SPONSORSHIP STUDIES SERIES

Short Note 1

Anal s of the Sponsorshi Deal ysi p Deal Betw een FC Barcel ona and SEIKO

Francesc Puj ol
M edi Reputati and Intangi es center a, on bl M RI Uni versi dad de Navarra
M arch 2011

MRI Universidad de Navarra Sponsorship Studies Series

Anal s of the Sponsorshi Deal ysi p Deal Betw een FC Barcel ona and SEIKO

FC Barcel ona j announced a deal w ith SEIKO . SEIKO becom es the official w atch ust partner of FC Barcel ona for the next three years. W e propose a co-branding reputation anal of this agreem ent. ysis

A s part of the press rel ease, both parties com m ented the benefits of the agreem ents for the brands: The Vice President of FC Barcel s econom ic area, Mr. Javier Faus, ona w as del ighted to see this agreem ent signed. W e are del ighted w ith this partnership w ith such a prestigious and internationaly w el know n brand that has al ays l l w colaborated so cl y w ith the w orl of sport. W e are convinced that this l osel d rel ationship w il further encourage both brands to continue their w ork for excelence l l and success. " Meanw hil the President and CEO of Seiko W atch Corporation,Shinj H attori w as al e, i so pl eased w ith the partnership. H e said W e are del ighted to be appointed as an international partner of FC Barcel ona. The history, cul ture and am bition of the Cl ub are a perfect m atch w ith Seiko and w e l ook forw ard to a successful co-operation in the com ing years.

FC Barcel ona and SEIKO W e provide in this post how both brands are perceived by the m edia right now , to check the accurateness of the branding deal . Em pirical anal ysis is based in the content anal ysis of new s about SEIKO in United States and United Kingdom new spapers during February 2011 (75 articl es). New s about FC Barcel ona cover the sam e m arket and the sam e period, and represent 3. 300 different new s. Media reputation of SEIKO requires an extended period of anal ysis in order to count w ith a m ore representative num ber of different new s. W e do not proceed here to a system atic co-branding anal ysis. This is w hy w e j pick ust som e of the brand vectors as exam pl but w e do not present al existing brand es, l vectors. First brand vector is "Spectacul ar". In this first brand vector FC Barcel ona cl y earl dom inates, as it is a brand m uch m ore associate to "Spectacul than SEIKO . This is ar" specialy the case for the com ponents m arvelous, subl e, l y and spectacul l l im ovel ar. W ith this agreem ent SEIKO can take advantage and reinforce this brand com ponent w ith the new association w ith FC Barcel ona.

The second brand vector is al rel so evant for the w atch industry. It is the brand vector "Luxury". A ccording to our resul both brands present synergies in this fiel as they ts, d, are com pl entary. SEIKO is m ore associated to the com ponents l em uxury, gl orous am

MRI Universidad de Navarra Sponsorship Studies Series and renow ned than FC Barcel ona, and FC Barcel ona outperform on im pressive, beautiful and exciting.

SEIKO is cl y m uch m ore associated than FC Barcel earl ona to the brand vector "Innovative, Efficiency". This is thus a brand profil that w il not be reinforced at e l SEIKO thanks to this new agreem ent. In the other side, the new co-branding coul be d eventualy useful to FC Barcel l ona,if the aliance receives visibil l ity.

Finaly, concerning the l brand vector sel l ast ected as exam pl w e observe that the e, association to "Tal ented, Sm art" presents again a com pl entary profil for both em e

FC Barcel ona and SEIKO brands. FC Barcel ona excel on the com ponents tal s ented and genious, w hil SEIKO e takes advantage in the com ponents skiled,sm art and inval e. l uabl

The overal assessm ent of the new co-branding deal based in the exam pl of the four l e sel ected brand vectors is that this sponsorship deal shoul be beneficial to SEIKO d branding interests, especialy if they are interested in reinforcing the em otional brand l aspects, l "Spectacul ike ar". A S for FC Barcel ona, besides the financial com pensation, the incorporation of this new brand am ong the sponsors is apparentl positive for y m aintaining its brand equity. W as for FC Barcel ona the perfect fit, or coul it choose a definitive better option d am ong w atchm akers? Using our approach w e can provide som e el ents to this kind em of questions that evidentl each one of tw o sides considers before signing a y sponsorship deal W e show bel the resul concerning the brand position of SEIKO . ow ts against som e com petitors. W e anal first the rel yse ative position of SEIKO concerning the brand vector "Spectacul ar". W e have chosen four com petitors: Rol Tag H euer, ex, Sw atch and Tim ex. A ccording to our resul the best reference in this m om ent is ts, Sw atch, folow er by Tag H euer. If w e consider SEIKO interests, w e can concl l ude that they are not the benchm ark in the sector in term s of association w ith "Spectacul ar". This al im pl that there is stil room to increase in this brand vector. This resul so ies l t reinforces the initial resul that this sponsorship deal coul be a w inning tool for t d increasing the brand equity of SEIKO , as w e have show n before that FC Barcel ona is

MRI Universidad de Navarra Sponsorship Studies Series strongl associated to "Spectacul y ar". If the transm ission of val betw een co-brands ues actualy occurs w ith this new deal w e shoul observe in the future an increase of the l , d "spectacul brand profil of SEIKO . It al requires of course a correct activation of ar" e so the sponsorship aliance. l

The second and final brand vector that w e show in this note is "Tal ented, Sm art". In this rel evant brand vector, Sw atch stil l l eads generaly, especialy in the com ponents l l accl ed, genious, and unique. Neverthel aim ess, SEIKO is the reference concerning the com ponent inval e. It al equal Sw atch as benchm ark in the com ponents skiled, uabl so s l tal ented, sm art. Rem em ber that as com pared to FC Barcel ona, there w as a com pl entarity betw een both brands under this brand vector. em

FC Barcel ona and SEIKO

A l in al, SEIKO is apparentl a good reference for FC Barcel l l y ona, as its present m edia reputation is at l east in l w ith other prestigious brands in the sector. O ur resul ine ts suggest neverthel that Sw atch coul create a m ore pow erful association. ess d It is probabl surprising to find a rel y ative poor m edia reputation of Rol brand, in ex com parison w ith other com petitors. W e had a cl oser l ook to the articl referring to es Rol and w e observe that a substantial am ount of m edia references to Rol are not ex, ex directl rel y ated to Rol products,but precisel to sport com petitions and other events ex y sponsored by Rol For instance, the Rol Sport Car Series Daytona, Rol G rand Prix ex. ex ex of Miam i (Motor racing), Rol Fastnet Race (Sail ex ing), Rol W orl G ol Ranking ex d f (W om en),Rol Farr 40 W orl (Sail ex ds ing).

MRI Universidad de Navarra Sponsorship Studies Series This m eans that our resul refl to som e extent the m edia im pact and the m edia ts ect brand profil of the sports events sponsored by Rol in som e cases acting as titl e ex, e sponsor. This is one probabl unexpected resul of a sponsorship strategy: brand y t recognition and its m edia reputations m oves from the product reputation to the reputation of the sport event. This is in fact w hat sponsorship deal l s ook for. But our em pirical resul suggest that this new m edia reputation can deform the original ts qual of Rol brand reputation, l ity ex osing ground against com petitors. This resul al t so confirm how reasonabl is to eval e uate the accurateness of the affected brands before signing a sponsorship deal .