Zusammenhang: Liebherr - Tischtennis?

[Bernd Beringer]

Es gibt verschiedene Beweggründe für Sportsponsoring.

Die einen Entscheider engagieren sich (bzw. ihre Firmen), weil sie persönlich mit dem Sport verbunden sind (z.B. Gäb, Müller), andere tun dies zur Befriedigung persönlicher Eitelkeiten (no names) oder weil sie gerne Mäzen sind, und wieder andere (z.B. Liebherr, mg, metabo) tun es, weil sie kaufmännisch kalkulieren: ein Engagement bei sportlichen Sympathieträgern verbessert das Firmen-Image, macht die Firma bekannter oder es steigert im besten Fall den Verkauf (aber alles schwer oder nur mit großem Aufwand messbar).

In vielen Fällen von Sportsponsoring dürfte eine Mischung der o.g. Beweggründe vorliegen. Was in keinem Fall schadet, sind gute persönliche Beziehungen (z.B. Gäb/Opel, Ihle/Liebherr) zwischen Sportverein/Sportverband und Unternehmen. Ohne solche "connections" geht meistens gar nichts.

[Pinguin]

Hier mal der dazu passende Artikel von der ITTF Homepage: (Quelle)

Liebherr and table tennis make a good pair
World Championships
After sponsoring the “table tennis club next door” Ochsenhausen for 11 years the Liebherr Group has decided to go into international sponsorship, and consequently Liebherr has become the title sponsor of this year’s two top events in Europe, the Liebherr World Individual Table Tennis Championships in Paris in May and the Liebherr European Championships in March/April in Courmayeur, Italy.
TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, sponsored by Liebherr
The partnership with Ochsenhausen - close to the LIEBHERR Holding Gmbh in Biberach - has been a great success, for both parties, and Liebherr of course hopes and believes that the success will continue with the two international top events.

When the partnership with Ochsenhausen was first established, TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen was still playing in the regional league. However, in the meantime the club has gained a regular top position for itself in Europe’s toughest league, the Bundesliga. Repeated success in the past 5 years has included two German championship titles, two ETTU Cup victories and, most recently, the win of the German national trophy.

Financial support by the LIEBHERR Group permits TTF LIEBHERR Ochsenhausen to sign up successful athletes with a positive image, as well as trainers and coaches,
and ensure their loyalty to the club for a longer period. These are crucial preconditions for the club’s successful progress and therefore its attractiveness as an advertising medium.

LIEBHERR’s locations are frequently in regions far from major conurbations, so that first-rate sport is seldom encountered. Well-targeted sponsoring helps at least to reduce such deficits.

„We like to support sport as a part of our social responsibility. We are part of the society in the countries and regions where we are present, and we would like to push sport forward there. However, of course our sponsorships must be based on economic criteria”, says the Managing Director of LIEBHERR International AG, Mr. Henning Rapp.

In addition to its commitment to table tennis in the South German region of Oberschwaben, LIEBHERR supports a premier-league soccer team in Austria and a national A-league ice hockey team in Switzerland, in both cases as the main sponsor.

“What concerns table tennis, our brands benefit from the good image of the sport. Our analysis, before we entered the agreement with Ochsenhausen, clearly showed that successful sponsoring is possible even with limited funds. A significant factor was certainly the proximity to a successful local club. As a sport without scandals, doping, spectacular fouls or similar problems, table tennis enjoys a highly acceptable image and is therefore ideally suited as a publicity medium. Table tennis is a pleasant, healthy sport which can be played even by senior citizens without any health risk, and is accordingly gaining in popularity. Beside that table tennis is present in the media, especially on TV which is of great importance to us”, says Henning Rapp.

In that regard Liebherr is already certain to benefit from the partnership with the two international top events. The pan European broadcaster Eurosport has bought the rights for broadcasting the two events, and of course the World Championships will be broadcast World Wide.

“It gives us a valuable awareness - yes, we believe that the link to table tennis will help us sell more freezers and refrigerators”, says Henning Rapp.