Sports Image Communication of Alcoholic Beverage Business through Sponsorship in Sports

Abstract

        This research aimed to 1) investigate the core content of the image reflected through sports sponsorship of the alcohol beverage business, 2) examine the athletes and sport fans’ perception of the core content of the image reflected through sports sponsorship of the alcohol beverage business, and 3) find the balance between alcohol beverage business communication and the acceptance of the executives who determine the policy of sports business. The theories used in this study were theories related to the perception, image, sports communication and the sports sponsorship. This study employed the qualitative research methods. The sources of the data were from a) the records of sports communication, which were available on online media, official websites or official pages, and social media or any websites, b) the personal information from10 groups of the national athletes and sport fans who were selected using the purposive sampling method. The information was collected from these samples using a group interview. In addition, the executive or the relevant authorities who were involved in the sports sponsorship from the Sports Association of “Thailand” were also interviewed in order to examine the perspectives on the balance between alcohol beverage business communication and the acceptance of the executives who determined the policy of sports business.

        The results revealed that

        1) the core content of the image reflected through sports sponsorship of the alcohol beverage business included the image of the hero admiration, the image of the fighting spirit, the image of giving a chance to the vulnerable groups in society, the image of the human resource development for sports excellence, the image of promoting athletes to be well-known, the image of being a part of the sports fans, and the image of promoting the ideology of localism.

        2) In addition, the athletes and sport fans’ perception of the core content of the image reflected through sports sponsorship of the alcohol beverage business could be divided into eight aspects including the hero admiration, the fighting spirit, giving a chance to the vulnerable groups in the society, the human resource development for sports excellence, promoting athletes to be well-known, being a part of the sports fans, and promoting the ideology of localism, and the mutualism between alcohol beverage business and sports.

        3) In terms of the balance between alcohol beverage business communication and the acceptance of the executives, it was found that the appropriate balanced point through the acceptance of the image of the alcohol beverage business toward the sponsorship in sports could be divided into 5 aspects including the image of trademark acceptance, the image of sharing and volunteering organization, the image of the organization which supported the cultural in a social context, the image of the mutualism between the alcohol beverage organization and sports association, and the image of compromise to build up the affiliated company as a new role of business.