International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations ISSN 2348-7585 (Online) Vol. 7, Issue 2, pp: (1131-1134), Month: October 2019 - March 2020, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Ambush Marketing: A Review and Examples 1
Neha Kaushik Anand, 2Aditi Pant
Christ Deemed to be University, Bengaluru, India
Abstract: The paper deals in obliterating the obstacles that stand in the way of one’s understanding about what ambush marketing is and entails a brief of some paragons regarding the same. It would do well for those in the marketing business to comprehend what undergoes the phenomenon of ambush marketing and how it can ethically be used, although it’s use at all is debatable in some cases which will be discussed in the subsequent paragraphs of the concerned paper. A company that doesn’t have as much revenue to spend on marketing as its competitors do, can implement such a tactic to escalate its sales. Also, the phenomenon has been used by several big brands even though they have no shortage of resources to market themselves proving that the strategy is of value and the knowledge of which can prove to be helpful for those dealing in the business world. Keywords: ambush marketing, marketing strategy, debatable marketing strategy, examples of ambush marketing.
I. INTRODUCTION Ambush Marketing can be termed as a marketing strategy that astonishes the competitor by ambushing an occurrence such as an advertisement, news or some event that has already taken place and makes use of the competitor’s resources to amplify the impact of publicity for the brand. Ambush marketing can also be defined as a planned effort by an organization to associate itself indirectly with an event in order to gain at least some of the recognition and benefits that are associated with being an official sponsor. Shani and Sandler (1998), Gulaty (2018). According to the The Hindu Business Line “Ambush marketing is a means of getting the maximum bang for the buck while stealing some of a rival’s thunder.” The dawn of ambush marketing was when news and advertisement industries grew and firms started to compete amongst themselves to sponsor events in order to market themselves. Although earlier regarded as an unethical practice, now ambush marketing has made its way as a legit strategy used by firms in order to compete with other organizations. The first recorded use of large-scale ambush marketing was witnessed when Kodak couldn’t sponsor 1984 Olympic Games and the right was given to Fuji instead, then Kodak became the sponsor of the ABC’s broadcasts of those Games and this also made Kodak the official film of these games. Over the years this strategy has been used by big as well as small brands and it can be inferred from those instances that it has sufficiently given way to publicity, whether good or bad, depends upon the use of strategy and its execution. A number of times, brands using this strategy were sued by the competitors and reparation came in hanging a large sum on the strategist’s neck, while at other times it was executed so well that it wasn’t against the law and yet created a huge impact on market responses. Sankalp Jain in his paper “Ambush Marketing: A Threat for Sponsors” mentions that although ambush marketing is considered a bold move yet we cannot negate the repercussion of such an instance questioning the integrity of the event that was used to carry forward such a tactic.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Ambush marketing first came to light as a technique at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Games were deemed an enormous success, creating a surplus of some US$ 250 million. We were the first to be entirely privately funded. Before this any number of sponsors were allowed to' officially' tie themselves to the Olympics. In 1976, there were 628' official sponsor for ' Montreal Olympics.
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