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Implementation Planning

• Identifying Appropriate Athlete Endorsers
• Expecting Proper Levels of Sponsorship Service
• Implementing Effective Hospitality Strategies
• Integrating Community Relations into Sponsorship
• Planning And Scheduling Around A Sponsorship
• Rethinking The Effectiveness Of Promotional Giveaways
• Using Intangible Assets
• Using Sponsorship to Market Luxury Brands
• Activating Sponsorship through the Web
• Falling For Price Escalators
• Generating Direct Revenue From Sponsorships
• Activating Golf Sponsorship Successfully

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Using Sponsorship to Market Luxury Brands

Luxury goods brands have been involved in sponsorship for decades, mostly in name only. But in the last few years a down economy has forced many luxury goods marketers to become more creative in reaching their target audiences. In the past, marketers of these products - luxury goods such as liquor, fragrances, timepieces, fashion and cosmetics - have consistently pursued a luxury pricing strategy in order to maintain an impression of exclusivity. That strategy meant limiting availability of products, marking up prices, and rarely offering markdowns. The thinking was, "We need to guard against brand devaluation." But with luxury goods facing stiffer competition and the economy presenting additional challenges, sponsorship offers luxury goods brands the perfect medium for differentiating their products:

Reinforcement of Brand Image: Maintaining an upscale image is vital to the success of luxury brands, so what better way to buttress that image than aligning with properties with luxury cachet? The events could be international in scope, such as the America's Cup, Formula One, or major fashion weeks. Or they could be smaller, regional polo, equestrian, tennis or skiing events. The point is that all of these properties and platforms have specific and strong traits and personalities. Identify the event with qualities most similar to your brand and you have a very powerful vehicle for drawing attention to, and underlining the cachet of your brand. Additionally, luxury brands are a manifestation of the lifestyles of those products' consumers. Highly exclusive, limited access, high quality events reinforce those lifestyles.

Relationship Building: Luxury brands stand out among their lesser-known, lesser quality competitors. The atmosphere in which luxury brands entertain their most committed customers must match the exclusivity of the brand and the lifestyle it represents. Properly planned and activated hospitality programs leave a more lasting impact on your biggest customers than image-laden ads in high-gloss limited-distribution lifestyle magazines - a medium that lifestyle brands have leaned on for years. Speaking of those lifestyle magazines, if you are going to buy advertising in them, pitch them on co-sponsoring events or subsidizing hospitality programs.

Active Experiences: Luxury brand purchasers are not only accustomed to being pampered, but they are also used to having access to the hottest parties, entertainment events and sports venues. Their "experience threshold" is much higher than the average fan. For the average fan, a view from a luxury suite is a truly memorable experience. For many consumers of luxury brands, it's the average experience. But sponsorship provides a device for bringing the truly memorable experience to the luxury consumer. Perhaps the experience must be the over-the-top variety and maybe the average investment per invitee is going to be higher than the usual customer entertainment event, but when your best-selling retail locations average sales of $7,500 or more per square foot, the cost of coddling the customer is well worth the investment.