Star Enterprises, which pursue market-driven business strategies, consider sponsorship of attractive and high-profile events to achieve the following objectives:

(a) Increased Visibility The wide exposure such events receive in both the electronic and print media provides sponsors with vast publicity opportunities.

(b) Business-to-business Promotion Competition for prominent positioning of products in the shelf-spaces of popular retail outlets is a big challenge for companies. Various types of sponsorships, e.g., paid overseas holidays or complimentary tickets/passes for popular events, can be used to attract retailers, dealers, and other intermediaries in the distribution channel to promote the company’s products.

(c) Differentiate Product from Competitors Sponsorship provides companies a competitive selling advantage because it offers opportunities for category exclusiveness which can be used as product differentiation strategy for creating greater acceptability amongst the customers. Sponsorships help companies to create exclusive attributes for their products in the minds of the customers to fulfil their needs and objectives.

(d) Active Display of Product Attributes Sponsorship allows companies to draw special attention of the audience to the advantages and unique attributes of their product by promoting special events, e.g., tyre manufacturers may sponsor car-racing events to demonstrate their products in action.

(e) Cost Effectiveness Sponsorships are usually more cost effective especially when a specific category of audience is to be targeted. (f) Targeted Sponsorship Properly planned sponsorship programs integrated with predetermined objectives and focused on specific audience targets can create lasting impact.