CORPORATE SPORTS SPONSORSHIP AND BRAND AWARENESS OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA: A CASE OF FAMILY BANK’S ELDORET HALF MARATHON

ABSTRACT
Using Family Bank’s sponsorship of Eldoret Half Marathon as a case study, this study aimed to establish how corporate sports sponsorship and brand awareness affect the bank’s customers. The study was anchored on the Social exchange theory and the Excellence theory of public relations. The study had three objectives: to assess the customers’ level of awareness of Family Bank sponsorship of the Eldoret Half Marathon, to evaluate customers’ perception of Eldoret Half Marathon sponsorship, and to find out the effect of the sponsorship and the brand awareness of Family Bank. To achieve these objectives the study relied on the descriptive research design. The study used questionnaires and interview guides as the main data collection tools. The study sample size consisted of 100 customers and 10 departmental heads from Family Bank branches in Eldoret. Systematic sampling was used to collect quantitative data while purposive sampling was used to collect qualitative data. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data generated from interview guide were categorised in themes in accordance with research objectives and reported in narrative form along with quantitative presentation. The study found out that Family Bank customers in Eldoret are aware of the marathon and loyal to the bank as they indicated that they would still continue being its customers even if the bank stopped sponsoring the marathon. The study concluded that social media platforms especially Facebook and Whatsapp play a crucial role in creating the banks awareness. The study recommends that Family Bank should extend marathon sponsorship to other towns in Kenya so as to increase brand awareness to many parts of Kenya.