With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an increasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have become tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the interactions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic. The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand. With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsvenskan and one from Elitserien. The empirical data were collected with personal interviews of marketing managers from Elfsborg and HV71 together with the football player Samuel Holmén and hockey player Johan Davidsson. An additional interview was made with the sport journalist Erik Niva. The empirical findings were then analyzed and defined with existing and relevant brand theories and models. By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport organizations actively manage the athlete in favor of enhancing the brand and understand the importance of having a player as a symbol. Furthermore, we have found that it is hard for the organization to implement the brand identity among player and that the organization, by choosing which type of player to sign, can direct the brand identity. We have concluded that the athlete understands the benefits of having a strong personal brand, but lack the strategies to achieve it. Even with this increased awareness of personal brands, we found no evidence that this leads to a conflict between the organization brand and the personal brand. / With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an increasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have become tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the interactions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic. The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand. With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsvenskan and one from Elitserien. The empirical data were collected with personal interviews of marketing managers from Elfsborg and HV71 together with the football player Samuel Holmén and hockey player Johan Davidsson. An additional interview was made with the sport journalist Erik Niva. The empirical findings were then analyzed and defined with existing and relevant brand theories and models. By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport organizations actively manage the athlete in favor of enhancing the brand and understand the importance of having a player as a symbol. Furthermore, we have found that it is hard for the organization to implement the brand identity among player and that the organization, by choosing which type of player to sign, can direct the brand identity. We have concluded that the athlete understands the benefits of having a strong personal brand, but lack the strategies to achieve it. Even with this increased awareness of personal brands, we found no evidence that this leads to a conflict between the organization brand and the personal brand.

<p>With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an increasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have become tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the interactions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic.</p><p>The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand.</p><p>With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsvenskan and one from Elitserien. The empirical data were collected with personal interviews of marketing managers from Elfsborg and HV71 together with the football player Samuel Holmén and hockey player Johan Davidsson. An additional interview was made with the sport journalist Erik Niva. The empirical findings were then analyzed and defined with existing and relevant brand theories and models.</p><p>By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport organizations actively manage the athlete in favor of enhancing the brand and understand the importance of having a player as a symbol. Furthermore, we have found that it is hard for the organization to implement the brand identity among player and that the organization, by choosing which type of player to sign, can direct the brand identity. We have concluded that the athlete understands the benefits of having a strong personal brand, but lack the strategies to achieve it. Even with this increased awareness of personal brands, we found no evidence that this leads to a conflict between the organization brand and the personal brand.</p> / <p>With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an increasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have become tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the interactions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic.</p><p>The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand.</p><p>With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsvenskan and one from Elitserien. The empirical data were collected with personal interviews of marketing managers from Elfsborg and HV71 together with the football player Samuel Holmén and hockey player Johan Davidsson. An additional interview was made with the sport journalist Erik Niva. The empirical findings were then analyzed and defined with existing and relevant brand theories and models.</p><p>By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport organizations actively manage the athlete in favor of enhancing the brand and understand the importance of having a player as a symbol. Furthermore, we have found that it is hard for the organization to implement the brand identity among player and that the organization, by choosing which type of player to sign, can direct the brand identity. We have concluded that the athlete understands the benefits of having a strong personal brand, but lack the strategies to achieve it. Even with this increased awareness of personal brands, we found no evidence that this leads to a conflict between the organization brand and the personal brand.</p>

Title: Artists’ identity and image – a brand perspective The purpose of this study has been to create an understanding of how artists in the music business can be seen as brands and to see what stands out when having this approach. During the study we have focused on the two terms identity and image. We find this issue interesting and relevant since branding has been widely discussed in business economy, but not enough when it comes to artists in the music business. To answer our research question we have targeted three aims for this essay, which is to clarify and analyze:  Identity and image when people are viewed as brands  What specifically characterizes the image of the artists when they are seen as brands and what it might mean that artists are considered as brands  How artists identity and image can be highlighted, shaped, influenced and how it can change In this study we have used a qualitative approach to get the topic in depth and gain a greater understanding for the subject. The essay has been characterized by an abductive approach. The collected empirical material consisted of seven interviews with people who have good insight into the music business and/or brands. Six of these interviews were made face-to-face and one of them was implemented by email. The study has shown that it is more common today to consider artists as brands. It has also become more common to think “outside the box” when record sales are no longer the obvious source of income. It is important that artists find their unique basis that imbues everything they do to create a unified and strong brand.

För professionella atleter har det blivit allt viktigare med starka, personliga varumärken. Det är av stor vikt för personliga varumärken att associeras med positiva och attraktiva attribut då detta influerar konsumenter i deras val av konsumtion. Personliga varumärken representerar olika värderingar, och utifrån dessa värderingar bygger konsumenter upp särskilda förväntningar. Om ett personligt varumärke, i detta fall en atlet, avviker från konsumenters förväntningar kan det komma att påverka varumärkets anseende och det kan bli svårt att reparera skadan som avvikelsen orsakat. Etiska, respektive lagliga överträdelser är exempel på avvikelser som kan störa förväntningarna konsumenter har på atleter. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om konsumenters uppfattningar och konsumtion av atleters personliga varumärken ändras efter att atleter begått etiska, respektive lagliga överträdelser, samt att undersöka vad konsumenter anser om olika återhämtningsstrategier atleter använt sig av för att reparera sina personliga varumärken. För att undersöka detta har Therese Johaug och Tiger Woods valts ut som studieobjekt. Tillsammans med litteratur och tidigare forskning används de två atleternas personliga varumärken, deras överträdelser och återhämtningsstrategier för att besvara studiens syfte och forskningsfrågor. Studien använder metodkombination och 162 konsumenter har svarat på studiens enkätundersökning och åtta konsumenter har deltagit i semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien visar att överträdelser, oavsett etisk eller laglig karaktär, påverkar konsumenters uppfattningar om atleters personliga varumärken negativt. Vidare visar studien att konsumenters intentioner att konsumera atleters personliga varumärken minskar för hälften och är oförändrade för hälften, oavsett överträdelsens karaktär. Slutligen visar resultatet att konsumenter föredrar strategier där atleter tar på sig ansvar och ber om ursäkt för överträdelsen. Det visar sig även vara fördelaktigt om den anklagade atleten försöker sätta händelsen i en mer fördelaktig kontext, samt förklarar hur åtgärder ska vidtas för att överträdelsen inte ska återupprepas. / For professional athletes it has become increasingly important to maintain strong, personal brands. It is of great importance for personal brands to associate with positive and attractive attributes as this affects consumers in their choice of consumption. Personal brands represent different values, and on the basis of these values, consumers build up specific expectations. If a personal brand, in this case an athlete, deviates from consumer expectations, it can affect the brand's reputation and it can be difficult to repair the damage caused by the deviation. Ethical and legal transgressions are examples of deviations that can disrupt the expectations consumers have of athletes. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether consumers’ perception and consumption of athletes' personal brands change after athletes have committed ethical or legal transgressions, as well as to examine how consumers perceive the different recovery strategies athletes have used to repair their personal brands. To study this, Therese Johaug and Tiger Woods have been selected as study objects. The two athletes’ personal brands, their different transgressions and recovery strategies are used along with literature and previous research related to the subject to answer the study's purpose and research questions. The study uses a method combination and 162 consumers responded to the study's survey and eight consumers participated in semi-structured interviews. The study shows that transgressions, regardless of ethical or legal character, negatively affect consumers’ perceptions of athletes’ personal brands. Furthermore, consumers’ intentions to consume athletes’ personal brands were found to decrease for half of them, and maintain the same for the other half, regardless of the character of the transgression. Finally, the results show that consumers prefer image repair strategies where athletes take responsibility and apologize for the transgression. It was also shown to be favorable if the athlete tried to put the transgression in a more advantageous context and explained what actions that were going to be made to prevent the transgression from being repeated.