Introduction
Ambush marketing occurs when one firm opts to pay and become an official sponsor of an event and then another company attempts to ingeniously connect itself with the event without paying the required sponsorship fees. Techniques used in ambush marketing are several and include buying commercial time before and during event broadcasts.
This kind of marketing is most of the time effectual and unbeaten in damaging the market rivals while also destabilizing the veracity of an event and the future capability of magnetizing sponsors (Sauer, 2002).
Is Ambush Marketing Illegal, Unethical Or Just Plain Smart Business?
Contrary to other cases (such as counterfeiting) ambush marketing becomes had to detect particularly if these firms (ambushers) were very smart and conscious of undertaking this kind of marketing. Marketing ambush is unethical since it is usually the last resort of beating a market rival when other options appear not working. However, for some companies, it remains the only way to compete. Some firms (e.g Nike) can tactically reject to sponsor events due to the costs involved and instead choose to support various participants or teams taking part in the event, for instance, the official sponsor of the FIFA world cup (2002) was Adidas but players of big teams such as Brazil were jerseys that had been sponsored by the Nike.
While the chances of getting ambushed during a big event by giant companies seem inevitable, companies can take precautions to minimize the expected damages. During sponsorship deals, companies need to negotiate for every potential right to block out competitors. For example, the Olympics offers sponsors all the available commercial time or billboard spaces expected before and during the event, unfortunately not knowing the benefits of the offer, most companies do not always take advantage of such offers as they consider them too costly as well as avoidable.
The biggest losers of ambush marketing as it becomes more acceptable will be the event organizers, for example, the Olympics Organizing Committee rely on revenues from corporate sponsorships for survival thus if official sponsors view official sponsorship is equivalent to wastage of money, organizers might become more and more cash strapped for the means which they shall host events (Schmitz, 2005).
Most people observe ambush marketing as a smart business since it provides a free market force. “By exposing the official sponsors and event organizers the true scope of exclusivity, ambushers in effect help quantify the true market value of Olympic sponsorship while participating in the marketing blitz in a manner they deem most cost-effective for their company”, (Schmitz, 2005, Par 14). By the looks of things, future sponsors will not be able to fight ambush marketing and thus sponsorship fees would be established in consideration of the same.
Conclusion
Market ambush occurs when a brand name uses its reputation or goodwill to connect to an event without paying the required sponsorship fees. Whereas the act is not ethical it is not illegal as no patent laws are usually broken as companies concentrate on the sponsorship deals loopholes and capitalize on them.
Though ambush marketing is profitable to the ambushing company, it leads to the ambushed company feeling duped and in future it might lead to reduced sponsorship deals thus reducing the power of event organizers such as the Olympics committee in a poor or weak situation to hold an event.
Reference List
Sauer, A. (2002). Ambush Marketing: Steals the Show. Web.
Schmitz, J. K. (2005). Ambush Marketing: The Off-Field Competition at the Olympic Games. Web.