Consumer attitudes towards corporate sponsorship and the resulting commercialization of high school sports

The development of sponsorship of sporting events is an effective and important tool in the marketing strategy employed by corporations. Correspondingly, there is an on-going and increasingly significant relationship that exists between the private sector representing "corporate America" and public and private education. The nexus of these two developments is the focus of this study, that is, the exploration of consumer attitudes towards the sponsorship of high school sports.; Three separate sets of consumers were surveyed as to their attitudes towards this relatively new means of marketing strategy. The larger group of study was surveyed during a heavily promoted, corporately sponsored high school sporting event. The second group was surveyed during an un-sponsored sporting event and a third group was a convenience sample unrelated to sports. Each sample group was asked to complete a one page survey which asked (1) specific demographic questions, (2) specific behavioral questions related to attendance at high school sporting events, and (3) specific attitudinal questions related to feelings and beliefs towards the use of corporate sponsorship. The questionnaire was based on the work of Feuerstein, Irwin, Mandrigal, Shani, and Sandler.; The data collected was input into an Excel spreadsheet. As part of the analysis, a descriptive statistical profile was created for each group to look at general trends. Next, a correlation was performed to investigate any relationships that existed between and among the research variables. A further investigation was conducted by calculating the analysis of variance (ANOVA) between not only certain variables within the data sets but also between the data sets. The analysis of the data revealed that those attending sporting events, whether sponsored or un-sponsored, hold a favorable attitude toward sponsorship of high school sports. For those unconnected with a sporting event, the data indicated an attitude of ambivalence.; Given these results confirming a measure of consumer acceptance of corporately sponsored high school events, the implications is that this trend of utilizing corporate sponsorship at the high school level will likely continue. Likewise, corporations will be afforded ample opportunity to connect with a targeted group of consumers through these corporately sponsored events.