CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP IN THE GHANAIAN MOBILE TELEPHONY INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT

The mobile telephony industry in Ghana has in recent times increasingly employed corporate sponsorship as a marketing tool. This study sought to find out the effectiveness of using corporate sponsorship as a marketing tool. The study made use of both primary data and secondary data. Two classes of respondents were used in this study: respondents from the mobile telecommunication companies (sponsors) and the beneficiaries of the sponsorship packages (sponsees). The two main data collection instruments used for the study were the questionnaire and interviews schedules. Statistical Product for Service Solutions (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel were the main statistical tools used in the analysis of the data. The finding of the study indicated that corporate sponsorship is without doubt an effective marketing tool. The companies studied attained their brand positioning and advertising campaign objectives by sponsoring different sponsees that will give their brands high level of exposure to their target markets. This is summed up in the words of one of the marketing managers interviewed for this study. “It certainly is, customers are positively influenced when they see, hear and experience our brand when it is enthusiastically and consistently engaged with things they are passionate about”. This study however recommends that though sponsorship is an effective marketing tool for telecommunication companies, companies must learn to give back to the communities without expecting anything in return.