Title: Branding strategies of human brands in sport on Instagram: the roles of private attributes and gender differences

Authors: Sarah Ciegelski; Christian Rudeloff; Thomas Horky

Addresses: Media Faculty, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Gertrudenstr. 3, 20095 Hamburg, Germany ' Media Faculty, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Gertrudenstr. 3, 20095 Hamburg, Germany ' Media Faculty, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Gertrudenstr. 3, 20095 Hamburg, Germany

Abstract: In recent years, individual athletes have increasingly crystallised into human brands. Research has shown that regardless of their sporting activities, they are becoming celebrities who are in the public eye primarily because of their private lives. This development is often caused by the athletes themselves, who present their private lives intensively on social media. Looking at the distinction between sports-related and non-sports-related branding attributes, it becomes clear that the latter have hardly been considered in research so far. Furthermore, the literature to date does not draw a comparison between men and women regarding their branding through non-sports-related attributes, though women face specific branding challenges. Against this backdrop, in this paper, eight successful athletes are examined in terms of their branding on Instagram using a two-stage qualitative and quantitative content analysis (n = 978). The results not only confirm the relevance of private branding attributes, the findings also highlight gender-specific differences as well as the impact of stereotypical branding.

Keywords: human brands; branding; athlete brands; gender branding; visual branding; social media; Instagram.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2024.138981

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2024 Vol.24 No.3/4, pp.199 - 222

Received: 08 Nov 2022
Accepted: 06 Sep 2023
Published online: 06 Jun 2024 *

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