Turning Good Ideas into Bad News: The Effect of Negative and Positive Sponsorship Information on Sponsors’ Brand Image

Through sponsorships, companies primarily expect to establish, strengthen, or change their brand image. We analyze the effects of negative and positive sponsorship information on the favorability and structure of sponsors’ brand images. We adopt a new, unconventional approach, the Brand Concept Map, which analyzes sponsors’ brand associative networks. We find that negative sponsorship information unfavorably influences the favorability of sponsors’ brand image and the structure of a sponsoring brand’s associative network, but positive sponsorship stimuli have no influence. Furthermore, we identify boundary conditions under which the effect of negative sponsorship information on sponsors’ brand image is strengthened or diminished.