Athlete Brand Development: Football Players Ronaldo and Beckham

This dissertation examines athlete brand development, focusing on the marketing strategies of prominent football players, specifically Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham. The introduction highlights the influence of sports and athletes on modern society, emphasizing how players have become standalone entities and successful in creating multimillion dollar agreements. The research questions explore the specific on-field and off-field attributes of athlete brands and how media, social agents, impression management, and oral communication contribute to fan awareness. The literature review delves into brand development, athlete personality, and the role of brand knowledge in creating awareness and associations. It discusses factors like media channels, oral communication, and impression management. The dissertation analyzes the brand components of athletes, differentiating between on-field and off-field attributes, and the impact of these attributes on their perceived image and brand success. The provided references include key research papers that support the analysis of athlete branding and marketing.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................2
1.2 Research Questions...........................................................................................................2
2. Literature Review.....................................................................................................................3
2.1 Brand Development of Athletes............................................................................................3
2.2 Brand Components of Athlete...............................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

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1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Different sports have influenced the modern society extensively. Sports’ popularity have
been increased by the technological advancements as cultural spectacle. The sports person are
treated as one of most observable aspects for sports in modern day whose popularity surpasses
often than the team which they represent. Most appropriate examples are David Beckham and
Cristiano Ronaldo, considering their impact over marketing models of traditional sports. Current
era is dominated by professional players as the standalone entities (Chadwick and Burton 2008).
Athletes like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo have converted athletic abilities in
multimillion dollar agreements successfully. For creating a value for brand, the consumers
should develop positive as well as brand associations that are unique for that brand. Different
sources’ role such as impression management, media, social agents and oral communication help
familiarize the fans of the sport with these athletes.
1.2 Research Questions
RQ1: What are specific on-field and off-field attributes of brand of athlete?
RQ2: How do oral communication, social agents, media and impression management
contribute in increasing awareness of fans?

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2. Literature Review
2.1 Brand Development of Athletes
Human brand includes opinions of people about individual. One could say that there is
relation between athlete brand athlete and image as well as personality of particular athlete which
is recognized by public. Athlete brand is dependent on an athlete’s public perception. For
instance, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo earned brand status of their persona as football
players. It is seen that there is relation between athlete brand and athlete’s personality for public.
Athletes have strong role themselves to build personal brands (Helleu 2017). Brand knowledge is
crucial component for brand awareness’s creation as well as for brand associations’
development. Consumers should know first about brand as well as be aware of it. This awareness
might be influenced positively through several sources. Several different factors are possible
triggers for developing awareness between the potential fans. Media channels are beneficial for
several athletes or sports, which helps in increasing popularity. Oral communication that is
conducted represent vital source to share knowledge about the athletes within different cultures
as well as countries. Impression management is a primary contributor in creation of celebrities of
modern day. Efforts of athlete for creating, maintaining or changing image is crucial in
enhancing perceptions of fans (Rydell and Kneubühler 2018). Social agents have direct influence
over responses of fan to the sport properties. Popularity of athletes such as David Beckham and
Cristiano Ronaldo acts as trigger for increasing awareness as well as athlete associations. Such
factors tend in athlete brand’s creation. With respect to potential of global brand, signing for
leading clubs of world would be crucial. This is the reason why brand of David Beckham was
that much successful. Success and reputation of team of player is really quite essential for the
brand. This makes them highly appealing and globally recognizable. Within different countries,

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extent in where players’ activities of off-field are scrutinized would vary (Desbordes, Aymar and
Hautbois 2019). Scrutiny is based partly on power and role of media within different countries.
2.2 Brand Components of Athlete
Athletes like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo become famous as for their
achievements in fields as well as public interest within activities of the field. For instance,
Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham are famous due to both athletic features as well as
characteristics of private lives. Perceived image of fans about their athlete depends on the
athletic performance while competition as well as character within real life (Hasaan et al. 2016).
Hence, athlete brand is based on two separate dimensions for lives of athletes: off-field and on-
field attributes. Attributes of on-field are related with athletic performance of an athlete.
Athlete’s excellent performance is totally valuable to establish brand of athlete. Attributes of off-
field are related to personal life of athletes behind activities of on-field. Fact that Cristiano
Ronaldo is virtually following similar path as followed by Beckham is great example to show
how athletes could turn in popular icons if there is right combination for them of sexiness and
success. Ronaldo might have surpassed David Beckham as he performed at higher level when
compare with David Beckham, hence gaining popularity within world of soccer. This benefitted
from rise in marketing and global media which increased popularity for these athletes (Chovanec
2018). At some level, this would be easy that a player who is good looking would more likely
become successful player. Physical conditioning would play part about how these players are
perceived by consumers. It is interesting to see the effect on increasing soccer’s popularity
within regions which could be impacted by aesthetic qualities. In such way, athletes like David
Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo expand their brand outside of soccer world.

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References
Chadwick, S. and Burton, N., 2008. From Beckham to Ronaldo--Assessing the nature of football
player brands. Journal of Sponsorship, 1(4).
Chovanec, J., 2018. “Text sex with Becks”: Football celebrities, popular press, and the spectacle
of language. In The Aesthetics, Poetics, and Rhetoric of Soccer (pp. 200-226). Routledge.
Desbordes, M., Aymar, P. and Hautbois, C. eds., 2019. The Global Sport Economy:
Contemporary Issues. Routledge.
Hasaan, A., Kerem, K., Biscaia, R. and Agyemang, K.J., 2016. Athlete brand construction: A
perspective based on fans' perceptions. Motriz: Revista de Educação Física, 22(3), pp.144-159.
Helleu, B., 2017. The other field of play: Football on social media. In Routledge handbook of
football marketing (pp. 163-183). Routledge.
Rydell, W. and Kneubühler, J., 2018. Shared Field of Play, Being Part of a Team, Being Part of
an Organization: Effects on Building a Personal Brand in Team Sports.