ATHLETE BRANDING: THE PERCIEVED IMPACT OF ESTABLISHMENT AND COMMUNICATION OF COLLEGIATE ATHLETE’S BRAND IMAGE THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

Abstract

Athlete branding is defined as a public persona of an individual athlete who has established their own symbolic meaning and value using their name, face or other brand elements in the market (Arai, 2014). A brand image is defined as the reasoned or emotional perceptions consumers attach to specific brands (Dobni & Zinkhan, 1990), and involves the perceptions of a particular brand as reflected by the brand associations held in a consumer's memory (Keller, 1993). It is not only what athletes produce in terms of winning or losing, but how they package this winning or losing as a complete brand that matters (Arai, 2014). The purpose of this study is to examine the under researched topic of the perceived impact of the establishment and communication of collegiate athlete’s brand image through social media. This study will attempt to discover the impact that branding and the communication of brand image through social media outlets has on collegiate athletes.