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Sporting involvement and alcohol sponsorshipThese results do not indicate that banning alcoholsponsorship of sport would have significant effects onyoung people’s drinking behaviour. Girls are lessinvolved in sport but have more favourable attitudes toalcohol, which are the major predictor of greaterlikelihoods of drinking and getting drunk. Boys withsporting interests appear to be influenced towardsdrinking and drunkenness by the traditional machosporting culture rather than the presence of alcoholsponsorship. Alcohol sponsorship does play a part inperpetuating and normalising this culture, and so hassome additional influence, but banning it would havelittle effect on the traditional male practices of drinkingafter playing sport, watching matches with a beer inhand and so on. Sponsorship acts as a reinforcer ofattitudes which are already held, rather than creatingattitudes and instigating behaviour directly. It wouldappear that a ban, on its own, would have little effectapart from drying up a valuable source of sportingrevenue. However, the types of measures suggested byMcDaniel and Heald (2000), using marketingcommunications to challenge such established attitudes,could at least promote an alternative point of view.Limitations and suggestions for further researchIn this study, a self-perceived measure of awarenesshas been used. It is possible that young people maybe influenced subconsciously by repeated exposure tosponsorship, and in that case the self-perceptionwould not be a true measure. The questions onrecognition of sponsors were intended to provide acorroborative measure – yet, although there was apositive correlation between recognition andawareness, using the recognition measure rather thanthe perception of awareness gave less significantresults. It is possible that, in trying to cover arepresentative range of sports, the recognitionquestions were too general. Further studies should becarried out specific to particular sports, confirming therelative extent to which involvement in the sport andsponsor awareness contribute to drinking intentionsand behaviour.It was also considered that young people mightdevelop an interest in drinking prior to becomingaware of sponsors, and that this would subsequentlylead them to greater awareness of alcohol sponsors. Inthat case, the correlation between awareness ofalcohol sponsors and drinking behaviour would not becausal; both awareness and drinking behaviour wouldstem from a prior interest in drinking, rather than frominvolvement in sport. The study attempted to take thisinto account by using measures of awareness andrecognition of a range of sponsors, not just alcoholsponsors. However, this explanation could wellaccount for the significant correlation between alcoholsponsor recognition and girls’ drinking behaviour; therecognition of sponsors is occurring because ofknowledge of the sponsoring brand rather than aninterest in the sponsored sporting team or activity. Amore rigorous investigation of this aspect would bebeneficial, and would be best carried out by alongitudinal study which traced children’s andteenagers’ changing awareness of, and attitudestowards, both alcohol and sporting interests. Thiswould also be useful in investigating whether, howand in what circumstances attitudes towards alcoholare affected by sponsorship.In view of the findings of Christensen (2006), itwould also be worthwhile to investigate the attitudinaland emotional responses of various UK audiences(e.g. adolescents, sportspeople, sports fans) to alcoholsponsors and a range of sports personalities, teamsand events. Such a study could indicate how muchincongruity is currently perceived in alcohol sportssponsorship, and thus inform the content of healthrelatedmarketing communications in this area.Finally, the study casts little light on anyconnection of female drinking with sport and itssponsorship by alcohol companies. It would beinteresting to study girls who take part in the moretraditionally masculine sports, such as football andrugby, which are particularly associated with adrinking culture, to investigate whether they conformto the norms of that culture.RESEARCH PAPER● OCTOBER 2009 ● International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship41
Sporting involvement and alcohol sponsorshipRESEARCH PAPERConclusionsThe results of this study indicate that a ban on alcoholsports sponsorship would have little effect on youthalcohol consumption, unless it was part of a muchlarger campaign designed to break the longstandinglinks between sport and alcohol in the masculineculture of the UK – and there is no indication atpresent that the government is considering suchradical action. The findings of Lancaster and Lancaster(2003) and McDaniel and Heald (2000) wouldindicate that public service advertising highlighting thedetrimental effects of alcohol on sporting performance,and a requirement for sporting events that alcoholsponsorship should be balanced by health-relatedmarketing communications, could be more effectivethan a ban in challenging the alcohol and sportculture. Nevertheless, alcohol companies should bewary. Restrictions on junk food advertising have beenbrought in, even though there is disagreement as towhether these will do anything to counter obesity.A ban on alcohol sports sponsorship would be arelatively easy measure for the government toimplement, to show that they are taking concernsabout alcohol seriously. If evidence of the effectsof alcohol on the health and social fabric of theUK becomes strong enough, at some time,consideration might even be given to implementingthe full raft of measures advocated by Andersonand Baumberg (2005).Forward-thinking alcohol marketers could actstrategically now to put themselves in a favourableposition in either of these circumstances. Sending outresponsible drinking messages may not be sufficient tosave their sponsorship from a ban, but many alcoholcompanies market non-alcoholic wines or beers, suchas Kaliber or Stella Artois NA. Using such a product tosponsor their sporting properties would send a sociallyresponsible message to young sports fans andparticipants, generating favourable PR such as thatgiven to Niquitin when it initiated sponsorship of theBMW-Williams Formula 1 team (Kleinman, 2003).Sportsmen known to be teetotal or to drink responsiblycould be used to promote the brand and the messagethat alcohol and sport do not mix. Yet a brand nameand logo which clearly identified the association of thenon-alcoholic brand to other brands in the company’sportfolio could ensure that the sponsorship wasinstrumental in promoting the whole set of brands.© 2009 International Marketing ReportsBiographyFiona Davies is a lecturer in marketing at CardiffUniversity and is a competitive runner and duathlete.She has published extensively in a range of academicjournals, including Journal of Business Research,European Journal of Marketing and Journal ofMarketing Communications. Her research interests arein sponsorship, particularly in sport and its effects onconsumer attitudes and behaviour.ReferencesAitken, P.P., Leathar, D.S. & Squair, S.L. (1986a) Children’sawareness of cigarette brand sponsorship of sports and games inthe UK, Health Education Research 1(3), 203-211.Aitken, P.P., Leathar, D.S. & Squair, S.L. (1986b) Children’sopinions on whether or not cigarette advertisements should bebanned, Health Education Journal 45(4) 204-207.Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. (1980) Understanding Attitudes andPredicting Social Behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Alcohol Concern (2007a) Health Impacts of Alcohol. Factsheetretrieved November 2007 from:http://www.alcoholconcern.org.ukAlcohol Concern (2007b), Young People’s Drinking. Factsheet.Retrieved November 2007 from:http://www.alcoholconcern.org.ukAlcohol Policy (2007) Cirrhosis in young people doubles overlast decade, 21 March. Retrieved November 2007 from:http://www.alcoholpolicy.net/health/index.html42 International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship ● OCTOBER 2009 ●
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