Abstract
Research studies on the gap in branding disparity between men’s and women’s sports are becoming fewer, and they are often distributional in character. This is because managers and human resource professional in sports choose to capitalize in men’s sports over women’s sports have been the subject of little investigation to far. A significant void exists in the literature, particularly in light of the increase in patronage, funding expenditure and the more premeditated nature of such investments. The goal of this work is to investigate some of the probable explanations for this gap, both philosophically and practically. Using the sponsorship agreements made by the sponsors of several both national and international sports teams, it was found that women as compared to men enjoy more influence in sports as it relates to branding and social media backing. This was supported by evidence that there are values and beliefs that articulate and influence decision-making in sport representations as pressures from sport management that combine and decide on who gets sponsored. If these obstacles can be surmounted, we believe that women’s sports have the potential to be a highly effective marketing tool for some businesses.
Introduction
Branding is establishing a powerful, favorable impression of a business. It is the process of instilling meaning in customers’ minds about a certain organization, business, goods, or services via creating and developing a brand. A brand exists because it represents a promise made by a corporation to its customers. The goal of branding in marketing and any other industry is to build trust with your customers and fans, in the case of sports, and inspire loyalty among those customers and supporters. You may distinguish yourself from the competition by creating a brand that allows your followers to remember you and serves to establish an identity for your company. Branding helps to connect with your target audience for long-lasting connections that can lead to doing business together for a longer time and repeatedly. When it comes to distinguishing oneself from the competition and leaving a lasting impression, this is the most significant differentiator that companies and individuals like sportspersons can use. Being genuine may signify a variety of different things.
Studies that have looked at the gap in funding between men’s and women’s sports are few and far between, and they are almost always distributional in their approach. There has been very little investigation into why in sports management, men are preferred more than women. Given the increase in sponsorship expenditure, as well as the more strategic nature of such investments, this constitutes a significant void in the literature on the subject. The objective of this research was to investigate some of the probable causes of this gap, both philosophically and experimentally, in order to come up with some conclusions. Looking into the agreements made by management of several sports clubs, both nationally and internationally, women are highly preferred than women in affairs to do with sports and sponsorship that highly affects the branding in the sports industry. Decisions are made to favor the male regardless of the position they hold and also as influenced by social media. Additionally, if these obstacles can be addressed, women’s sport has the potential to be a highly effective marketing tool for some businesses.
As the most fundamental branding notion, brand equity is one of the most important aspects of sports and helps to increase or decrease the brand’s value in the eyes of customers. Customer perception is critical in the development of brand equity with service organizations. It is possible to build service brand equity if a company has a well-known brand and brand meaning attributed to internal marketing efforts, external brand communications, and customer experiences. This is the first research to look at branding in men’s and women’s sports. Even though there are several different conceptualizations of branding, the consumer-based branding idea will be used in the present research. Consumer-based branding may be the differentiating influence of brand knowledge on consumers’ reaction to the marketing of a product or service”. A customer becomes conscious of a brand and has some positive, powerful, and distinctive brand associations associated with that brand in their mind.
In the sport and participatory sport divisions, the notion of branding has been created and emphasized. Conceptualized consumer-based brand equity in a way applicable to a spectator sport, the BBC established a spectator-based brand model that focused on the service-oriented aspect of spectator sport. The use of previous brand association scales to inspect consumer conduct in participatory sport, for example, “health clubs and campus recreational sports, and the concept of brand equity in campus recreational sports have been conceptualized” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Mills, in his work, “Branding in Women’s Sports,” argues that service-oriented brands may not be conceptualized well since their products are intangible and hence difficult to separate from the competition. As a result, future research should examine adapting Berry’s brand equity paradigm to the world of women’s sports.
Men vs. Women Sports Branding Statistics
According to Nielsen, many spectators prefer watching women’s sports to male sports because they tend to be more well-branded than males. This also drives the sponsors to endorse female sports more than male sports. For example, in the “WNBA’s 19th season, the average participation was over 7,000, which was higher than the NBA’s average audience in its 19th season also, the 2018 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game became the event that was watched by the most audience as was televised on ESPN since the NBA playoffs”. (“Women’s championship game”), as broadcasted by ESPN. On the other hand, women’s sports get just a 2-3 percent share of network and cable television coverage compared to men’s sports. In addition, women’s sports received just 0.4 percent of all sports sponsorships between 2011 and 2013, a decrease from the previous year. Because of women’s buying power, this untapped sector represents an excellent opportunity from both a spectator and consumer standpoint.
Even though various research has taken a sociological approach to women’s sports, just a few studies have taken a marketing strategy to the subject. In a competitive service brand sector, pursuing brand management techniques is one approach to differentiate your company from the competition. Sporting goods brands for women compete against those for men, which is the largest business sector. “It is necessary to have a better grasp of branding in women’s sports to raise awareness and, eventually, build brand equity for the sport. As a result, a solution to the low consumption of women’s sports” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). In the European Union, males are more likely than women to participate in sports or other physical activities regularly. For example, 45 percent of males engage in physical activity or participate in sports at least once a week, compared to 37 percent of women. The frequency with which people participate in sports or other physical activities varies greatly depending on their age. It is the younger generation, 15-24 years old, where the greatest disparity is observed: 75 percent of males, compared to 55 percent of females, participate in sport at least once a week, and 15 percent of young men, linked to 8 percent of young girls, engage in sporting activities several times a week. When it comes to older age groups, this disparity tends to shrink.
Gender disparities are highly observable when it comes to the environment in which sporting activities are performed: “men are more engaged in sporting activities in proper places than women: women participate in sporting activities at home or on the way between home and school, work, or the grocery store compared to men who are sorting activities at a sports club or work” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Following this finding, men prefer and promote local sports clubs and other local providers because they believe they provide various options for physically active participation in their communities. These disparities may be explained by the traditional gender roles assigned to men and women. For example, females are more likely than men to take on caregiving responsibilities, which may explain why they are more likely than men to participate in sports or other physical activities in public places. According to the data, men are twice as likely as women to be members of a sports club: 16 percent vs. 8 percent.
Participation in sports by both men and women is meant to promote their physical well-being. 61 percent and 63 percent, respectively; however, there are significant differences between men and women regarding the factors that motivate them to participate in sport or other physical activities. Sport or physical activity is more popular among men for various reasons, including having fun, 33 percent, spending time with friends, 3 percent, and improving physical performance, 26 percent. On the other hand, women are more concerned with regulating their weight, 26 percent, refining their physical appearance, 24 percent), and counteracting the effects of aging, 17 percent. Gender stereotypes may account for these differences: males are supposed to be muscular and athletic, while women are expected to be attractive, thin, and youthful-looking.
According to the International Olympic Committee, female participation in Olympic and Paralympic competitions has steadily increased over the previous nine decades. Recent numbers from the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro reveal that equality in terms of gender participation rate was achieved, with roughly 40-45 percent of women taking part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. More men are likely to be employed in sporting firms than women: 55 percent versus 45 percent. For instance, some positions such as for “professional athletes, professional coaches, or outside the sports sector, such as school sports instructors, or in non-sport occupations in the sports sector, for instance, school sports instructors, for example, receptionists in fitness centers” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). In the same way, men and women who volunteer their time to support athletic activities are seeing an increase in numbers, 9 percent vs. 6 percent.
In sports, the roles played by men and women tend to be distinct from one another. When it comes to the volunteer sector, males are more likely than women to hold positions such as trainers or instructor, 33 percent vs. 23 percent, referee or official, 8 percent vs. 9 percent. As people become older, these disparities tend to become more pronounced. For example, more young males than young women between the ages of 15 and 24 work as trainers or instructors, 50 percent vs. 33 percent. While at the same time, more women than males are often in charge of administrative chores, 21 percent vs. 13 percent, assisting with daily club activities, 23 percent versus 18 percent, or providing transportation, 21 percent versus 18 percent, 18 percent vs. 14 percent. The latter responsibilities, assistance, and transportation are mostly handled by women aged 25 and 39 and 40 to 54 and women with children (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Once again, conventional gender norms may be at the root of these findings and the explanations for these disparities.
Even though there is a roughly equal number of men and women engaged in sports, equality in terms of gender has not been well set, including “players’ contractual salaries, sponsorships, endorsements, and prize money”, among other things. The gender wage gap in sports is seldom calculated; however, Forbes released a list of the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes in 2016, despite being rarely done. There are just two female athletes in a list of 100 athletes, who are ranked 40th and 88th, respectively. The gap in income between the first place, which a male football player now holds, and the forty-first position, which a female tennis player currently holds, is 59.1 million dollars. As pointed out by a BBC investigation conducted in 2015, ten out of the 35 sports that provide prize money do not pay a similar amount to men and women athletes in the same event.
Branding in men and women sports outlook
Brand ties between athletes and their respective brands are intertwined in this network. As a result, understanding how athlete brands are developed requires considering the combined impacts of related brands at various levels: league, team, and individual. This paper is particularly interested in growth variables affecting athletes’ social media followings on Twitter and Instagram and its impacts on branding, particularly during the important time of team transfer periods. This study will utilize data from the NFL Draft since this particular point in time gives a unique chance to capture the joint impacts of league and club elements and player and platform-related factors on the development of an athlete’s brand. As athletes begin their professional careers, there are rapid changes in their social media followings through relating the large samples of athlete social media followers before and after the draft. According to the findings, studying several elements within the same model is critical to comprehending the impacts of aspects in developing athlete brands. The league and the team play a significant role in incorporating a particular brand. As a result, athlete brands get advantages from these new brand partnerships. The findings further indicate network effects, underscoring the necessity of having a strong brand leading to a high-profile event.
Personal branding is one of an athlete’s most precious assets, and it can make or break their career. A strong sports brand correlates with higher revenues from salary and transfer fees and sponsorship agreements. It may assist in maintaining a favorable image even when on-field performance deteriorates. Because they are simple to use and offer additional advantages relating to reach and accessibility, social media platforms enable sportsmen and women to build their brands without significant monetary commitment. Thus, sports’ social media accounts have become an inseparable component of their brand, and they are a critical tool for sportsmen and women to use to further their branding ambitions. A soccer player named Michael Lahoud, for example, used his public involvement in the community and social media following to negotiate a deal with a new club and to establish himself as a player with a distinct and distinct brand. Athletes’ social media performance has piqued the attention of academics and practitioners, as the value of player brands has been more acknowledged within the business.
Researchers have investigated how players manage themselves on social media, building on previous studies that identified the characteristics that lead to the development and success of players’ brands. One area that is still unspoken is the interaction of brands at multiple levels, for example, at the level of the league, the level of the club, and the level of the player. Their associations inevitably shape athletes’ branding with certain leagues and clubs, which is no exception. These interactions between sports entities, athletes, and fans are becoming more prevalent on social media, reflecting this trend. For example, “researchers have discovered that proficient player postings account for around 35 percent of the material produced by the Liverpool Football Club on Twitter and nearly 40 percent of the content shared by the club on Instagram”. While such findings demonstrate that sports brands are fundamentally connected, there is still room for advancement in empirical evidence indicating how related sports brands influence customer behavior directed toward players’ brands.
This essay looks at the variables that have contributed to the rise of athlete brands on social media platforms. We are particularly interested in how an athlete’s decision to join a new club or league affected their internet following. In 2018, according to the National Soccer League, 16,533 males and 696 female professional soccer players migrated to new clubs. A rise in social media following is correlated with events involving player movement. Players’ professional careers begin with forming new brand ties with their respective leagues and teams, which is a necessary part of the process. Sports brand design, athlete branding, and the simultaneously divergent impacts of the league-, team-, player-, and platform-related elements on the rise in the number of social media followers of athletes are all improved as a result of this present study. The research results are taken care of such that research-related reviews are not used to cause replication.
To determine which posts to present to other users on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, many of these platforms “rely on machine learning-driven algorithms that take variables such as the number of followers that a user has and historical engagement when making their decisions”. Posts from accounts with more followers and those that have had more interaction in the past are prioritized and, as a result, are viewed by a bigger number of people. The following behavior of teams’ Twitter accounts was investigated. It was discovered that there is a positive association between the total number of followers of a player and the rise in the size of the teams’ network. This impact is also connected to the double jeopardy effect, which says that companies with a big market share have a larger and more devoted fan following than rivals with smaller brands, and vice versa. In the present research, we look at consumers’ initial interest in athlete brands, taking into account network effects caused by the athlete’s existing network size and the network size of the associated team that the player is linked to.
A club picks players, and their brand image and the sense of their brand in consumers’ thoughts are tied to the team’s brand following schema theory and brand architecture after being recruited. Like the link between a league and its team brand, the team-athlete brand interaction should result in image transfer after an athlete joins a different team. The social identity hypothesis predicts that those who identify as team supporters would acquire a greater affinity for players selected to their team, supported by research. When the athlete joins the team, they will automatically become a member of the ingroup, which will reduce the psychological barrier between the player and the fan community while also evoking favorable attitudinal and behavioral reactions from the fan community. Since the athletes’ new team has a larger market share, the increase in followers of the athletes’ new team should be reflected on social media.
Certain social media sites allow users to create certifiable user profiles that may be verified to prove their authenticity. In contrast to traditional media, social media might be devoid of conventional, dependable signs of authorship, which is a critical component of the trustworthiness of a source. To assist in resolving this difficulty, some social media sites label accounts that have been validated as belonging to certain high-profile persons or companies as “official.” A verified badge lends credibility to a social media account by demonstrating its authenticity. User perceptions of verified accounts are higher on social media, and the verification badge might be perceived as a status signal. As a result, it is believed that account verification would promote favorable network effects, which will assist sportspeople in increasing their follower numbers. We anticipate that established players’ accounts will have a bigger rise in followers than non-verified athlete accounts due to their selection in the draft.
Following a study investigating branding amongst men and women sports, the research looks at the NFL Draft as an event that allows players to develop new relationships inside their brand architectural structures. We find that it does just that. Every April, the NFL publicizes league entry draft in which all 32 clubs take turns picking players for whom they will have exclusive negotiation rights for the remainder of the season. NFL Draft takes place over three days, with seven rounds, and it receives extensive coverage from media outlets such as the news media, television, and print. Each team is allowed to pick one player in each round every year, with the athletes being chosen in reverse order of their previous season’s standing. Selection rights may be swapped, making it feasible for a particular side to earn extra picks in any given round of the tournament. The league may assign 32 compensatory draft selections to clubs who have suffered a net loss of players to free agency (player moves to other teams when their contracts expire) in the previous season. Around 250 athletes are selected and then accepted into the league and their respective new clubs.
Participants and Statistical Information
For the present research, information on potential NFL draftees was gathered from public social media accounts maintained by those players in the weeks leading up to and immediately after the 2017 NFL Draft: Instagram and Twitter, conducted a manual search for and recording handles related to accounts of players who declared for the NFL Draft on Facebook (Statista, 2018). 162 athletes were evaluated based on their public profiles, with 151 having Twitter accounts and 121 having Instagram accounts, respectively. According to the data, sixty-seven percent of the scrapped athletes’ Twitter profiles were verified, while 76.9 percent of their Instagram accounts were verified (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133).
Data Collection
The information needed from athletes’ Twitter and Instagram accounts was identified and gathered using a bespoke web scraper. During “the 2017 NFL Draft, data was collected twice: two days before (on April 25, 2017) and two days after” (on May 1, 2017). The web scraper retrieved important information for each data collecting period. It was determined that each athlete would have a final dataset for analysis that included the round in which they were drafted, the drafting team’s social media followers, the number of social media followers at the time of the selection, and whether or not the athlete’s account had been verified. As a result, the variables had changed before to analysis. The growth in social media followers, players’ followers before the draft, and teams’ followers were all right-skewed. Each athlete’s selection round was dummy coded, and six variables were included in the model to reflect rounds one through six of the process. A fictitious code was used to indicate whether or not the account had been checked. (1 = confirmed; 0 = not verified).
Analysis
To analyze the data, we utilized the R 3.4.4 programming language. To evaluate the hypotheses, we conducted multiple linear regression analyses. The growth in social media followers was the dependent variable in this study (log-transformed). Two log-transformed variables and two dummy coded variables were used as independent factors in this study (round and verification). During the regression, round 7 was chosen as the starting point for the analysis. The White Test was used to determine whether or not there was heteroscedasticity in the data due to the “assumptions for Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression”. We calculated heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors before performing the regression analyses to account for “heteroscedasticity, which violated the assumption in OLS regression that the error term had constant variance across all values of the independent variables.” A nonparametric technique was used after the linear model was tested to characterize the influence route of each independent variable independently and offer insight into the additional parametric analysis. Because of the normalization procedure involved in log-changing parametric models, contextual awareness is lost at the granular level due to the transformation. At the same time, the linear model failed to detect instances in which teams with many followers. As a result, we utilized the original dataset to do nonparametric kernel regression to uncover relational patterns between variables, correcting for errors due to heteroscedasticity, revealing relational patterns between variables. As a result, each of our hypotheses was examined in the following stages.
Results
According to the findings, athletes picked in the first round of the draft benefited more from social media following than the second or third rounds. A summary of the increased followers across all platforms resulted from the selection round, as shown in Figure below. According to the results, the drafting teams were highly favored in followers’ variations. The follower counts were counted and averaged to a standard deviation of 720,221 on Twitter and 594,580 on Instagram, respectively. In a similar vein, research revealed significant variability among the athletes’ first followers on both platforms. With an average of 19,596 Twitter followers and a standard deviation of 54,028, the athletes’ first Twitter following was similar to their initial Instagram following, which was similar to that of their initial Instagram following (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133).
Furthermore, in the situation of Twitter, the correlation between two continuous variables was.061, and in the context of Instagram, it was.060. Account verification has resulted in an increase in followers across all platforms, as seen in Figure below. The table below shows the descriptive statistics of the variables and their ranges.
The table below shows the results of the numerous linear regression studies performed. The model indicates 76.9 percent of the rise in followers on Twitter and 83.6 percent of the gain in followers on Instagram for the period under consideration. Following our hypothesis, getting taken in the first draft round was related to a bigger gain in followers across both social media platforms.
As a consequence of these findings, it is necessary to examine how variables influenced the dependent variable. In both the Instagram and Twitter settings, the number of social media followers of the drafting team and the number of social media followers at the start of the study were strongly associated with the rise in social media followers. According to the study, verified Instagram accounts had a considerably better possibility of garnering more followers following the draft than non-verified profiles. On Twitter, there was no statistically major variance between certified player accounts and non-certified player profiles, according to the findings.
Increase in followers for athletes as a result of their verified status.
All in all, the findings of the linear regression analysis gave a preliminary but generalizable knowledge of how various characteristics influenced the amount to which player social media accounts profited from an increase in followers after being selected for a team. According to the nonparametric kernel regression analysis shown in Figure above, the following results were obtained: The first partial nonparametric regression model (Round Effect) demonstrates a general pattern of a consistent reduction in newly acquired followers’ dependent on the athlete’s draft pick round in the first round of the NFL Draft. Because clubs with huge fan bases chose more than one player in the last round, the minor spike in Round 7 lends extra credence to the non-significant findings of certain earlier rounds in the linear regression model, which was previously unsupported.
As a whole, our findings add to the body of research on how sports brand partnerships influence consumer behavior in the setting of social media. These results illustrate that player brands function as sub-brands inside brand architectural frameworks and that their related master brands impact the amount to which the athlete brand may profit when the athlete’s brand portfolio changes, as seen in the case study above. Our research team evaluated data from two social networking sites to identify crucial aspects influencing customer interest in athlete-branded products. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research on athlete branding by demonstrating the simultaneously differential impacts of league team-, player-, and platform-related variables on the rise of athletes’ social media followers.
Consequently, early-round picks—who got more media attention and a higher quality signal—saw bigger gains in social media followers than later-round selections. The league exercises influence players via a highly publicized event, particularly relevant to our situation. As a result, the league incorporates athletes’ brands into its overall brand architecture. According to the findings from the team’s viewpoint, “the strength of the team’s social media following impacted the subsequent consequences that the players experienced”. Teams with a higher social media following have a greater number of persons following these institutions and, as a result, deliberate players who join the team to be fellow ingroup members soon after joining. According to the study, the pre-event metrics of an athlete were also shown to have a favorable influence on follower growth following the event, demonstrating the greater advantages strong brands may enjoy compared to lesser-known brands. Collectively, the team-level and player-level linkages found provide proof of network effects and help widen our understanding of brand architecture to include athlete brands.
Additionally, our findings reveal that having a verified status on Instagram has a big influence on followers, but not on followers on Twitter. Although verified Twitter users had an average of 1326 more followers than non-verified Twitter users, the difference was not statistically significant. According to Tenforde et al. (Pg. 171-182), one explanation is that the microblogging structure of Twitter, which allows for greater team-player interactions like “tagging and retweeting”, provides consumers with more alternatives for verifying the validity of the athlete on the platform.
Consequently, the influence of certified status on Twitter was less noticeable than the effect of verified status on Instagram, where teams are restricted to directly reposting photographs from players’ accounts. We next employed nonparametric analysis to uncover contextualized knowledge of our hypotheses, which we then tested. Because of these findings, it is now possible to experimentally corroborate the interaction between multi-level brands and the brand architecture when the athlete moves into the ingroup of the study. As a result, sportspeople found that proactively engaging in their social media accounts before the draft would influence their building a robust fan base throughout this important career move—supporters, respectively. According to our findings, a strong team selecting a strong player would assist in a sharp increase in the players’ followership and fame, which indicates how much their existing followers had an effect. This study lends credence to double jeopardy research, which shows that “bigger market share sports brands elicit better brand awareness, engagement, and team-supportive behavior than lower market share sports brands” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Nonparametric studies, in aggregate, made it easier to compare the influence of factors at different levels and produced interesting illustrations that supplemented the linear regression model. There is a clear interaction between league-, team-and player-level elements resulting from the nonparametric analysis, which allows us to discern the combined influence of numerous brands within the brand range with which one athlete is associated. The findings, in particular, emphasize the significance of the athlete’s efforts in creating a large fan base before making the shift from one sport to another since the influence of a team’s network size is not always linear.
As a result, joining a team with great social media performance does not guarantee the emergence of an athlete’s social brand on its own. According to the study’s findings, athletes’ tiny social media audience seems to minimize the beneficial spillover impact from their team’s following to their own social media fanbase development. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge on sports branding by illustrating the complicated influence of linked brands on the emergence of an athlete’s online brand. Players wishing to expand their brands may take advantage of various events that serve as catalysts for brand creation since more media exposure leads to faster-renowned growth for players. It is beneficial for athletes joining a new team, particularly if it is a high-profile team, to change their affiliation within a network of linked companies, as this allows them to acquire visibility and relationships with new customers. A player’s breakthrough performance at a big tournament may result in a brief increase in public attention; well-positioned players prior to such an event may reap the benefits of their forethought and preparation.
In general, we believe that athletes should put as much emphasis on the strength of the brands to which they are linked, for example, event, league, the team as they do on the quality of the playing roster, for example, the possibility of winning trophies or championships when making decisions about their careers—for university players, taking a long-term perspective may be even more critical in establishing a solid foundation for successful professional careers. Take, for example, “28.4 million followers on Instagram as of May 2019, in relation to Chelsea and Manchester City, which had 18.3 million and 12.3 million followers, respectively. Athletic teams and leagues should consider these metrics, and athletes should be aware of the prospective long-term advantages of working with the team and league brands that have a large social media following” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). For example, “if a player receives offers from both Manchester United and Chelsea, the Chelsea salary is higher. In contrast, the player may benefit from accepting the Chelsea offer in the short term; there may be greater financial benefits from accepting the Manchester United offer in the long term”. Such advantages may include more publicity and social media followers for the player, the ability to command bigger transfer fees and salaries in the future, and the ability to “negotiate larger endorsement agreements with sponsors” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133).
A successful brand takes strategy, dedication, and consistent execution on an individual level to be established and maintained over time. When it comes to capitalizing on their brand, professional athletes often have a narrow window of opportunity, and brand-building competence is very unusual among sports. We discovered that “having a larger number of social media followers before joining a new team or beginning to play professionally was connected with a higher increase in followers” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Sportspeople should deliberately manage their social media presence as early as feasible, rather than delaying branding initiatives until they begin their professional careers to lay the groundwork for long-term success in their respective fields. Aside from that, having a verified account was connected with a bigger rise in Instagram followers, knowing very well that not all sportsmen maintained certified accounts. Players should properly structure their social media handles, including confidentiality and verification settings, to take advantage of opportunities for brand development presented by events, media, and team exposure opportunities. Our findings further revealed the need for formal support and training for players to better participate in relevant brand-building activities to improve their performance.
Sports Human Resource Professionals
Human resource managers guide or oversee personnel to ensure that they operate effectively and efficiently to meet the aims and objectives of the firm. A strategic approach to human resource management is becoming more important for sports organizations striving to be more successful and efficient in their operations. Inherently, human resource management is most effective in cultures that emphasize human capital, which is the most valuable resource in the sports sector. According to research, a company’s sports performance may be improved using sound human resource management principles and practices. The most significant resources in any athletic organization are the human resources or individuals who make up the organization.
Sports are being more marketed in the contemporary international setting, and sports institutions have become more competent. “Organizers of sporting events play an important role in developing tourism and economic activities on a national and international scale; the positive economic benefits that they provide have increased awareness of sports among the general public and have helped to establish sports as having a positive image in the general community” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Pro sports players are valuable in the sports industry since most sporting goods firms use well-known athletes to promote their products and services to consumers. Sporting businesses must now manage their “time, energy loss and activities, and finances” and human resources to achieve their objectives; in particular, organizations must invest in their employees to ensure the effective and efficient organization of operations. While human resource management (HRM) has a particular definition and meaning, any technique may be used to manage people broadly. Human resource management (HRM) is characterized by incorporated approaches and a coherent approach to employment management to achieve a competitive advantage through a highly competent and capable workforce.
According to the definition above, human resources (HR) are the most important asset of an organization, i.e., the people who work for the company and who individually and collectively contribute to attaining its goals. Furthermore, firms utilize employment management to gain a competitive edge. This is done by implementing a specific set of integrated policies, plans, and procedures. Diverse human resource management practices may impact behavioral outcomes and organizational success. According to various viewpoints, “human resources (HR) is a strategic approach that focuses on what the goals of human resource management are and how they might be accomplished. To bring the explanation of human resource management to a close, it should be noted that it is a process of creating values and that it includes various steps such as planning, recruitment, selection, retention and replacement, orientation, training and development, and appraisal and rewards”, among others. Griffin (pg. 13) asserts that human resources (HR) are the most crucial aspect of every firm.
Apart from that, many other resource managers regard human resources as a crucial aspect that may impact and transmute other resources (such as financial, physical, and intellectual capital) into valuable resources. As a result, a company may invest in the education and training of its personnel to expand their knowledge, expertise, and abilities. As a result, the business can eventually optimize its productivity and output levels. As previously stated, human resources (HR) are critically vital for the effectiveness of an institution. This is because HR consists of a diverse range of skills, attitudes, and talents related to an institutions’ roles and responsibilities. Human resource management is critical as it ensures that effective utilization of resources used to guide an organization’s progress. The sporting industry helps ensure that sporting activities are well managed and the resources required are well organized in an appropriate relationship.
Today, governments finance private sports and leisure groups that compete to deliver their services to the general public cost-effectively and efficiently. A growing number of privately owned sports and leisure enterprises are emerging, expanding their reach. In the last several decades, locally-based firms have evolved into globally-focused corporations. When it comes to human resource management, sports and leisure organizations must consider both volunteer and paid staff members. Human resource planning is primarily concerned with future human resource recruiting. It may be integrated with the qualitative part of human resource planning and the quantitative element of manpower planning. “Human resource planning is primarily the process of adapting to change and uncertainty, taking into account and planning for recruitment, selection, training and development, orientation, and rewards, among other things. This helps to develop a competitive advantage in the marketplace”. Before preparing for these circumstances, human resource managers must consider the financial, external, and internal environments.
Nonetheless, “HR practices in complex commercial institutions do not simply translate to sports organizations since human resource management (HRM) is the most crucial and troublesome phenomenon for the functioning of an organization, because of a lack of perspective on “law, recruiting, selection, training, reward management, and induction” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133), the creation of formal human resource planning is difficult to put into action in reality. In addition, sports organizations must navigate a difficult line between formality and informality, even though formal methods may foster strong feelings of collaboration, strengthen social relationships, and raise employee and volunteer engagement, among other benefits. It is necessary to find, attract, and choose qualified candidates who satisfy the organization’s human resource needs throughout the recruiting process. As Nielsen pointed out, the recruiting process is defined as identifying a large number of qualified individuals for a position and encouraging them to apply for the position. The eligible applicant may be recruited from inside the organization or outside sources. Advertisements in print and electronic media, such as newspapers, the Internet, and journals, are examples of external resources. The benefit of this strategy is that it may be used to reach many individuals. Because colleges are the finest source for identifying young professionals, recruiting personnel from universities is an approach that has several advantages over other methods.
Furthermore, if the business has a great recruiting process, this benefits successful socialization methods and increases separable commitment since it increases the likelihood of success. Many sports clubs throughout the globe are finding it more difficult to retain volunteers due to the recruitment techniques used by sports corporations. According to Nielsen, recruiting and retention are key issues for sports clubs in a number of jurisdictions throughout the world. Around 34% of sports groups reported major difficulties in recruiting new members to their ranks in Switzerland. Aisbett and Hoye (pg.351-369) discovered that the management of community sporting events relies on a significant number of paid and volunteer staff members to be successful. As of 2005, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that “1.5 million volunteers worked in the sports industry, putting in more than 165 million hours per year to sports and leisure organizations” throughout the country. On the other hand, recruitment and retention remain key issues in the sports industry, as shown by this research. These difficulties directly impact the running of sports organizations since they are unable to organize any events or carry out day-to-day activities owing to a shortage of personnel.
Essentially, training is how new workers are introduced to the skills and the requirements needed to execute their duties at their various positions. Training and induction are vital programs aimed at connecting the new workers to their designated programs in the organization. New employees are given orientation and the skills required to ensure that they are well acquainted with the required skills and the background information as per the organization. Every organization requires that “its employees be well prepared for health and safety, terms and conditions, a history of the organization and the product or service it offers, and ethics and values” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Employees go through these phases once they have completed the recruiting and selection procedure. Training may be classified into two categories: general training and specialty training. General training is comprised of a variety of activities. General training (literacy) refers to transferring abilities from one organization to another and being productive in any organization. A specific kind of training is a set of valuable skills and information while working for a certain company or within a specific sector.
On the other hand, training may increase workers’ self-confidence and productivity since both self-confidence and productivity are due to acquiring new skills and accumulating information. Evidence from Aisbett and Hoye (pg. 351-369)’s study supports the notion that a “worker’s view that they are well-trained and developed inside an organization has a significant beneficial effect on the employee’s performance and commitment in that company”. Although induction as part of the training may seem time-consuming, it appears to be the best way of training as it gives room for the candidates to conform with the organization’s mode of working. It may appear costly, but it minimizes the employees’ concerns and ensures that the organization’s productivity is taken care of. Sports organizations consistently fail to offer enough induction chances for their employees. During a particular event, the club implemented a staff orientation program. The program resulted in a large rise in satisfaction among the event managers and other workers, which increased the event’s success. This demonstrates that well-planned induction programs result in successful and efficient organizations in their operations.
Furthermore, Theodoropoulou et al. (pg.13-43) demonstrate that using volunteers to run athletic events is both fiscally and operationally feasible. In the past, for example, “thousands of volunteers assisted in the organization and administration of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, 45,000 volunteers, Sydney in 2000, 41,000 volunteers, London in 2012, 70,000 volunteers, and Beijing in 2008, 10,000 volunteers, 70,000 volunteers” (Petrackova. Pg. 120-133). Employee happiness is directly tied to their level of performance, determined by the level of training they get. Thus, training should be handled responsibly to avoid workers’ discontent with their training, leading to their desertion or a shortage of volunteers throughout their employment. Volunteer coaches and event volunteers do not engage in helping in sports organizations due to the difficulty in training and orienting human resource personnel. This decline in volunteerism is a serious concern in the sports industry, particularly in event operations, a critical component of a good organization’s operation.
In conclusion, brands have become more significant in today’s business world. When it comes to building a company’s brand, it may be considered an intangible asset that will last forever. It is one of the most successful strategies for competing in a market. Brands have the power to identify one firm from another in the marketplace. Brands are crucial to businesses because they can imprint specific characteristics and connections in the minds of consumers, increasing the value of the producer and the product. Euphemism as Strong value associated with a brand and help the brand to remain in the consumer’s mind and generate commercial strength over the long term. When a brand offers a broad range of goods, it may be necessary to attempt to relate a wide range of values to the brand. This might create difficulty for the brand. An excessive number of values may confuse the customer and result in a loss of identity, particularly if the values conflict.
An increasing number of women are participating in sports at the same level as men in today’s culture, and the female sportswear industry is expanding at a fast pace. For a long time, there has been a significant shift in the way people see gender roles and stereotypical behavior. As a result of these developments, women today have more access to and participation in organized sports. Consumer behavior is also changing, with women having a greater impact on all purchasing choices, and more and more businesses are recognizing this and retargeting their advertising towards women. Due to this and their growing interest in sports, women should be a natural target audience for branding companies such as Adidas and its marketing campaigns. Women are responsible for about 80% of individual consumer expenditure, and as a result, a brand of such companies’ stature cannot afford to neglect them. If Adidas, for example, wants to entice female customers to purchase their items, they must ensure that their brand is attractive to female customers and males.
Since customers may already have preconceived views about a brand already, gendering an existing brand might be more difficult. As a result, the client must be persuaded and educated to learn to associate specific values with the brand and even modify previously established beliefs. Communication and advertising can elicit connections with a brand and make the brand more appealing to the target audience, the customer. Women are more receptive to advertising than males, which makes advertising a great instrument for changing the values of a company’s products or services. There has been a significant shift in what women seek and find beauty in the past several decades. If Adidas wants to reach out to women and achieve success, they must recognize these shifts and closely monitor market developments to tailor their message to the “modern” woman.
Works cited
Nielsen. The rise ofwomen’s sports. The Nielsen Company. (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018/the-rise-of-womens-sports.html.
Griffin, M. (2016). Time to hit the reset, not the panic button for women’s sports. Sports Business Journal, January 18-24 issue, 13.
BBC (2015). Men get more prize money than women in 30% of sports. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/29789953. Accessed on March 18, 2022.
Mills, Isabell. “Branding in Women’s Sports: A Literature Review.” The Sport Journal, November 22, 2019, thesportjournal.org/article/branding-in-women’s-sports-a-literature-review/.
Theodoropoulou, Irene, and Julieta Alos. “Expect amazing! Branding Qatar as a sports tourism destination.” Visual Communication 19.1 (2020): 13-43.
Tenforde, Adam S., et al. “Parallels with the female athlete triad in male athletes.” Sports Medicine 46.2 (2016): 171-182.
Aisbett, Laura, and Russell Hoye. “Human resource management practices to support sport event volunteers.” Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 53.3 (2015): 351-369.
Petrackova, Jana. “The Analysis of Specific Determinants of Sports Brand and its Value.” AUC KINANTHROPOLOGICA 46.2 (2015): 120-133.
write