Branding (marca) de atleta em esporte menos popular: uma abordagem triádica

Objective of the study: Despite the opportunities to develop athlete brands, many athletes in less popular sport still struggle with developing their brands. Therefore, the current study aimed to contribute to the existing athlete branding literature and practitioners by providing a better and holistic understanding of athlete branding in less popular sport. Methodology: The current we employed a triadic approach that was involved with three stakeholders:  Athlete, fans, and media to explore important factors in athlete branding strategies in less popular sport. Originality/ Relevance: There is less focus on less popular sport and their stakeholders branding. With increasing interest from fans less popular sport and their athletes are gaining more attention than ever. Thus, the study opted to discuss an ignored phenomenon in the context of athlete branding.   Main results: The result of the study identified four main themes and eight associated subthemes based on both the interview and media content analysis. These main and subthemes include (1) performance (on-field success, competition level), (2) personal/private (off-field characteristics, impression management), (3) business/marketing (athlete promotion, merchandized products), and (4) contextual factor (sport nature, proximity). Theoretical / methodological contributions current study contributed in the existing literature of athlete branding via focusing a top athlete of less popular sport.