Abstract
This research emphasizes on the role of congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored unit that effect sponsor's brand image, attitudes towards it and the memorization of the sponsor's name. The contribution of this research is highlighted especially during the sponsorship of national football team during the 2018 football World Cup. Because of the increasing cost of sponsorship, it has become essential for sponsors to understand how the direct and indirect audience responds to their congruence with the sponsored sports team; and which of the two types of audiences is more and more receptive to their actions. Specifically researchers were not conscious about the level of congruence that optimizes the effects on the sponsor. Therefore, this research aims to characterize the congruence between the marks of the sponsors and the football team through a survey administered face to face. Then, we test the global model to determine if the sponsorship operation has more impact on the sponsor in case of high, low or average congruence? To respond to our research questions we selected two samples from customers that were exposed to the sponsoring actions two ascertain the exploratory and confirmatory steps. The first sample consists of 200 interviewees and the second 400 are considered as an acceptable representation guarantee for our research. In addition, we propose to validate the research model and test the inherent hypotheses that analysis the relationship between the chosen constructs.