Brand equity perceptions of consumers: Cause-related marketing and review of sponsoring brands

Nowadays, with the effect of globalization and technological developments, competition, has increased considerably and business strive to differetiate from their competitors. Businesses can be different from their competitiors and reflect their identities through brands. There are many brands competing in the market. This situation has increased tje importance of creating high-value brands in the eyes of the consumers. Brand Equity is expressed as the sum of the positive responses and goodwill that consumers show to their marketing efforts. Enterprises with high brand equity has the advantages of increasing the possibility of products and services, finding buyers for higher prices, facilitating access to other markets. Bramd Equity consist of brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand association and brand awareness. Cause-Rellated Marketing and sponsorship activities, which are integrated marketing communication elements, can differentiate the brand from its competitors, create positive connotations against the brand the target group, tahe place as high quality products in the mind of the target qroup and have an effect of increasing the loyalty to the brand by establishing emotional ties with the consumers. Therefore, it is thought that Cause-Related Marketing and Sponsorship will positively affect the brand equity dimensions. The aim of this study to compare the brand equities of the brands engaged in Sponsorship and Cause-Related Marketing and to determine the impact ot the practices on the purchase intent. The brands that sponsored national teams, the effects of the brands that donated some of their sales to social campaigns or non-profit organizations on their brand equity were asked to investigate. Fort his purpose, data were obtained by a questionnaire on the students of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Of Dumlupınar Univesty and necessary analyzes were made. According to findings, The Sponsorship practises have been more effective on the brand equity compared to Cause-Related Marketing. It is seen that the Cause-Related Marketing is successful in increasing the preference of short-term sales of enterprises towards the enterprise.