Road Cycling - Does Sponsorship work?

I know almost everyone who rides a TREK does becuase Lance does. But what about non-cycling products?


Anybody buy a Saturn or Subaru becuase they sponsor cycling? Anyone buy a Motorola phone back in the day? or use the U. S. Postal Service instead of FedEx or UPS? Drink 7up or Jittery Joe's Coffee? Eat Jelly Belly Jellybeans?

I buy Colavita Pasta and Olive oil because they sponsor a pro-team, and because its Yummy. Back in the day, I used to drink Coors Light, because they sponsored a team. A couple of my training partners drive Saturns.

What about you guys? Ever eat at Spago?

I can't think of anyone I know that rides a Trek for the sole reason that Lance does. Pretty poor priorities right there. I bought my Trek because it fit very well and I really like the staff at the store I bought it from. Aside from that, I drive a Saturn, but that has nothing to do with them sponsoring a team, more of what my parents wanted my brother, sister, and I to drive around at a reasonable price. I do try to use USPS rather than Fedex and UPS, but that’s again just because I’ve had poor experiences with the two latter companies. The only reason I eat Jelly Belly’s is because they sponsor a team. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t eat the nasty little buggers. Not really, Jelly Belly’s are awesome.

If they were sponsering MY team then yes. Otherwise I wouldn't go out of my way to use their product. Unless it was superior, then I'd probably use tje product anyway, irregardless of if they were a sponsor or not.

Sponsorship, if paired with a good marketing campaign and a good team promotions manager, does work...

The thing to remember is that sponsorship is a marketing vehicle that can be designed to acheive different goals... And every company and even every product may have different goals depending upon the company, product, and timing.

It also depends upon whether the sponsor is an inside- or outside-the-industry company (Shimano being inside, and Coors being outside.)

The other major part of the equation is the target demographic. (Bear in mind that the target isn't always the general public or the end consumer... though in bicycling it usually is...)

In general, the two major categories are brand/product awareness and brand/product reinforcement.

In many cases, competing products are pretty well equal to each other in quality and price point, and buyers will often make a purchase decision based on which product was better reinforced----whether they are conscience of it or not. And if the product is not a bad product, successive purchases are ususally the the same. Yes, the buying public is generally pretty predictable, at least when it comes to utility products (like olive oil or washing detergent.)

Items of style or fashion are more complicated, and are usually paired with iconoclasim and star identification.

Other times, new product roll-out (i.e. awareness) is the reason for an ad campaign. And an awarness campaign usually gives-way to a reinforcement campaign. (As in: "Now with color-safe bleach," gives way to: "With color-safe bleach.")

Even if they don't make a sale to a bicyclist, they are still selling an image... Saturn is the clean, sensible choice of someone showing-up for a nice Napa Valley wine tasting bike tour, the Nissan Xterra is for all those hard-core downhillers out there. See what I mean? Why else are so many people driving SUV's when a mini-van would be a better choice for them?

But back to bicycle racing... You don't see the big, out-of-industry sponsors here in America like you do over in Europe----at least not as many. Why? It just doesn't have the media exposure and broad fanbase here. Without the audience, you don't get the media coverage. Without the media coverage, you don't get the advertising dollars.

And now (further) back to the original question: Does sponsorship work? Yes... It's just a little difficult to quantify sometimes. Does it work on me? Even though I am painfully aware of all of the mechanisms at work? Yes, if product quality and price are in the same ballpark, I'll support the company that supports the things that I love.

I've never bought anything due to it being a sponsered product. But, I've definitely looked up on the web sponsers, and I'm sure that somewhere in my brain the urge to use CSC next time I need consulting services on my e4 architecture is growing and growing. If tyler can win a stage with a broken collarbone than those guys can go the extra kilometer on my IT Infrastructure.

The only reason I eat Jelly Belly’s is because they sponsor a team. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t eat the nasty little buggers. Not really, Jelly Belly’s are awesome.

Not the booger-flavored ones.