I NTERNATIONELLA H ANDELSHÖGSKOLAN HÖGSKOLAN I JÖNKÖPING Stjärnan och varumärket En studie om interaktionen mellan organisatoriska och personliga sportvarumärken Filosofie magister uppsats inom EMM Författare: Martin Berggren and Martin Mohn Handledare: Karl-Erik Gustafsson Jönköping: Januari 2007 J ÖNKÖPING I NTERNATIONAL B USINESS S C H O O L Jönköping University A brand, a star and a goal A study of the interaction between organizational and personal sport brands Master’s thesis within EMM Author: Martin Berggren and Martin Mohn Tutor: Karl-Erik Gustafsson Jönköping: January 2007 Magisteruppsats inom EMM Titel: Stjärnan och varumärket Författare: Martin Berggren och Martin Mohn Handledare: Karl-Erik Gustafsson Datum : 2007 -01-24 Ämnesord Varumärke, sportorganisationer, personliga varumärken Sammanfattning Bakgrund: Med en ökande professionalism inom svensk idrott har varumärkes- medvetenheten också blivit mer central i sportorganisationer. Spelare har blivit verktyg i arbetet med att stärka varumärket. Även spelarnas personliga varumärke har fått ökat utrymme och interaktionen mellan organisation och spelare som symboler blivit allt mer intressant. Syfte: Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka innebörden av att ha en spelares personliga varumärke som en symbol för sportorganisationens varu- märke. Metod: Genom en kvalitativ studie av en idrottsorganisation i Allsvenskan och en i Elitserien ämnar uppsatsen uppfylla sitt syfte. Valet av kvali- tativ metod bygger på syftets natur. Empirisk data har samlats in ge- nom personliga intervjuer med marknadschefer från klubbarna Elfs- borg och HV71 samt spelarna Samuel Holmén och Johan Davidsson. Utöver detta intervjuades även sportjournalisten Erik Niva. Empirin har sedan analyserats och definierats med relevanta befintliga varu- märkesteorier och modeller. Slutsatser: Genom att identifiera delar i analysen som berör våra centrala pro- blemfrågor har vi kommit till följande slutsatser. Idrottsorganisationer använder aktivt spelare för att stärka sitt varumärke och förstår vikten av spelare som symboler. Vidare har vi funnit att det är svårt att im- plementera och förankra klubbens varumärkesidentitet bland spelare. Dessutom kan klubben, genom val av spelartyp, styra varumärkes- identiteten. Vi har också funnit en insikt hos spelare om fördelarna med ett starkt personligt varumärke, men att de inte har klara strategi- er för att uppnå det. Trots ökad medvetenhet om personliga varu- märken finner vi inga tecken på att det existerar några konflikter mel- lan organisationens varumärke och spelarens varumärke. Master’s Thesis in EMM Title: A brand, a star and a goal Author: Martin Berggren and Martin Mohn Tutor: Karl-Erik Gustafsson Date : 2007-01-24 Subject terms: Brands, sport organizations, personal brands Abstract Background: With the increasing professionalism in Swedish sport comes an in- creasing awareness of the importance of brands. Athletes have be- come tools in the organizations’ efforts to enhance their brand. Also, the athletes’ personal brands have had increasing attention and the in- teractions between the organization brand and the athlete as a symbol have become an interesting topic. Purpose: The thesis aims to examine the implications of having an athlete’s personal brand as a symbol of the sport organization brand. Method: With a qualitative method, we have studied one club from Allsven- skan 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. Conclusions: By identifying parts of the analysis crucial for answering our research questions, we have come to the following conclusions. The sport or- ganizations 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 iden- tity. 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. Content 1 Introduction............................................................................. 1 1.1 Background................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Sport and brands ................................................................ 1 1.2 Problem discussion ....................................................................... 2 1.3 Purpose......................................................................................... 3 1.4 Clarifications.................................................................................. 4 1.5 Stakeholder of this thesis .............................................................. 4 2 Theoretical framework ........................................................... 5 2.1 Brands........................................................................................... 5 2.1.1 Brand Added Value............................................................. 5 2.1.2 Brand Equity ....................................................................... 5 2.2 Brand identity ................................................................................ 6 2.2.1 Main perspectives............................................................... 7 2.2.2 The structure of brand identity ............................................ 8 2.3 Leveraging the brand .................................................................... 9 2.3.1 Possibilities with brands...................................................... 9 2.3.2 Problems when leveraging the brand ............................... 10 2.4 Personal branding ....................................................................... 10 2.4.1 The new brand.................................................................. 10 2.4.2 How to create strong personal brands.............................. 11 2.4.3 Synergy effects................................................................. 12 2.4.4 Leveraging the famous athlete ......................................... 13 2.5 Summary..................................................................................... 13 3 Method ................................................................................... 14 3.1 Perspective ................................................................................. 14 3.2 Qualitative research .................................................................... 14 3.2.1 Sample ............................................................................. 15 3.2.2 Conducting interviews....................................................... 16 3.2.3 Actor perspective.............................................................. 17 3.2.4 Theoretical framework ...................................................... 18 3.3 Trustworthiness of the thesis: Validity and reliability ................... 18 3.4 Criticism of chosen method ......................................................... 19 3.4.1 Sample ............................................................................. 19 3.4.2 Theoretical framework ...................................................... 20 3.4.3 Analysis and interpretation ............................................... 20 3.4.4 Trustworthiness ................................................................ 20 4 Empirical findings ................................................................ 22 4.1 Section one: Managerial perspective .......................................... 22 4.1.1 Athletes as symbols of the organization brand ................. 22 4.1.2 Athletes and brand identity ............................................... 23 4.1.3 Managing the athlete ........................................................ 24 4.1.4 Players as personal brands .............................................. 25 4.1.5 Conflict of interest............................................................. 26 4.2 Section two: Athlete perspective ................................................. 26 4.2.1 Athletes as symbols of the organization brand ................. 26 i 4.2.2 Athletes and brand identity ............................................... 27 4.2.3 Managing the athlete ........................................................ 27 4.2.4 Players as personal brands .............................................. 28 4.2.5 Conflict of interest............................................................. 29 5 Analysis ................................................................................. 31 5.1 Athletes as symbol of the organization brand.............................. 31 5.1.1 Brand-added value ........................................................... 32 5.1.2 Core values through players............................................. 32 5.2 Players and brand identity........................................................... 33 5.2.1 Athlete turnover and identity............................................. 34 5.3 Managing the Athlete .................................................................