How do marketing-events work? Marketing-events and brand attitudes

In the past few years a large number of studies have been published examining the various practical and theoretical aspects of event-marketing and event-sponsorship. The academic research aims to explain the effectiveness of these marketing communication tools. Primarily the elements of recall and recognition have become central factors within this field of research (Walliser 2003). However, the effects of marketing-events on creating a positive attitude towards the involved brands have received little consideration so far. Accordingly, there are inconsistent theoretical approaches and only few empirical studies focussing primarily on this aspect of event-marketing. It is known that marketing-events can modify a certain attitude towards a brand, but it is not clarified why and how. Even though different models have been established to estimate the influence of marketing-events on attitude formation (cf. Baux 1991; Walliser 1993; Ganassali & Didellon 1996; Gwinner 1997; Hoek et al. 1997; Courbet 2000; Meenaghan 2001; Nufer 2002; Drengner 2004), not one of those has proven its superiority in empirical research so far (Walliser 2003). Instead of adding another model to explain the effects of event-marketing and event-sponsorship on attitude formation this paper aims at reviewing the broad approach in this field of research in order to educe a general understanding of the effectiveness of marketing-events. We assume that the attitude towards the brand (A_B), as a main objective of event-marketing and -sponsorship, is essentially influenced by three determining factors: The attitude towards the event (A_E), the attitude towards the communication activities presented at the event (A_AD) and the prior attitude towards the brand that existed before visiting the event (A0_B). This paper outlines the literature reporting an empirical or conceptual investigation of the attitude formation in the context of marketing-events. Based on this state of research we generate our understanding of the impact of marketing-events on the attitude towards the brand. The results of an empirical study which examined the influence of A0_B, A_AD and A_E on A_B will be reported. Based on our findings practical and empirical implications will be given. We conclude with suggestions for further testing of our model.