A study on the sponsorship strategy of athletes endorsement

Introduction

Sports endorsements comprised 11% of TV advertising in 1995 and the total amount was estimated about more than $1 billion dollars from U.S. companies. The popularity of the sports endorsement is because that associating with popular sports celebrities helps corporations improve product image. A well-chosen sports figure can easily draw attention to a product or brand. Athletes are effective endorsers, especially for athletic products, beverages, and apparel. In addition to athletic products, the celebrity’s image not only appears in advertisements but also the message can be penetrated to various areas, such as sales of T-shirts, toys, games, merchandise items.In Chinese Taipei, the use of celebrity endorsement is a common marketing practice in a number of industries.

Methods

This study was designed to investigate the "athlete’s endorsement" strategy of Nu Skin in Chinese Taipei. Nu Skin Chinese Taipei, Inc., who sponsored famous table tennis player, Jing Chen. The methodology of this study was to interview the CEO of Nu Skin, the manager of Public Relations Corporate Communications, Jing Chen’s agent and Jing Chen, herself.

Results

After analyzing the results of these interviews, it concluded that the motivations for Nu Skin to sponsor Jing Chen included; (1) She can enhance the image of Nu Skin. (2) She is one of the elite female table tennis players in the world. (3) She has been used the Nu Skin products for a while so that she play a vital role of selling Nu Skin product to consumers. (4) She was very familiar with the products that she endorsed.

Discussion/ Conclusions

The considerable factors of this event were: 1. Jing Chen has a delicate and pretty image. 2.She is a person with wisdom and high moral standard. 3. She is a world-famous table tennis player. The cooperative relationship between Nu Skin and Jing Chen were: 1. Nu Skin Chinese Taipei provides products for Jing Chen and pays her an endorsement fee, which is agreed to by all parties. 2. Nu Skin Chinese Taipei wants her to attend new product presentations as part of her endorsement responsibilities. As a result of mutual cooperation this sponsorship agreement give both sides very much benefits.

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