Event sponsoring as a communication tool to tribes : international brands versus consumer point of view

Nowadays, we can point to that trend: people are increasingly gathering in small groups or communities centred around common interests, values or lifestyles. Aware of the opportunities offered by this tribalization of our society, marketers carry out strategies to take advantage of this trend. Sponsoring is a traditional communication tool used by companies to develop their brand image and reputation, make known new products, increase the sales,... The goal of our research is thus, in the case of a particular tribal outdoor event (City Parade, Mons, 2007), by the way of interviews with managers and consumers, to pinpoint the main objectives of the ones and the perceived results by the others. Our research is divided into two parts: First, we realized a qualitative study by interviews with managers of the main sponsors of the City Parade. The second part was dedicated to the consumer point of view by the way of a quantitative questionnaire developed to study the perception of brands by the members of the tribe. Our results show that the use of sponsoring as a communication tool stays mainly traditional and managers don't try to take advantage of their presence on the event to develop more emotional and relational links with the consumers. From the consumer point of view, the perception of the sponsors stays very commercial but still acceptable because it makes possible the organisation of the event. The positive influence seems to be more obvious on major sponsors reputation and brand image than on other types of partners.