How community-specific sponsorship of a traditional market creates brand equity: The interdependent relationship between POSCO and the Jukdo Market

전통시장에 대한 기업의 지역사회 특화 스폰서십이 브랜드 자산에 미치는 영향: 포스코와 포항 죽도시장의 협력사례를 중심으로

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was first introduced sixty years ago in the academic field. However, the phrase CSR was not explicitly stated before the 1990s in Korean business and academic researches. Recently CSR is more considered a corporate strategy than a philanthropic donation. CSR comprises contributions to local communities as well as using environmentally beneficial and humane practices. Sponsoring is one available marketing tactic used in order to communicate with the market. This study of sponsorship has concentrated on developing brand asset by accessing potential values of sporting events or star-players. However, sponsorship includes providing funds or goods to non-profit institutions as well as sports or entertainment organizations. Accordingly corporate community-specific sponsorship is defined as firms offering to provide money, goods and/or services to individuals and/or institutions within a particular community, thus establishing an interdependent relationship between the partners aspiring to gain social and economic assets. National sponsorship is typically targeted toward commonly recognized individuals and/or organizations with the intent to maximize exposure of a sponsor's brand, and is known to positively affect brand equity(community-specific sponsorship is committed to a limited local area) that a firm could benefit from by gaining a specific asset. POSCO sponsors the Jukdo Market, locate dinthe city of Pohang, tohelp revive their traditional market. Inreturn, the Jukdo Market merchant suni on display sflags with the POSCO embleminfrontof stores with in the market intending to make shopper sand merchant saware of POSCO's sponsorship. POSCO has succeeded in acquiring public support from the citizens of Pohang. However, the economic effects resulting from the cooperative relationship between POSCO and the Jukdo Market have yet to be measured by any empirical research. The purpose of this study is to assess the economic effects created by the community-specific sponsorship from the groups of merchants and shoppers, measuring its influence on the corporate image and subsequent brand loyalty, as parts of brand equity. The result of the study shows that the community-specific sponsorship of POSCO of the Jukdo Market had different influences on its corporate image and the brand loyalty of shoppers and merchants. First, the merchant group who was more frequently exposed to POSCO's flag recognized the sponsorship of POSCO more than the shopper group, and, therefore, had a better image of the company. Second, the recognition of POSCO's sponsorship had a positive influence on its corporate image, and that positive corporate image had a positive effect on brand loyalty development. However, the recognition of the sponsorship did not have a direct influence on brand loyalty. The friendly corporate image developed by the recognition of the sponsorship consequently could have had an effect on brand loyalty. Therefore, companies should not relinquish investments to corporate image development if they require more brand loyalty. Third, the influence of corporate image on brand loyalty shows stronger results in the shopper group rather than in the merchant group. Psycho-graphic factors of shoppers and merchants might give rise to the difference between the two groups.

기업의 지역사회 특화 스폰서십이란 기업이 특정 지역사회에서 사회적 및 경제적 자산의 획득을 기대하고 그 지역에 소속되어 있는 개인이나 조직에 금전 또는 기업의 제품·서비스를 제공함으로써 상호의존적인 관계를 형성하는 것을 가리킨다. 보통 스폰서십은 전국적인 인물이나 조직에 대한 스폰서링을 통해 브랜드의 노출을 극대화하여 브랜드 자산에 영향을 미치려고 한다. 반면, 지역사회 특화 스폰서십은 영향을 미치고자 하는 범위가 특정 지역사회에 국한되어 있다. 그 한 사례가 포스코와 죽도시장의 협력관계이다. 포스코는 사회공헌 활동의 하나로 죽도시장을 지원하고 있다. 이러한 지원에 대하여 죽도시장은 시장 내에 포스코 깃발을 게양하여 상인 및 일반쇼핑객에게 알리고 있다. 포스코는 이러한 스폰서십을 통해 상인들이 주도하는 지역 여론의 지지라는 사회적 자산을 획득한 적이 있다. 그런데 그것이 경제적 자산의 개발로 연결되었는지는 아직 측정되지 않았다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 포스코와 죽도시장의 스폰서-스폰시 관계가 현재적 및 잠재적으로 경제적 자산을 창출하는 데 영향을 미쳤는지를 확인하기 위하여 스폰서십이 브랜드 자산을 구성하는 기업 이미지 제고와 브랜드 충성도 강화에 어떻게 영향을 미쳤는지를 검정하였다. 연구결과는 포스코와 죽도시장 사이의 지역사회 특화 스폰서십은 사회적 자산뿐만 아니라 경제적 자산을 창출하는 데 공헌하는 것으로 나타났다. 단, 일반쇼핑객 집단과 상인집단에 따라 기업 이미지와 브랜드 충성도에 다르게 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.