Olympic Sponsorship A Boon For Some Companies

Shu-Ching Jean Chen,

HONG KONG -

An association with Beijing Olympic Games may yet prove to be a big selling point.

Companies that shelled out millions to be official corporate sponsors for the Beijing Olympics, having endured harsh criticism from international human rights activists for tacitly endorsing to China’s human rights record, may feel vindicated by a new survey by China’s largest market research company. The survey affirms that 70% of Chinese consumers consider Olympic sponsorship a stamp of approval with respect to the quality of a company’s products. Further, 53.9% of a total of 2,000 polled in a phone survey in ten major cities in China expressed willingness to support the Beijing Olympics through their wallets: by making purchases of products from an Olympic sponsor.

The world’s largest beverage company, Coca-Cola (nyse: KO – news – people ), and China’s largest computer maker, Lenovo (other-otc: LNVGY – news – people ), stand to benefit in particular. Their brands are most associated in the minds of Chinese consumers with the Games, thanks to their sponsorship. About 31% of the respondents correctly identified Coca-Cola as an official sponsor and 19.5% for Lenovo, the highest in their respective industries, according to a survey released over the weekend by China’s largest market research company, CTR Market Research, a spinoff from the country’s largest broadcaster, China Central Television.

Their competitors that did not win sponsorship scored a low association with the Olympics logo, in the low single-digit rates, except for Pepsi (nyse: PEP – news – people ) which got a mention from 8.5% of respondents.

But equally gratified are those that have cleverly hitched their fortunes to the sports phenomenon of the season. Li Ning Co. (other-otc: LNNGF – news – people ), the Chinese sportswear manufacturer founded by an Olympic gold medal gymnast of the same name, was most commonly misidentified as an official sponsor; 37.4% of survey respondents made that association. Nike (nyse: NKE – news – people ) and its Chinese counterpart, ANTA Sports Products (other-otc: ANPDF – news – people ), also have successfully evoked an Olympic image, despite their absence from the sponsor list. The official sponsor among sportswear companies, Adidas (other-otc: ADDYY – news – people ), was recognized by 22.8%.

The company that fared worst from misidentification was the sole official sponsor from the insurance industry, PICC (other-otc: PPCCF – news – people ). Only 6.3% of those polled identified its Olympic sponsorship, compared with 18.1% that made an association with the country’s second-largest life insurer, Ping An Insurance (other-otc: PNGAY – news – people ), and 14.2% with China Life (nyse: LFC – news – people ), its largest life insurer.

The Olympics image association was most uneven in the beer industry, according to CTR. While China’s top brewer, Tsingtao (other-otc: TSGTY – news – people ), is most widely recognized for its official sponsorship among all the three official beer sponsors, at 24.1%, the other two beer sponsors, Anheuser-Busch (nyse: BUD – news – people )’s Budweiser and Beijing’s Yanjing Beer, did not appear to be much good at promoting their Olympic identity. They were correctly identified by only 9.6% and 3.3%, respectively.

An earlier survey, done in April, however, found official sponsorship leaving no lasting impression on the minds of Chinese consumers. (See: “Beijing Olympic Sponsorship’s A Waste”) The discrepancy might lie in the events of recent months that led to a sudden surge of patriotism in support of the Games. In any case, it may be too soon to say the game is over.

Source: http://www.forbes.com