affected by several internal and external factors.This study aims to investigate the impact of sponsorship events on attendee's purchase intention mediated by brand image.
For the purpose of this study, attendee's purchase intention is considered as a depended variable and brand image as a mediated variable.Independent variables are: brand awareness, attitude toward event and event-sponsor fit.
From the problem discussion, the study demonstrates these questions: 1. Is there an impact of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand on the attendee's purchase intention?2. Is there an impact of attendee's attitude toward the event on the attendee's purchase intention?3. Is there an impact of event-sponsor fit on the attendee's purchase intention?4. Is there an impact of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand on the attendee's perception of its image? 5. Is there an impact of attendee's attitude towards the event on the attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image?6.Is there an impact of event-sponsor fit on the attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image?7. Is the attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image mediates the relationship of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand, attendee's attitude towards the event and event -sponsor fit and the attendee's purchase intention?

Study Objectives
The major goal of this study is to explore the impact of sponsorship events on purchase intention.To reach this goal, the study addressed the following sub-goals: 1. Exploring the impact of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand, attendee's attitude towards the event and event -sponsor fit on the attendee's purchase intention.
2. Exploring the impact of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand, attendee's attitude towards the event and event -sponsor fit on the attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image.
3. Exploring if attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image mediates the relationship of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand, attendee's attitude towards the event and event -sponsor fit and the attendee's purchase intention.
To collect data the study is relied on a self-prepared questionnaire.The event attendees were selected randomly, who attended a sponsoring event one time or more.The event attendees have different demographical and occupational backgrounds.Aged from 20s to in their 60s.

Sponsorship
Fill and Hughes (2008) considered sponsorship as a marketing communications tool in which a company offers funding or other resources (financial, personal services, equipment, experience or others) to cover all or part of the costs and other requirements associated with a project or event (concert, sporting event, educational program, television program or other events) in return for displaying its logos, brand names and products.
Sponsorship is an investment, with the potential to benefit from a highly publicized event (Allen, 2010).The sponsor company foresees a payoff for its support that is most commonly utilized for promotion purposes (Hund-Göschel, 2009).Sponsorship is considered as an economical and alternative tool to gain exposure to a target market which means a direct exposure to public audience by the event that avoids noise and allows to deliver a distinctive message.
Marketers are involved in sponsorship investments for the purpose of achieving several marketing objectives: generating audience awareness by creating bonds between the sponsored event and the sponsoring company (Meenaghan, 1998).As (Picton & Broderick, 2005) pointed out, sponsorship gives the audience a chance to be targeted with a particular message.It is used to affect corporate stakeholders: company employees and customers.It develops customer loyalty, increases sales, enhances firm's reputation and brand image, heightens awareness, attracts new customers, supports intermediaries and plays a role of enhancing staff motivates and morale building (Reed, 1994).

There Are Several Kinds of Sponsorship
1. Sport sponsorship is the process or offering funds, human resources, and equipment by sponsor directly to a sport entities to enable them to practice a sport event.The sponsorship of athletes has become a popular type of sponsorship arrangement.Celebrity athletes are paid to endorse a particular product or service.This will enable customers to transfer their love and admiration for the celebrity athletes to the brand (Daily Graphic, 1 June, 2011).
2. Television program sponsorship is the process of delivering certain message in cooperation with organizations.TV program sponsorship could be used in various forms: pull together a brand or business with a certain program, to present a TV version of a print magazine, to introduce a documentary series about a particular issue.Program sponsorship allows the business to see from the perspective of the viewer, which is more likely to achieve the business view support and loyalty (Amoako et al., 2012).
3. Educational sponsorships involve providing funding to help students pay for their education or providing any assistant to students to continue their education.

Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to a brand's presence in the consumer's mind, it gives the brand a level of familiarity to the consumers (Aaker, 1996).On the other hand, Bovée et al. (1995) considered brand awareness as a percentage of the target market that is aware of a brand name.It is measured by different methods in which consumers remember a brand, which may include brand recognition and brand recall.It means that the customers can correctly distinguish the brand as having been previously seen or heard, and then recall the brand by retrieving the brand from memory (Riezebos, 2003).

Event-Sponsor Fit
Event-sponsor fit is the extent to which a customer believes that an event and the sponsoring brand have a similar identity (Lacy & Angeline, 2013).

Attitude towards Event
Attitude towards event is the extent to which customer senses the event is fun, pleasing, informative and interesting (Chandon, Wansink, & Laurent, 2000).

Brand Image
Brand image, refers to consumers' perception of a brand which is associated with brand attributes, brand benefits and brand attitude held in consumer memory (Keller, 1993).It is what people believe about a brand, their thoughts, feelings and expectations.Syed Alwi (2009) considered brand image as a consumer's emotional response to a brand which causes the ability to differentiate between alternative offerings.Brand image is developed over time through advertising campaigns, packaging, sponsorship, word of mouth publicity, other marketing communication tools, and through consumer's direct experience.

Purchase Intention
Purchase intention is the consumer willingness to purchase a particular product in a specific conditions.Purchase intention is usually related to the behavior, perceptions and attitudes of customers.Shah et al. (2012) point out that purchase intention is a type of decision-making concerning the reasons why a customer tends to buy a particular brand.Therefore, it is a dependent variable relying on several internal factors, such as: consumer needs and preferences, attitudes and perception and various external factors.

Literature Review
Keller, ( 2001) recognized there is a large number of external factors that can affect purchase intention including the perceived price and perceived quality through the buying process (Gogoi, 2013).Researchers have addressed six phases before taking decision to purchase a particular product: awareness, knowledge, interest, preference, persuasion and then purchase (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, Kawa et al., 2013).Abdolrazagh et al. (2012) demonstrate that purchase intention is affected by demographic, geographic and reference group.
According to Meenaghan's model of sponsorship ( 2001) favorable senses about the sponsor are influencing customer purchase intentions of the sponsored brand.And positive attitude towards the sponsored event may motivate customers to purchase the sponsor's brand.A brand's sponsorship events may have a direct effect on purchase intentions because of the higher customers' commitment to the sponsor (Gwinner & Swanson, 2003).Hsieh, Pan, and Setiono (2004) argued that brand image helps consumer in recognizing their needs and satisfaction regarding the brand, it also differentiates the brand from other competitor's brands.Brand image helps consumers to gather information, recognize the brand, and ultimately persuade the consumer to purchase a certain brand.A positive brand image is an important step in positioning strategy at the same time brand image can also increase marketing communication effectiveness (Keller, 1993).Aaker, (1996) indicates the main aim of marketing strategy is to build brand awareness economically and efficiently, by having a broad sales volume, and by operating outside media channels, because customers need information to be able to choose between alternative brands.Riezebos (2003) addresses that a brand with high awareness will cause a high added value for consumers.Strydom et al. (2000) address, the marketing strategy can build awareness among target markets through repetitive advertising and publicity.Which can provide a competitive advantage for the brand.Brand awareness is one of the main steps in promoting and positioning a brand, it is the essential and vital goal of advertising in the product's introduction stage.They also address how brand attitude influenced by the fit between celebrity athlete endorsers and the endorsed products.Their findings confirm audiences evaluated an endorsed brand more favorable when there is a fit between the athlete endorser and the endorsed brand.Akwensivie et al. (2014) found out that brand awareness is the main impact of sponsorship events on mobile telecommunication subscribers.Brand image and brand loyalty are found to be related positively and significantly to sponsorship events.Sponsorship have an effective impact on customers' behavior, in association of other communications tools like public relations, exhibitions and trade shows, advertising, direct marketing and sales promotions.
Russell and Close (2013) conclude that customers develop more favorable event-sponsor bonds when they like the event.A customer's positive attitude towards the event will influence their perceptions of event-sponsor fit positively, especially for service brands.The study also demonstrates the positive influence of event-sponsor fit on customer's favorable brand commitment to the sponsor's brands, and customers' intentions to buy the sponsor's services.Event-sponsor fit could gain a valuable role in strengthening consumer relationship outcomes.Roy and Cornwell (2004) reveal that sponsors must choose events that have a reasonable fit with the sponsors' brand.Simmons and Becker-Olsen, (2006) find out that customers expect a sponsor and event to be related.According to Gwinner, Larson & Swanson, (2009) high event-sponsor fit will support brand image transfer.The event area (sports, culture, festival, business) is essential to consider in fit perception, more likely when customers are active in that area.This indicates that event sponsorship provides chance to create a personal connection with consumers (Espinola & Badrinarayanan, 2010).Lagae (2005) addresses that sponsorship is relatively modern compared with other marketing concepts.Arens & Weigold (2011) argued that the growth of sponsorship helps the company to achieve several marketing aims for the sponsor (supported image, improved sales, effective publicity and improved employee morale).The results of Tufail et al. (2014) study show that publicity and sponsorship have a positive relationship with brand equity.There is a positive effect on brand equity when publicity and sponsorship is favorable.
Sponsorship has an exceptional role in the marketing communication mix because it has an efficient role in creating brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand image and enhancing brand usage (Fineweek, 2007).The study of Amoako et al. (2012) indicates the effect of sponsorship in increasing brand awareness, brand preferences, brand recall and brand image which cause sales increase, and improve organizational value, therefore sponsorship support positively the marketing communication performance.Fahy, Farrelly and Quester (2004), argue that sponsorship is a widespread marketing tool, which has a large share in the marketing mix of businesses and increasing growth in sponsorship funds.

Hypotheses
Regarding to the study questions and the related literature review, the following hypotheses will be investigated: H 1 : There is a significant impact of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand on the attendee's purchase intention.
H 2 : There is a significant impact of attendee's attitude towards the event on the attendee's purchase intention.
H 3 : There is a significant impact of event -sponsor fit on attendee's purchase intention.
H 4 : There is a significant impact of attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand on attendee's perception of its image.
H 5 : There is a significant impact of attendee's attitude towards the event on attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image.
H 6 : There is a significant impact of event-sponsor fit on attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image.
H 7 : There is a significant impact of attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image on the attendee's purchase intention.
H 8 : The attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image plays a mediating role between attendee's awareness of the sponsoring brand and purchase intention.
H 9 : The attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image plays a mediating role between attendee's attitude towards the event and purchase intention.
H 10 : The attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image plays a mediating role between event-sponsor fit and purchase intention.

Proposed Research Model
Figure 2. The study model

Instrument (Questionnaire)
To reach the major aim of the study, the study relies on collecting primary data by self-prepared questionnaire in (English and Arabic).
The questionnaire contains two parts: demographical factors; and the attitude of the participant about each statement relating to each variable of the study .The instrument depends on a five -point Likert Scale, 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree.

Dependent Variable: Purchase Intention
Purchase intention is the consumer willingness to purchase a particular product in a specific conditions.This variable was measured in this study by four phrases in the questionnaire; I use brand sponsors of the event products regularly, I have a real desire to buy brand sponsors of the event products, I wish I could get brand sponsors of the event products, brand sponsors of the event products is my first choice compared with the

Mediate Variable: Brand Image
Brand image, refers to consumers' perception of a brand which is associated with brand attributes, brand benefits and brand attitude held in consumer memory (Keller, 1993).This variable was measured in this study by six phrases in the questionnaire; Brand sponsors of the event is keen to entertain its customers, brand sponsors of the event promote the national identity among the public, brand sponsors of the event is interested in sponsoring the local celebrities, brand sponsors of the event is committed to the community, brand sponsors of the event has a high level of credibility among the public, the main aim of brand sponsors of the event is to achieve financial gains.

-Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to a brand's presence in the consumer's mind, it gives the brand a level of familiarity to the consumers (Aaker, 1996).This variable was measured in this study by five phrases in the questionnaire; I can easily remember the sponsored brand name, I can recognize the sponsored brand logo, I got to know the brand for the first time through sponsored event, I got to differentiate the brand characteristics through sponsored event, I have a sufficient knowledge about the sponsored brand ant its offers.

-Event-Sponsor Fit
Event-sponsor fit is the extent to which a customer believes that an event and the sponsoring brand have a similar identity (Lacy & Angeline, 2013).This variable was measured in this study by five phrases in the questionnaire; I think that brand sponsors of the event is a national brand keens to sponsor national events, brand sponsors of the event is a telecommunications company entertainment is part of its mission, brand sponsors of the event has a social responsibility, brand sponsors of the event has an essential role in sponsoring local celebrities, brand sponsors of the event has a related identity which the sponsored event has.

-Attitude toward Event
Attitude towards event is the extent to which customer senses the event is fun, pleasing, informative and interesting (Chandon, Wansink, & Laurent, 2000).This variable was measured in this study by five phrases in the questionnaire; I am happy to attend such event, I make sure to attend the events sponsored by the brand, brand sponsors of the event is keen to support my beloved artists and stars, events sponsored by the brand is always enjoyable, I feel pleasure and enjoyment in attending such events.

Population and Sampling
The sample size depends on: the samples size of a previous similar studies, statistical tests, and the methods where authors can afford (Bryman & Bell, 2011).Convenience sample has been selected for the current study.
In total (400) questionnaires were distributed randomly to the sponsoring event attendees who could be reached by the researcher.Response rate was (96.75) percent.

Study Sample
Table 1 presents that the most participants were males with 68.7%, aged from 20-30 years old with 34.1%, most of them were working in the private sector 39.6%, the majority of them had completed a Bachelor's Degree with estimated percentage of 36.4%, from the income group 500-1000 J.D monthly with estimated percentage of 47.4%.

Pre-Test Analysis
To explore the quality of data and its suitability to use multiple regression analysis and to test hypotheses, the following pre-test analysis had been done: -The independency of the independent variables test: the results of Person Correlation Table 2 present there is a significant correlation at (α = 0.01) between the study's variables, no perfect correlation between them, the highest value of person correlation was (.815 ** ) which is between attitude toward event and event-sponsor fit.
Table 2. Person correlation matrix between the independent variables event-sponsor fit attitude towards the event brand awareness Variable -Variance Inflation Factor (VIF), (Multicollinearity).
Table 3 represents the (VIF) value for each variable was less than (10), and the tolerance value for each variable was more than (0.05) which means there is no correlation between the independent variables.

Multiple Regression Analysis
Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the impact of brand awareness, event-sponsor fit, and attitude towards the event on the attendee's purchase intention.The correlation coefficient as shown in Table 6 between all the independent variables and purchase intention was measured at (r = 0.634), and the coefficient of determination was (R² = 0.403) showing that 40.3 percent of purchase intention was illustrated by brand awareness, event-sponsor fit, and attitude towards the event.The results presented the study model is significant at the F statistics (F= 86.303) and (Sig = 0.000) at level of (α = 0.05).This means that the overall model is significant.The results of t test, Beta values and Sig show that brand awareness, attitude towards the event and event-sponsor fit were affecting attendee's purchase intention.The correlation coefficient -as shown in Table 7 between all the independent variables and attendee's perception of the sponsored brand image was measured at (r = 0.656), and the coefficient of determination was (R² = 0.431) showing that 43.1 percent of attendee's perception of the sponsored brand image was explained by brand awareness, event-sponsor fit and attitude towards the event.
The results of t test, Beta values and Sig show that brand awareness and attitude towards the event were affecting attendee's perception of the event sponsored brand image except event-sponsor fit which was excluded from the model.As shown at Table 8 the correlation coefficient between attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image and attendee's purchase intention was measured at (r = 0.598), and the coefficient of determination was (R² = 0.357) showing that 35.7 percent of attendee's purchase intention was explained by attendee's perception of sponsoring brand image.The results also showed at table (8) that the study model is significant at the F statistics (F=214.062)and (Sig = 0.000) at level of (α = 0.05).This means that the overall model is significant which means there is an effect for brand image on attendee's purchase intention.

Testing Mediation with Regression Analysis
Results in Table 9a represent the effect of each independent variable: brand awareness, attitude towards the event , event-sponsor fit, and attendee's perception of sponsoring brand image on attendee's purchase intention.Brand awareness (t= 6.889, Sig= 0.000), attitude towards the event (t= 5.429, Sig= 0.000), event-sponsor fit (t= 4.189, Sig= 0.000), brand image (t= 7.100, Sig= 0.000).These results indicates that all the independent variables were affected attendee's purchase intention including the mediate variable (brand image).
The results represent also the effect of each independent variable: brand awareness, event-attendee fit, and attitude toward event on attendee purchase intention.Brand awareness (t= 8.42, Sig= 0.000), event-attendee fit (t= 3.77, Sig= 0.000), attitude towards the event (t=7.50,Sig= 0.000).These results indicates that all the independent variables were influenced attendee's purchase intention excluding the mediate variable (brand image).The values of R 2 change as shown at Table 9b revealed the difference of R 2 when adding the mediate variable to the model which significant which means it is partial mediation.

Path Analysis
Path analysis has been used to clarify which causal variables will include in the model, to order the causal variables, and to reduce the model by dropping the unimportant path.
The path coefficients for the full model needs two stages of multiple regressions: First, with purchase intention as a dependent variable regarding attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image, brand awareness, attitude towards the event and event-sponsor fit.Second, with attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image as a dependent variable regarding brand awareness, attitude towards the event and event-sponsor fit event as independent variables.Third, with attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image as independent variable regarding purchase intention as dependent variable.
The path coefficients are the β weights from multiple regression analysis shown in Table 9a these values of β indicate the following: -Brand awareness, attitude towards the event and event-sponsor fit were influencing attendee's purchase intention directly.
-Brand awareness and attitude towards the event have also an indirect influence upon attendee's purchase intention.
-Event-sponsor fit has only a direct influence upon attendee's purchase intention.
-Brand awareness and attitude toward event influenced attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image.
-Attendee's perception of the sponsoring brand image influenced attendee's purchase intention.
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 1 .
Sample demographic characteristics

Table 3 .
Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) collinearity statistics for the independent variables

Table 6 .
Regression analysis of brand awareness, attitude towards the event, event-sponsor fit and purchase intention

Table 7 .
Regression analysis of brand awareness, attitude towards the event, event-sponsor fit and brand image

Table 8 .
Regression analysis of brand image and purchase intention

Table 9a .
Regression change analysis of the impact of the independent variables on purchase intention with mediating variable

Table 9b .
Determination coefficient change analysis of the impact of the independent variables on purchase intention with mediating variable b.Brand awareness, attitude towards the event, event-sponsor fit, and brand image.