Examining Personal Branding Strategies and Perceptions of Preferred Brand Identity of Female Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

Student-athlete branding opportunities are vastly expanding as more opportunities are given using athlete’s name, image, and likeness (NIL). However, a research gap exists between examining branding opportunities and perceptions of branding among different groups such as female student-athletes. This thesis examined the opinions and perceptions of female student-athlete branding, perceptions of NIL compensation and policies, and perceptions of potential barriers in the brand building process. This quantitative study utilized survey methods to examine any differences between female student-athletes of different academic year, political affiliation, and sport played. A 49-item online survey was distributed to 100 NCAA Division I female student-athletes. Participants were asked to complete the survey which consisted of multiple-choice and 5-point Likert-scale items regarding branding, NIL, and branding barriers among female athletes Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were run on the data in SPSS to answer the 5 research questions posed in this study. Results indicated that there were significant differences between female student-athlete perceptions of branding via social media, NIL compensation and policies, and perceived branding barriers. The outcomes, limitations, and conclusions are discussed in the corresponding sections of the paper.