To build my career or build my brand? Exploring the prospects, challenges and opportunities for sportswomen as human brand

ABSTRACT

Research question: There are growing concerns about the commercial viability of sportswomen as they are seldom featured as brand ambassadors. There are challenges for sportswomen in building and making their brands appealing to advertisers and marketers. This study seeks to understand the human brand concept in the context of sportswomen. Specifically, exploring the challenges, prospects and opportunities, sportswomen face in building their brand.

Research methods: Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 24 sportswomen in the UK were thematically analysed.

Results and Findings: Sportswomen seldom recognise themselves as brands and therefore make little effort to build their brand. They identified known issues such as limited media coverage, gendered perceptions of women’s sport, as well as emergent issues such as the challenges of balancing the need to develop their brand with the need to build their career. We develop a human brand pyramid to highlight how sportswomen can progress from human brands to brand endorsers and boost their earning potential. The present findings contribute to a better understanding of human brands, sportswomen and celebrity endorsement.

Implications: It offers practical implications for sportswomen who want to build their brand. Governing bodies, media and brands also need to change the representation of sportswomen across advertisements through tactics that promote gender equity and decrease differences. Sportswomen’s athletic abilities should be given more visibility over their aesthetics. Talent managers also need to be mindful of trends in gender relations to better support their female clients in developing their brands.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports
• sportswomen
• brand

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the support of Canmei Tao (Greenwich Research and Enterprise), Vivienne Aiyela (London FA), Sarah Williams (Tough Girl Challenges), Leanne Dingle (All Heart Ltd / Women in Football), Jamie Page (Mediacom) and Hannah (Evershed) Mirza towards the Sportswomen as Brand Ambassador Project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Sample of Sportswomen Participants is presented in Supplementary Table 1.

2 Additional Quotes from Participants is available in Supplementary Table 2.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Greenwich Seedling Funds, London under the 2018/2019 Seedling Fund Grant.