14. Sponsorship

I am sure we can all think of companies who have used sponsorship to generate exposure for itself and its products. A certain insurance company has become a household name in the UK as a result of sponsoring cricket over many many years - even before sports sponsorship became so popular.

"Fine" I hear you saying "but we do not have a budget of many millions of pounds." I agree, but are there no similar but smaller scale examples in your area?

Also sponsorship does not necessarily mean that you have to provide money, you could be simply providing the product you normally sell but for free or at a radically reduced price. The key is to provide something of high perceived value to an organisation that is of much lower cost to yourself.

I give you an example of a company who had a very basic printing machine and which was largely unused in its basement. I struck a deal with a national charity that desperately needed printed promotional material as part of its fund-generating process.

By agreeing to print their literature for them at very very little cost my company was given the credit on the bottom of all printed material.

The Result. My company received national visibility and achieved "independent" endorsement by an influential charity - for almost no budget at all.