Advancing Understanding of Individual-Level Brand Management in Sport

Brand management has become centrally embedded in the sport management literature across the past several decades. The acceleration of scholarship has coincided with increased globalisation, commercialisation, and consumer interest, turning sport into a multi-billion-dollar industry (Ströbel & Germelmann, Citation2020). As such, the value of the global sports industry surpassed $500 billion (USD) in 2023 and is predicted to exceed $620 billion (USD) by 2027 (The Business Research Company, Citation2023). Yet, with new opportunities come new challenges, such as navigating a complex and saturated marketplace. In response, sport brands must adopt strategic approaches to their creation, positioning, and on-going management (Manoli, Citation2022). Recent research has adopted this perspective shedding light on how sport brands can be successfully created and managed (Manoli, Citation2018; Ströbel & Germelmann, Citation2020), whilst also predicting how the sport industry may evolve in the future. Central to this discourse is the increased focus which is being placed on individuals involved in sport, and their influence on its production, distribution, and consumption (Baker et al., Citation2022; Kunkel & Biscaia, Citation2020).

This special issue is consequently dedicated to examining individual-level sport brands (ILSBs), the dynamic environment they operate within, and the numerous stakeholders and communication channels that impact their development. Drawing on extant work which has focused on understanding athletes as human brands (Carlson & Donavan, Citation2013), we conceptualise ILSBs to encompass an expanded array of individuals involved in the sport ecosystem. The articles contained in this special issue explore the brand management linked to some of these ILSBs and provide a basis to help understand how ILSBs are managed and evaluated by consumers.