Advertise With Us
About Us
Listen
Watch

Login

/

Subscribe

Home

News

Carnival

Business

Sports

E-Paper

Features

Opinion

Traffic Cameras

Life

Classifieds

Death Notices

Community

Real Estate

About Us

Contact Us

Home
News
Carnival
Sports
E-paper
Business
Classifieds
Other
Death Notices
Traffic Cameras
Covid-19
Features
Opinion
Games
Subscriptions
Real Estate

Build your sporting brand

by

#meta[ag-author]
Brian Lewis
20190520173223
20190520

Sports stake­hold­ers need to stop lament­ing about the per­ceived lack of sport spon­sor­ship from cor­po­rate T&T.

In dif­fi­cult eco­nom­ic con­di­tions, the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty will pay clos­er at­ten­tion to ex­pen­di­ture out­lay in their fo­cus to stay in busi­ness and to stay rel­e­vant.   

Win­ning a medal in and of it­self isn't an au­to­mat­ic key to spon­sor­ship nir­vana. It takes more than win­ning a medal to mo­ti­vate clear-sight­ed busi­ness peo­ple to pull out their cheque books.

The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and the T&T Com­mon­wealth Games As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­GA) would have host­ed a num­ber of ath­lete-fo­cused work­shops aimed at in­form­ing, ad­vis­ing and cre­at­ing aware­ness among Team T&T ath­letes about the im­por­tance of their per­son­al brand and the im­pact their brand will have, pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive, in re­spect of gain­ing spon­sors. These work­shops are in­tend­ed to help ath­letes get spon­sored.  

It is, how­ev­er, im­por­tant to note that Team TTO ath­letes must em­brace the no­tion that spon­sors will not jump sim­ply be­cause you have won some­thing. In their very in­for­ma­tive book "The Ath­lete Brand", Vick­ie Saun­ders and Char­lotte Woods, pro­vides a guide for all types of ath­letes, on how to build and ben­e­fit from their brand. The au­thors point­ed out that whether they know it or not ath­letes have a brand and as such its im­por­tant the ath­letes are in con­trol of what their brand looks like.

How to iden­ti­fy, com­mu­ni­cate and lever­age on your brand are im­por­tant brand-build­ing ba­sics to have.   

Ac­cord­ing to Saun­ders and Woods ath­letes, who have had a re­al strug­gle, have made sig­nif­i­cant break­throughs on their brand and spon­sor­ship jour­ney by tak­ing brand build­ing se­ri­ous­ly.  

What is an ath­lete brand?

An ath­lete brand is the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of an ath­letes unique­ness: their sto­ry, their style, their in­ter­ests and be­liefs, their be­hav­iours and val­ues along with their ath­let­ic en­deav­ours.   

Saun­ders and Woods be­lieve that when ath­letes know their brand, amaz­ing things hap­pen. The ques­tion is how do we get the T&T sports sec­tor to car­ry pos­i­tive mes­sages to cor­po­rate T&T in­stead of on­ly lament­ing.  

Sport stake­hold­ers who know their brand are said to be con­fi­dent, ex­cel­lent to work with be­cause they take the time to un­der­stand what they val­ue, what they need and what they want their jour­ney to look like. They have a clear vi­sion state­ment. They car­ry a mes­sage.

It's time to stop blam­ing cor­po­rate T&T for the per­ceived woes. Time to stop lament­ing and en­gage in some se­ri­ous brand build­ing.  

Woods had this to say: "All ath­letes can have a pow­er­ful and im­pact­ful brand no mat­ter how small their au­di­ence is".

It is nev­er too ear­ly or too late to start build­ing your brand.

Ed­i­tor’s Note:

Bri­an Lewis is the Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) and T&T Com­mon­wealth Games As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­GA) and the views ex­pressed are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those of the or­gan­i­sa­tions.


Click HERE to Login

Want FREE access to all our content? Sign up HERE!

Tagged in:

Responses

Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Trending

Acting CoP suspends officer in traffic warden viral video
Harewood-Christopher in pole position for CoP job
Cop captured in social media row with Traffic Warden suspended
Nine Vindra Naipaul-Coolman murder accused to receive $20M from State
State must pay $20m for failed Naipaul-Coolman case
President sends Erla Christopher's name to Parliament for CoP nominee debate
Highest-ranking name for new Police Commissioner delivered to President
Griffith silent on Kamla’s call for unity: PDP, Duke, some ex-UNC MPs not interested
Piarco records the lowest temperature in January in 10 years
US resident held with ammo in Piarco airport
Today's
Guardian
View
Subscribe

Publications

Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts

Pain, power and poison...a review of Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

20230126132207
2022 TS Eliot Prize winner Anthony Joseph as he reads from his winning collection of poems Sonnets for Albert at the award ceremony in London on January 16.

2022 TS Eliot Prize winner Anthony Joseph as he reads from his winning collection of poems Sonnets for Albert at the award ceremony in London on January 16.

Adrian Pope

2022 TS Eliot Prize winner Anthony Joseph as he reads from his winning collection of poems Sonnets for Albert at the award ceremony in London on January 16.

2022 TS Eliot Prize winner Anthony Joseph as he reads from his winning collection of poems Sonnets for Albert at the award ceremony in London on January 16.

Adrian Pope

2022 TS Eliot poetry prize winner memorialises 'charismatic' father

20230126141654

Numbness in your feet?

20230123072450

Your walking gear matters!

20230116101944
Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

News

Business

Sports

Life

Opinion

Tobago Today

Classifieds

Death Notices

Subscriptions

Real Estate

Categories

News
Business
Sports
Features
Opinion
Traffic Cameras
Death Notices

INFORMATION

About Us
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Privacy Policy
Subscriptions
Terms of Services

Digital Media

The Big Board Company.
Real Estate
Classifieds

TELEVISION

CNC3 Television

RADIO

951 Remix
Sangeet 106.1 FM
Sky 99.5FM
Slam 100.5 FM
Vibe CT 105 FM
Mix 90.1 FM (Guyana)
Freedom 106.5 FM

About Us

Guardian Media is the premier provider of multimedia solutions and authoritative insight on news, politics, business, finance, sports, and current affairs. Our brand portfolio includes CNC3, Guardian, TBC Radio Network and The Big Board Company.

Contact us

Send us an e-mail here or call us at +1-(868)-225-4465

Follow us