Effet de levier du parrainage sur l’efficacité d’une action de marketing direct

Up to now, no research has investigated the leveraging effects of sponsoring in other marketing activities as far as behaviors are concerned, despite a strong call in the sponsorship literature and the fact that behavior is a crucial variable for managers. A state of the art review highlights this important knowledge gap. To reduce this gap an experimental design, in a natural setting, was implemented. More clearly stated, a promotional mailing, bringing up (or not) a sponsor?s status of a stores chain, was sent to 1,270 supporters as well as 1,270 non supporters of the sponsored team. Their actual behaviors, e.g. visits of the sponsor?s stores and purchases, were tracked during 3 weeks in 28 outlets. Results clearly show that this leveraging activity, i.e. mentioning the sponsor?s status on the promotional mailing, impacts patronizing behaviors of the sponsor?s stores and purchases for the supporters but not for the non-supporters, stressing thus the key role of consumers? attachment with the sponsored entity.