Sponsorship portfolio as brand image creation strategies: A commentary essay

This essay discusses Chien, Cornwell, and Pappu's (forthcoming) paper, “Sponsorship portfolio as brand image creation strategy.” Although Chien et al. (forthcoming) seek to enhance understanding of the impact of a brand's sponsorship portfolio on its brand image they are not completely successful in this endeavor. One of their key constructs, the event personality fit (EPF) construct, has no significant effect on brand meaning. This essay suggests that this finding is because of limitations in the brand personality metrics in the study and because of the tautological nature of the hypotheses proposals. Their sponsorship category relatedness (SCR) construct, however, is a useful construct for those seeking to assemble a portfolio of sponsored products that builds positive brand meaning for the sponsor's brand.