Tuesdays Taste I Branding in Women's Sports I 4 Min Read

In a recent study conducted by the Sports Journal it was theorized that women's sports only receive 4% of media coverage because there is a lack of branding by the leagues. According to Nielsen, 84% of sports fans are interested in women's sports but there is a lack of exposure.

The study goes onto further discuss brand equity and how it can really be broken up into three different buckets. In the first bucket, is personal branding. As previously mentioned, many of the female athletes cannot make enough money playing the sport they love alone so they are forced to promote brands. For example, Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris stars of the U.S Women's Soccer Team recently announced a partnership with TAG Heuer to increase their incomes. It is sad that the top athletes in their sport have to create partnerships in order to make a decent living. It is unfair that the expectation for them to succeed is the same as men, the commitment and sacrifice the same, but the pay is less.

The next bucket discussed by the article was team branding. A lot of the responsibility for exposure should fall under each individual teams level of responsibility. What are they doing for grass roots efforts to promote themselves? What are they doing for youth activations to get them involved and excited about their team? It is important for women's sports to have a strong brand recognition and for people to be excited about the teams being in their city otherwise the teams will fold. For example, the Boston Breakers were a soccer team a part of the NWSL but was forced to fold due to a lack of interest. Team branding is extremely important to the success and stability of all women's leagues.

The last bucket discussed by the article is media coverage. They determine that part of the teams lack of branding is a lack of media coverage. If coverage of a sport isn't on TV, or on social media the brand isn't as recognizable to people so it doesn't resonate.

Something has got to change to increase the success of women's sports. We strongly believe that branding is part of what needs to change. As fans of the sport we must continue to be active on social media and make sure media outlets know that their is an audience.

If you would like to check out the study Click Here