Running to the top? - A qualitative research report investigating how the best male elite runners in Sweden relate to their own personal brand.

Abstract

This research seeks to further develop the understanding of how professional athletes relate to personal brand building. Previous literature has canvased the landscape of celebrity athletes in sports such as football, golf, tennis and basketball. This study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of how athletes relate to the brand-building process in the context of athletes within the less monetized sport of track and field. This was done by analyzing qualitative data from interviews with elite track and field athletes from the Swedish national team. The research seeks to examine the athletes' relationship to building personal brands in their competitive environment with an inductive approach through the lens of concepts developed in previous literature on the topics of human brands and impression management. The empirical data was gathered through a qualitative semi-structured interview method. The themes that emerged from the thematic analysis were: Self-awareness as a personal brand, Branding indifference and Second dimension as brand ideal. Key findings of the study suggest that most elite male athletes within track and field in Sweden are indifferent about their own personal brand and neglect their opportunity to inspire others as well as capitalize on their own appearance due to a number of different factors.