A conceptual framework to understand the creation of athlete brand and its implications

The purpose of this study was to propose a conceptual framework for understanding how to establish athletes as brands. Based on an extensive literature review, the proposed model includes the antecedents of athlete brand, its measurement dimensions and implications. Five antecedents are included in the model: media, oral communications, impression management, social agents, and teams and sport. The components of athlete brand consist of on-field attributes and off-field attributes. In turn, the combined results of these two components are suggested to have three implications: athlete loyalty, team loyalty and sponsor’s purchase intentions. A set of propositions is presented to link the three parts of the model. Implications for building and managing athlete brand and research directions for future studies are discussed.