MASTER'S THESIS
Stadium Naming Rights
A case study of the objectives for sponsoring a stadium and the impact on
brand awareness
Vicktor Andersson
Jens Karlsson
2014
Master of Science in Business and Economics (60 credits) Business Administration
Luleå University of Technology
Acknowledgements
This thesis is the final component of our Master Programme in Business and Economics. We would like to express our gratitude to our supervisor Mana Farshid, for all her feedback and guidance along the way. And we would like to thank our classmates for their input.
We also want to express our deepest appreciation to Janne Dannberg at Luleå Hockey, Thomas Björk and Hans Sundström at Coop Norrbotten, for providing us with the data for the thesis.
Also, we thank our family and friends for the support during these past four years.
Abstract
Stadium naming rights are a rapidly growing type of sponsorship, to direct market your company name and generate company goodwill from the society. It is getting more and more popular in Sweden, and it has been proven very cost efficient and evolving for the company and it´s brand. Companies line up to sponsor different sports, events and arenas, to have their brand shown in media and in the stadiums. The use of word of mouth further markets the brand, both in direct communication and in social media. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of sponsorship through the use of a company named stadium or arena in Sweden, and how this can impact on a company´s brand awareness. For this, two research question were proposed:
RQ1: What are the objectives for sponsoring a stadium? RQ2: How does the sponsorship impact brand awareness?
The thesis is exploratory and descriptive, and uses a qualitative approach. The strategy chosen is a case-study that uses Luleå Hockey and Coop Norrbotten as the objectives for the study, and the data was collected through interviews. The sales manager from Luleå Hockey in one interview, the CEO and the HR- and Information responsible in the second interview. The data collected suggests that the stadium naming right sponsorship deal was made to fund the new arena, and at the same time market Coop Norrbotten as a brand. It also suggested a good cooperation between the companies, and objectives as getting involved in the community, building relations with new companies and sponsors, raise brand awareness, and market the local brands and skills, as being the main goals of the sponsorship deal.
Unlike some research considers, the sponsorship deal was not made to increase sales and market share, but rather to build the companies image and brand. The outcome of the stadium naming right deal proved to be even more successful than the companies had expected, with the word of mouth communication being one of the major positive effects. Since the arena is used for many different events and sports beside hockey, the stadium name is used in every day conversations as well as in media.
Sammanfattning
Att namnge sportarenor är en snabbt växande typ av sponsring, för att direkt marknadsföra företagsnamnet och generera goodwill till samhället. Det blir mer och mer populärt i Sverige, och det har visat sig vara mycket kostnadseffektivt och utvecklande för ett företag och dess varumärke. Företag ställer sig i kö för att få sponsra olika idrotter, evenemang och arenor, för att få ut sitt varumärke i media och på arenorna. Användningen av word of mouth både som direkt kommunikation och i sociala medier marknadsför varumärket ytterligare. Syftet med denna studie är att få en djupare uppfattning om sponsring genom att använda namnrättigheter på arenor i Sverige, och hur detta kan påverka ett företags varumärkeskännedom. För detta bestämdes två forskningsfrågor:
RQ1: Vad är målen med att sponsra en arena?
RQ2: Hur påverkar sponsringen varumärkeskännedomen?
Denna uppsats är utforskande och beskrivande, och använder en kvalitativ ansats. Strategin som är vald är en fallstudie som använder Luleå Hockey och Coop Norrbotten som objekt för studien, och datan samlades in med hjälp av intervjuer. Säljchefen från Luleå Hockey i en intervju, och Vd:n samt HR- och informationschefen i den andra intervjun. Datan som samlades in visar på att kontraktet på namnrättigheterna till arenan avtalades för att bidra ekonomiskt till den nya arenan, och samtidigt marknadsföra varumärket Coop Norrbotten. Den visade även att det var ett lyckat samarbete mellan företagen, med mål som att involvera sig i samhället, bygga relationer med nya företag och sponsorer, öka varumärkeskännedomen, och marknadsföra de lokala varumärkena och färdigheterna, som de huvudsakliga målen med sponsringen.
Till skillnad från vad en del undersökningar visat, var inte sponsoravtalet skapat för att öka försäljningen och marknadsandelarna, utan istället att stärka bilden av företagen och deras varumärke. Resultatet från avtalet visade sig vara än mer lyckat än förutspått, där word to mouth kommunikation var en av de stora positiva effekterna. Eftersom arenan används för många olika evenemang och sporter förutom hockeyn, används arenanamnet i både vardagliga konversationer och i media.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 1 1.1 Background ... 1 1.2 Problem Discussion ... 3 1.2.1 Purpose ... 3 1.2.2 Research Questions ... 4 1.2.3 Delimitations ... 4 1.3 Outline of Thesis ... 4 2. Theoretical Review ... 5 2.1 Sponsorship ... 5 2.2 Sponsorship Objectives... 6 2.3 Brand Awareness ... 9 2.4 Brand Image ... 92.5 Stadium Naming Rights ... 10
2.6 Word of Mouth ... 11 2.7 Conceptual Framework ... 11 3. Methodology ... 15 3.1 Research Purpose ... 15 3.2 Research Approach ... 15 3.3 Research Strategy ... 16 3.4 Case Selection ... 17 3.5 Data Collection ... 17 3.6 Sample Selection ... 19 3.7 Data Analysis ... 20 3.8 Reliability ... 21 3.9 Validity ... 22 4. Empirical data ... 23
4.1 Interview Luleå Hockey ... 23
4.1.1 Increase Public Awareness and Image ... 23
4.1.2 Sponsorship Cooperation ... 24
4.1.3 Common Values and Relationships ... 24
4.1.4 Giving Back to the Community ... 25
4.1.5 Summary Objectives ... 25
4.1.5 Brand Strength and Measurement ... 26
4.1.5 Future Cooperation... 26
4.2 Interview Coop Norrbotten... 26
4.2.1 Exposure and Products ... 27
4.2.2 Marketing for Luleå Hockey ... 27
4.2.3 Values ... 27
4.2.4 Customers and Employees ... 28
4.2.5 Segmentation and Measurement ... 28
4.2.6 Summary Objectives ... 29
5. Data Analysis ... 30
5.1 Research Question 1: Luleå Hockey... 30
5.2 Research Question 1: Coop Norrbotten ... 32
5.3 Research Question 2: Luleå Hockey... 34
5.4 Research Question 2: Coop Norrbotten ... 35
5.5 Cross-case Analysis ... 35
5.6 Comparison Analysis ... 38
6.1 Findings and Conclusions ... 39
6.1.1 RQ1: What are the objectives for sponsoring a stadium? ... 39
6.1.2 RQ2: How does the sponsorship impact brand awareness? ... 41
6.2 Limitations ... 42
6.3 Theoretical Implications ... 42
6.4 Implications for Practitioners ... 43
6.5 Further Research ... 44
List of References ... 45
Appendices ... i
Appendix 1 - Interview Guide (Swedish) ... i
1. Introduction
This chapter explains the background of the thesis. After this, a problem discussion describes the purpose, research questions and delimitations. Finally an outline of the thesis is presented, to show the reader how the thesis is structured.
1.1 Background
Sponsorship is a marketing tool that can be used in many different ways. A company can choose to sponsor a certain event and create an interaction with its customers and those who attend this event. They can also sponsor individual athletes who have achieved fame through their excellence in sports, arts or music. A company can also choose to sponsor a sports team or an organization or even another company. And a way that grows more and more over the last decades is the use of sponsoring with your company name on a stadium or arena, housing different events, and thus buying the naming rights to the arena or stadium (Jobber, 2007).
Stadium naming rights is very popular in USA and is a rising trend in Sweden, with different arenas and stadiums in the country receiving corporate names instead of chosen names by the team or the city that builds them. Reasons behind corporations buying up stadium naming rights might be to strengthen the associations with a corporation’s brand. Sports symbolize hard work, team spirit and loyalty to the team and your teammates. There are of course differences in team sports and individual sports, but even in individual sports you tend to belong to a team (McCarthy and Irwin, 2000).
Kamins (1989) explains that it has been suggested that marketing campaigns involving celebrities give a more believable advertising for the company and creates a positive attitude and personality towards the company brand. This is because they are seen as a better value, creates brand awareness and is more likely to be chosen by the customers.
According to Frederick and Patil (2010) we have a unique relationship with sports that allows different sporting industries to attract huge sponsorship deals, which in turn has led to keen competition for the sporting consumers spending capacity. In the USA alone the sporting industry accounts for $US30 billion and is the 11th largest industry in the country (Frederick and Patil, 2010).
Furthermore they define sports sponsorship as a relationship between a sports team and a company in return for rights used for commercial advantage (Ferkins and Garland, 2006; Meerbeau et al., 1991; Sleight, 1989; Walliser, 2003). They acknowledge previous literature in the area and concludes that sponsorship can be seen as a flexible and diverse medium that enables a company to build brands and enhance awareness, enhance company image and leverage company reputation, stimulate sale of products and services to increase sales, reinforce advertising and media exposure, address new target audiences and markets and community relations, entertain clients and customers, reward company personnel and undertake corporate social responsibility and hospitality
(Dolphin, 2003; Ferkins and Garland , 2006; Liu et al., 1998; Slieght, 1989; Walliser, 2003; Frederick and Patil, 2010).
According to Alexander (2008) sponsorship is a means for which companies can identify themselves and their brands with the certain characteristics of a certain event or a team that they may decide to sponsor. It allows a company to create or redefine their corporate image, which is the uniqueness of an organization as related to its external and internal image (Alexander, 2008). Sponsorship has the ability to distinguish the brand and give another angle as opposed to the traditional advertising by identifying the brand with the values of sports or events (Alexander, 2008).
Branding is the process by which companies distinguish their product offerings from competitors. It involves the creation of a package, name and design of the product. By creating a brand you can connect certain feelings or emotions for your products that you wish customers to associate your products with. A brand has its own identity and will ease customers purchase decision when they recognize and relate your brand to certain characteristics (such as reliable, sturdy, refreshing, quality). A strong brand that is recognized among consumer will create loyalty (Jobber, 2007).
One can argue that by naming a stadium in your brand name, people will mention the company every time they bring up an event or game that is going to take place at the arena. This will make for a good way of putting your brand name or company in the minds of consumers, and create brand awareness.
According to Jobber (2007) brand awareness is related to brand equity. If you are able to raise awareness of your brand among consumers the likelihood of it entering the consumers evoked set is increased. Consumers’ evoked sets are those brands that consumers seriously consider before making a purchase (Jobber, 2007). This makes brand equity a measure of the strength of the brand in the marketplace by adding tangible value to a company through the resulting sales and profits. Jobber (2007) brings up two types of brand equity; customer-based brand equity which resides in the mind of consumers and consists of brand awareness and brand image. The second is propriety-based brand equity this is based on assets that are attributes to the company and consists of patents and channel relationships (Jobber, 2007).
Brand equity is also used to create a strong brand image. A brand image is created through the use of all elements of the marketing mix. Is the product reliable, durable and actually fit and provides the needed specifications to do its purpose.
Sponsors have a wide range of areas that they can choose to provide funds, resources and services, the areas are sports, arts, community activities, teams, tournaments, individual personalities or events, competitions, fairs, and shows. Where sports is the most popular area to sponsor for several reasons. It offers high visibility through extensive television press coverage (Jobber, 2007).
Sponsorship can drastically change the awareness a group of costumers have for a certain brand. If a company aims to create higher awareness it can choose to
sponsor a certain event, league or even individuals and sports teams. Depending on what type of customers a company wants to attract and create a higher awareness from they need to choose carefully who or what to sponsor. Canon raised its awareness on their brand name from 40 to 85 percent among males when choosing to sponsor football in the United Kingdoms (Jobber, 2007).
1.2 Problem Discussion
It is clear that the old method of sponsorship where you have a provider of funds on one side and an organization or event on the other side is outdated (Jobber, 2007). Sponsorship today is much more complex and need careful planning and research in order to fit a company and that company’s image into the right event or organization to sponsor. As Jobber (2007) brought up a company’s brand image should reflect what they decide to sponsor, as in the case with Red Bull and their sponsoring of the competition “Flugtag”. They displayed their “wacky” side, and then on the other hand also sponsored UK athletes to display their energy drink potential.
According to Turley and Shannon (2000) a reason for company interests for advertising in closed arenas such as sports arenas, is that visitors to the sports event will most likely be there for a longer period of time and thus exposed to the ad for a longer time. Season ticket holders to sporting events will also be at the arena several times a year, and this includes fans without season tickets that decides to visit several games a year. They continue to say that the ads will be identified in the specific atmosphere that sporting events provides and a company will be associated with that atmosphere. However these ads must compete for attention from other elements of the sports setting, such as other spectators, players, referees and other ads.
The interesting thing is to get an insight on how the sponsorship in Sweden today has developed, and compared to previous studies in the area find out the objectives that drives this type of marketing more and more forward. As mentioned, this marketing strategy is growing rapidly, so the companies’ brands must have a lot to gain since they are putting in as much funds as they do. With this in mind, our focus is going to be on the impact of the companies’ brand, but also what triggers them to sponsor.
We feel that although this has already been looked into by others, it is important to find out if Swedish companies are driven by the same reasons for sponsoring as companies in other countries or if there are any differences, or if they decide to sponsor because it is required for larger companies to develop the community they act in and give back to it. Why do they decide to put as much funds as the do into sponsorship and more specifically arena naming sponsorship.
1.2.1 Purpose
Based on the background and problem discussion, the purpose of this thesis is “to gain a deeper understanding of sponsorship through the use of a company named stadium or arena in Sweden and how this can impact on a company’s brand awareness”. In order to fulfill this purpose, two research questions have been outlined.
1.2.2 Research Questions
RQ1: What are the objectives for sponsoring a stadium? RQ2: How does the sponsorship impact brand awareness?
1.2.3 Delimitations
The study will be limited to Sweden, and will focus on one stadium that has a company name. This to be able to get a deeper understanding of a specific scenario, rather than having different stadiums that can be sponsored for different reasons. We will look at this from a company perspective.
1.3 Outline of Thesis
The outline of our thesis is divided into six chapters; introduction, theoretical review, methodology, empirical data, data analysis, and findings & conclusions. The order in which these chapters are covered, are illustrated in the figure below.
Figure 1: Outline of the thesis
Source: Adapted from Broderg & Rosen (2008)
Findings & conclusions
Data analysis
Empirical data
Methodology
Theoretical review
Introduction
Stadium naming rights
2. Theoretical Review
This chapter contains relevant theory for the thesis. The theory has its base from our research questions. In the end of this chapter, the theories most relevant will be put into a frame of reference.
2.1 Sponsorship
Abratt et al (1987) defined sponsorship in the their paper as follows; “An
agreement in terms of which sponsors provides some aid to a beneficiary which may be an association, a team or an individual, to enable the latter to pursue some activity and thereby derives the benefits contemplated in terms of its promotion strategy”.
Dolphin (1999) continues and states that sponsorship typically refers to the financial supports given by an external organization to a leisure or sporting activity, support given with a define commercial objective in mind. If only with the intent of creating goodwill and good public relations. Tripodi (2001) states that sponsorship is a marketing tool and undertaken by firms in order to extract some commercial benefit.
Olkonnen et al. (2000) has a different view on sponsorship and suggests that sponsorship is the practice of promoting a company’s interest and its brands by tying them to a specific and meaningful related event, organization or charitable cause. The researchers agree that sponsorship is growing but the research is without a clear theoretical base (Hook et al, 1997).
According to Carrigan and Carrigan (1997) the first sponsored events emerged from the roman and greek empires. It was a tool for leaders to gain favor among the people by providing them with events such as gladiator games. It was a way of making sure they would have public support (Ibid).
Carrigan and Carrigan (1997) further report that the old reasons behind sponsoring an event still somewhat applies on today’s reasons for sponsoring, where a company can provide funds to a team, individual or an event and in return receive advertising space, their name on the sponsored event or their brand name on an individual.
Sponsorship can come in many forms and in several different environments. According to Jobber (2007), the largest area that companies decide to invest money in and by doing so agreeing to sponsor is sports. The other large areas are arts, community activities, teams, tournaments, individual personalities or events, competitions, fairs, and shows. The sporting industry receives the largest amount of sponsorship interest, due to extensive media coverage and a possibility to reach a large amount of costumers and relate your company or product with the characteristics of a team or an individual athlete (Jobber, 2007). The annual sponsorship report from IEG confirms this and provides numbers over the total amount of dollars spent on sponsorship in North America; 70% of the money spent on sponsorship goes into the sporting industry, 10% to entertainment, 9% on causes sponsorship, 4% on arts, 4% to festivals, fairs and
annual events and 3% to associations and membership organizations. (IEG annual sponsorship report, 2014)
According to Meenaghan and Shipley (1999) sponsorship is similar to advertising. Investments in sponsorships are made in order to fulfill certain commercial objectives. The sponsor expects to be able to exploit and use the assets of the event or team that is being sponsored for commercial use (Meenaghan and Shipley, 1999). Furthermore advertising is used to create brand image through two main and broad functions. Firstly it encourages thoughts about the actual functions of the brand, the tangible functions and secondly it trigger emotional and intangible feelings towards the brand (Meenaghan and Shipley, 1999).
Nichols and Roslow (1999) note that sport spectators are in a special category; proposing that this is because spectators are exposed to promotional messages under favorable conditions, where there is excitement, enthusiasm and enjoyment conditions under which customers tend to be relaxed and receptive to the corporate message. But Marshall and Cook (1992) consider whether the spectators are so preoccupied with the event that they fail to absorb the sponsor’s message (Dolphin, 2004).
According to Chajet (1997) sponsorship increasingly has a role to play in gaining entry to overseas market. It can be a powerful tool enabling an organization to raise the profile across frontiers both of the brand and the corporate brand (Dolphin, 2004).
2.2 Sponsorship Objectives
According to Meenaghan (1983) all companies exist within the business environment, and there must be and interaction between the company and the environment. He also brings up two types of environments; the task environment with suppliers and competitors and the public environment with government agencies, banks and the public. Meenaghan (1983) continues and points out that sponsorship can be used to make the interaction between the company and the environment easier. The company chooses to sponsor a field, which has no relationship to their business. Meenaghan (1983) mentions 10 corporate objectives in becoming involved in sponsorship under this category.
Community involvement
To increase public awareness of the company
To alter public perception of the company
To build goodwill among opinion-formers and decision-makers
To reassure policy-holders and stockholders
To counter adverse publicity
As an aid to staff relations
To assist staff recruitment
To identify with a particular market segment
Abratt et al (1987) continues and reports that broad corporate objectives for sponsoring have their basis in; developing a favorable public relations image of the firm, increasing public awareness of the company and their products and building goodwill among the company’s customers.
Abratt et al (1987) brings up 5 broader corporate sponsorship categories;
Product-related objectives: Sponsorship should not be used as a substitute for advertising, they should be used together in order to achieve maximum benefit from both activities. The objectives under this category are to identify the product or brand name of the company with a particular market segment, the sponsors’ attempts to link a brand name with a particular sponsorship (Abratt et al, 1987).
Sales objectives: The ultimate aim for marketing is to increase sales and profit. Companies deciding to sponsor certain events with their products hope to ultimately sell more of this product in order to increase sales and profits (Abratt et al, 1987).
The achievement of media coverage: This is one of the most important objectives for a company when engaging in sponsorships. Companies involved in sponsorships which consider name awareness and company awareness as their main reason for entering into the sponsorship, coverage of the event is very important from a cost-effectiveness point of view (Abratt et al, 1987).
Guest hospitality: Sponsorships gives the sponsor opportunities to entertain potential and existing customers. This is used in order to satisfy customers and attempt to put the customer under some form of obligation in the hope that future sales will continue (Abratt et al, 1987).
Personal objectives: The decision to sponsor and the choice of which sport to sponsor are always influenced by the decision maker’s personal views. This makes the decision maker’s influence very significant in assessing the importance of this objective (Abratt et al, 1987).
Irwin and Asimakopoulos (1992) have come up with the Sport Sponsorship Proposal Evaluation Model. This is essentially a checklist which companies can use and look at different objectives when trying to figure out what to sponsor and why. Irwin and Asimakopoulos (1992) bring up several sponsorship objectives including;
Increase corporate public awareness: Sponsorship is used in order to inform the public of the capabilities the company possesses (Mullon, Hardy and Sutton, 2007).
Enhance corporate image: The company tries to associate itself with the type of sport or team they decide to sponsor in hope that the fans of the sport or team associate the company with the values of the selected sport or team (Mullon, Hardy and Sutton, 2007).
Alter public perception: Is similar to enhancing corporate image, is done by sponsoring events that are a part of consumers lifestyles and thus associating the company with their consumers lifestyle (Irwin and Asimakopoulos, 1992; Irwin, Sutton and McCarthy, 2008).
Getting involved in the community: Sponsors use sport sponsorship as a means of giving back to the community. According to Mullin et al (2007) sports sponsorship has the potential as a communication tool to have a direct impact on the community.
Building business/trade goodwill: Sports offer an opportunity to entertain certain business clients, both present and future clients beyond the daily business operations (Irwin et al., 2008).
Enhancing employee relations/motivation: Similar to building business/trade goodwill, sport sponsorship can be used to entertain the company’s employees (Fullerton, 2010). Sport sponsorship has the ability to increase employee motivation and corporate pride (Irwin et al, 2008).
Increase target market awareness: Sponsorship can be used to target a specific small segment of customers with a specific message. Sponsorship has been used to increase awareness of particular brand within the sponsors target market (Greenhalgh and Greenwell, 2013). Sport sponsorship sometimes allows companies to target a niche market with very little waste on spectators outside their target market (Irwin et al, 2008).
Increase sales/market share: According to Shank (2005) and Irwin et al (2008) sales and market share objectives are the most popular sponsorship objectives within sports. There are several ways to increase sales/market share within sports sponsorship. First spectators at the game are more prone to purchase products from brands that sponsor their team or event that they value as opposed to competing non-sponsor products (Fullerton, 2010; Irwin et al, 2008). Second when consumers purchase in stores they are exposed to all kinds of brands, companies can use sports in order to make their brand stand out amongst the other brands (Irwin et al, 2008). Third, sponsorship deals can include on-site product distribution, trails or exclusive rights to sell the sponsoring companies products during the event or inside a stadium (Irwin et al, 2008).
However Cornwell et al (2001) brings up that little research has been conducted in how companies actually benefits from the use of sponsorship but also agrees that sponsorship is used to achieve marketing objectives. Nichols and Roslow (1999) suggest that sponsorship provides companies with opportunities to reach their customers through their minds and through their hearts.
According to Javalgi et al (1994) sponsorship is used as a special event with the intent of supporting organizational objectives by; enhancing corporate image, increasing awareness of brands, stimulating the sales of products or services,
and leveraging corporate reputation. Thwaites (1995) continues and writes that one of the features of sponsorship is its ability to contribute to a wide range of objectives at both brand and corporate level and that these objectives might include brand awareness. Cornwell et al (2001) acknowledge this and states that brand awareness accrues naturally from sponsorship.
According to Chajet (1997) sponsorship increasingly has a role to play in gaining entry to overseas market. It can be a powerful tool enabling an organization to raise the profile across frontiers both of the brand and the corporate brand (Dolphin, 2004).
2.3 Brand Awareness
According to Gross, Javalgi and Taylor (1992) one of the most important objective of sponsorship is to enhance corporate image and increase brand awareness. In a survey made by Gross et al (1992) 41% of companies stated that they had brand related objectives with their sponsorship and 54% of the companies stated that the had corporate image objectives.
According to Percy and Rossiter (1992) brand awareness can be thought of as a buyer’s ability to recognize and identify a brand within a certain category in enough detail to make a purchase of that brand. This does not mean that the buyers’ needs to know the name of the brand, the buyer might recognize the brand visually and from its packaging. Furthermore Percy and Rossiter (1992) identify two categories within brand awareness; brand recognition and brand recall.
Brand recognition involves the category of “need” amongst the buyers when the brand is presented to them, Percy and Rossiter (1992) describes this with a customer buying food and describes the buyer who carries a list with reminder of what to purchase. The buyer does not write down brand name on their list, they simply recognize certain brands while in the store (Ibid).
Brand recall is the category where the brand is not presented to the buyer. A need is then experienced and while no brands are presented to the buyer, they must recall certain brands in order to make a decision. Percy and Rossiter (1992) provide an example of a family going out to eat (need) and they have to decide which restaurant to go to. The family then selects one and goes there to eat (Ibid).
Aaker (1996) acknowledges this and states that brand awareness can be described as “the ability of a consumer to recognize and recall a brand in different situations”, and also mentions that brand awareness consists of brand recognition and brand recall. Keller (1993) states that brand awareness will affect purchase decision through brand association, and when a product has a positive brand image it will help in marketing activities.
2.4 Brand Image
In a study done by Cornwell and Maignan (1998) they reveal enhancing brand image is included as a typical goal for using sponsorship as a marketing tool.
Cornwell and Maignan (1998) bring up Keller (1993) framework for brand equity as an excellent tool for measuring the effects of sponsorship on brand image. Keller (1993) defines customer-based brand equity as “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand” and that it “occurs when consumers is familiar with the brands and holds some strong, favorable and unique brand associations in memory”.
Keller (1993) continues and states that brand image consists of brand associations and other informal connections linked to the brands connections in the consumer’s memory. However, according to Cornwell and Maignan (1998) in order for brand image to be affected by sponsorship, a brand’s connections have to have been established in the memory of customers. This influences how different kinds of information can become attached to the brand in memory. Sponsorship seeks to build an association or link between the sponsored event, team or stadium to the brand.
According to Gwinner (1997) sponsorship can be used to associate certain characteristics of the type of activity that is sponsored, such as sports, arts or public events. The meaning of this is to transfer the image and characteristics of the event that is sponsored to the company brand. The goal according to Gwinner (1997) is to transfer the “meanings” customers attending a sporting event has to that event, to a brand or company. Gwinner (1997) continues and states that matching a brand with the right type of endorsement will create positive outcomes such as a more positive attitude towards the brand and a higher brand recall.
McDonald (1991) gives us two matching categories; direct and indirect matching. Direct matching is when the sponsored activity uses products from the sponsor, and indirect matching is when the sponsor and the sponsored activity share the same image. According to Gwinner (1997) a match between the sponsor and the sponsored activity will improve the transformation and the development of brand image.
2.5 Stadium Naming Rights
According to McCarthy and Irwin (2000) the purchasing of stadium naming rights as a form of sponsorship is one of the most cost effective. In general a sponsor pays an annual fee of $2 Million dollars for the naming rights. Furthermore McCarthy and Irwin (2000) states that the main reasons for companies to buy facility naming rights is direct marketing opportunities and to generate company goodwill from the society. This has been supported by research claiming that facility naming rights are purchased for the motives of providing a public service and enhance the sponsoring companies market position. This is called community citizenship and they mention this as one of five objectives to why a company decides to purchase stadium naming rights. McCarthy and Irwin (2000) bring up an example of Pepsi, where the company sponsored the arena in Denver Colorado. Pepsi’s funding helped Denver secure a National Hockey League franchise, which later on won the Stanley Cup. The Pepsi funding also helped Denver keep the National Basketball Association Franchise
the Denver Nuggets. While Pepsi through the funding secured the rights of soft drink pouring within the arena, the company also helped raise the quality of life in Denver by bringing in the Colorado Avalanche and making it possible for the Denver Nuggets to stay, and at the same time made sure their other companies such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken got exclusive serving rights within the arena generating more brand awareness (McCarthy and Irwin, 2000).
According to McCarthy and Irwin (2000) a major advantage of purchasing stadium naming rights is repetition of the company name in all events that will take place inside the stadium. This can provide companies with marketing opportunities which they otherwise wouldn´t have, an example of this is product usage within the arena (Ibid).
Furthermore McCarthy and Irwin (2000) brings up Canadian Airlines as an example of a company whom used their naming rights of the Calgary Saddledome Arena to create new business opportunities with the current team renting the arena, the Calgary Flames. The team and its minor league affiliates all use Canadian Airlines as their form of transportation choice. Another example is Enron Corp who negotiated an exclusive service and power contract with the Houston Astros ballpark, which brought the company more than $200 million in revenues from sponsoring (Ibid).
According to McCarthy and Irwin (2000) these examples proves the means by which naming rights deal provides the sponsor optimum opportunity as well as incremental business development also mentioned as extended sales opportunities.
2.6 Word of Mouth
According to Kimmel & Kitchen (2013) word of mouth is the action of a consumer generating or distributing marketing-relevant information to other consumers. Word of mouth has been a part of the human dialogue as long as people have engaged in conversations, and from previous research it has been acknowledged that positive word of mouth only occurs when the customer thinks that he or she will gain something out of it (Ibid).
There are both negative and positive word of mouth. Although different research has different conclusions regarding which of these that affects the customer the most, a belief is that if the negative word of mouth comes from a dissatisfied customer it draws more attention than positive word of mouth (Kimmel & Kitchen, 2013).
2.7 Conceptual Framework
The previous section was used to describe our area of research and to get a better understanding on how and why sponsorship is used. Furthermore, what kind of activities a company can choose to invest their money in. It is a review of the relevant literature we have found in the area and will be the base for our frame of reference.
Not all literature will be used to answer our research questions. Some of the literature mentioned in the previous section is included to get a better understanding of the area of sponsorship and to provide information on why we decided to look into this area.
The literature best suitable for our research questions will be presented separately below, question-by-question, with source, definition and operational definition. This to show the way that we plan to use the literature to answer the research questions.
RQ1: What are the objectives for sponsoring a stadium?
The literature best suitable for answering research question one, is Irwin and Asimakopoulos (1992) and their model on Sport Sponsorship Proposal Evaluation. As stated in the theory chapter, this model is used for companies to evaluate objectives for what to sponsor and why. The reason of this choice was that the model has been used frequently in the past, and has been proved efficient for this purpose (Greenhalgh and Greenwell, 2013). The different parts from the model are described in the table on the next page.
Concept Definition Operational Definition
Source
Increase corporate
public awareness Show the company´s capabilities
How does sponsorship create public awareness?
Mullon, Hardy and Sutton, 2007
Enhance corporate
image Target sports fans to associate the sport with the company
Connecting values of the team to the company
Mullon, Hardy and Sutton, 2007
Alter public
perception Combine lifestyle of customer with lifestyle of purchasing the company´s products Is segmentation a part of the sponsorship strategy? Irwin and Asimakopoulos, 1992; Irwin, Sutton and McCarthy, 2008 Getting involved in
the community Give back to the community to gain goodwill and image Does the sponsorship create goodwill? Mullin et al, 2007 Building business/trade goodwill Networking and build relationships with customers Invite customers to games/events to create good relationships Irwin et al., 2008 Enhancing employee
relations/motivation Networking and build relationships with employees Invite employees to games/events to create good relationships Irwin et al, 2008 Increase target
market awareness Target small segments of customers Market specific brands to specific audience Irwin et al, 2008 Increase
sales/market share Sponsor a team to get their fans as customers
Are the team´s fans a big part of your customer base? Shank, 2005; Fullerton, 2010; Irwin et al, 2008 Table 1
Source: Authors´ own construction
RQ2: How does the sponsorship impact brand awareness?
To answer our second research question, the literature from Percy and Rossiter (1992) is best suitable. They describe the impact of brand awareness as a habit when purchasing products. The brands you have been exposed to through
sponsoring are the brands you are most likely to purchase, even if you don´t have the intention of searching for products after manufacturer. This theory was chosen because we thought it would be fitting and applicable for our case with stadium naming rights. The two categories of brand awareness are described in the table below.
Concept Definition Operational Definition Source
Brand recognition (First part of Brand
Awareness)
Market the brand to get customers to purchase items from a specific company
Are the marketing mainly of the brand or the
product? Percy and Rossiter, 1992 Brand recall (Second part of Brand Awareness) Getting the customer to choose a specific brand without mentioning it
Are there other parts of the sponsorship except the stadium name, which attracts customers to the brand?
Percy and Rossiter, 1992 Table 2
3. Methodology
In the previous chapter, the literature we are going to use are described. Here, the methodology for the thesis is explained. The methods used will be described, stated and motivated.
Figure 2: Research methodology Source: Adapted from Foster (1998)
3.1 Research Purpose
The research purpose in a project can be one or a combination of explanatory, exploratory or descriptive. The difference between these three are clear, but it does not mean that you only use one of them. The explanatory purpose studies a problem or a situation in order to explain the relationship between variables, exploratory seeks to find new insights and answer what is happening, and descriptive studies is used to portray persons, situations or events (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009).
This study is of the exploratory purpose, since it is trying to find out what is happening when a stadium goes trough the process of getting a company name. We want to find out what the benefits and reasons for this type of marketing is, what the company and stadium owners gains and have to sacrifice. It is also of the descriptive purpose, because it tries to portray the situation of a company going trough the process of buying the naming rights of a stadium.
3.2 Research Approach
There are two types of methodological approaches for a thesis, qualitative and quantitative. The approach is chosen on two bases, the purpose of the study and what kind of information is to be studied. Qualitative approach is based on meanings expressed through words, while a quantitative approach is based on meaning derived from numbers. The qualitative approach aims to gain a deeper
Research
understanding, and look at values and attitudes, rather than find numerical standards and norms. The data used in qualitative studies is gathered trough interviews and questionnaire, while the data for quantitative studies is based on numbers and shown in diagrams and tables. This results in a more general focus, than the qualitative data that is deeper (Saunders et al, 2009).
The approach of this thesis is going to be qualitative, since the goal is to get a better insight of sponsorship through the use of a company named stadium, and how this will impact brand awareness. We want to find out what purposes and goals the company has when purchasing the naming rights. The conclusions made in this thesis can later on be tested with quantitative research.
3.3 Research Strategy
Depending on the type of research, five strategies can be used. These are experiment, survey, archival analysis, history or case study (Yin, 2009). When choosing a research strategy, a good thing to use is your research questions as the base. Depending on what you want to have answered, you choose a fitting strategy.
Method Form of research
question Requires control over behavioral events
Focus on contemporary events
Experiment How, why? Yes No
Survey Who, what, where, how many, how much?
No Yes
Archival analysis Who, what, where, how many, how much?
No Yes/no
History How, why? No No
Case study How, why? No Yes Table 3: Relevant situations for different research purposes
Source: Yin (2009)
Our research questions will be asking “How?” and “Why?”, to better understand the problem discussed. They will also depend on contemporary events, more than historical or behavioral events. This makes the research strategy of a case study the most appropriate in this thesis.
A case study is the complete opposite of an experiment, where research is undertaken within a highly controlled context (Saunders et al, 2009). The case study is ‘a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence’ (Robson, 2002:178). It is of particular interest when you wish to gain understanding of the context of the research (Morris & Wood 1991).
When using case study as a research strategy, it is important to differ between single case and multiple case. A single case is often used to represent a unique or
extreme case, while multiple case is used to back up each other in comparisons and differences. By using multiple case it becomes easier to generalize the findings and conclusions made from the cases (Yin, 2009).
3.4 Case Selection
Luleå hockey was created as a result of a merger between two smaller hockey associations, IFK Luleå and Luleå Sportklubb. Luleå hockey is considered the most northerly-located elite hockey team in the world. The team advanced to the Swedish elite hockey league in 1984 and has played there ever since, 30 years to the date (Luleå Hockey, 2013). Luleå Hockey had a total turnover of 142 million Swedish crowns in the season 2012/2013 (Ibid).
Coop Norrbotten is a part of Kooperativa Förbundet (KF) and is a retailer located in the northern part of Sweden (Coop Norbotten, 2013). KF was founded in 1899 in order to help associations sell pure and unfalsified products. In the year 1947 the brand CO-OP was introduced (Ibid).
Coop Norrbotten had a turnover of 1699,1 million Swedish crowns in 2013, and is owned by 94 944 members and is located in Norrbotten (Coop Norrbotten, 2013). They provide work for around 700 people in their stores and supermarkets in the county. The association has a total of 27 stores which include 5 Coop Forum, 2 Coop Extra, 2 Coop Bygg, 14 Coop Konsum, 3 Coop Nära and 1 Coop Forum Restaurant. Coop Forum, Extra, Bygg, Konsum and Nära are all stores in different sizes (Ibid).
3.5 Data Collection
There are two types of data that can be collected when a study is performed. Primary data, which is collected directly by the researcher for a specific purpose, and secondary data, that is collected previously by another researcher for a different purpose (Saunders et al, 2009). The possibility of using both is also an option, which will be done in this thesis.
The researcher can collect data for a case study with the help of six different sources; documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participant observation and physical artifacts. Neither of the sources used to collect data is claimed better than the other, but should rather be chosen based on what fits the study best (Yin, 2009).
In this thesis, the sources chosen is documentation and interviews. In the table on the next page strengths and weaknesses from the two types of sources is listed. These were also used as a base for our choice between which of the six sources we wanted to use in the study.
Source of evidence Strengths Weaknesses Documentation (letters, e-mails, agendas, administrative documents, formal studies, newspapers)
Stable: can be reviewed repeatedly
Unobtrusive: not created as a result of the case study
Exact: contains exact names, references, and details of an event
Broad coverage: long span of time, many events, and many settings
Retrievability: can be difficult to find
Biased selectivity, if collection is incomplete
Reporting bias: reflects (unknown) bias of author
Access: may be deliberately blocked
Interviews Targeted: focuses directly on case study topics
Insightful: provides perceived casual inferences and explanations
Bias due to poorly articulated questions
Response bias
Inaccuracies due to poor recall
Reflexivity: interviewee gives what interviewer wants to hear
Table 4: Six sources of evidence: Strengths and Weaknesses Source: Adapted from Yin (2009)
According to Yin (2009), documentation is the most relevant source of evidence for almost every research. It is an easy way of gathering data, and as mentioned in the table above, documentation comes in many different varieties. The availability of documentation is increasing through the Internet, but it is important to consider the validity and sources (Yin, 2009).
Further Yin (2009) argues about the helpfulness of documentation. It can be used to find correct spellings, gather ideas that were not thought of before, and even use the document to find other references and sources. The information presented can also be used to prepare for a field study or an interview, where you can read up about an organization before having a meeting, to not show up as a blank page. Important to have in mind, is not to take any information for granted, but use it to further prove and test theories (Yin, 2009).
Yin (2009) presents a last tip that is of more and more relevance today with the easy access to Internet. When performing case studies, an essential issue is to not try to take on to much information. You should stick to key words and relevant searches when you look for documents, to not end up wasting time reading endless pages of irrelevant information.
The second source of evidence is also an important source when performing case studies. Interviews are a way of getting the information needed for your specific
case study, rather than the general secondary information gained through documentation (Yin, 2009).
According to Yin (2009), you have two main tasks during an interview; to follow your own line of inquiry from your case study protocol, and to ask your questions in an unbiased manner that also serves your line of inquiry.
There are three types of case study interviews; structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, and unsemi-structured or in-depth interviews (Saunders et al, 2009).
Structured interviews uses a standardized set of questions that should be asked in the same tone and read out just as written. This to not affect the interviewee and to get quantifiable data. Semi-structured interviews are non-standardized, and the interviewers have a list of themes and questions that should be covered. These questions can change from interview to interview, and they can also be further explored by adding follow-up questions. Unstructured interviews are also non-standardized, and informal. When performing an unstructured interview, you use a subject related to your case study, and let the interviewee talk freely about events, behaviors and beliefs in relation to the subject (Saunders et al, 2009).
For this thesis, a semi-structured interview will be made. The mission will be to create an interview-guide that answers our topic and research question, but we still want to keep the interview flexible enough so that the interviewee can talk freely about certain areas that he or she finds important. The reason for this is, that although we have some information we need to complete our thesis, we probably know less about the area than the expert we are interviewing. By giving he or she the opportunity to talk freely, we may find new aspects and information for the thesis that we may not have seen the importance of.
3.6 Sample Selection
We will look at Coop Norrbotten Arena in Luleå, Sweden. We have contacted Coop Norrbotten and Luleå Hockey and through the use of snowball sampling which is explained below we will find the right persons to interview from each company, making it two interviews. It is a stadium with a company name, and will fit us perfect for the purpose of the thesis.
For the thesis, snowball sampling will be used. It is effective when you have a way into a company, but lack the information of who knows what. Therefore you act according to the following four steps (Saunders et al, 2009).
Figure 3: The four steps of snowball sampling Source: Saunders et al (2009)
The main issue of this sampling technique is to make initial contact. Once this is done, the “snowball effect” starts and it becomes easier and easier to gain more information (Saunders et al, 2009).
3.7 Data Analysis
After the collection of data is done, the analyzing begins. The objective of analyzing the data is to be able to answer our research problem and research questions.
To analyze data is a process where you examine, categorize, tabulate, test or recombine the data to address the initial propositions of the study (Yin, 2009). Miles and Huberman (1994) state that you can use either a within-case analysis or a cross-case analysis on the data. Furthermore Miles and Huberman (1994) explain that there are three simultaneous flows of activity that an analysis consist of, that will be presented in the figure below.
Figure 4: Three concurrent flows of activity in analyzing data Source: Adapted from Miles & Huberman (1994)
1. Make contact
with one or two
cases in the
population.
2. Ask the cases to
identify further
cases.
3. Ask the new
cases to identify
further new cases.
4. Stop when either
no new cases are
given or the sample
is as large as is
manageable
.
1. Data reduction Organizing data and therefore making it easier to draw conclusions and verify them.2. Data Display
Taking the
reduced data and replacing it in an organized and compressed way so conclusions can easily be drawn. 3. Conclusion drawing and verification Deciding what things mean - noting regularities, patterns, explanations, possible configurations, casual flows and propositions.
Since we are using cross-case analysis as our research strategy, the objective will be to compare the different cases to find the things described in conclusion drawing and verification in the figure above.
In addition, a with-in analysis will be performed, that according to Miles and Huberman (1994) is a comparison of the data collected against the theory in the study.
3.8 Reliability
Reliability refers to the extent to which your data collection techniques or analysis procedures will yield consistent findings (Saunders et al, 2009). We will be collecting data through the use of semi-structured interviews and there are some reliability concerns when using this data collecting method. There are four threats to reliability; subject or participant error, subject or participant bias, observer error and observer bias (Saunders et al, 2009).
Subject or participant error may occur when studying human behavior in a certain area. If you are looking into employee behavior at the workplace one can find that questionnaires completed at different times of the week may give different results. Employees might be more positive if you ask them to fill out the questionnaire in the middle of the week instead of late on Friday afternoon. To control this, the researcher should choose the most neutral place and time to conduct the study (Saunders et al, 2009).
Subject or participant bias may occur when the interview subject says what they think you or their boss would want them so say or hear. This is a problem when there is a high employee insecurity and when the interview aren´t anonymous. Researchers should be aware of this when conducting interviews and if needed create steps that assures the interview subjects anonymity (Saunders et al, 2009).
Observer error might occur if different persons are doing interviews and in doing so there is a risk that each interviewer will have a different way of asking the interview question and this will in turn provide completely different answers. This is countered by having one person conducting the interview or having a high degree of structure to the interview schedule. As a result of this observer bias can occur when the three different interviews are interpreted in three different ways by the interviewers (Saunders et al, 2009).
Bias is a major concern when choosing interviews as your form of data collecting. The first concern is interviewer bias; the comments, tone and non-verbal behavior of the interviewer can create bias in the way that interviewees respond to the questions. The second one who is related to interviewer bias is interviewee or response bias. This can be caused by the interviewee’s perceptions of the person conducting the interviews. To control these bias situations the interviewer needs to be aware of his or her non-verbal and verbal communication and create a structured interview guide that both the interviewer and interviewee can follow and feel secure about (Saunders et al, 2009).
3.9 Validity
Validity is concerned with whether your findings are really what they appear to be, if they are true or not (Saunders et al, 2009). Yin (2009) describe four test designed to test the quality of empirical research, those test are construct validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability.
Construct validity is a complex issue in case studies, often case studies lack sufficient operational measures in order to conduct a proper case study and that subjective judgments are used to collect the data (Yin 2009). We will conduct two-four different interviews with one or two different sports teams and one or two different companies who have or had their name on the sports team arena. We will use our chosen theory in order to construct a proper interview guide that will be used during our interview, we will test the interview guide before we proceed. We will contact the organizations that are to be involved in order to find the persons most suitable to answer our questions. We are going to record the interviews on our phones in order to be able to listen to them after the actual interviews and to make sure that we do not miss any vital information that might be provided.
The interviews will be conducted in Swedish, which is the native language of both parties. The reason for this is to create better understating and a more comfortable situation in order to create a more fluent dialog between the interviewer and the interviewee. After the interviews are done we will translate the answers into English, and after this we will send the finished translation back to the interviewees in order to check that all the information written down is correct and not misunderstood.
Internal validity is mainly concerned when preforming an explanatory case study when you are trying to explain why one event leads to another (Yin, 2009). External validity deals with the issue of generalization, if you study one thing in certain area, will the results be the same or the same area but in another place. This is major issue when conducting a single case study (Yin, 2009). Since we will interview two companies and two sports teams we will be able to examine if the findings are similar or different and by doing so strengthen the external validity of the case study.
4. Empirical data
In this section the empirical data will be presented. The data was collected by semi-structured interviews with Luleå Hockey and Coop Norrbotten. The presentation of the data collected from the interview will be presented with the interview guide and the frame of reference a base. The interview guide can be acquired from the appendix.
4.1 Interview Luleå Hockey
The interview was held with Janne Dannberg from Luleå Hockey. Janne has been involved with the team for 30 years and has the title of sales manager. Janne began the interview by introducing himself and asked some questions about us and our background and why we scheduled this interview with him. We then began to ask our initial questions.
The sponsorship deal with Coop Norrbotten began as a form of commercial rescue. The team needed a new arena to be able to compete accordingly with other teams in the league regarding marketing efforts and collecting funds in order to build a competitive team. The county didn´t have enough money to be able to build the arena in a way that allowed Luleå Hockey to attract enough sponsors. More specifically they wanted to build VIP areas where companies could bring their customers or employees in order to entertain them and build networks and relations. They offered Coop Norrbotten to purchase the stadium naming rights, which Coop Norrbotten did. They have been partners since 2002.
4.1.1 Increase Public Awareness and Image
According to Janne, Coop arena houses around 380 000 visitors yearly and the arena houses events that are broadcasted both locally, nationally and internationally. This exposes Coop Norrbotten and Luleå Hockey to a very large audience. He continued and stated that the investment Coop Norrbotten made payed of in the first year of their partnership, no other Coop store in Sweden had as much exposure as Coop Norrbotten. He also mentioned that some unexpected ways of public awareness existed such as families taking their children to hockey practice. They don´t say that they are going to the hockey arena; they are going to Coop arena. The name is mentioned every time something is associated to the arena or when people are trying to locate other businesses that are located nearby. The result of the word-of-mouth marketing was something neither part had predicted, but gave both companies much more publicity than expected. For Coop Norrbotten, this was a great result of the sponsorship. Janne explained that when the contract first was signed, making the two companies partners, the main objective for Coop Norrbotten was to get the name out there. They were not established enough, and wanted to grow through media exposure. Since the cooperation went as good as it did, Coop Norrbotten has been one of the most talked about district of the whole Coop organization.
In addition to all the public publicity through media and word-of-mouth, Janne continued to talk about the cooperation between the two companies. The main thing alike that makes Luleå Hockey and Coop Norrbotten such good partners, are that they have the same customer base, males between 35 and 65 years. This
takes away the job of segmenting to target specific customer groups, and raises the chance of their customers having similar preferences. But he points out that the main focus on the customer side today, is to get the customer group between 15 and 34 years involved. Luleå Hockey always tries to widen their customer base, to be more likely to fill the arena on events and games. In addition to looking at customer groups through age, they also look at the geographic potential of getting all of Norrbotten involved. This to be able to compete with the biggest teams, since the whole county of Norrbotten has about the same population as a quarter of Sweden’s capital city Stockholm.
4.1.2 Sponsorship Cooperation
Janne continued to describe the cooperation between the companies, to explain what both parts do for each other. Since Luleå Hockey is a sponsored team, they are not allowed to give away or sponsor with any funds themselves. Instead, the team participates in different activities together with their sponsors. Coop Norrbotten and Luleå Hockey create an event once a year, where the customers of Coop Norrbotten can meet the players’ trough different activities. Luleå Hockey does this to give back to the companies that assist them, in this case Coop Norrbotten.
From the other perspective, Coop Norrbotten gets to participate in every activity in the arena, to be able to network and maintain good relationships with customers and other companies. Both of the companies help each other to grow and get better established.
4.1.3 Common Values and Relationships
Because of the good relationship between the two companies, and the customer base being alike, a question was raised about the values between Luleå Hockey and Coop Norrbotten. Janne explained that they are similar in many ways, and that this is an important objective between the companies. In general the sponsors of Luleå Hockey can have different objectives as long as the process of funding the team works, and they in return get their marketing and exposure. But for Coop Norrbotten as a stadium naming partner, it is of particular interest that the values are alike. Mainly because of the big public connection between the arena and the team, especially through word-of-mouth as mentioned earlier. If the relationship between the two companies is of great importance for both Luleå Hockey and Coop Norrbotten, there are no doubt that the relationship with the customers and employees also play a major part in a sponsorship. Luleå Hockey has an objective of getting all of Norrbottens companies to see the arena as a place for business meetings, conferences and also as a restaurant, to be able to gather as many people as possible. The companies can bring their staff or customers to the games and events, or do business using one of the many sections in the arena.
As mentioned earlier, Coop Norrbotten attends almost every event at the arena, and since Luleå Hockey are hosting them, their employees are also always there. This gives them tons of opportunities to network, build and maintain relationships and try to strengthen their brands. If the companies take their employees to games and different events on their spare time, it will also build
