Montblanc has been strongly engaged in cultural sponsorship for over ten years, e.g. with the Patronage Awards and the Donation Pens. A study by Manfred Schwaiger and Anastasia Steiner-Kogrina at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich examined the effect of this engagement using the example of Sparda-Bank and provides hints transferable analogously to other industries. Sponsorship and especially cultural sponsorship are often underweighted in the marketing mix, since hardly any direct measurement variables for their effect exist; acceptance on the customer side, however, is very high compared with TV or print advertising. The investigation shows that cultural sponsorship can increase customer loyalty, operationalised via trust, satisfaction and emotional closeness, provided the target group knows the activities. Higher customer loyalty is accompanied by loyalty, repeat purchase and positive word of mouth, which also has economic effects. Cultural sponsorship can thus serve both customer loyalty and employee motivation. The study was published as Schwaiger and Steiner-Kogrina, 'Kultur stärkt Kundenbindung', Marketing Journal, 37th year, no. 3, 2004, pages 34 to 36.