Personal branding

: o papel das redes sociais na construção da marca pessoal dos futebolistas

Abstract

In a market increasingly characterized by its homogeneity and competitiveness, professionals have felt the need to differentiate themselves from their competitors, starting to develop a personal brand. This issue became more evident with the emergence of social networking sites, which boosted this process. Football players’ awareness of this new reality led to the use of these communication tools to leverage their personality and their way of being. This also led them to develop a personal brand, which could define them not only as professionals, but also as human beings, allowing some players to stand out from the rest of the football world.This dissertation seeks to understand how professional football players use social networks, and how can this enhance their personal brand development, realizing all the advantages and disadvantages that the process can have. In this sense, the theoretical framework was mainly developed based on the themes of personal brand, the growth of social media and the emergence of social networks and, finally, the personal brand in football’s world, specifically footballers.The problem under analysis led to a mixed methods research, including interviews as a qualitative analysis technique and a survey as a quantitative analysis technique. Four interviews to professional football players, in different career stages were carried out, and a survey was carried out to individuals who could be representative of the general population, of all ages and genders and with different academic qualifications, with a total of 289 valid answers.The main results of this dissertation indicate that there is an increasing need for footballers to develop a strong, credible and authentic personal brand that allows them to distinguish themselves from their competitors in the market, defend their reputation in times of crisis, increase the number of commercial agreements, promote their professional career and improve their relations with their fans. At the same time, it is concluded that social networking sites have gained a new dimension in this process, despite all the risks inherent to their use, these are the best tools to develop a personal brand.

Date of Award	3 May 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Jorge (Supervisor)