Branding strategies of human brands in sport on Instagram: the roles of private attributes and gender differences
by Sarah Ciegelski; Christian Rudeloff; Thomas Horky
International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing (IJSMM), Vol. 24, No. 3/4, 2024

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.

Online publication date: Thu, 06-Jun-2024

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing (IJSMM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com